Character Flavors.


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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So, my question is, how do YOU make your characters unique? Is it some quirk in type of weapons used, an Archetype, how do you keep them from being generic, I've seen Alchemists making black powder bombs on this forum, Los Tiburon the Shark of the Land (monk/Luchadore)The orc hating/murdering half-orc paladin, and a cleric wielding a ring of maximize.

And one I intend to use the next time I decide to play an Alchemist, I intend to flavor it by incorporating star charts to align my alchemical ingredients for extracts and mutagens to gain the most power my greater alchemical creations.

What are your options, how do you make your character stand out from the crowd?


Chocolate Cream is definately the flavor that makes me unique.


I usually go for something like 'This is the common perception of this kind of character. Let's screw with that.'

Examples:
Wizards are nerds.
Alchemists are crazy.
Druids are hippies.
Barbarians are primitive.
Rogues are untrustworthy.
Clerics are healbots.
Monks are zen-spouting navel gazers.
Dwarves are drunks.
Elves are snotty treehuggers.

That's the kind of stuff I mess with.


Ha ha ha. Seriously? Smart ass.

Sorry that was to chocolate cream guy, I had two rogues I rather liked one of which did screw with the untrustworthy bit. This rogue was one who worshiped a nature god and very much believed in survival of the fittest, he took jobs and wanted money, sure, but you knew you could trust him up to one point, your death. Once the party was gone, he was out of there, and might rob your corpses, but he'd never betray you, never leave you for dead, etc, and he wouldn't let you bleed out, but once all was said and done, if you had died, it was over.

My other rogue was very much untrustworthy, but he wasn't a thief, he as a conman. Sadly, neither lasted long.

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I take inspiration from books, or just draw upon my own ridiculous thoughts.

I had a grippli character called Deepbelly, who was a prince among his people. The royalty demonstrates their right to rule by being able to consume the most food. He defeated his siblings in an eating contest to become first in line for the throne.

That probably tells you a lot about the sheltered society he came from and the naivete he carried.


Interesting, what class was he? Our grippli Rogue ended up getting eaten.


For me, a character's personality tends to emerge as I flesh out her backstory. I usually have it figured out before I ever finalize race, class, feats, and what-not. Sometimes it "stands out", and sometimes it doesn't. That's okay; this is the beginning of the character's story, not the middle of it (and hopefully not the end of it).


Seriously. Revenge is best served a la Mode.


Like Blaphers I try to develop a character out of their backstory. One PC years ago was a real stretch for me. As an adolescent guy I had to play out a female elf of a noble line. She was honorable and dutiful to her family and people, but at the same time the background I rolled indicated that she had little actual hope for title of her house.

So in a nutshell a spoiled, privileged elf fighter/magic user who craved attention but was on the outskirts of importance. Naturally she was a "bad girl".

She acted out, drank, swore, and flirted with all the boys (AWK-ward to roleplay). Then the DM had her father reign her in as part of the campaign story. She had a come-to Corellion-Larenthian, cleaned up and decided "If I'm just GOOD enough, daddy will LOVE me!" A tad simplistic sure, but fun to roleplay.

What'd I get for it? I had the freakin demon prince on the ropes and failed ONE saving throw... and fast-forwarded into the future 1000 years where my forest kingdom had been turned to barren desert, all elves were either dead or pariahs and the demon's following in the wake of his disappearance had turned the world into a dystopian cesspit.

Yeah, it was a dark campaign...

But I guess my point is the character emerged from playing her. Look at what you wrote down on the sheet, let it inform your first couple sessions, then grow upward from there.


i usually make my characters unique by applying disturbing anime cliches such as endearing cuteness, or going in a direction few players in my group go.

for example, one guy wants to play the badass dwarven knight with twin axes whom chops stuff to tiny pieces and is a complete gruff, rude jerk to everyone?

i will compliment the dwarf by being his young female sylph squire with twin knives, whom idolizes the dwarf and multiclasses rogue to take a few side things to help give her a hobby.

while the dwarf is the badass with the twin axes, i get to be his adorable twin knife wielding squire whom dabbled a bit as a locksmith while she was off duty and studied a few key skills to assist her dwarven mentor. while the dwarf would get to be a 10th level fighter, i would be playing a Fighter 6/rogue 4 whom sticks with lighter armor, wields the daggers Sir Hans doesn't want, and still deals sizeable knife damage

Silver Crusade

Your character is not unique because of its race, class, abilities, or mechanical scores. Why? Because anyone else can duplicate. Rather, your character is unique based on the storyline you create for it. Avoid clichés like "my family is all dead murdered by [insert race] and he has a lust for revenge" or "my barbarian speaks in the 3rd person and likes to bash everything." Add some flavor.

