WotC salvage: Creating Memorable Characters -- Personality Traits that Resonate In-game

[Chaosmancer]

First time moving anything, and I wanted to save the conversation, since it had some really good ideas and stories in it. Quoted, copied, and pasted so posters names should be with their comment. Hopefully this doesn't look like an unholy mess when I'm done.

D&D is a creative exercise first and foremost, and many of us come to this forum looking for inspiration and creative ideas, as opposed to rules discussions. When I am defining a character, I am always hard-pressed to invent personality traits that will resonate at the table and inform my character's decisions in interesting ways.


On another thread (http://community.wizards.com/forum/dungeon-master-help/threads/4125321), @Swede1985 mentioned a character who was a conspiracy theorist, a character who sees the dark hand of <<substitute your organization name here>> behind every significant event that occurs within the campaign, no matter how tenuous or implausible the connection. I can see this as the foundation for a very interesting and memorable character.


I am curious to hear from other people -- what are some of the most interesting and memorable characters you have encountered, and what sorts of personality traits or quirks did these characters have which made them so memorable?

In one of the few games I ran in 3e I had a player with a changeling character that self limited himself to three (i think) forms each with distinct personalities and personal goals whilst still being a contributing member of the group. It was an impressive juggling act.

Arawn76 wrote:
In one of the few games I ran in 3e I had a player with a changeling character that self limited himself to three (i think) forms each with distinct personalities and personal goals whilst still being a contributing member of the group. It was an impressive juggling act.



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Very cool. Would you care to elaborate a bit? What were the hallmarks of each personality? Were there extraneous factors which triggered the shift from one personality to another, or was the character in full control of these transformations?

I try to give each character at least one defining characteristic, no matter how small. One (elf fighter/mage) is very impulsive; the group constantly has to rein in her sudden inclination to go off to do something (that may be exactly what's needed, but she doesn't need to be the first in line!). Another (dwarf fighter) is almost always seen with a beer mug, except in battle where it might get broken. Another (human cleric) is a bit of a pacifist -- she doesn't fight unless absolutely necessary, like it was when one evil guy was holding an even more evil dagger. Her single sword stroke severed his hand at the wrist, and she put the sword away; time to patch everyone up. And a fourth (human rogue) is very practical and has no real morals, and if the paladin says "I won't kill you if you talk," Fallon won't feel bound by his "I won't" and may or may not kill the prisoner after interrogation. This is where the Backgrounds can come in really handy: there are a number of traits and whatnot you can choose from, or to use as an example to make your own.

Not quite an answer to your question, but I've found that the traits/ideals/flaws/bonds that come with the backgrounds are a thought-provoking starting point for individual personalities, which then develop into something more solid when the characters in the party start interacting with each other in the early sessions. That is, personality isn't something intrinsic to the character, it's about how the character relates to everyone else. So if you look at the traits/ideals/flaws/bonds for all the characters in the party and rub them all together, they can start to get quite interesting even if individually they might seem bland or just quirky.


For my own amusement, I've been writing a blog about five characters with randomly-rolled personalities beginning to interact with each other. It's a sort of extended "meet up and introduce yourself" session as a precursor to working through some adventures. I like working out ideas like this. Maybe it will illustrate what I was trying to say above.

Well from memory

• There was Sin, a female swashbuckler with aspirations of pirate hood. Very humorous and flirty, was quick with a joke, quick to take offence but equally as quick to forgive. Always reminded me of Gina Davis in that awful film of hers but actually entertaining.
• Mordant(?? I think) Think Kiefer Sutherland as Athos in the three musketeers. Military man, skilled swordsman. Very, very serious and sombre unless drunk then quick to anger and not very forgiving.
• Silence, stone cold killer utterly without conscience or remorse but completely obedient to the warforged wizard (another party member). Was oddly less trouble than the other two. Can’t think of a quick comparison off the top of my head.

As I recall the character wasn’t suffering any mental disassociation that we ruled officially, the changes to personality were usually predicated on the adventure or situation they found themselves in. That said it did play a lot like the three were largely unaware of each other.


Overall it was a quirky group


Changeling Swashbuckler/Rogue (See above)
Jax - Shifter Ranger raised by Valenar elves who thought he couldn’t die. And played him that way…successfully!
Dante – Warforged wizard (Diviner) emancipationist who was built as a tutor for the children of Cyrish(?) nobles. Was lined up as a Professor X to the Lord of Blades Magneto (early) persona.

I'm trying to figure out how to recreate two characters from an old choose your own adventure book I once read. Throughout the adventure they were described as a warrior and his mother, he was escorting her somewhere. In the final few pages she was revealed to be a powerful witch who had dominated this man with magic.The old sod ended up killing us all after disposing of her "son".


My take is a young witch dominating a young knight, using him to get to where she wants to go. As I don't have the PHB yet I'm not sure how I'll work it, but I'm liking the idea of their personalities clashing throughout their journey together. Also looking forward to laying some breadcrumbs for the other player's characters, to see if they work out what's really going on before she disposes of the gallant young lad.


