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Ideas for Future Characters
A while
back I
wrote up some short biographies for characters I thought about using in a 5th
edition game of Dungeons and Dragons.
While I ended up using only one of them and have since moved on to
running a game rather than playing in one.
However, and let’s be honest here, the most fun there is in Dungeons and
Dragons is making a character.
Since I
like doing it, I figured I would make a chart in Excel and start checking off
class/background combinations, by the end of this writing exercise I will have 156-character
ideas. I have decided not to include
races, sub races, sub classes, or the backgrounds
from supplemental materials. Just the
Players Handbook… FOR NOW.
For fun, I
will also give a numerical rating for whether I think something is
“Interesting”. There are characters that
are so common as to be arch typical or even cliché, but maybe there is a reason
they are so common, because they are just that intriguing. Feel free to disagree or offer your own suggestions
and objections in the comments.
If you
would like to share some of your own unused character ideas, do so in the
comments, maybe use this format (maybe get it to catch on, I like its
simplicity) and try and keep to a shorter length, you don’t want people to
“tldr” your stuff.
One more
thing worth mentioning, I will make an effort to include a variety of different
fantasy races in my character creation. I
have written before that I could run an entire fantasy world with just
humans and see most fantasy races as too bland to be seen as meaningfully
different from humanity (elves, to me, are too often played as just tall humans
with pointy ears). I also know that this
is not an opinion shared by most and I want to try and expand my own horizons.
What Have I Got?
That being said, there is no theme
for this one. I guess you could say, “Disconnected”
because each of these three characters has broken away from the world they knew
to pursue something to various levels.
I was also going to have 4
characters originally, each with a name starting with the letters “A, B, C, and
D”. I dropped that because this entry is
stupidly long at three entries. Ironic
because I started this project to make quick entries with a fast turnaround. HA!
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| This guy, Will O'Brien's DeviantArt Account is a great collection for potential character portraits. |
Name: Gaby Apple
Class: Sorcerer
Race: Halfling
(Lightfoot)
Background: Urchin
History: I don’t
know how old I am. That is perhaps
something most people take for granted.
I’ve met other people who don’t know how old they are, who grew up in
places like I did, in the ways I did. I
think sometimes about how I was allowed to run thru the orchards of my
hometown. About how many farmers just
saw me as the lost little girl that nobody knew where she came from. The little girl that got their pity and
generosity, but not their love.
I guess I was lucky for that at
least.
Goals: The dream
was how it started out. I am walking
between the trees on a clear and cool day.
I start to float. Gently off the
ground like a bubble. Then I woke up,
and I was drifting above the trees in the orchard I had fallen asleep in.
I don’t
know how I do this. I don’t even know
how to learn about it. I just know that
when I am floating it feels right. Like
I am supposed to be there, whether it is butterflies of glass fluttering around
me reflecting light like a church window.
Or the flickering of my skin changing colors. I float, and the magic floats with me.
Methods: This is
the Wild Magic path for the Sorcerer, I would place an emphasis on magic that
allows the character to move in a manner like floating (levitation, expeditious
retreat), be colorful (color spray, mirror image), and things that can be
conceptualized as looking like soap bubbles (acid splash, hypnotic pattern).
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| This is a character named "Apple" from a movie I liked. |
Rating: 2/5
Let’s not
mince words, sorcerer and urchin go together like bread sticks and a sauce you
dip breadsticks in. The basic premise
of, “I got mysterious superpowers and my family abandoned me” is most of X-Men
and a good bit of mythology/folklore.
Much like the combo of
Outlander/Barbarian from my last entry, the difficulty here is making the combo
not just boilerplate and trite. I think
I failed a bit on that one. The goals
are, “learn more about my magic powers” which is the minimum. Though I like the visual metaphor of a girl
without a family floating, she is unmoored, and the wild magic element allows
her to be something, literally unexpectable.
I should point on this character is
sort of based on the kid sidekick character I
put into my very short run of fantasy chapters I put on this blog (that
entry being kind of standalone and readable as a short story).
