Please describe the following character in terms of race, class, alignment and any other mechanical aspects you deem appropriate.
An elven princess born with a deformity that covers most of her body (60%) and much of her face (40%), causing it to resemble that of a serpent. The affliction is a throwback to demonic influence earlier in her family tree. Her parents hide her true appearance to protect themselves from criticism. She is arranged to marry a prince, and on the assumption that he wants the marriage she reveals her deformity. He confesses he didn't want the marriage either. This combined with having to hide who she is motivates her to run away. She makes a vow to herself never to return unless her family releases information on her true appearance (something she thinks will never happen )
She spends several years learning to survive off the lands in the wild, and reflectin on her life and decision. Over this time she grows more wise and self aware. She decides she wants to make the world a better place but believes she is too self-centered and practical to do it. She decides to find a hero to mentor and protect those who have more pure hearts.
She is an imposing person who conceals herself to hide her deformity and tries to speak only when it's important. Her weapon of choice will be either something blunt or a pole arm.
What race/class/alignment/etc. do you see her as?
Couple options, classwise.
Racewise, Tiefling or Elf.
Tiefling is the optimization choice, if you go with one of the variants heritages that get stat bonuses in the right places. Elven bonuses are going to be pretty awkward for what you seem to want.
Class-wise, Oracle (the deformity would be her curse, I'm sure one of them fits), druid, ranger (if you want her more warrior-like, could go for two-handed combat style to do the polearm thing) or shaman are all fairly good fits.
You'd need to take a trait for survival to be a class skill, if you went oracle, to reflect her ability to get alongin the wilds, but that shouldn't be a problem.
Hope that helped narrow it down for you.
the new Psychic class has an archetype Mutation Mind that is about deformities, and they have Psychic Discipline which can tie into their heritage. They sorcerer also has the demonic bloodline.
Well elf for race seems the most immediate decision for race. Tiefling could work too I suppose but I don't think it is required; you said the disfigurements are throw backs to a earlier time so I think elf works great, maybe with a drawback.
Alignment wise I feel Neutral Good, though any Good alignment seems cool to me. She ran away before her arranged marriage, displaying the want for freedom, even if up set at the time, and thus pointing at a Chaotic alignment component.. However it says she is looking for someone to temper her better towards helping others and going out of her way to lend assistance. So Neutral Good.
Class is a lot harder to pinpoint and depends on any natural talent she possess or skills she acquired growing up. I say either rouge, bard (being elven nobility and all), or even a sorcerer as her latent and fiendish bloodline begins to emerge.
Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming. I wanted to comment a little bit more on alignment and philosophy. The character in question is very selfish, aside from the desire to see the world become a better place she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc. So without someone else around to keep her on a steady path she could cause a lot of destruction. For these reasons I'm not sure a good alignment is accurate but I'm interested to hear other perspectives.
Personally, the deformity's origin looks perfect for the Sorcerer, who gains strange abilities from some sort of heritage or influence on their ancestry. Even bloodrager could work, if you see the demonic influence granting her abilities and strength that she can summon.
If you don't see this character being a spellcaster, you could always take the Eldritch Heritage line, or variant multiclass into Sorcerer with the right bloodline (Abyssal seems to fit).
Her survival skills and living in the wild seems to suggest that Ranger or Slayer could be an appropriate class.
I think just sticking with elf as a race would be fine, take a martial-inclined class for weapon skills and Eldritch Heritage or VMC Sorcerer for the demonic influence.
Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming. I wanted to comment a little bit more on alignment and philosophy. The character in question is very selfish, aside from the desire to see the world become a better place she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc. So without someone else around to keep her on a steady path she could cause a lot of destruction. For these reasons I'm not sure a good alignment is accurate but I'm interested to hear other perspectives.
What you're describing is a contradiction. Selfishness and selflessness are opposite ends of the spectrum. A character who manifests behavior on both extremes to the extent you seem to be indicating is either vastly more complex than what is contained in your little blurb, clinically insane, or both. I suppose the contradiction could be papered over by giving the character the Wis score of a monkey, but this is a poor solution. You ought to flesh out the personality some more.
Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming. I wanted to comment a little bit more on alignment and philosophy. The character in question is very selfish, aside from the desire to see the world become a better place she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc. So without someone else around to keep her on a steady path she could cause a lot of destruction. For these reasons I'm not sure a good alignment is accurate but I'm interested to hear other perspectives.What you're describing is a contradiction. Selfishness and selflessness are opposite ends of the spectrum. A character who manifests behavior on both extremes to the extent you seem to be indicating is either vastly more complex than what is contained in your little blurb, clinically insane, or both. I suppose the contradiction could be papered over by giving the character the Wis score of a monkey, but this is a poor solution. You ought to flesh out the personality some more.
