What exactly do you play in D&D?

[Sudduth]

This might help people get to know each other and such, I've searched the forums a little and couldn't find something like this.

So what are you? A half-orc barbarian? A human paladin? Or even the DM?

If possible give a description of your character, epic things they he/she did, and a picture if you have one. And if you feel like just spilling their entire story then go ahead, sounds epic to me.

I myself am a DM, and only a DM.

EDIT: Not specifically D&D any roleplaying game.

[Aramir21]

For my group, I am typically the DM. When I am a player, I am usually a Half-Elf Wizard and on occation, a Human Rogue. I enjoy giving all races and classes a try, these are just my main two.

[The Big Dice]

I don't play D&D anymore, we kind of ground 3.5 into the dirt with a 21-level campaign, followed by a couple of 10-14 level ones over the past few years. But the character I'm most proud of was a human Ranger who went from level 1 to 21. Sure, he wasn't the most optimal thing to play, but I had a blast being the whirling blender o' death in the party. And being able to switch from ranged support to melee saved the party's collective behinds on more than one occasion.

More often than not though, I GM. I'm just coming off the back of a Star Wars Saga campaign that got to level 14 or so before I painted myself into a narrative corner. And currently I'm starting up a GURPS Fantasy Zombie Apocalypse campaign. Yes, it's as daft an idea as it sounds and we're only one session in, but I have a plan.

Sort of...

[Zincorium]

Wait, only one thing?

I've been playing since I was eight. I have long since lost track of all the things I've been.

[Delaney Gale]

I'm best described by my top three stats- INT/DEX/CHA. Yep, I'm the smart one, better at getting out of harm's way than taking it, and good at talking my way out of things. This lends itself well to playing rogues (obviously), bards, swashbucklers, and other bits of crazy. My main character right now is a rogue/transmuter/arcane archer/arcane trickster, and I'm in the process of writing up a rogue/swashbuckler to play a character role in another campaign.

[Sudduth]

Wait, only one thing?

I've been playing since I was eight. I have long since lost track of all the things I've been.

Then the one you are most proud of? I've been playing since I was 9 and I'm 17 now.:smallwink:

[Forever Curious]

I am a spellcaster. Main blaster, healer, whatever. I've played them all. Currently, I'm playing a Whisper Gnome Beguiler (level 1, hopefully up to 20 if the campaign continues) who functions as the parties scout/trap breaker. He's Chaotic Good with an emphasis on chaos, and if you've never roleplayed a schizophrenic, then you're missing out.

[bosssmiley]

DM, or beatstick jockey as a player. I liek teh crushing, driving and lamentations. :smallamused:

[Sillycomic]

I am most proud of my Dwarven Grandma character actually.

She was a cleric. And I made her an middle aged dwarf, 168 if I remember correctly. At first I simply wanted to make her the healer of the group, as such the way of the cleric goes, tending to other PC's when they rough house with those bad monsters that live down the street.

The concept was that she had lost her son adventuring some time ago, so she feels compelled to go adventuring to take care of the other characters in the game. If a cleric had been with her son, he might not have passed away.

Although it's kind of a sad backstory, it never really came off that way. Mostly it was... because of this backstory I'm able to treat the rest of the party as if they were my grandchildren.

I had a wooden spoon that I regularly used whenever characters did something stupid, like try to kiss a harpy.

Skill Focus: Sense Motive. Why? Because no one lies to Grandma. No one! The rogue tried once... once... when she wanted to steal a magical item from a cleric's tomb. Grandma squashed that idea and hard.

I made her a sword and board fighter, although she didn't fight all that much. Grandma didn't fit to me as the one to do physical fighting, but rather help the PC's fight. So this led to fun tactics like... flanking so the rogue could get her sneak attack. Aiding another so the Monk could do his flurry of blows and it not suck super bad, Shield other on any of the non tanks that pretended they could just run in and not have any consequences.

