My most favorite charecter in 2nd ed was my druid Quinn Silverhawk.
I think we got him to at most 12 or 14th lvl but I was reading the Darkwalker on the Moonshea series and patterned my druid after the druids in the book.
The other players were THE Lady Daniel Duvrosan and the elven mage Aysha. Monica and marie if you guys are reading this HI!
He was a normal human druid but when he was 5th lvl(before he could shapechange) he failed vs poly and was turned in to a newt( yes my DM,Hi BOB, really like monty python) anyway undetered I crawwled up the mages robes and just as he was about to lightning bolt my friends I bit him on the nads and that gave daniel(monica) time to finish him off. then as you all know "I got better"
My favorite 3/.5 charecter was my priest of velsharoon that took the half-vampir and then death knight templates. Not a strong spellcatser but really fun to play. His charisma was 18 so he ran around pretending to be a paladin of mystra to get people to trust him them then did his evil deeds.
Speaking of paladins....
Reynold Travaris is currently a blonde haired, blue-eyed "Golden Boy" 8th level paladin of Kord adventuring through Fortress of the Yuan-Ti (we've already completed Barrow of the Forgotten King and The Sinister Spire). He comes from an offshoot of the typical worshippers of Kord (God of Strength), a subset who emphasize mental and moral strength as well as physical power.
Once when the (true neutral) rogue of the party attempted to pick his pocket, Reynold caught her in the act. At this point in their relationship they had adventured together for a while already, and there should have been a bond of mutual trust between the party members. Reynold seized her hand and looked her in the eyes. His shoulders fell, and a look of great sadness overcame him.
"If it means so much to you, then have it." he said.
And proceeded to hand over to her every gold piece in his possession. It was WELL over a hundred gold pieces, and we were still very low level, like second or third. The other player's jaw dropped, and Reynold simply turned his back and walked away. That action made the rogue ashamed of herself for perhaps the first time ever, and earned a deep respect for the paladin.
He's always the first to defend and the last to doubt, and never hesitates to throw himself in harm's way if it will help someone. He weilds a flaming/shocking flail and a floating shield, and uses the Devoted Spirit variant class feature from Unearthed Arcana instead of a mount (horses aren't much use in a cramped dungeon!). He's also taking the Combat Focus feat chain from PHBII and the Battle Blessing feat from Complete Champion...he makes one heck of a healer, does nice damage, and is incredibly hard to put down!
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Reynold seized her hand and looked her in the eyes. His shoulders fell, and a look of great sadness overcame him.
"If it means so much to you, then have it." he said.
And proceeded to hand over to her every gold piece in his possession. It was WELL over a hundred gold pieces, and we were still very low level, like second or third. The other player's jaw dropped, and Reynold simply turned his back and walked away. That action made the rogue ashamed of herself for perhaps the first time ever, and earned a deep respect for the paladin.
Honestly, I respect guys/gals that play paladins beyond the "I'm the good guy here. CHAAAARGE!" or, even worse, the "DURR, DO GOOD, DURR". I think that'd be too challenging for me, my friends consider me NN or CN in real life. Kudos on making such a character.
I've actually seen a few that have said or done very cool things, this is an interesting thread.
Ignatius Highill, beta halfling druid. Flew around on a dire bat and had Varisian Tatt(Evoc) and Augment Summoning. Got a +20 to touch attacks when he took the form of a tiny bat. But he died a lot.
Darley, Lady of the Silver Rose
Alu-Fiend female Enchantress
Level: varies based on campaign; last ended at 22nd level
Edition: 1st/2nd; 3.X stats exist but no actual game timeI've mentioned my alu-fiend before, inspired/derived from the Temple of Elemental Evil. Darley was lots of fun. She became lawful good after donning a helm of opposite alignment (ah, the good ol' days of cursed magic items) but masqueraded as a human (looking just like her alu-fiend form, minus the demonic parts). I had the party convinced she was a succubus on more than one occasion, and the problems paladins had when she was around . . . . She was every inch a lady, but also a wizardess of great skill (I earned my reputation as a deadly spellcaster with her). The effects of her high Charisma (we didn't normally use Comeliness) were usually more than enough to distract our foes (or fellow PCs), though she dressed conservatively. She had a habit of draining the life out of people who managed to offend her (but never for lethal damage; just enough to let those with over-friendly fingers know she was displeased). It's hard to role-play someone smarter than you are, but I tried. Haven't ever gotten to play her in 3.X, but if someone ever runs a high-level campaign I might blow off the dust. Darley doesn't use contractions when she speaks, giving her a very thoughtful, erudite vocabulary.
