Character concepts/PrClasses that just GRAB you!

[threshel]

We're currently exploring Ebberron, so:

Talenta (Halfling) Rogue/Fighter/Extreme Explorer: After last night, the dream is but a level away! (currently just a rogue/fighter who acts like an EE)

Warforged Scout Rogue/Artificer: This one's still in the wings, but someday...


J

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

The character concept which never fails to grab me is the "professional adventurer" (human rogue with a smidgeon of fighter); having grown up in some crappy little podunk village, he has his sights set on becoming a major celebrity, just like the adventurers those bards always sing about.

So basically, he's a rock star: he lives for the adoring crowds, he self-promotes shamelessly, he treats his adventuring companions like his backup band (they're friends, they're important, but I AM THE STAR), and he'll do damn near anything for fortune and glory. He's not in it to do good deeds, though any pro will tell you that doing good deeds gets you more glory with less trouble than doing evil things does. Along the way, he concentrates on mastering "the job" (generally, lots of scouting, trap-disabling, tomb-robbing, magical devices, and tactics to use against monsters and bad guys). Possibly he gets Leadership at some point, just to have a horde of totally obsessed fans.

Mostly, I think this is because it's such a fun concept to play. No existential anguish, no horrible traumas in his past, just a fully-developed sense of entitlement and a rock-solid conviction that he is the coolest person to ever exist in this world (or any other). It's such a wonderful change of pace from the kinds of characters I gravitate towards in other settings and other systems, and it gives the character room to grow in all kinds of different directions. He could get jaded and bitter with the hardships of adventuring, or he could find a genuine wellspring of compassion and righteousness inside him, or he could "grow up" and decide to abandon adventuring for a different profession, or he could do just about anything, really. No matter what direction the game turns towards, the character can develop right alongside it.


...hm. I'm not sure now whether I should be pleased or ashamed that my "concept that grabs me" is so simple. I mean, it doesn't even require a prestige class or a specific setting, nor does the character necessarily ever have to get any Cool Stuff beyond the feats and abilities in the player's handbook.

It makes me wonder whether my general disinterest in the prestige classes I've seen so far stems from my love for this character concept, or if my love for this character concept is a result of my general disinterest in prestige classes.

--
it is a mystery
ryan

 

[Psion]

Prime Human Ranger
Talaire Druid
Planar Human Bard/Druid/Warshaper
Illithid Rogue
Planar Chaos Human Fighter/Faction Class
Mercenaries Aradan Psychic Warrior
Planar Doomguard Tiefling Bard
Planar Godsmen Desert Gnome Wizard/Expert
Planar Sign of One Elf Unholy Warrior/Soulknife/Rogue/Commoner/Faction Class
Thri-kreen Psychic Warrior/Courtier
Prime Halfling Unholy Warrior
Prime Arctic Goblin Bard/Skull Clan Hunter
Mercenaries Aradan Fighter/Psychic Warrior
Planar Brothers of Charity Arctic Half-Elf Fighter/Aristocrat
Prime Jungle Elf Soulknife/Aristocrat
Planar Aasimar Shaman
Prime Desert Orc Rogue
Maenad Rogue/Priest/Heirophant
Planar Cult of Pain Bariaur Sorcerer/Faction Class
Prime Goblin Commoner
Talaire Shaman
Naranjani Amarati Maenad Monk/Cleric/Ki mystic
Prime Half-Orc Sorcerer
Planar Wayfarer Air Genasi Psychic Warrior/Faction Class
Xeph Kineticist/Cleric/Psychic Theurge/Monk/Psychic Warrior/Rogue
Planar Fated Desert Elf Hexblade/Faction Class
Planar Ghaele
Prime Human Warrior
Planar Arctic Half-Orc Fighter/Priest
Planar Doomguard Bariaur Psychic Warrior
Prime Jungle Human Shaman
Planar Fated Human Egoist
Naranjani Jendram Gnome Evoker/Archmage
Naranjani Rangsten Halfling Fighter
Planar Metal Elf Transmuter
Planar Jungle Gnome Rogue
Poison Dusk Lizardfolk Shaman/Dragon Mage from the Lizard Kingdoms

Actually, I jest. Those are just random NPCs my custome Namegen rulefile threw out.

 

[hong]

Mostly, I think this is because it's such a fun concept to play. No existential anguish, no horrible traumas in his past, just a fully-developed sense of entitlement and a rock-solid conviction that he is the coolest person to ever exist in this world (or any other). It's such a wonderful change of pace from the kinds of characters I gravitate towards in other settings and other systems, and it gives the character room to grow in all kinds of different directions. He could get jaded and bitter with the hardships of adventuring, or he could find a genuine wellspring of compassion and righteousness inside him, or he could "grow up" and decide to abandon adventuring for a different profession, or he could do just about anything, really. No matter what direction the game turns towards, the character can develop right alongside it.

Herpes is cool. I want to play with herpes.


Hong "and you can quote me on that" Ooi

 

[Sargon the Kassadian]

Half-Orc Psychometabolist/barbarian 0r monk-buffs himself and beats the living monkeyshank out of things.
gnomish druid who trains animals and has a bunch of them, the cool ones from Arms and Equipment. (zookeeper)

 

[Enforcer]

The Hammer of Moradin PrC from Player's Guide to Faerun really grabbed me; so much so that I traded in my Kelemvorite Cleric for a Shield Dwarf Paladin. The special abilities just create such cool imagery: bashing the ground so hard with a hammer that your enemies fall on their rears, hitting someone so hard that his armor actually does more harm than good, wading through hordes of enemies with nary a scratch, etc. And he has a dire wolverine special mount...