It was a fairly solid build considering. The entire point of the character was to be a buffer for the group, and in turn the rest of my group simply shined. Only one person died in our entire campaign, and that couldn't be helped. A charging Gorgon criticalled on the ranger, nothing I could do about that... lol, except make a tomb for her using Stoneshape that brilliantly displayed her destroying gnolls. (her favored enemy)

[Forever Curious]

To Sillycomic: And that is how D and Dis played, my friend. Not exploiting the rules, not TPK'ing, but through beautifully crafted characters with hopes and dreams, going on quest for glory.

[Vangor]

Arrogant, Elven Wizard was the usual for me. Enchantment focused which helps avoid his inability to converse with others which he never learned assuming he could dominate others easily, what with his focus on Enchantment...

My brother is campaigning, and me and three others are taken prisoner by a powerful caster for reasons we do not know. When a guard sought to move a few NPC prisoners from my cell, I cast Suggestion and succeeded. I convinced him to release me because, being his friend, I was obviously not who his master was after and was willing to assist. Baffled by having imprisoned his friend, we walked from the cell and by the Dragonman (5 ECL one) Warblade who stole the sword from the scabbard and killed him after the guard hesitated to wonder why I was in his way.

With the keys, we began our escape with the remaining NPCs in tow. Confusion ended a fight after a guardsman raised the alarm and we were confronted by six prepared fighters and a couple crossbowman who I won Initiative against. Our Warblade grappled one of the NPCs unfortunately affected, while the guards generally babbled, fled, or killed one another (three of em died to themselves).

Upon escaping through an old mine tunnel, we found ourselves in deep snow for which I fortunately had a few Endure Elements for those of us with weaker fortitudes. Lost one of the NPCs attempting to cross ice slicked rocks upon a swift river, though I saved another with a Dexterity check. Came upon a cavern which appeared to lead further down the mountain but were ambushed by Wyverns, which Slow hampered horribly two of the three.

Finally, making our way through the cavern, we came from the snow, finding the river from further up the mountain in hopes of finding our friend. Instead, the caster who imprisoned us was waiting with a couple of his more elite guardsmen. Deep Slumber ended him due to a not terrific Will save. Unfortunately, this was probably an apprentice due to his meager magical equipment, which we found after we coup de graced through his mirror images.

We wandered along to find a village which seemed deserted, but truly people were frightened. Well, we all knocked on houses to find what was happening, I literally Knock'd to let myself into the biggest house more stealthily. An old man with a flaming great sword greeted me, who I immediately threatened and attempted to Hold Person. I failed. He Mass Hold Person'd, and this is how we found a goodly archmage trying to thwart the master of the keep which held us.

To note, after this winding quest through a catacombs and such, we eventually came upon a town. I was imprisoned for charming a merchant to receive a better price. I was released by suggesting I be freed by the guardsman.

[Talya]

Still playing this one:

For four years I've been a player in a live (non-pbp) game. We started at level 4, and are currently level 17. While I've made a lot of other characters, none have felt so real to me. She has more personality and growth potential from a fluff standpoint than anything else I've ever tried.

Forgotten Realms setting
Nara Aesera Nahid (http://www.thetangledweb.net/addon.php?addon=Profiler&page=view_char&cid=1001)
Nara was a harem girl in a Pasha's palace outside the bustling metropolis of Calimport. Her striking, fiery red hair was almost unheard of among those of Calishiite ancestry, but it was correctly surmised that the girl likely had Efreeti or Genaasi blood in her lineage. When Pasha Jhozim el Fadeel saw the young child with the fiery hair, he knew he had to have her for his own harem, and so the purchase was made.

Growing up in a harem provided Nara with ample opportunities to enhance her social skills and performing arts, as well as religious traning from the Sunite Headmistress Cassindra, but what surprised nobody was how magic came to her so naturally. Nobody understood to what extent, though, until the bugbear raiding party fought its way into the harem looking for the Pasha's blood. They received a warm welcome...warmer than they expected by far when flames burst from 17 year old Nara's hands, incinerating the lot of them. Nara received her freedom from the grateful Pasha in exchange for her act.

