There are a LOT of cookie cutter players and concepts in roleplaying games, and lots of uncreative people to perpetuate them.
However, every so often, you get a player character who creates something you've never seen before, something unorthodox, but not for the sake of being different.
For example, I was running a game at a convention as a DM, and this guy wanted to play a rogue. However, he chose traits that gave him access to the heal skill, became Lawful Good, and Dr. Gamsy was born! Slayer of corrupt business leaders and part time church healer.
It was similar to a few tropes I'd seen before, but it was nevertheless incredibly unique. What are some other concepts that are really different?
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My son was playing a Tengu Inquisitor for a while wearing a plague mask so nobody would know his race. He wouldn't speak in character except when it was shocking or humorous; but had the linguistics trait so his character spoke something like 10 languages. Drove the rest of the table crazy as they tried to figure out what he was.
Currently I am running a PC built by my GM (Anguish on the forums).
An ex-human who once served as a high priest of Aroden. He was devout in helping others. One day he found a prophecy that told of Aroden's death. He brought it to his superior who refused to accept it. After a while of infighting he was disbarred and wiped from the books of the church to be forgotten. He kept at it though, secluding himself with his family. Eventually becoming ill and with the goal of extending his life to continue his research to try and save the world from the eventual chaos of Aroden's death. He sacrificed his family and his humanity, becoming a Hellbred.
After thousands of years Aroden has died, but he continues to try and help the world, knowing that his soul is forfeited, but for the better of mankind. He has a contract with an unknown dark force that keeps him alive. He is a Magus.
That is the summary. Currently he is in a party with a cleric of Pharasma, and he does not get a long well. Since he is angry at Pharasma's silence over Aroden's death.
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Billy Idol
not a character who is like Billy Idol
but actually Billy Idol
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A half-ling Rogue that took a lot of effort making to make look himself like a Dwarf Cleric. I did not understand why he had such a hard time casting any spells of why he was almost never channeling until we hit level 3.
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Apparently whenever I'm asked a question I don't know the answer to I answer "hell if I know". One day, one of my players surprises me with a cleric named Hellih Feino--with the Knowledge and Travel domains, so that he always has the answer and will be anywhere an explanation is needed. Every time I say the line he plays it as me turning to him for an answer.
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My favorite character was played by a family friend. He was a human fighter that deeply wished he was a paladin back when the flavor of paladins stated they needed to receive a 'call' to become one. He played the part: lawful good, stood for justice and honor, loudly challenged evil monsters etc.
The twist was that even though the GM was in on his true class the rest of the party wasn't. He said he was making a paladin, acted like a paladin, and his character introduced himself as a paladin. He went so far as to declare smite evils that secretly did nothing. We got confused after a couple sessions over why he wasn't using other paladin features. He had a big dramatic confession that he was a fraud.
The campaign didn't last long. That's easily my fondest memory of it
I once had a rogue who had grown up a lower-class girl who watched the luxuries of high society from afar, and grew up learning to imitate and impersonating them until she became a master at impersonation and fraud.
After her partaking in gambling, parties and other high class functions to the point of addiction, to the point where even back alley gambles were better than nothing, she was eventually caught when she got a bit too careless in covering her tracks, and was let off the hook when her half-brother (another PC in the campaign), who was a mid-ranking investigator, pulled some strings and got her recruited to an intelligence-gathering squad (which was our group of PCs).
Liking the idea of using her hard-practiced skills towards honest spy-work, she took well to the job, but encountered lots of strife with the party's Abadar-worshipping Paladin, who believed such a criminal could never be reformed. It was a blast.
There's this one guy, called Glen Welch...
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During kingmaker we were encouraged to make up some NPCs once our kingdom got started to be backup PCs in the event one of the PCs died. We had to take advantage of this a handful of times. One time inadvertently gave birth to one of the funnest characters I have seen at the table so far.
So one of the players chose to make up a female elf cavalier. She was a bit of a stick in the mud and the RP of a frontier town and its necessary evils was quite a challenge for her. After our kingdom was established the female elf invited her husband an elf wizard to join and help build.
During a foray into the stolen lands the party was overcome by a foe and only a few of the PCs were able to retreat. A rescue party was mounted to attempt to save the lost members. Though when the party arrived there was no one to be found. There was however a grisly scene of bones and torn up belongings. A few of the things were the elf cavaliers.
The husband elf was stricken with terror and refused to believe his wife dead. The whole ordeal made him insane. Everywhere the party went he would see her face in the crowd or discover some of her belongings. Try as his companions might he would not give up his search and refused several times to have a funeral or memorial. The elf wizard faithfully waited the rest of the campaign for his beloved.
Not D&D but a game called 'Zen and the Art of Mayhem': I had two different characters.
One was Vast Deathmaster and he was based on all those barbarian movies but mostly Conan the Barbarian. The character was not too smart and talked in the third person. He also used his first name at the beginning of every sentence. He was a very fun character to play.
