D&D 5E Your favorite PC of all-time...

[Ath-kethin]

If it has to be D&D . . .

In the 20+ years I've been playing, I'm almost always the DM. So really my favorite character was also my first: a thri-kreen psionicist/ranger whose name I intentionally made unpronounceable and I don't remember what it was. This was a Dark Sun campaign, and it was a blast; our party's favorite combat technique was me rolling the halfling (whose class I don't recall) like a bowling ball into the midst of our foes. It didn't always work out but was always memorable.

If it DOESN'T have to be D&D: my very first character(s) ever, a pair of twins named Thorn and Petal Rose in my friend's Earthdawn game. The campaign didn't last long, but it absolutely blew my mind just in terms of the possibilities of RPGs as a concept and as a hobby. I was 14, and I've never looked back or regretted a moment.

 

[GlassJaw]

My recent character: Finneran "Finn" Huffplume
Stout halfling barbarian, bear totem

Finn didn't wear armor and used a spear & shield. He also had the Shield Master feat. He didn't do a ton of damage because I basically built him so it was extremely difficult to kill him.

Finn was a cross between Mac from Predator, Rhah from Platoon, and Matthew McConaughey from basically all of his movies. Finn had witnessed his entire village slaughtered and burned to the ground and he went into hiding in the wilderness. Finn survived but was never the same.

He was incredibly loyal and fearless, usually throwing himself at the most powerful enemy, but was incredibly impulsive and essentially had a death wish. He also smoked a LOT of longbottom leaf, drank constantly and ate a lot of shrooms. He also forgot to put on his loincloth occasionally.

 

[Wulffolk]

Though I have been involved with D&D since 1980, I very rarely have had the chance to be a player. Most of my time playing characters has been online with NeverWinter Nights 1 & 2. My favorite character to play has been various incarnations of a Barbarian/Bard "Skald" concept, heavily influenced by Norse culture.

I have played this in multiple forms, as both male and female versions, sometimes replacing the Barbarian part with Fighter or Ranger, almost always as a Human, but once as Half-Elven and once as Half-Orc. What I love the most about this concept is the versatility combined with the RP potential.

The idea is that he/she joins with heroes that have the potential to accomplish great deeds. My character witnesses these deeds and composes a saga about the heroes. Of course, it wouldn't be worthy of a saga if the heroes failed, so my Skald inspires the heroes through music and magic, is diverse enough in skills to cover for lack of ability in others, and adept enough at battle to tip the scale in the hero's favor. I try to be the ultimate sidekick, without needing to be the center of attention.

My two favorite versions of this concept were:

Ragnar Ghost-Wolf (Ragnar the Defiant) who died an epic death defending a fallen pack-mate and was rewarded by other players performing a truly inspired funeral pyre scene. Being influenced by Werewolf: The Apocalypse this character followed a wolf totem, had very beastial mannerisms, and his Bardic Music was wolf howls. He also used the Summon Monster spell as a way for his totem to materialize as a Dire Wolf and help him in battle.

Kara Brynmaer (later becoming Dead Kara, Val'Kara) was a Ranger/Bard that served the white aspect of the god of death in this setting. Kara's perefered form of Bardic Music was Curse Song, which she used to demoralize foes by singing their dirge rather than inspiring her allies. She was the last standing member of a party that had attempted to clear a Dwarven hall of a Balor. Though she fought alone for a prolonged period and brought the Balor to the brink of defeat she was struck down just before she could finish the job. In a reversal of fortune, she became the hero of a song written by another Bard.

Both died a "good death", and how you die is at least as important as how you live. I strongly prefer perma-death games for this reason. Courage means nothing without consequence.

 

[Bitbrain]

So far, my favorite character is probably my Lizardfolk Cleric/Fighter Thiss'Laro.

