Play Your Character Sheet - a question of interpretation

[CrimsonMist]

My character Maire Whitecrest (changed to prevent confusion with Ium's Moire) is a lvl 7 untaken initiate of the Church of Umberlee.

I've been playing her as a lvl7 cleric who currently can't cast spells, turn undead or do anything that she might ostensibly need to be an initiated cleric of the Sea Queen to do.

While this technically isn't playing my character sheet, I'm not doing anything my character wouldn't be able to do. I suppose in pure PnP terms she'd be a commoner so I'm benefiting in terms of proficiencies, hit dice and BAB but we don't have the NPC classes here sadly...

Also, is it appropriate for me to OOC pick feats for the build that I "can't use" - she currently has Practiced Spellcaster, Extend Spell, and Divine Spellpower even though IC she doesn't know how to cast anything yet?

[flipside43]

That's a bit of a tough call. Clerics rely on some sort of spellbook I believe so if you RP that your character hasn't learned those prayers and kept your spellbook blank, I think that would be fine.

The other option really is to not level until you are satisfied your character has enough RP experience to provide it. With 100% RCR right now you can sweep easily back down to 1. I don't know what you took at first level but it might minimize your concerns. I am not sure how this might affect your XP gain from RP though.

Honestly, personally, if you are limiting yourself I don't think it's a huge deal. It's generally in the other direction, taking liberties your character cannot do, that becomes an issue.

[Aeb Ankor]

There is talk of adding Commoner/ Expert type character class in the future.

I have tried several times and was always disappointed...

Best I could do was a low physical stat Fighter (no spells, no supernatural powers) then always choose the least effective feat, even then you are forced to take some extraordinary fighter oly feats by epics.

Link:
http://nwn2db.com/build/?268981

[Valefort]

Doing that Commoner class.

Following this :

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/npcClasses/commoner.htm

And otherwise giving you a feat allowing you to lower your ability scores (so pick well at start ! You can only go down).

What kind of handicap feats would be interesting ? Slow (70% normal speed for example) ? Weak against disease ? One-eyed (penalty to spot) ? What else ?