If you're interested, I'll post details (if I can get it all worked out).

BoldItalic wrote:
Not quite an answer to your question, but I've found that the traits/ideals/flaws/bonds that come with the backgrounds are a thought-provoking starting point for individual personalities, which then develop into something more solid when the characters in the party start interacting with each other in the early sessions. That is, personality isn't something intrinsic to the character, it's about how the character relates to everyone else. So if you look at the traits/ideals/flaws/bonds for all the characters in the party and rub them all together, they can start to get quite interesting even if individually they might seem bland or just quirky.


For my own amusement, I've been writing a blog about five characters with randomly-rolled personalities beginning to interact with each other. It's a sort of extended "meet up and introduce yourself" session as a precursor to working through some adventures. I like working out ideas like this. Maybe it will illustrate what I was trying to say above.







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Just finished reading your blog, and I enjoyed it immensely. I can see how your philosophy of emergent personality traits through group interaction clearly shines through. From my own experiences, I have found that, unlike in literature, subtle personality traits tend to get buried at the table, so most of my characters tend to be grotesques (in the literary sense of the word) with highly pronounced and often exaggerated personality traits.

OrwellianHaggis wrote:
I'm trying to figure out how to recreate two characters from an old choose your own adventure book I once read. Throughout the adventure they were described as a warrior and his mother, he was escorting her somewhere. In the final few pages she was revealed to be a powerful witch who had dominated this man with magic.The old sod ended up killing us all after disposing of her "son".


My take is a young witch dominating a young knight, using him to get to where she wants to go. As I don't have the PHB yet I'm not sure how I'll work it, but I'm liking the idea of their personalities clashing throughout their journey together. Also looking forward to laying some breadcrumbs for the other player's characters, to see if they work out what's really going on before she disposes of the gallant young lad.


If you're interested, I'll post details (if I can get it all worked out).



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I like it. Please post away!

I find that for a basic concept, I tend to go with something expected with a twist. "This, but that."


Friar Griftheart: "He's a cleric of the god of luck, but a charlatan and card cheat."


Tiny Mankind: "He's a stone giant with dwarfism, but a champion of man."


Fumar Firebrand: "He's a typical dwarf, but he smokes heavily instead of drinks."


The contrast allows interesting questions to arise which gives birth to personality traits. As far as that goes, I turn them up to 11 because D&D's no place for subtlety in my view and at the table that 11 comes across as 6 to 8 anyway.

Arawn76 wrote:


Well from memory

• There was Sin, a female swashbuckler with aspirations of pirate hood. Very humorous and flirty, was quick with a joke, quick to take offence but equally as quick to forgive. Always reminded me of Gina Davis in that awful film of hers but actually entertaining.
• Mordant(?? I think) Think Kiefer Sutherland as Athos in the three musketeers. Military man, skilled swordsman. Very, very serious and sombre unless drunk then quick to anger and not very forgiving.
• Silence, stone cold killer utterly without conscience or remorse but completely obedient to the warforged wizard (another party member). Was oddly less trouble than the other two. Can’t think of a quick comparison off the top of my head.

As I recall the character wasn’t suffering any mental disassociation that we ruled officially, the changes to personality were usually predicated on the adventure or situation they found themselves in. That said it did play a lot like the three were largely unaware of each other.


Overall it was a quirky group


Changeling Swashbuckler/Rogue (See above)
Jax - Shifter Ranger raised by Valenar elves who thought he couldn’t die. And played him that way…successfully!
Dante – Warforged wizard (Diviner) emancipationist who was built as a tutor for the children of Cyrish(?) nobles. Was lined up as a Professor X to the Lord of Blades Magneto (early) persona.





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Great, compelling stuff! Thanks for sharing. My favorite character was a dwarven warrior named Leugren that I created in 3E. He had a similar belief in his own invincibility. As a child, his father took him to visit a Rashavik wisewoman who prophesied that he would one day die screaming in the belly of a dragon. Counter to what you might expect, Leugren was elated at the hag's pronouncement since it meant that he could not be killed by any other means and that he would one day die a great warrior's death, bringing everlasting honor to his clan. He spent much of the campaign actively seeking out his great destiny by tracking down rumors about the biggest, baddest dragons he could find. Unfortunately, the campaign folded before he could achieve the glorious end he so craved. Note that I was not yet familiar with Gotrek Gurnisson when I created this character!

iserith wrote:
I find that for a basic concept, I tend to go with something expected with a twist. "This, but that."


Friar Griftheart: "He's a cleric of the god of luck, but a charlatan and card cheat."


Tiny Mankind: "He's a stone giant with dwarfism, but a champion of man."


Fumar Firebrand: "He's a typical dwarf, but he smokes heavily instead of drinks."


The contrast allows interesting questions to arise which gives birth to personality traits. As far as that goes, I turn them up to 11 because D&D's no place for subtlety in my view and at the table that 11 comes across as 6 to 8 anyway.



