General Advice for Creating RP characters

[NineCatte]

Hey there!

 

I had a few questions about how the RP community at large feels about certain things involving classes, backgrounds, etc and was wondering if people had some answers.

 

Are there certain classes that are generally accepted as being off-limits or extremely unlikely to obtain, making them less viable for roleplaying?

 

How do people generally feel about characters that have the Echo?

 

Is it acceptable to have multiple classes? Or is it generally better to stick to one?

 

Thanks for your time in advance!

[Mua Viras]

So there is actually a post regarding jobs and the viability of an average adventurer to obtain them.  Things like white mage or black mage get kind of a raised brow, especially if someone says they have a job stone.  Many job quests will give you an idea of how viable most are for the average person.

 

The echo is...well it depends on the rp group you are in.  Most times people won't care unless you're trying to use it to get character info deus ex machina style.

 

My best advice for multiple jobs...do them within reason and make them make sense.  Unless you are a race that lives a long time, such as viera, it would get harder and harder to devote the necessary time to multiple jobs to learn anything of note.  If you were a marauder, possibly being able to forge weapons would make sense.  Generally if you tie your skills into a coherent background, it's hard to be criticized.

 

Overall, don't game break, meta game, over power, or otherwise break a generally accepted 'normalcy' for rp and you'll be good.  If you have ideas you are considering, I'm happy to provide my personal insight, though that would just be my own thoughts, not those of a group.

[NineCatte]

Thanks for the advice!

Mostly I'd want the Echo for the character to be able to face threats such as primals, though obviously with proper backup from other people as well. 

As for classes, I'm mostly wanting to either combine MCH and GNB or MCH and RPR, since the character is a former Garlean conscript. In this case, the character is a viera so they do have the time to devote themselves to such professions. MCH would really only be extensive firearms training and mechanical knowledge, rather than strictly knowing how to use Sky Steel equipment specifically. 

The only issue is, I think the Reaper combination on top of being a machinist would be highly unlikely and hard to justify, as from what I remember, it's mostly a long lost art. So I'd love to hear what you think about that.

[Mua Viras]

I don't want to post too many spoilers but it's less that being a reaper is a lost art, more so they are essentially political assassins.  The art was a highly guarded secret.  However, that's not to say that anyone couldn't make a similar deal with voidsent....gods know plenty of previous civilizations were doing it long before the Garleans did.  Voidsent and deals of power are the basis of a few other jobs as well, highly suggest the red mage storyline, void ark raids, and the warring triad raids.

[NineCatte]

Ah, so would a voidsent pact be a viable option? I know some Garlean legions dabbled with them.

[Faye]

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Are there certain classes that are generally accepted as being off-limits or extremely unlikely to obtain, making them less viable for roleplaying?

There are certain classes that may be difficult to explain for your character or that have very certain limitations placed on them canonically, like WHM and BLM (though conjuror and thaumaturge are totally viable). I'm not super familiar with every class since I don't RP them all, though. It's probably best to look into the ones you're interested in figure out how they could be viable for your character.
 

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How do people generally feel about characters that have the Echo?

Having the Echo is not crazy rare and is totally plausible. I think the only people who ever take issue with it conflate it with "being the WoL" when the two things are not related. Most people won't have any problem with it!
 

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Is it acceptable to have multiple classes? Or is it generally better to stick to one?

It is acceptable, I would say with the caveat of "within reason." It may suspend disbelief if your character is a master of every discipline let alone knows them all, or for example a very young character who excels at tons of things. But there's nothing wrong with having multiple classes for your character.

Also it's good to remember in general that your character doesn't necessarily have to be any certain class. Your character can fight with an axe without be a Marauder/Warrior, for example, or use a sword and shield without actually being a Gladiator/Paladin.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Faye

[NineCatte]

2 minutes ago, Faye said:

There are certain classes that may be difficult to explain for your character or that have very certain limitations placed on them canonically, like WHM and BLM (though conjuror and thaumaturge are totally viable). I'm not super familiar with every class since I don't RP them all, though. It's probably best to look into the ones you're interested in figure out how they could be viable for your character.

Thanks! I'll make sure to keep that in mind and look into it a bit more. 

 

2 minutes ago, Faye said:

It is acceptable, I would say with the caveat of "within reason." It may suspend disbelief if your character is a master of every discipline let alone knows them all, or for example a very young character who excels at tons of things. But there's nothing wrong with having multiple classes for your character.

This is mostly where my concern lies, as I'd want to create a believable character that while strong, isn't overpowered by having access to a number of classes.

Also regarding Reapers in general, I wanted to ask what the roleplay community tends to think of reapers in general? While I know there's bound to be some edge when writing a Reaper, is there a stigma surronding reapers/other void-adjacent characters within the community?

[Mua Viras]

My FC is a group of voidsent hunters from Dalmasca. After the events in Bozja and the fall of the Garleans, they set their sights on that threat.  A good number of us are reapers, essentially fighting fire with fire.  I would say with recent trajectory, voidsent related stuff is accepted more than in the past...trust me, we had a lot of people saying we weren't lore friendly when we started.  At the end of the day, Faye is right.  Rp what makes you happy.

[NineCatte]

14 hours ago, Mua Viras said:

My FC is a group of voidsent hunters from Dalmasca. After the events in Bozja and the fall of the Garleans, they set their sights on that threat.  A good number of us are reapers, essentially fighting fire with fire.  I would say with recent trajectory, voidsent related stuff is accepted more than in the past...trust me, we had a lot of people saying we weren't lore friendly when we started.  At the end of the day, Faye is right.  Rp what makes you happy.

I think that's a really good thing to keep in mind! Thanks!