Optimization of PC Stats

Optimization in a skill based system like Scarterra d10, if different from optimization in a level based system like D&D or Pathfinder.   To define terms, optimization is the process of making a character as powerful or effective as possible. An optimizer is someone who prioritizes optimization over other aspects of character building.   I have met few if any players of skill-based RPG system that I would say "That person is an optimizer" or that "person is not an optimizer", but about everyone tries to do some optimizing for their characters. I think its a sliding scale with a matter of degrees. It's a continuum with shades of grey. Some players make characters with lots of optimization and very little flavor and some make characters with lots of flavor and little optimization. The same player can make a heavily optimized character for one campaign and then make a heavily flavored character.   When assigning initial dots or spending experience, If you are not optimizing your character's effectiveness, than you are optimizing your characters flavor or characterization.    

Optimization for Individual PCs

   

Bad Idea #1: I want to fill every dot in!

     

Bad Idea #2: I want to have no weaknesses!

    You can play a character is a Jack-of-All Trades sort of character and be an effective character as long as you aren't trying to be good at literally everything. You can make a starting character can be fairly effective at five or six things without tying your dots in knots.  

Mistake #3: The One trick pony

    Another more insidious downside is when you are already maxed out at your favorite thing, you have no room to grow in your favorite thing. Though you can grow by picking up a second or third thing.   Speaking of which, I strongly suggest that you try to make your starting characters good at at least two or three different things. Don't just be a great swordsman, be a bounty hunter or investigator. You use your detective skills to find the perp and then use your fighting skills to beat them up. You can participate in a lot more stories that way than being a pure killing machine.   All things considered though, making a one-trick pony is a much smaller sin than Bad Ideas #2 and #3 because a team of one-trick ponies can be fairly effective as long as they don't all have the same trick.  

Basic Optimization

    If you want to be good at defeating enemies with with a sword, you should take take as much Dexterity and Melee as GM will allow you and then take a specialization in "swords". Probably take at least three dots of Strength and Stamina because that will indirectly impact how hard you hit and how long can keep swinging.   If you are playing a theurgist, your divine spheres determine what magic you can do, and each one uses a specific attribute + abilty combination. You can spend lots of freebie points to get lets lots of dots of spheres so you have lots of magical powers or you can take a few dots of divine spheres and uses freebie points to max out the relevant attribute + ability so you can use a few magic powers very well. The latter approach is generally more optimized, all things considered. For more details, check out So you want to play a theurgist?   If you are playing a mage, every single spell has it's own mundane attribute tied to the casting abjuration. So Protection uses Charisma + Abjuration, Alarm uses Perception + Abjuration, and Shield uses Dexterity + Abjuration.   Abjuration is all over the place with attributes, but most schools of magic rely heavily on a small number of attributes. A majority of Enchantment spells uses Charisma or Manipulation so if you want to be an optimized Enchanter you should put lots of dots in Charisma and Manipulation. For more details and examples, check out So you want to play a mage?.   If you want to be good at reading people, you load up on Perception AND Empathy and take an Empathy specialization in "falsehoods" or "assessing character". A good Charisma and Manipulation capitalize on the what you learn. An optimized nerdy character should pair his dots in lore related abilities with high Intelligence score.   Essentially the stuff you want to be good at doing, make sure you have a high rating in the relevant and the relevant ability.   Check out So you want to play a warrior? and So you want to play a Rogue/Expert? for more specific optimization strategies.   What if you are not optimized this way? Why would anyone do that for their character?  

The Advantages of a non-optimized character

    Everyone likes a scrappy underdog. You have more backstory and roleplaying options for a woman tenaciously clawing her way up from the bottom than from a woman who is born awesome.     This scrappy underdog motif is not limited to physicality. An optimized Enchanter has has several dots in Enchantment and high ratings in all three social attributes. What if you have a character with lots of Enchantment magic and underwhelming social attributes?   Perhaps your character was a socially awkward wallflower who turned to magic to make up for his social short-coming not realizing that it would probably taken less time and effort to just put out their socially than it would have been to pour over magic tomes for hundreds of hours. Such a man would probably try to use magic to solve every problem and it would be a character growth arc to learn to act in the world without magic.    

Backstories and Logical Trait Choices

  You don't have to view your character's background and backstory as a straight jacket but they can help you assign a few dots, even if its not crucial to your core character concept. It's always fun when one of these background abilities ends up being situationally useful.  

Every PC ever: "Mom, Dad, I don't want to be a farmer/blacksmith/fisherman/housewife/tailor/physician/merchant of cabbage, I want to be an adventurer!"

