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i was just thinking about my best character, by best i mean the one i liked the most, and it turned out to be a character i didnt think i would like when i first created the character.
my group needed a healer/tank to flush out the group. i suggested that i play a paladin since i knew it could fill both roles very well. when i talked tot he gm he advised me not to, becuse another player was playing a neutral evil character as well as a chaotic evil barbarian would be joining the group later.
i was going through my list of characters i had played in the past and couldnt really think of anything that would be better then a paladin, or at least equal to. then i had a "moment of clarity" and started building a rage prophet (life oracle/invulnerable rager). when all was said and done the character was a beast, mechanically awesome, fit the role so well, and, contrary to my bias against barbarians, a blast to RP (like a shaman type character, wore a wolf skin over his head and back).
he went down as my best character i have ever played.
so what was your best?
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I'm extremely fond of the Arcane Trickster I'm playing. He's not evil, but he is amoral. He steals and is generally dastardly, but doesn't betray his companions. He needs them for future adventuring and profit.
He's not worthless in combat, but he's definitely behind the curve. Fun to play though. His familiar is a chain smoking monkey who wears a vest and fez. Monkey's name is Jack II. Because Jack I died in a green ooze accident.
Well, I haven't been playing very long and I've only had a handful of characters.
But of those, my two current Serpent's Skull characters are a blast to play, especially the Sorcerer (who started as just a fill-in until the main one got back).
Sun Xiao, the Lawful Evil Monk worshiper of Irori and Achaekek. Mechanically (after the rebuild) a Brawler 3/Master of Many Styles 5, I think he's a badass in combat and his RP is really very fun to do. Serious minded, obsessed with gaining power, but is friendly towards anyone he trusts (and his balls to the wall Sense Motive means he generally KNOWS who to trust) and is a lover of adventure, always putting himself in harms way to prove himself (but not in a reckless or uncalculated manner).
Rusigari Rashiska, the Rakshasa -Spawn Tiefling, Djinni Bloodline Sorcerer. Very charismatic (of course) and fancies himself a ladies man, is of above average intelligence, and is actually very fit for a Sorcerer (16 Str and Dex). Also borderline insane and reckless, and has a talent for getting himself into situations where he's in direct danger. Thankfully this plays into his hands, as his favorite spells are those oriented to shock (hahahaha it's punny) and awe his opponents.
i was going through my list of characters i had played in the past and couldnt really think of anything that would be better then a paladin, or at least equal to. then i had a "moment of clarity" and started building a rage prophet (life oracle/invulnerable rager). when all was said and done the character was a beast, mechanically awesome, fit the role so well, and, contrary to my bias against barbarians, a blast to RP (like a shaman type character, wore a wolf skin over his head and back).
SideKick, are you sure you didn't play my favorite character? I had a character very similar to that but was a country doctor until she was stranded on another plane for a while and resorted to barbarism.
Another one I enjoyed was for a 4e one-off to satisfy a buddy who likes that system: A cocky eladrin fighter (slayer type) wielding a greatsword. His name was Cav McThighcep, he was a jock, and he was all for walking away from annoying encounters.
mine was Remy Levian Valente
A Redhead Ranger, CE. he was designated in AD&D2E and dies at level 10th fighting a dracolich...
Then the DM respawn my char as an undead knight serving that dracolich... broke his chains and... die again
One of my favorite characters was from 3.5. CN Sorcerer/Barbarian Rage Mage who worshiped an obscure red dragon god whose main ideal was "purge the evil with fire to make it clean." He also eventually ended up with the spell Draconic Polymorph and turned into a red dragon and delivered his Shocking Grasp or Combust (Spell Compendium. 2nd level, 1d8/lvl max 10. reflex or catch fire) with a bite or claw (was playing it like a Magus before Magus even came out).
I played him like a male version of Jack from Mass Effect 2. Heavily tattooed guy who got mad at everything and then ran in and threw spells on everything... the standard fight went something like:
DM: "The creature roars at you and advances"
Me: "I get angry, roar back, and punch it in the face with Combust"
My favorite was from 3.5...Jasper, the Spirit Shaman with his blue bear spirit guide Baloo. He was a peace loving pothead who spoke like Bill and Ted era Keanu. He was always talking to Baloo, who no one else could see, which combined with his herb smoking led most to believe he was insane. He wasn't much at low levels, but once our group started fighting incorporeal undead he had his chance to shine. Soon he was summoning dire wolves and dominating the battlefield with his magic, all while chuckling softly to himself. Sadly, the Keanu voice caused him to be banned by all current DMs and so I was not able to revive him in Pathfinder...until I ran my own campaign and made him a Heavens Oracle.
My favorite was a 3.5 artificer from the Eberron setting. She was a petite, sweet-natured girl of 16 whose major flaw was an extraordinary amount of greed; she was absolutely ruthless when it came to making money. She was never seen without a pair of clear, well designed goggles to cover her beautiful baby-blues (her best feature, of course); she even slept in them. There was one incident involving an attempted assassination while we slept in an Inn. She spent that whole fight in her frilly pink night gown, goggles, and her Teddy Bear of Scorching Ray.
I imported the Ferengi Rules of Aquisition from the Star Trek DS9 series; she could often find a way of making one of the rules fit into any given situation, and she adored educating her teammates about the "correct" way of handling said situation.
Basically, she was a combination of Kaylee Frye from Firefly and Quark from Star Trek DS9.
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Two favorites.
One is for a Rise of the Rune Lords campaign. I play a Halfling Order of the Dragon Cavalier, named Poppy Tosscobble and her loyal dog steed Hildigrim. She's all about acquiring glory for the Halfling race....and of course for herself! My brother plays a Paladin in that game, and they basically roam the land, kicking butt, doing good and chewing bubble gum! Good times!
