User blog:SilverHexxitFights/How I define characters

I kind of have my own system for defining characters. It's reliant on the character's personality and details what kind of weapons, tactics and  skills they use.

I'll demonstrate on a character of mine... let's say Stryker, since he's fictional.

Stryker's smart and experienced, dead-on every time. This accuracy and experience makes him dead-on to be a master of ranged combat, since ranged weapons are generally the hardest to master (accuracy, practice and steadiness are all a big part of it). His name - Stryker - reflects powerful, spot-on... well, strikes. At the time I made him, I took all this for granted, but reading http://tvtropes.org gave me more basis as to why I did this.

Now, let's go for someone harder... let's say Silver, the one in Into the Badlands.

Silver's a stalwart warrior, pretty much your run-of-the-mill melee guy. While he doesn't specialize in any type of precision or experience, he can hit hard and take the hits too. While not exactly a tank, Silver is a highly skilled fighter (this comes from his background in Hexxit, where anyone is going to need a fair amount of skill to survive). He's bulky, but not built like a tank, so he's not exclusively heavy weapons; you'll notice he doesn't carry a warhammer. However, a battleaxe isn't out of the question.

Silver relies on not being hit too often, but if he is hit, he can take a sizable amount of damage before he falls. He's a general warrior, and likes to ad-lib his fighting styles; he's not particularly bright, and isn't good at planning.

Contrast to Gray (the actual person). I've made up a character design for him, and modified it strongly to create the Gray that appeared in Terraria Story 2.

Gray's stalwart, powerful and fast, but he's not much in the business of getting hit. He's the type that can run three circles around you, leave a dust trail, and wait as the camera pans in on you falling to bits. While he'll run if he's alone, he'll fight to the last breath to defend his friends, often resulting in some spectacular death scenes.

Gray's smart, experienced and powerful enough to handle most weapons I give to him, particularly magic weapons. About the only thing he can't handle are very heavy melee weapons, anything from a broadsword up (since broadswords are often the most popular style of weapon to give to a hero, I generally must implement a character that uses one to back up Gray). This presents a slight problem in writing Terraria and Hexxit, as most of the serious melee weapons are broadswords or powerful. This is why I made Gray's weapon of choice a Longsword; while it can cause serious damage, it is also light and easy to wield, as well as having lunging capabilities quite good for a speedster like Gray.

I also reviewed several other weapons while formulating Gray as a character: I ditched them all. The rapier, while possibly the speediest melee weapon around, is no hard hitter by any means, and the most important part of Gray is that he hits like a bolt of lightning on steroids.
 * Rapier (from Tinker's Construct in Hexxit)
 * Tomahawk (modification of a battleaxe, which is beyond Gray's speedy style)
 * Broadsword (conventional medieval melee weapon)
 * Scythe (fitting of his rather dark personality and humor)
 * Longbow (perfect for Gray's ranged style)

The tomahawk is primarily a ranged weapon, and having a large, blunt axehead really does not go well with Gray's speedster style, even if it is on a light throwing axe. Gray's not as good ranged. He also has no tribal connections (the tomahawk is customarily associated with American Indians).

A broadsword, while a customary hero weapon and generally all-purpose, is actually to heavy for Gray to achieve his full capabilities. A claymore is even beyond this.

Note that I considered a saber as well due to its lighter weight (see Chlorophyte Saber), but ditched it due to its distinctly un-hero-like reputation (most frequently wielded by pirates, nomads and cutthroats).

While a scythe would fit Gray's dark humor at times, it is a weapon more for someone truly evil than a sometimes-crabby jerk. He's also not a farmer, unless you count his partially-fabricated background in Terraria Story 2.

A longbow gives Gray powerful ranged capabilities, though its draw strength is usually more than 80 pounds (though strength is not usually associated with bows, and as such not as big an element here). He's not the kind of person who likes to get in a fray and get hit, so it's generally very good for him. However, he dislikes "camping" in most games, and enjoys getting up and close to enemies (though not too close). A longbow, or anything requiring slow aiming, is very against Gray's style, and allows him to be hit. And we can't have that!

Overall, a character's weapon choice is very, very important to the air they give off and as such is a critical element in stories, especially half- or all-fighting stories. A staff-wielding character might be a monk (if it's a melee staff), or a battleaxe-wielder might be a proud warrior of great noble ancestry (like Tolkien's dwarves). A broadsword is a customary weapon for a hero, and a flail or mace radiates a powerful evil and is often found in the hands of black knights, where the high skill level needed for them is necessary to increase the character's evil aura, and the devastation possible with these chain weapons is needed.

See? Weapon choice is essential to writing. I encourage you to think hard and long about the weapons your character has.