Min Max Vs. Roleplaying

[Chaosolous]

How do you approach your characters?

[Sgt. Sarge]

I guess roleplaying as I don't go out of my way to min max

[slow_cheetah]

I'd say the question isn't as much about min-maxing, but rather about meta-gaming.
You can totally roll up a character with extreme abilities (in classic DnD even more so) and still have them make sense.
It's another thing to do something just because you know what'll happen next or because the rules favor a certain approach.
In the end, it's your game, your experience and your fun. Do the amount of min-maxing and meta-gaming that you feel comfortable with and that doesn't break your "immersion".

[Favonius]

There's no contradiction 80% of the time. I'm min-maxing enough to allow me a good margin left to role-play and reversely i choose my Tav in a way that is coherent with my prefered tactics.

There are exceptions of course .

Typically i'm always taking the Hag's buff, but it's never been in total contradiction with my character.
I rarely take volo's buff, except on my durge runs (and the first time i tried).
I'm levelling up during long rests only (that's from hours and hours of discussion from my table-top experience), with some exceptions.
I'm not respecing my companions except to revisit the initial abilities or to re-do the progression (or for SH and Wyll when the story calls for it), i'm taking hireling if i need instead.
I'm using tadpoles if that's coherent with the run (rarely more than 2 per character).
etc

And i do not hesitate to interpret the lore, or what my Tav believes, to make the things coherent.

But i tend to farm approval early game, leaving companions at camp for little other reason other than that the following dialog would get me a -1 (that's bad i know...)
I'm usually taking Halsin with me over act 1 just because i know he's necessary in act 2 (in most cases my normal reaction would be : get back to your grove).
Now that we can recruit Minthara, well..., i inadvertently knock her out in my attempt to kill her (or i decide i feel something special with her, or that she's a good opportunity to see if the cultist can be brought back to freedom)

A set of rules that i do not follow absolutely, the real rule is "don't break the suspension of disbelief", not to ruin my fun or to make things over-complicated to handle.

And certainly these rules apply only to myself, i dont pretend others should absolutely follow them.

[belgix]

I'm just using my knowledge of ex-DM and role play my characters. I put character with a 's' because I applied this rule to my main character and my origin characters. No trickery here, some may disagree with my choices for the origin characters but they are now what I thing they should be keeping the essence of them when Larian created them.

[Angel]

I roleplay a min maxer

[Premier666]

I roleplay as a minma...
Damn someone beat me to the joke

[Xetelian]

always be max'n

[Lou the Lou]

I optimize. I don't like taking penalties to achieve higher highs, but I will build ways or do things that "don't make sense" to make my character more powerful - unless it takes the entire game in a direction I don't want to go. Story over power, if a choice must be made.

[Warbird]

I roleplay my char but totally cheat the game by being level 20 at start.

Challenging games are a waste of time. I just want a fun story where I can be all I can be.

[BunnyMann]

I'll min max to a certain extent on the stats and equipment. I roleplay the game/plot choices.
As in I won't kill a camp or a 'good' character just to get a great unique weapon/armor.

[Seagal]

There's never a need to "min-max" in this game even on the hardest difficulties when using a full party. The only time it would ever be necessary is if you're setting your own unintended restrictions on something.

Always play the way that will be the most fun for you. Maybe "min-max" is the most fun, but there's never a need to do it or use multi-class, exploits / cheese, or whatever else to beat any difficulty.

Originally posted by Warbird:

I roleplay my char but totally cheat the game by being level 20 at start.

Challenging games are a waste of time. I just want a fun story where I can be all I can be.

Why do you think this game is challenging? Even on Honor mode the only thing that could possibly make that hard is if you're the kind of person who gets totally flustered under fake "pressure" with the one save restriction.

I fully support you or anyone else who wants to cheat and do whatever they think is fun, but I just think this is funny coming from someone with over 200 hours on the game. Which, admittedly, isn't a lot, but far more than needed for someone to understand the systems and how the game works.

[Pomki]

In any case , Im just gonna take every single items in the room, cups, forks, to sell it all
I just can't go on without taking everything, how could I
How could you not have the annoying desire of maximizing your gold by selling that rotten tomato for 1 gold piece??!?! You want it?!!!! 1 gold piece!!!!1

[Commancho]

Min-maxing helps RP as long its not too much of cluster f*** multiclassing. Especialy when you are RP a badass character and you don't want some random pleb to kick your ass.

[Hobocop]

Depends on one's definition of min-maxing.

I like to take a character concept and optimize it at least 80-90% with some flavor picks. As long as it can fulfill it's primary goal in the party.

[Raz]

Originally posted by Angel:

I roleplay a min maxer

Originally posted by Premier666:

I roleplay as a minma...
Damn someone beat me to the joke

Both are these are the answer, more or less, and you can even story flavor it quite easily.

One of the main min max builds is an Assassin/Gloomstalker/Bard. That is the easiest multi-class to explain away in a roleplay. You're an assassin who has learned to stalk prey through both the lush evergreens and the concrete jungle. You use your Bardic charm to woo & leave your target(s) vulnerable/unsuspecting of the knife in the dark.

Tempest Cleric Storm Sorcerer; you were a young child when your innate connection to magic caused you to strike another child with a thunderbolt by accident. You were sent off to the Clergy of Talos to better learn to control your magic. Unbeknownst to your family, that teaching came at the cost of making you into a student of destruction; spreading the word of Talos far and wide is your mission. Destruction in the name of your god is your just reward.

So on and so forth.

Paladin Hexblade Sorcerer can be flavored as a Paladin who wants more power so pacted with a blade from the Shadowfell which had the unintended effect of awakening latent magical talent within them (Sorcerer).

Barbarian Monk is the easiest to RP flavor.