Favorite actual/wished for fantasy character that wouldn't work well with D&D rules

[Celebrim]

"As simple examples, a human raised by elves might want to start out with an affinity for the longsword and longbow like an elf."

ADOPTED [TRAIT]
You were raised by a race other than your own.
Prerequisite: Appropriate background
Benefit: Select the race that adopted you, which must not be your own or one you qualify as. Each racial background gives different advantages.
Elf: Receive the Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, and shortbow as bonus feats. Gains a +2 racial bonus on Animal Handling and Perform skill checks. And Elfish to your list of bonus languages.
Fey: Gains a +1 racial bonus to Knowledge (Arcane), Knowledge (Nature), Perform, and Spellcraft. Gains a +1 racial bonus on saving throws vs. Illusion magic. Add Seelie, Sylvan and Unseelie to your list of bonus languages.
Dwarf: A +1 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Treat hand and battle axes as simple weapons, rather than martial weapons. Gain a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (Geology and Mining) checks and a +2 racial bonus on Appraise and Craft checks that are related to stone or metal items. Add Dwarf to your list of bonus languages.
Goblin: Gain a +2 racial bonus on Move Silently and Ride checks. Navigation and Survival are always considered to be class skills. Rogue is an additional favored class. Add Goblin to your list of bonus languages.
Human: Gain 4 additional skill points at first level. You know common as an additional language, and may choose any languages other than secret languages for your bonus languages. When multiclassed and determining whether you take an experience point penalty, your highest-level class does not count.
Idreth: Gain a +1 racial bonus to Diplomacy, Decipher Script, Knowledge (History), and Sense Motive. Always treat Astrology and all Knowledges as class skills. Add Idreth to your list of bonus languages.
Orine: Gains a +1 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to art or art items, and a +1 racial bonus on Animal Handling, Perform, and Ride checks. Concentration, Perform, and Dreaming are always considered to be class skills. Add Orine to your list of bonus languages.
Special: You cannot take both this trait and the Feral trait.

"Or a fighter might want to be more brawler/wrestler than sword-and-shield"

WRESTLER [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
You are good in close.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to your grappling checks.

IN FIGHTING [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to hit with light weapons while grappling.

CLOSE QUARTERS FIGHTING [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
You are skilled in defending yourself from grapple attacks.
Prerequisites: Base combat bonus +3.
Benefit: Whenever an opponent attempts a grapple with you, you may add the damage you do as the result of a successful attack of opportunity to your AC to resist the grapple. Furthermore, you gain an attack of opportunity even if your opponent has improved grab.

IMPROVED CLINCH [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
You have mastered the art of fighting at very close quarters.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +3, Dodge
Benefit: When you clinch an opponent, you have a base +4 dodge bonus to AC, and a base +4 circumstance bonus to attack rolls against the opponent in addition to any benefits you have due to size.
Normal: When clinched, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC and a +2 circumstance bonus to attack rolls against the opponent you closed in on.

"(and the rules don't really support this well)."

I guess that depends on what rules we are talking about.

 

[Dandu]

Playing a ghost/spirit.

Ghost Savage Progression, Savage Species.

Playing as royalty/nobility.

You... can definitely do this in 3.5 with any character, really, though there is an NPC class specifically called the aristocrat as well.

 

[Celebrim]

Playing a ghost/spirit.

One of the problems I tend to see with fantasy player concepts is that players tend to start with concepts that really represent goals more than concepts. A system can handle a concept like 'ghost/spirit' only if it integrates with the starting concepts everyone else brings to the table. Systems can provide this, but the natural starting point of D&D games is characters who are at the beginning of a Bildungsroman. I really feel this is the only limitation D&D places on your concepts. Pretty much everything mechanical can be worked out, provided you accept that you are at the start of your heroic career, not the middle or the end. Some other systems are much better for characters who already have long life stories and have acquired great power. Or you can start D&D characters at a sufficiently high level provided everyone comes to the table with such a concept. I had a player in my current campaign who'd never really played before say, "Can I play a dinosaur rider ith lasers?" I said, "Well, you can't really start that way because it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the party and that sort of thing quickly leads to, 'My concept is so awesome I ought to be the most awesome thing in the world', which ultimately isn't fun for the whole table. However, you can play a character who has that as a goal, and here are some things you can do that will facilitate that goal..."

