Could I have some Advice on my Character please?

[LegionError121]

I think I've got it.

Mariana – Human – Ranger – Lawful Neutral

Mariana started out as a kid like any other.

She grew up in a sleepy village and tended to watch the guards defending against the occasional Goblin attack.

The guards never really killed the creatures but instead chose to scare them off by firing arrows near them as a means of intimidation so that they would retreat before they got anywhere near the village.

A travelling Elf by the name of Pelten visited the village one day to buy some materials from a store, Mariana was around at the time and he offered to teach her how to use a Bow.

The Elf went back to his home in the forest and came back with his Eldest and they began training the next day.

Mariana spent the 2 weeks learning how to use a Bow and as a reward for doing well, Pelten gave Mariana the Bow she had been learning with, a number of arrows she was told not to lose or else she wouldn't be able to practice and quiver so that she had some place to keep them.

As time went on, Mariana developed to be a very productive member of her village and continued to practice with the Bow during some of her free time.

Mariana tried being a guard but found it boring so she roamed around to doing other stuff to do when she could.

She tried hunting and found that she was pretty good at it but didn't exactly like carrying the dead animals back to town and she ended up doing a lot of odd jobs for the villagers who had become too old to run around.

As time passed, she was on guard duty one day and she saw a kid watching her, a group of Goblins came by and she scared them off as per usual and the kids eyes lit up.

Now in her teens, she offered to teach the boy how to use a Bow and she did.

The young kid then took up guard duty after about a year of training and received a Bow from one of the old guards who had decided to retire that day when the kid was asking for a position amongst the guard's ranks.

Mariana soon found that there was a cycle. A cycle where each worker of the town passed on their talents to the younger generations and that is how things continued.

Knowing how things would always be “ok”, Mariana went in search of the Elves and learnt to be a Ranger and started to venture soon afterwards for different experiences.

Since then, Mariana has learnt how to properly hunt, cook, set up camps, how to navigate, read/write and she's travelled a fair bit as well.

After participating in a castle defence where hundreds of arrows flew and rained down, she decided it was a disappointing experience and decided to quietly start travelling with people to learn of their ways and your group just happens to be the one Mariana is with at the moment.

TLDR Version:

Marina grew up normally.

Learnt how to use a Bow.

Decided she wanted to do something else with her life because she could.

Train to be a Ranger.

Decides to group to start venturing with people after she finds defending a castle boring.

Just happens to be in your group at the moment.


Description

Height: 5.5ft/170cm

Hair colour: Dark Amber/Dark Brown

Eye colour: Green

Build: Healthy

Nature: Quiet and Practical

Hobbies: Sight Seeing and Wandering

 

[LegionError121]

There we go. A Normal character. I'm kind of proud to come up with her because I feel most people tend to boast about their characters but I'll happily just say "she's normal" and explain "she's a ranger".

Feel free to say anything you want, any critercisms are welcome though I generally don't feel like giving her some reason to express sorrow or seek some kind of revenge.

It will be a while before I get to meet up with my friends and actually get things "pinned down" but I'll make sure to speak of my ventures when they happen.

Thank You.

 

[lcjunkie]

I usually create a character first with a basic idea of what type of things i want to do and then flesh out the details. Doing it the opposite way, especially while unfamiliar with rules of the game as you are, will frequently result in disappointment because it might not work the way you want it to work. For example if I want to create an archer. Then I decide my archer was raised by elves in their home city so I have some nature skills. In that case I create an archer Ranger. After that I can add their background (probably outlander in this case). Then you can add other personality twists and appropriate appearance, etc. Go from general to specific. You are doing the opposite.

EDIT: If your character was raised in a castle you are more likely to be a fighter who specialized in bow rather then ranger. Your history as written does not seem to match your class. That's what happens when you do it in reverse. This does not apply once you know the game better.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

I usually create a character first with a basic idea of what type of things i want to do and then flesh out the details. Doing it the opposite way, especially while unfamiliar with rules of the game as you are, will frequently result in disappointment because it might not work the way you want it to work. For example if I want to create an archer. Then I decide my archer was raised by elves in their home city so I have some nature skills. In that case I create an archer Ranger. After that I can add their background (probably outlander in this case). Then you can add other personality twists and appropriate appearance, etc. Go from general to specific. You are doing the opposite.

