The Best Character You Never Got To Play

Everyone has had a campaign that fell apart before it ever got started. Everyone has some character they really liked the concept of but never got to play.

Here's a chance to reminisce about those characters. A chance for new life.

So if you have a character you maybe never played, or only got to play a session or two, go ahead and post about it here.

An elven ranger and an eagle knight, fiercely loyal to his country and its beliefs. Never got to play him because, as it turns out, no one else in my gaming group knows how to DM except me...so i got stuck as that and the PC character never saw the light of day...

Bael'avel, Warforged Fighter/Warblade. Built as an intelligent shield guardian for elven mages, then rendered inert when he overwhelmed defending them. Restored centuries later, he seeks a mage to serve and protect.

Also, Orrick Stonefist, Dwarven Monk. Meant to playtest the PF changes to the class, but only one session was played.

A Dwarven monk/socerer. I had such high hopes for him but only played him in 2 games...

Mok, goblin thief. Attracted to an 'extravagant' lifestyle, he left his tribe to live in the big city's sewer system, earning money working in a mortician's back room, preparing bodies. It was more of the set up for a joke about him having meat to share in a dungeon. They'd ask, 'what meat is it?' and Mok would answer 'Roast bakothai.' When asked what's bakothai, he'd point at your leg and say 'dis, frontothai, dat bakothai!' He would carve himself a little piece of the bodies being interred in coffins, since they'd never see it.

I had a human unarmed fighter named Kazimir.

He was a big, burly, alpha-male type of guy who happened to be adventuring in lands where women were the larger, more dominant sex.

RPing him was a blast, especially when he talked to the Amazon Queen and called her things like "sweetheart".

He was basically Bruce Campbell from Army of Darkness working for Amazons.

Amira Sayeed, a Psion in the Eberron setting who hailed from Sarlona. She fled because of the Quori influence in her homeland, but didn't know exactly what they were. She used a quarterstaff as her primary weapon, and was terrified that people would find out she was psionic. The first time she used a power in front of her party members, she thought they were going to kill her. I was planning on taking a level in Fighter at 2nd, and picking up the two-bladed sword, with the reasoning from her perspective being "Well, they're both longer weapons, and they seem to be used in the same manner, so why not?" The ultimate intent was to go Quori Mindhunter once she found out the strange "people" in Sarlona were actually possessed by extraplanar parasites.

We never made it past the second night of gaming...

An elven ranger and an eagle knight, fiercely loyal to his country and its beliefs. Never got to play him because, as it turns out, no one else in my gaming group knows how to DM except me...so i got stuck as that and the PC character never saw the light of day...

sounds like it is time to make a recurring npc

A damn quick abjurer and strategist. Completely shut down those spells.

Gaeland Ramsus, an Elan Psion who had escaped from a holding chamber where wizards were performing "experiments" that resulted in those like himself. Dressed in a long black coat over a grey uniform and boots, and to quote one of the party members, "He puts his hands in his pockets and things die." Favored Electric and Sonic Kinesis manifestations.

Campaign died after the third session due to GM disinterest (I think, it's been a while). We started at 3rd level, never reached 4th.

I have much better answers for this outside of Pathfinder and D&D in general. >.>

Idonias Saltheart. Created for a PbP Skulls and Shackles game, he was an undine psionic fighter who was a throwing switch hitter. DSP released some cool feats to make throwing viable. He was the kind of guy who got attacked by giant sea monsters and ran away while everyone else got eaten. Then he'd swim to shore, get drunk, get in a fight, join another crew, repeat. In combat he'd throw his trident or javelin, which would then come zipping back to him. When someone got too close, they'd get stabbed. I miss him so.

Rahman, the Persian Ranger

The guy was from our setting's version of persia. He was 6'6" with a turban, huge mustache, and a heavy warhorse. Dude never dressed for camouflage. He always wore brightly striped clothing.