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Fully agree, and thanks for sharing! I especially like how each character's name captures the essence of that character's schtick. I'm especially fond of Fumar Firebrand, the chain-smoking dwarf.

It's all about the character. Class and race should always just be a frame to hang that coat on

It's a pretty easy one, but I played a Malkavian in a Storyteller campaign who was a huge load of fun and probably "made" the game. For the unaware, Malkavians are insane vampires. The way this played out in game was that pretty much anything in or out of character that was said could be taken onboard and run with. There was a bit of "angel/devil" on the shoulder stuff that could happen as any of the players or the GM started debating courses of action. In a way the character was everyone's to have fun with as a result. In a scary way he was very effective at getting things done as well. Just, maybe in a messy way a lot of the time.

CorwynnMaelstrom wrote:
It's a pretty easy one, but I played a Malkavian in a Storyteller campaign who was a huge load of fun and probably "made" the game. For the unaware, Malkavians are insane vampires. The way this played out in game was that pretty much anything in or out of character that was said could be taken onboard and run with. There was a bit of "angel/devil" on the shoulder stuff that could happen as any of the players or the GM started debating courses of action. In a way the character was everyone's to have fun with as a result. In a scary way he was very effective at getting things done as well. Just, maybe in a messy way a lot of the time.

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Sounds cool. Can you provide a more concrete example of something that happened involving this character?

Pursuing another vampire who had been spying on members of the group as they chased down some information the character managed to get the drop on the mysterious stranger. At this point he had no idea who this vampire was, nor why they'd be shadowing him and his friends. Weapon at the ready and quarry cornered in an alley he began debating what questions to ask. With the angel and the devil, of course. The two started going back and forth in a generally conversational manner, and the Malkavian started asking questions, only he was asking them so fast that the cornered vampire didn't have time to really answer. Eventually the devil got frustrated and shouted "shoot him" ... so of course I pulled the trigger.

In the end it turned out that the vampire wasn't lurking for any good purpose, and after extracting information from the severely blood-depleted spy, our hero started telling him knock knock jokes...until just before the sun came up.

CorwynnMaelstrom wrote:
Pursuing another vampire who had been spying on members of the group as they chased down some information the character managed to get the drop on the mysterious stranger. At this point he had no idea who this vampire was, nor why they'd be shadowing him and his friends. Weapon at the ready and quarry cornered in an alley he began debating what questions to ask. With the angel and the devil, of course. The two started going back and forth in a generally conversational manner, and the Malkavian started asking questions, only he was asking them so fast that the cornered vampire didn't have time to really answer. Eventually the devil got frustrated and shouted "shoot him" ... so of course I pulled the trigger.

In the end it turned out that the vampire wasn't lurking for any good purpose, and after extracting information from the severely blood-depleted spy, our hero started telling him knock knock jokes...until just before the sun came up.



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Thanks, That sounds like a lot of fun.

My favorite is the legend of Buck Falcon and The Duke. My friend and I were playing in an old West End d6 Star Wars campaign in which we were the only two PCs. He was Buck Falcon, a Han Solo type who was all bravado and charm until combat actually broke out. In truth he was a huge coward and would hide while I, The Duke, took out all the enemies. The Duke let Buck have all the fame and renown for a bigger share of the credits. The Duke was an unstoppable brute who constantly came up with clever one-liners that weren't so clever. His go-to threat was, "You mess with the Duke, you get the horns." Probably why his t-shrts never sold as well as Buck's.


In our current 5e campaign we have the following: 1) An eldritch knight with delusions of grandeur who sees the rest of the party as his gang of minions out to help him dominate the world. We constantly berate him and he plays it off as his friends having a friendly go at him. 2) A wizard who only casts spells if forced to. His father was a dragoon and he wants to be one too. He has a 10 strength and fights with a spear. He will jump from his running horse onto enemies and attempt to perform all kinds of daring and heroic martial maneuvers. 3) A tiefling bard who graduated from law school in Hell and has come to the PMP to do research on inter-planar law. We constantly consult him before enacting any plan to get an idea of the legal ramifications of our proposed actions. 4) A dragonborn battlemaster who is a laid-back hippie. 5) A ranger who will attempt anything if you imply he can't do it. 6) My character, Rich Dickens, a wild magic sorcerer who is a famous comedian on the run from the mob for unpaid gambling debts. He is a master of disguise and mimicry and is constantly changing his look and persona to make sure no one catches up with him. Whenever we go to a new town he will play a surprise show at a local tavern and become a D&D version of Jimmy Carr.


Then there was the halfling who swore he was a human who had been shrunk by a card from a Deck of Many Things, the blind elf who thought he was a human and his deaf human companion, the refined gentleman half-orc, the doomsday prepper ranger who believed the king was an alien from the Far Realm, and many more.