No person is entirely selfish, or entirely selfless. And it's entirely possible to be self aware enough to know that you are a selfish person and also hold a philosophy that people like you cannot change the world. The character in question is selfish, she knows that she alone, in the wild where she lived for a long time, she will always take the easiest route to success. The one that benefits her the most. Whether that is with the animals that live there or the people that wander in. She thinks she inherited the nature from her parents who also took the politically easy route in hiding her. But she doesn't like that route. She doesn't want to live in a world where people like her parents rule. But she knows that she would let it happen. However, she also knows she has skills that could help dismantle it. So she goes to find someone with conviction and pass those skills on. She doesn't think people like herself change the world, but she does think that if she can help someone with the vision or drive to meet their goal, the world will be changed in a way that makes it better for herself and people like her.
No person is entirely selfish, or entirely selfless.Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming. I wanted to comment a little bit more on alignment and philosophy. The character in question is very selfish, aside from the desire to see the world become a better place she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc. So without someone else around to keep her on a steady path she could cause a lot of destruction. For these reasons I'm not sure a good alignment is accurate but I'm interested to hear other perspectives.What you're describing is a contradiction. Selfishness and selflessness are opposite ends of the spectrum. A character who manifests behavior on both extremes to the extent you seem to be indicating is either vastly more complex than what is contained in your little blurb, clinically insane, or both. I suppose the contradiction could be papered over by giving the character the Wis score of a monkey, but this is a poor solution. You ought to flesh out the personality some more.
Well, no shit, but what you are describing here is not someone who is conflicted, like Han Solo was, but rather someone who is a predator:
...she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc.
...and an altruist:
...aside from the desire to see the world become a better place...
...all at once. This is not how human personality actually works outside of angsty anime stories. There is a word for very selfish people who have no problem with hurting others and taking their things: sociopaths. Sociopaths don't care about saving the world. Short of actual mental disorder (which could be mechanically represented by a dismal Wis), the alignment you're going for here is apparently chaotic stupid.
No person is entirely selfish, or entirely selfless.Thank you for the feedback, please keep it coming. I wanted to comment a little bit more on alignment and philosophy. The character in question is very selfish, aside from the desire to see the world become a better place she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc. So without someone else around to keep her on a steady path she could cause a lot of destruction. For these reasons I'm not sure a good alignment is accurate but I'm interested to hear other perspectives.What you're describing is a contradiction. Selfishness and selflessness are opposite ends of the spectrum. A character who manifests behavior on both extremes to the extent you seem to be indicating is either vastly more complex than what is contained in your little blurb, clinically insane, or both. I suppose the contradiction could be papered over by giving the character the Wis score of a monkey, but this is a poor solution. You ought to flesh out the personality some more.Well, no s*%#, but what you are describing here is not someone who is conflicted, like Han Solo was, but rather someone who is a predator:
...she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc....and an altruist:
...aside from the desire to see the world become a better place......all at once. This is not how human personality actually works outside of angsty anime stories. There is a word for very selfish people who have no problem with hurting others and taking their things: sociopaths. Sociopaths don't care about saving the world. Short of actual mental disorder (which could be mechanically represented by a dismal Wis), the alignment you're going for here is apparently chaotic stupid.
You might not want to talk about sociopaths to me, given that that's the main type of people I'm interest in studying. For the record, sociopaths are not the only people who have no problem hurting others, sociopaths are defined by a completely different set of critia. Primarily sociopaths feel an extremely low amount of fear which combined with heightened aggression seems to lead to many of the outward symptoms the public normally associates with them (one might even argue all Paladins become sociopaths once they gain their aura of courage). Something you seem to be missing is that the primary reason that this character wants the world to become a better place is so that the situation she was raised in is rectified and does not happen again. This is in line with a philosophy called enlightened self interest and no mental disorder is needed to have it.
Please, try to take a less aggressive tone when people disagree with your point of view.
You are describing a character who wants to "make the world a better place" explicitly for the benefit of others, or in your words:
...so that the situation she was raised in is rectified and does not happen again.
...and then goes right on hurting and exploiting those "others" whenever it suits her. This is a deeply inconsistent moral position which has nothing to do with enlightened self-interest or with any coherent ethos, for that matter. Such cognitive dissonance is only possible in the deranged or the unbelievably dim...like Groo the Wanderer dumb.