Torg of the Hawk Clan is embarrassed that he cannot read as well as his friends and he cannot seem to grasp Dragonchess when everyone else knows the moves. While he pushes himself to excel in honor of his deity in physical arts, there is a part of him that admires the shamans of his tribe, normally regarded as the weakest. As a result, Torg is hesitant and reserved around those who remind him of his tribe's shamans. As a GM storyline (for sandbox campaigns), Torg may unknowingly have a sibling who became a shaman as they are culled from the weak children and not permitted to be part of a family.

If you're in Pathfinder Society and/or playing a one-time session with strangers, don't bother. Few, if any, are going to remember (or care about) your cool background or how you tricked out the rules to do 4d4+12 damage at 3rd level with each attack. But if you are in a campaign that may last, memorable characters have always been the ones who contribute to a good story.


Making up the personality of characters and then acting or writing them out is the most fun part for me, with a well placed spell or strike coming in at a very close second.

I tend to do my personality / flavor making in a few different ways. Sometimes I just think of a personality / flavor out of the blue or purposefully in my imagination and find the best class to support that. Other times I'll sift around classes, archetypes, spells, items or weapons and see what that makes.

Examples:

Out of the blue, for one short lived campaign, I decided I wanted to make a serial killer who killed and cut off a persons face, then using it as a mask. He was insane, yet quite intelligent and patient and adopted the party as his "toys" (the reason he didn't want to kill them, he didn't want to break his toys nor did he want anyone else doing it... they were too much fun.) Anyways, I had all of that down before I picked the class and with the DM's ok and help in the mechanics department, he ended up being one of the most memorable and fun characters I've played to date. So much so I wrote and digitally published a short story based on him.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have my half-elf synth summoner that is just waiting to get played. The eidolon is a big aspect of that particular class archetype and so I thought about their relationship and how that would effect a young half-elf boy in a society that didn't understand what was happening with him. I'm fairly excited to play him if he is needed (backup character).

In terms of feats and items, for so long I've been rolling around the idea of character who only uses random items (broken chair leg, boat anchor, large rock on the road) by way of catch-off guard and throw anything and attempt to make him effective. While that alone would be fun to play, using random items does not a personality make. I have many options and haven't chosen one yet, but they're all viable and push the character's flavor enough that it's fun.

And then there are some I don't go too deep on, but make sure there are some hooks in his background that he can latch onto and grow from. Such is the case with my current wizard that I'm playing. I've found this forces me to put a bit more of myself into the character, which while potentially more boring than a serial killer or half crazed summoner, ended up teaching me things about myself and still coming out as a character I thoroughly enjoy playing.

Anyways, not much help I guess. But perhaps there's something in that wall of silly text that could give some clues about flavor.


how i make a character unique, as i mentioned, isn't a matter of race or class, but a level of attachment and association to a specific other PC. like the sylph squire, "Little Miss Ventus of the Silent Storm, Squire of Sir Hans of the Stoic Mountain." was identified as neither a sylph, a slayer, nor a squire, but as a loyal follower whom saw "Hans" as a father figure and was focused on her loyalty and her emotional flux which rivaled a thunderstorm. essentially her temper was a tempest and she was the epitome of "Tsundere". she did have a unique pair of knives, i mentioned her in the last post i made in this thread, but she was identified not by her gimmick, but by her highly emotional fighting style and how she became a knight academy cadet because she wanted to vent the tempest of her hearts inner chaos in a creative manner. so she became a knight, trained in twin knife style, and unleashes her entire storm of emotion onto her enemies in a tempest of blood and lightning.

