Your favorite PC! I need inspiration...

[Stegger]

Hi,
I am about to make up a new character, probably 1st level, and would like to see what other people here at ENworld have as their favorite PC.
I am interested in your choice of race, class, feats etc but also, if possible, background stories of the character as well as hints as to why you made that character and what you like about it when playing him/her/it.....!
I am most likely going to playing in a Forgotten Realms campaign myself and as the title says, I am in need of some inspiration.

Thank you very much in advance,
Stegger

 

[Turanil]

As far as I am concerned, I don't like to create "adventurers". My current NPC began as a Ranger 1 / Fighter 1. I depicted him as a sort of scottish clansman and leatherworker by profession. He is used to supplement his living in hunting animals in the wilderness, and also was a member of the village's militia against marauding goblins. When he began, I played him as someone drawn to "adventures" by the circumstances, not for seeking an adventuring life. When entering a tomb and seeing zombies and such, I played him abashed and horrified to discover that such kind of things could exist.

 

[The_Universe]

I deeply enjoy playing some of the races against type, or to type but in a subtly different way.

Try a dwarven monk who aims to become a drunken master (a great idea I've only played once).

Another favorite concept of mine is the half orc (or half ogre, if they're allowed) Paladin. It takes some careful min/maxing to make the numbers fit into a useable character at times, but playing a warrior type fits the race, and you're not doing the cliched barely civilized barbarian.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

How about a Kobold striving to become a great Lich, but is just far too kindhearted and clumsy to pull it off. Also a bit of an ego problem.

 

[TracerBullet42]

I once played one half of a set of twin halflings. He was technically a rogue (and eventually became a Master Chef PrC), but I always thought of him as a cook. He was incredibly naive and gullible (represented by a WIS of 5)

A blast to play. Just imagine yourself as a six year old, and you're in character...with all the wonder and fun that goes with it...

He and his brother were motivated to make their names known by opening the greatest restaurant/inn/night club in the land...(something they still might do someday...)

Anyway, hope that's some help!

 

[Stormborn]

My first PC, and still favorite PC, was a half-elf Sorcerer named Grayalyn Stormborn. He was the child of a male human fighter and an female elf sorcerer who had adventured together. He had been fostered to a human wizard and former adventuring partner of his father for many years, before his elven grandmother showed up and demanded his return. He then spent the next several years among an elven mageocracy, where as a half-breed he was a second class citizen even though his grandmother was on the ruling council. He slipped away as soon as was old enough, going back to the only life he knew anything about beyond the elven forests: adventuring.

His big weakness was women. Partially that was becuase the DM liked powerful female characters, but partly because of my own inclinations and Grayl's 18 CHA. That got him into trouble more than once. His misadventures with women were one of his defining characteristics, and part of the reason I enjoyed playing him. He was a lot bolder with women than I had been most of my life, and untold levels more succesful, usually to his adn the rest of the parties chagrin.

His other defingin quality was his genral attitude toward the gods. As he once stated to an NPC Cleric: "Fear the Gods? Yes, I fear the gods...I fear my grandmother too, but you don't see me praying to a statue of her now do you?" For a while I also played a second character to help round out the group when we had some one drop out on us. She was a halfling rogue and very devout, I played them off one another, even though they were best friends.


We only played those character up to a few levels, but eventually he was going to go off in search of his true heritage, seeking the dragon that had founded the elven Storm clan.

IIRC, I think I took Improved Initative,but if I was recreatign him I would either go with Weapon Focus(ray) or if the DM allowed material from Dragon, one of my own Arcane Ancesty Bloodline feats. While the Dragonbloodline fits the existing character, I probablly would go with Air to reflect the thematic nature of his spells.

How much tweaking are you allowed? I have always thought that playing a typically evil race seekign redemption would be fun. If creating a second level character you could try a Rouge/Paladin Goblin who had been spared by the forces of light and now seeks to find peace from his past evils, and maybe even symbolically redeem his people.

 

[Stegger]

thanks for all the reply so far!

To stormborn: I am probably allowed to just about anything, I just have to take the consequences in-game.... of course.
a Rouge/Paladin Goblin does sound like a possibility
Stegger

 

[Droid101]

Hi,
I am about to make up a new character, probably 1st level, and would like to see what other people here at ENworld have as their favorite PC.

Enzonito the Black. Started as a 1st level Bounty Hunter Thief kit (2nd ed). He used a katana and bolas. Wore a mask and, well, bounty hunted! Once he obtained a relic blade of incredible power, he changed his name to Enzonito the Great. Once that campaign petered out at 10th level, I extrapolated him out to 40th level, 20 rogue/20 monk. That relic blade gave him eternal life, so after living a few hundred years, he became Enzonito the Anicent.

Good times.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Hi,
I am about to make up a new character, probably 1st level, and would like to see what other people here at ENworld have as their favorite PC.
I am interested in your choice of race, class, feats etc but also, if possible, background stories of the character as well as hints as to why you made that character and what you like about it when playing him/her/it.....!
I am most likely going to playing in a Forgotten Realms campaign myself and as the title says, I am in need of some inspiration.