You are describing a character who wants to "make the world a better place" explicitly for the benefit of others, or in your words:
...so that the situation she was raised in is rectified and does not happen again....and then goes right on hurting and exploiting those "others" whenever it suits her.
I would point out that this is not inconsistent and various historical figures displayed the same outlook, but... that's also not the outlook she has. Her version of making the world a better place is intrinsically selfish because she defines it as a world she is comfortably living in. She wants the situation to be rectified, it's about a personal vendetta, not helping others. However she has the self awareness to know her own weakness, like being inclined to take the easier route in life even when it means hurting others. It is entirely possible to be aware of your own shortcomings. This is part of the reason why she wants to mentor someone with a greater vision or drive, so that she can teach them skills and have someone around to make the right decisions for her, thus furthering her long term goals.
I agree with the Oracle and Sorcerer options already recommended above. Her curse/bloodline just manifested earlier/more strongly than others, and that heritage is something the family has political reasons to conceal because it would directly threaten not only their rule, but their survival. They made a hard choice for her, but I doubt it was in malice -it's her place to disagree and make her own way as is her right, and it would be a major story path for the character to convince her family to reconcile and if not see her vision, then find a middle path.
Since your character developed most during time away in the wild, those two casters present an independence from institutions, books, and interactions with outside beings to derive said power. Both are also potentially selfish paths that jive with your concept. The Oracle is beholden to no specific deities, but their mystery, and a Sorcerer is power overwhelming on demand.
Make the hard choice and make her Neutral or even Neutral Evil to start with. With her focus on herself, that's a good narcissistic base to start from and let her develop within or even outside those alignments as her personality and deeds define who she truly is. She has "good" intentions, but her outlook is dark and manipulative, no spinning around that, especially if she is looking to develop others to do said great works for her.
The trope has been invoked before, good fortune to you in running this character. Reminds me a little of Sylphiel (she was glamered after a deforming injury) from The Slayers. A sincerely good character who is scarred, but beautiful inside.
Back to mechanics. Both strong options presented are CHA casters who could always benefit from DEX/CON as well. Assuming a 20-point buy...
7 STR
14 DEX
14 CON
12 INT
12 WIS
16 CHA
before modifiers. Since Elf is directly stated, CON will drop painfully down while you get another skill point and language. Maybe Sylvan? Also, as a survivalist, the bow familiarity intrinsically granted by your race is a lot more use in the wild than any melee weapon, which... anyways you have access to some of the best Exotic Melee out there on the market.
It's leaning towards an armored Oracle using weapon finesse and finding a way to translate DEX to melee damage instead of STR. Strong middle-road option, and the two extra skill points over Sorcerer would lend itself somewhere and free up some traits for good stuff like added resist or even a Survival trait.
On a sidenote, the outline of the character can also towards a Rogue or Ranger as well seeing as crucial years were spent in the wilderness/fringe surviving on her own.
Three main options:
TN Tiefling Druid
TN Nature Oracle (Wasting Curse)
TN Tiefling Witch
TN Nature Oracle (Wasting Curse)
Wolfscarred would also work. It would just have to be reflavored to serpent instead of wolf.
Elf sorcerer with abyssal bloodline, either pure sorcerer of head for eldritch knight
TN elf druid (serpent shaman). I get a Flemeth or Ra's al Ghul vibe from her.
Alignment: True neutral, she's a victim of her own inaction and even when she desires agency instead fosters agency in others.
Race: Rakshasa heritage tiefling(snake rather than tiger, I guess that's a thing), scaled skin alternate trait. The detect thoughts would explain her obsession with others knowing about her.
Class: she doesn't seem to have any abilities here, lacks direction, motivation or power. Her ability to survive on her own in the wild is small amount of skill points mechanically. She runs from her troubles and can live in the woods; obsessive, vengeful but inert. Maybe a warpriest/cult leader
...
An elven princess born with a deformity that covers most of her body (60%) and much of her face (40%), causing it to resemble that of a serpent. The affliction is a throwback to demonic influence earlier in her family tree.
Tiefling is an option. Sorcerer/Bloodrager Heritage or Oracle curse (either from a class, eldritch heritage or VMC) could both work as well. There are probably some options in other classes too.