The next is an Ape Shaman Druid for Skull and Shackles named "Jacqui" Delahaye (after the French pirate), and her gun toting chimpanzee Diabolito! She freed him from a low rent dockside circus as a child, in a very "Little Sparrow" from Fable kind of fashion.
Man, do I love an animal companion, or what? ;)
Wow, over 35 years of gaming, its tough to single out just one.
I'd have to go with my first really significant character becaus eeeryone knows that first loves are always special, an AD&D paladin named Fintril, who eventually became known as "The Silver Paladin" because of his habit of highly polishing his armor and shield until it had a mirror-like sheen. He was heroic and self-sacrificing to the core, and is still the standard that I hold all other paladins to, viewed through the rose colored glasses of memory, of course.
Honorable mention has to go to:
-- Zomax, a CN AD&D wizard character that I inherited from another player who had left the game before I joined. Not a nice man, but loyal to his party in a cold-blooded way (because they are the meatshields that kept his awesomeness alive).
-- Ivan Redhammer, a 2nd edition dwarven fighter/cleric who kicked serious ass.
-- Singlo, a jovial and larcenous 2nd Edition halfling fighter/thief Robin Hood-type who donated a big portion of his loot to support an orphanage in Greyhawk.
-- White Wolf, a cheesy (but fun) 2nd Edition Savage Ranger ripped off from Tarzan and Reacher of the Jack Daley Coramonde books.
-- Sinjin, my first 3.0 character, a cold-blooded, fanatical true neutral sorcerer in a homebrew setting based loosely on Planet of the Apes - the orcs have taken over the world, and the PCs are resistance fighters. Whether you call him a terrorist or a freedom fighter depends entirely on your point of view and the verdict of history.
-- Cicada, a grim, uncompromising, upright 3.5 LG monk whose tag line was "There are sinners here in need of correction".
Haven't got a favorite PF character yet, probably because since PF came out, I've been doing far more GMing than playing. Hoping I'll add a new one to the list when we start the Skulls and Shackles AP this summer.
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I'm going to have to go with Kitty D'Kshandr, my naïve, ultra-good paladin who refused to kill anything, anywhere, ever. When attacked, her preference was to defeat her enemies, tie them up, and then read aloud to them from the pamphlets she carried around with her, which had titles like "Being Good: Why It Is Better Than Being Evil!" (Several of her foes started begging for death after only a couple of minutes of this.)
Obviously, she wouldn't work in every campaign, but in the low-combat, low-magic, heavily social/political campaign she was designed for, she was a real treat to play. One of her shining moments came when the guardian of one of the rare magic items her group was at that point questing for told them he would only give it to someone "with the purest of hearts", and before he was able to say anything else, the rest of the group started interrupting with, "Great! Just give it to Kitty, there. Are we done here?"
I'd love to play her again some day.
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Thats a tough one but I think im boing to go with my dwarffighter/cleric in 3.5.
His name was Goldor of the Bondak clan and he was on a mission to find a new mountain for his people (detonated the cavern ceiling of their city to stop an invading army from bellow). He was getting old, he only had one eye and he had been conscripted into the clergy (too many clerics died in the war). He could also fight using just about anything, he would shield bash, use his hammer and if it came down to it was even trainec in unarmed combat and blind fighting. Hilarious character, had a story for everything. Funnily enough, his clan last name startee a trend in my gaming circle for dwarven names. Even had another player ask me if he could play one of theBondaks
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I'm loving my Chelaxian sorceress in PFS right now. She's Serpentine bloodline, and has a lot of fun tricks that revolve around manipulation and poisoning. She started out as an incredibly naive Chelaxian, but as she's grown and obtained an imp advisor, I've enjoyed playing out her slow corruption. She'll probably retire with some heinous evil act.
My favorite character was my first character in table-top RPGs. His name was Vlad and was a generic human fighter. Everything he did was epic, whether it was epically awesome or epically horrific.
Epically Awesome: Jump off a cliff after someone who stole a relic from a church that was not even his god.
Epically Horrific: Realized while falling he had no way stop himself from dying on impact.
Epically Awesome: Jammed his spear into the side of the cliff face multiple times to slow his decent, taking non-lethal fall damage. Then continued to follow the thief.
Epically Horrific: Caught up to the still fleeing thief and cornered her. Took two crits, missing every swing at her, and loosing his eye to being stabbed in the face with a dagger.
Epically Awesome: Bought a large sapphire and got it enchanted to be his new eye and got it inserted into his lost eye socket.
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Tough to choose...
She didn't last very long in-game (~2 weeks, which was about 6-7 months out of game), but I was really enjoying my 3E Rogue/Fighter/Dervish/Shadowdancer, Kayura. Whirling dervish of death, and her AoO/tripping/reach focus made her fearsome against armies. Backstory was being kidnapped by marauders as a little girl not even old enough to remember her former life and surving and growing up to be a viscious warlord in her own right. Her armies were ravaging the land and seemed unstoppable until her long-lost sister (another PC, LG Monk) defeated her and gradually got her to remember her past. They started the game a few years after these events, with Kayura still learning "how to be good"...slowly. She would act childlike and innocent, and goofy most of the time, disrupted by sudden bursts of intense joyful violence and bloodlust when combat would break out. Hard to shake your upbringing, after all. Whether she was actually a mentally scarred child in an adult body, or it was all just Obfuscating Stupidity to help get away with her excessive enjoyment of killing when battle broke out, no one knew.
There was also Sage, my first attempt at an arcanist (per the houserules of the game, he was an Int-based Sorc w/ wizard proficiencies and bonus feats) that eschewed blasting almost entirely in favor of debuffs and battlefield control. I was still new to spellcasting back then and thought blasters were THE BEST, so I considered this concept "a challenge." Ah, youthful innocence...
