A philosophical build question

[Ipnoom]

I have a quick question that relates to gaming philosophy when t comes to building characters. I generally have a vision of how I want a character to turn out (Bionics, road warrior, melee master, etc.) when I start building the character, and start with stats and traits that support that character type.

My question is this: Does anyone find it difficult to start with professions that provide certain items or bionics or skills, instead of putting those points in stats, knowing that eventually you will (should?) be able to acquire those items and skills, but that raising stats is much more difficult?

I often start with the ending stats of my vision and very limited skills/professions knowing this, but am I putting too much emphasis on stats? I see people playing with much lower stats. I love the joint torsion ratchet combined with the integrated toolset that the bionic prepper starts with, but man, 8 points! Am I fool to torture myself hunting for these items instead of just biting the bullet and starting with them?

[kevin.granade]

You said philosophical question, so I’m going to question your premise.
Why are you building your character for survivability? Isn’t the challenge in a RPG with lots of advancement opportunity to take a limited character and see how far you can take them?
Try playing some random characters and learning to adapt to their strengths and shortcomings.

[Ipnoom]

Of course I do play random characters. Sometimes I play to see how I can adapt to unexpected circumstances (different limitations, different advantages), just that sometimes I want to make the ultimate maxxed out stud and the old min max in me sometimes gets the best of me. Just curious if others feel this bugaboo or they just do there own thing. Sometimes I do want survivability and in fact often how long you live can be a fair measure of how successful you have been (or lucky), but of course as this is a game, fun should be the most important, but as a flawed gamer, sometimes I want to achieve super success and I lose sight of the fun aspect. Not my finest characteristic

[acehawk]

I used to have this problem, them I realized u could use Alpha to circumvent it. Now I play whatever I want knowing I can get great stats later.

[vultures]

Liking the quick “can’t make an omlet without breaking some eggs” wit here; you know you can continue playing another character in the ‘old’ world setting? If it seems easier to you, an adapted character can get better morale bonuses and gain skill levels more quickly.
Also, try enjoying a game without (or with nominal) skill rust definition; it may help your motivation, if you care about losing your initial point investment a lot.

[Cbih]

Honestly if you’re conflicted on balancing your min-max tendencies with your will to have fun then just run several characters at once. 1 designated super-human and another rags-to-riches character. I have the same problem and I use this to circumvent it.