D&D 5E How do you make a 'Soldier' interesting?

[LegionError121]

This is actually excellent advice. A catch-phrase is an easy way to make a character memorable, and a good catch-phrase shows off their personality. A REALLY good catch-phrase means different things in different situations (but it's hard to come up with one that good).

For example,
On the front-line of combat: "Come at me, bro!"
Later, at a bar, to an attractive man: "Come at me, bro..."
Later, when trying to catch someone who is falling: "Come at me, br--UMPH."

When you put it that way, it makes a lot more sense . . . I think she'll have some Orc War cries

 

[LegionError121]

How about, introducing a minor flaw and involving the other PC's in helping you to overcome it on a day-to-day basis? Then you return the favour by helping them out in someway. It helps with bonding.

For example: she has never learnt to read. So if faced with a written notice, she asks another PC what it says. Not too often, because that would get tiresome, but just sometimes. Mostly, she copes by ignoring notices or guessing what they say. From time to time she gets a letter from an old army pal, which she asks one of the other PCs to read for her during a short rest. You can spin all kinds of yarns that way and liven up short rests so that they aren't just "We take a short rest", "Okay, you have taken a short rest". You can write your own ongoing narrative, independent of the DM's narrative but maybe cross-linking with it. Or the other player can make it up ...

I shall think of something in that regard . . . You see, it has already gone past the point where I could say "she can't read" and it has been established that she has a connection to "Orc Culture" and can read and write Orc
I do think she has a problem though It's called "I know that Warlock who I indirectly helped become a Warlock is going to be the end of me and thats whack you cause she's the richest person here" Essentually, I think Human is going to do her best to redirect loot that could be used to kill Warlocks to 'good' party members since she as a Champion doesn't exactly shine through on the 'most creative for slaying wizards/warlocks' department

 

[LegionError121]

In Eberron, the major nation of orcs have a very druidic bent, with emphasis on protecting the seals that prevent abberations from entering the world, and destroying any that do.
Likewise, another major group of orcs are a tribe that guard the way to the Demon Wastes, preventing fiends or the Carrion tribes from escaping. (And follow the Silver Flame by another name.)

Either or both of these traditions could inspire a soldier who has been trained to stand fast against anything, from fiends and mad cultists to horrible things with tentacles.
Perhaps Human has intricate silver tattoos that are usually hidden under her clothes that represent initiation in some sort of group? Maybe what they actually represent was never actually explained to her.

Generally people divide themselves along national, rather than racial lines in Eberron. Having someone with issues with dwarves in general is unusual, so you could play that up a bit. Given pretty much all the banking and similar money and storage business is run by dwarves, maybe Human refuses to use the banks and spends whatever money she has on items that she can carry with her? She might own a lot of fine jewelry and impressive clothes what she never has any intention of wearing for example.

This stuff is perfect because Human has already mucked up In fact, she agreed to perform 'guard duty' for an evil member of the party who she didn't know was evil and now this person is a Warlock and Human now gets to see a Fiend on almost weekly basis and believes this Warlock will be the end of her and the people she is working with

 

[Tony Vargas]

How do you make a 'Soldier' interesting?

It sounds like your character is plenty interesting, apart from the obvious issue of sub-class. It's your DM & fellow players who could do with a boost. Have you tried booze?

 

[Positiveimpact3]

My character is basically a set of Stats with a high AC, and I would like to make her more interesting. Other than having a background as being a 'Soldier' who served in an 'Orc Battalion', she is what you would call "the normal soldier" in that she's about 'Duty', is 'Brave', 'completely sane' and 'practical'.

It's weird playing her because she's the ideal tank, people go "OMG OMG I don't want to tank", I do all of the front line stuff (as in, I tank everything, e.g. 8v1) and then when I ask people if they think Human is a good character, they're like "I don't know" even though I literally have my character standing at deaths door every game for their sake. . .


