The person on the paper. (Most memorable characters.)

[Dannyalcatraz]

...sitting down and picking out everything you want from 1st level to 20th is how some people play, but not me, I ,et the character become who they become...

My current playstyle is an amalgam.

I do sit down and plot the PC out a ways...but it's like having a plan for becoming an Astronaut when you're 14 years old. It's a plan, just a plan.

Over time, the PC may or may not do everything in that plan, based on what happens in the campaign...and yes, with other sourcebook releases for the game.

 

[El Mahdi]

...who are some of your most memorable character personalities, in terms of their backstory, how you roleplayed them, and how you built them in to suit their personality.

My most memorable is the one I took my screen name from - Mahdi ibn Assad Al'aif (El Mahdi), a Half-Elf Fighter/Ranger. He's also now known as El Mahdi Dragonbane - but that's a story for another time.

It was the very first character I made for the very first game of D&D I played. I was 26, stationed in England, and had never played RPG's before - though I was intrigued by the D&D books I saw in the base bookstore. I had never bought any of the books though since they all said "Advanced" D&D. I didn't want to jump into an "Advanced" RPG from the start (ironically this was one of the reasons given for dropping the Advanced part of the name when 3E was developed...) I overheard some of my coworkers talking about their weekly game and was interested, and they gladly recruited me when they saw my interest.

The group was already well into a campaign and in the middle of an adventure (Temple, Tower, and Tomb if I recall correctly). They were all about 8th level and needed a fighter type in the group, so since I was new, the group walked me through character creation and pretty much designed him by committee.

We decided on a Fighter as the group needed one and they knew it would be easiest for me to play. We decided on a Half-Elf for versatility. I had just (re)watched Highlander the day before, so decided I wanted a Katana. And Dune is my favorite book, so I picked El Mahdi as his name (it's the root that Herbert used for Muad'dib). Swear to god, I rolled an 18 (79) for Str. and an 18 for Dex. They said I should take Two Weapon Fighting as a non-weapon proficiency, and the group felt that Navigation and Seamanship might come in handy with the campaign they'd been playing.

After that I came up with his backstory (which was the part nobody expected - Man, I was born to play RPG's).

I asked for a crash course on the world, after which I came up with this:

His father was a Human Bedine (Ranger) from the Anauroch who's tribe was wiped out by the Zhents. He was found half-dead on the edge of the Anauroch and the Border Forrest by a young Wood Elf. She nursed him to health, and the two fell in love. Due to the loss of his tribe, and the love of the Elf maid, he was adopted by the Wood Elf tribe, and he in turn adopted them. Eventually El Mahdi was born, and the seer of the tribe prophecied that he would one day restore his fathers tribe (though that also foretold the destruction of the Wood Elf tribe, though they didn't know that at the time - and this played on the El Mahdi name).

For years they were happy and lived in peace, but when El Mahdi was twelve, the Zhents attacked and wiped out the Wood Elf tribe. El Mahdi's mother and father were both killed, and he was sold into slavery and bought as a cabin boy on a ship in the Sea of Fallen Stars (where he learned Navigation and Seamanship).

The captain of the vessel had a crazy idea of finding a water route to the Great Sea from the Sea of Fallen Stars. Many rivers, land crossings, and a new ship later, they were sailing upon the Great Sea - attempting to sail to Kara Tur. After rounding the exotic lands of Al Qadim (of which El Mahdi came in handy during port calls, as Bedine was intriguingly similiar to the language spoken by the desert nomads of Zakhara), they set sail for the Far East. During the voyage they partook in and survived many adventures - from corsairs to sea serpents - but they were no match for the typhoon that destroyed their ship.

El Mahdi was fortunate though (and likely the only member of the crew who was) as he held on to a piece of wreckage for dear life, and eventually (half starved, dehydrated, and delirious) washed up on a foriegn shore. He was found by a beautiful but exotic girl (Wa Human) of about the same age as he (El Mahdi was about 15 or 16 at this time). She took him back to her family's home, the oriental keep of a Wa Samurai, and nursed him back to health. The girl and her twin brother became his closest friends and he was eventually included as part of the family (El Mahdi and the girl eventually fell in love). The brother was being raised as a Samurai, and El Mahdi began training in the same skills. The son eventually grew into being a Samurai in his own right, and El Mahdi remained as a trusted friend and companion (though not a Samurai - by choice and due to being a foriegner).

When El Mahdi was about 20, their was a conflict between two rival Damiyos, one of which El Mahdi's friend and his father were retainers of. During the conflict that ensued, their Damiyo was killed along with the father of El Mahdi's friend. The family was also wiped out (including the daughter), and the castle burned to the ground. El Mahdi's friend insisted upon comitting seppuku, and enlisted El Mahdi to aid him (which he did).

Not being a Samurai or caring one whit about the code of Bushido, El Mahdi decided to take his friends Katana and exact revenge upon the rival Damiyo. He was successful in killing the Damiyo, took what gold he needed (a small fortune) from the Damiyo's coffers, and departed Wa to return to Faerun - heart broken and world weary.