He worships the God of the dead, has no understanding of human culture at all, doesn't really care about treasure, and doesn't understand why his companions are grossed out whenever he harvests from the corpses of those he has killed.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

One of my favorites was Asako Yeshyo, Phoenix henshin (monk) from Legend of the Five Rings. It was our first L5R campaign and prior to that we primarily played D&D or Star Wars, so there were lots of growing pains for both the players and GM regarding the culture of feudal Japan. My first two characters in that campaign were killed early on because of my poor understanding of the culture and a lack of leniency from the GM. I was extremely frustrated and felt like I couldn't say anything without having my characters die, so I flippantly decided if speaking gets me in trouble I won't speak at all. I made a henshin who took a vow of silence and despite being mute she turned out to be an incredibly enjoyable character to play.

 

[BookBarbarian]

My Favorite PC of all time is always the next one I'll play.

 

[Azurewraith]

Hmmm that's a tough one possibly Turach the drafonborn paladin. He was a lawful stupid paladin through and through. He died sadly at level 1 when he charged the dragon that was attacking the city in order to "Hold the line" and let innocents escape, he lasted 3rounds! Before dying all the while everyone around the table was looking puzzled.
Turach was reincarnated by his God for unwavering valor in the face of insurmountable odds.

Wasn't the last time he held the line either he eventually snuffed it at level 7 when the party released a lich from its bonds by mistake and he tried to stop it.

 

[Lanefan]

My favorite character to play has been various incarnations of a Barbarian/Bard "Skald" concept, heavily influenced by Norse culture.

I have played this in multiple forms, as both male and female versions, sometimes replacing the Barbarian part with Fighter or Ranger, almost always as a Human, but once as Half-Elven and once as Half-Orc. What I love the most about this concept is the versatility combined with the RP potential.

The idea is that he/she joins with heroes that have the potential to accomplish great deeds. My character witnesses these deeds and composes a saga about the heroes.

This sounds really fun!

What would make it earth-shakingly cool though would be if you-as-player were in fact writing these sagas either on the fly or after the fact, in place of (or as) the game logs.

Lanefan

 

[Draegn]

The Elven paladin Elenestil. She was a tomboy who did all the things she felt her older studious mage brothers never or could not do. As the only daughter she was doted on and spoiled. She used her gifts and abilities to protect her country from a necromancer cambion warlord to the best of her ability. The war against the fiend did not go well and as part of the terms of an armistice she agreed to marry the cambion as part of the peace. The other adventurers wailed and lamented this idea, the bard wrote a tragic song "The Laying of Elenestil" while the others of the group plotted. Several nights after the wedding the murdering anti-heroes made their way into the cambion's underground citadel and killed him. Afterwards they left the now widowed Elenestil behind as she refused to leave with them and shut the gates behind them. No one knows what happened to Elenestil after that.

 

[tassadar7945]

My favorite NPC has to be Johann, The Holy Meteor. He was a necromancer cleric, who learned how to cast meteor at level 5. Once. The lead up to this is grand. First he had defeated Acerak in the Tomb of Horrors by utilizing his lone skeleton minion. Only the skeleton was in the room with that demi-lich, picked up some random magic item off the floor, and about 12 hours later had killed the monster. We walked off naked through the desert and came upon this castle. I remembered i had called armor, so i teleported my armor to me, while the rest of the party was still naked, we stormed the castle to come face to face with an ogrelike abomination weilding only a shield. Being the only one in armor, I rushed the ogre, and promptly got hit with a reverse gravity spell as I hit his shield. I rose for what seemed like hours before the spell wore off. I was approximately 90 miles up. This setting had spelljammer space rules.

Then I started falling. I ended up doing somewhere in the vicinity of 8000d6 damage to the roof of this castle, I punched through and did another 1000d6 to the floor. The rest of the party heard and felt the impact as I disintigrated the roof of the castle, punched through the floor into the basement where they were fighting the bbeg. Out of sheer luck (or awesomeness) I hit the BBEG dealing about 60d6 of damage to him. He was obliterated and all that was left of Johann was a crumpled pile of mithral and gore.