Very interesting.
One of my Favorites was a Ranger from southern Furyondy.
Name : Lart Oakguard, Male Oeridian (Human)
Class: Ranger level 15
Edition : 1st (never went to 2nd and a 1st ed ranger does not convert over to 3.X well at all, though I am tempted to convert him to Pathfinder, and I did play his son as a 3rd ed character, more on that later)
I enjoyed him a great deal, he was the first character I really got up in levels and I played he through the Temple Of Elemental Evil series to the Giant series back in the early to mid '80s and then in various side games since.
He was 6 foot tall and broad shouldered with a reasonably high strength (18(33)). He was a decent archer though a better swordsman, his favorite weapon was his two handed sword of giant slaying, though he did carry one of the swords of answering as well he rarely used it. He had been recruited to join a group of knights and seek the missing Prince of Furyondy. He was from a very minor noble family down on it's luck and this was a chance to maybe recover some of the old luster to the family name. Not entirely sure about it he joined anyway thanks to the pretty paladin they sent to convince him. Soon enough he found that these paladins were in desprate need of his more flexible veiws and approach to things. (Orginal party was 3 paladins, 2 priests, 1 wizard, 1 monk, and him. All the paladins followed St. Cuthbert, the Priests, Wizard, and Monk followed Roa. Everyone was LG, Lart though followed Ehlonna and was CG.)
Needless to say Lart got into a ton of trouble with regularity. But he always managed to make it with the help of his buds. The adventure took years of play (2 real years of nearly once a week play) and the party was very close. When we ran across Darley well my poor fellow had been stuck in the temple and the nodes for months by then and he ... had needs. He knew what she was but was sure he could change her. So he convinced the others to spare her. That was no easy thing to do, but well she was beaten and overcome, killing a beaten foe was just not in them and my opinion gave them an out. Anyway I sought a helm of alignment change for her, never did find it, but over time her alignment did soften a little to CN as she came to understand Lart really did care for her. The temple overcome, the prince returned, there was some down time. Darley and Lart had a son, named...Lart Jr. Lart also had been able to rescue an elven princess and became an ambassidor to the elves from Furyondy. While he was home most of the time he did have to leave for extended periods for his job. One of those times he returned to find his son barely alive and Darley killed. Lart tracked down the killer, a half-orc assasssin, and in a rather epic fight killed him. But it did not bring her back. He raised his son, who became a Paladin of Heronious. And then sought to find out who hired the assassin. To this day he never has.
Lart was well educated (1st ed rangers had wizard spells and spell books), a minor noble (he was a Knight Commander of the Order of the Heart), religious (Druids spells as well for Rangers back then), a woodsman, and more then a little bit of a risk taker. In general he was kind and forgiving, but he could be outright ruthless at other times.
((I never converted him as I said, stealth, two-weapon fighting, archery, and choosen foe never fit for him. He fought well against giants but he wore plate and carried a twohander. His tracking was used often and his closeness to nature clear. He was a bit chaotic, but not in any stretch a barbarian. A fighter with a lot of feats could come close I suppose. I will try and build him for Pathfinder, I think I can easy enough. Fighter with maybe a little druid and even a level or two in wizard. Lart is just one of my handful of cherished PCs. Rottle, Thurgon, Sargrith, and Crittza'a Malatar are a more complete list. Each build in their own way, some sharing traits but each very differnt.))
Thanks your post reminded my of this guy and those good times.
