(12-28-2014, 03:22 PM)Lilithium Wrote: Lalafells as tanks. Meh. Just can't see it as an IC thing.Then you have a game like Blade & Soul where Destroyer is exclusive to the big race (Gon) and the small race (Lyn) can't roll as Kung-Fu Master, Assassin, or regular Blade Master (they have their own racial variant with more magic emphasis) just because of this exact problem.
Personally, I prefer to have the option available. Even if some people can't wrap their heads around it, it's just too limiting to only be able to play classes that "make sense" for the character's physical size, especially when the game has an out in the form of the metaphysical medium that permeates the entire universe (aether, ki/chi, the Force, reiatsu, chakra, whatever the hell you wanna call it).
That being said, I still like to play my characters as at least making some semblance of sense for what they're doing, i.e. if she's a melee combatant she's going to have a really good build with good muscle definition, low body fat, etc., etc. I'm especially not a fan of flabby, soft-looking girls going toe-to-toe with others in melee combat. It's just wrong. Yet it's so bloody common because the girls are designed to look pretty rather than look like they can handle themselves.
But I digress. Getting back to the topic, I do tend towards race/class combinations that make sense for the characters' builds, but I do also enjoy subversions to a degree. Seeing someone underestimate someone else because of their size and then paying for it is quite fun, after all... at least, until it gets overused. But anything can be worked to death if repeated often enough with no nuance or care.
As far as in-game classes go... yeah, I pretty much only level the classes that make sense for my character. It's completely unnecessary and my character doesn't use any job abilities anyway, but it's something I just like to do. Because I can. In T'rahnu's case she simply knows no magic whatsoever, in exchange for physical abilities that could be classed as 'extraordinary'. I play her as a weapon master who is a jack-of-all-trades but not necessarily a master of any particular fighting style (that being said, her knowledge of so many combat styles means she has a natural advantage against any opponent whose style she can recognize, which is most of them). I also make sure she's old enough ICly to where this actually makes some semblance of sense.
That being said, I still play her as her jobs in-game because obviously it would be really rude of me to compromise the play of my party members just for the sake of staying IC. She doesn't use Bardsong or Defiance or Mudra ICly but these things are necessary to keep up with other players so I'll just bite the bullet and keep at it.