Her parents hide her true appearance to protect themselves from criticism. She is arranged to marry a prince, and on the assumption that he wants the marriage she reveals her deformity. He confesses he didn't want the marriage either. This combined with having to hide who she is motivates her to run away. She makes a vow to herself never to return unless her family releases information on her true appearance (something she thinks will never happen )
The fact that she doesn't want to go along with the family's will suggests non-Lawful, but the vow thing suggests non-chaotic. So she is most likely Neutral on the Law-Chaos spectrum. It's a weak justification though, and all three could work - Chaotics can make vows to themselves, and Lawfuls don't always go along with the law if it violates their fundamental values.
She spends several years learning to survive off the lands in the wild, and reflectin on her life and decision.
Something like a druid is an obvious option, but going by this description alone she isn't necessarily that nature-ish. A decent survival skill would be enough to survive off the lands. Self reflection does suggest high wisdom and a disciplined class, though.
Over this time she grows more wise and self aware. She decides she wants to make the world a better place but believes she is too self-centered and practical to do it. She decides to find a hero to mentor and protect those who have more pure hearts.
So...decent to good wisdom. That leaves a lot of options open. Especially since the majority of classes want a decent to good wisdom. Also, it suggests an alignment of somewhere between Neutral and Good. Her self-centered and practical traits make either one arguable.
She is an imposing person who conceals herself to hide her deformity and tries to speak only when it's important.
Imposing suggests a high Cha but could just be due to the deformity. The tries to speak only when it's important bit could be due to low Cha or high Wis (or both). You could justify this a lot of ways.
Her weapon of choice will be either something blunt or a pole arm.
...
Any class could use a blunt weapon, and most can use polearms (only the wizard can't IIRC). It does suggest someone who isn't hopeless at melee, so probably not an arcane fullcaster. Almost any other class fits this.
The character in question is very selfish, aside from the desire to see the world become a better place she has very little compulsion against hurting people, or taking their things if she needs them, etc. So without someone else around to keep her on a steady path she could cause a lot of destruction.
Ohhhhkay, this is confusing. One explanation for this contradiction is that she ostensibly wants to make the world a better place, but she can't bring herself to make the sacrifices necessary for that to happen. That is an option. There are many others. The problem here is that in order to reconcile this and some of the stuff above you need to create personality defining traits in order to do so. So there are many answers, and they can produce radically different characters. Without more info, I can't really come up with anything without creating her whole personality out of nothing. The only thing I get out of this is that it suggests Neutral instead of Good.
Her version of making the world a better place is intrinsically selfish because she defines it as a world she is comfortably living in. She wants the situation to be rectified, it's about a personal vendetta, not helping others. However she has the self awareness to know her own weakness, like being inclined to take the easier route in life even when it means hurting others. It is entirely possible to be aware of your own shortcomings. This is part of the reason why she wants to mentor someone with a greater vision or drive, so that she can teach them skills and have someone around to make the right decisions for her, thus furthering her long term goals.
OK, this is a little better to work with. Still:
Here is the thing about enlightened self-interest. It is a form of Utilitarianism that maximizes the happiness of a group so long as everyone in the group follows it. That way, both those who aim for the good of the group and those who aim for the good of themselves cooperate. However, it falls apart when only a small fraction of the group follow it. Those who follow it get essentially no benefit from following it, since the whole point of the concept is that it needs the majority to follow it in order for the good to the whole to offset the self sacrifice. Since it is highly unlikely for simply following this to change the status quo of a whole realm, there are at least five explanations for the character's behaviour that I can see.
1. Despite proclaiming self-interest, she actually deep down cares a lot about others, wants to be able to make them better off, and is in a state of denial about it.
2. She doesn't understand how useless her desired behavior is for achieving her goals.
3. The whole thing is a coping-mechanism to make her feel better about screwing over others. She would help others as much as she helps herself, but it's so hard, and she wants to change but she just can't find someone to help her. She is at least self aware enough to acknowledge that she is fundamentally selfish, though.
4. She has other plans for making the whole thing actually work. Very complex, character defining plans that we don't know about and thus can't judge her personality on.
5. She has a set of principles stemming from her experiences, and she actually wants to put said principles above her own self-interest.
Every single option defines a radically different character.
...
What race/class/alignment/etc. do you see her as?
She should probably be either Tiefling or Elf with a class that could cause the deformities she suffers. Alignment is a tossup due to how badly defined her personality is. Otherwise, decent survival skills and semi-competency at melee combat are enough to completely cover what you have given. Maybe a class that isn't to learned, to reflect her time alone in the wild (although unless she was a hermit, it isn't unreasonable for her to be able to get access to the knowledge to become a more learned class).
EDIT: If I might suggest a way of making this a lot easier, what are her goals - short term and long term aims that either further another goal or align with her motivations, and what are her motivations - guiding principals that define how she sets her goals and what she fundamentally wants her life to be about. With those we might be able to give a better character description.
I WILL MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! EVEN IF I HAVE TO KILL EVERYONE TO DO IT!
CN tiefling polearm ranger who possesses a genuine desire to do good, but is predisposed to do so in an evil way thanks to her fiendish heritage.
Nothing wrong with being personally Neutral, or even NE, and preferring to work with good people or encourage altruism in others when possible. Could come from guilt, pragmatism, self awareness without agency, etc.
Depending on what abilities you want her to have, ranger makes sense, there's archetypes if you don't want spells or companion, and the background doesn't mention religion or mysterious patrons.
Nothing wrong with elf, the deformity could just be a drawback. Tiefling could work too.
If I might suggest a way of making this a lot easier, what are her goals - short term and long term aims that either further another goal or align with her motivations, and what are her motivations - guiding principals that define how she sets her goals and what she fundamentally wants her life to be about. With those we might be able to give a better character description.
Sure, no trouble.
Short Term Goals
1: Find a 'good' person to mentor. (OOC this is her main reason to get into an adventuring party.)
2: Enjoy the company of 'good' 'civilized' people long enough to forget some of the worse memories she has from surviving in the wild.
Long Term Goals
1: Pass on all her skills, wisdom and knowledge to her apprentice.
2: Through her apprentice, provide a way to change the world so that it's not ruled by 'cowards too tangled in politics to care about their own families'.
3: Enjoy the comforts of civilization for as long as she can.
4: Once goal 1 and 2 are complete, leave back to the wild to continue living how she currently is.
Nothing wrong with being personally Neutral, or even NE, and preferring to work with good people or encourage altruism in others when possible. Could come from guilt, pragmatism, self awareness without agency, etc.
It's a mix of pragmatism and...
She would help others as much as she helps herself, but it's so hard, and she wants to change but she just can't find someone to help her. She is at least self aware enough to acknowledge that she is fundamentally selfish, though.
Self-awareness mixed with a lack of discipline (or maybe motivation) to follow through with that self-awareness. It's a lot easier in the wild to say "Well if I didn't ambush those travelers another bandit would have, and then I would have just ambushed that other bandit. So the end result is the same. Besides they shouldn't have been wandering into my forest." since she only has to justify herself to herself. The goal is that kind of thing will be harder once she joins an adventuring party.
predisposed to do so in an evil way thanks to her fiendish heritage.
This is a trope I actually want to avoid. Her selfish impulses and preference towards the path of least resistance are a personal flaw, one potentially inhereted from her parents, but not something that the demonic ancestry can take any legitimate blame for.
Wolfscarred would also work. It would just have to be reflavored to serpent instead of wolf.
The Hunger Curse would also work.
While both of those are cool, the way I envision the scaring on her face she doesn't have a pronounced snout and only have one 'fang' due to it only affecting half (well 40%) of her face. I also want to have her conceal her face from her companions so being dependant on utitlizing the deformity is less than ideal.
P.S. Again, thanks for the feedback everyone, and feel free to keep it coming. I've heard a lot of neat suggestions and I appreciate it even if I haven't directly responded to it.
This character kinda reminds me of the Thymara, from Robin Hobb's The Rain Wilds Chronicles.
Is the deformity really a deformity or is it still cool looking lol. The one fang almost sounds like a snaggle tooth on a... well... magical girl.
I can see this character go ga-ga and sideline the story running after pastries, sweets, and fine cuisine. Or have a soft spot for cultured things like little trinkets, shoes, or what-have-you fashion accessories.
Enjoy civilization as long as she can stand it or her goals are accomplished... sure, with a wagon-load of the latest fads and a year supply of Krispy Kreme back to her wilderness abode.
I have seen this type of character before... it always runs down the same nauseating path.
"Yes, Fighter... this is the Capital, we are going on an epic quest of... shop~ping! Finally a use for that STR."
Or it could have an awesome course where instead she delves into civilization for tastes of what her life could've been. Example, seeing children at play or even a poor-yet-happy couple in public would trigger dreams, wants, and melancholy -her quiet nature would lend itself to great observation not for detail, but also because she is overcome by the experience. Something noble like that I guess, but this is really starting to get a anime kind of vibe to the build.
The kind where that aloof cultured princess is really a ditz.