Sunday, June 30, 2019

Dungeons and Dragons, "Character Ideas" episode 6


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?
            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.  For these two I decided to make a pair of Orcs that are not typical to what people think of as Orcs.

Name: Strathuz
Class: Cleric
Race: Orc/Half-Orc
Background: Hermit
History: “There is no God, but God.  And he is such a prick.”
Orcs have found themselves in conflict with the other intelligent races of the world for… always.  And in spite of what you have heard there are some legitimate reasons for this.  For instance, you all won’t stop praying.
It is undeniable that the divine which rules our universe is just the worst.  How can anyone justify the universe being such a brutal, random, and cruel place and claim that the creator of such things is not an asshole?  Elves believe they are the chosen people because their “God” made them beautiful… while ignoring that their race is split between the supposedly good light-skinned and supposedly evil dark-skinned breeds that are locked in mortal combat… and they blame it on the gods.  Some days it feels like I am taking crazy pills.
The Orcs know the real score.  Our universe is the product of an evil or deluded or just insane mind.  There are some prophets who claim that God is merely an idiot, but I give God no such credit.


Goals: It is time for me to come out of my long-spent isolation, where I contemplated the nature of the divine, and spread the word of my faith with my new insights and candor.  I am on a crusade in three parts, first to destroy the most vile of cults who would use religion as an excuse to propagate war, second I will challenge those tyrannical governments that claim their rule is a gift from the divine, and last, I shall refute the religious doctrine that makes people complacent to God.
Too many people who follow a faith are led into the afterlife like lambs into the mouth of a great wolf, I shall spur people to throw off the false dogma of trusting in the divine, and instead tell them to train themselves to defy God, to harder their minds and hearts for when they reach the afterlife they will have the fortitude to punch that fucker right in its fat gob!

Methods: Strathuz is a Cleric who believes that there is only 1 God, and that God is evil.  His divine powers come not from God granting them to Stathuz, but from Strathuz stealing power from God with the strength of his hardened heart and mind.  Strathuz uses the War domain, channeling his contempt for the divine and those that follow the divine into magical boons.
            The emphasis in on destroying any sight used for veneration, not just those of evil people.  If he is brought into conflict with a temple or church of a good deity he will not hesitate to oppose them, and will point to the conflict as evidence of the temples acting in ways that are contradictory or harmful (there is a lack of self-awareness here, the issue of thinking oneself absolutely right means that you see anybody who disagrees as being inherently wrong… and then using some poor reasoning will transfer that wrongness to that person’s advertised belief system).

Rating: 3/5
The inspiration for Strathuz is a continuation of my previous blog on the religion of Orcs.  That they are monotheists that believe the 1 true God is evil, and they oppose that God’s will on earth whenever possible.  This is a concept that is SORT OF explored in the Planeshift setting.  I could see Strathuz being a fan of the Lady of Pain and other powerful beings who are ostensibly in conflict with the gods’ plans.
The idea of an anti-cleric stealing magic from the gods has also appeared the Ur-Priest from 3rd editions “Book of Vile Darkness” and the Ur-Priest sort of fits the “Hermit” background.  Ur-priests rarely congregate, which is largely due to the fact that any gathering could attract unwanted and possibly lethal attention from the gods. They are frequently solitary, in fact, though they often find partnerships with other classes useful. And for obvious reasons, they rarely associate with other divine spellcasters, who see them as abominations of the highest order.

            However, while I have some clear influences within DnD and history with the ideas behind Strathuz via my own writing, there are reasons I think he is not as good as he could have been.  I often find it difficult to use the Hermit background.  In general, loner types are difficult to include in team game like Dungeons and Dragons, and being someone who has spent so much time in isolation that it is your backstory… Well, you kind of have to justify why you are no longer in isolation.
            The best I could come up with for Strathuz to not be a hermit is that he was in a self-imposed religious retreat to harden himself for a crusade.  It is a generalized call to action, very easy for the DM to give out a quest, lots of potential enemies, Kuo Toa are the easiest guys to pick on for this, their whole deal is creating weird cults to fake gods.  But at the same time, there is a lot of potential for the DM to have “Good” guys come into conflict with Strathuz for doing questionable things.
Here is a possible adventure that Strathuz could pull the party into: a church is offering aid in the wake of a natural disaster, but only to people who convert to their faith.  This conversion will include a pledge of service and conscription in a coming religious conflict with another temple.  This is immoral, even if the coming crusade is against a temple of Bane, Vecna, or another evil god.  Beyond that, the idea of a “natural” disaster being used as a recruiting tool adds to the, “God is cruel” idea.
There have been anti-religious movements in the real world of various flavors.  The Cult of Reason comes to mind (mostly because there was a pair of videos on the French Revolution on Over Simplified History recently and those are a scream).  But there are other movements like, the Iconoclastic fever which led to all the churches in the Netherlands having their statues crushed and stained-glass windows smashed out.
The potential for moral grey areas and the seemingly infinite number of evil gods oriented bad guys would allow for Strathuz to have lots of opportunities for adventures.  So many opportunities for adventure that he could pull the campaign in a coherent narrative direction.  This long-term potential makes him a good character in spite of the limitations I feel the Hermit background puts on him (and puts on all characters really).


