Sunday, February 24, 2019

Dungeons and Dragons, "Character Ideas" episode 5


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?
            Good Heavens, it has been 11 months since I last wrote up one of these entries.  Maybe it has something to do with my full time job and that this entry was so large and themed that it always seemed just a bit too big to get done.  Whatever, it is hard to be creative sometimes... sometimes for a long time.  On to the subject.
            I recommend as a DM, that if you have the luxury of having your players making characters as a group, picking a theme of 1-5 words to serve as an inspiration seems like a good idea.
What is the theme?  I decided to make this an all Acolyte section.  I invented a fantasy religion (not atypical for DnD, you can read it here) called “The Five” based on Mother Nature, Father Time, the Hero with a Thousand Faces, the Ladies Fate, and the Grim Reaper.  To fully explore this religion, I decided to make this full 5 guy adventuring party, each member is an Exemplar of one of The Five.  Even though The Five are all worshiped as one pantheon unit, some choose to emphasize one aspect over the others.  The real strange part about this, no Clerics.

This is a good image.
Name: Tet the Firebrand, Acolyte of Heroes
Class: Bard (Valor)
Race: Dragonborn (Red)
Background: Acolyte
History: My clan was a race of nomads journeying thru the mountains, but when a flash flood obliterated them and left me the lone survivor.  Now I wander the world telling tales of my sad origins, my great deeds, and how my faith in the god of heroes inspired me.
Goals: My world is on fire and it is the job of people like me to fight fire with fire.  While I may come from a people with the look of great and terrible monsters, I wish not to inspire fear but to inspire hope and love.  I want those around me to look to the future where the conflagrations that surround us now have dimmed to candle and hearth around which the children of those who triumphed gather to hear stories of this age of glory.
Methods: I went with the tired cliché of a dead clan… OR DID I.  I wrote this character as a blowhard who is out to play the hero.  I would like this character to work with the DM to have two twists associated with it, without those twists it is a rather lame and thin setup.
            Twist 1, the clan is not dead.  There was no flash flood, the character just left the clan to go play hero to indulge their glory seeking mindset.  Twist 2, the clan is EVIL and is planning to go to war once they do something BIG, this could serve as a multi-session adventure that culminates in a choice for Tet’s player.  Try to be a hero by negotiating his people away from a brutal conflict (as a charismatic bard such negotiations are to be expected) or help the characters defeat the evil and be a hero like they always wanted but by bringing the destruction to his people he always claimed had already happened due to natural disaster.
            In regard to heroism, having the character use Bardic abilities in the Valor school means leading from the front in medium armor and passing around buffs when not breathing fire.  A big flashy character who shouts things like,"Come on you apes!?  You want to live forever!?" What I am saying is to play it like Michael Ironsides.

I just like this image from "Scanners".
Rating: 4/5 with twists; without twists 2/5
            This is inspired by a misconception I had about the super powers of a DC character named “Firebrand”.  The idea I had was that he not only had fire powers but also had an aura around him that caused his allies to feel more driven to do good.  Making them braver, more cunning, and more capable of making the “right” decision.  Turns out he just had fire powers.  Which makes a scene in which Uncle Sam says something to the effect of, “you’ll be my Firebrand” significantly less meaningful.
            I feel that the twists are a big part of what makes the character work from a story perspective.  Without them the character is just a bog standard big and loud fire themed character without any sort of ironic subversion.  I would encourage these sort of story ideas for players, as TO ME, AS A DM, this takes some of the weight of writing the game’s story off.  They provide enough framing and motivation for multiple sessions and can result in characters having interesting payoffs.  These things make for more interesting roleplaying.