I also like the name “Apple” which
I liked hearing in the movie “Turbo Kid,”
a film that is far too good for this world.
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| This image is huge and part of a set of clips used for film making. |
Name: Donny the Courier
Class: Paladin
Race: Human
Background: Soldier
History: From
what I can tell, I was older when I got the message than most of my order ever
made it to be. Now I am older still.
I remember when I first joined the
army. I was fishing along a creek when
the army started walking by. Thump,
thump, thump, their boots clomped down the gravel road. Dust in the air and not one damn fish had bitten. They told me there was a war on, that killers
were coming and had already burned Baron Coy’s lands. They handed me a spear, a leather jerkin, and
strapped a helmet to my head. I was
off. Never did get that fishing pole
back.
I didn’t go home again. I lived thru the first battle, and we chased
them into the woods. Each battle I got a
new bit of armor, a shield, a hammer, then the hammer got dropped for a sword. I got a crossbow and learned to ride a
horse. Before I had noticed it had been
months, then years. We had hunted men,
then hunted wolves; we built bridges, then when built siege engines and took
them over the bridges. I have been a
soldier my whole life and I still couldn’t tell you the reason why I never just
went back home to finish fishing.
Goals: It was on
a cold morning when I walked out of camp to catch birds for lunch that I found the
message. Found him? Found her?
Found the bones. They was in a
breast plate and had a sword, and alongside it was a messengers’ tube. I read it of course, and all it said was,
“Protect the weak, promote the peace, guard yourself. Do not protect a weak leader, do not bear an unjust
peace, do not guard against the truth.” I
took it all as a sign, didn’t know what else to do with it. Had to be for me, right?
I took the message, took the equipment,
buried the bones, and left.
Methods: I would
suggest using the rules for the “Oath of Devotion” but substituting the words
found in the message case, “Protect the weak, promote the peace, guard
yourself. Do not protect a weak leader, do
not bear an unjust peace, do not guard against the truth” for the usual Oath. I would also rename the Oath to, “Oath of the
Message”.
I always
find it a bit strange to make low level characters with the background of “soldier”,
so I interpret Donny as getting older, falling out of practice with fighting in
favor of being more the diplomatic and peace seeking type. It is his hesitancy to use force that keeps
him from being a ruthless effective combatant, but as he grows more practiced
with staying his hand or following thru in a role where he has to use his own
judgement rather than relying on orders, then his attacks become surer.
His lack of hit points are
explained by his age, but the magical nature of faith making him more durable as
he grows in level balances out that roleplaying contrast.
Rating: 4/5
My big
problem here is much like Apple, a lack of goal. Getting away from a life of war and instead
trying to be something outside the role of a soldier is a vague goal, but it lacks
the strong (albeit cliché), “getting revenge on…”
I think
that seeking the origin of the paladin’s bones that he found and put him on his
quest would help a lot. Finding a tomb
where the Message from the courier tube is written on the walls or on a shield
and hinting that a long-lost order of knights is a cool idea. Maybe the order needs to be founded again,
and if Donny brings the message to those who need to hear it… Okay, I am liking
this a bit more.
This would
also allow the DM to introduce good NPC’s that want to help the players but are
not cut out for adventuring, Donny could then teach them a few things about
fighting, teach them the code, and then maybe give them some common armor and
weapons from the loot retrieved while on the adventure. Creating a loose and rough around the edges
order of would-be knights. It would also
allow the campaign setting to change in a meaningful way. With nameless NPC’s recognizing the good
deeds of Donny’s students.
And considering I got the name “Donny”
from “Don Quixote” that feels right.
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| Some stories feel spiritual in nature. |
On the
other end, the idea that the army he used to serve in might have suffered a
shattering defeat and now Donny has to deal with learning about his old friends
being dead or lost. On the opposite end,
the military he was in turning much eviler and Donny having to fight against
them to hold to his new moral compass as they start striking out at innocent
targets.
Okay, I’ve
talked myself into liking this character a lot.