House rules in creation: DM granted spontaneous casters +1 spell per spell level, with the caveat that the extra spell HAD to come from a forgotten realms based source.

Mobility requirement for PRC was substituted for "Harem Trained" regional feat.

Bardic Weapon Proficiency: Longsword was substituted for Weapon Proficiency: Scimitar due to her Calishiite (Arabic) heritage.

The non-optimal bard multiclass allowed getting into the PrC early (skills and whip proficiency), as well as giving her some divine-like healing ability. The class has a very divine flavor for a sorceror.


http://www.rorinthas.com/images/nara.jpg

[woodenbandman]

Definitely a bard. Even though I often screw them up, I like bards more than any other character class, and I'm just now learning how to play them correctly. I've since branched out into other things. The character I'm most proud of is and will be a bard forever, though.

Echo the Buomman Bard, and priest of the unpronouncable entity. I've only played him for one session. He is probably my greatest creation, although I do have a lot of great creations.

I also am working on DMing a game, which I like because it gives me opportunity to use all the wacky builds I come up with (like the anthropomorphic bear werebear barbearian bear warrior), but I'm still working on stuff like dungeon design and junk.

[Lvl45DM!]

My 1E human paladin he had a good life
He started off as a bounty hunter, a class from a dragon magazine, kinda like a ranger with lots of assassination skills, with a special hatred for orcs.
He had a lot of adventures, saving a pegasus tribe from some griffons, hunting down the guy who killed Obern king of the faerie folk, this badass half orc with a crazy good knife
Underwater adventure getting a cache of magic (that was gay i lost my field plate)
Smashed a barbarian fortress and challenged the barbarian queen to a jousting match (he was specialized with the spear) we had already won, she just wanted to keep some honour and you know...not die

and then one day his mother contacted him, even though he thought his mother was dead. He escorted his mother to his father, a high level wizard and daddy made mummys soul into a Holy Avenger +5
so i became the sneakiest Paladin ever
Took on a Spawn of Cthulu in my home town single handed while the rest of my party slaughtered (and i do mean slaughtered it was epic) an army of ghouls and vampires
Destroyed a major artifact of evil that a big bad evil wizard was getting his hands on
Adventured in the water plane and destroyed the spirit of a Flying Dutchman kinda ghost
Had a murder mystery in a town, that was actually in the Abyss and there was this whole thing about zodiac signs...deeply ****ed up to escape we used a cursed ring of teleporting and went back TO THE DAWN OF THE HUMAN RACE!
saw the first fight between dwarves and elves, his two slyph ocmpanions started the faerie realms, he shagged a cavewoman just so his seed would be spread amongst like 40% of humans and slew a few T-rexs
Nearly slew an undead purple worm single handed, cos the rest of the party thought it was a waste of time so they sat there, watched me take it down to 2 HP and then magic missled it to steal the kill GRRR!
Fought his soul reflection and lost...becoming a bounty hunter again but getting to keep the sword

But his most epic moment?
In a combination of X-Files and Cthulu myth, there was this black oil corrupting and deforming a town. we cured the town but the source, a magic black stone, was still there. we attacked it using remove curse and other clericy banishy kinda things and it threw up a wall of force which it promptly filled with black oil and started summoning an incarnation of Cthulu.
Using the Holy Avengers magic resistance he plowed through the wall, through the black oil and smote that rock!
and then for a coup de grace, as the Cthulus avatar started to fade he smote that ****er too!

[Sudduth]

I am a spellcaster. Main blaster, healer, whatever. I've played them all. Currently, I'm playing a Whisper Gnome Beguiler (level 1, hopefully up to 20 if the campaign continues) who functions as the parties scout/trap breaker. He's Chaotic Good with an emphasis on chaos, and if you've never roleplayed a schizophrenic, then you're missing out.