she was a loli squire whose rage became the focus of her combat style and though she dressed up for rainy weather, due to the fact it rained everywhere she walked, but became stormy when she was angered, and well, she was hated by many because her stormy sylvan rage caused accidental destruction when bullies insulted her, and bullies picked on her just to anger her and get her in trouble, so yeah, her whole reason for training to become a knight, is to control her stormy temper

a squire under Sir Hans, whom feels the rage of the Volcano. the two were sent on a mission by the academy to learn to control their rage for the next lesson, Hans Taught Ventus a style for channeling her anger in combat by dumping her frustration upon one foe, the twin weapon style known by the knights as Juyo, the name stolen from a similar Jedi fighting style. the knights were inspired by the academy from Tales of Graces, and different knights employ different fighting styles from a series of specific concepts.

in other words

Little Miss Ventus was identified mostly by her temper, her bloodlust, her quickness to draw her knives, and her concept of slash first, ask questions later, she was a Slayer whom gained pounce as a talent, well originally a fighter/rogue before she was remade, but slayer was more fitting. her AC generally sucked compared to a fighter or paladin due to the lack of a shield and the fact she wore light armor, despite being a sylph with a base speed of 55 due to a fast movement talent, speed of thought and a sylph racial. able to charge from 110 feet away and even fly 110 feet as a charging pounce and deal absurd damage output. she also had automatic sneak attack against her favored target due to another talent and well. she was a twin knife wielding blender whom dealt absurd Damage by dealing 1d4+4d6+13 at +20/20/15/15 with clustered swings thingie and custom items.


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With threads like this.

Ravens_Cry wrote:


I like my ice cream to be effective, but not overly complex. I don't need a multiflavour Chocolate7/Fudge4/Banana2/Mint6 with a dip in Coconut. I will eat straight vanilla, and even be happy with it. Why? Because it's my ice cream. Maybe I will say the beans were harvested in some deep underground vanilla mines, and the cream actually comes from an obese ugly cow with hygiene problems, the ice stolen from destitute penguins. It changes nothing mechanically about the ice cream, but I have made the ice cream my own, even though it's just plain old vanilla.


I don't bother most of the time with letting mechanics inform my RP beyond teh bare minimum.

Most of my characters start with a somewhat backstory but a more rough personality.

"This guy is loyal."

"This guy's a smartass."

"This one values strength above all else."

And then act out a more in-depth personality based on that.

So, my Lawful Evil Monk values strength, honor, and physical perfection, However, he also values ruthlessness, decisiveness, and the strength of will and spirit to go after your goal no matter what it takes.

So, he equally worships Irori and Achaekek.

He judges everyone he meets based on their worth. They don't necessarily need to be physically strong, but are at least passable at their chosen role (casters cast well, buffers buff well, fighters fight well).

Strength of spirit and will to improve may sway his decision. A weakling who truly wants to get stronger and is willing to sacrifice for it is at least as admirable for strength of will as the man who was born with strength and talent handed to him.

But if you get in his way, or mess with his companions (after all, he's signed on with these people, and sworn to come with them on their journey that would go against his honor code), he will tear you to pieces and enjoy every minute of it.

He's somewhat close to Lawful Neutral and could be swayed that way, but it's his methods that make him evil, if not his general personality.

He can be the best, most loyal friend you're likely to meet.

He won't hesitate to torture for information, brutally maim and kill people who stand in his way (part of the reason he used Snake Style was so he could pierce people's hearts with his fingers and rip it out of their chest if they angered him), and just all around not give a damn about anyone who wasn't in his immediate circle of friends.

Most of my characters follow like that. Start out somewhat vague, but clarify as time goes on. Those things were a bit of a logical progression as time went on, as new scenarios were thrown up.

"How would he act here?" and thus a precedent for future similar scenarios was made, and so on.


We had a guy who played a Witch in our last game. He was a complete neat freak and played the obsessive compulsive fear of germs. This was fun considering the places we had to go. There were several times where he needed to lend personal items (ring of flight for example) but was unwilling do let someone get it dirty. He didn't play this all the time, but he played it enough to make people laugh.

In our next game, I plan to be a Magus with an Entertainer past. Puns will be spread like a second language. This will be important because later in the game my character will get a spell called Mislead and the party won't be able to tell one form from the other except one of him won't be blabbing off puns and jokes. At least that is the intent. I crack pun anyway, so it should be a built in character trait. :)


Mark Hoover wrote:


What'd I get for it? I had the freakin demon prince on the ropes and failed ONE saving throw... and fast-forwarded into the future 1000 years where my forest kingdom had been turned to barren desert, all elves were either dead or pariahs and the demon's following in the wake of his disappearance had turned the world into a dystopian cesspit.