Playing a child.

That ones easy from a mechanical perspective, and I've played with child PC's in pretty much every system I've ever played: D&D, Star Wars, Chill, etc. It's a pretty classic trope, and sooner or later someone wants to go there. The real difficulty is with player expectations. The problem isn't so much playing as a child as it is playing as a child without the expectation that if the game lasts for a couple of years game time that you won't get lots of free benefits. If you take a realistic approach, being a child sucks compared to being a human. You lose more than you gain. You are weaker, less experienced, less knowledgable, and generally make bad decisions. In this case, advancing time isn't really a big deal. The character is simply on the whole gaining back what he would have started with anyway. But if the player insists on starting off as compotent as an adult, then the player also needs to understand that as his character ages he won't on the whole be gaining any more than he would normally gain by leveling up. Once you've worked out player expectation, the rest is easy.

Playing as royalty/nobility.

HIGH NOBLE RANK [TRAIT]
You are a member of one of the ruling families of your society.
Prerequisite: Appropriate background
Benefit: You automatically receive all the benefits of the Wealthy trait. You have a notable and inheritable title, such as baron or baronet, which gives you rank and influence in your society. You have a +5 status bonus to intimidation and bluff checks against other members of your own society which recognize your rank and which are socially inferior to it. In all other ways you have the benefits and difficulties of the noble rank advantage - only more so. You are assumed to not be in the direct line of succession to a more powerful position. You are further assumed to be something of an outcast within your family, and unlikely to receive significant aid beyond a small stipend from them. If you are not to be an outcast or expect more significant aid, you must additionally take and pay for the Patron trait.
Special: You may not take both noble rank and high noble rank. If you take the High Noble Rank trait, you must select two additional disadvantages. (A major enemy is often appropriate.)

I should say that my PC's all start as 'advantaged' characters with a a free trait, and that they can take extra traits by selecting disadvantages of various sorts. The fundamental rule here is, "You don't get something for nothing." I've got no problem with a player that says, "Can I start as the King's son, with lots of money, and friends in high places?", because my answer is, "Yes". But the problem is that I have to balance that concept against everything at the table, so the answer is usually, "Yes, just so long as you know that you'll be carrying alot of baggage to balance that out as well." But conceivably, I could also say, "Ok, this game we are all starting out as highly advantaged characters, so select 4 starting traits rather than the usual 1."

Playing as an animal (subhuman intelligence).

This is hard for any system, not just D&D. The problem here is again, not mechanics, which are fairly easy. The problem here is that like 'ghost' and alot of other concepts, this is a concept where the novelty wears off very quickly. In the long run, it's not likely to be a very satisfying character to play for more than a one shot or mini-campaign. After you've done the basic animal tropes, you quickly find that there isn't much left to the character. Most players will tire of this very quickly.

Playing as an organization (a multiple-NPC entity).

This is hard for any system, not just D&D. The problems here just keep coming. Its just about impossible to balance this in terms of screen time with more traditional PC's, even if you could balance it mechanically. The player's 'turn' just takes more time than everyone elses. Secondly, this puts a huge burden on the DM unless the player is willing to act almost in the role of a secondary DM in terms of preperation and bookkeeping, and the player has to be willing to do this without disrupting the pace of the game. Besides which, its impossible for anyone to fully play two characters at the same time. As a DM, I try to avoid situations where more than one NPC have speaking roles both because it makes characterization hard and it tends to cause me as the DM to monoplize the screen time. This is the PC version of that. However, all that being said, ideas or at least goals like, "Playing as the leader of an organization." are perfectly valid and the hurdles not insurmountable.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

This is hard for any system, not just D&D. The problem here is again, not mechanics, which are fairly easy. The problem here is that like 'ghost' and alot of other concepts, this is a concept where the novelty wears off very quickly. In the long run, it's not likely to be a very satisfying character to play for more than a one shot or mini-campaign. After you've done the basic animal tropes, you quickly find that there isn't much left to the character. Most players will tire of this very quickly.

But for those short times and times when the player doesn't lose interest there should be rules.

(Although I'm not sure how "sub-human intelligence" factors in, what mechanical impact would that have vs. simply roleplaying the trait without having it?)