Leugren wrote:
Just finished reading your blog, and I enjoyed it immensely. I can see how your philosophy of emergent personality traits through group interaction clearly shines through. From my own experiences, I have found that, unlike in literature, subtle personality traits tend to get buried at the table, so most of my characters tend to be grotesques (in the literary sense of the word) with highly pronounced and often exaggerated personality traits.



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Yes, I can see how that can easily happen at the table. It depends a lot on how the other players see the narrative aspects of the game and whether or not they want to "play along" with the whole idea of developing subtle personalities. It's the way I play with my circle of friends and we have great fun with it, but I'd be the first to admit that it's certainly not the usual way of playing D&D. It almost has to be a conspiracy between the players to make it work. because it tends to run counter to the urge to "get on with the adventuring". D&D emphasises interaction between PCs and NPCs and between PCs and monsters but the rules are almost silent on interactions between PCs and each other. There don't need to be rules, you can just make it up, but because there are no rules, it's not seen as "part of the game" and people overlook it. And yet, the opportunites for personal interaction between the PCs in the party are so much greater than between PCs and story NPCs, simply because the other PCs are always present but NPCs come and go.


One view that the PCs are there to "perform" the adventure and they don't need to talk to each other much except to co-ordinate their actions, The counter view is that the PCs and their interactions with each other are the story, and the adventures are just there to give them something to share and talk about.


I think I should stop rambling.

In a 5e campaign I'm currently playing, my PC is a cleric of Avandra (goddess of luck, travel and personal freedom) who strives to free everyone he meets from any kind of social and legal constraint: you could define him as a zealot. The most interesting thing is that he doesn't realize (at the moment) that he's often limiting other people's freedom by forcing them out of boundaries which those people might like, or feel protected by. He doesn't understand that, to some, constraints are a form of safety, and not everyone has the strength of will to be "free".

I tend towards characters that don't fit in well with society (probably real life bleeding in.) I try to think of something that is really important to my character and then .think about skewed view.


Lanshi was a goliath that had a very matron like view of her tribe, but she was born without markings and was shunned. She tending to the dead of the tribe because the dead didn't judge her. Lanshi calmed the restless spirits and over time doing so left different kinds of markings to replace the onces she lacked.. Her view on fighting the undead was similarly to a mother tucking children in at night.

Gazra wrote:
My favorite is the legend of Buck Falcon and The Duke. My friend and I were playing in an old West End d6 Star Wars campaign in which we were the only two PCs. He was Buck Falcon, a Han Solo type who was all bravado and charm until combat actually broke out. In truth he was a huge coward and would hide while I, The Duke, took out all the enemies. The Duke let Buck have all the fame and renown for a bigger share of the credits. The Duke was an unstoppable brute who constantly came up with clever one-liners that weren't so clever. His go-to threat was, "You mess with the Duke, you get the horns." Probably why his t-shrts never sold as well as Buck's.


In our current 5e campaign we have the following: 1) An eldritch knight with delusions of grandeur who sees the rest of the party as his gang of minions out to help him dominate the world. We constantly berate him and he plays it off as his friends having a friendly go at him. 2) A wizard who only casts spells if forced to. His father was a dragoon and he wants to be one too. He has a 10 strength and fights with a spear. He will jump from his running horse onto enemies and attempt to perform all kinds of daring and heroic martial maneuvers. 3) A tiefling bard who graduated from law school in Hell and has come to the PMP to do research on inter-planar law. We constantly consult him before enacting any plan to get an idea of the legal ramifications of our proposed actions. 4) A dragonborn battlemaster who is a laid-back hippie. 5) A ranger who will attempt anything if you imply he can't do it. 6) My character, Rich Dickens, a wild magic sorcerer who is a famous comedian on the run from the mob for unpaid gambling debts. He is a master of disguise and mimicry and is constantly changing his look and persona to make sure no one catches up with him. Whenever we go to a new town he will play a surprise show at a local tavern and become a D&D version of Jimmy Carr.


Then there was the halfling who swore he was a human who had been shrunk by a card from a Deck of Many Things, the blind elf who thought he was a human and his deaf human companion, the refined gentleman half-orc, the doomsday prepper ranger who believed the king was an alien from the Far Realm, and many more.



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There's some definite gold in here! The blind elf who thought he was a human reminds me of that blind Dave Chapelle character who rose to a leadership position within the KKK because no one had the heart to tell him he was black.


Sticking with the tongue-in-cheek nature of your post, one of my current characters has a deep-seated hatred of mimes. He has almost convinced the other members of the party to initiate an all-out pogrom against the mimes by presenting the group with some rather dubious "proof" that the mimes are harboring weapons of mass destruction. He refers to the Mummer's Guild as the "Axis of Evil", and to his own efforts as the "war against terror".

Emanuele_Galletto wrote:
In a 5e campaign I'm currently playing, my PC is a cleric of Avandra (goddess of luck, travel and personal freedom) who strives to free everyone he meets from any kind of social and legal constraint: you could define him as a zealot. The most interesting thing is that he doesn't realize (at the moment) that he's often limiting other people's freedom by forcing them out of boundaries which those people might like, or feel protected by. He doesn't understand that, to some, constraints are a form of safety, and not everyone has the strength of will to be "free".



