D&D General Your favorite character experience?

[Burnside]

Professor Carson Allerdyce, anthropologist, college of New Olamn.

Half-elf lore bard, Tomb of Annihilation campaign. A bit like the David Tennant Doctor Who and a bit like Fitz from Agents of SHIELD. He got to say, "Stand back, I'm an anthropologist" a lot. Was very much a professor/lore master first and a musician second - I didn't lean much into the "entertainer" aspect of bards at all. Had never killed anyone before arriving in Chult.

Very fun and versatile character - mechanically, so many levers to pull and always felt like he could contribute to every situation in some way.

TPKed at level 10 at the very bottom of the Tomb of the Nine Gods, but he did get to stab Acererak twice with a dagger +1, which probably not many D&D characters could say.

 

[Stalker0]

His name…was Tanus Sane.

he was an Oathsworn, a class from the monte cook Arcana Evolved alternate 3e rule set. Basically a monk that traded offense for various immunities.

the game was ravenloft. Because my character was super fast and was immune from fatigue, I could run forever. And so against all the terrifying threats of ravenloft, I was able to escape. And so as my fellows died one by one, I alone kept going.

Eventually I was 4 levels higher than the rest of the party because the dm would bring in new characters 1 level lower than the lowest party member.

funny enough, I was considered garbage in combat, I couldn’t hit much and I didn’t do a lot of damage. But I was called “cinematically overpowered” because my immunities allowed me to go places the party could not, and survive encounters they could not. Also because I had survived the whole time I was involved in the plot in a way that the newer characters had to work to get involved with.

I remember one fight was against a practically invincible opponent, but I kept the whole group alive by being a pack mule, literally picking up characters and moving them outside the monsters speed, while they skirmished the monster.

it was the game that taught me powerful speed can be if you let it. My best and most well known character of all time.

 

[ShadowofNarcissus]

My favorite character experience was in 2E. I had a stwinger (a kind of fey creature) mage/thief as a character. He collected a lot of explosives and flammable chemicals. DM signed off on his collection...then forgot I was collecting. Fast forward about a week. Party encounters a powerful lich. Lich is wearing a crown (his phylactery) and making a nuisance of himself.

My character walks into the lich's lair and starts smarting off to the lich (mind you...this was my character's plan...he was trying to provoke the lich and sacrifice himself to save the party). The lich gets really angry and fireballs my character. Unfortunately for the lich my character had enough explosives on him to light up the whole dungeon. Sure enough...BOOM.

My character dies, the lich dies, the lich's phylactery is destroyed, and the party is saved. A memorial is erected in my character's honor and his race begins worshipping him as a God of Boom.

 

[Shiroiken]

Quillian Al'Rey, noble sun elf archmage

Born to the disgraced House Al'Rey on Evermeet, his family had fallen into disgrace. His father was a high mage and his mother a renown druid, but his older brother and sister helped a renegade elf attack the island. They fled when the attack failed, and he vowed to hunt them down and bring them to justice. He met up with several companions on the mainland, and began his search.

We found that my sibilings had allied with a clan of Fay'ri, the daemonfey, who had a lair in Ardent Forest. Our first foray ended badly, with us captured and one of our group horribly tortured. Turns out he was destined for greatness, and they wanted to find out what it was (he didn't know either). We were rescued by Harper agents, who were also looking for him, and we began his trek, while we sought magical power to overcome the Fay'ri. I thought I found it, as we began to oppose the Shadowvar, magic users that draw power from the Shadoweave, rather than the Weave. They came to me, and offered me this power, which would allow me to overcome the Fay'ri. Probably the only time I was actually tempted as a player, and it was hard, but I turned it down, since I'd have to betray my best friend to gain it (the Chosen PC from earlier). We eventually overcame both, but at great cost. I had to kill my brother's Fay'ri daughter, since the BBEG was using her as a shield.

We stopped teh Fay'ri, and saved the North from the Shadowvar. Probably the best campaign I'd ever played in

 

[Mad_Jack]

Hard to decide which characters have been my favorites, but the one that's gotten the most positive feedback from other players (I've had folks ask me to play him in their campaigns based on the war stories I've told) is Ripper, the halfling thief.