Yeah, it was a dark campaign...

But I guess my point is the character emerged from playing her. Look at what you wrote down on the sheet, let it inform your first couple sessions, then grow upward from there.

So, you were Samurai Jackie?

But seriously, I've had some wonderful responses. (Did you actually get to play a tenth level loli or is that just how she looked?)

I love some of these ideas, they're beautiful characters, let me share another from a campaign that ended far too soon. I was playing a monk from a mountain based barbarian tribe. The monk had what the best of what I wanted at the time, he was actually a gladiator who won his freedom fighting in the rings. his lawful side was very strict. If you weren't strong enough to survive, you weren't worth his attention. That and a few more bobs and bits made up the personal code I wrote for him. That and a hand that had been replaced by carved rock after he rammed his arm down a polar bears throat to kill it. He came equipped with a white fur cloak by the way, with a hood.


Ventus was a 10th level loli, remade as a slayer 10 in my thursday group with custom gear. she was a sylph slayer whom fought with twin knives and looked to her dwarven mentor as a paternal figure head

she wasn't a loligoth

but her style was more suited for a mishmash of urban blending and heavy rain, she was cool because of her storming anger and the fact she was one of the most fun tsunderes i played

she pounced for 1d4+4d6+13 with 2 knives for +20/+20/+15/+15 to hit and could fly at a speed of 55 with perfect manueverability while using speed of though. allowing her a charge of 110 in any condition.

her HP wasn't impressive nor was her AC, and while she did kill stuff with her twin knives, she wasn't as minmaxed a damage dealer as her mentor and well, being a sylph meant she was a loli for a long time.

she was a squire, and of course, young.

it was my thursday group.


I meant did you actually use the young template, obviously you didn't stick to the (suggested) rules for young characters, as in using the NPC classes, but an actual child for her race?


So in a 4E game I played a little while ago I had the opportunity to both create my own PC quirks and add some to another. When we started the campaign there were only 2 players and the GM so we decided to make one character on our own and then play a pre-gen the GM had made. I ended up with a half-elf wizard and a pre-gen human warlord.

Ignus Arcanamux was my wizard. I took ONLY flame/fire spells and a high Dex so he was going first often. My GM pulled a pic for me and the wizard looked like a little kid because of his half-elf fairness, so I ran with that angle since I'd intended to be brash anyway. So Ignus then was a punk upstart who figured he'd solve any and all conflicts with arcane fire. He was quick witted, quick tempered and fueled by adolescent angst.

Barnabus, Master of the Watch on the other hand was in his forties with a wizened pic even though he was a warlord. His powers were all about moving people around the battlefield, so I worked him in as Ignus' bodyguard. According to what was on the pre-gen Barnabus had retired from being a very small-time sheriff and master of a militia watch before answering a desperate call to adventure. So I added in that part of this call was that, for whatever reason the wizard's master had decided Ignus was worth something and had met and been impressed with Barnabus years past, so he coaxed the elder warlord out of retirement.

Long story boring, I played Barnabus as my primary while shouting little quips and snot-nosed challenges from Ignus. I named all my spells Harry-Potter style and would call them out when playing my wizard. The warlord however was a powerful social character and was constantly drilling and marshalling the party as if it was a military unit. As such I stole every line I could remember from my brother's drill sergant, military individuals in TV and movies, etc. Barnabus was fond of telling everyone he met to get their stuff "squared away," "high and tight" or "ship-shape." He was however patient, kind and wise.

The sad thing is though that, when the chips are down, a lot of my characters revert to being chips off the same block. I never play evil (personal preference) so since my characters strive to be heroes they all end up seeming like the comic book heroes I grew up revering.


I don't do anything, it just happens. ie a fighter at level 1 succeeded with a desperate trip roll while mentioning there is little chance of success and developed into a combat controller who is always talking about how there is no chance of things working.


The Indescribable wrote:
Interesting, what class was he? Our grippli Rogue ended up getting eaten.

So, a little too much character flavor, then? :D

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He was a ninja/monk.

Did Torg of the Hawk clan have a skateboarding brother as well?