My favorite d20 Modern character was Edgar "Eddie" Meehan. He was a Tough Hero 4 with the Emergency Services occupation. He was a Boston firefighter and EMT, and a bit of a car nut, preferabbly muscle cars from the late 60s and early 70s. The campaign started at 4th level. We were instructed to build our PCs for the first 2 levels as if in a normal world, and the last 2 levels after surviving the zombie apocalypse. So I took the Fire Resistance and DR 1/- talents, and my initial feats were Great Fortitude, Endurance, and Surface Vehicle Operation (heavy wheeled) and my post-zombie feats were Heroic Surge and Personal Firearms Proficiency. I think I got a bonus feat in firemans axe too. ;-) Oh yeah, he also had a high Charisma, so he was in those Firefighter Calendars too. Pure cheese. With a really big mustache.
Anyways, the campaign was basically the Road Warrior meets 28 Days Later. Yup, FAST zombies! The campaign started out in Texas, and we were supposed to lead a refuge caravan to either Alaska or Maine (we had 2 radio signals to choose from).
One of the most memorable encounters was when an NPC betrayed the caravan and went speeding off in a supply truck, crashing through the security fence, and fleeing into the night. A bunch of fast zombies came storming in. We had been sleeping, so all I had on was my boxers. I don't think I even had a gun....maybe my axe. Someone tossed me the keys to the jeep, and I used that to run over a bunch of zombies, picked up the other PCs, and sped after the betrayer. It was pretty harrowing fighting zombies that could infect you with a single wound while having NO equipment.
I liked that character so much, when another group did a Werewolf campaign, I just ported him over. The point of the Werewolf campaign was to have a bunch of people totally ignorant of the Werewolf system or history or background discover they were, in fact, werewolves. It was set in Las Vegas, and one night at the coffee shop, some Black Spirals attack. I popped Crinos without knowing what the heck was happening! But, being a trained EMT, I went to try to help the NPC who had been disemboweled. It's hard to do first aid when you're a 9 foot tall werewolf with giant claws.
Coincidentally, I had put a lot of points in instinct or whatever, thinking it would help me dodge falling timbers and such in a fire. Wrong. It made me super good at transforming, especially since my best physical stat was the toughness one too (I forget the actual names of the rules). So I could basically turn one hand into a claw, snap it to my other hand, and back again. Presto-changeo.
Our totem was the Sphinx outside of Luxor. Or big quest was to remove all the evil spirits or taint or whatever from that big toxic waste dump in the mountains. We had a really good plan (took 3 game sessions to come up with), but our inside man got corrupted, he in turn corrupted our pack leader, and she eventually filled my hide with depleted uranium shells.
My replacement werewolf was a wolf who could turn human, who was raised by the fabulous animal trainers "Zigfried and Freud." So that guy was ridiculous too.
Lots of good stuff.
You're welcome. Now I miss Darley even more. At least I've still got her daughters (Terisa, adopted Dunedain ranger; Ellasandara, tiefling bard, and Kalindra, adopted elven wizard/bladesinger). I think for me Morag's likely to become the reincarnation of Darley.
I don't get to play as a player much, but I did enjoy a short run as a Dalbaen Pike, a human psionicist ("Pike" being the designation for the illigitimate offspring of military men in the region--perhaps the only nod to Martin I will ever grant). We used some obscure back-ground book to generate his particulars, and my choice when all was said and done was to take it or leave it, and taking was by far the more challenging option.
Born in the local prison to a prostitute and a city guard who was later framed and exiled. At a young age (6, I think), he was sold off to a local guildmaster as, well, a catamite is about the best description. He was eventually rescued by his father who uncovered the guildmaster's corrupt and wicked operations. Raised among the city guards and later "adopted" by them when his father was exiled, all despite the fact that he was terribly unathletic and not much skilled at weapons. Since I didn't want to play a loonie, I chose Neutral for his alignment and gave him a rather insouciant outlook on life (figuring nothing could really compare to what he had already experienced).
