The person on the paper. (Most memorable characters.)

[xigbar]

I love building a new character. It just has that feeling of novelty, and not only do I see how powerful I can make it, I write at least 2 pages of back story, some times I've had as many 6-7. As a follow up to my recent poll about Rollplaying vs. Roleplaying, who are some of your most memorable character personalities, in terms of their backstory, how you roleplayed them, and how you built them in to suit their personality.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You'd get a lot more entries if you put this in the general discussion board, for what it's worth.

 

[kitcik]

Back in 1E, I played a CN half-orc fighter/cleric who leaned towards CE and was obnoxious and domineering. He was a lot of fun, but obviously not a party favorite.

In 3E, I decided to play a CN half-orc barbarian with a totally different personality.

Whereas the first guy's low charisma was a result of his orcish behavior, I played the 2nd guy's low charisma as more of a childish self-centeredness. It's not that he didn't care about his companions - he was actually a loyal friend - but things just didn't occur to him. He lacked empathy and only his own needs generally occurred to him.

One day, we were in town and we came upon a bakery run by halflings. The smell coming out of the bakery was incredible and Mukk (me) became fascinated with the cookies. Unfortunately, the bakery had a "no half-orcs" policy and my party held me back b/c we were trying to keep up a good rep in the town.

A few days later, we were knee deep in an adventure hook and were fighting some evil dudes in the sewers. These guys were notorious for using bombs. Finally, they trapped us in a small sewer area with two portcullises, with a locked trapdoor in the (low) ceiling and set a bomb. I managed to bust the trapdoor and start climbing up a ladder above. One of my comrades was injured and needed help getting onto the ladder. Just as I was about to turn back and pull him up, my DM told me I smelled cookies. I rushed up the ladder onto the street and into the bakery, which just happened to be right there and which had been abandoned when explosions started being felt from below. I munched a whole tray of cookies as my companion was blown to bits.

The best thing about it was that the party still liked him and forgave him for not "chipping in."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In 34 years of gaming, i've had a few:

Bear, 1Ed D&D human Fighter:

Made a deal with the DM to max out physical stats and have 6's in the mental stats. In the party, he was the idiotically loyal bodyguard of the totally amoral party thief. He died holding off the City Watch on a narrow bridge out of a town in which the thief took something he REALLY shouldn't have.

Darkethorne, drow Dr/Rgr/MU (started in 1Ed, converted to 2Ed, 3Ed & 3.5Ed over time):

A planeswalking wanderer who hung out with one particular group most of his career...and the only PC in the campaign to stand up to the Mage when he was about to use a spell that would have been as bad for the environment as for the foes we were about to engage...

Adragon Von Basten, 3.5Ed human Sorc:

A scale-mail wearing, Maul wielding, lightning-breathing, virtually non-casting spellcaster (campaign ended before he could take any of either Ftr or Marshal levels). I'd love to get him out again...maybe add some Reserve Metamagic feats to his bag of tricks.

Arion Dragomir, 2Ed Player's Option Cleric:

A warrior-cleric whose entire repertoire of spells were non-offensive, was called "Superman" by another player playing a PO Cleric. In play, this was proven NOT to be the case.

Pax HERO:

A power armor guy whose schtick was crowd control and taking down other power armor guys, androids, cyborgs and AIs

Hazard HERO:

Alien gladiatrix martial artist/brick who, among other things, had a metabolism that demanded she eat her body weight daily. Spent a LOT of time at buffets.

Major Mosquito GURPS Vampire:

Austin area private dick who was "embraced" by a powerful Brujah...but went insane as a Malkavian. His broken mind rationalized that his strength, speed and invulnerability meant he was a superhero...much like NEC's "The Tick.". He roamed Austin's streets on a BMX bike with cards in the spokes (the "mosquito's buzz"), carried a stainless steel "Crime Straw" (for use on miscrants only)...and also carried a crossbow and body armor to defend against vampires, which were apparently a problem in that city (hiding among the bats, no doubt).

Erica GURPS:

Albino cybernetically enhanced "street samurai" who was also a biker slut- and I do mean slut- whose ride was a big modified Harley chopper witha dragonscale paint job, and whose weapon of choice was a big, black, 2-handed vibro-sword...

 

[xigbar]

You'd get a lot more entries if you put this in the general discussion board, for what it's worth.

I posted here, because most of the people on this board play 3.5, the only version I'm particularly familiar with, so that if anyone who posts how they built the character to suit the personality, I'd understand the mechanics of the game. Of course, I can get the gist of any other game when described only in personality terms.

Back in 1E, I played a CN half-orc fighter/cleric who leaned towards CE and was obnoxious and domineering. He was a lot of fun, but obviously not a party favorite.

In 3E, I decided to play a CN half-orc barbarian with a totally different personality.