This guy has some great art.
Name: Emanon, Acolyte of Time
Class: Monk (Open Hand)
Race: Halfling (Stout)
Background: Acolyte
History: What is history?  It is the attempt of those in the now to make sense of the world around them by assigning a narrative element to that which they were not there for.  They do this by observing the world around them for clues and using those clues to regress in their minds eye the world around them, creating scenarios to explain those elements, eliminating possibilities that seem too far fetched or strange to fit into a clean and clear story.
            This method is a good one.  Understanding how things might have happened helps someone to understand how things might proceed from this point.  I have spent a great deal of time, thinking about history.  Observing the natural world and the people in it.  Looking back thru their habits, possessions, and demeanor to construct a narrative for them.  I then forget it and do it again.  Forget and repeat.  Hundreds of times I look into the past, run the sand thru the glass, and turn it over once more.
Goals: I want to run the sand back up thru the glass.  I have dwelt heavily on the topic, and I think I can do it.  In small amounts I can rewind time, slow it down, and then move thru it faster.  I can go back, I can do it right this time.  I can then go home and go back, so I won’t have to apologize.
Methods: I think that manipulation of time and awareness of time is one of the best ways to explain several monk abilities: slow fall, faster movement speed, and deflecting ranged projectiles.  The Wholeness of Body and Tranquility abilities afforded by the Way of the Open Hand also could be seen as experiencing time at different rates.
            The Halfling luck ability can fit with this too, as it allows for a minor regression of time to try something again.  If I were to suggest some feats to fit this character, it would be Alertness and Lucky.  Allowing for a level of supernatural awareness of time and the ability to slightly rewind and manipulate it.
Rating: 5/5
            I think this is an ideal blend of rules and theme.  I think that there is enough shadowy motivation and cosmic weirdness to allow for character growth and hints at bigger elements as manipulating time upsets things like the Inevitables.
            This guy was inspired by a scene from “Earthbound” in which the tiny monk/ninja, Poo, meditates.  In so doing he is contacted by a celestial presence and is stripped of his senses and physicality to exist in a timeless void.  He is a halfling to simulate the diminutive stature of Poo, who is a child in “Earthbound”.
"Earthbound" also has a lot of Time Travel.
It also has a lot of good fan art.
            This also ties into the magic-fu present in “Doctor Strange” which (and you may have missed it) had a lot to do with the presence of TIME.  There is also “The Matrix” which blended martial arts and time manipulation like chocolate and peanut butter.
            The ultimate goal of “Going home without having to say sorry” is something that can be decided on as the game goes on.  The player can drop hints at having done something awful that they do not want to face but does want to undo.  A character arc of coming to peace with what they did, either by facing it down or moving beyond it could serve as a story element for the character gaining greater and greater control of there powers, “Stop living in the past, free your mind, and be something more than a person rewinding and reliving a mistake in their own mind.”

 
I like this mushroom cap idea, same with the snail on the staff.
This is cute.
Name: Dominic Bill Thomason, Acolyte of Nature
Class: Druid (Circle of the Land- Forrest)
Race: Gnome (Forest)
Background: Acolyte
History: I fancy myself a casual expert on all things to be found in the woods of the world.  Talking to the trees and the creatures to learn their paths and cozy nooks and crannies to wander thru, under, and into.  I am tied to the natural world and seek to share it thru poems that I tell those I help thru the forest.
Goals: I have heard of several distant forests that are in a state of decay due to various tree related diseases.  I would like to journey to each of these and spend time constructing druidic circles to help with the channeling of magical energies and combat the spread of such diseases.
Methods: The emphasis here is on being a healer that mildly disrupts the enemy and focuses instead on dealing with environmental issues.  Locate spells, Protection spells, and utility spells like Speak with Plants.
Rating: 1/5
            Woah, hold on a minute… A DRUID being all about NATURE?  Gee this seems exceptionally trite.  It is.
            Honestly, nature is one of the easiest things to exemplify in the game as Druids, Barbarians, Rangers, and the Oath of Ancients for the Paladin all fit this theme just fine.  My options for this one is binary between “Obvious” and “Disjointed”.
            Beyond that, fantasy in general has always had a nature vs civilization and a lot of it comes down hard on the side of nature, Elves and Gnomes both fit the trope of noble nature loving race… while paradoxically being the most likely to fit into the Wizard class, which is all kinds of civilization.
            In my opinion it is hard to find a fresh take on the, “I like nature” character, this is an attempt at it, but even I will admit that there was no creative spark when I hammered this one out.  Even his name is my brain warping beyond recognition Tom Bombadil of which he is a pastiche of (and I hate that character).

Look at this jerk off.
            Dominic is much more about cultivating life rather than combat.  This is a difficult thing to play in a game that emphasizes combat, but it is the only thing that puts this character off the typical path.  It is something to work with tho.  Having a character grow more violent and wrathful as the game goes on and goals changing toward tooth-and-claw nature is a potential character arc.

This art is great, and I think that more skin colors should be used for Tieflings.
I had an NPC Tiefling that had pale white skin with prominent white veins, good image.

