D&D General First D&D Character?

[Lanefan]

My first-ever character was memorable enough: a (randomly rolled at extreme odds) Crown Prince from an off-world realm. Whcih meant that a) his honour was not to be besmirched and b) he was used to being treated like royalty i.e. if he said jump the only response should be how high. Mechanically he was a "heavy" Ranger, plate-clad and ready to tank.

Well, b) went out the window in a hurry. Adventurers don't much like being told what to do by a newcomer, as you might well imagine. For a) to get hit took a bit longer; he was seduced - somewhat against his will - by a wanton other PC (I wasn't there at the time). Well, this wouldn't do, and given that for my whole life my word had been the law if my father wasn't around I had no problem with making myself judge, jury and executioner. So - one dead hussy later - I was put to drumhead trial by the rest of the party and hanged from a tree until dead.

As for the OP's bonus-point question: given how badly Rangers have been butchered as the editions have gone by I'm not sure I could build a true heavy Ranger in the current game.

 

[Cadence]

Alexis the Dwarf and Antares the Halfling - Moldvay Basic in 1981. In the first short adventure (run by a sitter) Antares had to cut Alexis' hand off to save him from a cursed sword. They were around for years in a shared DMing world. At some point I think they got some F-14s. I might have the character sheets downstairs, but I have no particular memory of how they managed to travel between worlds.

 

[Wolf72]

Basic set, Zark the Dwarf. Most memorable? Aeron, High Elf Fighter (1e) ... rolled amazing on stats (4d6, drop lowest). 17 str, 16 int, 14 wis, 19 dex, 16 con, 14 cha. With 1e UA went crazy bow specialist, was amazing. Took down vampires with wooden arrows like a champ. Got rear end handed back to me by zombies ... to many, to close.

 

[Mort]

First character was an elven fighter, 1st edition D&D.

Rolls were 3d6 in order (with the one concession that the DM would roll behind the screen and you could take that roll of you were not satisfied with yours, but it could be worse).

First 2 adventures were solo ones and were awsome. But then the group got together and I realized the DM was playing heavy favorites (the other two players had characters with 18s in their primary stats and high scores elsewhere and other obvious stuff) and games went from awesome to annoying fast.

As for recreating - a champion fighter, about as easy as you can get.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My first character was a B/X cleric. After beating a skeleton and having 1 hp left, my older brother the DM asked which way I was going. I said left (the dungeon map was between us). My left was his right, so he said I ran into the wall and took 1hp damage.

My most memorable early PC was Merdock. Human fighter. Didn't have the rolls to be a paladin, but that didn't stop me from playing him like one RP wise. I.e. knight in shining armor type. Great PC. Lots of adventures. One of the highest level PCs I ever got to in 1e

Won't remake him in 5e, cause it won't do him justice. But if I did, probably cavalier fighter subclass.

 

[Steampunkette]

Forget the name... 2e Human Rogue favoring throwing daggers (RPed as razor-edged metal playing cards) for Sneak Attacks in AD&D 2e.

I was a fan of Gambit as a kid. And then Setzer a little while later. So that concept (Card-Thrower) saw a few different games under a few different Races/Classes/Concepts.

Particularly once I realized high end specialized fighters could throw 3 daggers per round at 1st level and eventually 6 if I poured all my proficiencies into daggers.

... It got intense.

 

[Wulffolk]

First character was a literal copy of another player’s Cleric. No explanation of anything given. Just instantly popped into existence with the 12 player party in the middle of a dungeon. Immediately pushed through the first door we arrived at, just to be killed by a Succubus in the most carnal way that a teen-age Boy Scout DM could imagine, which included a graphic description of the lips and teeth between her legs. Bob the copied Cleric died to demonic sexual molestation in less than 10 minutes of existence.

My most memorable character was a Half-Elf Ranger named Fontor that found a Wyvern egg, and raised the baby to become a mount. We actually honored the old school level restrictions, so compared to the other higher level characters he was pretty reasonable. I retired him as a minor lord when adventuring became too dangerous for him, I still have the old parchment character sheet, complete with character portrait.

 

[Imaculata]

My first D&D character that I remember was a barbarian berserker called Logue. He was a funny character who was very uncultured and tribal. He was very superstitious and afraid of witchcraft and ghosts. His biggest fear however, was heights.