Whereas the first guy's low charisma was a result of his orcish behavior, I played the 2nd guy's low charisma as more of a childish self-centeredness. It's not that he didn't care about his companions - he was actually a loyal friend - but things just didn't occur to him. He lacked empathy and only his own needs generally occurred to him.

One day, we were in town and we came upon a bakery run by halflings. The smell coming out of the bakery was incredible and Mukk (me) became fascinated with the cookies. Unfortunately, the bakery had a "no half-orcs" policy and my party held me back b/c we were trying to keep up a good rep in the town.

A few days later, we were knee deep in an adventure hook and were fighting some evil dudes in the sewers. These guys were notorious for using bombs. Finally, they trapped us in a small sewer area with two portcullises, with a locked trapdoor in the (low) ceiling and set a bomb. I managed to bust the trapdoor and start climbing up a ladder above. One of my comrades was injured and needed help getting onto the ladder. Just as I was about to turn back and pull him up, my DM told me I smelled cookies. I rushed up the ladder onto the street and into the bakery, which just happened to be right there and which had been abandoned when explosions started being felt from below. I munched a whole tray of cookies as my companion was blown to bits.

The best thing about it was that the party still liked him and forgave him for not "chipping in."

You should have made the second one have blue fur.

In 34 years of gaming, i've had a few:

Bear, 1Ed D&D human Fighter:

Made a deal with the DM to max out physical stats and have 6's in the mental stats. In the party, he was the idiotically loyal bodyguard of the totally amoral party thief. He died holding off the City Watch on a narrow bridge out of a town in which the thief took something he REALLY shouldn't have.

Darkethorne, drow Dr/Rgr/MU (started in 1Ed, converted to 2Ed, 3Ed & 3.5Ed over time):

A planeswalking wanderer who hung out with one particular group most of his career...and the only PC in the campaign to stand up to the Mage when he was about to use a spell that would have been as bad for the environment as for the foes we were about to engage...

Adragon Von Basten, 3.5Ed human Sorc:

A scale-mail wearing, Maul wielding, lightning-breathing, virtually non-casting spellcaster (campaign ended before he could take any of either Ftr or Marshal levels). I'd love to get him out again...maybe add some Reserve Metamagic feats to his bag of tricks.

Arion Dragomir, 2Ed Player's Option Cleric:

A warrior-cleric whose entire repertoire of spells were non-offensive, was called "Superman" by another player playing a PO Cleric. In play, this was proven NOT to be the case.

Pax HERO:

A power armor guy whose schtick was crowd control and taking down other power armor guys, androids, cyborgs and AIs

Hazard HERO:

Alien gladiatrix martial artist/brick who, among other things, had a metabolism that demanded she eat her body weight daily. Spent a LOT of time at buffets.

Major Mosquito GURPS Vampire:

Austin area private dick who was "embraced" by a powerful Brujah...but went insane as a Malkavian. His broken mind rationalized that his strength, speed and invulnerability meant he was a superhero...much like NEC's "The Tick.". He roamed Austin's streets on a BMX bike with cards in the spokes (the "mosquito's buzz"), carried a stainless steel "Crime Straw" (for use on miscrants only)...and also carried a crossbow and body armor to defend against vampires, which were apparently a problem in that city (hiding among the bats, no doubt).

Erica GURPS:

Albino cybernetically enhanced "street samurai" who was also a biker slut- and I do mean slut- whose ride was a big modified Harley chopper witha dragonscale paint job, and whose weapon of choice was a big, black, 2-handed vibro-sword...

Those are all excellent examples of what I'm hoping to do with this thread. See, I haven't been playing that long, so even though I have access to every book, I like to see how veteran players put what I've only read about to actual practice.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Glad to help, then!

Honestly, the folks around here aren't all just a bunch of character optimization mechanics gurus- Lord knows I'm not- there are also a lot of creative "storytelling" minds here as well.

IOW, don't just come looking for help for feat or spell selections, ask the assembled about how to round out the plowboy turned phantasmist. You'll get just as high quality a bunch of responses as you'd get for the nuts & bolts stuff.

 

[xigbar]

Glad to help, then!

Honestly, the folks around here aren't all just a bunch of character optimization mechanics gurus- Lord knows I'm not- there are also a lot of creative "storytelling" minds here as well.

IOW, don't just come looking for help for feat or spell selections, ask the assembled about how to round out the plowboy turned phantasmist. You'll get just as high quality a bunch of responses as you'd get for the nuts & bolts stuff.