I'd also love to play a Tiefling Ftr/Rog/Duelist or an Elven Ranger/Order of the Bow Initiate one of these days.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Well, I feel sort of plain in my ideas now, but I guess that's ok. I like the idea of a ranger that follows that whole dual wield path, and uses an enhanced buckler to make offhand attacks. I just like shieldbashes I guess. The second is one of those quietly, stubbornly LG guys who wanders from place to place, helping people out with problems that are too big for them to handle.

 

[Pbartender]

Alienist. I love the class.

Yeay! Tentacles.

Remind me sometime to tell you guys about the Pseudonatural Giant Squid I once dropped on my players... Tentacles on top of tentacles.

Thanks to Complete Warrior, I'm finally playing the halfling knife fighter I've always wanted to try... And he's surprisingly effective.

I've always wanted to try a Druid or Ranger with a Swarm (especially an urban druid with a swarm of rats, cats or pidgeons) for an Animal Companion.

For Star Wars, I've always wanted to play a Twi'lek Jedi Consular who is entirely mediocre at lightsaber combat, but excels at mind-bending skills and powers... He'd skirt the edge of the Dark Side awfully closely, and probably end up using all his Force Points to negate the Dark Side Point he'd accumulate.

For D20 Modern, the new occupation 'Heir' from D20 Future inspired me to create a character whose strongest point was a maximized Wealth bonus. Someone who could buy his way out of anything, if need be, and never ran out of money.

I get dozens of ideas for characters I want to try out. Fortunately, I DM on a regular basis, so I can use the ideas as NPCs.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I have a couple of them, though sometimes I like using them for NPCs in my game rather than as concepts for my next PC.

A few ideas that I've had:

• A rogue/master thrower/invisible blade (focusing on daggers only), from Complete Warrior. Just seemed like a nice, potentially dangerous foe for the PCs to contend with.
• An elven swashbuckler/wizard/bladesinger (using a rapier), from CW. Seems to be a great mesh of all abilities to make a notable combo.
• An elven/half-elven bard/arcane archer. No ASF in light armor for bard spells, a higher spell level overall than for a fighter/wizard or fighter/sorcerer taking this class ASAP, and some nice abilities on the side in addition to archery skill (like countersong, bardic lore & music, etc.).
• A samurai/paladin. Liked the idea of this sort of honor-bound character like a samurai adopting the noble path of a paladin. The main enemy for this character would be a samurai/blackguard (or a samurai/LE paladin, ala Unearthed Arcana).
• A ranger/assassin. Really like the idea of a hired killer that literally hunts down his targets.
• A fighter/sorcerer/spellsword, from CW. Actually, I'm using this idea for a major villain, a lich fighter/sorcerer/spellsword/archmage named Thesek (based off of one of Klaus' works; I can't seem to find the House Rule thread on this guy at the moment).
• A psion/wizard/cerebremancer, from PsiHB. Really like this combo for some reason.
• A sorcerer/frost mage, from Frostburn. Always liked cold-using characters; my g/f is actually developing her current spellcaster character along these lines.
• A bard/stormsinger, from Frostburn. Really like weather-based powers/character concepts, too.
• A paladin/platinum knight, from Draconomicon.
• A githzerai monk. When I saw the stats for the 3.0/3.5 githzerai, I just really liked this concept--I'll actually have a NPC IMC using this idea.
• For NPCs, I really liked the idea that the top priest of the major good deity would be an aasimar cleric (with a tiefling cleric as the head of the major opposing evil church).
• For OA, or if the 5 Asian element-concept is still used with the Complete Arcane wu jen: essentially 5 wu jen NPCs, w/ each one representing one of the 5 "colors" of magic from, well, Magic. The red fire wu jen. The blue water wu jen. The green wood wu jen. The white metal wu jen. The black earth wu jen.
• A druid/wizard with a raven familiar, a wolf animal companion, and armed with a spear. Kind of an Odin-like figure who acts according to his own agenda.
• Along the lines of an NPC/villain, an ogre mage hexblade, from CW.
• An NPC party idea: essentially a Basic/Rules Cyclopedia D&D group of adventurers. An elf bard (to sorta capture the idea of an armor-wearing, spellcasting elf). A dwarf fighter. A halfling ranger (to sorta go with the whole stealth in the wild idea of the old halfling class; however, go with a 10 Wis for a non-spellcasting ranger; maybe a scout from Complete Adventurer instead, if that works better). A human cleric. A human thief. A human monk (for the Mystic class character).All of the characters would use equipment that would be found in the old rule sets (so no spiked chains, urgroshes, etc.). Maybe give them some levels of racial paragon classes (from UA) as well.
• An NPC group consisting solely of short-statured characters. A gnome rogue. A halfling wizard. A dwarf barbarian. A nixie druid. I just like the mental image I get for this group of adventurers.

A lot of these ideas will probably get used for NPCs IMC, though I may consider playing 1 or 2 of these concepts in my friends' campaigns (if feasible, that is).

 

[Pbartender]

A rogue/master thrower/invisible blade (focusing on daggers only), from Complete Warrior. Just seemed like a nice, potentially dangerous foe for the PCs to contend with.

Actually, this is the route I'm taking with the Halfling knife-fighter I mentioned above. Right now, he's a Rogue 3/Swashbuckler 3, and is ready to start taking levels of Invisible Blade.