  It is possible that your character is "THE CHOSEN ONE" and was groomed for greatness from birth, but the vast majority of PCs did not initially set out to be adventurers.   Your parents probably pushed your character to learn a boring non adventerous trade. Even if your character ran away screaming from their old life at the first opportunity, she probably has a couple dots related to the path her parents wanted for her.   A son or daughter of farmers is almost guaranteed to have a dot or two of Hearth Wisdom, Animal Ken, and Athletics. Commerce, Crafts, Survival, Medicine, and Empathy are highly likely, at least a dot.   A son or daughter of nobles is almost guaranteed to have a least one dot of Etiquette and Politics. Melee, Expression, Subterfuge, Empathy, and Leadership are highly likely, at least a dot.   Even if you grew up as an orphan on the streets, you are going to have a couple dots of traits that a street rat is likely to learn such as Alertness, Brawl, Stealth, and Subterfuge. Even someone literally raised by wolves is going to have pretty good ratings in Animal Ken, Athletics, and Survival at least.   There are cultural norms too. In Kantoc, pretty much every adult is expected to be able to ride a horse. In Meckelorn, pretty much every adult is expected to know how to fire a crossbow. Most elves have at least one dot of History. Most satyrs have at least one dot of Performance. Most gnomes have at least one dot in Etiquette.   Some abilities are frequently paired together. It is unusual but not unheard for a character to with lots of Melee or Archery to not have at least one dot of Brawl and Athletics because this kind of play is commonly encouraged for young children before they are old enough to be given actual weapons.   It is unusual for a character with a couple dots of Commerce to not have at least one dot of Seneschal and visa versa since buying and selling things is tightly linked to managing assets. It is unusual for someone with several dots of Survival to not have at least one dot of Hearth Wisdom and Athletics. It is unusual for someone with several dots of Medicine to not have least one dot of Hearth Wisdom.   What about your character's core personality? Compassionate people usually have at least one dot of Empathy. Mean people usually have a dot of Intimidation. Paranoid people usually have a dot of Alertness. Those who idolized heroes growing up, probably have a dot of History. Creative people usually have a dot of Expression or Crafts. Curious people usually have a dot of Investigation.   Characters can have hobbies and interests that seem unconnected to the rest of their character and that's fine. People are complex. Just because you are a son of farmers that against all odds became a great warrior, it doesn't mean you can't also dabble in writing poetry or making wood carvings.      

Balancing Optimization and Flavor

    An optimization trait choice is anything that answers the question "What makes my character effective?" and a flavor trait choice is anything that answers the questions "What makes sense for my character?"   You can do both. You should try to do both. If it makes sense fir your character backstory suggests that your character is very good at X, by all means be good at X.   Ability Specializations are highly encouraged because they add flavor AND help optimization by showing what your character prioritizes.   As a player during character creation, I would recommend that you should have at least two or three things you are good at and three or four things you aren't bad at. That is what I as a Game Master consider a relatively balanced assortment of abilities.   Mathematically speaking, when it comes to starting level PCs I would say a 6 or 7 dice is "good" and four or five dice is "not bad". Of course the ceiling is eleven when you factor in a specialization bonus die so you can always shoot for "great", but that's recommended you get that later with experience points.   PCs are a cut above normies. For most ordinary villagers, 5 or 6 dice is "good" and three or four dice is "not bad".  

Optimization for PC Parties

   