The one difficult thing was I had to choose some belief that was orthoganal to what most folks believed. Since he was a psionicist, I chose a disbelief in magic. He was unshakably convinced in his own mind that magic was a group delusion or simply a misunderstood manifestation psionics. Got a lot of strange looks from the sorcerer and the wizard in the party, especially when he would patiently explain to them how misguided they were and that their abilities couldn't possibly be real (at low levels I could basically emulate most of what they could do so I could make a pretty good case). Of course, his psicrystal facet was Single-minded.
Due a weird synergy of the telepath discipline skills and feats, he had a monstrous diplomacy skill and the dice loved him (at least far as diplomacy was concerned). He regularly rolled above 25 on his checks (and not even 5th level yet).
The only thing he really held a grudge against were gnomes. The gnomes in the campaign were basically gully dwarves, and were so insufferably stupid and obnoxious, he was more than half convinced that allowing them to be wiped out would be a favor to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, they were protected by the dwarves, and he actually got on quite well with dwarves, having been tutored by a dwarven champion in the language and the use of the dwarven waraxe.
Alas, real life interceded in the DM's life and we weren't able to continue the campaign. Fun character though.
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Chault the Bastard, Aasimar Paladin of Freedom.
He was so much fun to play because of my fake (and bad) British accent, his zeal for life and liberty, his stubbornness in never giving up (on anything, from teasing the fat cleric, to convincing others to join him at the brothel, to pursuing the villain over tower tops), and his special sword. Trading in his mount, turning undead, and spells, he got a divine sword that leveled with him. BIM (Beauty-in-Motion) was fun to play with, especially after it gained sentience at 10th level.
Chault the Bastard, Aasimar Paladin of Freedom.
He was so much fun to play because of my fake (and bad) British accent, his zeal for life and liberty, his stubbornness in never giving up (on anything, from teasing the fat cleric, to convincing others to join him at the brothel, to pursuing the villain over tower tops), and his special sword. Trading in his mount, turning undead, and spells, he got a divine sword that leveled with him. BIM (Beauty-in-Motion) was fun to play with, especially after it gained sentience at 10th level.
Whoa...trading in his mount, turning ability, AND spells? That better have been one HELL of a sword! (Or heaven, you know what I mean).
Do you remember any of the weapon's abilities?
Lots of good stuff.You're welcome. Now I miss Darley even more. At least I've still got her daughters (Terisa, adopted Dunedain ranger; Ellasandara, tiefling bard, and Kalindra, adopted elven wizard/bladesinger). I think for me Morag's likely to become the reincarnation of Darley.
I played her son for a long time. Started in first ed then converted him to 3.0 then to 3.5. He hit level 17 at one point.
His only demonic trait was red eyes and dark vision. Although we all laughed at his orginal strength score. 18(76)....the strength that vampires had in first ed. (purely random roll too.)
Lots of good stuff.You're welcome. Now I miss Darley even more. At least I've still got her daughters (Terisa, adopted Dunedain ranger; Ellasandara, tiefling bard, and Kalindra, adopted elven wizard/bladesinger). I think for me Morag's likely to become the reincarnation of Darley.I played her son for a long time. Started in first ed then converted him to 3.0 then to 3.5. He hit level 17 at one point.
His only demonic trait was red eyes and dark vision. Although we all laughed at his orginal strength score. 18(76)....the strength that vampires had in first ed. (purely random roll too.)
I haven't played Terisa in 3.X nor Ellasandra, but I did play Kalindra for a one-shot. I kept Darley's appearance identical to the Caldwell artwork other than to change some of the paraphernelia. Oh, and change her Charisma/Comeliness slightly.
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I remember a friend of mine telling me about one of his favorite characters some time ago.
He played a perpetually pissed off halfling thief, who in the process of escaping a badguy decided to drop down the side of a building from ledge to ledge as a quick way down, and the DM decided that one of the ledges would have glass on the edging to stop thieves, so he ended up falling three stories into an ally in which a Mage's Duel was being conducted. He startled the spellcasters so much that they accidentally cast their spells on him, one of them casting Permanancy and the other casting Enlarge Person.
Later on, he ends up being cursed with a voice that should he speak, anyone who hears him dies. He seeks out a method to communicate through telepathy so that he doesn't kill his teammates.