I know. That's why I'm asking the varied minds on this forum. This board has someone for every area of expertise.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

Tarik, Human (then half-elven, long story about that, just don't make orcus mad)(then human again) Paladin (who went epic and killed Orcus)
the main reason he is easily remembered is not because he killed orcus, but because during an adventure we were attacked by a dracolich (beyond our level, meant to scare us back on path because hey, the creepy path through the woods is after all creepy, lets just go around the woods? DRACOLICH ATTACK!) and with a +1 distrupting mace killed it in 1 hit (it rolled a 1 )

Lokindo, Elven Sorcerer, very cool, there was infact a length of time where he died atleast once on every adventure (but thanks to the cleric, that didnt mean he was gone for good)...he also once fireballed a bridge full of fire giants killing them all, sure, they have fire immunity, but do they have BLOWING UP A BRIDGE TWO HUNDRED FEET HIGH OVER SHARP ROCKS IMMUNITY? Nope, not even resistance to that, yay for gravity!

Lorgar, Dwarven Fighter, perhaps it was his kill count of orcs, or his kill count of goblins, or his kill count of giants, gnolls, demons, devils, abberations, mythical beast and dragons, not sure which, but he killed more things than you could imagine, and knowing you play D&D means you can imagine quite alot

Arry, halfling rogue...do you remember in 3.0 the sneak attack rules said you had to 'study your target' for a few rounds? he was the first one in our campaign to even sneak attack..granted he didn't kill it, it was still awsome!

Gothmadric, Human warlock (with 1 level of barbarian) needless to say being a warlock is awesome, he died in the Crypt of the Devil-Lich (the dungeon crawl classic that is AMAZINGLY HORRIBLY DESPICABLLY FUN) and (thanks to the paladin's quick reflexes[elven paladin ftw]) he did not fall into lava as after he unleashed enough damage to make the tarresque cringe in fear...he was brought back with gold we found during the quest

Ren (Rattus Nor Viticus), Goblin rogue: When you hear goblin rogue, you think of a sneaky smelly creature who steals all the time and eats babies? right? Ren was sneaky, and he once ate a baby although we don't talk about that, but he was also very good at finding things, anything, he has never missed a trap he has searched for, he also is like batman (badass investigator person who stalks the streets fighting crime whilst not adventuring, it was actually the hook for 1 adventure) with his sidekick gothmardic (mentioned above)

I have many more, all my charactesr have a certain feel to them, I make them all different, but I will stop at those, good day and good luck in them dungeons

 

[Vespucci]

My favorite D&D memories are of parties and adventures, not characters. Frankly, I think the less you bring to the table when you start a campaign, the more you'll get out of it. I recall one party where the concepts could really be summed up as "shifty wizard", "swaggering rogue" and "burly fighter" - but the process of play and interaction breathed life into the characters.

At least, it did until the ref decided he wanted to write a novel with us in it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A few more:


Johnny Bones, human Ftr/Th 2Ed:

A street tough, bully and thug- physically gifted, but impulsive, brash and generally unsavory. Killed with style and pinache, though, and was a snappy dresser. Too bad his personality eclipsed his taste in clothes.

Brother Sycamore, human Cleric/Sorc/MT/Geomancer 3.5Ed:

Patterned after DC Comics': Swamp Thing, this walking shrub is a powerful healer and master of earth magics. One of the most popular PCs I've ever run.

Zjax "Yellowjack", Githzerai Monk/PsyWar/Lucid Cenobite 3.X:

A bisento wielding Monk with the ability to increase his size, his damage output due to his weapon, his powers, and taking advantage of the numerous AoOs coupled with his high AC and initiative rolls made him a perfect companion for the party's raging Barbarian. He'd soften up multiple foes as they came in, and the Barbarian's greatcleave ensured they never left... He got his nickname when he arrived in port as the sole survivor on a "plague ship." The pronunciation of his name and the tone of his skin combined with this to earn him the name associated with a swamp-fever that ripped through the local populace every year.

Sister Shrike, human Monk/Ftr/Kensai 3.5Ed:

Essentially a greatspear version of "Yellowjack", created for an ENWorld gameday. She poked the bejesus out of some Green Dragons...

Magnus Skyhammer, Dwarf Starpact Warlock (MC: Psion) 4Ed:

The latest of Clan Skyhammer to venture from their mountaintop holdfast & stellar observatory to uphold the clan's oathsworn fight* against incursions from The Far Realms. His constant motion in combat has led to others talking about his Capoiera skills...and discussions of how dwarves like steel drums & reggae.

Hellbox, Warforged Hybrid Battlemind/Infernal Pact Warlock 4Ed:

Created as a living gateway to the lower planes, the Warforged known as Hellbox still found the internal strength to rebel against its intended purpose, and now fights evil rather than facilitating it.)Inspired by Hellboy and the Hellraiser movies, he is black-red- almost like drying blood at night- with traceries of arcane runes in golden metals.

Angel Zero, human Ley-Line Walker RIFTS:

So beautiful, so deadly- she is a member of an ancient arcane society that follows a mystical tradition teaching that the arcane power of women arises from their virginity...






* CLAN SKYHAMMER'S OATH:

"In deepest mine, on mountain's height
Our cunning foes can't thwart our might
No Far Realms scourge evades our sight
Skyhammer clan's eternal fight!"