Yeah a guy in my game right now is playing a schizophrenic. He also has MPS.

[Akal Saris]

Sillycomic: That's a terrific character, I love it!

I'm the DM for maybe 9/10 games in real life, but in PBP games I actually have a lot of variety. I definitely lean towards playing male characters (I'm a guy), and generally dwarves or humans, but otherwise I don't know how much more I can pin it down.

Current characters in PBP: (Along with a quick summary!)
Human Fighter (I'm Caramon! No, really!)
Dwarf Fighter (I'm the gruff meatshield! My name has Rock and Beard in it!)
Human Barbarian (This character remains undeveloped and lame!)
Human Warlock (She's every spunky anime/comic book girl rolled into 1!)
Halfling Rogue (He's a fat ball of flesh and daggers that likes bubble baths!)
Drow Beguiler (He's bitter!)

Current games in RL:
Dwarf Druid (He's King of the Dinosaurs!)
Human Ranger (He's evil and talks like Batman!)
Human Conjurer (He's Jafar!)

[gdiddy]

I play a DM, but love playing a Cha-money rogue, bard, or Warlock.

[Paulus]

I am everything and anything, roll-wise. However I play Tank + support magic, best. The character which no matter how strong he is, sacrifices much of it to help other people. Charisma ad Unarmed attacks are my biggest selling points. Thus far I haven't played much, but I will be most notable for my concepts over effectiveness. Such as:

Catfolk Bard/Sublime Chord, Factotums and Dragons.

[Rhiannon87]

I like variety! I have a definite preference for skill points, but that just means I'll play a paladin with a 12 INT and focus on what skills she does have. My fave character is my compulsively multiclassed human rogue/fighter/spymaster/psion, but I've played druids (one elf, one gnome), a human paladin, and I have plans in the works for a human psion-shaper. I have character builds for a half-drow cleric, a human sword-and-board fighter, and a rogue/thief-acrobat/evangelist.

Variety is the spice of D&D life. :D

[Sudduth]

My 1E human paladin he had a good life
He started off as a bounty hunter, a class from a dragon magazine, kinda like a ranger with lots of assassination skills, with a special hatred for orcs.
He had a lot of adventures, saving a pegasus tribe from some griffons, hunting down the guy who killed Obern king of the faerie folk, this badass half orc with a crazy good knife
Underwater adventure getting a cache of magic (that was gay i lost my field plate)
Smashed a barbarian fortress and challenged the barbarian queen to a jousting match (he was specialized with the spear) we had already won, she just wanted to keep some honour and you know...not die

and then one day his mother contacted him, even though he thought his mother was dead. He escorted his mother to his father, a high level wizard and daddy made mummys soul into a Holy Avenger +5
so i became the sneakiest Paladin ever
Took on a Spawn of Cthulu in my home town single handed while the rest of my party slaughtered (and i do mean slaughtered it was epic) an army of ghouls and vampires
Destroyed a major artifact of evil that a big bad evil wizard was getting his hands on
Adventured in the water plane and destroyed the spirit of a Flying Dutchman kinda ghost
Had a murder mystery in a town, that was actually in the Abyss and there was this whole thing about zodiac signs...deeply ****ed up to escape we used a cursed ring of teleporting and went back TO THE DAWN OF THE HUMAN RACE!
saw the first fight between dwarves and elves, his two slyph ocmpanions started the faerie realms, he shagged a cavewoman just so his seed would be spread amongst like 40% of humans and slew a few T-rexs
Nearly slew an undead purple worm single handed, cos the rest of the party thought it was a waste of time so they sat there, watched me take it down to 2 HP and then magic missled it to steal the kill GRRR!
Fought his soul reflection and lost...becoming a bounty hunter again but getting to keep the sword

But his most epic moment?
In a combination of X-Files and Cthulu myth, there was this black oil corrupting and deforming a town. we cured the town but the source, a magic black stone, was still there. we attacked it using remove curse and other clericy banishy kinda things and it threw up a wall of force which it promptly filled with black oil and started summoning an incarnation of Cthulu.
Using the Holy Avengers magic resistance he plowed through the wall, through the black oil and smote that rock!
and then for a coup de grace, as the Cthulus avatar started to fade he smote that ****er too!