The game was ruthlessly hard (very first encounter at level 1 was 30 goblins on a bridge -- DM didn't expect us to actually win -- I used my Precocious Apprentice-gained Web spell to lock them all down and the party set the webs on fire and picked off the ones that trickled out alive), but with my spells, my character turned a lot of them into utter cakewalks. The players all had roles for their characters, and mine jokingly became "thwarting the DM." For what it's worth, the DM was a good friend just looking to run a tough campaign and was amused by it all, it wasn't an adversarial sort of thing.
There was also the part where over time his concept completely morphed into a defender of nature, with the sole catalyst being falling for a druid NPC and trying to have more in common with her. :)
There was also my evil gestalt Cleric / Shadowcraft Mage // Ninja (a homebrewed version, based off Swordsage from Tome of Battle), Dais. He worshipped a god of shadows whose doctrine claimed He was the primary creator of the universe and that the other gods, fearful of his power, allied against him and sealed him away forever within his tower fortress on the Plane of Shadow (Him being too powerful there for them to outright kill him). They then corrupted his creation with the present day world and did their best to erase all memory of his ever existing. My character and the party being some of the few remaining worshippers he still had, seeking to fulfill his desires - free him from his tower, slay all the other gods, and destroy the "tainted" world so he can then remake it as it was meant to be. Not much else to it than that. It was awesome having an illusion and shadow based caster mixed with wuxia martial arts to play, but I mostly just really liked the plot and backstory.
To be fair, I probably name PCs after those characters ~ 1/5 of the time, and I've reused several -- played 2 Dais's and 2 Kayura's already
Oddly enough, my favorite characters are the ones I produce for comic relief while DMing. For example, last week I introduced a fat vulture who decided to befriend our monk 1/bard 1/ranger 1 because he made a delicious kobold on a stick.
Now skip forward to half an hour of that bird trying to get seconds, getting hand-fed jerky by the ranger, and eventually coughing up phlegmy kobold clothing on the dwarven cleric in disgust because his only response to having a bird get up in his face and honking loudly is to create water on said bird.
My absolute favorite characters tend to be the villains who survive one encounter with the party. I take the time to write a much bigger backstory for these characters because they have become a true threat in the eyes of the party.
Examples:
Clacker (AKA Clacker the Hutt) - One of the oldest Walking Gardens, a species of enormous crab capable of growing magic mushrooms on its back, in the subterrane, Clacker has slowly carved out a small domain smack dab in the crossroads of the primary trade routes found therein. Puddling trade traffic, Wyrmward kobold trade traffic, Shinysnatcher traffic, and even Drow traffic pass through; nobody dares to try to take the land out from under him because of the simple fact that the old four-ton crab could beat the snot out of anyone who tried. When a small tribe of kobolds was displaced by a group of rampaging phosphogorges, Clacker took them in, giving them a home and a new philosophy of the world (that of easy profit and overall corpulence). In exchange, Clacker received an entire tribe of fanatical devotees who slowly turned his little corner of the caves into a lovely little town full of diverting distractions for the discriminating traveler. Clacker was also pleased to learn that kobolds learn how to give back rubs very quickly.
Inalya Whisperwind - (LE Elf Enchanter 11) Mistress of Manipulation of the Obsidian Hall of the city of Korana, capital of the Zarian Empire, Inalya Whisperwind is one of the Master of the Hall's favorite agents. He tends to continue to send her out on missions even though her rank would normally have her become an instructor. Paranoid and vicious, Inalya uses her magic to ensure that people react in a way that she can control. Most of her friends and loved ones are, in fact, mentally dominated in one way or another. The stories as to how she got her husband, a famous bard, speculate that he may have been forced into his vows.
Ska'razzian (Scar) - (NE Drow Wizard 8) Businessman with a used car tongue, but a jewelry store look to the fellow. Very charismatic, very affably evil... unless somebody threatens his profit margins. He owns about half of one of the cities found in the subterrane thanks to a massive web of favors owed to him by individuals from all over. The center of this control is a massive arena. If he catches word of outsiders who are making a name for themselves in the killing and otherwise making creatures miserable department, he simply finds them and offers them a job. If those individuals refuse, he tends to come back at a later date with some slavers and a large burlap sack.
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My fave character was my first. A 3.5 Ferrin Burganson CG Half-Elf Rogue/Barbarian Who liked to sneak attack with a greatsword. My first time out the GM was telling the story. GM"you come across a baby dragon. What do you do?" Me
"I sneak up on it and flank it them i sneak attack it." GM"ok role for damage." Me" Awsome i got a crit." GM" Congrats you kill the dragon. It begins to dissaper in smoke." Me"What!?" GM" It was a goblin with an illusion charm." Me" Well i still killed it in one shot." God i loved that character. He was one of those happy go lucky kind of guys that just took life as it came and kept on smiling even in the face danger. He was a poor orphan who was abandend at the city gate's and so he pretty much looked after himself his hole life. That's how he became a Rogue. This is how he bacame a Barbarian. One day he heard about an adveturing party and sighned up. That party didnt make it back. On the way from the dungeon his party who was loaded with gold was attacked by a bunch of gnoll's. thay killed almost everyone there exsept for Ferrin and a few other's. farrin was taken in by the Healer of the village as a Slave/Guard for when she went out to collect herb's. After a few year's of being at the gnoll's camp Ferrin was promoted to Cub Gurdian which was in charge of the camp's chidren. One of the human's there a Commander Heleixus wanted to start a revolt against the gnoll's who had capterd him and his men. He tried to get Ferrin to comply but he couldent. To do so would meen the death of the cubs and he wasent willing to do that to gain his freedom. So Ferrin went to the Gnoll Chief and told him what was going to happen. On the day of the revolt Ferrin was at his post when the first sign's of fighting started. He ran out to meet the commander and his men. He fought them off while the gnoll's took out the rest of the commander's men. Finaly the commander had one last trick up his sleeve. Just when Ferrin was about to kill him the commander gave a signal to one of his men hiding in the wood's and an arrow shot out and hit the healer of whom Ferrin had been close to. With that Ferrin snaped. He flew into a rageing storm of steel. When all was said and done the commander was ripped to shredds and so were his men. The healer lived but Ferrin left. He diddnt want to face any of his friend's after what he had done. And so that is why even to this day he is still a happy go lucky person. Becuase he never want's to get that angry again.