Thank you very much in advance,
Stegger

My last two favorite characters were based on archetypes that 3.0 didn't do well; one was under 3.5 rules, the other under Modern rules.

I created a human 3.5 ranger named Jander, and he was supposed to be an arctic hunter. The DM had created a very interesting desert world, however, which I somehow missed out on despite the numerous more-than-hints, so I switched at the last minute to a desert hunter. Nonetheless I was very happy that I could play a ranger who didn't suck. I had the skill points I needed (human, Int 12, base 6 sp/level) and didn't have any TWF/Drizzt baggage. The lower hit points didn't bother me one iota; he never lost consciousness, either.

His name is based on a ranger from the Hero's Lorebook - Lander. The similarity to the name Jander Sunstar (an elven vampire) is pure coincidence. The DM says he likes the name; I wonder if he's familiar with either of those two characters. He was nicknamed "the Terminator" based on my evil copy (long story) slaughtering half the party (again, long story). Of course, the terrain was set up to help him out, but even so he was once forced into melee against a paladin... and he wasn't built for melee.

His favored enemy: animals. It actually came in handy, once, though in the long run it would have been better if I had chosen vermin.

I started off with Weapon Finesse and Point Blank Shot. That was a mistake. I should have switched Weapon Finesse with Precise Shot, then taken Weapon Finesse at 3rd-level. It does cause me to wonder what an elven ranger is supposed to do with his first two levels, seeing how he can't take Precise Shot. He carries a short sword, two shortspears and a longbow. I really need to switch that short sword with a hand-axe. At one point he was carrying 200 arrows Of course, my camel was carrying 150 of them. Come to think about it, a camel is handy in a fight... it can set up flanking. No, really. At 4th-level I had a ranged attack bonus of +9 (Dex 16, BAB +4, mastercraft bow) and I'm not sure where I got the other +1 bonus from. Maybe I'm just thinking about Point Blank Shot. In any event, only one other fighting character could match my attack bonus

He started off as a simple desert hunter who had been hired to help protect a caravan... the got sucked into a conflict that shaped the relationship between humans and elves.

My other favorite character was in D20 Modern. I wanted to play a martial artist who wasn't a wimp, so obviously I couldn't use the DnD version We started at 1st-level and I put my first level into Strong. That let me have a BAB +1, which let me take Combat Martial Arts and Weapon Finesse at 1st-level. I also had Archaic Weapons Proficiency from my Athlete occupation, but I chose that occupation for the skills, not the feats. (Strong heroes don't have skills that are appropriate for martial artists, other than Climb and Jump, IMO.)

I took my next three levels in Fast, then two in Martial Artist before the GM had to leave for the summer, and I ended up with a very good Defense bonus. Plus I had Defensive Martial Arts. With my attack bonus of ... +9 (what is with that bonus?) I usually only needed to roll a 12 or 13 to hit my opponent, and had the highest attack bonus in the party. (In Modern, hitting doesn't come easy.) Plus, with my high Defense bonus I wasn't afraid to melee with anything that didn't have a gaze attack. (I had the highest Defense bonus in the party too... well, I tied with someone else but she had to wear an Undercover Vest to match me, and I only had a leather jacket.)

A good strat (not one that I used) is to take Dodge and Agile Riposte. I was going to use Combat Throw, but without Improved Trip (didn't have the Int) that feat isn't so useful, and though it's more fun, it's much more feat-intensive. If you're in a long-running campaign, however, take the Int and take both trees

He took Melee Smash and the Increased Speed talent twice.

His name was Linnorm (a play on the word "dragon") and he was afraid of the FX monsters we had to face - especially those with DR and ridiculously high save DCs (FX is not well balanced in Modern). Until he found out he had accidentally set the world on the path of (literal) destruction, he didn't want to adventure too much. After that, he threw himself quite willingly into the battle. (Of course, the alternative was death.)

 

[AIM-54]

One of my favorite PCs was the half-orc evoker I played for a few sessions a couple of years ago. The entire concept came from the fact that I had rolled a 3 (on 4d6, no less) and was trying to figure out how to work with it without it being debilitating. The answer, of course, was to put it in strength and offset it with the half-orc's +2 bonus. I recall his intelligence being maxed out at 16, as well.

But the background was that he was born a runt to one of the slaves of an evil wizard. Nearly killed because of his small stature and weakness, he was brought in to serve the wizard and thus stay alive. The wizard thought to make him a useful minion and so taught him a bit about magic, which he took to, as well as sneaking in to the wizard's study and doing some extra-curricular learning. He was found out, killed the wizard and escaped and that's where he was when we started.

One of the most fun characters I've ever played.

Other than that, I love dual blade wielding halfling warriors. They're just so damn fun. But I don't play the stereotypes I hear complained about with halfling characters here on the boards.