Help me create a Bob Ross character!

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MaximusArael020

Explorer

• Mar 7, 2019

• #1

Greetings! I'm imploring the brilliant and creative minds of EN World to help me come up with a character for my current campaign!

Background:

One of my player's father is going to be joining us for a session soon. He has never played a TTRPG and has very little exposure to D&D. His son has requested that his character be like a Bob Ross-type. Just loving life, painting stuff, and enjoying "happy little mistakes".

The campaign takes place in the Forgotten Realms. My thought for inputting his character: As the players have just left Waterdeep on their way to Neverwinter, in the wilderness I have an encounter ready where they come upon an Ettin and it's pet Death Dog attacking a group of Satyrs and Dryads. The father's character could have been among the Satyrs and Dryads, perhaps painting their "party".

The players are all level 6 currently. Any ideas for an easy build for this PC? It should be able to be played by a total novice fairly easily, which is why I was thinking of staying away from the magic classes for the most part.

Thanks for any help and suggestions!

 

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Coroc

Hero

• Mar 7, 2019

• #2

Well it would be a Multiclass druid bard conjuring small animals and making people fall asleep asmr style

 

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Ark the Pie King

First Post

• Mar 7, 2019

• #3

I actually think you should look at the new UA Artificer. It's a half caster like Paladin, and isn't all that complicated. Moreover, you can use Painter's Tools as a spell focus and literally paint your spells. Cure Wounds on someone? "That's okay. It was a happy little accident." *Paints over the wound and it heals*. It's about as close to literal with the concept as you can get.

Other than that, it's sort of hard to do more pacifist style characters without getting into the casters, since non-damage options are more or less all spells. Clerics are on the simpler side though, and I think would fit the concept well.

 

Imaculata

Hero

• Mar 7, 2019

• #4

Bob Ross actually served in the military, so I think your character could also be a soldier. Why not make him a warrior who paints?

 

JustinCase

the magical equivalent to the number zero

• Mar 7, 2019

• #5

The obvious answer is to find a class that fits, such as bard.

The less obvious but easier option is to make it any class you like and just re-fluff his background and perhaps his abilities. For example, a Fighter with the Guild Artisan (painter) background, who can handle a sword but is reluctant to do so, because he'd rather paint (Battlemaster even has the extra tool proficiency, should you need it). Or a rogue who prefers to talk people out of fighting (expertise in Diplomacy). Or someone wielding a painting as a shield and a huge brush as a club. Just don't forget the legendary +1 Bob Ross hair.

Really, if "someone like Bob Ross" is your only requirement, you can make any build and have the player have the general outlook of the calmest TV painter in history to pull it off. Even a dwarven warlock out to find the supplies to create paints, regardless of what his patron thinks of it, can work!

It's an awesome idea, by the way, to have a Bob Ross running around in the Forgotten Realms.

 

Iry

Hero

• Mar 7, 2019

• #6

Bob Ross is clearly a Sword & Board Paladin - brush in one hand, palette in the other.

He "paints" with his blade and has happy little accidents.

 

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Draegn

Explorer

• Mar 7, 2019

• #7

I asked myself, Who is this Bob Ross chap? After reading his wikipedia page, I suggest a charisma fighter with folk hero background.

 

Voort

Explorer

• Mar 7, 2019

• #8

Why not a Kensei Monk? They even follow the Way of the Brush.

 

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MechaTarrasque

Hero

• Mar 7, 2019

• #9

I usually try to steer new players away from support classes, so they don't feel like they are relegated to the background (once they are comfortable in the group, if they want to be support characters, we can always use more). Since in many ways, bard is the supportingest support class of 5e (at least until the official artificer comes out), I probably won't recommend that.

I really want to recommend monk (because Bob Ross dialogue and monks seem like a natural fit [and we need more monks with afros]), but I don't feel like that is a particularly straightforward class for new players.

How about refluffing barbarian's rage as being in some kind of artistic state, and go with ancestral guardian barbarian?

 

AmerginLiath

Adventurer

• Mar 7, 2019

• #10

Ark the Pie King said:

I actually think you should look at the new UA Artificer. It's a half caster like Paladin, and isn't all that complicated. Moreover, you can use Painter's Tools as a spell focus and literally paint your spells. Cure Wounds on someone? "That's okay. It was a happy little accident." *Paints over the wound and it heals*. It's about as close to literal with the concept as you can get.

Other than that, it's sort of hard to do more pacifist style characters without getting into the casters, since non-damage options are more or less all spells. Clerics are on the simpler side though, and I think would fit the concept well.

Click to expand...

That was my immediate thought too, although I wonder if having a new player using a play test class that involves new systems might be a bit much — it would be hard to answer his questions if you don’t have experience with the answers yet. You might take the basic idea, though, and use a different class that can do something similar.

Imagine a Conjurer Wizard with a Guild Artisan background with a paintbrush wand and a palette of components, who performs his somatic components by “painting” the spell effect that he’s casting? You don’t change any rules, just tint how a few elements are presented in-world (for a more colorful result). Especially if he has a number of summoning and battlefield control spells, he doesn’t need to be involved in battle traditionally; as effects of summoned creatures are ongoing, his Concentration effect could be his fiddling with his “painting” (which exists before him in a phantom state while the spell is ongoing) either directly or in terms of squinting and measuring at “the canvas.”

 

Last edited: Mar 7, 2019