welcome back to Generation Gap, where I make a character as randomized as possible using the rules in an RPG. this time I'm focused on The Witcher Tabletop RPG. my rules are where it's possible or feasible I'll roll dice to make decisions; where I can't do that I'll focus on what I think is optimal. full disclosure I haven't played this game, so I don't have a total understanding of what "optimal" means here, but I know each character class has its own unique skill so I guess I'll try to keep that in mind. here we go.
the first step is to pick a race. there are 4 available - Witcher, Elf, Dwarf, and Human. I'll roll a d4 to pick and I get Human, which is a little boring but I understand their lifepath is a little more involved. immediately I roll to see if they're from the North or from Nilfgaard's expansive empire and get the latter; my origin places me from The Heart of Nilfgaard rather than one of their vassal states. I walk away with a +1 to Deceit and now it's time to figure out more about my family.
another die roll later I find out that some of my family is still alive but my father was imprisoned as an unlawful magic practitioner - mages in Nilfgaard are barely tolerated in Nilfgaard society as a useful tool, but not something upstanding citizens should aspire to. I see also that my family was part of the High Clergy, which grants me a holy symbol adding +1 Courage. perhaps my dad worked some miracles that someone didn't approve of?
surely this left a weird taste in my mouth because my greatest influence, maybe even my mentor, was a mage hunter who left me a dimeritium ring. maybe my father's seeming betrayal to my family name caused me to want to distance myself from him. after all, as an only child (which I know due to a further roll), these were pretty foundational events.
a further Fortune roll for me results in having received a quality education. I will get to add +1 to any INT skill I have, or pick up a new skill at +2. not bad.
lastly I get to pick a profession. as a human, all paths are open to me except Witcher, so I roll a d8 and get...Priest??? looks like ol' Dad was actually maybe messing around with dark powers, maybe that's why I hate mages but kept with the faith. arbitrarily I decide my mom is still involved with the clergy and we probably have a close but a little unhealthy relationship. a Priest gets a skill package which includes a lot of Empathy and Will skills, so I will keep that in mind as I pick stats. I get to roll a d10 9 times, reroll 1s and 2s, and assign as I will. I wind up with: 10, 9, 9, 7, 6, 6, 5, 4, and 3 which is just a teeny hair under the point buy hero of 60 points. given that my highest should probably be my mental stats which I use for spellcasting, that gives us:
Intelligence 9
Reflexes 4
Dexterity 3
Body 6
Speed 4
Empathy 9
Craft 7
Will 10
Luck 6
so this is definitely someone who's lived a life of the mind. I gave a slight preference to Body over Speed because one of the derived stats, Stamina, powers my spellcasting and is influenced by Body (as well as Will, which I've got for days). I've also got 13 "pick up skill points" due to my Intelligence and Reflexes, so let's focus on Skills. With a default class skill package of 11 skills, and 44 points to distribute, this is easy - everything gets 4 points, then I'll add my bonuses from my background in. Some skills cost 2 points to increase, so those are marked with (2).
Charisma 4
Courage 4
Deceit 1
Deduction 1
First Aid 4
Hex Weaving (2) 2
Human Perception (kind of the witcher's version of "sense motive") 4
Initiate of the Gods 4
Leadership 4
Ritual Crafting (2) 2
Spell Casting (2) 2
Teaching 4
Wilderness Survival 4
With those 13 points I think I want to maximize my hexing and spell casting as much as possible - there's a max of 6, so increasing those by 4 points each is going to cost more points than I have, so let's just spend 8 of those points to get those up to 4 each. I also need to apply my skill bonus to an INT skill so I may as well add that to Deduction. finally, what do I do with my other 5 "pick up" points? looking at my background, I remember the mage hunter who was my mentor - so I think spending 4 of them getting a couple ranks of Resist Magic and maybe one rank of Staff/Spear speaks to the training drilled into me by this instructor. furthermore, a staff actually reduces the stamina cost of casting spells, so I may as well know how to hit a guy with it. now we are looking like so:
Charisma 4
Courage 4
Deceit 1
Deduction 2
First Aid 4
Hex Weaving (2) 4
Human Perception 4
Initiate of the Gods 4
Leadership 4
Resist Magic 2
Ritual Crafting (2) 2
Spell Casting (2) 4
Staff/Spear 1
Teaching 4
Wilderness Survival 4
here I want to pause and say I'm actually really enjoying this character generation. so far decisions have been clear and easy. next up I'd decide on gear and spells; I don't have much to say here besides my character is clearly in a support role and I think I'd pick stuff that focuses on that. I think this is a pretty decent lifepath system that generates some interesting characters.