Back in college, I wandered into the cafeteria to find some folks playing a game - it was the old module where the Circle of Eight have all disappeared or been murdered or something like that and the party are supposed to be their underlings trying to find out what happened (or however that went). Anyway, they offered to let me jump in, and I got handed a pregen halfling thief with a pretty serious magic dagger and a ring of jumping. I forget what the character's name was.
I think the DM had modified the adventure a bit, because at one point we ended up trapped in a burning tavern with a bunch of robed and hooded guys outside trying to keep us from escaping. There were a handful of the guys in the tavern with us (yeah, their buddies were perfectly okay with sacrificing them to get us...), and I managed to backstab a couple of them by crawling under the tables and getting behind them. (The DM was pretty lenient with the backstab rules.) Then I got up onto a table and used the ring of jumping to land on some guy's back halfway across the room. The Dm ruled that a halfling flying more than twenty feet across a room to land on your back and try to slice your throat counts as a viable backstab, lol.
Despite thieves being crap in combat back in the 1e/2e days, I managed to take out a small handful of them by myself. When the last few guys inside were getting wiped up by the rest of the party, I grabbed some of the torches they'd tossed in through the widows and tossed them back out.
But we were still going to end up toasted since we couldn't get out and the walls were on fire.
So I did something that shocked the entire table.
I launched myself out through one of the windows and charged the guys out in the street, screaming like a demonically-possessed badger. I'd already tossed some burning oil out the windows at the start of the fight, and used the ring of jumping to constantly switch positions, leaping back and forth over the oil so they couldn't gang up on me. I was bouncing around like Belkar from OOTS, screaming and taunting everyone and trying to get them to come after me. One of the party's fighters had followed me out the window, convinced I was going to get myself killed. Between the two of us, we managed to clear out enough space to let the rest of the party fight their way out.

For the rest of that adventure, I played that halfling thief completely against type, doing all sorts of outrageous things that people weren't expecting. The jumping backstab became my trademark move.

When I got into a 2E game later on and managed to roll both high Str and max Dex (as well as a fairly high Int) on my character, I decided to resurrect the halfling...
He was now Ripper, the halfling fighter/thief - the largest halfling anyone had ever seen, muscled like a pro wrestler, and often mistaken for a small dwarf at a distance.
He had huge muttonchops and a personality three times his size. He was a charming ladies' man, he drank and swore like a dwarf, he had no problem picking a fight with anyone, and he'd often pass the time singing Orcish drinking songs to the tune of Elvish love ballads and Elven love ballads to the tune of Orcish drinking songs at the top of his lungs. He wrote poetry and spoke six languages. He was also a clever and devious bastard.
I found him a ring of jumping and some magic daggers as quickly as I could, and making a flying leap onto a target's back, wrapping his legs around their chest to hold on and cutting their throat with dual-wielded daggers was his signature move.
Rather amusingly, however, one of his first magic items was a set of gauntlets of ogre power...
People would stare at the sight of a halfling walking down the street with a bastard sword slung over his shoulder, and bristling with daggers all over. There weren't any weapon restrictions on backstabbing back then and because he had to wield it two-handed since he was small he did some serious damage with it.

Whenever I played him from then on, I always made sure to acquire his ring and gauntlets as soon as I could, and always armed him with a ton of daggers and that bastard sword. (Sometimes the DMs I played under would just up and give me those items just to see Ripper in full effect). In one 3.5 game he was fighting an ogre once when I got annoyed at some bad dice rolls. So he dropped the bastard sword and started punching the ogre in the kneecaps until it fell over, then stood on its chest and proceeded to pimpslap it to death. In another, he used the ring to jump off the walkway of a high castle wall, sailing out into midair several stories up and using the momentum to land on a distant guard below.

Ripper is basically an in-game manifestation of my id, with almost no superego to overrule his impulses. When I play him, I'm constantly looking for opportunities to let his personality, flair and cleverness generate entertainment for the rest of the party and set up opportunities for them to step into the spotlight.

 

[James Gasik]

X'ellisar Laeralagos (or "Zelis") was a High Elf from a prestigious family of arcane casters. Having middling to no talent for magic, he left his homeland and began wandering in the lands of the other races. One night, he was accosted by bandits, and was stabbed and left for dead. A human priestess of the Goddess of Magic found him and nursed him back to health, and he discovered the faith of this foreign deity.

He became first a lay worshipper, then an acolyte, and through his growing faith, he was able to wield magic in a way he'd never thought possible. Unfortunately, delving into the archives of the Church, he discovered evidence that the Goddess was actually an Elven deity who was now being worshipped by a different name. When he brought this to the attention of his fellows, the Bishop branded him a heretic and he was cast out. Receiving a vision from the Goddess, asking him to spread the truth of her faith far and wide, he has so far eluded the inquisitors of the church by disguising himself as a regular adventurer.

