D&D 5E Help with a personality

[Lanliss]

I am playing in a PotA game soon, and am having some trouble getting a good personality for my character. I will be a fire Genasi monk, with the sage background.

He was taken to the plane of Fire as a child, and was raised there by his Efreet father. He was traveling as a teenager at one point when he managed to slip through a portal into our world. Stranded in a snowy pass, he was found by a nearby monastery. One of the monks there knew Primordial, having come into contact with many elementals during his time as a Way of the Elements monk. The friendly man taught my Genasi, Tahr, how to speak common. Over time Tahr has found that his natural resilience, from being raised on the Plane of Fire, translates well to being a guide for the monastery. He is basically their field work guy, and is the first to be sent off in search of a rare component, or piece of knowledge. He is on one such adventure now, chasing down a slippery bit of information about a rogue elemental for his old teacher. He believes that the stars hold the secret to finding his way home, so he works as an astronomer.

I know he will lean more towards the arrogant side of being a Genasi, and does not believe in leaving to other what he can do himself. Other than that, how can I play him to be interesting?

 

[Curmudjinn]

Play into his background information. That, first and foremost, will personify your character better than anything else I can say(type?). Use it, add subgoals and traits to the entries of his background, to round out each facet. Make sure you are diligently/aggressively playing it and pursuing those goals, because if you do, that will give him that determined, arrogant facade.

All decisions should, in some way he convinces himself, be a stepping stone towards finding a way home. That will grant him unique personality.

Also, being aggressive in that pursuit will make it harder for you to be bored of the character, as you are perpetually planning. The more you are invested in him as a player is more important for the character as a whole, than just giving him personality.

 

[Lanliss]

I should note, my stats are boringly average, with a +0 in INT and STR, -1 in CHA, and +2 in everything else. If I had anything that really stood out I could focused on that, but all I get from looking at the stats is that the guy is average.

 

[Unwise]

Ouch, Monk is a very stat dependent class, those stats are not ideal for the class, but I am sure you knew that.

What was his father like? Is he an efreeti merchant trying to amass gold? A lawful cop? a slaver trader? I think that will largely influence your character. Does he want to go home and make his father proud? If so, does he need to come back with riches? Tales? Prestige?

How does he feel about his human heritage? Would he prefer to be more like his Efreeti father? Without spoiling, there are some good opportunities for a genasi to change their nature to become more elemental and less human in PotA.

Personally, I would play him at odds with his life path as a monk. His order is patient, fairly peaceful, unemotive and seldom rash. He is quiet the opposite. He is infuriated by their inaction, wants to act without thinking it through and tends toward violence as a first resort. I rather like the idea of a guy that really has trouble meditating and being at peace, the only time he really feels peace is in combat throwing around fire attacks. He knows that is a weakness though, so fights against it. I never thought I would say this, but Anakin from the prequels could be a good basis.

 

[Lanliss]

Well, the wis and dex are both 15, so I will be jumping them both to +3 at 4th level. I have not thought much about his relationship with his father. Thinking that maybe Tahr was only brought to the plane of Fire because his father didn't want his bloodline tainted by contact with average folk. His father deals with a small handful of the most powerful people, and does not consider his bloodline so low as to mix with any others. However, once he got his son to the city of brass, he left his son to basically fend for himself, as a halfbreed. I just need to decide if he hates his father, and wants to be nothing like him, or hungers for his attention. I think he enjoys the company of the monks, so maybe the first of the two. He wants to explore more of his human side, with all of the weaknesses that entails, as opposed to his Efreeti side.

EDIT: edited for clarity in one sentence.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

He IS Spock; but BELIEVES himself to be Kirk.

 

[Shiroiken]

I would have him be supremely confident. Not cocky or arrogant, but simply bold... at least until he gets his butt handed to him. Once the rest of the party has to bail him out, he might slowly realize the value of the "lesser" beings.

 

[ccs]

I should note, my stats are boringly average, with a +0 in INT and STR, -1 in CHA, and +2 in everything else. If I had anything that really stood out I could focused on that, but all I get from looking at the stats is that the guy is average.

YOU know that. Tahr on the other hand does not. Or simply doesn't admit it.