Next week I will have to burn up a character for epweissengruber’s BE play by post game and it is going to be my first BE character. I have looked over the lifepaths and several ideas have come to my mind, one being an exiled emperor and another being a young and flamboyant hammer pilot. I burned both of them up to get a feeling for the game and noticed a huge difference in utility. While exiled emperor was a beast in firefights (hammer based ones) and the invasion phase he still could throw around some helping in other phases and even lead a maneuver from time to time.
The young hammer pilot was good in a firefight, fire in a invasion maneuver but his utility did not extend beyond that.
I read in BE that it is harder to save the world with less life paths, I guess my question is… how much harder? Will I as a beginner still have fun and make a good contribution with a 4 LP character? Or should I stick to a six or seven LP character for the first time around?
Am I overanalysing this?
I want to give the characters 6 lifepaths, max.
I recommend 5 so that you have a character capable of growth.
But you can go under 5 if you wish.
You guys should be collaborating more closely than this… See if you can get everyone in a chat room to hash out concepts, or if not have a thread for it somewhere and get some back-and-forth so you don’t all come in with totally isolated concepts.
Also, BE doesn’t cap lifepaths by the book… It just alters your starting artha. I just burned a seven-LP character and he’s got loads of growth potential! Most of his skills are 2s with a few 3s and a couple of 5s and 6s for spice.
I suggest that you look at exponent caps instead of LP caps… Some concepts are very hard to reach in few LPs, while others are surprisingly easy. For instance, it takes 7LPs to come up through the ranks to Lord-Pilot Anvil. In contrast, it takes only 4 to become a Lord-Pilot Anvil if you take Born to Rule. Now, the grizzled vet has a few more skills, some interesting wises, and some cool traits, but he’s certainly not better than, say, a 5LP Iron-Trained sprig of the nobility. So a 6LP cap doesn’t limit the power of that sort of character (I can make a totally savage Born to Rule - Novitiate - Circle of 10,000 - Court Armiger - Lord-Pilot Anvil warrior/psychologist badass in only 5LPs) but it does rule out some interesting possibilities.