Finally, his party was holed up in a castle with a full army of orcs attacking, and the vast majority of the castle's forces out fighting elsewhere, so they all get an idea. The medium-sized halfling climbs up to the uppermost spire, the rest of the party closes all the windows/doors, then cast silence spells across the entire castle.
The thief then pulls out a Horn of Blasting and shouts into it "HEY YOU GUYS!" at the orcs. The DM just looks at him dumbfounded and the player asks "So, how much experience do I get?"
He went up 10 levels that night.
So, if you guys ever come across a five foot four inch tall halfling with an attitude and a cloak, don't annoy him.
That's my favorite other person's character.
I have several favorite characters. One that comes to mind, was a Halfling Ranger named "Noah" I used in 1st edition & 2nd edition d&d. I had several of my most prolific moments in the history of the game with Noah (which since my favorite aspect of the game is combat, were naturally all combat related.)
In 1983, as a 10th level Ranger, 'Noah' took on the Frost Giant Jarl, the Jarl's wife, and his two big ass Winter Wolves (module G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl) all by himself, and survived. Turin the Mad was my GM.
In 1997-98, I used Noah (12th level Ranger) in a home brew of Turin the Mad's (Greyhawk) and scored 4 confirmed critical hits with a Giant-slaying sword, on a 275 HP Fire Giant Chieftain, in the SAME Round, and killed him Instantly. Turin the Mad coined the moment the Fall of "Smokin' Boots Snurrenson".
Lastly, Noah was presumed killed when he was critted by Goroda, the Cloud giant leader (in the Liberation of Geoff/Greyhawk) with a critical hit from a special heavy flail. I disagreed with Turin the Mad (the GM) on the mechanics of the flail used (Turin had it do Quadruple damage rather than the standard Double damage), and to settle the matter, Turin and I went to a d&d event in Richmond Virginia, where the Editor of the module (John Rateliff) was scheduled to attend, and we presented him with the dispute, and Mr. Rateliff (God bless him and his posterity) Overruled Turin's call and clarified that the wording of the cloud giant's heavy flail was only intended to suggest a double damage weapon with a larger critical hit threshold:) Hence Noah was alive and well (the cloud giant leader bought the farm on the next round), and there was great rejoicing...
Prag "the Maurader" Thandarn - Wild Mage.
Being a wild Mage, Prag was an endless amount of fun to play throughout his brief, violent career as an adventurer. He began as a street urchin who decided that he wanted to learn magic. So he got himself a job as a janitor of sorts at the local magical university. With his native intelligence, combined with an inborn affinity for magic, he actually managed to start achieving magical effects, albeit somewhat backasswards (hence... Wild Mage). Prag met his end when the group found itself confronted with what basically boiled down to a jumping puzzle in a Dungeon. Floating rocks suspended over a pit of lava. Yeah... our DM was a sadist. Prag actually made all of his jump checks, despite his dismal Dex. When everyone else had crossed, it was the Monk's turn. The monk. With his awesome Dex and his awesome saves. The monk who was being played by the player with the unerring tendency to roll a one when it most matters.
Sure enough, he rolled a one. Then the DM (showing a bit of uncharacteristc mercy) told him to just roll a reflex save to grab a handhold on the rock before plummeting to his doom.
"Just don't roll another one, and you'll be ok"
Of course he rolled a one again.
"Umm... prove it?" A third one in a row.
We all assumed that the Monk was lost. Then I remembered that I had ONE last spell available. Nahall's Reckless Dweomer. This is a spell that attempts to reproduce the effects of any other spell the mage knows, but ALWAYS incurs a Wild Surge. I dweomered for "Fly" adn cast it on the plummeting monk.
The DM rolled on the Wild Surge table. Then he just starts laughing.
Me: "Did I save him?"
DM (laughing uncontrollably): "Yup!"
Me: "What did I get?"
DM (barely containing himelf): "Caster changes places with target."
Me: "..."
"Figures."
I know this is bringing out the dead but I really like this story. I've seen three 20's and three one's in a row before, but the Wild Surge was icing on the cake.