I currently always start out with an Historical Reenacter, as I feel that they offer good value for points.
Fabrication (2)
Survival (2)
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 8
Perception: 10
Traits:
12 points in negative traits
Fast Learner (GREAT trait)
Fleet-Footed
Robust Genetics
Almost always Random. Gives a good mix of both long and short games.
Lab start, no skills, radiogenic + robust genetics + unstable genetics
Rest depends, but always full set of negative traits.
The result is always an overpowered character capable of wrecking hulks before midgame. Or a corpse if I get an unlucky bio-op spawn or no way out of the lab.
STR:DEX:INT:PER = 10, 8, 10, 10
Pos. traits: Night vision, quick, fleet-footed, fast learner
Neg. traits: Addictive personality, ugly, truth teller, trigger happy, glass jaw, heavy sleeper
That’s all.
My stat and trait picks vary a lot, but I trend very strongly towards spending few to no points on profession and skills (I often pick Novice Martial Artist for the extra point), and picking an Infected start for extra points. Once you’ve gotten adept enough at the game to survive a disadvantaged start with no starting skills, having enough points to have great stats while also having a full complement of traits gets addictive.
[quote=“AllisonW, post:5, topic:8525”]My stat and trait picks vary a lot, but I trend very strongly towards spending few to no points on profession and skills (I often pick Novice Martial Artist for the extra point), and picking an Infected start for extra points. Once you’ve gotten adept enough at the game to survive a disadvantaged start with no starting skills, having enough points to have great stats while also having a full complement of traits gets addictive.[/quote]I have to agree here. Some starting skills can be nice, but it doesn’t take long to learn not to need them at all, and all those extra stats are super helpful.
As for traits, I always get quick, fleet footed, and robust genetics. Quick + fleet means I can outrun more or less anything, and quick means more attacks/turn. Robust genetics because don’t mutate without it.
I often get less sleep to go with it, and lately I’ve been considering masochist, not for itself, but because of what it mutates into with medical threshold (and you can’t mutate masochist, which seems like an oversight to me).
Is Masochist actually a prerequisite for that post-thresh trait?
Try actually using some Medical mutagen/serum without taking Masochist first; you’ll end up with the Cenobite trait eventually, regardless of whether you took Masochist or not.
Try actually using some Medical mutagen/serum without taking Masochist first; you’ll end up with the Cenobite trait eventually, regardless of whether you took Masochist or not.[/quote]
Be careful not to Deaden yourself though…
Now I’m wondering if Cenobite is regarded by the code as a direct upgrade of Masochist and you’re less likely to roll Deadened first if you have Masochist.
Try actually using some Medical mutagen/serum without taking Masochist first; you’ll end up with the Cenobite trait eventually, regardless of whether you took Masochist or not.[/quote]
Really? Because I had tried this on my character and after about 10 doses of medical serum (attempted 5 different times via the magic of reloading the save) I didn’t have any of the pain related post threshold medical mutations. Didn’t have deadened, cenobite, any of them. I then looked it up in the debugger and it states that masochist is a requirement to get it, but masochist isn’t on any available mutation list.
Edit: Okay, tried it again and it worked. I think the problem was that I wasn’t using serum last time, just mutagen.
This tangent has me trying to think of actual uses for the Masochism trait again. I’ve tried it out before but it just doesn’t seem to do much of anything aside from add an extra step when trying to use your soldering iron where just hitting Enter again will result in you burning yourself.
[quote=“AllisonW, post:12, topic:8525”]This tangent has me trying to think of actual uses for the Masochism trait again. I’ve tried it out before but it just doesn’t seem to do much of anything aside from add an extra step when trying to use your soldering iron where just hitting Enter again will result in you burning yourself.[/quote]While not guaranteed, it makes it nore likely you will mutate into cenobite earlier, at least.
I always find myself unsatisfied with how Random characters are generated. Invariably the majority of points go into stats instead of traits, and none of them end up being very interesting.
I always roll with a melee-focused character with high Int. A bit boring, but it works for me.
Because the point of Masochism is that you get morale for Pain, up to 25 morale for pain around 30-40ish IIRC.
Because the point of Masochism is that you get morale for Pain, up to 25 morale for pain around 30-40ish IIRC.[/quote]
When I tried it out, the bonus was very small, but maybe I just didn’t test it under the right conditions. Even under optimal conditions (25 morale for pain 30-40ish) it seems like it’d work better as a 1-point trait than a 2-point trait but perhaps I just haven’t looked at it the right way yet. Or perhaps having Pain Resistant (a trait I like quite a bit) cripples the morale gain relative to one’s Pain level. It’s probably a mistake on my end.
Because the point of Masochism is that you get morale for Pain, up to 25 morale for pain around 30-40ish IIRC.[/quote]
When I tried it out, the bonus was very small, but maybe I just didn’t test it under the right conditions. Even under optimal conditions (25 morale for pain 30-40ish) it seems like it’d work better as a 1-point trait than a 2-point trait but perhaps I just haven’t looked at it the right way yet. Or perhaps having Pain Resistant (a trait I like quite a bit) cripples the morale gain relative to one’s Pain level. It’s probably a mistake on my end.[/quote]
Yeah, a Pain Resistant Masochist is gonna have some trouble getting jollies thanks to Pain taking longer to accumulate.
Alas, both traits really fit the concept I was going for. On the other hand, maybe Masochist would justify playing a melee character who isn’t fond of armour. The only issue is that if you’re getting a meaningful morale bonus from Masochist–whether you’re Pain Resistant or not–there’s a pretty good chance you’ve already lost whatever fight you’re in.
…Oh shit I just remembered I think that attempt at a character had Bad Temper, too. Pain Resistant and Bad Temper together probably explain Masochist being completely pointless.
Bad temper lowers morale gains and masochist gives morale gains for pain and pain resistant lowers pain… sooooo, yeah, a character perfectly designed to get the least possible value from masochist it seems 
I think the idea is less ‘get hurt in fight to get morale boost’ and more ‘burn yourself at home to get a morale boost for crafting xp’ or something like that.
Masochist alone won’t help with this. The focus penalty from pain will be greater than the focus gain from morale.
Not sure if there is any point to masochism before full cenobite.