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This is interesting. I find it personally quite challenging to come up with compelling schticks for clerics. Every time I start, I end up creating a paladin or a druid instead! My favorite cleric in literature was probably Adon, the narcissistic cleric of Sune Firehair who appeared in the Time of Troubles series. He was both memorable and unique-- quite a departure from the archetypal image of clerics that is graven in our imaginations.

sleypy wrote:
I tend towards characters that don't fit in well with society (probably real life bleeding in.) I try to think of something that is really important to my character and then .think about skewed view.


Lanshi was a goliath that had a very matron like view of her tribe, but she was born without markings and was shunned. She tending to the dead of the tribe because the dead didn't judge her. Lanshi calmed the restless spirits and over time doing so left different kinds of markings to replace the onces she lacked.. Her view on fighting the undead was similarly to a mother tucking children in at night.



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Lanshi sounds cool, sleypy!

Leugren wrote:

sleypy wrote:
I tend towards characters that don't fit in well with society (probably real life bleeding in.) I try to think of something that is really important to my character and then .think about skewed view.



Lanshi was a goliath that had a very matron like view of her tribe, but she was born without markings and was shunned. She tending to the dead of the tribe because the dead didn't judge her. Lanshi calmed the restless spirits and over time doing so left different kinds of markings to replace the onces she lacked.. Her view on fighting the undead was similarly to a mother tucking children in at night.



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Lanshi sounds cool, sleypy!



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Thanks. another less complex character I had was for a Firefly game. His name was Kimber Woods. He had a personality similiar to Jayne, almost none of Jayne fighting skills, and hero worshipped the "Hero of Canton" version of Jayne. So he constanty tried to live up to the image, but he kept trying to cut corners. His best skill was knitting and he kept a hidden box of "Mighty fine hats" in his bunk. No matter what when someone asked him if he had any skill in something he said yes automatically and made up a fictitious story on the spot about the experience from "a few years back."

Leugren wrote:
I am curious to hear from other people -- what are some of the most interesting and memorable characters you have encountered, and what sorts of personality traits or quirks did these characters have which made them so memorable?



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During 4e, which was my first exposure to the warlock class (which I love, btw), I made a star pact warlock. Technically, she was a star pact warlock with the fey pact's boon (I don't really care for the star pact boon, and my DM agreed to let me use the fey pact boon instead of the star pact boon), but I digress.


She grew up in a small farming community and led a relatively normal life until she was touched by the far realm. She began to hear strange, unintelligible voices, but she didn't tell anyone because she was concerned about how they would react. One night, something appeared to crawl into her room as if it parted the air like a curtain and slithered on through. The next morning, she was found on the floor of her room, catatonic and apparently quite pregnant. When they couldn't bring her around, they assumed some supernatural evil was at work and took her to the priest at the local temple. The priest performed an exorcism that ended with her messily birthing a slug-like creature that was quickly killed by a dousing with holy oil and the liberal application of fire.


The experience had left her physically and mentally tainted:
Her fingers had each gained an extra segment and now ended in glistening black claws
Her tongue had grown significantly in length and become prehensile (she used to use it to draw stray hairs out of her face, much to the shuddering of others around her)
She had to re-learn several normal things like how to speak and read, and re-learning these things came quickly enough that she clearly hadn't forgotten them completely (it was more like she was remembering those things), but she could now also speak and comprehend Deep Speech.
She instinctively knew the names of every star in the night sky and could predict their patterns as easily as we predict the sun will rise in the morning.


Her family did the best they could to help her while also trying to hide their shame from the rest of the community. However, when they came in from the fields to find she had set the table and laid out the family dog, freshly slaughtered and skinned but uncooked, as dinner they realized that she was dangerous and needed more help than they could give her. They worked with the priest to find a place for her, and they ended up giving her to a sage in a nearby town who was an accomplished astronomer. She worked as his assistant, and was locked in her room at night: for their mutual protection.


Eventually she discovered that she could "do things." She blew the door to her room off its hinges with an eldritch blast, and they both realized that the sage was incapable of keeping her anymore. She left that night, after taking a few things and some gold to help her on her way, and began to travel. She eventually hooked up with a party of adventurers who appreciated her talents, and who were powerful enough to keep her in check when she went off the rails.


One of the more memorable moments is the first time she was assigned watch during the evening. She completely neglected her duty to stare at the stars while dancing to a spectral melody that only she could hear. She was roused from her musings by a rustling sound: one of the other PCs had rolled onto his back in his sleep. She walked over and noticed that something was moving under his closed eyes. Could she read his dreams in those patterns? Not from that distance. So she got closer, and closer. The PC awoke to find her straddling him as he slept, her face so close to his that their noses were almost touching.


She was so wistful and incredibly creepy that the other players will probably never forget her. They also never let her take watch again by herself when she started wondering if she could see someone's dreams if she plucked out one of their eyes and looked into the empty socket . . . "like looking through a telescope."

