Character Customization Dev Blog
By TrailTurtle @ December 6, 2012 at 1:32pm
Whether in the digital world of Neverwinter or on pen ‘n’ paper, every character is a unique avatar to adventure with. In Neverwinter, when you first create your adventurer, you’ll have a wide range of options to customize both stats and appearance.
Character creation in Neverwinter starts with the D&D standby of choosing a Race/Class/Gender combo. We’ve already revealed a number of the races, and we’ve previewed a few classes, including the Control Wizard and the Guardian Fighter.
Your choice of race will give you some bonuses to your core stats – Strength, Constitution, etc. In addition, races unlock racial abilities, like the Versatile Defense ability for Humans, granting a bonus to your Defense. With these racial abilities, you can customize your adventurer towards your play style, giving you a better Critical Hit chance if you like flashy attacks, or granting you the extra resilience to wade into the thick of it.
Your stats are also customizable, both through your choice of race and through rolling. When you reach the ability scores section, you’ll be able to roll or reroll your scores, allowing you to build a stat line that matches your character’s concept. If your adventurer was the village bully before finding the study of magic, you can roll up Strength 12 for your Control Wizard.
The key ability scores in Neverwinter match those of Dungeons and Dragons: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. 10 in a stat is the adventurer’s average, with 18 (before racial bonuses) being the maximum for Level 1 characters.
Your choice of race also gives your stats some customization. Races give +2 to one primary stat, and +2 to one of two other stats. A Tiefling always gets +2 Charisma, for example, but you can choose whether to get an additional +2 to Constitution or to Intelligence. Build a well-rounded Control Wizard with Constitution, for instance, or specialize by adding it to Intelligence.
You’ll also be able to customize your character’s physical appearance. You’ll have the option of using several preset appearance packages or making deeper customizations. Page down for a mostly-complete list of customization options – please remember that this is not final, but it’ll help you get a sense of the scale of character customization.
If you’ve created a character in Champions Online or Star Trek Online, Cryptic Studios’ currently-live titles, you’ll have a sense of how many options you’ll have in Neverwinter. Make your character unique with tattoos, plenty of hairstyles, complexions and more – and that’s just in current test builds. When Neverwinter launches, your adventurer’s appearance can be as unique as her adventures.
With the dark and mysterious Tieflings, for example, character creation will let you really customize how infernal your character is. If she’s actively working to overcome her background, use some of the different horn variants and remove any tattoos and scars. You can also scale her eyes to be larger and more expressive, with a softer color.
Alternatively, if she’s embracing her bloodline’s cruelty, add some height with heels, plus slim and lengthen her hands for a classically knife-slender demi-demon. You can also set her up with a selection of tattoos, and you’ll be able to change their shape and color.
This is just the tip of the customization iceberg, too. Stay tuned for more Neverwinter news, including more about how you can craft your dream adventurer!
Appearance customization options:
Head Shape
Hair (shape and color)
Eyes (shape and color – some customizable per eye)
Eyebrows (fineness and color)
Facial Hair (shape and color
Skin complexion and color – old/tan, weathered/black, etc.
(For certain races) Horn alignment
Facial tattoos and their color
Scar shapes
Sliders for your facial dimensions – neck length, cheek size, etc.
Sliders for your body dimensions – hand thickness, leg length, etc.
zoesgirl @ May 20th, 2013 5:59AM
can you reroll race later on?
rastapastafarian @ Feb 4th, 2013 3:49PM
If it is anything like the character customization of CO then there will be an amazing diversity of looks.
solkanis1 @ Feb 4th, 2013 12:56PM
Please have it so we can Customize what our clothes and Armor look like. It has yet to be done on the scale of champions online in a fantasy game. Being able to create the look of the armor, robes, etc that my character wears has great appeal. This was an awesome feature in champions (never played STO). For Example a Fighter whose left arm has a Plate Pauldron, a plate Rerebrace, plate Vambrace, and plate Gauntlet. A Chain Shirt for his Chest and just a Bracer and leather glove on the right arm....etc. You get the idea I hope. Finding cool magical armor is awesome. But what has always been missing in a fantasy mmo is completely designing how your character looks. If Someone doesn't want to go through all that trouble they can for example pick a Control Wizard and then hit random for the clothes. In my opinion this would set this mmo far ahead of any other fantasy mmo out there.
