Limited character creation choices

[Prent]

One of the things I noticed in this game is that when choosing starting bonus's for new characters not all of the 6 stats are represented equally. The highest starting bonus Strength you can have is +2, and the highest for Cunning is +1. I'm curious there is a reason why were some stats shafted like that. Wouldn't it make more sense for there to be six starting races and six starting classes, with each one giving a +1 to a different stat, and then sprinkling around different backgrounds where appropriate? If this was on purpose why was it done this way? If this was not on purpose, then I have an idea on how it could be fixed with minimal effort.

For races, take one of the races we can already transform into that has a affinity for Cunning and turn them into a starting race with Cunning as a bonus. The ones listed on the Wiki are goblins, knolls, harpies, manticores, mothfolk, and vulperines, though there might be more since I know it's not fully up to date.

With classes for this to work we'd need a sixth class, and either Black Mage or White Mage would need it's bonus shifted. My thought on the magic split is to give the Cunning bonus to the Black Mage, justified by using the increased crit chance to emphasize it as the more offensive part of magic. As far as an extra class goes, my proposition is a Ranger class that gives a strength bonus from pulling bowstrings all day. The benefit to doing it this way is that Leorah already teaches a whole classes worth of generic abilities themed around ranged attacks, most if not all of those could just be made into Ranger class abilities, saving an assload of work. I don't know what all the perks could be, but I definitely think that Etheryn's "Ranger's Quarry" perk could be the sleeping bonus.

Thoughts?

 

[WolframL]

You're barking up the wrong tree here, there will be no new starting races and no new classes either.

Per The Observer, the system was set up to provide a reasonable coverage of stats and if you absolutely must have them be different, you can use Training.

 

[Bast]

Besides some of these races you mentioned lorewise aren't really welcome inside towns like Hawkethorne. Harpies for example.

 

[Prent]

You're barking up the wrong tree here, there will be no new starting races.

Not really sure how asking why character creation was designed a certain way is barking up the tree in the questions thread. I offered a solution cause I didn't want to sound like that asshole demanding everyone do more work, but I'm really more curious than anything else

 

[Prent]

Besides some of these races you mentioned lorewise aren't really welcome inside towns like Hawkethorne. Harpies for example.

That's definitely true, I really just went down the list of what favored Cunning on the Wiki

 

[WolframL]

Not really sure how asking why character creation was designed a certain way is barking up the tree in the questions thread.

I edited in the reason afterwards, check what Tobs has to say on the matter.

 

[Prent]

I edited in the reason afterwards, check what Tobs has to say on the matter.

thanks

 

[Prent]

Hmm, so something I feel like I should clarify is that the stats I'm talking about are specifically the 3 bonus points from character creation that cannot be changed in anyway. I guess I just think it's weird that I can get a permanent +3 Willpower but not +3 Strength or Cunning. Either way, doesn't seem like anything'll be done so it's just a curiosity now.

 

[CboyC95]

I wanted to create a male character who's more naturally feminine but I don't see the tools for that, same with creating a female character who's tomboyish.

 

[WolframL]

Exactly how you'd define 'looking tomboyish' varies, and the initial creation doesn't let you specify your initial Femininity stat so the nearest you can come is to set up your body type to whatever is closest to your preference and then use Blue/Pink Eggs refined with Soft Mud as appropriate once the game proper has started, plus whatever other cosmetic tweaks you need to make for your Champ to match your mental image.

Okay, you have a little control over your Femininity stat, but only insofar as your choice of starting gender sets it to certain preset values, with Males starting at 20 (51 for Wyld Elves) and Females/Shemales at 80. So yeah, unless you already wanted to play as a Wyld Elf, just wait for the end of the tutorial and start messing around with alchemy.

 

[CboyC95]

No, like, say if you want your character to be androgynous or trans but there's no way to do so.

 

[Alypia]

Androgynous characters have femininity between 40 and 60. They're coded for.

You can 100% make a trans character - in fact, you can have your character transition over the course of the game. But they're not going to be acknowledged as having transitioned from something else; instead, the character's always going to be referred to as whatever sex or gender they currently inhabit. Start male with a dongus and he/him pronouns, that's who you are. Transition to a lady with no dongus and she/her pronouns, and that's who you are. Change your name at River, and nobody in the entire game will ever deadname you. That sort of thing.