After travelling on his own for many years he eventually found his way to the Dales, found a new group of friends (the other PC's), and began a new life of adventure.

But...in his heart, a fire has been building - a fire to return to the Border Forrest and the Anauroch, and restore his family's tribes (both Wood Elf and Bedine), and stop the Evil of the Zhentarim once and for all.




I've made dozens and dozens of characters since, but he's still my favorite.

You never forget your first.

 

[El Mahdi]

...Albino cybernetically enhanced "street samurai" who was also a biker slut...

That in and of itself deserved XP...I just have to spread some around yet.

 

[xigbar]

El Mahdi, that was Beautiful.

 

[El Mahdi]

...but do they have BLOWING UP A BRIDGE TWO HUNDRED FEET HIGH OVER SHARP ROCKS IMMUNITY?

Nope...

That right there deserves XP all by itself. Very Cool!

Unfortunately I've apparently already hooked you up recently also, so I have to spread some around first...

 

[Hexer]

Crogan, 3.5 fighter/order of the bow initiate
He was my very first char, widely designed with the help of more experienced friends without a lot of background. He was more of a "what kinda guy could be useful to the party?" type of char. Rather quiet guy in the background, great spotter and good medium distance combat archer (friends nicknamed him "shotgun")

Actually there was one event that made Crogan someone to be remembered:
The party were on their way through a forest at night to a Mages tower where we were supposed to get a special magic book. The DM made us all make a spot check. We had another human (Crogan was human, too), an elf, a drow and a Kobold in the party, so lots of people with night- or lowlight vision. None of them spotted anything.... As I said, Crogan was a very good spotter so with a really good roll and with boni and whatnot I scored something well above 30...

Since this day, everytime someone manages to do something epically good, someone will point and shout "THERE IS BLACK SMOKE IN THE NIGHTSKY!"

 

[jcbdragon]

After almost 30 years of gaming, there've been so many characters that I can't even remember them all. Sometimes I write full back-stories for them, other times I just whip them up for a specific gaming session or story arc.

Probably my all-time favorite character is an elven mage-thief named Kendax the Kind. I went through a phase with my characters where all of them were named "[name] the [adjective]" for some reason.

Kendax was anything BUT kind, but that was how he liked to portray himself -- the kindly old uncle, etc. He also kept his thieving abilities secret, only showing his "wizard face" to the public.

He was originally a stock character from a one-shot dungeon I played in. The DM let me roll for a familiar for him before the adventure started, and he ended up with a quasit: Belvedere. (Insert imitation of Loony Tunes "Oh, Belvedere... come here, boy!")

During the course of the adventure, the paladin in the party discovered Belvedere's true nature, and told Kendax point-blank that once the adventure was over, he would "deal with" Belvedere.

When the battle with the 'boss monster' was over, the paladin had one hit point left. He apparently died of his wounds during the night. What a shame, such a nice boy... but the adventure HAD ended the day before, after all! ;-)



Second would be Camilla, a female monk with a massive attitude. Everyone swore that her alignment wasn't Lawful Neutral, it was Lawful B*tchy (reflective of her less-than-stellar Charisma score)! For all her lack of personal skills, she wasn't stupid. Probably the best example of this would be the time there was an elemental guarding a passageway that we needed to go down. He kept insisting that "None may pass!"

I wish I had a picture of the DM's face when she smiled sweetly at him, said, "That's okay, I'm a nun," and scooted around the elemental before his brains could catch up with what she'd said.



The third one was a half-orc cleric. He actually had good Intelligence and Wisdom scores, but saw how people tended to assume that half-orcs were all just dumb brutes, so he played to that expectation. He would only speak Common and Orcish (although he understood other languages just fine) and always with a very thick accent, often deliberately misunderstanding things people said or asked him. The most common of these was when someone would ask him his name, he would usually reply that he was, "quite well, thank you" -- so that became his name.

His habit of "playing dumb" got him out of a couple of jams when dealing with official questions (guards, etc) about incidents he had plenty of information on, but wouldn't be to the party's benefit if the questioners found out.

He was always good about patching the party up, but if you'd gotten injured because you were stupid, you had to wait until last for your healing. He figured the pain might help you learn to do better next time.

 

[Dandu]

The two most memorable characters for me were Fistbeard Beardfist, dwarf brawler extraordinare and Iago the Hellfire Warlock, who was kind of like House in that he was an utter ass but also competent enough to make people put up with him.

