LE Character creation with a functional purpose

[raney]

The character creation in Dragon's Dogma is very intriguing to me. it's one of the few games I know where the choices you make when designing a character affect the gameplay. For instance, heavier characters won't get picked up by enemies as easily and have stronger resistance to wind, but move slower and lose stamina faster when running/climbing. Skinny characters can move around more quickly and don't lose stamina as fast, but can be snatched up by flying enemies and blown around in areas with heavy wind. Arm length affects the range of swinging a weapon. Then there are the weird features, like how ogres go berserk when seeing female characters.

 

Sadly, the character creation in Skyrim is not so extensive. When it comes to body types, you can go from "Scrawny but with muscle tone" to "bulky." Even though it's limited, I could still see some functional purposes coming out of it. Perhaps a skinnier character could have a slightly increased movement speed, while bulkier characters could hit harder with melee weapons and while brawling (The immenseley bulky character would probably have more benefit with two-handed weapons, as one-handed weapon efficiency does not depend on strength alone). Perhaps a muscular character would have a slightly increased chance of success when threatening an NPC; though I'm not sure if skinny characters would have a means to compensate for this. Skinny does not necessarily mean persuasive.

 

I could see something like this having cross-functional features with other mods to improve immersion. i.e. in Frostfall, more muscular characters could have slightly improved resistance to the cold, while skinny and female characters would lose heat more quickly. In some of the basic needs mods, a muscular character would grow hungry quicker, have to eat more to become satiated, and would require extra hydration.

 

So far, I haven't seen anything like this done on the Nexus. I got the idea after looking at Pumping Iron, a cool little mod that adds some aesthetic immersion, but nothing functional to the gameplay. If anyone wants to take this idea and run with it, feel free to do so.