Wow. What a damn life.

[Winterwind]

If the purpose of this thread is for people to get to know each other better by having them describe the characters they identified the most with when roleplaying, why the arbitrary limitation to D&D? Are people playing other roleplaying games not worthy of being known? :smalltongue:

Anyway, I'll go with DM first and foremost, be it D&D or otherwise.

As for characters, D&D-wise that would be an elven sorcerer... but that's the only character I played in D&D ever, and only briefly. Without that limitation, the number of characters would be tremendously much bigger. I think my most favoured characters, then, would be one that is an elven ranger, in D&D terms, from a fantasy RPG I created with friends, and a Cat shaman street urchin in ShadowRun.

[Sudduth]

Are people playing other roleplaying games not worthy of being known? :smalltongue:


Thanks, didn't think about that fix'd

[Starbuck_II]

I played everything but a Druid in Core. A Warlock, Swordsage, Crusader, Binder, Shadowcaster, and Wu Jen in non-core.

My favorite was the Slavic Numenstra, Elven Wu jen, from Asia-land (no really that is where DM said I came from since I was Wu Jen). Played from 4th till 14th level in a campaign. I crafted gear, I fireballed the foes, I Snake Darted, and I buffed everyone with GMW.
I even polymorphed.

I lost many cool Wizard spells due to not being a Wizard, but I had fun.

Currently I am playing a Illumian Cleric named Du'Ran in a PbP (mainly buffer with some healing in emegencies).
And in another PbP Warlock/Binder/Swordsage named Harry. Harry is mainly a melee warrior Gish (though not many buffs).

[Sudduth]

Numenstra, Elven Wu jen, from Asia-land

LMFAO Asia-land XDDD

[Roukon]

About half of my time is spent DMing and the other half playing. That said, when I play, it is usually two or more characters (record is 6, I believe, 3 PCs, 3 DMPCs that the DM created, but I half controlled). Almost every time, I make an elven rogue. He concentrates on stealth and sneak-attack, usually with TWF. Also, he is usually and orphen of some sort... Don't know what that says about my psyche.

Roukon

[Foryn Gilnith]

Thanks, didn't think about that fix'd

lol


Characters:
Argider, Gestalt Warblade//(whole lot of dips). Elite commando on a mission to fight undead. Campaign still starting, not too fleshed-out
Ormazd, Evil Dragonkin Warblade. Stalwart tank of the group. Loyal bodyguard, despite not speaking Common. More snarky in Draconic. Currently searching for meaning in life besides mere battle and loot.
N0-2B, Evil Medical Droid. Sort of a flat character, a Sith droid who got captured by the Republic and eventually broke free with a bunch of other Sith prisoners. Still enough time to make a defining personality trait, though - it's Play by Post, and I've posted twice.
Casrath, Socially Retarded Elven Swift Hunter. "Brute Force" of an elven mercenary company. Smart, fast, and very dangerous; but the Charisma of a badger. Without the guidance of a commanding officer he'd sit in the trees and juggle all day.

[Jalor]

Full casters or jack-of-all-trades types with magical ability. I enjoy playing clever, snarky characters with unconventional but clearly defined moral beliefs. That's basically "me but with magic", so I then change some major aspect of their personality and explore the possibilities of character development in that direction as the game goes on.

