humble minion
Legend
Spinning off a bit from a discussion of kender wizards in the Do You Plan To Buy Dragonlance thread. Kender tend to attract a lot of hate for some well-understood reasons. If hypothetically you had to play a kender PC, in a 5e Dragonlance game that you wanted to succeed and be enjoyable for everyone, how would you do it? Character concept, personality and game mechanics? Would you play against type to some degree or would you embrace the full stereotypical pickpocketing kenderness, and if the latter, how would you do it in a way that wasn't irritating?
To start the ball rolling:
Kender ranger, beastmaster subclass, using the Spirit of the Land companion from Tasha's and the Watchers dark gift from VRGtR. Background, maybe Folk Hero or Outlander? A kender who is fascinated by nature, insects in particular. Keeps the stereotypical kender wide-eyed curiosity and joyful enthusiasm, but redirects it away from the personal possessions of their fellow party members and outwards to the wild. Always has an interesting insect fact at hand and will tell you all about it, loves travelling to new places because it's a chance to see new butterflies. Has a slightly disturbing connection of some sort with a massive underground giant ant nest - her beastmaster's companion is actually a giant ant, and the 'watchers' from the dark gift are ants that follow her everywhere. Sure, sometimes the beast companion dies, but another one from the colony will show up and (as she will tell you at great length), it's not really the same as when a person dies, it's the ant nest that is the thinking creature, while individual ants are a bit like hair that will grow back. Will not steal your magic items or play pranks on you, but might sometimes make sure you 'share' your trail rations with the ants, even if you are unaware of doing so.
To start the ball rolling:
Kender ranger, beastmaster subclass, using the Spirit of the Land companion from Tasha's and the Watchers dark gift from VRGtR. Background, maybe Folk Hero or Outlander? A kender who is fascinated by nature, insects in particular. Keeps the stereotypical kender wide-eyed curiosity and joyful enthusiasm, but redirects it away from the personal possessions of their fellow party members and outwards to the wild. Always has an interesting insect fact at hand and will tell you all about it, loves travelling to new places because it's a chance to see new butterflies. Has a slightly disturbing connection of some sort with a massive underground giant ant nest - her beastmaster's companion is actually a giant ant, and the 'watchers' from the dark gift are ants that follow her everywhere. Sure, sometimes the beast companion dies, but another one from the colony will show up and (as she will tell you at great length), it's not really the same as when a person dies, it's the ant nest that is the thinking creature, while individual ants are a bit like hair that will grow back. Will not steal your magic items or play pranks on you, but might sometimes make sure you 'share' your trail rations with the ants, even if you are unaware of doing so.