EDIT: If your character was raised in a castle you are more likely to be a fighter who specialized in bow rather then ranger. Your history as written does not seem to match your class. That's what happens when you do it in reverse. This does not apply once you know the game better.

I agree Icjunkie.

The MO I use now to create special NPC's and potential new characters is that I first get the Class concept of what I want to do. So most recently I made a character I wanted to be a Paladin-Sorcerer. So I placed the stats first to get an idea of how the character would be...physically strong and charismatic, but lacking on the agility and knowledge.

For me, Background choices have become very important in cementing the character. For Aerick, the Paladin-Sorcerer, I had a basic idea that I wanted someone who was heroic, but maybe a bit arrogant and full of themselves. So based on my stats and that idea I started thinking of what might fit and landed on the Folk Hero background. From there I rolled on the Bonds/Ideals/Flaws table (which I thought was a waste at first and now love). I ended up basically rolling a guy who led a militia to defend against an army (how he became a folk hero), he got the "thinking is for other people and I prefer action", but also got the flaw that he secretly thinks that everyone would be better off if HE was a tyrant over the lands. This fits with both the stat array (low ability numbers in the mental stats) as well as the concept of a slightly arrogant hero.

So I started with this concept of a Magical-Warrior who is full of himself, but by the end of the process I have this interesting character who, although heroic, might be a bit domineering and commanding. So then I say, where does this arrogance come from? Well, when I take a Sorcerer level I'll go with the Gold Draconic background. Since Aerick has noble dragon blood in his veins, there is no doubt he is destined for great things! So that will be the source of the arrogance And I've toyed with the idea that if I use this character in a home game that its actually a Red Dragon Origin and Aerick deludes himself into thinking its Gold, including saying the faint scales on his body are more of a goldish-red (which gives the DM some room to create stories concerning that if he wanted to).

So that's a long-winded version of...yeah, I agree with what Icjunkie said about starting with a Class and a concept, then letting the character come together organically as you write up the character sheet. ^_^

 

[Wednesday Boy]

EDIT: If your character was raised in a castle you are more likely to be a fighter who specialized in bow rather then ranger. Your history as written does not seem to match your class. That's what happens when you do it in reverse. This does not apply once you know the game better.

Unless I read it wrong, the character grew up in a sleepy village, was trained to be an archer by a travelling elf and worked as a hunter and guard in her village. Seems like a Ranger fits well.

 

[lcjunkie]

Unless I read it wrong, the character grew up in a sleepy village, was trained to be an archer by a travelling elf and worked as a hunter and guard in her village. Seems like a Ranger fits well.

I only read TLDR version. LOL

 

[Vulf]

RP optimization I guess?

You can be an Urban Ranger, ask your DM if you can take Cities as your Natural Explorer environment.
Other than that, choose 2 different humanoid cultures as Preferred enemies, and ask your DM if you can learn both of their dialects if you choose Human twice.

For example: Tethyrian, Calimshite, Illuskan

 

[LegionError121]

I'll be reconstructing my character idea Maybe coming up with a more . . . open ended tale so that there is clear room for change (e.g. I could say she's a reincarnation of a great hero but she's had a different upbringing )

If my DM allows it (depends if he's one of those who allocate points for best builds or go with dice roles kind of dudes), I want my "Ranger" of sorts to have a poor Charisma stat My character wouldn't be "stupid" but would "kind of miss the point of her teachings" and be rather "blunt" For example, if you went up to her and said "Is it hot in here or is it just you?" then she would probably say something like "no it isn't but you might want to take your armour off if you're overheating" xD

Say the Elves spent a lot of time teaching her to be stealthy in a forest Instead of embracing Nature, she simply sees the required approach as a process that she would have to emulate so she would have stealth but not nature"

Instead of learning how to handle animals She would know how to "deal with them" (kill them)

and instead of learning how to track Maybe she would be a Hunter as her approach in life would of been to wonder around until she found something instead of learning how to navigate with tools, nature or the sky