Describing me in DnD's terms

Back in 2009 I ran into an internet questionaire whose aim is to characterise the subject in the terms used for describing characters in the game Dungeons and Dragons (a.k.a. DnD). At the time, I wrote about the results I obtained; subsequently, I've revisited the subject (because it amuses me). As the original recedes further into the past, it gets to seem less appropriate to update a though-of-the-moment page, so I've since moved the discussion here, where I feel it's more appropriate to materially revise pages over time. This page deals with variation in the results; another explores more details of the first results I got.

Variability

Here's a table of the results I've obtained on the various time I've taken that test:

As I noted when first playing with the form, a little wilful humility made a significant difference to the results; so naturally I take some interest in how sensitive the form is to variation in how I answer the questions. After all, many of the questions are somewhat contrived (i.e. they don't realistically relate to life as I experience it, obliging me to deal with implausible counterfactuals) and, in many cases, none of the answers offered comes close to what I would answer for myself. So it's natural to expect significant variation in how I interpret the questions and resolve the problem of chosing the least bad answers; which shall, naturally, lead to variability in the form's conclusions. I also have some reservations about how it turns its details into final conclusions.

Notes on each re-try

For some comments on variations the first day I tried this, see the original page.

Spring 2010

Coming back to the test four months later and dealing differently with the assorted false dichotomies and questions where none of the answers are apt for me, I came out as a lawful neutral human druid/sorcerer (4th/3rd) with Str=12, Dex=13, Con=11, Int=14, Wis=13 and Cha=11. On the lawful-chaotic axis, I'm fairly evenly spread; reading the one point difference favouring lawful as truly making me lawful seems inappropriate when both neutral and chaotic are only one point behind; I'd read the same details as indicating neutral on this – a fairly clear example of balance. For good/evil, I'm tied between good and neutral with evil at zero; so, likewise, the form's neutral conclusion seems inappropriate; at the very least, I obviously lean towards good. So I'd read the form's own detailed answers as putting me on true neutral or neutral-good, not lawful-neutral. As before, on race, halfling is just one point behind human, with elf close behind. The change in class is interesting; sorcerer and druid both get six points, with fighter, monk, ranger and wizard all on two and everything else negative. A few hours later, deliberately chosing the other answer wherever I'd previously considered two roughly well-matching (or, at least, not so poorly matching as the others), I emerged as a lawful good human ranger/sorcerer (4th/3rd) with Str=13, Dex=16, Con=11, Int=16, Wis=13 and Cha=16; again, I read the alignment details as favouring neutral good, but at least this time it agreed with me on good. Elf, halfling and half-elf all tied for second place, on ten points, behind human on thirteen. For class, ranger and sorcerer tied with a mere four points each; next, on two points, were fighter, monk, wizard and even paladin. Druid has dropped to −17, but I've now read enough of the site's FAQ to recognise this as including a −21 penalty for not matching alignment; with my reading of alignment as neutral good, it would thus also have had four points, tying with ranger and sorcerer; the same adjustment would also wipe out paladin and monk. Indeed, a little gentle nudging of some ambivalent answers away from lawful then turned me into a neutral good human druid (7th level), with elf and halfling tied on twelve points, barely behind human on thirteen; ranger and sorcerer are still on 4, with fighter and wizard on two; all other classes had negative scores.

So, in autumn I was a wizard/sorcerer; in spring I'm a druid or a ranger/sorcerer. Despite being tall, I'm almost a halfling.

Summer 2011

A year and a third later, having another go, I see fighter, sorcerer and druid all scoring four; ranger and wizard each score zero while all others are negative. Initially, I was listed as Fighter/4, Sorcerer/3 but minor tweaking turned Sorcerer into Druid. As ever, the initial alignment matched Good and Neutral equally well, with Evil ruled out entirely; while chaos is only one point behind lawful and neutral on its axis; so Neutral Good would likely be a more accurate description. This time, Elf is only one point behind Human, with Halfling lagging by another two. The tweaking towards Druid strengthened Neutral relative to Lawful (still one point ahead of Chaotic) and put Good behind Neutral by a point. Sorcerer dropped from four (where fighter and druid stayed) to two, meeting ranger on its way up; and halfling fell further behind (unchanged) elf and human. Toggling 81, from doing to studying, pushed Sorcerer down to zero and pulled Wizard up to two, with no other difference; undoing some of the earlier tweaking and tweaking some other details made chaotic and neutral equal but one point ahead of lawful; Elf remained one point behind Human, Halfling three behind Elf and several others one behind that.

So, for some reason, I seem to be coming up consistently fighter now, with Druid as secondary more often than not; and my halfling tendencies have given way to elven ones.

Written by Eddy.