The other character was Billy-Bob-Jon-Joe-Jim-Hatfield-McCoy The Hillbilly Assassin. He had this really thick (2feet) southern accent. He also had this bag full of random items some were his weapon of the day, some were almost anything like a rolled up wet towel. What ever he pulled out he had to fight with.
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Played in an all goblin party in a shortlived PbP (NOT We be Goblins). Doomed Hero made a goblin Beastmaster/Packmadter/Houndmaster/woteva it's called called Dog who wore a dogskull scizore that Dog talked to and occasionally received commands from. Also there was Dog's goblin dog, Dogdog.
Dog was slightly touched, and though obviously a goblin believed he was a dog, believed the skull-scizore was a dog and pretty much knew Dogdog was a dog too. My inquisitor was planning on getting a special skullball to throw so she could get Dog to play fetch.
TL;DR - Dog, and Dog's dog Dogdog.
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I was rather impressed by my husband when he created a half-orc Oracle with the battle mystery who never introduced himself as an Oracle, instead claiming to be a paladin. Of Gorum. It was funny how most people on hearing 'Paladin of Gorum' wouldn't even give it a second thought, but the rare extremly rules savvy player would accept it, then a moment later get a confused look and say 'Hey, wait a minute...'
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I was running The Harrowing and a player told me he was preparing a Dwarf Paladin for it.
He arrived with a Human fighter/cleric, who had the 'Raised by another race' trait, and insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary that he he was A. a Paladin, and B. a Dwarf.
He wasn't running a scam, his character really believed he was a Dwarf Paladin, to the great concern of the rest of the party.
DBH
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In terms of role-playing an old friend played a gnome Illusionist-Thief (THAT'S how old this is) who mumbled all the time. Between ourselves we knew it was based on his boss but for us all it was hilarious (shades of the prison torturers from 'Life of Brian'). His dying words were hilarious, if only we could have understood them.
Isn't the real issue what your immediate reactions to his death should have been?
"Oh my gods, they killed [gnome's name]!"
"You bastards!"
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I was running The Harrowing and a player told me he was preparing a Dwarf Paladin for it.
He arrived with a Human fighter/cleric, who had the 'Raised by another race' trait, and insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary that he he was A. a Paladin, and B. a Dwarf.
He wasn't running a scam, his character really believed he was a Dwarf Paladin, to the great concern of the rest of the party.
DBH
I called it Corporal Carrot syndrome!
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Well A friend of mine told me (so this is all sadly secondhand) of a PC he made in his last campaign.
He was an Orc (or maybe a Half-orc) thought thought he was a wizard. He used magical items to replicate spells and carried a spellbook filled with scribbles (he couldn't read.) At no point, did he cast a single spell.
Apparently nobody in the party manage to catch-on to the fact that he wasn't a wizard despite the lack of spellcasting and the fact that he raged almost every fight. They probably assumed he was using the rage spell but still.
He says his next character is planned to be a gunslinger who a crazed ultra-survivalist that thinks the apocalypse is upon us. He was sad to learn that the Homebrew campaign the character was made for would actually support such a character. (long story short: the Demons are invading the Upper Planes.)
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The most creative character I've ever seen is actually a fairly recent example. He was a Dhampir Warpriest who spoke with a heavy Tien (Japanese) accent and an almost extreme level of enthusiasm.
This was a PFS character, so each session was a one-shot adventure with (possibly) a different party composition. As such, he would always take time during the introduction phase of each session to tell the story of how he ended up with an affinity for negative energy. Except that the story changed each session...
Being a warpriest, the character was a monster on the battlefield. But you'd almost forget that entirely because of the hilarious banter that was being spoken during combat. This is one of the few characters I've met that actually makes it hard not to roleplay with him. I had to bite my lip a few times during the last session, since I was the GM and couldn't really respond unless an NPC was present.
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A)
The most unique build I’ve ever seen is the avatar to the right. A half-orc magus that uses the wand wielder arcane, a wand of true strike, spell combat, and a whip to almost guarantee he can trip or disarm virtually anything any time. However, his actual personality is kinda blah. I had some quirks planned for him but they didn’t seem to work so well for PFS and I haven’t been able to figure what I want to replace them with.
B)
The most unique personality I ever had a character called Scorgath way back in 2nd Ed. In PF terms he would have been a feral orc, from the Mwangi Expanse, low level barbarian true primitive, that wanted to be a great shaman (but didn’t have the stats to be more than half-ash’d at it).
Only trusted equipment he made himself, could watch being made, and/or understood the process.