Silver Crusade

My Thunder and Fang Ranger was raised by barbarians, but got angry at his tribe and left. Although he looks big and incredibly intimidating (6'2", muscled to hell and back, tribal tattoos, etc) he's a softy at heart. He tries to get along with children but, funnily enough, he always seems to massively fail diplomacy checks with them with an average roll of like... 7. I always joke about him being too scary to interact with the children in any kind of decent capacity.

This actually didn't come from his backstory. He started as just a normal NG guy with a rough childhood. This trait of his just kind of developed on its own through an adventure or two.


SAMAS wrote:
The Indescribable wrote:
Interesting, what class was he? Our grippli Rogue ended up getting eaten.
So, a little too much character flavor, then? :D

Actually, the worgs found him a little bland.


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The best advice I can give you is not to hold back and flagrantly ignore the Meta aspect of the game.

No one remembers that time your character played it safe (even if playing it safe is a good idea).

If your half-elf warrior type is sensitive about his mixed heritage and someone talks down about half breeds around him. PUNCH HIM! Even if its not you he insulted.

If you play a happy go lucky thrill seeking pick pocket . . . umm pick pockets.

You are an ornery hairy dwarf. Evil nasties are up to no good. You just smashed 6 goblins. The elf is studying the elaborate tapistries, the rogue is looking at a locked box, the cleric and ranger are searching the room and then some dern fool brings up going over the wall searching for "hidden doors" as if all places have the time and resources for such tricks. Every room they search for hours after a few minutes of action. . . . Well screw this . . . "When yew navel gazers are finished admiring the 'aqutrimon' yew cin join me cracking gobber skull." March to the next door and kick it in.


Uh, you realize this isn't me asking for advice right? I just felt like hearing how other players made their characters memorable.


The Indescribable wrote:
SAMAS wrote:
The Indescribable wrote:
Interesting, what class was he? Our grippli Rogue ended up getting eaten.
So, a little too much character flavor, then? :D
Actually, the worgs found him a little bland.

I didn't know Doc Hopper used worgs.


No no. Doc Hopper has nothing to do with it, he's probably still chasing Kermit.


Gnomezrule wrote:
The best advice I can give you is not to hold back and flagrantly ignore the Meta aspect of the game.

EXCEPTION: Do *not* mess with your teammates, or their stuff.


Indeed. You just don't tell them about everything YOU found.


The Indescribable wrote:
I meant did you actually use the young template, obviously you didn't stick to the (suggested) rules for young characters, as in using the NPC classes, but an actual child for her race?

i didn't use the young template nor NPC classes

no special rules at all

it was purely descriptive

why does a character need a special set of rules hindrances to be a squire or similarly apprenticed profession?

why can't we say Harry Potter was a Wizard and not merely an Adept?

why must we make special rules for a character that is chronologically a little young for their species, but at the same time, developed enough to be apprenticed?

she was a 47 year old sylph when the sylph age of adulthood is like 60. young, but not young enough to require special rules.


My characters usually don't develop personality until about the second or third session, once I get a handle on them. I typically pick a descriptive phrase, and then I build out the character from there. Examples:

"Religious dwarf." In a 3.5 PBEM, I once played a dwarven cleric of Good. Because it was a PBEM, I was able to use the format focus heavily on his religiosity, including his morning ritual (involving placement of holy items at points of the compass) and VERY involved debates with the party paladin on the nature of goodness.

"Strong But Dumb." Grunk the Mighty, a halfling barbarian. He was completely naive, had severe ADD, and tended to charge A LOT unless somebody stopped him. Highlights included throttling the party gnome who tried to trick him with a ventriloquism spell (Grunk: "Not funny. Say sorry." Gnome: "Gack!! Sorry!!") and an epic slugfest against a demon.

"Semi-Stereotypical Half-Orc." Half-orcish fighter, Power Attack, big sword. Always laughed during combat. (Which I RPed). When against weaker enemies would sunder their weapons before killing them. In a twist, he had an intelligence of 13 and would occasionally offer incisive social commentary.

Once the brawler class comes out, I'm going to try to convince some poor GM to let me run "The Orc." "The Orc" would be a half-orcish brawler who always talks about himself in the third person. "The Orc is listening to your jaws goin' flappity-flap. But The Orc doesn't care what you think. So, The Orc is going to grab your tongue, rip it out, turn it sideways, and stick it up your candy ass. Can you SMEEEEELLLLLLL what The Orc is cooking???!!!!"