Dang i should make this dude's tale into a book.
oh ya i forgot to mentain he also had hidden blades.
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My best character would be Kyle Surlent, my character from Curse of the Crimson Throne, and is now referred to as "Kyle Surlent, Destroyer of Campaign." The things my DM said about him, repeatedly, are along the lines of:
-I never should have allowed that &@#%ing sword. (A Large mercurial greatsword from Arms and Equipment Guide, which I think was eventually a Large +4 Keen Mercurial Greatsword, or "The 34-pound, thirteen-foot-long kill-stick." Thanks to the campaign taking long enough to go from release date to publishing the Advanced Player's Guide with the Furious Focus feat, Kyle basically wound up threatening massive damage saves Power Attacking during his full attack.)
-I never should have allowed those classes. (Crusader from Tome of Battle, or, according to the filename, The Book! of NINE Cheese~!, multiclassed into a modified version of the Holy Liberator from Complete Divine. Immunity to charm/compulsion effects, plus smite evil and smite chaos made the last two books fun.)
-I hate you and Kyle and I wish both of you were dead. (Because I wound up doing about as much damage with martial maneuvers as Vaeryl, our elven cancer mage, did with his DARK ELDRITCH MAGICKS. Did I mention that our CotCT party was completely %&^@ed up in more ways than usual? Because our CotCT party was pretty %*&@ed up.)
-...Damn it, Snorb. (Remember what I said about Smite Evil, 34-pound greatswords that are taller than two humans, and martial magic? Remember how there's a magic sword that is the only thing that can kill Ileosa at the end of Crimson Throne? Guess who wound up critical hitting Ileosa with a quadruple-damage Large mercurial greatsword that was channeling martial magic? Kyle did. Fun fact: 12d6+160+8d8 Slashing damage, max results explode, did enough damage to bring Ileosa from full health to -Constitution score. That STILL didn't kill her. It took Shadfrar the Barbarian giving her a coup de grace with the magic Ileosabane sword to finish her off.)
He got a Large blue dragon to die of massive damage and made a +4 Belt of Physical Might out of its hide. He soloed a danse macabre. He survived the Harrow Deck of Many Things magicing him to the Elemental Plane of Air. He then survived a demon sending him to Hell by saying "I wish you'd all go to Hell!" He TKOed Ileosa Arabasti on the luckiest critical hit of all time. He survived (accidentally) marrying Amiri (yes, that Amiri) and fathering a child with her. Kyle was *(^&@(%ing awesome.
Years later, when one of the players rebuilt his CotCT character to appear in another campaign (and take advantage of Ultimate Magic/Combat/Equipment/Advanced Racial Guide), I offered to rebuild Kyle so he wasn't as broken.
EDIT: Huh, didn't think that word would get censored.
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I've played some really awesome characters with my group such as St. Ibsen McCleod The Cowboy Paladin, Pie the baby goblin witch, E.B. Thurgood the Panegyrist (Undead Lord Cleric), and Bathaazar The Burning Man (who may actually be my most awesome character, but nobody wants to read a book in a post because I played him for almost two years).
The character I felt the best about though was Jandalong, a LG Oread Oracle of Metal. He was an acolyte of The Tenants of DatSun which was a religion I created for the game world. Basically, to receive his powers, Jandalong had to pledge himself to death to serve a lord. Which happened to be Ebenezer the pretty dumb Oread barbarian airship captain played by my friend. Jandalong was basically his Jeeves, bustling about in full mithrail full plate and a mithrail tower shield.
The entire game consisted of me sitting back with the monk's Leadership granted wizard follower and him turtled behind his tower shield and buffing the party from afar. His AC was something over 40 most of the time, and the only time he really took damage was when he started using spells that funneled his party's damage into him so he could just skip running around and just heal himself. The buffs and fat healing he threw out were amazing and basically allowing the party to run around with a self replenishing hit point battery that still buffed them pretty much derailed a lot of the combats in that campaign.
1e. Owen orc Asn/fighter keeper of teeth slayer of all those not looking lol.
My favorite character was from 1st edition AD&D. He was a elven fighter/magic user/thief. His background was what made him interesting. He was a spy and had a dozen different identities. I had a folder full of notes on the his identities. Most of them where elven or half elven, but one was a female human wizard.
I pulled of some really crazy crap with that character. The GM was pretty cool about working with me to keep my background and abilities secret. My cover with the party was that I was just a thief and it took them a while to figure out I could use magic.
I am not sure I could build the character in pathfinder because so much has changed. That was when you could cast spells in full plate without arcane failure. The multiclassing rules were a lot different then so I was only 1 or 2 levels behind the full casters. The extra HP and saves as well as the ability to wear armor and improved fighting ability more than made up for the loss of spells.
Though this never mentions a specific game (but everyone posts about D&D), I am still going to post my favorite character from a Different game. It was a non published game called "Zen and the Art of Mayham" The character's name was Vast Deathmaster. He carried a sword called Drizzlesummoner (perhaps you've heard of a sword like it?) The character was based on all those barbarians from the movies (small minded but very strong). He could lift buildings and he was great fun to play because I could really get into the character. I would get into that 1st person mode of talking.
