Posts
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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