I will give some brief advice. I believe you should make a character, and by extension character personality, that you would enjoy and have fun with. Something fun to watch, play, and interact with. Also make sure your character and personality doesn't hurt the fun of others. In a horror/suspense themed campaign don't make your personality "little miss sunshine" because she wont fir the world and will likely make the world less immersive to the other players.

Likewise don't make a character that is generally a jerk that does things like betray, steal, humiliate, or bully your fellow players unless your running an evil campaign and everyone is cool with that kind of character. I realize most of these examples don't apply to you specifically but the principles behind them do.

If there is an overt theme or tone to the world you can try to tailor your character's personality to the themes and tones of the world. For example in the horror/suspense theme world instead of being "little miss sunshine" (cheerful, kind, wants to bring light to people's spirits by making people happy) you might choose instead to be the "righteous light" - defiant, full of zeal. Righteous fury fighting the corrupt and most of all wants to bring hope to the hopeless. Both characters bring "light" to others but both have a very different tone or feel in the way that they do it.

Otherwise find something about soldiers you find interesting. You can look for tropes about soldiers and think about what you like or dislike about them. You can choose to employ them or turn them on their head doing something very different or completely opposite of them. Or you can look for something a bit more realistic regarding soldiers in general that you think would be interesting to play, watch, and interact with.

I don't exactly know how you have been playing the character in terms of role play personality but try to pick something roughly in line with how you have been currently playing her personality. People don't generally have drastic personality changes for no reason and an abrupt change might be jarring to play or behold or believe in.

Personally I feel like one of the more interesting options for a soldier is the grizzled/retired veteran - not in physical appearance, but in emotional and mental truths. Someone who has seen horrors and done things they are not proud of to protect their own life and the people they care about. You don't generally go through trauma without significant consequence and almost never go through wars of any kind without some kind of trauma. It doesn't have to be PTSD which seems to be a popular condition for fiction bases soldierly characters in recent times. It can be panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias or really anything you might see a psychiatrist for.

A character full of strength and capability that will go into endless battles and march into almost certain death over and over again to do the right thing masking the pain and trauma under a cool and hard emotional exterior as a defense mechanism that only came undone in times of peace and calm when there was no immediate threat. Good will, kindness, and goodness subverted by self loathing, regret, and fear or anger from the things you have done or perhaps the things you failed in, the people you failed to save. It's emotionally intense, rough, and provides flaws, motivations, and beliefs. A good and golden heart covered in stone and the bitterness of guilt. But that's just me.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Can't have "little Miss Sunshine" in a horror campaign? Have you not seen Evelyn in Ravenloft on Dice, Camera, Action? She's amazing! Lol

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

 

[LegionError121]

My character is basically a set of Stats with a high AC, and I would like to make her more interesting. Other than having a background as being a 'Soldier' who served in an 'Orc Battalion', she is what you would call "the normal soldier" in that she's about 'Duty', is 'Brave', 'completely sane' and 'practical'.

It's weird playing her because she's the ideal tank, people go "OMG OMG I don't want to tank", I do all of the front line stuff (as in, I tank everything, e.g. 8v1) and then when I ask people if they think Human is a good character, they're like "I don't know" even though I literally have my character standing at deaths door every game for their sake. . .


I will give some brief advice. I believe you should make a character, and by extension character personality, that you would enjoy and have fun with. Something fun to watch, play, and interact with. Also make sure your character and personality doesn't hurt the fun of others. In a horror/suspense themed campaign don't make your personality "little miss sunshine" because she wont fir the world and will likely make the world less immersive to the other players.

Likewise don't make a character that is generally a jerk that does things like betray, steal, humiliate, or bully your fellow players unless your running an evil campaign and everyone is cool with that kind of character. I realize most of these examples don't apply to you specifically but the principles behind them do.