MechaPilot wrote:

Leugren wrote:
I am curious to hear from other people -- what are some of the most interesting and memorable characters you have encountered, and what sorts of personality traits or quirks did these characters have which made them so memorable?



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During 4e, which was my first exposure to the warlock class (which I love, btw), I made a star pact warlock. Technically, she was a star pact warlock with the fey pact's boon (I don't really care for the star pact boon, and my DM agreed to let me use the fey pact boon instead of the star pact boon), but I digress.


She grew up in a small farming community and led a relatively normal life until she was touched by the far realm. She began to hear strange, unintelligible voices, but she didn't tell anyone because she was concerned about how they would react. One night, something appeared to crawl into her room as if it parted the air like a curtain and slithered on through. The next morning, she was found on the floor of her room, catatonic and apparently quite pregnant. When they couldn't bring her around, they assumed some supernatural evil was at work and took her to the priest at the local temple. The priest performed an exorcism that ended with her messily birthing a slug-like creature that was quickly killed by a dousing with holy oil and the liberal application of fire.


The experience had left her physically and mentally tainted:
Her fingers had each gained an extra segment and now ended in glistening black claws
Her tongue had grown significantly in length and become prehensile (she used to use it to draw stray hairs out of her face, much to the shuddering of others around her)
She had to re-learn several normal things like how to speak and read, and re-learning these things came quickly enough that she clearly hadn't forgotten them completely (it was more like she was remembering those things), but she could now also speak and comprehend Deep Speech.
She instinctively knew the names of every star in the night sky and could predict their patterns as easily as we predict the sun will rise in the morning.


Her family did the best they could to help her while also trying to hide their shame from the rest of the community. However, when they came in from the fields to find she had set the table and laid out the family dog, freshly slaughtered and skinned but uncooked, as dinner they realized that she was dangerous and needed more help than they could give her. They worked with the priest to find a place for her, and they ended up giving her to a sage in a nearby town who was an accomplished astronomer. She worked as his assistant, and was locked in her room at night: for their mutual protection.


Eventually she discovered that she could "do things." She blew the door to her room off its hinges with an eldritch blast, and they both realized that the sage was incapable of keeping her anymore. She left that night, after taking a few things and some gold to help her on her way, and began to travel. She eventually hooked up with a party of adventurers who appreciated her talents, and who were powerful enough to keep her in check when she went off the rails.


One of the more memorable moments is the first time she was assigned watch during the evening. She completely neglected her duty to stare at the stars while dancing to a spectral melody that only she could hear. She was roused from her musings by a rustling sound: one of the other PCs had rolled onto his back in his sleep. She walked over and noticed that something was moving under his closed eyes. Could she read his dreams in those patterns? Not from that distance. So she got closer, and closer. The PC awoke to find her straddling him as he slept, her face so close to his that their noses were almost touching.


She was so wistful and incredibly creepy that the other players will probably never forget her. They also never let her take watch again by herself when she started wondering if she could see someone's dreams if she plucked out one of their eyes and looked into the empty socket . . . "like looking through a telescope."



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NIce. I wouldn't want you in my party /creepy... but the character sounds awesome.

sleypy wrote:

MechaPilot wrote:

Leugren wrote:
I am curious to hear from other people -- what are some of the most interesting and memorable characters you have encountered, and what sorts of personality traits or quirks did these characters have which made them so memorable?



​

During 4e, which was my first exposure to the warlock class (which I love, btw), I made a star pact warlock. Technically, she was a star pact warlock with the fey pact's boon (I don't really care for the star pact boon, and my DM agreed to let me use the fey pact boon instead of the star pact boon), but I digress.


She grew up in a small farming community and led a relatively normal life until she was touched by the far realm. She began to hear strange, unintelligible voices, but she didn't tell anyone because she was concerned about how they would react. One night, something appeared to crawl into her room as if it parted the air like a curtain and slithered on through. The next morning, she was found on the floor of her room, catatonic and apparently quite pregnant. When they couldn't bring her around, they assumed some supernatural evil was at work and took her to the priest at the local temple. The priest performed an exorcism that ended with her messily birthing a slug-like creature that was quickly killed by a dousing with holy oil and the liberal application of fire.


The experience had left her physically and mentally tainted:
Her fingers had each gained an extra segment and now ended in glistening black claws
Her tongue had grown significantly in length and become prehensile (she used to use it to draw stray hairs out of her face, much to the shuddering of others around her)
She had to re-learn several normal things like how to speak and read, and re-learning these things came quickly enough that she clearly hadn't forgotten them completely (it was more like she was remembering those things), but she could now also speak and comprehend Deep Speech.
She instinctively knew the names of every star in the night sky and could predict their patterns as easily as we predict the sun will rise in the morning.