If I had to think of a D&D Character, I would have to say like may of the other players that have had lots of characters over the years that there have been so many. For me, the games were so brief. Most games lasted Days or weeks but it has been Pathfinder were we have had a game that has taken a character from level 1 to 11 so far.
I remember some time ago, I played a 3.0 game and I played a Paladin. There were rules that if you did a lot of damage to a monster, it had to make a save or die. In this game, I charged a dragon on my horse with a lance. I did over 50 points (there might have been a smite in there I can't remember) I remember that the dragon did not make its save and died and I was told by the GM that the Dragon had like 200HP total :D
The current game I am in with my monk, I posted for help because I was thinking there was nothing that could help my character. People responded. Later in the game the GM put my character up against some monster with triple digit hit points and I beat it. That was the high point of my game because I finally thought I could do good with my "junk monk"
It is just too bad I can't bring Vast into Pathfinder, but the game wasn't made for such characters as that. :)
Well, I'll list 2 of my favorites as one had to include quite a bit of DM help.
Guise - A CE rogue serial killer that carefully cut the faces off of his victims and used them as disguises (That's where the DM came in). Huge disguise and bluff checks had our party thinking I was an elf ranger for the first part of our game. The reason he worked with the party is that he saw them as his "toys" and no one gets to break Guise's toys.
Zhel - Currently being played and greatly enjoyed. He's a true neutral wood wizard that is played as if he never had a master so he learned wizardry on his own. Fairly good diplomatic skills mixed with battlefield control are fun. Been using splinter spear a lot in the early levels and it's been really useful. It's just so much fun turning nature against opponents while still having access to a full list of arcane spells.
My current character is Tanix a CG Human Wizard with a Basterd Sword. Has some anger issue's so he like's to take it out on other people or creature's. Very fun when i run out of spell's. "Well crap now what?" Pull's out his sword. "Oh ya that." Stab,stab,slice,slice.
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My favorite older edition character was a 1st ed fighter. LG Drow, dual wielded short swords. This was in '86, so no Drizzt clone. He was adopted as a newborn by a clan of Dwarves. He thought of himself as a dwarf - named Obsidian. He was just a lot of fun to play - and when he got his first limited wish, he wished for a beard (this was a campaign where elves didn't have facial hair).
Right now it's a rather unusual character. Ionna is her name. I am playing solo and the wife is GMing, but she really doesn't have time to do much work other than running the game so we are using premade adventures. Solo playing doesn't exactly work in published modules without a lot of work - so I do the work in chargen and houserules. The big one is the character get a couple of levels for template or LA races, and is gestalt with three classes. Figther Monk Sorcerer. Primarily melee, but the sorcerer spells are treated as "super-chi" so her fireball is a hadouken. And with fighter she has the BAB and fighter tricks to be a really powerful unarmed fighter.
Your Drow reminds me of a semi-joke character I ran in a friends old 3.5 game. I was an Elven Paladin of Mordin who had a rugged beard that he only received for his devotion to Mordin. We later changed it to say that he was a reincarnated Dwarf. He wasn't terribly bright and would often rule WWMD? (what would Mordin do?) checks when confronted by tough moral situations (which seemed to come up fairly regularly).
One was where the party was in the middle of this tribal war between two groups that weren't necessarily evil and our party was to be paid with part of an artifact we were seeking (plus the moniz) to essentially slaughter the other tribe. My WWMD check came with "killing is wrong, but Mordin's all about da moniz so do it." My DM was nice enough not to dick over Paladin players.
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One of the reasons I really liked Obsidian was a pure roleplay moment in a game.
I'd moved to a new area, and GM vetted and let the character into the game at the start of a new adventure - with a quirky smile.
It was 1986 At this point in my gaming evolution, I had been a hack&slasher most of my gaming life. It was only recently I truly got into the idea of being "in character", role assumption, that sort of thing. I still was something of a powergamer, but it was now always within the constraints of the good characterization.
We were to investigate a Dwarven nation that everyone had lost contact with. So I have Obsidian- Drow fighter, but he was raised by Dwarves, from the age of a few weeks old. He was Lawful Good, and though of himself as a Dwarf. Now, this world knew about Drow, so he was hated/hunted, reviled and such, and always felt like an outsider, even at home.
We get to the town which became our home base and there was a statue to a local demigod in the town square, overlooking the main inn and general store. He had ascended, and this area had been his home in mortality. There was a legend that if somehow you could get inside the statue, you would find the "greatest treasure ever known". This Demigod was born a half orc/half elf.
The adventure happens. A rather exciting mystery, but does not bear on my story. After we had ascertained the problem, and why, we were headed out to leave, but got lost in the Dwarven caves, and after hours of searching came upon a door to a small suite of rooms. A chapel, bed, and study. In the study were two windows, that when we looked out of them, we saw the village inn and store. We realized that we had found our way into the statue. At this point everyone starts ransacking the place looking for the treasure. Obsidian just looks out the window. The GM, taking each of us in turn telling us what we find- nothing. Obsidian keeps looking out the window, and the GM with a small smile keeps describing the interaction of the people, families moving about and such...
One of the other players, frustrated, cries "Where is this Greatest Treasure Even Know", and Obsidian (adopted drow child of Dwarves) said "Right here." and gestured out the window. He turned and said "This is the greatest treasure, acceptance by your fellow man & family. This god was a half orc, half elf- everyone reviled him, everyone was disgusted by him. That is what is here- community".
All the other players looked disgusted.
Possibly my greatest moment as a player. I had a true sense of transcendence of self- much like the one or two times doing theater in school when everything just came together. It is part of why I play.
As a postcript, we found a chapel to the demigod later, who gave everyone a minor wish. Obsidian wished for a received a grand, silver, bushy beard. :-)>
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Hah...hard to pin to one "favorite" with all the goofy characters I play. The Tiefling Paladin that was afraid of the dark and sucked at everything but riding his flying mount? The crossdressing elven swashbuckler pirate who had a voice like Elvis?