If there is an overt theme or tone to the world you can try to tailor your character's personality to the themes and tones of the world. For example in the horror/suspense theme world instead of being "little miss sunshine" (cheerful, kind, wants to bring light to people's spirits by making people happy) you might choose instead to be the "righteous light" - defiant, full of zeal. Righteous fury fighting the corrupt and most of all wants to bring hope to the hopeless. Both characters bring "light" to others but both have a very different tone or feel in the way that they do it.

Otherwise find something about soldiers you find interesting. You can look for tropes about soldiers and think about what you like or dislike about them. You can choose to employ them or turn them on their head doing something very different or completely opposite of them. Or you can look for something a bit more realistic regarding soldiers in general that you think would be interesting to play, watch, and interact with.

I don't exactly know how you have been playing the character in terms of role play personality but try to pick something roughly in line with how you have been currently playing her personality. People don't generally have drastic personality changes for no reason and an abrupt change might be jarring to play or behold or believe in.

Personally I feel like one of the more interesting options for a soldier is the grizzled/retired veteran - not in physical appearance, but in emotional and mental truths. Someone who has seen horrors and done things they are not proud of to protect their own life and the people they care about. You don't generally go through trauma without significant consequence and almost never go through wars of any kind without some kind of trauma. It doesn't have to be PTSD which seems to be a popular condition for fiction bases soldierly characters in recent times. It can be panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias or really anything you might see a psychiatrist for.

A character full of strength and capability that will go into endless battles and march into almost certain death over and over again to do the right thing masking the pain and trauma under a cool and hard emotional exterior as a defense mechanism that only came undone in times of peace and calm when there was no immediate threat. Good will, kindness, and goodness subverted by self loathing, regret, and fear or anger from the things you have done or perhaps the things you failed in, the people you failed to save. It's emotionally intense, rough, and provides flaws, motivations, and beliefs. A good and golden heart covered in stone and the bitterness of guilt. But that's just me.

Honestly, Human is kind of different from the retired veteran sort of trope. You see, she joined the Orc army, got trained up, helped win a war and now she's not a normal villigar and feels she has a sense of purpose rather than to hang around on an island, farm away, get married, have babies and then continue the cycle.
Like, how could you sit around after you get git buff, get labbled as a Hero Of The People for a while and theres stuff going on around the world? Wouldn't you want to continue onwards with the Orcs that brought so much to your life? In Human's case, yes but she wasn't allowed to come along so she was a frustraited sitting duck on an island doing what felt like nothing.

Then one day, she gets a letter from overseas inviting her to work for a house of royalty and shes like "snap boyo yes! to do!", turns up is like "Why am I here again?" as she sees Wizards and men shaped machines that are far more gifted than her roaming the streets, pulling weapons out of the air with magic, summoning destructive magics, flying machines in the air and its like "well, I feel a bit stupid being here. The do they need someone like me for?" but then, bad happens. During one of her missions a Wizard in the party proceeds to walk through the grass and disguises herself as a guard, Human be like "here goes nothing." charges in, kills a bunch of guys and then the Wizard gets hit. Human does her best to fix her up, goes back to battle and then a few weeks later, the wizard who got one shot be like "can you do some guard duty for me?" and Human's like "where and when, I don't want to know why cause I owe you" and then the next thing you know, the Wizard slaughters a bunch of innocent people in a building, becomes a Warlock who can summon a giant fiend to serve in battle and Human be like ". This is my fault." . . .

So I guess what I need to know is how do you pursue Justice over a player in the longterm without just straight up murdering them? If I tell the authorities then the whole operation will come undone and it'll send all of the Ebberon houses against each other so my only real option is to quitely deal with them.

 

[Positiveimpact3]

I see, that definitely helps me have a better idea of the character. For narrative this is pretty solid. If I understand correctly the war is essentially the inciting incident for the hero (if we are talking about the hero's journey) and feels she isn't the same and can't go back to the way things were. Fantastic start. She (I assume) is motivated by a desire to make a positive difference in the world and also do the objectively right thing. So she hears or knows of things in the world that she is motivated to participate. This definitely doesn't fit the grizzled veteran as that is a story of an experienced and battered hero, not a new one.