solkanis1
What I meant to say was......Finding cool looking magic armor in game is awesome. But lets use that dreaded game WoW for an example. You have 100 people that are playing the same class and all get that armor. Now you have 100 people with the exact same look other than hair, face etc running around. I don't know about you but I stop feeling like I'm running around in a magical world with a unique toon.
garj1 @ Jan 28th, 2013 10:33AM
The one customization feature not mentioned is costuming. Most players make up a fine body characterization they like but see little of in game. That is ok but what is most visible is costume and weapons. Any info on this? Costumes were great in CO and STO so I have hopes.
m1ndfr1k @ Jan 28th, 2013 5:01AM
anyway race choise looks bad- because there is nothing unique- u can see them in other mmo
m1ndfr1k
CO was much better in that option.
avon4te @ Jan 15th, 2013 5:44AM
Looking good ........ need a release date or beta key :)
lpsx @ Dec 18th, 2012 1:02AM
...all that glitters is not gold...... we will see how many players are on there severs after 18months when game is ready......
mithrandraug @ Dec 15th, 2012 1:58PM
I'm not sure about those class specializations they look like WOW in some way. I'd prefer to build a character following D
forktounge179 @ Dec 15th, 2012 1:58AM
dont ruin the game it needs to be classic dung a dragons. i was looking so forward to it now im disapointed .i like others spend a ton on dung n drag thats why it last so long .you are straying to far from the org. game and makeing a genric roleplay mmo. the only thing that you have going is the forgotten realms lore.please make it the game that holds so many good memories for so many people.
naeuuin
You don't like what they have? Can your own. that is what the foundry is about. get your friends together make your stuff and have fun.
lichboo666 @ Dec 10th, 2012 11:14AM
Awww, i hate classes like control wizard... etc.. Make it like real D
rolandais @ Dec 9th, 2012 1:48AM
They really need to make it point buy, and not about rolling as far as stats go, or people will just keep rolling until they get all 18's or whatever.
shredstallion33 @ Dec 8th, 2012 7:19AM
Lotro has pretty good customization, except for the fact you cant change your weapons appearance.
bighalsy @ Dec 8th, 2012 6:28AM
And this is where PW is going to bleed you dry.
coquialpha @ Dec 7th, 2012 9:49PM
I think it'll be a good start for the beta when classic D
coquialpha
and D characters, such as Neeshka, Drizzt, and the gods, can be recreated. Then make it far superior to differentiate itself from DDO. Also my message was cut off when I typed Shift-7 and that bothers me.
wraithshadow13 @ Dec 7th, 2012 7:09PM
I've been looking forward to something that was not foundry related and this is it. I loved Cryptic's early adaptation to the idea of in depth customization and feel that they've really lost that ideal with the other titles, so hopefully they add a little something extra as a 'welcome back' to customization.
luindingil @ Dec 7th, 2012 4:41PM
GREAT NEWS! There was one reason I quit playing games like SWTOR, WOW, The Secret World and several others was the crappy character creation, drab costumes, crappy colors and U G L Y toons. At least in Champions Online you can create a toon that looks like Adriana Lima or a bad looking good like Tom Hardy (Lawless, This means War). PLEASE CRYPTIC, make an MMO character creation like Champions! With all the other features, you will capture a market! GOOD LUCK!
luindingil
I should have double checked my typing. "bad looking good like" should have said, bad a$$ looking goon"
midevl2012 @ Dec 7th, 2012 5:46AM
Great races, looks like it's gonna be more than your typical races. Different is good. :)
vincent304 @ Dec 6th, 2012 10:18PM
I wonder if they're planning on ever releasing new races every so often, i wouldn't mind being being a humanoid beast race like a Lupin or something similar.
shredstallion33 @ Dec 6th, 2012 9:31PM
Beards dwarves can be proud of, and id like to have the elderly shang tsung look for my caster.
singularitarian @ Dec 6th, 2012 4:45PM
Elves, eladrin, and gnomes must have either ear variants or a couple of sliders for the dimensions of their ears. Tieflings must have more fiend features to choose from than the ram horns. Make these things happen.
mandodo69 @ Dec 6th, 2012 4:32PM
Awsome my drow's gonna look so wicked!!
infusionman @ Dec 6th, 2012 1:47PM
Great stuff! Am I to deduce that with more posts and info coming out more frequently that an actual release date will be forthcoming? I have found this sight to be a tad light on game info and such but am optimistic that it will be all that this Ol'Gamer will enjoy. Thanks! PS: release date....please.
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