 

[WolframL]

You can also manually set your gender preference, in which case the game will use pronouns appropriate to your chosen gender regardless of what the game classifies you as.

No, like, say if you want your character to be androgynous or trans but there's no way to do so.

As mentioned this can be done just not at character creation, except that Wyld Elves have the half-sexed so you can choose that as a starting gender for them as well as male/female.

 

[TheShepard256]

Wyld Elves have the half-sexed

That's boreal elves you're thinking of. Wyld elf males are just naturally feminine (hence their higher starting femininity, which you already pointed out) (with some exceptions e.g. Elaril), to the point where some naturally have breasts.

 

[wyld elf spokesperson]

You can literally choose shemale as your gender at character creation.

 

[TheShepard256]

You can literally choose shemale as your gender at character creation.

Which is where the "to the point where some naturally have breasts" comes in. Half-sexed are a phenomenon unique to boreal elves, and are noticeably different from both females and 'regular' males of their race. Shemale wyld elves are not noticeably different from other members of their race, so it's disingenuous to say that they're equivalent to half-sexed boreal elves.

 

[Burnerbro]

Which is where the "to the point where some naturally have breasts" comes in. Half-sexed are a phenomenon unique to boreal elves, and are noticeably different from both females and 'regular' males of their race. Shemale wyld elves are not noticeably different from other members of their race, so it's disingenuous to say that they're equivalent to half-sexed boreal elves.

You still have wyld elves born with a pair of boobs, a peen, and hormones tuned to making both work properly at the same time. The only physical difference seems to be the lack of significant height and body mass disparity between male and female wyld elves and their version of half-sexed individuals. More important IMOis the difference in how the two races of elves treat their naturally occuring third sex. Wyld elves are generally accepting of these members of their race and I imagine generally allow them to identify however they like (or consider them female). By contrast boreal elves maintain a rigorous separation and hierarchy of sexes, mistreat their third gender, and pigeonhole all those born that way into sexually subserviant social roles. Might be why boreal elves even came up with a separate name for their third gender and why that name is 'half-sexed', not a nice moniker no matter how you look at it.

 

[WolframL]

Which is where the "to the point where some naturally have breasts" comes in. Half-sexed are a phenomenon unique to boreal elves, and are noticeably different from both females and 'regular' males of their race. Shemale wyld elves are not noticeably different from other members of their race, so it's disingenuous to say that they're equivalent to half-sexed boreal elves.

They don't have the kind of sexual dimorphism (trimorphism?) that boreal elves do, but they're still treated as a distinct group (see their Codex entry for example) and the character creation reflects it with the most common of those varieties.

That said, I shouldn't have specifically said they have half-sexed since that term is particularly used for the boreal elves and does have some additional implications, I forgot that it's not used for wyld elves as well. Though the way the Champion can react to hearing Ryn talk about boreal elf genders makes it pretty clear that they think of it as, if not identical, at least the same basic phenomenon. If your starting race is Wyld Elf there's an extra line where they'll think that 'Of course, you know all about it, but at this point you're just happy to keep Ryn talking as much as she is.'

More important IMOis the difference in how the two races of elves treat their naturally occuring third sex. Wyld elves are generally accepting of these members of their race and I imagine generally allow them to identify however they like (or consider them female). By contrast boreal elves maintain a rigorous separation and hierarchy of sexes, mistreat their third gender, and pigeonhole all those born that way into sexually subserviant social roles.

This appears to be almost strictly an 'Alissa is a bitch' thing. The boreal elf codex entry makes it clear that most half-sexed can identify however they like, we see at least one married couple through Ryn's walkabout scenes with no indication either party is sexually subservient to the other and, y'know, one of Ryn's two grandmothers was half-sexed. Okay, yeah, Synne was sexually subservient but when your partner is the Queen... and she was also the royal Consort, so it's hard to get much higher in society than that.

The only other example we have of someone showing prejudice against a half-sexed is Hethia during Dog Days and she was deliberately being a bitch to antagonize Ryn during their parlay, rather than having that attitude towards anyone who's half-sexed.