D&D General First D&D Character?

[Ralif Redhammer]

In hindsight, yeah, it really is astonishing how much certain gaming groups put up with bad behavior back in the day. With bad DMs, we'd often just not play games they ran and that would deal with the problem, but with players (and of course, there was certainly overlap between bad DMs and bad players), so many I know I should've given them their walking papers a lot sooner. But being younger and conflict-averse, and not wanting to risk shrinking the generally small circle of gaming friends back then, I let a lot slide that I shouldn't have.

Yikes! Sometimes it amazes me how many people stuck with D&D with all the player or DM jerkery some groups put up with!

First memorable character...as much as I want to say Ralif Redhammer, he was a Dwarf with a capital D and that was about it. Still enjoyed playing him.

No, my first distinct and memorable character didn't really come until 1e, with Dalon Lionheart, a human cleric of Tyr. He was kind to those needing kindness and a stalwart foe to evil. He was the party's go-to for our battlecries when charging into combat. A crusader, but never lawful stupid.

 

[collin]

So, I want to know your first memorable D&D character, not necessarily the actual first one you ever made. What were their mechanics, and their story? Why did they adventure? Why do you remember them?

For bonus points, how would you build them today if you were going to play them again as a low level fresh adventurer?

I’ll put mine in a reply, keep the OP concise.

First memorable character was a 1e D&D LG human monk named Po that I played in my senior year in high school. He tended to be somewhat evangelical compared to typical monks. I made it to 7th level, at which point he became a vampire and the campaign essentially ended because we were all getting ready to go off to college.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In hindsight, yeah, it really is astonishing how much certain gaming groups put up with bad behavior back in the day. With bad DMs, we'd often just not play games they ran and that would deal with the problem, but with players (and of course, there was certainly overlap between bad DMs and bad players), so many I know I should've given them their walking papers a lot sooner. But being younger and conflict-averse, and not wanting to risk shrinking the generally small circle of gaming friends back then, I let a lot slide that I shouldn't have.

I think most of us have some history of letting stuff slide like that. One of the great boons of being older and married and having a few really good friends is that I have been able to just excise those people from my gaming and never look back!

First memorable character...as much as I want to say Ralif Redhammer, he was a Dwarf with a capital D and that was about it. Still enjoyed playing him.

No, my first distinct and memorable character didn't really come until 1e, with Dalon Lionheart, a human cleric of Tyr. He was kind to those needing kindness and a stalwart foe to evil. He was the party's go-to for our battlecries when charging into combat. A crusader, but never lawful stupid.

Hell yeah. My favorite kind of Paladin.

First memorable character was a 1e D&D LG human monk named Po that I played in my senior year in high school. He tended to be somewhat evangelical compared to typical monks. I made it to 7th level, at which point he became a vampire and the campaign essentially ended because we were all getting ready to go off to college.

Oh man that rings so painfully true. naughty word gets weird, campaign ends before you can explore it.

 

[David Howery]

My first D&D character ever was a bog standard fighter whose name I don't recall. He died.
My first memorable character was a ranger named Falken. He lived. Quite a long time, in fact.
I should mention that this was back in early 1E days, when having any PC live was something of an accomplishment...

 

[pogre]

Original D&D
1975
Magic-User named Themyu - (I know, I know).
Cousin's dungeon found some stairs and went down a few levels without realizing monsters were more dangerous the lower you went. Actually survived a couple of encounters through negotiation and luck and then got capped by a Vampire.
Loved the game immediately despite my early demise!

 

[Charlaquin]

My actual first character was some generic elf rogue with little personality beyond being mysterious and aloof.

My first memorable character was a tiefling infernal pact warlock named Pain. He had a human mother (this was 4e, where Tieflingness was a dominant trait) and an abusive father. His adventuring career started when his childhood friend, a half-elf (technically half-Eladrin) girl told him she knew a way to help him escape his father, by performing a ritual to beseech a fae entity for help. But, something went wrong and they accidentally contacted a fiend instead. It nearly escaped, but she saved Pain by sacrificing herself, binding Pain into a pact with the fiend. Pain ultimately blamed his father for her death (despite it pretty much being his own fault) and swore to use the powers his pact granted him to take revenge.

The DM wove the revenge subplot into the campaign really elegantly. At one point Pain ended up dying, and due to his pact his soul wasn’t free to be resurrected, but his patron agreed to let him be returned in exchange for swearing to kill his father. Which I at the time thought was an obvious win-win, since that was my primary motivation anyway. When we did eventually kill the character Pain had thought was his father, it turned out he actually wasn’t, at least not biologically speaking. He had married Pain’s mother and raised Pain as his own, but as it turned out, the real father was Asmodeus, and Pain’s patron was a rival archdevil trying to use Pain in a bid to take his throne.

Mechanically, Pain was a pretty straightforward 4e infernal pact warlock. My go-to attack was Hellish Rebuke, which for anyone not familiar with 4e was an at-will spell at the time. It was a Con-based attack vs Reflex that did 1d6+Con damage on a hit, and if you took damage before the end of your next turn, it dealt another 1d6+Con damage to the target. I favored spells that caused damage to me so I could trigger the extra damage of Hellish Rebuke myself if I didn’t get hit, and relied on the temporary HP from the infernal pact boon to compensate somewhat for the damage I would regularly deal to myself.