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I have a back story about my first PFS character that he tells anyone that askes why he is the Third. His name is Lemtwist Bratham Mallentwine Flannelfoot Smyth Olgen Jeebs Nathers Bingham the Third.

See, Gnomes usually go through life's adventure aquiring their name as they venture forth. Lemtwist Bratham Mallentwine Flannelfoot Smyth Olgen Jeebs Nathers Bingham the Third had his since birth. This is most likely because of his Grandfather... or what may turn out to be his Grandson.

See, Lemtwist Bratham Mallentwine Flannelfoot Smyth Olgen Jeebs Nathers Bingham Senior is, was, or will be a Time Mage. But he isn't, wasn't or will not be very good at it...

About ten years ago there was this magical... incendent. It involved an errant paperclip. The last words Lemtwist Bratham Mallentwine Flannelfoot Smyth Olgen Jeebs Nathers Bingham Senior said was "No, no... wait!! Don't touch tha..."

It was a closed casket funneral.

Every once and a while, Lemtwist Bratham Mallentwine Flannelfoot Smyth Olgen Jeebs Nathers Bingham the Third sees Lemtwist Bratham Mallentwine Flannelfoot Smyth Olgen Jeebs Nathers Bingham Senior. He tries to guess when he is...


An RP friend of mine told me how he once created a character who has a half-orc barbarian...who thought he was a wizard. The character who so ignorant he could read regular writing much less magical writing. When he'd cast "fireball," he'd just throw a bomb instead. Using a combination of tricks he didn't elaborate on, he managed to convince his party that the character was a wizard for several sessions. Unfortunately, this was before I knew him but I will be playing a campaign with him where he will be a crazed survivalist gunslinger. Basically a conspiracy theorist who doesn't believe that the world is ending but only because he believes that it already has. He will ignore all evidence and arguments to the contrary. To him, the best joke character is the one played on the party.

Me? I don't like messing with the party like he does so I go for character I'd want to write in a fantasy book. My favorite character I've played so far was a half-orc barbarian who intentionally played up the stereotypes of orcs to lull people in a false sense of superiority. I wanted to really deconstruct and explore the stereotypes of the half-orc but we didn't really get into that. Instead a little quirk I made as part of the deconstruction ended up being a huge part of his character. I RPed (and the GM accepted) that the Orcish language has no personal pronouns so he always called himself by his name and everyone by titles he'd make up. Our party's half-elven cleric of Calistria, for example, was "Sexy Elven Cleric Lady." That little quirk got a lot of mileage. I had a lot of fun trying to think these things up on the fly. He also used it as a way to show his approval with someone. Our bow-paladin killed a black dragon by himself in one round so Krognak included "badass" into his titles afterwards. He also had a habit of using these titles to disrespect kings without them really noticing or caring. "What did that beast just say? Bah, it matters not what an animal thinks."

Tabletop RPGs like Pathfinder offer a different way to make complex and interesting characters that I am experimenting with now: synergy. By that, I mean working with your party to have overlapping backstories. My character is a prince who grew up as best friends with my GF's character who was the daughter of a Duke. Our favorite thing to do so far is create past incidents and stories that the rest of the group doesn't know about. For example, her character, being a prankster, found a magic belt in her Dad's room (he's a wizard) and decided to see what it does by putting on my character. Turns out, it was a belt of gender-changing. These incidents are great of a laugh and help show how close they are, which is necessary because they're in the process of falling in love.

My inner writer forces most of my characters to have an arc to their characters. Have an idea of where your character starts and where you want them to end and then discuss it with your GM. Every GM I've played with appreciated my effort because it gave them ideas for plot arcs they could work with. this also ensures that your awesome 50-page backstory that perfectly describes your character isn't instantly thrown out the window because it doesn't match the homebrewed setting your GM made.