I suppose this one wins just because I'm still playing him so I'm still making goofy stories:
A CG Wayang Hedge Witch. Originally made him to be the group's healer, but that ended up not being too necessary, so I played around with his spells. He doesn't know a single spell that deals direct hit point damage, but instead he focuses on enchantments and curses that make life hard for the enemies. Most recently he ran into pair of Lamia, where the entire party decided to go after one of them to take down quickly, while the witch decided to work on the other.
Ray of Enfeeblement: -8 strength.
Bestow Curse: -4 on attack rolls
Fumble.
The party finished up the second lamia, turned to fight the one the witch was "holding off"...then sheathed their weapons as they watched it fumble itself into unconsciousness over three rounds, without landing a single hit.
He also was a big hit for roleplaying. He walked into a tavern where everyone was silently drinking their beers. The Witch hits Dancing Lights and Ghost Sound to set the mood, and Hypnotizes to get everyone dancing--the dwarves began to tango. Later, the party gets to a cliffside, and the fighter pulls out his rope and starts the descent. The Druid puts on her slippers of spiderclimb and waves, "see you at the bottom!" The witch casts Shadow Step, then reclines at the bottom. "What took you, spidey?"
He ended up becoming best friends with an NPC cleric of the god of rogues.
Never ask a room full of gamers about their favorite characters if you want to leave any time in the next few hours. :)
For 3.5 I played a Paladin that had some slight connections to, but was not a Mystic Fire Knight (DM wouldn't allow it). Had that notorious feat, as well as that other notorious feat that made paladins broken in 3.5. Mix together Battle Blessing and Sword of the Arcane Order along with Awesome Smite and you get a pretty broken character. He also had the charging smite variant from PHB2, and had a valorous, mighty smiting, holy surge, divine wrath +3 greatsword. I one-shotted a lich with him.
Currently I am playing an elf wizard who is designed to be a battlefield controller, but specializes in evocation. Build is based on getting off a spontaneous rime [cold] fireball (I can now do them quickened because I found a lesser rod of quicken) to start and then buffing the rest of the party. I can do it all in one turn, and he has a maxed out initiative (+18). Eventually I won't even prepare any blasting spells because all I will care about is spontaneous fireballs with rime + quicken on them. DM also let us have some ridiculous stats.
So many games, so many characters. This is one I have a soft spot for:
Zelmar of Scarpsey. My first 3.0 character. An Elven Rogue. Fell in with an odd bunch of fellows at a local festival and went on to have many curious adventures. The thing was he was awful at being any kind of thief. One time he actually got caught stealing washing from a line. But he was ever so charming and had really amazing moments of extraordinary luck when doing anything other than rogue type stuff.
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I find other games a bit more conducive to role-playing, so my absolute favorite characters have been in Vampire ('Max' Caldwell, Nosferatu socialite) and GURPS (Inverness, my favorite mage, master of over twenty schools of magic), but Mordecai, my Cleric of Urgathoa, is shaping up to be a favorite PF character.
Other favorites for characterization, if not necessarily class / race / circumstances, have been;
Zarabeta, mercenary pragmatist Qadiran spell-for-hire,
Marius Acacius Aquila, Druid of Asmodeus (Cheliaxan Helltamers! Woo!)
Ankara, 'Innsmouth look' Barbarian from a backwater Chelish fishing village way up the coast (with just a hint of Gillman blood)
Violant Aurori, free spirited and kind hearted exotic dancer and priestess of Calistria
Before 3.X/PF, my favorites included one half of 'the elven jip brothers' a pair of elven multiclass magic-using brothers (the other played by my best friend) who were famous for coordinating their actions and finishing each others sentences, and Tklrti Chktla, a Xixchil from Spelljammer with the Myrmidon kit (a joke that no one else at the table got, sadly) who had surgically added an extra pair of glaive-limbs to himself with the racial Body Modification skill.
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I should add Starrel the Squire. He should hvae been a cavalier but they didnt exist back then. He was a lawful neutral fighter who dreamed of being a paladin but lacked an ounce of mercy in him. He was all about the gallows and eye for an eye and hand for a theft. He was also a blind follower of the nobility until he met one hell of bastard noble scion. Had a lot of fun playing him through various moral dilemnas. He had all the mounted combat feats and on the ground he fought with an oversized mace and shield. When the campaign ended, he was on the verge of becoming a knight in full mithral plate. My plan after that was leadership feat with dragonne mount. All of this was back in 3.5
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This is a tough call. My favorite character is probably a character i played with friends back in school, my namesake on the boards, a 3.0 Sorceror named Kolokotroni. He was the first character I really roleplayed, even though I played a fair bit of ADnD before that, i was still rather young and it was mostly killing monsters and taking their stuff. The high school campaign had story and consistency, and Kolo developed alot of interesting relationships with NPCs and the other PC's which sort of culminated in him marrying into the local kingdom's royal family.
The second, which is only second in my mind because the campaign is still going on, is Marcus Atticus, a power hungry ruthless hexcrafter magus in a kingmaker campaign. He was the primary author of the kingdoms constitution and its general, and he is kind of the all around boogeyman for the populus. Though he ruthlessly protects his people, he is borderline evil when dealing with the enemies of his kingdom. Marcus is still developing as a character, but I find it very fun to play the ruthless dictator, who is in fact held in check by a mostly good ruling council of which he is part.
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Mine was a 3.5 character. I originally created him back in 2002 for Living Greyhawk, and he started as a fighter meant to be a front-line survival guy. He ended up going with the prestige class "Devoted Defender" from the fighter 3.0 splat book, and with combat expertise and decent gear could get his AC up to the mid 30's around 8th level. At one point the wizard in the party polymorphed him into a Green Hag, so the natural armor bonus plus all his gear and expertise had him in the low 50's for AC - so much fun when the GM asks "Bad guy rolls a 51, does it hit?" and you can just smile and shake your head.
