RPG games: Developing Characters

[Outcast]

Generally, in most rpg games. We are given the freedom to develop and customize different kinds of characters. Each of these characters are usually unique and each have their own strengths,skills and weaknesses. My question is, how do you guys go about building and developing a certain character? Do you believe on building upon that character's strength first? Or do you think its more important to improve his/her weakpoints first? Or does a balance of developing both strength and weakness work for you? But usually experience points,or cp points or whatever points needed to upgrade your characters are limited and you can never get to max all of their abilities by the end of the game. So strategically? I'm kind of wondering what is the best way to go about this? Since as you move further and further to the end of the game, the enemies do get harder to beat.  :o

[BlueBard]

A lot probably depends on the nature of the game and your play style.

In an MMO or multiplayer game, you can try to balance your strengths and weaknesses against those of other friendly characters.  If the game permits PvP, then you'd need to modify your character development to be more well-rounded.  You're probably more free to develop in any way you choose, as long as you aren't a burden on the other players with a nigh-unplayable set of stats.

A variation on that theme is the concept-based approach, where you have a specific concept for your character (a pacifist elven cleric, a fire mage, etc.)  Every choice you make furthers your concept of the character.  As an example of that, I have a character in City of Heroes who is supposed to be a sentient AI who manifests physically in the 'real' world.  One of his powers is Teleportation, which is a cool but relatively difficult and inefficient power to use properly.  Still, it fits his concept better than flying, so that's what he gets even though flying would be easier to manage.  Concept-based characters can be a challenge to play, but very rewarding when they work.

Then there's the well-rounded approach, where you try to get your character to be reasonably proficient in many areas as opposed to specializing in a few.  This approach is probably best when you don't know what to expect and can't count on other PC's or NPC's for support.  Your character becomes more self-sufficient, but less efficient.

Then there's the powergamer approach.  This is where you tweak your character's abilities to their optimum, either for a specific role (Attack, Defense, Support) or because you're really familiar with the game and what to expect so you know what you need to level up faster.

My personal preference is a blend of the concept-based and well-rounded approaches.  I think it's also wise to adhere to the maxim 'The best defense is a good offense'; KO'd enemies can't hurt you anymore...

[daerdevil]

I'm a big fan of the concept character.  It's really the whole point of an RPG.  But, reality kicks in and sometimes a well conceived character is just too inefficient to get through the game.  I try to make decisions that further my concept and tweak it with a skill/power/trait to make the character more playable.  I'm actually playing a Villain on CoX that has no travel powers, and rely on bank jobs and temp powers to get around town.