Have you ever gimped a character?

[Thk13421]

What I mean is: Have you ever, in an RPG, table-top or computer, unintentionally screwed up your character through bad leveling.

For me, I was just playing Dragon Age again after a long hiatus, when I realized that my character was really awful. He was a rogue, but he was way to squishy to fight in Melees, terrible at archery, and only mediocre at opening locks. I had to start over. (Luckily, I wasn't too far into the game.)

What do you if this happens to you?

 

[Pimppeter2]

Some of my Oblivion characters have been very messed up

Like a Michal Jackson look alike archer

He looked much better in the character creation screen.

 

[Chechosaurus]

Yeah. I've done it plenty of times. Most recent was my first Oblivion character. I cant recall exactly what I did but it made it next to impossible to get him past level 26 due to terrible choices in major skills that would never have really applied in Morrowind.

 

[Henrik Persson]

It never happens to me. I'm a powergamer, I always make the most out of my characters. It's part of the fun, adds a strategical aspect to RPGs. I research, I plan and I maximize. I have intentionally gimped characters though, in table-top to make a more interesting character and in CRPGs to make it more of a challenge.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

My first Shepard in Mass Effect 1 was nicknamed "Polygon Shepard" due to his oddly shaped head

I mean he was freaky looking enough to avoid using altogether.

Yeah. I've done it plenty of times. Most recent was my first Oblivion character. I cant recall exactly what I did but it made it next to impossible to get him past level 26 due to terrible choices in major skills that would never have really applied in Morrowind.

If you send your Character to jail he will lose some Major Skill ranks and you can continue to level him up.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

What I mean is: Have you ever, in an RPG, table-top or computer, unintentionally screwed up your character through bad leveling.

Yes, but it's more fun when you do it on purpose. I've been playing Titan Quest again lately, and the most hilarious and fun character I've ever had in the game is my intelligence/magic-based melee character who basically puts on her robe and wizard hat, charges straight into crowds, and stabs people in the face with lightning bolts. Well, swords that shoot lightning bolts, but same idea. It does decent damage, but it's incredibly squishy. Wizards were never meant to take direct hits from anything, so it's incredibly easy to get flattened if you're not careful. It makes the game a lot more interesting when you have to go into every fight assuming that you're going to die, and your main strategy is to run away screaming like a little girl, especially when it's so easy in that game to make a character that's nearly indestructible.

It's kind of frustrating in hard games that don't really let you compensate for bad decisions or swap stuff around if you screw up, and that does kind of irritate me, especially if something that sounded cool turns out to suck so much that the game becomes nearly unplayable. In a better-balanced game where it just makes it harder instead of impossible and requires coming up with unusual strategies, though, I tend to stick with it just because it's entertaining.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I restarted Dragon Age at least 12 times after getting 4 hours in each time.

 

[Thaius]

Yeah. Khimari, from Final Fantasy X. There came a point where I could branch off his skills into the magic stuff. All that really did was make it so his strength was not being developed, and his magic was always quite a few steps behind my other mages. Kind of a fail overall: he was useless.

And people say Final Fantasy only has linear leveling. Boo on ignorance.

 

[leprecron]

My Fallout 3 character, who has maxed barter, speech, small guns and medicine, almost completly useless in a fight but gets tons of free stuff.

 

[oppp7]

Strange thing is, whenever I gimp characters they normally turn out pretty good.

 

[pikler2]

in tabula rasa have a level 34 totally pink guy

 

[ShortCommings]

i forgot what gimping meant for a second there, my first thought was the gimp suit in postal. that was just plain wrong.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Not really. Or if I did, I never noticed.

Granted, I've chosen some less-than-optimal builds in City of Heroes, but you can succeed with pretty much anything in that game (it just hurts a lot more for certain types); closest I came to thinking "wow, this sucks" was my Sonic Resonance/Archery Defender...and he's just terrible on his own. As a team force multiplier, he kicks huge amounts of ass.

Now, my Elementalist/Warrior from Guild Wars, on the other hand...I'm blaming that on Guild Wars' general unfriendliness to soloing. Either way, my Fire magic specialization was dropped very quickly for Earth and Air...

 

[Poofs]

I had a human in Oblivion once
my first charachter
very very bad
im still ashamed of that

 

[Awexsome]

Well the only thing worse than gimping your own character is having the game gimp em for you. Fire Emblem anyone? One playthrough a character can completely wreck armies by themselves and the next playthrough they need healers every other fight.

Good example for me - Eliwood.

First playthrough he wrecked pretty well with massive strength/speed stats, next playthrough... complete lameness! He wasn't useless but he sure didn't have much use the second time through.

 

[Stormz]

Even though I suck at building characters. I usually get by somehow. But my first Diablo 2 character was horrible, he was so weak I couldn't do anything beyond the first difficulty.

 

[Regiment]

My character in Oblivion seems to have forgotten that some of his core skills are magic-oriented, and despite being fairly high-leveled and very good at physical combat, he's still using very weak magic.

I've more gimped him in concept- he's a noble hero of the land, a Knight of the Nine, and an all-around good-guy errand-runner, yet he has this borderline-neurotic need to break into houses and steal stuff at every opportunity despite having enough money and valuable legally-acquired weapons to buy anything in the world.

He also almost looked exactly like Spock, but I fixed that.