A part of his greatness was how lawful good he was. Him and the halfling rogue were both lawful good and were constantly trying to outdo the paladin in acts of goodness (only marred by the fact that we would try to rub our deeds in his face, all in good humor in character).

A human nobleman's son, hell-bent on becoming a hero like those he learned about from fables and legends read to him before bed when he was young.

The thrill of the guy was that the campaign was going to heavily involve him trying to outrun his destiny of taking up his father's title - such as the first story arc being about his younger brother (who wanted to be the Father's successor) having been kidnapped, so he'd have to be rescued alive and returned home or the character's adventuring career would be over.

I had a low int high strength psionic wilder I played a lot like like Lenny from of mice and mice. Great campaign set in waterdeep that was killed when the GM got engaged to a psycho.

Miss the hell out of that campaign.

Vorthos Zarkanian, a D&D 3.5 changeling wizard/cleric mystic theurge. He worshipped Wee Jas, believed that death was the natural order of life, and wouldn't heal anyone who wasn't already stabilized on thier own. He also had a circlet upon which he would cast (forgot the spell and too lazy to look it up) which made it shine as bright as sunlight within 60 ft and lasted for days per casting.

I sadly left my notebook sitting on the table when I walked out that day to drive to game. So I rolled up a fighter while the DM was prepping. Of course, we wound up facing Drow. What a great time to be able to pull a glowing sun crown out of your backpack...

On the other hand, that fighter is an oft talked about beloved character that people still bring up 5 years later. 8^)

Side note, this thread is probably going to turn into one of the greatest GM aids out there as a catalog of awesome NPC ideas.

I actually got to play this one for a while, but I never got to take him where I really wanted to go with him: Liath Samathran, tiefling paladin of Iomedae for Kingmaker. Looked forward to having him eventually be able to confront all the guilt issues he had built up because of his family and to finally let it go and move past it, and really grow into a redemptive figure. Work to establish an integrated city of humans, fey, kobolds, tieflings, and any other typically "outcast" races looking for a better life.

Rothep, Sarenraen Osirioni fighter in a Legacy of Fire campaign. Had a lot of things I wanted to do with him, like have him find out that the Osirion he had built up in his head while a slave in Katapesh fell far short in reality, and eventually having him try to build that ideal, on a smaller scale, in the town they had been sent to liberate. Would wind up fighting the slaving market from the inside, and likely having to keep an eye on himself to make sure he didn't slip far from his ideals while doing it.

Still waiting for a chance to play my Vudrani holy monk, my aberrant-bloodline sorcerer/heavens oracle guy, and that white necromancer/paladin concept. And a rule-supported holy barbarian.

20th level thri-kreen monk. It was meant for an epic keel campaign that never got started.

I have a Calistrian Antipaladin NPC waiting in the wings for a recurring villain slot in a home game that was based on a PC I really wanted to play.

Then we converted to PFS, so I don't even get to use the NPC.

Okay well I don't know about the "best" but I have been a fan of Arthurian mythology since the mid 80s when I was a small boy and when I was fourteen or so a friend of a friend claimed he was preparing to start a knights of the round table style campaign. So, I fashioned some fully equipped knight stle fighters and paladins. Not only did the campaign never come to fruition but after a few weeks and I think my third inquiry this "dm" said he was not only quitting D&D but he was quitting because it was a tool of satan and seemed cross with me for expecting him to deliver the game I so greatly longed for that a few short weeks earlier seemed imminent.

An old D&D 3.5 character i got to play only a few times before the campaign ended. Evil campaign set at 7th level, made a fighter with a variant for sneak attack and took 3 levels in Duskblade. Sneak attacks with a channeled shocking grasp made that character so much fun. that and cutting the head off the leader of the thieves guild during a meeting and proceeding to use it as a puppet to say "Hi, my name is Jimmy!" That character has been used as a psychopathic Villain numerous times now.

Side note, his name was James "Jimmy" Kendrick.