Name: Talib the Student
Class: Barbarian
Race: Orc/Half-Orc
Background: Sage
History: Nothing makes a person angrier than knowing lots of things about the state of the world.  I know, because I am very knowledgeable and very angry.
            My people have been characterized as uncultured monsters for too long.  We are seen entirely in the context of being bandits, squatters, and raiders.  The idea that my entire race could be so characterized based on… what?  The testimony of brutal mercenaries?  Everyday my people are killed by knights and wizards seeking to make the land “safe” from us!
            I have traveled the land gathering stories of brutal conflicts against my people and our allies with the dubious claim that we were somehow trespassing in the lands where we were attacked.  Upon further research the only claim on that land is by the warlord ancestors of humans and elves who think that just because their current king claims fealty over an area then my people must be denied entrance!  Why are they allowed to bar us entry?  Who are they to make claim on the forests and rivers!

            I have found archaeological evidence to suggest my people lived in numerous areas as nomadic bands and in small villages for generations before being driven off by the brutal and violent actions of men and elves.  We are owed the use of that land just as much or more than those who try to drive us off.  Our freedom to move and live thru territories peacefully must not be infringed.  We deserve to build our camps and our houses in the lands of our ancestors.

Goals: With the records and evidence I have gathered, siege will be laid on the minds of all the thinking races of the continent!  And should the light of reason not illuminate their sense of decency then I shall bash their brains from their skulls!
            Ethnic violence has no place in this world, and I will fight to end its continued use against my people!

Methods: For the first time in this series of blogs I will be referencing “Xanathar’s Guide to Everything” as I think that the best fit thematically for this combo is the “Ancestral Guardian”.  The idea that the Sage is knowledgeable of a heritage that is being erased so as to paint his culture as savage and the response to this is anger makes sense.
            Beyond that, the idea of “Consulting the Ancestors” with some deviation abilities fits a character that emphasizes learning.  The idea that Talib’s “Sage-ness” is his ability to listen to ancestral spirits and thus he is less the Sage and more “The Student” hence the name also adds another level to it.
You could also look at the idea that he may not entirely understand what he is fighting for.  That while Talib thinks his people are being unfairly oppressed and he is mad about it, that he might not have an end goal beyond punching people who disagree until there aren’t any left.


Rating: 2/5
            This is one I really had trouble with as I consider the Sage and Barbarian to be nearly antithetical.  Keep in mind, the whole concept of Barbarian is a stereotype used to dehumanize foreigners.  They are uncivilized, and that means whatever it needs to in order to make fearing and killing them easier.
            By contrast, a Sage is the pinnacle of civilization.  Having knowledge that could only exist in a society with the resources to gather that knowledge together and have a person whose defining characteristic is knowing stuff.
            So, when making a character with these two diametrically opposed ideas you have to deconstruct the archetype embodied by the words themselves.  I could only think of two ways to go about that.
            The first idea was the Incredible Hulk.  A scholar who is the embodiment of knowledge warped by a product of that knowledge and turned into a rage monster.  The idea there was to have someone who was a Sage in some kind of capacity but was driven to a form of madness by learning something not meant to be known… And… That would kind of work…
But, the idea of the Hulk in this way felt more like a Warlock tho… And looking at the current run of “The Immortal Hulk” with the Green Door in Bruce Banner’s mind… Well, he is starting to look more like a Warlock too.  So, I decided to kick that idea down the road a bit.  If you are reading this and thinking that you want to make that character, please do, and post a link to it below.


            The other side is what I went with.  That the idea of a barbarian is not from a primitive culture, instead plays on the root of the word “Barbarian” which refers to ancient Greeks thinking that foreign languages all sounded like “bar-bar-bar” in a sort of racist cartoon.
            I decided to run with the idea of a character that was foreign, from a race that was considered Barbaric but was a learned member of that society… But was still all about getting angry and punching things… because he is mad about stereotyping?  I guess.  Look, I set out to make pairings and oftentimes they just go together like orange juice and gravel.
            I am grading myself on a curve.  By all means do a better job of trying to buckle these two ideas together.

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 at some point), my Dwarves, or my Kobolds.
Otherwise, Have Fun.


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