Logue grew up in the barbarian tribe of The Great Bear. At age 16, boys of the tribe must seek out the bear in his cave, and face him unarmed. Due to his fear of heights however, Logue was unable to climb up to the cave. His parents were so embarassed, that he was banished from the tribe in shame.

Years later as an adult, his party members ultimately helped him overcome his fear of heights, and face the bear. Logue returned victorious, after beating the bear at a friendly game of arm wrestling.

Logue's belief in the Great Bear was a funny running joke. His party members were always highly skeptical of the existence of his deity. But ironically, the Great Bear was the only deity who would occasionally appear before the party over the course of several campaigns, and help them. The first time Logue summoned the Great Bear, the whole party had to wear facepaint and dance around a big fire while intoxicated. It worked though; the Bear appeared from the flames and gave the party guidance.

A lot of humor often came from Logue trying to adjust to the high society. Whenever the party was invited by a noble, Logue's presence was a guaranteed disaster just waiting to happen. The barbarian had no clue how to behave among the upper class, nor how to use cutlery, or what language would be appropriate. Occasionally Logue would get angry and accuse people of making words up, when simply using words he did not know. Other times Logue would act smug, and use a fancy word incorrectly in order to try and appear sophisticated.

Despite all his flaws, Logue had his heart in the right place. He would gladly die in battle to defend his friends, or to protect the innocent. He cared deeply for the creatures of the forest, and he had a strong sense of honor.

When all seemed lost and the party was about to be defeated by an undead dragon, Logue showed his true courage. He called upon the Great Bear to look upon him, as he cast off his armor and charged the dragon naked, wielding only his bastard sword. He did not fear death and was ready to die. Much to everyone's surprise however, he did not die. It was that final charge that ultimately slayed the dragon!

Years later I played Logue again in a 5e one shot. I may play him again for a full 5e campaign.

 

[ccs]

My 1st character is memorable for being the harbinger of our first true house rule(s).

I started off playing (as the DM) over Christmas break 1980. Myself (the DM), my brother & our cousin. 100% 0 xp between us. And no-one to teach us.
We played for several months. Then we added a friend.
Shortly after this point my cousin decided to try & run an adventure. So somewhere about Easter 1980 I finally got to make my own character.

I made a 1/2ling & named him Uno. He was supposed to be the Bilbo Baggins burglar of the group (we were all familiar with the Hobbit).
The party consisted of Uno the 1/2ling, an Elf with no name (brother) & Blardo the fighter. Trying to loot gems out of a dungeon. It was a pretty crappy adventure, even by the standards of eleven year olds.
Throughout the afternoon though I kept trying to do things you'd associate with a Thief in the Basic of the time - climb walls, sneak about, burgle things.... Even though as a novice DM myself I knew I wouldn't likely succeed because rules. But hey, my cousin might say yes, right?
So I'd try something thief like, my cousin would look up the rules, and she'd say "No". Because Uno was a 1/2ling,not a Thief. That's fine. Play continues.

Afterwards though it did spark the groups 1st ever serious rules discussion. How it was stupid that some "classes" were Human + job & others were just elf/dwarf/halfling.
So we decided that character creation would now be Choose: Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling, then choose Job: Fighter/Cleric/Thief/Magic-User.
Hit Dice, Saves, to-hit rolls, & XP = job
Elves were special & could have two jobs, but if they did they only got the HD already listed for Elves & had to divide their xp gained in half.
I don't recall what we said about lv limits, but as Basic only went up to lv 3 & we wouldn't have access to the Expert set until Christmas '81, I don't think it was a factor.

And this is how we played (most of the time) for the next year or so (some time into '82). At wich point we came across 1e.
Wich validated our basic opinion that Race = Class sometimes, but not others, was stupid.


I've stated Uno up for every edition of the game I've played save for 4e. #s vary depending if I can use his originals or have to re-roll/etc, but he's a 1/2ling (Stout if it matters), Thief (Rogue in 3x+).
In 5e I'd give him the criminal background.

 

[Gnosistika]

The only character I cared about was in 2e. Played a three year long Spelljammer campaign. Jerem - an elf mage/psionicist/fighter*

Was huge fun playing a scoundrel privateer (pirate) in service (against his will) to onther player that was a ranked officer in the Elven Imperial Fleet. I miss Spelljammer a lot.

*We never used class/race restrictions or level restrictions since 1e.