Well, 3.5 rolled around and LG more or less said that if your character is built around something that's going away, you can rebuild. Well, sure enough, Devoted Defender didn't make the 3.5 cut so I had the chance to complete rebuild him. Upset that they took away my cheese, I cheesed right back, and he ended up with:
Fighter 4
Ranger 1
Barbarian 1
Rogue 2
Pious Templar 3
Holy Liberator 4
That gave him mettle, evasion, and all 3 saves well above 20 at 15th level. He didn't hit hard, but was very hard to kill.
I am my favorite D&D character, all editions.
Not because of the stats, they were average for the edition. Not because of the class combination. No, the group around this character were the best ever.
I still miss this campaign, and I constantly conspire to make this campaign come back.
And I haven't played this character in several years now.
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El Tougho Grande, the Hill Billy Luchadore. Mutants and Masterminds, I basically took all of the defensive options to make this nigh invulnerable guy who came to the big city after realizing he was, well...nigh invulnerable.
He had a pick up truck, but no real skills. He became a professional wrestler (since he was basically invulnerable, he could do ridiculous stunts in the ring) but he wore a luchadore mask to protect his identity and told everyone he was from mexico and only spoke "mexican"...which no one really believed since he said it in english with a heavy hill billy accent.
Sweetly dumb, but tons of fun to play and to have at the table.
I had a half-orc monk in a friend's custom campaign.
Here's the situation: We are all fighting a personal vendetta against a mercenary guild. The world is high magic, with magic essentially powering modern-ish technology (mining drills, telecommunications, even a few aircraft, but not quite steampunk or anything like that). We come across one of their mining opperations, and we successfully sneak over to be near them. I win initiative among our group, and bullrush a guy (a sorcerer commander) next to where the drill is operating at high speeds. He is pushed into the drill and a "sticky red mist" pervades the area around the drill. All the other mercs fail a fortitude save against being sickened. GM decided a few of them would actually be incapacitated by vomiting from the sudden horror, so our two rogues stared coup-de-graceing them, and the ranger, cleric, alchemist, and I start killing the rest of them. We were outnumbered about 1 to 4 at level 2. GM expected us to run, but we ended it all in about 3 rounds, with only one injury (me, there was a ranger we didn't see and he got an arrow in me, I forget how much damage).
Well, my "best" character was Jazith Deol, a LG cleric in a homebrew game in the early days of D&D 3.5 (2005).
which was totally fun to roleplay, because he stood and fight (the PC) even while I (the player) want to run for his life. Heck, he even attempt to intimidate a Nightwalker at lv 5!!!
He was designed to be the healer and support character of the party (since it was my first 3.5 PC, I was willing to play the 'walking band-aid' role), but ended being the highest level PC of the party and the frontline melee combatant.
In Pathfinder, OTOH, my "best" character was a Tian (Minkan) Sorceress (Air Elemental Bloodline)/Monk (Master of Many Styles) called Mikasa Yuri, an aggressive and reckless highborn thrilled for adventure who loved to bash doors and blast anything in sight with Lightning Bolts... in fact, she'll rather blast the door with the Lightning Bolt instead :P.
With her I play a (custom) Council of Thieves campaing, that later was linked to the Jade Regent AP in which he was kinda a main plot character...
Her motto was something like:
"The day to die is just one day!!!... or two, or three... It depends in how wealthy you are."
Kyle Drake was a Sorcerer/Wizard I played as a stand in character after my character in my long running Saturday night game drew a Void card from the Deck of Many Things. He saw something on the order of 14 months of play. Scoundrel, murderer, and occasional prick even to fellow party members he was played as close to CE as I could without actually tipping the scales into evil and thus becoming an NPC. Notorious for solving problems other party members didn't want to for whatever reason - such as fireballing a bunch of prisoners that we had no place to keep rather than letting them be eaten by local predators (or escape).
He was loads of fun to play, especially when he was jerking around the naive 16 year old party oracle (at one point deluding her into making a pass at the party viking-fighter that resulted in a fist fight between himself and the fighter). Not the most powerful character, but damn he had style. Highlight of combat was against a group of golems. Unable to rely in his spells against them he resorted to covering his hands in alchemists fire and meleeing them with his claws.
Prisoners
<DM> The phanaton burn, screaming as they die.
<Kyle> Kyle turns to walk after the others as if killing them was nothing at all.
<Vespa "What the hells? Boyfriend, what did you do?"
<Kyle> "Ey took care o' ta problem ya all idn't want ta."
<Tycho> Tycho turns back and looks in surprise. "Ky... Kyle?"
<Aucaman> "Dere was no need for dat, Drake!"
<Kiera> Kiera stares at Kyle in shock. "I... I can't believe you!" she shrieks at him.
<Kyle> "Seen es believin, love," he sneers at Kiera.
Katrina Islaran is by far my longest running character that has seen play - with something on the order of four years of play. Originally a fairly authoritarian Lawful Neutral wizard, she moved towards Lawful Good in the course of play and has stayed there ever since. The first Lawful Good character I've ever played, she's been a boat load of fun despite the frequent setbacks she's had to deal with and work around. Her long running theme has been that in spite of all she wants to do to protect and help people, she lacks the power to do so against the threats arrayed against her. Mechanically she's a fairly weak wizard, lagging a level behind and not focused enough in any one area to be meaningful. Still, she's had some moments that I thought were pretty badass. For example, after spending days harried by fey in the forest (fey that were vastly weaker than the party) she ended up alone and passively withstood a hailstorm of arrow fire to convince them to let up their attack and speak with her.