I played a priest/ess of the god/dess of storms in a Scarred Lands campaign. S/he appeared as a priest (that looked like Iuz from Pirates of Dark Water) of the god/dess the first time the players got to meet him, but the next day, s/he appeared as a priestess that looked like Liv Tyler!!!

You could HEAR their jaws hitting the floor as the DM explained what was going on.

But we only played for 1 session. Oh, well.

In an aquatic campaign, I skipped the water breathing races and made an elven pearl diver using the Hold Breath ability of the Internal alchemist. She was also a vivisectionest with a voodoo flair, but sadly, never saw a single session.

Candika, LE telepath/thrallherd and her two triplet sisters(one a wizard specializing in the creation of constructs, the other a cleric of undeath) with a modified fusion spell so all three could become one goddess of control.

At least that's where I wanted her to go. She only made it to thrallherd 1 and never actually got to meet her first sister in game :(

Elven invulnerable rager serene barbarian / martial artist. Never could play him because the GM ruled that I can't combine an archetype with rager in his name with an archetype with serene in his name.

A ghost-ninja. That would be awesome... But no DM would let me play one... Maybe next capaign.

Quixotai du Saffronc, my tragically unplayed Cavalier from the PbP boards.

http://paizo.com/people/TheYellowKnight

He is a combination of Baron Munchhausen and Don Quixote in temperament, an homage to my favorite video game character in form: the Yellow Knight from Joust.

A long, but (I think) interesting read, if I do say so myself.

-Uriel

Quake Dreadsteel, cleric of Zarus. Which meant that he was a vain, human fist fighter who constantly flexed his shirt both on and off, and took linguistics just to be able to speak broken non-human languages so he could talk s!#&. It was a pretty non-serious campaign and had a new DM who always played and wanted to try, but it fell apart because our group had two unreliable stoners who dropped out after like the second session (which I couldn't make, so I only played his game once). Bastards >=[

Racist ranger. The man hates oozes, with a passion.

Hammer, bow, skilled in grapple.

I actually got to play this one for a while, but I never got to take him where I really wanted to go with him: Liath Samathran, tiefling paladin of Iomedae for Kingmaker. Looked forward to having him eventually be able to confront all the guilt issues he had built up because of his family and to finally let it go and move past it, and really grow into a redemptive figure. Work to establish an integrated city of humans, fey, kobolds, tieflings, and any other typically "outcast" races looking for a better life.

So I'm guessing that campaign ( and its accompanying excellent campaign journal ) ain't coming back? Damn. :(

---

As for me, I got some current characters I am chomping at the bit to get back to, but the campaigns aren't really happening. But they might, so it's a bit premature to lament about the characters being lost. I mostly hope to play my slightly mad elven alchemist soon again.

When you can't play a character, put them in as an npc when you dm.

Steampunk megaman, played as a sorcerer with a fancy arm-gadget. The character itself would have been fun, but what made it something worth missing was that the GM had played in a home-brewed steampunk campaign that I ran and liked it enough that he wanted to run his own game set in my world. Huge honor for me.

Unfortunately he never gets around to actually GMing anything.

Another one was for an evil Kingmaker game. I came up with an enigmatic dual-cursed gnome oracle whose body was grotesque and twisted. He was a pathetic, wretched thing with a knack for building clockworks and constructs who always hid his face behind an elaborate golden mask. He would have either been the king or high priest, but either way would have been the prophet of a new, industry-based faith. Still going to play him one day, by god.

When you can't play a character, put them in as an npc when you dm.

I also retire old characters that way.

I even use a buddy's old 2nd edition character as a demi-god in my setting.

It can really work, after all, so much work gets put into them.

You can also do a continuity thing, especially with adventure paths like runelords, crimson throne and jade regent. I had one char that hopped from runelords and then came in at a higher level in throne. I've known a dm to use my old pc as an npc. There was even a funny almost time travel effect where I would hear about what the old former pc was doing, but just miss running into him, or he would be in a coma, lol.