If it isn’t obvious, I was going through an emo phase when I made this character. I would absolutely play him again though, I think it would be fun to revisit the concept and revise it to make it a little less of a pure indulgence in angst and bring some actual nuance to the character. I’d want to do some exploration of his psyche, and actually acknowledge what a creep and a hypocrite he was.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I don't remember too much. It was around 2005 or so, I was in high school and a group of friends invited me to play Dungeons & Dragons. It was 3rd edition.

I made a half-elf ranger. My cognitive schemes of what was a game at the time were very much tied to games like Diablo, Final Fantasy and The Elder Scrolls. So I kept pestering my DM to get be able to tame a falcon and use him to attack in addition to my attacks. He kept telling me that I couldn't just outright request something to the DM. He eventually gave in and I got my falcon. Then a few sessions later, another player killed me out of spite. I was pretty pissed. Both parties were pretty bad (GM & the other players, me).

I shared that with my mathematics teacher. Told him I really enjoyed the game, but was frustrated by my experience and that video games were infinitely better. My teacher, who was an avid D&D player, asked me if I'd like to run a two-sessions adventure with him as a DM to give the game a chance. I accepted, and after class, he made me play D&D 2nd edition. I had a blast and it opened my eye to the beauty of TTRPGs and the collective imagination. That teacher was awesome.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My actual first character was some generic elf rogue with little personality beyond being mysterious and aloof.

My first memorable character was a tiefling infernal pact warlock named Pain. He had a human mother (this was 4e, where Tieflingness was a dominant trait) and an abusive father. His adventuring career started when his childhood friend, a half-elf (technically half-Eladrin) girl told him she knew a way to help him escape his father, by performing a ritual to beseech a fae entity for help. But, something went wrong and they accidentally contacted a fiend instead. It nearly escaped, but she saved Pain by sacrificing herself, binding Pain into a pact with the fiend. Pain ultimately blamed his father for her death (despite it pretty much being his own fault) and swore to use the powers his pact granted him to take revenge.

The DM wove the revenge subplot into the campaign really elegantly. At one point Pain ended up dying, and due to his pact his soul wasn’t free to be resurrected, but his patron agreed to let him be returned in exchange for swearing to kill his father. Which I at the time thought was an obvious win-win, since that was my primary motivation anyway. When we did eventually kill the character Pain had thought was his father, it turned out he actually wasn’t, at least not biologically speaking. He had married Pain’s mother and raised Pain as his own, but as it turned out, the real father was Asmodeus, and Pain’s patron was a rival archdevil trying to use Pain in a bid to take his throne.

Mechanically, Pain was a pretty straightforward 4e infernal pact warlock. My go-to attack was Hellish Rebuke, which for anyone not familiar with 4e was an at-will spell at the time. It was a Con-based attack vs Reflex that did 1d6+Con damage on a hit, and if you took damage before the end of your next turn, it dealt another 1d6+Con damage to the target. I favored spells that caused damage to me so I could trigger the extra damage of Hellish Rebuke myself if I didn’t get hit, and relied on the temporary HP from the infernal pact boon to compensate somewhat for the damage I would regularly deal to myself.

If it isn’t obvious, I was going through an emo phase when I made this character. I would absolutely play him again though, I think it would be fun to revisit the concept and revise it to make it a little less of a pure indulgence in angst and bring some actual nuance to the character. I’d want to do some exploration of his psyche, and actually acknowledge what a creep and a hypocrite he was.

Yeah gotta love the difference between such a character in different hands, even when it’s just the same player, but later in life.

I don't remember too much. It was around 2005 or so, I was in high school and a group of friends invited me to play Dungeons & Dragons. It was 3rd edition.

I made a half-elf ranger. My cognitive schemes of what was a game at the time were very much tied to games like Diablo, Final Fantasy and The Elder Scrolls. So I kept pestering my DM to get be able to tame a falcon and use him to attack in addition to my attacks. He kept telling me that I couldn't just outright request something to the DM. He eventually gave in and I got my falcon. Then a few sessions later, another player killed me out of spite. I was pretty pissed. Both parties were pretty bad (GM & the other players, me).

I shared that with my mathematics teacher. Told him I really enjoyed the game, but was frustrated by my experience and that video games were infinitely better. My teacher, who was an avid D&D player, asked me if I'd like to run a two-sessions adventure with him as a DM to give the game a chance. I accepted, and after class, he made me play D&D 2nd edition. I had a blast and it opened my eye to the beauty of TTRPGs and the collective imagination. That teacher was awesome.

Great teacher.

 

[David Howery]

Magic-User named Themyu - (I know, I know).

heh. Which brings up the question, "how did you name PCs back in the day?" I named a bunch of mine after characters in REH stories... I think I had three different fighters named Wulfhere. But I also plundered names from such places as a car (Saab), a rifle, (Hawken), and a musician (Zamfir)....

 

[ph0rk]

A wizard (magic user? I no longer recall if it was B/X or 2e) with 2 hit points. They were memorable because it took longer to roll them up than they actually survived.