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Friday, November 29, 2013

"What Kind of D&D Character Would I Be?"

I hope all my readers in the U.S. had a great Thanksgivukkah, and that everyone else enjoyed their Thursday. We had a house full of food, people, and puppies for about four hours, before I settled into a pleasant evening chatting with anyone on the Beyond the Veil crew who had not succumbed to a Tur-coma.

I was listening to a fresh episode of "The Pulse" the other night, and Graydol and Jaysinn brought up an interesting questionaire that supposedly helps answer the question, "What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?" I decided to take the survey and this is what it came up with:
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Wizard (5th Level)
(c) 2004 Niki Harless
Ability Scores:
Intelligence16Dexterity14
Wisdom13Strength13
Charisma12Constitution13

Alignment:
A Neutral Good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.
One funny thing about questionnaires like this is that I can usually tell what answers will get me what sorts of scores. They're not subtle, in other words. The other thing is that I tend to be fairly moderate in my conscious positions, so I end up with I consider to be muddled results:
Detailed Results:
Alignment:
Neutral GoodXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23)
Lawful GoodXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Chaotic GoodXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
True NeutralXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Lawful NeutralXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Chaotic NeutralXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Neutral EvilXXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Lawful EvilXXXXXXXX (8)
Chaotic EvilXXXXXXXX (8)
On the other hand, these scores make perfect sense if each response is weighted, rather than an all or nothing proposition. I am more good than neutral, and more neutral than orderly, chaotic or evil. Scooter might dispute the chaotic part. I'd say the doing-good-without-respecting-authority description may be the defining attribute of my TSW solo character, Samantha Hawthorn, as well as my SWTOR main, "Versteckt." Both characters actively subvert(ed) the aims of their neutral- or lawful-evil organizations.
Law or Chaos:Good or Evil:
NeutralXXXXXXXXXX (10)GoodXXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
LawXXXXXX (6)NeutralXXXXXXXXX (9)
ChaosXXXXXX (6)EvilXX (2)
This seems more like a different representation of the information given above. Although having not played D&D (Sacrilege! I know), I have only a cursory understanding of what each of these mean in relation to such characters.
Class:Race:
WizardXXXXXXXXXX (10)HumanXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
SorcererXXXX (4)ElfXXXXXXXXXX (10)
FighterXX (2)HalfingXXXXXXXXXX (10)
RangerXX (2)Half-ElfXXXXXXXXX (9)
Cleric(0)DwarfXXXXXX (6)
Barbarian(-2)GnomeXXXXXX (6)
Bard(-2)Half-OrcXXXXXX (6)
Druid(-4)
Rogue(-4)
Paladin(-23)
Monk(-25)
I wonder what I might have ended up with if I had filled out this questionnaire a decade or two ago. My faith used to be a much bigger part of my life; even now, I tend to lean toward faith-based (Priests/Paladins) classes when they are available in MMOs. The high intelligence/wizard thing is not so surprising either. I totally identified with the intellectual Ravenclaws of Hogwarts.

I also wonder what questions led to the racial scores. For most questions about my physical appearance, I gave "average" answers. For instance, I consider myself reasonably good looking, but I'm no supermodel. I also may also be more physically imposing than I usually perceive myself. That pesky residual self-image at work again, telling me I'm a scrawny nerdling. I was thinking I might have Scooter complete the questionnaire with me in mind, just to see if I fit in different categories from someone else's point view.

I encourage you, Dear Reader, to go take the quiz and see what sort of results you get. Be sure to at least leave the basic "I Am A:" in the comments below, if not a link to your own D&D self-analysis.

13 comments:

  1. It appears that I am the same as you, neutral good human sorcerer 5th level.

    I Am A: Neutral Good Human Sorcerer (5th Level)


    Ability Scores:

    Strength-13

    Dexterity-16

    Constitution-13

    Intelligence-19

    Wisdom-17

    Charisma-17

    I can't say I'm surprised by the result either! It maps up to most roles I play in games and the alignment matches too.

    Curious as you are how other races get tagged. I'd guess most bloggers are sorcerers, given our penchant for writing.

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    1. Thanks for sharing your stats. :) Interesting how your ability scores are higher across the board. Maybe I am too self-deprecating. I am curious as to how other bloggers shake out.

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  2. I'm apparently somewhat superhuman as well.

    Lawful Good Human Paladin (4th Level)

    Ability Scores:
    Strength- 14
    Dexterity- 16
    Constitution- 16
    Intelligence- 17
    Wisdom- 12
    Charisma- 17

    Class-wise, though, I had 6 for Paladin but also 4 each for Monk/Sorcerer/Wizard. Everything else was 0 or negative.

    Barely Human over Elf (13 to 12).

    15-9-3 for Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic.

    15-12-1 for Good/Neutral/Evil.

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  3. I've done one of these before though I don't remember the result. This time it came out as follows:

    True Neutral Human Wizard (6th Level)


    Ability Scores:
    Strength- 13
    Dexterity- 14
    Constitution- 12
    Intelligence- 15
    Wisdom- 12
    Charisma- 14

    Interesting, because I would never in a million years play that character. I can't stand playing pure spellcasters and I try and avoid playing Humans. I have played True Neutral, although I think it's generally a cop-out.

    The test does suffer from the usual problem of having quite a lot of questions for which I have no genuine answers whatsoever. All the stuff about how your community feels about you an vice versa is literally meaningless for me, for example: in common with many UK citizens I don't know anyone in my immediate neighborhood and none of them knows me - and I've lived in the same house for 20 years!

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    Replies
    1. I found those questions to be a problem, as well. Heck, half the reason I am on the internet is because I find people I have stuff in common with, unlike the town I live in where I know very few. I'm not surprised about the "human wizard" being so common amongst my readers. As bloggers, we tend to lean toward the academic, I would think. And humans tend to be the "average" of fantasy races, so if you answered a lot of questions like I did, you're not particularly extreme in appearance or attributes.

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    2. I don't think appear or attribute had anything to do with the race, I think it was more questions like "Would you prefer to be quick or tough?" "Tough" would lean toward dwarf/gnome, "quick" would lean toward elf/halfling, people who wind up in the middle get human.

      But yes, I agree many of the questions absolutely stunk.

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    3. Ah, I see. I figured questions about relative height and build and good-looking vs ugly might lead to racial determination. I thought tough/quick would help rate dexterity/constitution or rogue/fighter distinctions. I figured the hometown questions might relate to lawful/chaos alignment or charisma.

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    4. My guess is that good looking dealt with Charisma even though Charisma technically has nothing to do with looking good. And the tough/quick might be more about class, good point. Or both class and race, even! Could go a lot of ways.

      I think the hometown stuff definitely related to both lawful/chaos and charisma.

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  4. Apparently I'm a True Neutral Elf Bard/Mage (Level 2/2)

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    Replies
    1. So your tunes have a certain magic to them, but that is neither here nor there. :P

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  5. Neutral Good Human Cleric despite having a Wisdom score of only 13. Next closest was True Neutral Half-Elf Bard.

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    Replies
    1. I'm not sure the attribute scores directly relate to the classes in this case (though they should). Of course, no surprise that you'd be a cleric. :)

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