D&D General Do you re-use characters?

[Frozen_Heart]

Depends how much of a satisfying arc they had.

If I played 10 levels, had a great character arc, wrapped up some backstory, and generally ended the campaign satisfied. I'm not going to re-use that character again.

But If I wrote a ton of backstory, had lots of stuff planned, only for Timmy to get critted by a goblin at level 2. I'm sure as hell reusing them. Not in the same game, or even with the same group. And possibly reworked heavily to fit in the setting. But I'll be reusing the core principles as it would essentially be a character I was excited to play, and didn't get to.

 

[Arilyn]

I never have, but if you have an old character that excites you, why not?

 

[jayoungr]

I've done it. Especially when there's a character that I don't feel I got to explore as much as I wanted to.

For example, my very first 5E character was a halfling bard. The campaign I created him for lasted about four sessions and shows no sign of ever coming back, but I still want to play the character. The next chance I get, I'm going to reuse him.

 

[Oofta]

I've transferred characters from one edition to the next. I've also done descendants of certain PCs, occasionally with similar builds.

But direct copies? Not really. On the other hand there are only so many archetypes I'll really have fun playing.

 

[Voadam]

I've done it a bunch, not all the time, but a bunch.

See here for how often I played my eponymous viking wizard in pbp games here.

It is fun to play a character I enjoy playing, and to do different versions and takes on the same basic concepts.

My viking wizard stated out as a 2e switch classed human fighter turned wizard who picked up 1e OA martial arts, in 3e this has often been a ranger multiclassed into wizard, sometimes with a level of monk others with just improved unarmed strike. In 4e I did a ranger multiclassed into paragon path wizard and variations as a sword mage and as a warlord. In a 5e campaign I played him as a valor bard.

 

[jmartkdr2]

It's not common, but if I make a character for a campaign the fizzles out or I leave for whatever reason, I'll keep that character concept in mind for future games.

 

[Omand]

No, not really. When I get the chance to play I usually work with the DM and my fellow players to work out an interesting character concept that works with the campaign and the group.

That said, most of the time I DM, so I get to use lots of different character concepts there for NPCs.

Cheers

 

[Lanefan]

Not direct copies, but I have now and then done what I'd call indirect copies: take a very similar concept to a well-liked (by me anyway) older character and see where it goes in a new campaign.

My arguably-best character ever was originally intended to be a 3e reincarnation of one of my more interesting 1e characters, only before long she'd blown the old 1e character out of the water in terms of just how much sheer fun she was to play. And in a total twist of irony or whatever, while that 3e character hasn't been seen in well over a decade the original 1e character has resurfaced and her next in-play session is Monday...

Another of my current characters has as his hero an old, famous, long-dead and very similar (same race, class, deity, etc.) PC of mine in the same campaign/setting; the new one is slowly in process of outdoing the old one in every way but he doesn't quite realize this yet.

 

[MNblockhead]

No. I don't get to play often and I enjoy character building far too much to waste an opportunity to try a new character concept.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

When you play a character or specific character concept, do you ever recycle them in a different campaign?

I just got invited to play the in first in-person game I've been part of in a couple of years and I'm struggling to think of a fresh character concept that I'm excited about. I have a mountain of 5e characters that I've played for a few sessions, or even 7+ levels straight, but I've always had this hang-up about re-using characters I've already played, even when it's an entirely different gaming group or campaign.

I have done this with a couple characters that I didn't really get to explore the story of because a campaign fell apart.

I changed them to suit the new setting and all that, though. One went from a Star Wars Outlaw Tech character to an airship engineer from Lantan in a Curse of Strahd game.