I played a priest/ess of the god/dess of storms in a Scarred Lands campaign. S/he appeared as a priest (that looked like Iuz from Pirates of Dark Water) of the god/dess the first time the players got to meet him, but the next day, s/he appeared as a priestess that looked like Liv Tyler!!!

You could HEAR their jaws hitting the floor as the DM explained what was going on.

But we only played for 1 session. Oh, well.

Sounds like Ensirio, my Doppelganger scion of Eris. I approve =)

Jingo, my tattooed islander monk who fought with a quarterstaff and always spoke in third person. He was intended to be the cook on a ship in a 3.5 adaptation of the 7th Sea setting, but we never got past the second session.

He was set up to be comedy relief. He had 4 ranks in Profession (Cook) at first level, but chose only to make food using the castoffs of normal food. I remember a scene in the first session where he made Pigeon Feet stew garnished with clamshell fragments.

I'm hoping to revive him once we've finished Kingmaker, because then we're planning to start Skull and Shackles. Then... Jingo will cook again! Mwahaha...

A Binder from 3.5. Discovered the power by accident, and got addicted. Like a drug, he spends every moment that he is not influenced by a vestige seeking a place to draw a circle and perform the binding ritual. This leaves him frail and weak whenever he is not bound. Some vestiges even prevent him from eating or drinking, so he will binge after days without food. His personality has been consumed by the vestiges and he has little power to resist them, often making bad pacts.

I think I tried to play Binder three or four times.

The first was a Kobold scholar who was part of an information gathering/infiltration team. He lasted two sessions as part of a "three separate parties working in tandem" plot idea that never got off the ground.

The second was a multiclass Illumian Paladin/Binder, who had as one of his main goals to prove that Binders and Vestiges were not the evil entities some churches and the Witch Hunters had portrayed them to be, by advancing in his binding capability while maintaining his paladinhood.

The third was Karish, a Hellbred Binder, who I played for about three months in a PbP before time constraints caused it to end (or at least be set aside). I ended up revamping her backstory and using her as the main character of a book I'm trying to write, so I'm not sure if this really counts as "not getting to play her".

I'm sure there's at least one I'm forgetting...

This happens to me all the time, because I normally DM. Usually, the characters get used as NPCs, but it's not the same - you get to watch your cool character get ganked by the PCs over and over.

Some of my greatest hits:

--Elven magus/eldritch knight/gish with a storm/lightning/cold focus. He's gone by many names but it's always the same guy, I'm just constantly looking for better ways to build him.

--Super-stealthy assassin type who relies on surprise, dirty tricks, and using the environment. He's basically like batman without the super-detective chops.

--A mindbender type wizard, enchanter specialist. Really unsavory character who's goal was to collect as many minions as possible.

--a dwarven Fighter who was the last survivor of his regiment after a goblin massacre. Based him off Captain Quint from "Jaws".

All of them have really complicated back-stories by now, but I rarely get to play them. The wizard, however, is probably going to be a character in a novel I'm working on.

Elven invulnerable rager serene barbarian / martial artist. Never could play him because the GM ruled that I can't combine an archetype with rager in his name with an archetype with serene in his name.

That's a ridiculous mind set among players and DM's, I say take the fluff for what it is! Sorry to hear that.

This one. We played a bit, but the DM had real life issues and the game disolved. It's a shame. It was a fantastic game. If anyone wants to try and fill some very big shoes let me know. ;-)

FYI: this is Tiny Coffee Golem.

A (3.5) Vow of Poverty Paladin, who was a baker and giving his share of the loot to the local orphanages to help out. He was an orphan himself, and knew how bad things could get for them. I never got to play him because all my DM thought it was overpowered at the time. :(

I find that almost all of my characters are characters that I never got to play :( I got so many ideas for them, they just never actually manage to make it to an actual board.

...when the GM got engaged to a psycho.

I'm oddly comforted that this happens to other players, and saddened that it happens to other GMs.

