Characters and Classes

First off, sorry about the lack of updates for this past week. I got kinda swamped by stuff. As such, this is also going to be hastily written, and not edited. Apologies. Anyways, on to the blog.

Characters and classes, classes and characters.
Often, class is the defining basis of a character.
When someone new sits down at the table and asks how to make a character, you say "what do you want to do? Fight, cast spells, heal, sneak, or *insert generic description of other class here*".
You don't usually start by saying "What kind of character do you want to play?" or "What species do you want to pick?" or, the question to make every min-maxer shudder, "What kind of story do you want to tell?"
You start by saying "What do you want them to do?"
Because it is easiest. When people sit down at the table, with no idea how to play, and little idea what D&D is, that first moment will be overwhelming if given so open-ended a question as "What story do you want to tell?" or something similar.
No, you give them narrow options, and ask them to choose what to do during combat, or while adventuring.
But, when you sit down around the table the next time they need to make a character, their first thought is, almost invariably, "What class do I want to play?"
Now, at some level this makes sense. Because D&D is a class based system where you gain levels, the biggest change throughout the game is going to come from your class, not your race or story.
And, since it is often a combat-driven game, set in a class based system, the party needs to be "balanced" in order to survive the challenges that they will face. Without a healer of some kind, the party will die, unless they are canny enough to almost never take damage. Without an arcane caster, the party will not have access to that huge battery of options that spells can provide. Without a stealthy, sneaky character, adventurers will go into almost every encounter blind, and blunder into every trap. Without a fighter equivalent, there will be nobody to absorb the blows before they slam into the vulnerable wizard.
Of course, the wily party can circumvent these traditional set ups by getting the right kinds of magic items, learning the right kinds of spells, and using the right kind of tactics.
But, that is not the point I am trying to make.
The point I am trying to make, is that, though there are reasons to think about class first and foremost when sitting down at the table, those reasons need not always take precedence.
Many players I know will choose their class, then pick a race that suits that class, then pick a backstory that the two match well enough.
And that is fine.
But sometimes it can be fun to pick a race first, then pick a class that suits that. Or, pick a backstory first, then make a character that fits that, ignoring whether or not the class and race suit each other.
Now, many people will eventually think about things other than class first. They may come up with a concept, and pick the class that best fits it. They may decide that they always want to play a dwarf, regardless of campaign, and then build that dwarf into whatever role needs to be filled (I've seen Dwarven wizards, sorcerers, clerics, fighters, barbarians, rogues, ninjas...I have, in my time, seen dwarves in more professions than any other race, bar humans. Must be something about those Russian Miners [yes, my dwarves are Russian]).
But, the keyword here is eventually.
How long might it take a player to do that? Would they be more likely to do it sooner, and more often, if they were asked "What kind of story do you want to tell?" when they first sat down at the table?
It isn't a question that I can answer.
However, maybe, someone else will someday be able to.
And, I hope, perhaps the next time you sit down to create a character, or ask someone else to make a character, you decide whether or not you want to start with the class...or with something else.