On Being Flexible

Remember a few days ago, when I blogged about Building Character and how we can, within certain limits, make ourselves however we want to be? Well, those limitations might be more limiting than I let on. I spoke about being able to develop certain skills and abilities, and I stand by that, to a certain extent. We can become proficient in almost any skill we practice. However, I neglected to consider how our Ability Scores and other mostly immutable traits can limit our ability to do certain things well. A paraplegic, for example, can possess great Strength and proficiency in Athletics, but that won't help them run a marathon well, unless they're allowed to "run" it in a wheelchair. There are times when we, like Mike in Monsters University, need to recognize that there are certain limitations that no amount of skill or practice could overcome. Yet, we can often find ways around them.

I'm currently creating a D&D character named Mialee Yaeldrin, the daughter of Erevan Yaeldrin, a character I ran in a previous game. Mialee wasn't born with the natural talent that her father had, so she can't follow the same path of heroism he did. Nor does she have the strength to wield most weapons or wear heavy armor, so she can't pursue heroism the same way normal, non-magical people do, either. Instead, her talents lie elsewhere, allowing her to tap into a different kind of magic and become a different kind of hero. She can still be a hero; she just needed to find a path to heroism that played to her strengths and circumvented her weaknesses.

We often need to do something similar. We often hit certain limits or weaknesses, and we need to find clever ways to get around them. We can still pursue the same goals, but our pursuit of those goals may take a different form than we might expect. A person who is unable to learn the piano can still become a musician by practicing a different instrument. A monster who isn't scary can still be part of the scaring industry by teaching other monsters how to be scarier. And a character who cannot become a Paladin / Celestial Warlock / Divine Soul Sorcerer can still be practice heroism by becoming a Cleric.

There are limits to what we can and can't do, but if we're clever enough and flexible enough, we can often find other ways around them.