 

[Celebrim]

But for those short times and times when the player doesn't lose interest there should be rules.

It's not hard to create rules for it. But the problem is that the rules have a fairly limited appeal, and so a company that is doing this for profit has to weigh whether the cost of offering the rules provides a return on the investment. You can't expect WoTC to provide that sort of rules in core, because its for most people wasted space or worse than negative space because it implies the acceptibility of choices that they don't really want to deal with.

(Although I'm not sure how "sub-human intelligence" factors in, what mechanical impact would that have vs. simply roleplaying the trait without having it?)

In a Star Wars game I was once in, a player took Wookie as his starting race. Only after starting the game did he really comprehend the difficulty in playing a character that can only when roleplayed properly communicate to most PC's and NPC's through grunts and roars, and with the rest of the PC's by passing notes. This is a huge challenge that effectively isolates you from normal role play paths, and while its fun to roar and grunt and goof off for a session or three, in the long run it can be very frustrating for many players.

Now magnify this problem with a character which when roleplayed correctly doesn't really understand any verbal communication (or really, no more than a few score words at best), can't read or write, and can't communicate except through body language. Most attempts to role-play an actual animal would very quickly turn into attempts to not role play an actual animal, and to come up with every possible excuse for not doing so.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

You can't expect WoTC to provide that sort of rules in core, because its for most people wasted space or worse than negative space because it implies the acceptibility of choices that they don't really want to deal with.

I don't expect WotC to create rules for it. And like I said a 3rd party created rules for playing animals in 3.5/Pathfinder that I guess work well enough. But there are still magical beasts I'd like to play that haven't been covered well.

Honestly I don't expect rules that specifically make magical beast PCs. I more wish someone would break down the racial options so that one could build their own, and then include one small entry on making a non-handed or otherwise odd-shaped race. I can't see how one small option is any worse of wasted space then any of the other little bits people must come across all the time in supplements that they just don't use.

But I only answered because the question was asked, not because I expected anyone to do anything about it.

 

[Nonei]

I guess that depends on what rules we are talking about.

I don't have all the 3.5 supplements... could you please tell me where these are from? Or were they houseruled?

I more wish someone would break down the racial options so that one could build their own

This is exactly the plan - racial and feat options both.

Also, in the DMG it talks about how to price magic items that you create - that table would come in handy (um - pun not intended) to adjust magical items for a non-handed PC.

 

[Nonei]

Playing as an organization (a multiple-NPC entity).

Hmm... I'm not really sure how a game like that would play out? The only thing I can think of is the PCs are the leaders of the organization, and then the players control various people within it as those various people go and do things/deal with problems. And, that is definitely do-able with D20 rules, although you wouldn't be as concerned with character experience points.

Do you have a specific idea of a game/storyline?

 

[Celebrim]

I don't have all the 3.5 supplements... could you please tell me where these are from? Or were they houseruled?

They are houserules. I'm quoting myself simply to point out the relative ease which wishes can be made true in D&D. While not every DM is going to feel his campaign supports every concept, the basic mechanics of the D20 system are so generic and so modifiable that I just don't feel there is much of anything that you can't do in a game that could be called 'D&D rules'. The vast number of supplemental and third party materials created backs up this claim. Honestly, I think most DM's ought to be able to spam out feats and mods in feat form faster than they can write them down. The question isn't so much what you can cover, but what you want to cover.

 

[Nonei]

They are houserules. I'm quoting myself simply to point out the relative ease which wishes can be made true in D&D. While not every DM is going to feel his campaign supports every concept, the basic mechanics of the D20 system are so generic and so modifiable that I just don't feel there is much of anything that you can't do in a game that could be called 'D&D rules'. The vast number of supplemental and third party materials created backs up this claim. Honestly, I think most DM's ought to be able to spam out feats and mods in feat form faster than they can write them down. The question isn't so much what you can cover, but what you want to cover.

Thanks. And, I agree with you and appreciate your examples too for sure. Some DMs are better at adapting/adjusting/balancing feats than others, and so part of the 'character builder' will (hopefully) be a tool to guide the creation of personalized feats like the ones you shared. Sort of like the "magic item builder" table in the DMG that I mentioned above.