He carried a ‘Holy Answer Septre’ to make important decisions. Would ask every cleric or adept encountered to bless the smooth formed end and/or curse the rough rotting end. Whenever a decision was called for, he would throw the stick in the air (had to be done outside) and see where it landed. Danger this way (rough end) we should go this way (smooth end). The stick was not straight so they wouldn’t be opposite directions. Some procedure even if it didn’t make sense for the question. “Which horse do you want?” He would throw the stick then try to determine which end was closer to which horse (both were out running together in the same field).
Was absolutely obsessed with colors. Insisted that colors have inherent meanings that everyone knows even if they won’t admit it. People chose to wear a color because their soul knows the color matches their own true self. A fashion designer who told others what colors to wear was the most awful unholy perversion imaginable. Had real troubles with people agreeing to wear uniforms. He considered them mentally and spiritually damaged.
Refused to trust, talk to, work with, or work for anyone wearing blue. Heaven forbid the module described someone as wearing sapphire jewelry. The party would have to hold him down to keep him from attacking.
Orange is the color of harlots, “Did you see that? The Duchess is wearing orange right out in public where anyone can see her. The Duke is going to have to call out the guards to beat away the propositions. Course she’s not bad looking. If I can get close enough, I might make an offer for a night or two.”
Anyone wearing white was obviously expecting to die shortly (so he would go up and offer his most sincere condolences on their death at such a young age).
Only trustworthy but naïve people wear much brown. Etc…
He would get very confused when people were wearing multiple contradictory colors. Got a real riot at the table when he was trying to make friends and talk nicely to the troubadour while standing over him with a war club ready to strike.
Once when we all absolutely had to talk to some people at court (they were told I had to attend) the group spent a bunch of cash to get someone to cast some sort of continual darkness centered on my head but with a very small area. Then they cast darkvision on me. So I could only things in black and white. He was practically in tears because all those people were about to die. He promised to do everything he could to help them escape their fate.
The PC was a lot of fun to play. But the group has to be willing to go along with things like that. It was also a lot of work. Had to remember to really listen for colors in the descriptions or ask for them if not given. Remember what meanings I had pulled out of the air last week for a light yellow green. Had to stick with the poor decisions from the Answer Septre.
C)
Second most unique/fun/memorable character I've ever played was in 3.0 Ed. Slalimangus a sort of lizard folk (homebrew race) going for dragon disciple. Charisma was pretty good but only a single level of sorcerer. Intelligence and wisdom low. Claimed to be a mighty magister. But he was still having trouble getting his crystal ball to work right. It was really a shot put painted blue, with purple swirls, and white dots.
I will roast you with the magic hell-fire-ball from hades! Then he would pour an alchemist fire on his crystal ball and slam it into someone's face.
These hands carry the death of ages! My touch will claim your mortal existence! Then he would gut them with his draconic claws.
I actually never decided if he believed all the BS he was spouting or if it was just an act to unnerve people.
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I was running The Harrowing and a player told me he was preparing a Dwarf Paladin for it.
He arrived with a Human fighter/cleric, who had the 'Raised by another race' trait, and insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary that he he was A. a Paladin, and B. a Dwarf.
He wasn't running a scam, his character really believed he was a Dwarf Paladin, to the great concern of the rest of the party.
DBH
That reminds me of my character "Lemoncherry Candyapple" who was a Pixie Paladin of Sune. She really was mechanically, but everyone thought she was crazy because pixies can't be paladins. Her background was that her mother was a Heartwarder (Sune cleric prestige class that turns you into a fey, so while technically that made her a half-human pixie, her mother still was a fey due to that prestige class) and so being raised by a Sunite cleric, she naturally worshipped Sune like her mother. At most people figured she was a very martial cleric, but not a paladin.
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This one's not mine, but one of my favorites was a post by TheSheDM on Reddit:
"One of my players played a pixie paladin. Yes, in full plate armor. No, he could not fly while wearing it. His mount was a blink dog. His name was Sir Princely Hero and his dog was Trusty Steed.
The concept was that this pixie fell in love with classic fairy tales where the hero rescues the damsel in distress and defeats evil and defends good and virtue! This sounded like great fun to him, so in the greatest game of lets-pretend ever played he became Sir Princely Hero.
To make things even better, he decided he needed a damsel, because all heros had a princess or a lady or a lovely peasant girl that they protected. He also understood women had a "virtue" (aka virginity) that needed protecting from scoundrels and theives, but as pixies are genuine innocents, he didn't really understand what "virtue" was but he knew it was important. After much thinking (about 5 seconds or so) he decided that virtue must mean a woman's panties. So our chivalrous pixie introduced himself to the party by finding the party's leader (a female wizard) and solemnly vowing to defend her panties from any unscrupulous rogues that might seek to steal her virtue.
Later when the player wanted to retire the character, it was declared that Sir Princely Hero had tired of his game of knight-in-shining armor and decided to become a pirate instead. He declared himself Captain Sir Dashing Hero, renamed his dog Trusty Ship, and was last seen 'sailing' off into the forest with the wizard's panties as a flag."
