You give up customization by joining a family but you gain a support structure along with a ready made social group.
That's the trade off. Either way you go you will still be able to train and learn any skill, raise your attributes to the same level. The min/maxer in me sees very little difference beyond the first couple of days of gameplay.
Malais hit on the major point, but one thing I'd like to add is it's highly dependent on if you are playing alone or with others, and are those others choosing ward or family. if they are choosing families and you can just marry in, you're all set. Ward is a great choice. If you are solo, or all talking about going ward, that's a major decision.
Personally, I prefer the stability of being born into a family.
But as the others have already said...it's a fairly balanced choice.
Knowing what I can do isn’t the same thing as knowing what I can’t do.
If you go ward, yes you can customise a lot more, but would miss out on:
*Family members on the same continent can send private messages to one another *Members can always sense that a family member has been slain and is Spirit Walking. *Members can find their way to a family members' body *Family members help increase each other life span by creating a reason to live *Line of succession as well as items naturally pass on to heirs when someone passes away *Family members automatically get keys to shared household resources and can access and process the land without breaking laws. *Family members can always see through disguises *Family impacts fame, which effects how much spirit you lose when Spirit Walking
So basically if you want to play as someone deviant being a ward is a good idea since you don't have be worried of your NPC family gossiping behind your back and getting your identity revealed. Being in a family helps socially which benefits if you play Economically or politically or someone similar.
Posted By vampsvzombies at 09:55 AM - Wed Apr 05 2017
If you go ward, yes you can customise a lot more, but would miss out on:
*Family members on the same continent can send private messages to one another *Members can always sense that a family member has been slain and is Spirit Walking. *Members can find their way to a family members' body *Family members help increase each other life span by creating a reason to live *Line of succession as well as items naturally pass on to heirs when someone passes away *Family members automatically get keys to shared household resources and can access and process the land without breaking laws. *Family members can always see through disguises *Family impacts fame, which effects how much spirit you lose when Spirit Walking
You don't lose out on having a family forever you just have to marry into an existing one. You really only lose out on having a room and a bundle of starting goods plus a little training in a skill your family is good in.
You can still marry into a family and have the rest of the benifits. So like I said above it's fairly balanced and really is more RP or aesthetic a choice than anything.
I tend to play mostly solo today, though I hope to change that with CoE. I am going the family route, however, not so much for that reason as for the additional story elements. If I create my own character from scratch, it will probably end up like my usual characters elsewhere in many respects. If I go with the family option, I may get some unexpected attributes, backstory, etc. that could open up new possibilities.
In other words, I look forward to not having complete control over my character's initial state. Kind of like letting the DM set certain elements in order to support the specific campaign.