Name: Melech the Precise, Acolyte of Fate
Class: Fighter (Battle Master)
Race: Tiefling
Background: Acolyte
History: I have always had a way with people.  Making sure they did what was best for them, helping them get on the right track and find what was right for them.  Not everyone knows what is best for them and it is up to those of us with the mind to play the long game to help them plan things out with simple plans and achievable goals.  I like the idea of fate, but people need help finding where their destiny lies.
            Just imagine how many kingdoms have fallen because the chosen one thought his destiny was to farm beats or run for mayor.  Just think of how many noble souls would have rotted away never realizing their full potential without some wiser hand guiding them.  Grab your pack and take my hand, I will be your guide as we go on your wild adventure.
Goals: It is my belief that I am a facilitator.  I help other people get to where they need to be.  Sometimes I am a bodyguard, or a teacher, and sometimes I just draw them a map if I know the way.  “Fate takes a hand” can be literal, reaching into a river to pull someone from the current, helping someone up off the mat during practice, or maybe it requires cutting off the hand of someone who would have taken something that someone else needs.
Methods: I think that the Battle Master’s Maneuvers fit thematically with the idea of Fate lining things up. The Feinting and Goading abilities somewhat, but the Maneuvering Attack is especially where I think this works as it helps with positioning someone else to take action.
Rating: 2/5
            While I think the Tiefling = Fire would more push the race toward the Thousand Faced Hero, same with the fire breathing dragonborn above, for whatever reason I brain thought of putting the vaguely demonic character in the role of Fate.
            The idea of pushing people to be in the right place at the right time as part of a scheme seems like the darker side of “destiny” in fantasy fiction and something I would more associate with evil machinations than divine providence.  But then showing that while the character is manipulative, they see themselves as helpful, in a sense having a bit of the Varys or Jon Connington from a “Song of Ice and Fire”.  That while they are manipulative, it is because they are trying to push someone with a big destiny into a role they need to be in, and to make them ready for that role.


            This is a stretch, that I think uses a clever theme merging with the rules, but I am unsure how obvious that theme would be and whether that theme would come thru in the use o the rules.  It makes sense, but I think it lacks a certain “Neat” factor.
            Beyond that I couldn’t think of a way to incorporate the number 3 or the idea of water (both things I assigned to the Ladies of Fate) into the final build.  The idea is there, but I am not able to fully realize it.

I like the darkness around the hand.  Looks flowing in a cool way.

Name: Tepheroth the Grim, Acolyte of Death
Class: Wizard (Necromancer)
Race: Elf (High)
Background: Acolyte
History: When I was younger, I suffered a near death injury.  I was struck in the face by a horse hoof and blacked out for more than a day.  After waking up I was informed that I was suffering from a form of facial palsy and was no longer able to express emotions of any kind.
            My community found the condition unnerving and alienating.  I was ostracized when healers claimed that they had cured all the damage to my body and that I was, “Pretending”.  Why I would pretend was anyone’s guess, and they did guess.  After being called a liar and attention seeker for too long I left to go on a spiritual journey.
            I arrived at a chapel of the Five and for a decade worked on their grounds in exchange for lodging and use of their library.  It was there that I found kinship with the Grim Reaper.  The unchanging visage of a skull mimicking my own inability to express.  The fairness of death.  The indifference to all things.
            I turned to studying death in an academic sense.  The magic of necromancy allowing me to understand the inner workings of form and function better than I could have ever hoped.
Goals: Some would describe me as having a “Death Wish”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  My life is to explore and understand the world knowing that death is inevitable and impartial.  I will one day go to my death and will probably never realize when it comes, and I will great it as I have greeted all things, with a blank expression.
Methods: I am not normally one to say, “Ask the DM if…” but I think that the character story of near-death experience could be used to justify getting Spare the Dying as the free cantrip a high elf receives at first level.  While Spare the Dying is a cleric spell and not a wizard spell (oh no!  We are bending the rules!) it fits a lot better with the character’s history and motivation than Chill Touch does.
            As Tepheroth is more academic, utilizing Divination spells as a secondary focus makes sense.  Utilizing True Strike to line up attacks shows a cold deliberateness to her actions, if the DM doesn’t allow for the Spare the Dying variation, instead go for True Strike.
Rating: 4/5
            This was inspired by a character in my campaign setting, Claudius the Grim Necromancer, with “Grim” being a title denoting him being the head of his order, aka the Militant Mourners.  I did not however just take him over completely because the point of this whole series is to stretch a little creatively.
            The creative stretch came by making her a High Elf, definitely a curve ball for an elf to be a necromancer… Unless you are one of the few people in existence who remember the collectible card game, “Warlord”.  In that game’s setting the elves were short lived, sometimes only aging up to 10-12 years, being the product of mercurial nature magic.  The elves not wanting to extend their lives began practicing necromancy and becoming one of the primary antagonists in the setting.


            This all twisted into an idea of a long lived High Elf in the regular sense of Dungeons and Dragons still seeing centuries of life as not being enough.  Wanting to understand death on a spiritual level and ultimately seeing it not as something to circumvent in a literal sense, but in the sense that she does not see death as something to be feared.


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).  Otherwise, Have Fun.


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