I don't know about everyone else... but when creating a character I often start with "seed" or idea of something that grows into a fleshed out character. For example, I was just reading the APG and noticed the Lucky Halfling feat, after just reading the description I suddenly had this flash of an idea of a big-bellied obese/bald/insanely-cheerful halfling that the party rubs for good luck. (Don't ask me why... my brain just works that way.) However, with that seed idea in mind I'll go on to eventually create a "Lucky Halfling" character.
SO! I'd like to create this thread as a place for the boards to share such character seeds. We'll define a seed as a listing of a feat, and some descriptors. I'll use my above idea as an example...
"Lucky Halfling" feat from the Advance Players Guide. A big-bellied obese, bald, insanely-cheerful halfling that the party keeps around for good luck.
... something like that. I'd gladly take suggestions for a better format. The idea being the seed is a few lines of text that may cause a flash of inspiration.
So... any takers? :)
*bump*
Really... nobody?
I really want to play an alchemist but make him crazy and a detective. He'll have split personality disorder: one half, a sherlock holmes type of detective with a take no %#$* attitude looking for a moriarty type character. The other half: the moriarty type character who's gonna run a theives guild/crime syndicate. Don't know how I'm gonna pull it off, but ill figure it out.
In out current game, I'm playing an elf who wears a stetson and hates elves. Thinks they use "f+!#+@y" magic (just the characters verb useage, not meaning to offend :-)). Actually had a funny game last week when he was trying to convince the trade council that the elves were starting a war and that they need to mobilize but had no evidence. Chaos ensued.
I never met anyone that had a character concept from a Feat description before!
I usually Google "D&D character traits quirks" and look through the many, many posts in various threads on these topics. I pick out ideas and eventually a character comes out of that.
I had a character that was obsessed with orange. He went to great lengths to find an orange swimming costume so he could find out how deep the "lake of unfathomable depths" was.
I'm currently playing a middle aged female narcoleptic retired international belly-dancer Witch with a pirate’s voice [picked up the lingo on the ships while travelling to the international destinations in her youth..obviously!]. She calls the other party members by different names like Sandy, Ducky or Lovey.
I had this one character that was a LE Rogue/Assassin (cliched I know), that hated Wizards. Not all arcane casters, just Wizards. Reason was because as a young (and stupid) Rogue, he attempted to steal from the local Wizard. Well in the insueing battle the Wizard fired an Acid Arrow that the Rogue dodged, but not completely. As the Arrow pasted his face, some of the spray coming off the projectile splashed him in the face, horribley scarring one side. Since then he wore a golden mask (Phantom of the Opera style)that allowed him to use Disguise Self 1/Day.
Actually I get character ideas from feat descriptions and from Traits especially...
I had the idea of a half orc homeless rouge that scavenged around for food and things he had the scavenger alternative racial class feature. I did not get picked for the pbp though.
|
Many of the threads on these boards (or ENWorld, wherever) are can serve as springboards for a character.
A day or so ago, I saw a thread asking where Hags came from, since they were all female, and answers included 1) mate with male trolls / giants, 2) seduce human(ish) males and 3) kidnap girl children and transform them somehow.
And so, my first Witch concept came to mind, Piet the Hag-Boy.
Taken as a child by a Green Hag, who had hoped he'd be born a girl (and a Hag), after using some foul alchemy on his human mother, he was slated to be fattened up and eaten, preferably on a special holy day to Mestama, when she had friends over.
The hag, getting used to having a flunky around the cave that proved marginally more useful than the small tribe of goblins she'd dominated, never got around to eating him (and the celebratory feast she had planned never quite seemed right, since she had a bad run of luck and never felt that Mestama deserved such an elaborate offering, or that her backstabbing 'friends' deserved to share in such a feast...). As a young teen, growing up suffering relentless abuse and neglect by the Green Hag he called 'Mother,' Piet was rescued from his kidnapper by a band of adventurers, and is now a 1st level Witch, with some odd behavioral quirks that comes from being raised to be a drudge / serving-boy to a Hag and having no direct experience of any sort of normal society or treatment.
Basically, the 'seed' was 'raised by a hag, who meant to eat him, but never got around to it...'
I love flavorful backgrounds, but find they tend to get lost quickly in the tumult of the game. The primary question I always ask is "Why?" Why leave home and trade and family to stare down death? Fame? Riches? A deep seated need to kill every last one of "them"? Then I flesh out from there.
A big part of this is driven by my military experience IRL. So many 18 year olds with so many stories, they all blend together, until that one moment when "I think I'll join the Army" sounds like a good plan :) Then you get stories of Basic, and Field exercises,and deployments, and drunken escapades involving inflatable livestock....
In short the interesting stuff happens AFTER they start killing things for fun and profit :)
I really want to play an alchemist but make him crazy and a detective. He'll have split personality disorder: one half, a sherlock holmes type of detective with a take no %#$* attitude looking for a moriarty type character. The other half: the moriarty type character who's gonna run a theives guild/crime syndicate. Don't know how I'm gonna pull it off, but ill figure it out.
In out current game, I'm playing an elf who wears a stetson and hates elves. Thinks they use "f**goty" magic (just the characters verb useage, not meaning to offend :-)). Actually had a funny game last week when he was trying to convince the trade council that the elves were starting a war and that they need to mobilize but had no evidence. Chaos ensued.
I want to play an Alchemist who is perfectly sane with a firm grasp on reality and a single personality. Just to break the curve.
|
I want to play an Alchemist who is perfectly sane with a firm grasp on reality and a single personality. Just to break the curve.I really want to play an alchemist but make him crazy and a detective. He'll have split personality disorder: one half, a sherlock holmes type of detective with a take no %#$* attitude looking for a moriarty type character. The other half: the moriarty type character who's gonna run a theives guild/crime syndicate. Don't know how I'm gonna pull it off, but ill figure it out.
In out current game, I'm playing an elf who wears a stetson and hates elves. Thinks they use "f**goty" magic (just the characters verb useage, not meaning to offend :-)). Actually had a funny game last week when he was trying to convince the trade council that the elves were starting a war and that they need to mobilize but had no evidence. Chaos ensued.
"Introducing slightly-upset man and his alter ego: slightly-more upset man!"
Actually I get character ideas from feat descriptions and from Traits especially...
Oh yeah... the traits are perfect for generating ideas.