I'm gearing up to play an urban barbarian who thinks that his rage ability is a gift from Pharasma. He sees himself as one of her priests and behaves accordingly, using his "divine" gifts to hunt down and kill undead.


i may have to retire the massively overpowered 10th level squire soon, because that group won't really last much longer. it kinda went into monty haul mode last month when we discovered a bunch of scrolls from a long lost empire of proud ancient warriors that are effectively the martial equivalent to the netherese scrolls, granting free gestalted fighter levels to anybody whom reads them, with the drawback that you can't read more scrolls than you have levels, and well, because of that, everybody has 10 free gestalted fighter levels and 5 mythic tiers, before you count 50 point buy, items at crafting price, lots of custom and artifact loot, and well, the fact everybody can deal absurd martial damage levels while still being a full member of their primary class

10th level party with like 15 scrolls and levels are handed out like candy because due to gestalt via scrolls, 50 point buy, lots of discounted custom items, max HP and mythic tiers, stuff is dying, even if our foes have advanced template and MaxHP with many CRs above us.

there is nothing like having a bunch of full and partial casters that can deal greater than fighter level DPR consistently while also buffing the slayer and her dwarven mentor to kill stuff quickly by pouncing too.

whom can honestly handle an 8 Person party capable of that sheer amount of carnage. an 8 person party where everyone can deal martial damage and most PCs can do something cool on the side.

it is like playing a fallout game where you gear every PC with a free suit of power armor, a free pulse rifle, a mountain of plasma grenades and stimpacks, a pip boy with a VATS, unlimited ammo, a gravity sledge, and all sorts of other top end gear. that is why i fear the campaign will end soon. because we are literally geared out the wazoo, and have all sorts of innate freebies that stuff tends to die fast.


Ah, sad face, I liked the squire persona. Also, I love the above mentioned halfling barbarian. Beautiful.

I have an idea to use in a future steampunk campaign. The higher classes often hire specialized butlers from a training academy, they act as both bodyguard and servants, the basic battle butler from anime. If I end up as a player in such a campaign, I'm going with a replaced hand that turns into a faux mace. I will also suggest my faction.

The Royal academy of butlers, bodyguards and servants with a mercenary touch. Highborn families will occasionally sponsor someone through the rigorous training to be servants for their personal use. Others are taken in by the academy, these are trained also in gathering information. They act as a mercenary force, and spy network.


The Indescribable wrote:

Ah, sad face, I liked the squire persona. Also, I love the above mentioned halfling barbarian. Beautiful.

I have an idea to use in a future steampunk campaign. The higher classes often hire specialized butlers from a training academy, they act as both bodyguard and servants, the basic battle butler from anime. If I end up as a player in such a campaign, I'm going with a replaced hand that turns into a faux mace. I will also suggest my faction.

The Royal academy of butlers, bodyguards and servants with a mercenary touch. Highborn families will occasionally sponsor someone through the rigorous training to be servants for their personal use. Others are taken in by the academy, these are trained also in gathering information. They act as a mercenary force, and spy network.

maybe i can play a toned down and recycled version of the squire in a less monty hauled campaign another day.


I hope so, I often reuse characters like that, I recently started a game of Feng Shui, action movie roleplaying. I'm currently playing a sumo big bruiser, one I've used before.


The Indescribable wrote:
Also, I love the above mentioned halfling barbarian. Beautiful.

Grunk eventually met his end a the hands of a spectre, unfortunately. But he was fun to play.

Shadow Lodge

Touc wrote:


If you're in Pathfinder Society and/or playing a one-time session with strangers, don't bother. Few, if any, are going to remember (or care about) your cool background.

Disagree with this one. You do have to make it immediately relevant to your character and his behavior in that session. For example--

Characterize your Eidolon/Familar/Animal Companion in a unique way
My summoner introduces his Eidolon as his wife. He is protective of his eidolon, counting on summoned creatures in combat situations (said eidolon is built as a skill monkey). If asked why they are adventuring he mentions the children (cost of education is expensive) and asked where the kids are, they are playing with their friends, the blackros children in the museum.

use your day job
My half orc Alchemist introduces himself "Marv the Barbaque King" for he is the "King of Orcish Barbaque" and uses barbacue chef as his day job and works it into his actions, for example, offering surrendered foes "career opportunities" at his resturaunt. He has two sisters and if a male PC does something really cool for the party he will as him to marry his sister, the pretty one (the ugly one married into the village of Nesting Swallow, on the other side of the world...far away from him).