My choice is "Soren".
He was a character that came out of Ashiel's Practical Optimization: Make the Numbers Fit thread.

Ashiel started a PBP with the characters that came out of the thread, but it didn't last very long. Not long enough for him to reach his potential.
I lament this, it would have been hella fun.

EDIT: I should say, so far I have resisted using him as a BBEG or a henchman, as I'd really like to play him!

I find that almost all of my characters are characters that I never got to play :( I got so many ideas for them, they just never actually manage to make it to an actual board.

Are you like me and end up reading Pathfinder stuff when you get bored and then get really excited about a character concept, map it out, and then never get to use it?

I haven't gotten to play him... yet, but some day, I would like to. For a different game system, but he's one of my favorite concept characters I've ever had. I was helping the author of the game playtest the character creation process when I came up with this. This video was the inspiration for the character.

Context: The game system is about killing gods, in a bastardized version of medieval Scandinavia. I'll probably spend 1/2 my time at GenCon running sessions of this game.

Osjorn the Dreamless

Bearer/Abomination

How did you gain your relic? The relic is an axe, it was carved by giants from a stone found at the bottom of the river Styx. When I was born, I emerged holding the axe.

What does your relic whisper to you when you touch it? I hear the whispers of memories stolen by the river Styx.

Do you trust your relic? No, after killing someone, I hear their memories in my sleep. I know that the relic is powering my heart by consuming these dreams.

What Myth are you born from? Loki stole the axe and hid it inside my mothers womb.

Why did your mythic parent reject you? Loki came to retrieve the axe, but found me sitting in the corner of my mothers house holding it. Curious, he watched me and my family. He realized that my family didn't remember me, even though I was in the room with them. Not wanting to suffer any memory loss he abandoned me.

What did you gain from your mortal parent? Loneliness. Watching my family, I see how the warm embrace of others can bring joy to ones heart. Joy I have only seen in others.

Weapons

How Heavy this Axe (relic)...is my weapon, I use the crushing weight of a thousand thousand memories to end Myths.

Stygian Visions (intrinsic)...is my weapon, I can see all things as they truly are, unhindered by a lifetime of memories.

Svadilfari (companion)...is my weapon, he is a loyal wolfhound, the only one who never forgets, his presence reminds me of who I am and why I must fight.

Myth of Death

Dream
My dreams are the dreams of the dead. In my dreams, I live their lives, consuming their memories to sustain myself.

Presence
When the axe touches the earth, memories of the dead escape. People mistake others for long dead relatives and friends or remember things they never experienced. Because I tire from carrying the axe often, I drag it behind me as I travel.

Mortal Form
A tired man carrying a stone axe, dressed in simple travelers clothes.

Paragon Form
A man carrying an axe he never puts down. His face always appears similar to a dead relative of whoever looks upon him.

Supernatural Form
The axe has begun to fuse to his hand. His own has been forgotten, even by him. Only the faces of the dead are reflected to onlookers.

Godly Form
A tall man, swathed in black mist, an axe extends from his arm, the flesh of his arm and stone and wood of the axe existing as a single limb. Brackish water drips from the axes stone head, puddles forming behind him wherever he goes. His eyes are pure black and appear soulless, stealing your memories if you stare into them.

I had a 1st ed. gnome fighter/illusionist/thief who was turned into a werefox, along with two other party members, on his first adventure.

The most sadly unplayed character, however, is a Champions character - Captain Fury, who had elements of the Shadow, the Phantom, and the Terry McGinnis Batman (though my character actually predated Batman Beyond by several years), with patriotic overtones (he was the protector of Philadelphia). His primary enemy was going to be an immortal Egyptian alchemist, and my GM had several notebooks full of adventure ideas (similar to the plots of the later National Treasure films) and villains for him to combat. All of those notebooks were given to me by my friend's wife after his death. So that's the one I usually think about when asked this question.

Dwarf Monk of the Four Winds/Drunken Master, focusing on Fire, inspired by Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender.