101 Cool Character Concepts

My latest character:

Targ/Tendal, half-orc wiz1/ftr2/bbnX:

I was an orphan in my orc tribe - my mother was a human prisoner who subsequently died, and my father murdered in a quarrel. At the age of 7 my tribe was raided by a human army. I was captured an carried far away. I was eventually released into the custody of a human wizard, within a large city. For years he trained me to be a wizard, but I just wasn't that good at it. I do not know exactly what happened, but he did get into frequent arguments with the military sergeant, who eventually took me away from the wizard when I was 18. For 3 years I was in the military, perhaps, I guessed, being trained to attack my own people - whom I had now come to recognize as evil, barbaric people. The surprise, I assumed, would be that I could cast an occasional spell. On a mission into orc land, my troop was ambushed. My superiors were immediately executed, and the orcs kept me around for some "fun". I quickly fell into the rhythm of the orc tribe, and recalled all that I knew - this was the first time I had seen an orc tribe again. Days wore on, and no soldiers came to rescue me. I had to resort to my orc ways to survive, which I did. I became disgusted with so-called "civilized" society, and joined the tribe. Currently, I am aiming to exact revenge on the military men first, then the wizard who kidnapped me. I overcompensate by being overwhelmingly orc-like, and am very devoted to Gruumsh, the orc god.

Hummingbird said:

And my current character: An elven wizard who was born mentally retarded (sorry, I know its not PC, but I couldn't think of another way to phrase it), but during the time of troubles he grew smarter but weaker (his STR and Int changed places) He now has a 4 STR, and an 18 INT.

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Sounds Flowers for Algernon ish.

Edit: I just read that and realized that it sounded like I thought that was a bad thing. I don't. That was one of my favorite books. I thought the character idea was really cool and offered an oportunity for great stories.

Keane Kominda, male tiefling Rog12: At first glance, he doesn't look too tough, but his real power lies in his ability to manipulate. He's "the Boss" of the local underworld, and he makes it a point to ensure that nobody knows who he is. To enhance the illusion, he poses as one of his own low-ladder flunkies, getting info and learning what the rest of the thugs think about the Boss.

A self-professed coward, he stays out of direct combat and sneak attacks while his bodyguards/friends/pet assassins fight for him.

A Centaur knight (this idea stolen from the Sega Genesis game, Shining Force). He might have been raised by a Paladin, or come from a society of Centaurs that has embraced the ways of civilization. For prestige classes specializing in mounted combat, this will need to be changed, as there's little point in a Centaur taking ranks in Ride or the Mounted Combat feat.

A D&D version of Iron Man. Use the new rules for intelligent magic items from Book of Eldritch Might III (intelligent items have levels, but you have to pump your own XP into them for them to level up; as they progress in levels, they gain spell-like abilities, special feats for items, weapon/armor pluses or special qualities, and so on). Create intelligent Full Plate Armor that develops a symbiotic relationship with a character. The armor's spell-like abilities are focused on buffing magic and anything power armor-like (Fly, Jump, Expeditious Retreat, Darkkvision, Bull's Strength, Tenser's Transformation, Mordenkainen's Sword...). The armor wearer might be a Fighter, or a Fighter/Spellcaster who specializes in enchanting armor, an Orc or other humanoid who you would not expect under the armor, a guy with a hideously scarred face who refuses to be seen without the armor, an Ironbound PrC (from Hammer & Helm, character specializing in heavy armor)...

Chun-tzu said:

AA D&D version of Iron Man. Use the new rules for intelligent magic items from Book of Eldritch Might III (intelligent items have levels, but you have to pump your own XP into them for them to level up; as they progress in levels, they gain spell-like abilities, special feats for items, weapon/armor pluses or special qualities, and so on). Create intelligent Full Plate Armor that develops a symbiotic relationship with a character. ...

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Years ago, my campaign had a period where the pcs adopted superhero identities, and one of them was Iron Dwarf. He was a priest of technology, and he eventually made intelligent magical technological armor named Adam, which later still figured in my new campaign world's background.

1)A halfling paladin who rides a war dog everywhere.

Been there

2) Elven Sorcerer specializing in Enchantment (e.g.: school focus, that's where most of his spells come from, etc...not in the wizardly sense of specialization). High Cha a must. Maybe substitute Telepath. He's a gettin'-it-on machine!


Can't have a sorcerer as a specialist(unless house rules). Or unless he chooses nothing but spells and feats to focus on this.

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I was once in a campaign where we all gained abilities to the X-men..
I got Nightcrawler's "Dimension door " ability was a ranger.. had a wonderful time with it.

Moe Ronalds said:

Just don't use it for nefarious dark magic.

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Okay so which one of my players are you?

I always wanted to play an atheist cleric. A charcter whose lack of belief in the gods is so utterly complete that it fuels his own abilities to cast divine spells (cleric class). He would wander the lands, preaching out against the false gods, who feed off of our worship instead of allowing us to reach our full potentials in life.

DMs always get real iffy about that when I bring it up.

One of my favorite characters is a Rogue2/Monk2/Psychic Warrior2. He is a Strongheart Halfling who started out as a member of an FR monk order which name escapes me. He awakened to his psychic potential while adventuring. He dresses in dirty commoner clothes instead of a monks outfit. He will usually skirt the perimeter of a battle looking for flanking opportunities until the spellcasters or leaders of the enemy can be identified. Then he will tumble into the thick of things. I had totally min/maxed his AC. Not even touch attacks got me.

A few ideas of mine:

- A character who focuses on being "Big." Probably a half-orc, maybe a fighter, maybe a barbarian for the hit points. He'd be the largest he could be, use reach weapons, and make a point of squeezing through door frames.

- A barbarian who's on a mission from his tribe. But before he left, he went through a ceremony in which he was bonded with their god. Unfortunately, they worship a Hellcat who comes to the material plane every once in a while. When the barbarian goes into rage, he takes up a cat-like stance, grows and hisses, and sometimes even eats his prey. He never remember what he did in his rage, though...