Her family did the best they could to help her while also trying to hide their shame from the rest of the community. However, when they came in from the fields to find she had set the table and laid out the family dog, freshly slaughtered and skinned but uncooked, as dinner they realized that she was dangerous and needed more help than they could give her. They worked with the priest to find a place for her, and they ended up giving her to a sage in a nearby town who was an accomplished astronomer. She worked as his assistant, and was locked in her room at night: for their mutual protection.


Eventually she discovered that she could "do things." She blew the door to her room off its hinges with an eldritch blast, and they both realized that the sage was incapable of keeping her anymore. She left that night, after taking a few things and some gold to help her on her way, and began to travel. She eventually hooked up with a party of adventurers who appreciated her talents, and who were powerful enough to keep her in check when she went off the rails.


One of the more memorable moments is the first time she was assigned watch during the evening. She completely neglected her duty to stare at the stars while dancing to a spectral melody that only she could hear. She was roused from her musings by a rustling sound: one of the other PCs had rolled onto his back in his sleep. She walked over and noticed that something was moving under his closed eyes. Could she read his dreams in those patterns? Not from that distance. So she got closer, and closer. The PC awoke to find her straddling him as he slept, her face so close to his that their noses were almost touching.


She was so wistful and incredibly creepy that the other players will probably never forget her. They also never let her take watch again by herself when she started wondering if she could see someone's dreams if she plucked out one of their eyes and looked into the empty socket . . . "like looking through a telescope."



​

NIce. I wouldn't want you in my party /creepy... but the character sounds awesome.



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I agree!

MechaPilot, that warlock is 100%, Grade A awesome!

One of our more memorable quirks was one of the first times a player picked a Warlock with the Star Pact in 4e.


For those that don't know, instead of making a deal with the devil (Infernal Pact) or with scary faeries (Fey Pact), " you have mastered the astrologer’s art, learning the secret names of the stars and gazing into the Far Realm beyond, gaining great power thereby. You can call upon powers that madden or terrify your enemies, manipulate chance and fate, or scour your foes with icy banes and curses drawn from beyond the night sky" - basically madness and whispers from the stars beyond (yay Cthulu!).


Sooooo, the player actually acted as if he were crazy and hearing things, and as the DM I would occassionally whisper things to him, that may or may not be real or important, as the voices of the stars. It was tons of fun and having the other characters look over quizzically as the warlock would appear to be having conversations with thin air was great. It also served great for slipping in plot devices or warnings of coming threats.

MechaPilot wrote:

Leugren wrote:
I am curious to hear from other people -- what are some of the most interesting and memorable characters you have encountered, and what sorts of personality traits or quirks did these characters have which made them so memorable?



​

During 4e, which was my first exposure to the warlock class (which I love, btw), I made a star pact warlock. Technically, she was a star pact warlock with the fey pact's boon (I don't really care for the star pact boon, and my DM agreed to let me use the fey pact boon instead of the star pact boon), but I digress.


She grew up in a small farming community and led a relatively normal life until she was touched by the far realm. She began to hear strange, unintelligible voices, but she didn't tell anyone because she was concerned about how they would react. One night, something appeared to crawl into her room as if it parted the air like a curtain and slithered on through. The next morning, she was found on the floor of her room, catatonic and apparently quite pregnant. When they couldn't bring her around, they assumed some supernatural evil was at work and took her to the priest at the local temple. The priest performed an exorcism that ended with her messily birthing a slug-like creature that was quickly killed by a dousing with holy oil and the liberal application of fire.


The experience had left her physically and mentally tainted:
Her fingers had each gained an extra segment and now ended in glistening black claws
Her tongue had grown significantly in length and become prehensile (she used to use it to draw stray hairs out of her face, much to the shuddering of others around her)
She had to re-learn several normal things like how to speak and read, and re-learning these things came quickly enough that she clearly hadn't forgotten them completely (it was more like she was remembering those things), but she could now also speak and comprehend Deep Speech.
She instinctively knew the names of every star in the night sky and could predict their patterns as easily as we predict the sun will rise in the morning.


Her family did the best they could to help her while also trying to hide their shame from the rest of the community. However, when they came in from the fields to find she had set the table and laid out the family dog, freshly slaughtered and skinned but uncooked, as dinner they realized that she was dangerous and needed more help than they could give her. They worked with the priest to find a place for her, and they ended up giving her to a sage in a nearby town who was an accomplished astronomer. She worked as his assistant, and was locked in her room at night: for their mutual protection.


Eventually she discovered that she could "do things." She blew the door to her room off its hinges with an eldritch blast, and they both realized that the sage was incapable of keeping her anymore. She left that night, after taking a few things and some gold to help her on her way, and began to travel. She eventually hooked up with a party of adventurers who appreciated her talents, and who were powerful enough to keep her in check when she went off the rails.


One of the more memorable moments is the first time she was assigned watch during the evening. She completely neglected her duty to stare at the stars while dancing to a spectral melody that only she could hear. She was roused from her musings by a rustling sound: one of the other PCs had rolled onto his back in his sleep. She walked over and noticed that something was moving under his closed eyes. Could she read his dreams in those patterns? Not from that distance. So she got closer, and closer. The PC awoke to find her straddling him as he slept, her face so close to his that their noses were almost touching.