So the new hero gets an invitation which lines up with her motivation so she takes it. She is immediately confronted with conflict she did not expect that makes her doubt her original resolve to be a hero, her first trial essentially. This is overcome and she starts doing missions and then gets her first "real" trial of conscience - she trusts someone and they abuse that trust to harm a lot of innocent people. She would likely feel racked with guilt (for years or decades to come) and in the future it is likely she will be more paranoid and it will be harder to gain her trust. She may also become far more sensitive (and hostile or fearful) to manipulation attempted by friend or foe. She might start to distrust and dislike spell-casters and magic or irrationally angry or afraid of the darker places that large cities inevitably harbor. A few more experiences like this and she will be well on her way to the previously discussed trope of "grizzled veteran". There are plenty of other plausible reactions like denial, rage, bitterness, and self loathing among others - all of which serve as potential character development.

So I guess what I need to know is how do you pursue Justice over a player in the longterm without just straight up murdering them? If I tell the authorities then the whole operation will come undone and it'll send all of the Ebberon houses against each other so my only real option is to quitely deal with them.

So this is a pretty interesting scenario, though not directly related to making your character more interesting. What your character does can reflect her thought process and personality as well as how she reacts to things like betrayal, deception, and high-stakes conflict. In this case there are politics involved which can get a lot of people hurt if it's screwed up - pretty high stakes. She wants to "pursue justice" against the deceiver without killing him/her. "Pursue justice" is a pretty fluid term so I am not sure what that means to Human. I will assume that it means she wants the deceiver to be held responsible for her crimes - also a fluid notion. Apparently to Human - killing the perpetrator wholesale is not acceptable and so is doing nothing.

Objectively If someone were a character that desired to do good and follow the law but had objections to killing the enemy and bringing in authorities what would someone do? Probably think on it for a good long while and try to plan how I could involve the authorities without causing all out war. If that failed I would try to rationalize my morals to see if I would truly be in the wrong to go out and exact justice personally. Failing that I would consider how far outside the law I would be willing to go in order to do the right thing. A lot depends on this answer, if killing isn't okay to do the right thing, is blackmail? coercion? stealing? conspiring? deception? staging a set-up? Depending on what you decide is morally acceptable will determine your options and therefore I can't give much advice here until I have more info on that particular question. If you can neither kill or contact authorities or break the law without compromise then your options are extremely limited.

Perhaps a trap, an ambush of sorts. Make a plan to bait out illegal actions from the perp where you will be in the right to defend yourself / kill or arrest the law-breaker or expose him to authorities in a separate illegal act that wont cause all out war. You cant get him for the first crime but you might get him with the second if you plan it right. You could hire a thieve's guild or some other party (if it isn't strictly illegal) to get more info and potential dirt on the baddie and use it to expose him to the authorities (assuming again that it wont cause all-out war). If it is legal or permitted you can commission a drawing based on the description of the guy and put a personal bounty/wanted poster over the town so that bounty hunters and adventurers hunt this guy down and people who recognize him might avoid him or rat him out to a bounty hunter for part of the reward.

Heck if it isn't illegal you can start rumors that a dangerous wizard / warlock is magically disguising himself and wreaking havoc and see if something comes up. If the city has any kind of witch hunter guild that finds and kills evil spell casters then you might be able to contact them. If you have or can obtain the ability to make a citizen's arrest you might be able to track the warlock down and arrest/detain it for a time until the war is no longer imminent and then turn him over to the authorities when it is safe to do so. Human could try to join the city guard or some other organization that has the authority to kill / detain threats to the city legally and then proceed to do so.

That's all I can think of at the moment though I am sure there are other options. It could be that you bite your tongue until you can safely act and then deliver your vengeance/justice cold. Who knows? I hope the feedback was of some use and look forward to your character's victory.

 

[Ancalagon]

Read "the malazan book of the fallen". Never again will you say that a soldier isn't interesting.