One of the more memorable tenets of his faith is that the blessings of the Goddess are not free- those who benefit are asked to tithe, no more than they can afford. According to her teachings, this is to prevent people from foolishly risking life and limb, knowing that they can just ask the Gods to heal them. So it's basically an incentive to be wiser and more cautious.

Zelis's allies had mixed reactions about him charging for healing, even though he kept the money in a separate pouch, and the instant he found a church or shrine of his Goddess (or an allied deity), he would immediately donate the accrued monies and personally tithe as well.

The party Rogue was adamant that it was unfair that he be charged for healing (even though Zelis was happy to accept small amounts of coin as a token payment) and once tried to rob him- everyone was quite surprised when he was struck by lightning the instant he took the pouch from the Cleric! On the other hand, the party's Barbarian brokered a deal where he got free heals for being the Cleric's "bodyguard".

 

[Lycurgon]

My favourite character is my Goblin character, that I have played since 1st level and is now at 20th. We have been playing for the past 3 years, but the game is on hiatus until Covid numbers are lower here and it is safer so we can play in person again. Then we will finish our last adventure, preparing and have the final showdown against a God.

Funnily enough this character didn't start as my character. In our first session of the campaign we came upon a small Goblin Fort in the middle of the road. We killed some of them and then accepted their surrender. I loved the DMs portrayal of their leader, Dib. I hadn't really gotten into my Dwarven Barbarian character much. I work with the DM and we spent our lunchtimes together and talked between games. After some discussion we agreed that I would take over the captive Goblin and retire my Dwarf character.
I was allowed to choose any class and picked Celestial Warlock, working out with the DM that because I was claiming to be a Good Goblin so the PCs wouldn't kill me, I was visited in the night by a Ki-rin that offered me spell power if I agreed to continue to be a Good Goblin. Terrified of the big impressive creature, Dib agreed and became a Celestial Warlock and started a path to become a force for goodness.

To start with Dib had little understanding of what doing good was. He soon realised the difference between bandits and Adventurers was that Adventurers travelled around more, but they both killed people to take their stuff. But slowly he learned and become a good goblin like he had claimed.

Dib has good Int but low Wis, leading to unwise behavior. Dib talks about himself in 3rd person with broken common, although it has got better over time. He likes pillows and was always upgrading or collecting more. He developed a big ego and became over confidant, but hates pain and would always stay away from enemies, disengaging and fleeing any that get near him. He thinks he has a strong mind, despite having a low Wis Save.

Having been kicked out of his Tribe by the Chieften for disagreeing on what the Tribe should do, he went and conquered his Tribe with the help of the party. He then (during time away from the party) conquered more Goblin Tribes and occupied a Fort we had cleared out of bandits. I made deals with a nearby noble we had previously helped and began trading with them, and making deals to protect the area, shaping the Tribe into a group for good.

While on a brief trip to the faewild Dib made some deals with Fae Frost goblins, selling his hair colour, making it transparent, then agreeing give every 4th child born in the Tribe to the Frost goblins but only if we allies with their Tribe in exchange for a magic items and power.

Later he found the Goblin King of the Feywild had stolen my entire Tribe and the Fort they lived in and taken it to the faewild. So the party, who all ended up with reasons to go to the faewild helped kill the Goblin King and reclaim my Tribe, but I also claimed the crown and became the Goblin King of the Faewild. We ended up staying in the faewild for a fair while dealing with a lot of problems and making alliances.

The character and his interesting mannerisms, querky personality and journey of self discovery has been great fun to roleplay. I haven't had as much fun with any other characters in my 40 odd years of gaming.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

This happens something like 30 years ago. Yet, since I keep thinking about it on and off since then, it must rank rather high in my list of memorable (character) experiences.

In a somewhat mid-level D&D group, our party was caught in some real pickle, the details of which I can't recall. My wizard (a gnome illusionist) was the proud owner of a ring that allowed him to conjure a Djinn which would grant up to three wishes. So, to save the group, I hastily rubbed the ring on my finger (as, obviously that was how you activated it) and the Djinn popped out.
"Quickly, get us out of here", I demanded urgently.
"Pluralist majestatis, sir?", the Djinn inquired in return.
"What? Sure, what ever, just get us out right now".
Aaaaand...poof, I disappeared. I. Just me. Nobody else.

The DM of the game was one of the best RPers I ever had the pleasure of playing with (he later went on to become an actor and shared a stage with one Hugo Weaving, before he became way too famous). And he played the "Careful what you wish for" card hard.
I learned two things: My Latin was clearly even worse then my already crap grades suggested. And "out" isn't the same as "safe".

Edit: boy did I miss the topic of this thread by a mile...apologies.