The old, decrepit hacker in me (aged COBOL Cowboy and Fortran Freak) loves so-called planetarium music and similar sounding New Age instrumentals. Jonn Serrie, Enya, Arkenstone along with Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries) and the Toreador Song.
I love the music from Chrono Chross. Also Xenogears. I think they had the same composer.
Also good is the soundtrack to Princess Bride.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for Zelda (Listening to "Hero of the Wind" from Wind Waker right now).
Even if their lyrics make no sense most of the time, System of a Down is good listening for character creation.
Depends on the kind of character I'm working on, really. I have a playlist on my iPod for the various campaigns I'm running or playing in, so those always get me in the mood.
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I prefer nature sounds to music in cases like this. I usually prefer the more violent nature sounds, though, like thunderstorms or crashing waves as opposed to soft rain or a babbling stream (unless I'm playing a something calm like a monk). I try to envision the character walking amongst the elements. For example, with crashing surf, if I'm playing a fighter, I picture this warrior on horseback racing along the coastline towards a town in the distance with smoke rising from it. A wizard in a thunderstorm is commanding the elements and hurling bolts of lightning and balls of fire at his enemies.
My other favorite is music from the Soul Caliber games, especially if I'm playing a melee character.
I download butt-loads (Screened for language? Wow, so what do I do with the ends of my cigar? Cmon, its a genuine uh.... metric measurement, no really! *in-joke*) of anime music videos, so my music collection makes the term eclectic seem rather limited.
But a lot of these have songs that generate characters. My wife created a clipped-wing Raptoran Entropomancer from Hoobastank's Out of Control. I've got a Dragonborn Palladin of Bahamut/previously Heironius created by Papa Roach's Tear My Heart Open.
Actually, every one of my wife's and my characters have "their own songs". Some aren't character creation songs, but they become appropriate later. Like Nightwish's Crownless for my Half-Ogre Ranger.
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The Black Bard seems to have the same take on music as I do. I often create my characers while listening to a particular song or album over and over again. One of my favorite characters (an albino human cleric of Wee Jas/ incarnate of Wee Jas that I created as a backup for my friend's AoW campaign) was created while listneing to A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step and Mer de Noms albums. My original AoW character (a rather impulsive human fighter) was created while listening to the song 'Circle Pit' by Refused, on a loop, about 50 times in a row.
-The Eldritch Mr. Shiny