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Feedback required! Your fave character builds...


Batsphinx

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Hello!

 

So for a future build I'm doing a bit of work on actual named characters that you can spawn as on the PZ Map, so we can add in more back stories and make it feel less like your survivor has just magically appeared four or five days into the apocalypse.

 

Clearly each of these will be built from existing PZ professions, hobbies and whatnot, so this leads me to ask...

 

What are your favourite character builds? What do you generally take in - in terms of Professions, Traits and Hobbies?

 

I'm probably talking SP over MP here, but all feedback will be useful and awesome! Thanks!

 

 

 

  

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Here's my favorite:

Profession - Security Guard

Positive Traits - Cat's Eyes, Dextrous, Inconspicuous, Hunter

Negative Traits - High Thirst, Sleepyhead, Hemophobic, Hard of Hearing, Weak Stomach

 

"Toby Straten was just your average night guard at the Crossroads Mall in June 1993. Living in West Point, the man works nights and sleeps during the day. That's probably what saved him that fateful day. While others were out in the streets and witnessing the evil that had arisen, Toby was asleep, unnoticed by the corpses in his dark, seemingly abandoned home. Toby has the health problems of many sheltered Americans, but as a man of the night and a trapper by nature, he's going to do his best to survive."

Edited by Strats
Clarity
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From the coasts of West Point .... to the other coasts of West point! The tales about infamous Bobby travel far!

 

Graceful as a cat and slightly overweight as a cat too, infamous repairman leaves no chairs or Spiffo dolls behind. Beware! Many evenings he has spent sharpening his mind with books and doodles! A bit hypochondriac, but fierceful in a fight and sneaky as a lego brick, mind you!

 

His battle-hardened plank leaves many grieving zombies behind and no one mastered eating chips better than Bobby. No man or woman have survived more microwave burns than him - even the fire fears him. All his enemies heard only one thing before their death: "Hey! Over here!"

 

There is no hope of survival. This is the story of how you died with Bobby in there. The warrior. The misery mistery. The fat dude.

Edited by Keshash
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Profession - Engineer

Positive Traits - Fast Learner, Former Scout

Negative Traits - High Thirst, Sleepyhead, Smoker, Short Sighted

 

"Duane Jones always knew that the end times would come. When you live in a town called Muldraugh and have to fix the same damned trains day after day, pessimism gets to you. It doesn't matter if you're college-educated or a former Eagle Scout; when the news spouts on about death, doom, and its obvious affair with Cal Fairweather, you develop a little cynicism. So yeah, he smokes a lot. It takes the nerve off and besides, when almost everyone other than you gets the flu, you don't worry about getting sick when your doctor tells you to quit or you'll get cancer. Not that lung cancer matters when the dead walk the earth. Duane always knew it was a good thing to be ready for anything..."

Edited by Strats
Repetitiveness
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Profession - Engineer

Positive Traits - Eagle-eyed, Keen Hearing, Cat's Eyes, Dextrous, Graceful, Inconspicuous, Brave, Lucky, Nutritionist, Organized, Thick Skin

Negative Traits - Smoker, Restless Sleeper, Very Underweight, Unfit, Weak, Slow Healer, High Thirst

 

"James 'Critical Jim' Smith has always had a precise attention to detail. In his youth he worked as a civil engineer, but has since settled into the quiet life as the owner-operator of 'Smith and Son Hardware', on West Point main, the town he helped build. He has no children, but he changed the name of his store to attract more customers."

Edited by critical jim
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Profession - Lumberjack

Positive Traits - Athletic, Stout, Thick Skinned, Lucky, Dexterous, Handy, Runner

Negative Traits - High Thirst, Slow Reader, Prone to Illness, Hypochondriac, Weak Stomach,  Hemophobic, Hearty Appetite, Conspicuous, Clumsy, Very Underweight

 

Very Underweight is a handicap in the beginning but as you live longer and you gain weight it goes away so I see it as free points. Most other negatives don't affect my play style. For positives, Athletic because I don't like being exerted, Thick Skinned for the once in a blue moon I actually get scratched (and preventing bites), Dexterous since I like looting quickly, Handy for a boost to carpentry skills, and Runner so leveling sprinting doesn't take years.

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Name: Brian Carter

Profession: Fireman (Fire Officer)

Positive Traits: Brave, Stout, First Aider

Negative Traits: High Thirst, Hearty Appetite, Pacifist.

 

Brian Carter was a great fit in his line of duty. Going into a burning building without question in hopes that at least one more person can make it out okay was the morale he lived behind. Before the outbreak, that prerogative was never explored much in rural Kentucky. Rescuing cats from trees and gun-toting rednecks from their own explosive experiments pretty much summarized his workload. Being one of the few on his team with official medical training, he was always the guy to call for when something truly terrifying was going down.

 

Brian was used to saving lives, not taking them - but his skill set transferred over to the apocalypse nicely.

Edited by Kim Jong Un
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Name: James Vance

Profession: Unemployed

Positive Traits: Handy, Fast Learner, Brave,  Graceful, Dextrous, and Outdoorsman

Negative Traits: Feeble, High Thirst, Underweight, Hearty Appetite, Short Sighted

Bio: Vance was a drifter for most of his life, working various odd jobs from simple repairs to helping someone move. He rarely had enough money keep himself up and was often forced to adapt on a constant basis. Without a place to call home, Vance spent a number of nights without shelter, and on multiple occasions slept in rain and snow. He was also no stranger to a fight, and often had to deal with punks trying to harass him. Just before the outbreak occurred, Vance was passing through Kentucky, and ended up caught in the chaos. Now he's been surviving on his own, trying to avoid the hands of death.

 

Name: Marcus King

Profession: Veteran/Military

Positive Traits: Stout, Outdoorsman

Negative Traits: High Thirst, Slow Learner, Hearty Appetite

Bio: Marcus joined the military out of high school, and was deployed overseas. He was never in actual combat, but he had witnessed a number of serious accidents. After on such accident, he ended up being discharged and returned home, where he chose to help at his friends gun shop. When the infection started getting really bad, he made his way to help out with law enforcement and the National Guard. When things completely collapsed, he got out and has spent his time trying to help out anyone he can.

 

Name: Charles Darwin

Profession: Doctor

Positive Traits: Inconspicuous, Organized

Negative Traits: Feeble, Short Sighted (Plus some other traits which were removed)

Bio: An unremarkable man, Charles spent much of his life in the shadows, keeping out of sight from the world. A cold and cynical man, Charles was never one for socializing, and was often ill-tempered when interrupted. He ended up studying to become a doctor, and after school ended up working at a hospital in his city. He was one of the first sent over to help with the outbreak, but in the end he realized that things had gone too far. While everything began to fall around him, he chose to get out and begin 

 

Hope these can provide some use!

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Name - Ryan "Kirrus" Lee

Profession - Burglar

Positive Traits - Organized, Herbalist

Negative Traits - Hard of Hearing, Weak Stomach, Hearty Appetite, High Thirst, Hemophobic 

 

"If anybody knows anybody in Hardin and Meade County, they know Ryan "Kirrus" Lee. His signature, the green Kirrus, haunts law enforcement up and down the highway. Little do they that the self-titled graffiti artist is just a teacher at Rosewood School. So what if he steals a little or sells a little leaf to supplement the meager income of a teacher? This aloof, free-spirited hipster doesn't care what society thinks. At least he isn't passing this on to the kids. Of course, there aren't any left to pass it on to now..."

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Here is my go to character always that i want to play Survival for a long period of time.

 

Name: Jeremy Baker
Profession: Burger Flipper

Positive Traits:  Fast learner, Fast Reader, Wakeful, Light Eater, Dextrous

Negative Traits: Feeble, Overweight, Short Sighted

 

Jeremy Baker is a typical student just trying to get by,  trying to pay his bills working in Spiffo's burgers in West Point, he became quite adapted to sleep less since he started working the night shifts, in his work he became quite good at making different kinds of burgers that Spiffo's is so known for, also he became quite fast at packing different combos in small bags with ease. 

Even when working the night shifts, he never left his studies behind, he always was good at reading and that gave him quite an advantage over the other students in his class, as a student he started eating less food, but the food he ate most of the time was the unhealthy type, making him go a bit overweight and since there was no time to hit the gym, he is quite weak when it comes down to physical activities. 

 

 

Also what do you mean with named characters to spawn in?

You mean that aside from choosing a spawn point we can chose a pre-determined character to play as to skip the character creation screen? 

Edited by Blasted_Taco
Forgot to ask
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Traits?
positive:  cat's eyes, inconspicious, light eater and stout are the 4 perks i always seem to use.
negative: thin skinned, prone to illness, slow reader, slow healer, weak stomach and hemophobic. i always use these.
i don't eat spoiled food and i don't get bit or wounded because i play the game by taking as few risks as possible.
so none of these negative traits affect me all too much. i start out by training my sneak and spending my points on sneak and lightfooted.
i feel more comfortable ransacking homes at night with cat's eyes and thanks to inconspicious i'm less likely to trigger zombies from outside.
stout is necessary so i can make one zombie stand out from the rest by knocking him out of the horde. loop around, and finish him off. repeat.

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Name - Twattella Cox

Profession - Repairman

Positive Traits - Brave, Cat's Eyes, Graceful, Lucky, Outdoorsman, Thick Skinned, Self Defence Class

Negative Traits - Hemophobic, Weak Stomach, Sleepyhead, Overweight, High Thirst, Unfit

She was a local handiwoman, fixing broken stuff for her neighbours and doing general plumbing and small-scale house renovations. She also fixes cars on weekends as an additional source of income on the side. Little did she know her life is going to depend on her skills - literally.

 

Edited by Geras
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I usually go with a carpenter or a lumberjack. My current playthrough/favourite character build is:

 

Profession - Lumberjack = Axeman.

Positive Traits - Dextrous (-2), Inconspicuous (-4), Fit (-6) and Thick Skinned (-6).

Negative Traits - High Thirst (+6), Hemophobic (+3), Weak Stomach (+3), Hard of Hearing (+2), Short Sighted (+2) and Slow Reader (+2) (I am using the Faster Reading mod though).

 

Why these traits ? -> So this creates a fine strong and fit character who can somewhat fight off against the average crowd of 5 to 10 zombies via melee with a bit less trouble. He is afraid of first aid but that doesn't last long enough to actually be a burden. As long as he does not eat any raw meat or unknown wild berries he will not have any food illness. The short sighted is a true burden though so you have to do a few 360 degrees turns every few minutes. hard of hearing might be a smaller burden, Iève never really had any problems with that. 

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Hiya, here's my feedback;

 

Name: Lucas Rhodes

Profession: Veteran

Positive traits: Desensitized, Outdoorsman, Brawler and Strong

Negative traits: Out of Shape, Hard of Hearing, Slow Healer, Slow Learner, Slow Reader and Conspicuous

(All the traits balance out, I checked :) )

 

Bio:

"Following Lucas' honorable discharge from the Military, he became a former shell of the man he once was. Trying to keep up with the ever-changing world around him, the horrors from his Military service followed him to no avail. Now, he spends his days confining himself within his home, clutching the only remains he has; his sanity and a Whiskey bottle.

 

Will the apocalypse destroy the remainder of Lucas' sanity, or will he instead embrace the horrors of war that once inflicted him? "

 

 

Edited by Mr_Sunshine
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X

Profession: Burger Flipper

Positive Traits: Graceful, Inconspicuous, Light Eater, Low Thirst, Nutritionist, Herbalist

Negative Traits: Weak, Underweight, Pacifist, Prone to Illness, Cowardly

 

Bio: X, working at the local Spiffos, began going down a path of starvation, for the chance of fitting into society and look "good" and maybe finally getting some good attention. One thing led to another and X became almost obsessed with how many calories X consumed and what plants would be good for the body. Little did they know that appearance soon wouldn't play any part in what was to come.

 

Basically my damsel/bachelor, a character who're not "overpowered" just normal, but with his/her own problems (being underweight and not eating enough) I normally play this build because I like to rp this type of character, but when I normally make a character I like to give person some clear strengths and weaknesses, I don't like the "I'm good at everything" Joe, if they have some strong and weak traits there needs to be a good roleplay explanation :9 that's just my way of playing anyway. 

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Here's mine:

 

Name: Mercer Kyle

Profession: Police Officer

Positive Traits: Lucky, Inconspicuous

Negative Traits: Restless Sleeper, Disorganized, Slow Reader

 

Bio: The transition from big-city cop to small-town deputy hit Officer Mercer Kyle hard. Once a budding prospect of the Louisville Metro Police Department, he was unceremoniously transferred out of the city after he accidentally shot and killed a young boy while on patrol. He ended up behind a desk in the sleepy little town of Muldraugh, where everyone knew each other's name and the townsfolk rolled up the sidewalks at dinnertime. For three long years, Mercer sat behind that desk, never once drawing his gun or chasing down criminals, resigned to stopping the occasional drunk driver and breaking up midnight house parties. But despite being a city boy since birth, Mercer never once complained. The image of the young boy lying dead in the middle of the street still haunted him, and he was determined to make up for his mistake by protecting and serving the people of Muldraugh however he could. Yet still, deep down, he secretly longed for some action, or excitement, or SOMETHING to break up the monotony of rural Kentucky life.

 

Now it is 1993.  A strange infection has swept through Knox County, turning people into ravenous undead monsters. Muldraugh has been plunged into chaos, and Mercer is smack-dab in the middle of it. With his fellow officers dead or missing and a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions enveloping the countryside, Mercer Kyle has only his pistol and his wits left. Will he continue to protect and serve the people of Muldraugh in their greatest time of need? Or will he succumb to a danger the likes of which no police officer has ever faced before?

 

Did I do good?

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Name: Chris "Snake"

Surname: Fernandez

Profession: Fisherman

Positive Traits:  Lucky, FastReader.

Negative Traits:  Cowardly, SleepyHead, Hard of Hearing.

 

(I speak spanish and i use google translator now)

Bio: Chris is an spanish immigrant who came to Knox Country to get a job at WestPoint Harbor to earn money and send it to his family so they can travel to his place.

He has worked hard throughout his life in several Spanish ports... he gain experience and luck to get the biggest fish when comes to water spots.

Now in this apocalypse he knows that he is alone but also knows how to get food from the mother nature.

Will he be able to survive and begin the journey back to home and meet his family?

 

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I really would like the game maker names to be immortalized in game in the form of spawned characters :P like maybe

 

Romain The Farmer (He made the farming thing a part of PZ)

Batsphinx The Radio Broadcaster (He made the radio thing to PZ)

Mash the Construction Worker (She is building the towns after all)

Lemmy the Programmer (Well he is the main programmer to my understanding)

Nasko The Postman (He likes to publish mondoids in this forum :p)

Enigma The Police Officer (Maintains order of the forum)

 

Sorry if i missed a few of the peoples in TIS

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Survival mode is all I play - some of these characters are "challenge within a challenge" types, but they are playable, and played by me. Some have made it weeks, some months. Never much longer though, winter is almost always a killer.

 

Name: John "Doughboy" Smith

Profession: Carpenter

Positive Traits: Handy, Thick Skin, Strong, Gardener

Negative Traits: High Thirst, Obese, Hearty Appetite, Slow Reader, Sleepyhead

 

Doughboy, as I call him is slow, zombie food, more often than not he gets bitten within the first 24 hours. However, I've had him survive the longest of all survival characters I've had. The typical plan for Doughboy, is to "run" for the large warehouse, find a sledgehammer along the way, if not, in the warehouse; setup a sheet rope, and knock out the stairs leading to the second story. He proceeds to carefully construct water catchments, and begin growing food almost immediately. With his strength, he can sometimes successfully deal with mid sized groups of zombies, typically with a shovel. That's one of the few material runs he requires in the initial rooftop garden setup. With build 35, sheet ropes are a little less reliable, so it has required a strategy shift to rebuilding floor, instead of stair removal, which is slightly more time consuming. (I consider this both power-gaming and a real approach that I'd use in a real situation. One wooden board across a 6'x6' foot section of missing floor would certainly work, and works on my largely uncovered lattice in my attic. It effectively is a zombie proof drawbridge.) But I can understand some might be critical of the practice.

 

Name: Larry Jones

Profession: Fisherman

Positive Traits: Angler, Nutritionist, Herbalist, Former Scout, Outdoorsman

Negative Traits: Very Underweight, Illiterate

 

Larry's plan is always the same. He just wants to go fishing, score some worms, and live off the land. To do so, he's got to find a lot of miscellaneous tools, ones that you just can't make in the wilds of PZ. He needs as much twine and fishing line as he can find, trowel, saw, and a tarp with 4 matching tent pegs. If he's lucky, he might find a tent ready to use. The biggest problem with Larry is, he just rarely gets all his gear before he dies. I've always ran into a supply issue with fishing rods, and while a wooden spear will work some of the time, it is a hassle to get the branches to sharpen, as any continuous forager knows, it takes a lot out of you, time for bed, again in fact, and it isn't even noon yet.

 

Name: Conner Weston

Profession: Electrician

Positive Traits: Fast Learner, Cat's Eyes

Negative Traits: Pacifist, Short Sighted, Cowardly (also in my own mind, he is nervous or jittery; cowardly is used in its place, though not the ideal fit) 

 

The least played, but one I felt should be included, Conner's goal is to get a generator setup, and a lot of fuel stored up so it is ready to run at his main base. His main base changes quite a bit, I take over a gas station; In theory the pumps could be used after the power goes out; until the fuel runs out; over the longer term, he settles down to farming the rooftop with a heated greenhouse. In practice, he has a poorly made garden near the gas station, and effectively has no real defense against a serious zombie horde. This is the one character I have that actually uses firearms. I see him timidly and shakily raising his pistol or shotgun, and firing into the air, attracting zombies to his area, and fleeing, scared out of his mind. But, it helps clear out an area, for him to carefully sneak around after things calm down. This is probably the character type I struggle the most with, because I love the idea of him, but in practice its very hard for me to play him successfully.

 

Name: Linda Roberts

Profession: Fitness Instructor

Positive Traits: Adrenaline Junkie, Athletic

Negative Traits: Weak, Restless Sleeper, Agoraphobic, Disorganized

 

Linda is a lot of fun to play, in short bursts. My primary objective with is to be VERY mobile. She doesn't really carry much, usually a bottle of water and a knife of some sort, if I carry a bag at all, it is usually a plastic bag and I fill it with light weight survival foods. (high calorie, like butter stuff that doesn't spoil for emergencies)  Usually, I just run around and knife zombies with her. As a solo player, this is only fun for a short term existence, however, in a group setting I can see her being a great scout, and a terror to hostile survivors. I personally consider agoraphobic and claustrophobic together to be power gaming in an unrealistic way, so I don't use it. If I did, I'd probably add graceful.

 

Effectively, these are the 4 main ways I play in survival. In other game modes, I use more specialized builds tailored to my goal of surviving for as long as possible; but the builds above are the most common I use.

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Name:James

Surname:Faneri

Positive Traits: Adrenaline Junkie,Fast Learner,Resilient,Light Eater,Low Thirst.

Negative Traits: Asthmatic,Hemophobic,Underweight,Sleepyhead,Cowardly,Restless Sleeper,Agoraphobic.

   He lived a fairly normal life before the dead roamed the earth,but once he saw the first zombie breaking open his door he scrambled around his house for a way to leave so he hopped through his bedroom window and once he thought he was safe a zombie scratched his thigh so he ran off and ran to a hospital in search of bandages,he found the bandages and rested on a hospital bed and thought about what was wrong with him and what was good about him,he knew that he was scared of the outside because he always felt so in danger because once he had a rock thrown at his neck and before he fell unconscious he saw the blood on his neck and it made him scared of blood and being a kid who almost never left his house he never had good lungs and couldn't run good but under pressure he ran quick,but once he was safe he left the hospital and looked for safety somewhere far.

Edited by Jeemo
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There is a story, told among the people of Muldraugh, when the nights grow long and the sickly winds blowing down from Louisville turn cold. Stories about a gaunt man with a big sack who you cannot keep out of your house during the winter solstice..  Nor should you. Those who try will find all the boards stripped from their windows. If you knock out your stairs you might wake up to the roaring of a dozen bonfires consuming your walls and roof. If you live, you'll find your crates have been voraciously gone through, stripped of anything useful or delicious.

Those that believe in the old ways have no fear of the gaunt man, however.

They know that a packet of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey laid on the mantle with care is all it takes to keep him and his big, leathery sack away for another year. They will wake up to the merry sound of cans of corned beef being thrown against the wall. A Spiffo atop a case of jars with lids will be found alongside a glittering pile of various ammo if the children have been extra good and planted radishes in the fall.

The gaunt man loves radishes.

 

Spoiler

The gaunt man.

Park ranger.

This character never dies. He just maxes out his skills and goes to sleep. His one weakness is that lifes little cigarettes and whiskey gauge runs out eventually, forcing him back into the woods to wait for another big update.

 

Short Sighted, Hard of Hearing, Asthmatic, Smoker, Hearty Appetite, High Thirst, Illiterate, Very Underweight   Dexterous, Outdoorsman, Wakeful, Gardener, Gymnast, Inconspicuous, Hiker, Organized, Fast Learner

carrefour-the-zombie.jpg?w=490&h=367

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I gave a lot of thought on my favorite build. It goes like this :

 

Good traits :

 

Occupation : Unemployed : I prefer making my own character from scratch. The pre-existing set-ups don't suit me.

 

- Brave : I think this trait should exist as a passive or background skill since bravery is something you should pick up along the way in a zombie apocalypse situation in my opinion. But since it's not I think the loss of accuracy can be quite dramatic in life or death situations because of fear.

 

- Brawler : Again for accuracy reasons, I find it very important that I at least have the base xp multiplier for both blunt and blade accuracy. Since ammo is a rare commodity I fight a lot in melee.

 

- Handy : This one is very important to me. It gives me the base 1x multiplier for blade and blunt maintenance as well as for carpentry. I can't stand the way weapons break ridiculously fast and I really enjoy building things so this one is most welcome.

 

- Strong : This one is vital to me. I found out that when carrying 3 full big hiking bags it takes almost 18 in carrying capacity in main inventory which is only allowed with this trait. In other words I would get burdened with those 3 bags if I wasn't strong and I would lose fatigue very fast in the long runs I make sprinting from Muldraugh to WP.

 

Bad traits :

 

The main idea in my choice of bad traits is not to get injured no matter what.

 

- Slow healer : I don't mind taking longer to heal as long as I do heal. It also gives me 6 points to distribute otherwise.

 

- Prone to illness : unless I'm being an idiot and eat rotten food or poisonous bays I should be okay with this one. It doesn't affect the zombification chances otherwise I would never take it.

 

- Hyponcondriac : same reason as above. It's not threatening as long as you have supplies.

 

- Weak stomach : same reason as above.

 

- Hemophobic : I don't care about the short scare you get from healing myself it goes away very fast with the 'brave' trait and I don't care for healing others since there are no others

 

- Slow reader : I don't mind taking longer to read the books. at some point they're all read so this trait kind of cancels itself after a while.

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First i wanna say sorry, if you gonna experience some bad grammar, repetive words and terrible choocing of words in this writing.

 

Usually my favourite charter build goes like the following and yes, i always chooce the name to be Timothy Hollis:

 

Name: Timothy Hollis 
Profession: Unemployed
Positive Traits: Baseball player, Fit, Dextrous
Negative Traits: Pacifist


And because i were bored, decided to write some backstory:

 

Timothy Hollis is a former Baseball player, born and raised in Muldraugh between years 1960 and 1982. When he finished his schools, He started travelling from town to town in hope of Becoming a professional baseball player and succeed in 1986.
During his life his hopes and dreams changed and because of that, In the beginning of the 1992, he decided to take a break from the Big games, settle down and start a family, but starting one was harder than it seemed to be.
Still,Taking the Break didn't mean he don't enjoy baseball anymore. He still played it as a hobby and coached the local kids who were interested in playing baseball.

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