The imaginary checklist

    With all these niches, you are probably to cover everything with a subject expert, but at least aim for someone who is "not bad" at the category in question.   Front Line Fighter: It's good to have someone who is good at hitting things and causing them to fall down. Dexterity + Melee is the baseline here, but a good Brawl rating and high strength score is very helpful. Front Line Fighters frequently have a few dots of Intimidation as a by-product of their life's calling.     Ranged Fighter: A character with a bow and a good rating in Dexterity + Archery is good start but there are a lot of spell-casters with powerful attacks. In most cases, the Archery or Athletics is used to aim magical ranged attacks so if you have a spell-caster learning attack spells, they might as well to learn to show a bow while they are at it.     A respectable party face: A respectable face definitely wants good rating in Charisma and Etiquette. Expression is probably useful. Leadership, Empathy, and Performance are situationally useful and a good Appearance score helps too.         A Perceptive Person: Someone in the party should have a good Perception + Alertness pool so he or she can point out things things to the rest of the party. Whether you are crawling through dungeons or at a royal masquerade ball, it's helpful to have at least one party member who can notice things. Noticing things is usually Perception + Alertness. Finding things while searching is usually Perception + Investigation and reading people is usually Perception + Empathy. Having a good Wits score is handy so you can act quickly on what you see.     A Travel Guide: Unless your party is limited to one localized setting, you are probably going to trek across the wilderness at some point. A single dot of Survival and Ride is probably sufficient if are sticking to roads and staying at inns, but if you want to go cross-country, you want someone with a very good rating in Survival. If your party is going on sea adventures, you probably want at least party member with a couple dots of Sailing. Whether at land or sea, it's helpful but not strictly required if the travel guide has a good Perception and Intelligence scores. Hearth Wisdom helps surprisingly often in survival situations.     A Party Healer: It is useful to have a theurgist with Healing ●●●. It is also useful to have a theurgist with Purification ●●●. It is noteworthy that in level based RPGs and MMOs, many view playing the party healer as a chore. It does not have to be so. You can easily be a theurgist that has Healing ●●● and does other useful and interesting things too.   Even then, potions of Healing and Purification are relatively easy to buy in Scarterra so a party can get by with just potions if they are careful. Even without potions or a theurgist healer in the party, it's not the end of the world if you have to rely on Natural Healing Times because it's fairly uncommon in ScarterraD10 to have continuous fights back-to-back. A couple dots in Medicine and Hearth Wisdom can be helpful even without magic backing them up.     Party Nerd: Characters with History, Theology, Politics, Enigmas, History, Medicine and/or Hearth Wisdom provide a handy excuse for GMs to give the party useful hints and clues. A high Intelligence score lets a character gets maximum mileage out of these types of abilities.   Rare abilities are pretty niche but when they come into play, they really come in clutch. Disable Device is usually paired with Dexterity and Use Magic Device is usually paired with Wits, but most Rare abilities rely on Intelligence. Arcana useful for a character pulling obscure lore on monsters and supernatural anomalies and Spellcraft is useful for figuring out "What in the Void did he just hit us with?"       Magical Support: It would be beyond the scope of this article to cover everything you can do as a mage or theurgists. I will point out that Scarterrad10 has relatively few magic abilities that directly damage enemies. The majority of adventurer-friendly spells give allies bonus dice (buffs) or give enemies penalty dice (hexes). You can sort of approximate this with poisons, alchemical mixtures, and potions, but it's nice to have a caster to cover this niche with active spells on the fly.   Magical Support can also provide "crowd control" with minions if one of the casters can summon spirits, create undead or golems, or command the loyalty of beasts.     Counter Magic: Arcane Abjurers with Dispel Magic and theurgists with Purification are handy at removing buffs and hexes that the other side casts. If you don't have someone with this magic in your party, you can cover this niche with conventional potions and potion grenades assuming you have something with a good Dexterity + Athletics pool to throw the potions accurately.     Party Scrounge: At some point the PCs are going to end up with treasure that is valuable but not immediately useful. You want to find a buyer willing to offer a good price. At some point a PC is going to want a rare, probably magical item and you will need to seller willing to offer a good price.   It's useful to have someone in the party with a high Commerce rating. Manipulation + Commerce is used for haggling, but Commerce can do a lot more than that. If you want a hard to find item, you might have to roll Intelligence + Commerce to deduce where to find the item (or find the buyer for your item), or you can ask around and make introductions with Charisma + Commerce. If the item in question is illegal or restricted, a couple dots of Politics or Subterfuge would not be amiss.   If you don't have a party scrounge you'll survive, you'll just end up paying more for gear and getting less when you liquidate your treasure.  

You don't have to have EVERY niche covered

  It's good to try to have different party niches covered by different characters and by extension, different players, but you as a Game Master or a fellow player should never pressure another player to take on a character niche they are uninterested in. Apply the pressure if and when a character is on the fence about where to put some extra dots and doesn't have a strong opinion on what to do with some extra dots. Then it's an okay idea to say, the party can uses a _______.   Still, it's also okay to not have something. In my long history of roleplaying, I've seen parties get by without a ______ many times. Adventures are often about solving problems and overcoming obstacles. In this case, one obstacle could be "Our party doesn't have a ______!"  

Redundant Characters that are Redundant

  It doesn't hurt to have more than one character on the same niche, especially if the niche is a cornerstone of RPGs , or at least the RPG campaign you are currently playing. Two warriors is better than one, and three is better than two. At least when it comes to defeating your enemies. Even if your character isn't the party warrior, you cannot always hide behind the party's warrior. You at least want to take a couple dots in Dodge or take a dot or two of Melee with a specialization in "parrying" so you can not immediately go down like a sack of potatoes when your enemies finally do attack you.   Two social snakes can run more elaborate cons than one. Two respectable socialites can be twice as charming as one. Two nerds can find more answers, and so on and so forth.   If an RPG campaign is going to focus on a specific type of story or adventure, that can lend itself to wanting to double up on roles that are likely to be extra important. This is why Session Zeros are so important.   Assuming four PCs, you can probably get by with one noncombatant PC in a combat heavy game, hiding behind the warriors, but it would be difficult to protect two non-combatants consistently, and three would be almost impossible. In a politics heavy game, the party as a whole can bluff there way through if one party member "doesn't talk much" but it will be sufficient if a party of four in a highly social setting only has one talker in it.    

Building the Plane as We Fly it

  If in the first session, or even the first couple of sessions, its clear that you forgot something important or suddenly realize something on your character sheet doesn't make sense, the Game Master can and probably should let you slide some dots around yoru sheet if it makes your character better, however you define "better".   Assuming you aren't playng a one-shot, if your character has a short-coming or the party as a whole has a short-coming, you can always spend a few experience points to buy new dots. Since ScarterraD10 is a skill-based system and not a level based system, you have no railroad tracks determining the direction of your character's advancement, the sky is the limit.   It can be interesting to look at an advanced character and see how it actually progressed versus how the player intiallyexpected it to progress.