That's pretty awesome. The panty flag is the perfect ending to the story. I can only imagine how the wizard reacted.
Human Mad Dog Barbarian, with a gorilla Animal Companion. 17 year old girl who was raised by apes in the jungles, (thus the 8 Cha and Int). Weapons were all bone or wood, similar to Troll from Thunderbolts. Talked like a little bratty girl with a sadistic streak.
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I am currently playing a sorcerer that I always intended to transition into an eldritch knight. I know sorcerer is not the most efficient path into EK, but we are playing a fairly role play intense game and it works for me.
But I couldn't figure out what fighting class I wanted to take. The character is not LG so paladin was out (two levels of paladin when you have a charisma of 20 is awesome, btw). Fighter has too few skill points, and ranger just didn't fit the character. Cavalier would just be silly, and samurai even more so. Magus would be redundant as hell; and barbarian wouldn't make any sense. I wasn't interested in gunslinger, and the DM banned firearms anyway so I started looking through the new test characters in the Advanced Class Guide playtest.
None of the ACG classes interested me for the character though. I had basically settled on a fighter archetype when I was just surfing through the PRD on-line and reading through the Oracle mysteries out of boredom. Yeah, I read game manuals when I'm bored.
My almost child like ifrit is now sorcerer 4 (elemental fire) / oracle 2 (metal). When I get to sorcerer 6 / oracle 4 I will jump him to eldritch knight. With magical knack and membership in a spell casting guild I won't be nerfing his sorcery too much and should manage to make it to sorcerer CL 20 (with spells as an 18th level sorcerer), oracle caster level 5 (with spells as a 5th level oracle), and a BAB of 16/11/6/1.
To make the character even more fun; I have a selection of Turkish phrases to shout, utter, or expound upon whenever he gets nervous (especially in combat when he can only speak ignan).
I've got a few.
One is the most insane monk I've seen. He essentially has the personality of a confused child because he has a 7 charisma. He doesn't say much, but what he does say is amazing. For example, he was doing diplomacy once to see if he could join a ship's crew.
He said something like this: "I have worked on 7 famous ships before. The Black Pearl, the S. S Minow, the Luke Skywalker, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Captain, I will do you proud." The dm probably rolled a nat 20 behind his screen because he said that the captain responded like so. "The captain laughs loudly and says to his first mate 'I don't know what this one's good for, but get him to work here. He will be good for raising morale at least.'"
There is also the fact that this monk couldn't speak to women, he was too scared. So whenever a women got near him he became a mute essentially. Unless he was drunk, then he'd say all kinds of silly things to women.
He would do crazy things in battle, like get lost in strange maze like structures and run his whole 60+ feet of movement. His main skills were acrobatics, climb and ride. Oftentimes he tries to ride a monster we are fighting. He's ridden a giant spider, a troll, a giant scorpion and even a flying black dragon.
This isn't to say he never contributed to anything. He has the style where he gets an attack when he provokes an aoo. So he would run in circles around tons of enemies to get lots of attacks on them. And unsurprisingly, he almost always goes into the negatives in three or so rounds. He even died once but the oracle resed him.
Another is a tiefling warlock in the same game as the monk. The tiefling is Lawful Good, but in combat he rolls a will save dc 15 every round. If he fails the save, his alignment changes to Chaotic Evil and he tries to kill his prey no matter what it takes. He disregards his allies in this mode and will inflict friendly fire on them if the best way to kill his foes requires it. If he makes a will save while in this state, he reverts back to Lawful Good and regrets being in his crazed state. Essentially he goes from a loving and chivalrous individual to a bloodthirsty murderer if he can't control himself in battle.
His backstory is an interesting one. He joined the party late in the game in a pyramid where time doesn't exist. After getting him out of there we figure out via talking to him that he is from a time where a large empire flourished. He was essentially in that pyramid for centuries until we got him, but to him it felt like minutes because time is nonexistent there.
In the past, the empire was warring against the elven lands. And the empire bred many tieflings into its service. The warlock in question explained that the empire used tieflings instead of purebred demons because demons are harder to control. Anyways, the warlock of our party was an assassin in these ranks and was ordered to kill an Elven ambassador and all the witnesses. He did kill the ambassador, but could not stomach to kill the family and witnesses with him. When he got back to his master, he was punished for this half assery and banished to the pyramid. In the process, his name was stolen and he was ordered to guard a Phoenix in the pyramid forever. His character's name is Gahn' aym, or "nameless" in a different language.
Last session we found an elf village where he met the granddaughter of the ambassador he killed. Said granddaughter is super old now and is the grandmother of the elven oracle of the party. She thanked the warlock for sparring her and her family in those times. And also she told him a way he could get a new name. The warlock is now pleased with this info and I'm looking forward to what happens to him next in the game.