 

[Bloodworm]

So far my most memorable character that i've ever made was a little girl named Roselin Gottschalk she was a human dread necromancer using a variant on the child rules. She was a little rich girl and always had her familys skeletons carry her around on a little carriage made for her so she would never have to touch the dirty ground. It brought around some interesting roleplaying opps when the dm starting bringing in characters that called my character fat in different ways (think glados from portal) because she never walked by herself

 

[MadLuke]

Biography of Windashes, Bedine barbarian (Forgotten Realms)

Cheremone grew up without parents in the village of Rab'adak, both had died of high fever when he was an infant. He had been brought by one of the sages of the tribe Goldor: Elder Musadari; he had cared for him as if he was really his son and made him grow strong and healthy without him never miss anything. Cheremone spent much of his time with the daughter of the village chief, was more than a few years younger than him and confided his innermost secrets, for months now Neom'erak was in love with a young man of his tribe, but his father , having in mind a marriage with someone more important, did not accept it and did everything in its power to prevent their meetings. Cheremone Aglavia harbored a deep affection for and how difficult it had been made to accommodate his wishes.
It was a few days to the wedding that the village chief Rahid had planned for his daughter, so Aglavia decided to escape to the mountains with the young boy he loved. Cheremone task was to distract the guards that surrounded the camp, allowing the two boys to escape. In truth, the plan was not well thought out and the three became joined by his research team that his father had arranged, the same night. The sentence which had to endure was terrible, the young boy was severely flogged the next day and Aglavia forced to remain in the tent until the wedding day. The sentence that was subject was discussed at length Cheremone for days until the night when Aglavia, realizing that he could no longer fulfill his dream he decided to take his own life. Stole "Istmeor": the ritual dagger of the tribe that his father, as head of the village passed down from generation to generation. The suicide of the young girl hopelessly complicated everything, luckily for him, the young man had already been whipped Neom'erak and was able to escape death because the law of the tribe would not allow a man could be tried twice for the same crime.
Instead of risking things turn for the worse for that day Cheremone expecting a trial, and was confined to the village could not be seen unless escorted by two guards when she visited the old Musadari. In the days immediately following the escape of the young, the elderly man was forced to stay in bed because of sudden and debilitating illness, many people began to think that for the elderly was time to rejoin the earth. It was finally issued the opinion that so appealed Cheremone condemned to execution by beheading, the village chief had identified the person to blame him for having organized the escape of his daughter Aglavia with the young, the flight that had subsequently led to suicide the same and for which we could not let it all pass without someone was executed. Beyond the formal charges that were moved during the council of elders, there was no plausible reason why you should empower Cheremone of the incident, the killing would not have revived the young and did not respond to any ideal of justice, but was the only initiative that Rahid think it was accurate, not to take his revenge, but only to cover the shame caused by the disobedience of his only daughter, because he would otherwise have to admit that the situation had got out of hand and that was wrong in not first to pay due attention to the demands of girl.
Musadari was now close to expiry, but this was not that worried him: had a long and satisfying life, he rode along with other great warriors fighting bravely Goldor whenever it was necessary, for years had joined council of the wise and become a reference point for all young people, his only regret was not to be able to hew out of the death his young wife several years before the plague, to be left alone and without a son to whom to transmit his knowledge. Cheremone adopted and now in the young crop at his bedside saw his descent, he who in all the years together he never stopped learning, to build on the recommendations of the elderly guardian, was now condemned to death by the tribal council and this troubled him terribly. Only the last wish of an old man destined to die could save him, and he did. Musadari finally asked it to be granted to the young man saves his life as an act of clemency towards the boy, and above all grateful to him, including the head of the entire council had to accept that final against their request and was then ordered to leave the Cheremone ' Rab'adak camp for not being able to go back again. Only far away from the procession could attend the funeral of beloved adoptive father and from that time would no longer be part of the tribe of Goldor. It was no longer one of them, from that moment it was only ashes in the wind. Windashes.


The new "non-life"

Windashes no longer belongs to the world in his heart he is already dead, killed by the pettiness and hypocrisy of men. Nevertheless suffers the death of the young Aglavia which still feels guilty for not being able to escape as they were proposed or maybe for working with their insane plan, perhaps for not having personally addressed to the head which now feeds Rahid more complete contempt.
Neom'erak, the young suitor who longs for the heart of Aglavia's days are numbered now: the fact that it escaped being convicted of the Board of little importance. At best it will push to all the bloodiest battles until a violent death does not arise. Otherwise it might even be killed in cold blood, possibly through Istmeor, the dagger of tribal rites, having been cursed weapon now because of the death of one of the descendants. Difficult to predict that they will meet again in this life.
In a world swept by violence, as well as the desert is swept by dust storms, it is difficult to keep the faith. Windashes maintains her honor intact, the only thing, along with the memory of his father Musadari, which still binds to its previous life, but in his heart Please Talos because all the terrible ruin and reduce dust, including himself.

After having wandered aimlessly, Windashes Daggerford reached. The anonymous mining community on the Sword Coast could not be better shelter. In a gray atmosphere, marked by shifts of work in the mines, the young man cultivates his detachment from the everyday world. Its strength is highly popular in the manual work harder, and when the incursions of the savage humanoids, the call to join the town militia. Thus, in this monotonous survive Windashes collects the little money they need, until that physical death occurs.

In the small village Windashes has no friend, although many will appreciate and esteem, he does not like to talk with anyone and merely because he is ordered to perform mechanically. The late and beloved father follows her every day and guide his every gesture, is convinced of this but nothing and no one seems able to spur from his indolence, to the rescue.