On the whole she's been an exciting, challenging, and dynamic character to play that goes against many of my natural inclinations. Because she's mechanically something of a push-over she's had to do more coalition building, dispute resolution, and in general place nicer with everyone else than I'm accustomed to doing. She can't bully people, make threats, or fight alone, so instead any time she's off alone she has to adopt a more diplomatic approach. Right now she's working on an initiative to divert large portions of her wealth (something on the order of 50,000-80,000gp) towards helping rebuild the poorest parts of her home city, financing businesses in the area, getting local guilds on board to open up shop in the impoverished region, and generally trying to make life better for the common people. She's also worked to settle a generations old blood feud between her family and another that has seen most of her family murdered. This comes on the heels of the party launching a brazen daylight raid on the largest criminal group in the city that left the majority of its members slaughtered in their boss's mansion during a party (an event being called the Sanguine Soiree in the city).
The entire character is driven by the idea that those who are more powerful, educated, or wealthy have an obligation to use their gifts towards the good of others. Even her personal projects are at least half-directed towards advancing the causes of others. She is deeply committed to leaving the world a better place, but is also extremely fatalistic, expecting her death to come at any time now. Something of a martyr complex. While she can be pragmatic, she does so only to a point (and only when the alternative would leave others harmed - she doesn't take the easy way out for herself).
After accidentially instigating a conflict with a group of innocent beings a couple adventures ago, allowing her viking companion to torture and kill enemies for intel, and cutting a deal with snake people to help bring down a greater threat she's been increasingly guilt-ridden and reluctant to compromise her principles. She's also haunted by information which suggests she'll live a very long time, but that she be responsible for in some way or unable to stop the destruction of the world as she knows it.
Arrow Barrage
<Katrina_Islaran> Stopping herself short of touching him to scan for magic in the area.
<DM> A few feet before Ne'mer and the tree, the ground drops away, spilling Kat into a twenty foot pit, or would, if she hadn't been flying. An arrow whistling out of nowhere brings down her mystic armor. The bottom of the pit is filled with filthy water, no doubt to better disguise the spiked sticks that line its bottom, though Katrina notes their shadows within the murk.
<DM> As she suspected, her arcane scanning provides proof that there is magic in the area.
<Katrina_Islaran> She floats out from over the pit. "There's no need for that." She calls out to her attacker.
<Katrina_Islaran> "I don't know why you've been attacking us without end since we got here, but clearly we've only gotten half the story from the town. I won't ask you to come out, but will you at least stop trying to murder me long enough to explain what's going on?"
<DM> Another arrow, this time from a different direction, hits her. This one does not manage to bring down any of her magic.
<Katrina_Islaran> She brushes her hair out of her face, "My name is Katrina Islaran. Archmagus from Sasserine. And I have no quarrel with you. I am not on anyone's side."
<DM> Arrows strike Katrina from all directions. They crack against her unflinching will, her mind refusing blindness, sleep and laughter.
<DM> One brings down her magical shield.
<DM> Three more strike her, without her magical protections, sending a trickle of blood running down her arm.
<DM> She hears a gasp.
<DM> "...open your mind to me then, that I know you are not lying?"
I've been playing tabletop RPGs for 30+ years, and have run scores of characters, some for years on end. It's hard to pick a favorite, but here's one of my top five:
Name: Special Agent Anton "Tony" Bednarov
System: GURPS: Modern Conspiracy
Years Played: 2 (1996-8)
Campaign World: homebrew, loosely based on World of Darkness, set in 1995 New York City.
Story: Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in late 1967, Tony's parents were communist reformers who were active in the Prague Spring rebellion of 1968. After the Soviet crackdown and resulting purge, Tony's parents (both physicians) realized that the secret police were after them, and decided to defect to the West. In a daring escape attempt by driving at breakneck speed through a border crossing, Tony's mother was killed by gunfire, but his father managed to get the car and his infant son over the border into Austria. Two years later, they were living in Boston, MA, USA. Tony's father became a US citizen and got an American medical license, and still practices at Mass General. Tony grew up a proud American and bore a deep hatred of communism and the Soviet Union, blaming them for his mother's death and the sense of deep sadness that pervaded his childhood. After graduating from Columbia in 1989, majoring in history and Russian language, Tony went to work for the CIA. While he first applied as an intelligence analyst, the Agency recognized that he could speak unaccented Czech and was fluent in Russian, and would make a superb field agent. Coupled with his uncanny knack for sensing danger, they primed him to infiltrate the KGB... but just weeks before they were to send him to Moscow, the Soviet Union fell, and Russia became a US ally. Tony was then reassigned back to intelligence analysis. In 1995, a special unit of the US Marshals needed a Russian language expert with field training to help with a set of unexplained events in New York, and Tony was sent as an expert. He was then assiged to the Marshals permamently as part of the investigative unit code-named Splendid Condor-- investigating paranormal activity. Tony is married to corporate attorney Emily Dawson, and they live in midtown Manhattan. Tony has the Danger Sense ability, is a huge fan of opera, and has been a semi-professional jazz pianist (and can't resist sitting at a piano to play if the opportunity ever presents itself).
The conspiracy led to the Splendid Condor unit allying with a coven of vampires to stop the Bavarian Illuminati from making first contact with a group of extraterrestrials from a planet near the star Algol. The aliens wanted to use the Earth as the location to summon Hastur the Unspeakable.
Highlight of playing the character: In the penultimate session, the Splendid Condor team was at a swanky Christmas party held in the corporate offices of a shell company controlled by the Illuminati. After hearing suppressed gunfire, Tony attempted to leave the party, but was intercepted by a mime who wouldn't let him pass. My reaction, "I pull out my Glock and crack him across the face." Yes-- I got to pistol-whip a mime. It was awesome.