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| I don't know what this image is from, or how ripped and eyes glowing I would make Bernie, but maybe at higher levels... |
Name: Bernard “Bernie”
Estaria
Class: Warlock
(Fiendish)
Race: Half Elf
Background: Noble
History: When I
was young I was seen as just some silly child.
I spent all my time reading adventure books, playing ring toss games,
and sneaking out to play in the woods.
One year there was a sudden
blizzard in early harvest season, I got caught in it while out hunting with my
cousins. Riley died, but Kenneth and I
made it back home. For days the snow was
either falling or the world was silent as the grave.
It was then that I got sick. Saw the visions.
She was so beautiful. She told me stories while holding me. She kept me warm.
I woke up when she said, “Come find
me.”
I learned later that the snow was
the work of some monster or demon that a group of Adventurers managed to defeat
with the help of the Rod of Seven Parts, hence the wind and cold. Even as life returned to normal, aside from
the near famine from all the crops ruined by the cold, I lingered on my
visions.
I had to find her.
I took to prayer, hoping the gods
could lend me some kind of help. I
changed my reading habits to those of great women from history, myth, and
distant lands trying to see if they felt like her. None of them did.
It took me months of sulking and
melancholy, my family thought I felt guilty about Riley dying in the storm… and
I did feel bad about that, but it was for the woman in my dreams that I
couldn’t shake my mood.
It was a year after the sickness
that heard her voice again. It was an
echo from deep in the wellhouse. It
said, “Come find me.”
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| "Come find me..." |
Goals: I am going
into the Underdark to find her. She is
already helping me.
Methods: This is left
totally open for picks of patron, though I tend to default to Fey, when I play
this later today I plan to make it a Demon because the DM is running “Out
of the Abyss” and I would like this guy to start out in the Dungeon having
gone into the Underdark looking for the Woman of his Dreams. I think that the reveal that she is actually
a demon (the DM can pick which one fits my character and the story best) that
has been pulling him down to help them escape.
Rating: 5/5
This is the
dozenth time I have played this sort of character, I wrote about previous
instances of Kimble and Malachite, but this is the first time I have put this sort
of tragic edge to it. Positioning the
character as in love with an idea, that love giving him drive to attain power,
and ultimately that love being aimed at totally the wrong type of person makes
sense.
I also think
the idea of someone giving up nobility for a life of adventure and the woman
that they love is the best kind of romantic ideal. One that we look up to even when Nazi sympathizers like Edward VIII do it.
The part
about the Rod of Seven Parts and the blizzard can be swapped for any
supernatural catastrophe that a previous module brought about but was thwarted
by player characters. It is a place
holder, and if your DM is not running a module like mine is, then it might
serve as a hint to the DM by the player to maybe throw one of those rod parts
into the mix, give the campaign something to quest for if he ever feels like, “I
am unsure where to go from here.” A side
gig that still feels important. I have
been in that position before, using my players as a source of inspiration has
led to several cool adventures.
I made him
a Half Elf, because I have an additional idea to make him think that his darker
complexion is because of elven heritage with Summer/Wild/Wood Elves (which I have
talked about before in the context of my “Painted
Elves”), but it might be revealed dramatically that he is actually part
Drow. SHOCKING! Or not.
The
inspiration of the Wellhouse element came from the Graphic Novel series “Locke
and Key” by Joe Hill. A series I
cannot recommend enough as it is gloriously imaginative and unflinching in its
brutal and often times scary content.
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| Seriously, I think it is all done now and collected in some great looking trades. |
Outro
What do you
all think? Do you have a request for a
class/background combo? Did you play one
of the combos I have featured and want to share your spin on it? Post in the comments.
Listed below are the past episodes
of this blog for your reading pleasure.
If you want to read more Dungeons and Dragons stuff from me, here is a
3-part diatribe on the Celestial Warlock from “Xanathar’s Guide to Everything”
(Part
1, Part
2, Part
3).
If you want to read about my world’s
version of Orcs
(I am giving this a sequel soon), my Dwarves,
or my Kobolds.
Otherwise, Have Fun.
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