Your Favorite Character... That You Barely/Never Got to Play

I just jumped into a new group today and as I was whipping up a character that would work well with the party, I found myself falling back to a build concept I had used at a different table and started thinking nostalgically about all of the characters I've made but barely played.

If we go back to 3.5, I had an aberration wildshape druid that wrecked house at 2 separate tables, but only actually saw play in about 10 sessions. The concept of the character was so compelling to me though, that I came up with pages of background (more than any character I've ever played) including powerful NPCs, cultures, and a country to insert into the campaign world. Years later, I still draw pictures of her and daydream about comic book, novel, and movies plots revolving around her hypothetical adventures.

Currently, my favorite 5e character is a guy I've played only 2 or 3 times but, like my old aberration druid from 3.5, all of the plots and world-building kept going in my head after I had retired his character sheet. A warforged paladin/fighter who serves Allabar (the far realm planet thing from 4e), he was created by a cult a with a heart made from radioactive meteorite material taken from the Old One himself. His radiant paladin powers represent his mechanical body shifting and opening, allowing radiation to leak out and damage his enemies. The campaign was a high magi-tech setting and the DM allowed me to use Find Steed to summon a clunky, diesel-punk hoverbike with a mechanical stats of a warhorse with the Construct type instead of the spells's normal fey, celestial, or infernal designations. His mission was to travel from planet to planet, planting "beacon stones" in settled areas in order to draw the attention of Allabar and his cult, in a sort of pastiche of Galactus and his harbingers. The concept was metal as , the magic items were perfect (The DM gave me a flametongue GS powered by another radioactive far realm meteor fragment), and the whole thing seemed straight out of a 2000 A.D. comic. I miss that guy.

I can't be the only one who does this. You play a character a few times, fall in love after the fact, and then think about their ongoing adventures long after the dice have stopped rolling. Who do you still think about after all these years?

I had a cleric named Father Small who was based loosely off of Friar Tuck from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and named after a friend's character in an ancient DOS game called Phantasie. The character was evangelical, almost constantly drunk, and kept making references to nonexistent beings like "the Pope." That game (a Planescape campaign if memory serves) lasted all of a month, playing one or two times a week.

That character still influences how I design religions, clerics, and such in world building. It makes no sense to me for clerics, paladins, and similar characters to be subdued about their religious beliefs, especially in worlds where their gods are literal beings who could show up at any time and punish them for their lack of commitment.

I can be pretty entertaining and/or obnoxious at the table, I'm told.

In 2e, I played a half-elf fighter named Khalid in the Al Qadim setting (using the corsair kit from the Arabian Adventures supplement). Only got to play the character about 10 sessions or so, but he was a blast to play and the setting was fun, combining to make a memorable experience. I should stat him up in 5e at some point.

I played a cocky punk girl Mech operator in a Mech Warrior campaign. She loved collecting knives, smelling the fumes of war, and listening to the most awful deafening electronic-music during battle. She was funny to play. Unfortunately she lasted only a few sessions, before she got murdered by a fellow party member for 'questioning his honor' (after he fled a battle when she didn't).

The campaign itself was then mercifully killed off and we started a new group, because the DM that ran it (and allowed the murder), and the player that decided to just suddenly commit a player-kill, were both pretty awful. Nice people in real life (sort of), but not the sort of people I ever want to play any roleplaying games with ever again.

Last year I played a Kenku (which I've always wanted to) dragon blood sorcerer called Click, with the unrealistic aim to reach level 14 and get Dragon Wings, fulfilling every Kenku's inner desire to return to the sky. Made it to level 6 before the DM wanted to run Traveller.

We were started as slaves on a ship, so I had a quick backstory about having been created by a mad sorcerer and infused with dragon blood from hatching, in an attempt to create a winged Kenku, but thinking it had failed he is sold into slavery

He kept the oar used as an improvised quarter staff when escaping the slave ship at the start of the campaign for most of the characters run

I created a Mastermind inspired by Desslok of Gamilon of the old anime series Star Blazers (US)/SpaceBattleship Yamato (Japan). He is an Air Genasi since they are blue and so were the Gamilons. He wants to find a "new home" for all of the Genasi race since they have nowhere to call their own. He will then form an army and crush all other races in the realm.

This character admittedly seems a bit squishy but it was created more for the potential role play aspects. I may end up using it instead as an arch-foe NPC in an upcoming campaign I will DM.

Triton Rogue with Pirate background.

I played him in a one-shot. Didn't like the class mechanics, but I did enjoy the character.

4e, Dwarf Swarm Druid who was blind (his name was The Blind). He was hairless and was abandoned by his people because of it. The person who raised him never told hom he was a dwarf, so he hates dwarves. The only time he could see was when he was in Wildshape form as a swarm of insects.

only got one session with Hroar my Half-Orc Urchin Barbarian. He had a mouse that came with the Urchin background. It was missing it's tail and most of it's ears, so it looked like a little bear. Hroar named it bear and if I ever got to level 3 it would become his Bear Totem.

When he met the party he didn't trust them, so he would talk to Bear very secretively. The party sorcerer thought this was suspicious and used Mage Hand to take whatever he was talking to away.

The party was very surprised it was a mouse, and Hroar was very incensed at the rudeness of magicing his companion away.

While not my favorite, my luckiest as far as chargen went anyway. In 1e, I had a fighter I legit rolled 100% for strength, and then rolled 100% again for psionics. All legit, in front of people. Only time in 37 years of gaming its ever happened.

Never ended up getting a chance to play him.