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<blockquote data-quote="procproc" data-source="post: 7005122" data-attributes="member: 6791328">My approach is different from the others mentioned so far. I find some game mechanical element that I like, and think of an interesting twist on it that still works.For example, the last character I played was a fiend pact warlock. But instead of being a Faust-style person seeking power, he was someone who'd been captured and had a demon infused into him in preparation to ritually release it into the world, but who then escaped before he could be sacrificed. So mechanically he was a warlock, but the &quot;pact&quot; had a very different flavor to it.Another character -- also a warlock -- was a dwarven rifleman. The &quot;rifle&quot; was just an arcane implement -- either staff or wand would work -- and Eldritch Blast was the rifle shot. It took years of training to be able to shoot the rifle, so most people couldn't just pick it up and shoot it. The pact element of the class didn't work very well with the flavor, so I picked a mechanical benefit and we basically just hand-waved the rest of it aside, since it's essentially a flavor restriction anyway.Yet another character was a warforged wizard in a non-Eberron game. I decided I liked the idea of a machine trying to accumulate knowledge, so we agreed that a powerful wizard had made a handful of us and sent us out to collect arcane knowledge. There the restriction was really &quot;why is this race in the world at all?&quot;So I guess for me, there's something appealing about taking a character that shouldn't work, mechanically or flavor-wise, and finding an explanation that makes it reasonable.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="procproc, post: 7005122, member: 6791328"] My approach is different from the others mentioned so far. I find some game mechanical element that I like, and think of an interesting twist on it that still works. For example, the last character I played was a fiend pact warlock. But instead of being a Faust-style person seeking power, he was someone who'd been captured and had a demon infused into him in preparation to ritually release it into the world, but who then escaped before he could be sacrificed. So mechanically he was a warlock, but the "pact" had a very different flavor to it. Another character -- also a warlock -- was a dwarven rifleman. The "rifle" was just an arcane implement -- either staff or wand would work -- and Eldritch Blast was the rifle shot. It took years of training to be able to shoot the rifle, so most people couldn't just pick it up and shoot it. The pact element of the class didn't work very well with the flavor, so I picked a mechanical benefit and we basically just hand-waved the rest of it aside, since it's essentially a flavor restriction anyway. Yet another character was a warforged wizard in a non-Eberron game. I decided I liked the idea of a machine trying to accumulate knowledge, so we agreed that a powerful wizard had made a handful of us and sent us out to collect arcane knowledge. There the restriction was really "why is this race in the world at all?" So I guess for me, there's something appealing about taking a character that shouldn't work, mechanically or flavor-wise, and finding an explanation that makes it reasonable. [/QUOTE]

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