Pick unique dieties and have unique takes on their worship
My fighter Strenella Alesia Lywellyn, a pit born tiefling was raised by her parents, clerics of Sheyln. She worships Sheyln, but is a pit born tiefling. Her take on this is seen through her destructive tiefling nature. She will threaten to 'skin you alive, so my sister can use it to make a fashion forward handbag' or 'wrap your intestines around you like a yule tree,' thus showing her devotion to creating things of beauty.

Make race important
See Strenella and Marv.

Use character class straits uniquely
My Bone Oracle Eleise Velune has the haunted curse. She will refer to the scary moan as her brother George. When she uses her raise the dead revelation the zombie she produces is always dressed in Taldan nobles clothing and is 'George' who is back to defend her. When I brought said zombie out, I showed a picture of the the Zombie on the 'Among the Living'

One note; do this in moderation as not to be too much of an attention hog. But you can still find ways to introduce characterization and background within a 4-5 hour PFS session.


The Indescribable wrote:

So, my question is, how do YOU make your characters unique? Is it some quirk in type of weapons used, an Archetype, how do you keep them from being generic, I've seen Alchemists making black powder bombs on this forum, Los Tiburon the Shark of the Land (monk/Luchadore)The orc hating/murdering half-orc paladin, and a cleric wielding a ring of maximize.

And one I intend to use the next time I decide to play an Alchemist, I intend to flavor it by incorporating star charts to align my alchemical ingredients for extracts and mutagens to gain the most power my greater alchemical creations.

What are your options, how do you make your character stand out from the crowd?

My method varies from group to group. Mi know that sounds like a cop out but hear me out. If a group plays in a PFS style then all u have to make urself unique is the me Janice of the game itself as practically everything else is on a railroad track. But if a group emphasizes character development and non combat roleplay; then I bring a story and a personality to life and to H with mechanics. The rules then are just a way to roll-play at that point. Since pathfinder favors combat and such though, my expression more often than not comes through how I destroy thy enemies.

Scarab Sages

I like to either play with or against typical stereotypes.

For instance I had a half-orc mercenary and two half orc buddies who loved to play up the "big dumb brute" That people attributed them to have, than have my character at the appropriate moment go ahead and start an eloquent discussion about the finer points of "insert topic you would not expect the half orc fighter to talk about here.". He had a 16 int and a 14 str compared to his buddies who had a 16 and 18 str respectively (though had average ints as well) Always great fun.


137ben wrote:

With threads like this.

Ravens_Cry wrote:


I like my ice cream to be effective, but not overly complex. I don't need a multiflavour Chocolate7/Fudge4/Banana2/Mint6 with a dip in Coconut. I will eat straight vanilla, and even be happy with it. Why? Because it's my ice cream. Maybe I will say the beans were harvested in some deep underground vanilla mines, and the cream actually comes from an obese ugly cow with hygiene problems, the ice stolen from destitute penguins. It changes nothing mechanically about the ice cream, but I have made the ice cream my own, even though it's just plain old vanilla.

I wish I could favourite this post multiple times.


I just find it annoying in an otherwise interesting topic, and go Tiefling
fashionista


Here's one I've been thinking up, kinda, I really only have one thing for him/her so far, always wears a mask, that's all I got, a mask wearing hooded adventurer who continuously hides his/her race. For a mind f!+@, I'm thinking of doing a human kid, pretending to be a gnome, or perhaps an orc or tiefling who used the mask to walk around human cities with no problem, never even telling those he calls friends who he is, I'm also thinking of it being a dragon mask while making it an alchemist with the breath weapon bomb discovery, a lot of ideas, and no clear way to start weeding them out yet.


Zhayne wrote:
I usually go for something like 'This is the common perception of this kind of character. Let's screw with that.'

I love playing half-orcs for this very reason.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

There have been some role players here that have created characters based on their favorite characters from elsewhere, like our Captain Sternn, The Gnome from the promotional vids for (The Edition that Shall Not Be Named) who has the quote "I'm a Druid... Rawr!!" and others.

Oh, and the Dritz ranger thing...


I try always break molds with my character.

For example, in Crimson Throne, I got idea from "dwarves in general are often held to be the most reputable and honorable of the city’s merchants and tradesmen".

So he was honorable dwarven merchant with bookstore. The party knew that he was rogue and that he had some morally questionable items under his desk, but none of them ever found out that he was secretly sniffing their panties, even when they did found his hidden stach of women undergarments.

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