She was so wistful and incredibly creepy that the other players will probably never forget her. They also never let her take watch again by herself when she started wondering if she could see someone's dreams if she plucked out one of their eyes and looked into the empty socket . . . "like looking through a telescope."



​

That is delightful and amazing and I should either totally let my crew read this, or totally NOT let them read this hahahahaha. Our crazy star lock seems so mundane in comparison.

I have a few memorable characters from 4e LFR.


Heskann, my Dragonborn Brawler fighter. He was hatched from the only egg which survived an attack by some spellchanged creatures. His spellscar never manifested, so much as it attracted a spellchanged Dhampyr who bit him and made him into a Dhampyr as well. His favorite tactic while fighting was to grab the biggest bad guy and drag him far away from the other combatants and just beat him up. Getting to bite them to heal up a bit didn't happen too often, but it was nice when it worked out that way. He wore a small fragment of his egg, which glowed slightly whenever he used his Dhampyr abilities (the blood drinking thing, mostly.)


Orion, my half-elf Psion. He had an interesting quirk: to him, everyone was his biggest fan. And he knew it. And so did everyone he talked. "My fans! You've come to worship at my feet?" He would routinely use the power which lets him slide someone 10 squares, and would say "But you just want my autograph, yes?" while sliding them all around the field.


Terra, my changeling Shaman|Warlord. She was my drill-instructor type character. When someone dropped in combat, she would heal them, make them stand up, and order them back into the fight. Basically, "WHY ARE YOU LYING DOWN ON THE JOB? GET BACK IN THERE AND FIGHT!" She had a shield and a shaman totem. She never really got into melee much.

Finally, my pride and joy: Ebbon Flow, my Watersoul Genasi Warlord. She was straight-forward in combat, but out-of-combat, she was quite ... different. I used her watersoul power to slip under doors and get through windows. We had gotten stuck in some jail cell at some point as part of the plot of the mod and she slipped out "for coffee and donuts" and came back 5 minutes later. The jailor never noticed she had left and she even left the donuts on the desk for him.


Now, in 5e, I am trying to reprise some of these characters. Obviously, it'll mostly be in personality and spirit, more than form and function. Heskann will make a come back as a Grappler Monk, I think. Orion ... well, I might just want for 5e Psionics for him. Terra and Ebbon Flow will get merged into a Fighter with Trip Attack and Commander's Strike. So I can knock someone prone and then tell the Rogue to attack them. I want more non-combat stuff for my character's though.

Wow. I didn't realize my far-touched lock would go over so well (I've only ever used her with one group of close friends).


I can definitely see her being too creepy for some parties to put up with, even if the group of players thinks a character like that is cool. While she never harmed or betrayed the party, the PCs really never wanted to leave her unsupervised.


There was one especially tense moment when the party was separated and she found a lost child. All the other players were suddenly dead silent as she hid her hands behind her back and did her best to calm the crying child. They almost jumped out of their seats when she leaned in close to the child and smilingly asked "hey, do you want to play a game?"


Until the party got back together, the DM had me whisper what I was doing so the other players couldn't hear. When they showed up, my lock was playing a game of riddles with the child to keep him calm. Although she was dangerous and insane, she genuinely liked and got along with children.








I think the only thing that really prevented them from ditching her was the realization "what happens next?"


When I say that, I don't mean the fact that I'd have to make up another character (though there is that); I mean what happens when the whimsical but dangerous loon who has an affinity for children tries to settle down among normal people?

I created a Mountain Dwarf Wild Magic Sorcerer Charlatan.


His favorite con is to sell his ale as a magical cure all called Pappy Mindblur's Cure for What Ails You.


He uses only enchantment and illusion spells or escape spells in the case of expeditious retreat and instead relies on his axe and armor (from race) when it comes to combat.


Basically he isn't completely aware that he is a sorcerer and instead believes himself to be a fighter with the gift of gab and a bit of luck.

One character I am working on for a short campaign starting at 9th level is a "low" intelligence wizard.

He grew up in a family with many wizards and scholars where intelligence was one of the most praised characteristics.
Unfortunately for him he was to odd one out not being as intelligent as many in his family members.
He always resented this and insisted on proving to them he was intelligent too, and insisted on becoming a wizard.
He became a wizard even though the difficulties along the way (focus on spells with no spell attacks or saves)


Personality wise he has the trait that he always want to show of to others that he is intelligent, he would be the boy in the class room waving his finger in the air in class if he thinks he knows the answer or just blurts it out.
When it comes to flaws he still has resentment and jealousy for people obviously more intelligent then him.


Not sure on his background at this point sage would be logical but maybe his parents tried to pressure him into something else when they found he didn't have a natural grasp for scholarly things.

There are some great ideas and concepts here, folks. Keep 'em comin!