The "non cliche" DnD thread

[KenM]

OK, been reading the "what DnD cliches are you sick of" thread. That got me thinking. Post your orginal, non cliche DnD characters/ situations. This is to help people think of orginal stuff. I'll start with a dwarf fighter i'm playing. He has a "thing" for female elves. This was before I found out about Gimli in LotR.

 

[Turjan]

Bah, women without beard ! That's not original, that's obscene!

 

[Chroma]

The paladin in our party...

...is a nice guy...

He's friendly, good-natured, compasionate, takes care of orphans in his off-duty time and has even influenced other PCs to change their alignments towards Lawful Good because of his sterling example.

How's that for an "anti"-paladin? *laugh*

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Not unique but something of a twist: I play a necromancer who hates undead. He views them as an abomination and a sin against the sanctity of "True Death." He uses all kinds of necromantic spells, but never animate dead or anything like that. He is a cleric 6/wiz (necro specialist) 3, and he turns undead instead of rebuking them.

The main city in the campaign I DM is completely cosmopolitan and non-racist, meaning that there is a gnoll on the Longtable (city council), the chief of the Sewerworkers guild is an intelligent gelatinous cube, and the most celebrated bard of the region is a goblin. Again, not totally unique, but definitely different from the DMG's racial mix tables and certainly different from LotR "racism." (Not meaning to be negative about LotR, overall it's great stuff.)

Also, in the next city campaign I play in, I am going to play a druid capitalist who runs a business empire of city parks.

 

[shilsen]

Last PC I played before I started DM-ing again was a LN elf scout in a Greyhawk (RttToEE campaign). He was neither the typical elf, nor totally atypical (which is just as much of a cliche now, IMO). As he said once when an NPC automatically assumed he would help her because she was elven, "I'm only elven where I choose to be." He was extremely fond of literature and poetry, but not particularly good at singing or dancing himself. He was a teetotaller, and about as non-vegetarian as you could be. He was bisexual, but almost totally celibate. Was an ex-teacher of literature, ex-soldier, ex-bounty hunter, and quite a reluctant adventurer, saving the world for nobody's benefit but because he quite liked it and wanted to see more of it. Planned to retire after saving the world, but his home was destroyed and his family missing (probably enslaved), so last we saw of him he sighed and headed off to take on an orcish empire. Just a nice, normal everyday guy, whose only abnormality was his insane amount of self-sufficiency, mentally and emotionally. Only character I've ever based almost totally on myself, and was a blast to play.

 

[Volaran]

The character I'm planning on playing for the campaign my regular DM is starting up next month is going to be a bald, shaved, dwarven sorceror.

His original story isn't so unique. He's going to have been a former fighter (and his first level is in that class) and a middle aged former officer in the dwarven military. An attack by powerful otherworldly creatures left his clan dead and him badly energy drained, but awoke within him burning, painful feelings in his veins.

He's shaved his hair and beard off in a ritual forsaking clan and honor to mark his quest for redemption. Along with the other characters, we'll be in a sort of fantasy equivilent of the Foreign Legion. Everyone from different backrounds, exiled for one reason of another.

He's not exactly a charismatic fellow. My DM is fond of Hammer and Helm, so he allowed me the Stoneborn Sorcery feat, which makes Con the sorceror's spellcasting stat, but prevents the learning of Enchantment magic.

I rather liked the idea of a clean shaven, subdued dwarven character rather than the typical bold variety. Also, given that in previous campaigns in his world I'd never even heard of a dwarven arcane caster, I expect to take many foes by suprise.

 

[ConnorSB]

The PCs in my game are pretty a-typical. Two elven rogues that dont like nature and are totally w/o morals, an Orc rogue/fighter who swashbuckles and steals with abandon, a kobold cleric who worships a giant beetle god, and a female dwarven fighter...

 

[Viehl]

Some non-cliché character concepts I'd like to see:


Elven females who aren't beautiful and intelligent. Where's the female elven ranger with INT 7 and CHA 6?

An orc-hating ranger who kills goblinoids because he thinks it's fun, and NOT because his whole family was slaughtered by orcs when he was a child.

A dwarf who isn't a 4-foot tall Viking.

A paladin who willingly becomes Fallen because he stops believing in the Lawful Good ideals. This will probably never happen, since few players willingly give up their Kewl Powerz, whether it fits the characters personality or not.

A bard who isn't a thieving trickster.

A cleric who refuses to heal fellow party members if their actions grossly violate the teachings of his religion.



-V

 

[Tonguez]

The PCs in my game are pretty a-typical. Two elven rogues that dont like nature and are totally w/o morals,

Since when do elves have any morals anyway?

And yeah gimme more ugly elves!

One of my favourite campaigns had the PCs as members of a travelling Circus (with not a bard amongst them) - my character was Orbril the gnome acrobat and FX specialist.

A setting with no humans would be atypical

hey and hows this for a brainwave - a good drow ranger!

 

[Silver Moon]

Well, I'll nominate my entire Boot Hill/AD&D hybrid western campaign, as the Native American/Irish female half-elf druid/bard is quite unique, as well as the half-orc fighter/rogue Chinaman, and the centaur Paladin.

In our regular campaign we have a number of non-cliche characters, including:

A middle-aged one-eyed gnome rogue who operates the main tavern but also adventures with the group from time to time.

A human druid who has now been with them for 12 years, who originally was a flower child from 1967 San Francisco.

A female human with ten children who is a regular Mary Sunshine until monsters show up and she becomes a beserker with her "hobgoblin killer" longsword.

An effiminate and rather flamboyant bugbear.

A functional "adventurers school", currently training two separate teams of children.