Like the Beguiler I used to play in a real-life game. He was clever and snarky as usual, but he also had an interesting relationship with the truth. In his mind, nobody is willing to show their true self all at once. Instead, people choose to act in a certain way to get what they want. In these lies, says his belief, is their true self. A man's values are shown by what he says to get what he wants.

Recently, I went for a twist on my usual twist and made a character who's clever, but not snarky. He's a Wizard specializing in Transmutation, and he's devoted his life to helping others when they fail due to outside circumstances. Basically, he'd help a village whose food stores were trashed by a natural disaster, but not a village that had traded all its food away and hoarded the money.

[Assassin89]

So far, I have played a 1st edition wizard and 3.5 edition cleric.

Current character:

Adwren Twinleaf
Half-elf Cleric of St. Cuthbert 5
His father was an elf. He is a mercenary for a 35 level Wizard who destroyed part of the elven lands with an epic spell. He gain the leadership feat at level 4 due to an item called the book of the warlord, has been attacked by a bat as a possible reoccurring gag.

[CharPixie]

Brickwall Fighters (and i mean their intellect)
Down to earth Rogue/Assassins
Confident Wizards
and Ruthless Lawmen.

Actual character class may vary.

[Korivan]

In DnD, I'm about 90% of the time the DM. When I actually get to play...I try to play as many things as possible. I love the veriaty DnD brings. Though often, I do play mages, or trying to play any character class that exemplifies intelligence.

[Shadowbane]

I am the charming sorcerer or bard, talking my way out of or into situations. When I'm not playing them, I am the world's most patient paladin, who hides a 1d6/two paladin levels smite evil up his sleeve when he needs to defend himself or another person. I prefer the pally, since I get more character development with him. The charmers are more one-sided.

[oxybe]

3rd ed

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll258/oxybe/shump.jpg
Shump, the Magical Vagrant of Parrot Island - human warlock 16/ mindbender 1

been playing this fellow for almost 2 years now, from level 1 to our current 17, giving him a short break to try out a druid for a wee bit. the picture is a bit outdated though. that's like his level 5 or 6 version. he's more invisible and flying at this point. i've long since traded in the runed +1 club bindle for a Warlock's Scepter. i've still got Mr.ChimChim though. he lives in the ridiculously sized hat and holds the bag of holding.

when Shump first started, he was a loner, living out of an old shed on parrot island, scaring away potential shed-stealers with eldrich blasts. once he was hired to retreive a boat with extreme violence, er, prejudice his life changed. a spider, a spider monkey and a lifelong fear of 8-legged horrors later, he was the richest man in make-shift wooden sandles and tattered rags the city has ever seen.

over the course of the campaign he's helped break up a guild of thieves and assassins, foil a plot to feral-ize the town into savage brutes, survived a dangerous trip across the sea, helped save a town from pirates and then destroyed those pirate's base of operation. among other things.

currently chilling in the lower regions of hell trying to find a way to double-cross a glabrezu and survive.

4th ed

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll258/oxybe/SentryAndJhove.jpg
Sentry, the Guardian of the Grove - Warforged Warden 7

been playing him for over a month now, replacing my old character. he's the one on the left. originally he looked a little bit more human-like (still very woodsy though), but after one of the group's players (an artist) thought up that image of a walking tree-man, we kinda retconned him into being far more tree then needed. the guy did a great job on the group's kenku. note that "warforged" don't exist as a particular race and is shorhand for "PC race of constructs"

created countless years ago as a guardian, build to mindlessly kill all who entered his grove, he solemly watched and slaughered all who came in, slowing gaining sentience and questioning why. when the latest group of trespassers came in he tried to reason with them for once but they didn't want to hear much of it, they had their mission and they wanted to see it through. what they explained to him shattered his perception of reality: his grove was fake, his charges vile mockeries of nature and his creator was most likely a mad and evil wizard. curious about their story he joined the odd group (2 shifters, a kenku, a dragonborn and a human with dwarven habits) and decided to expand his horizons and uncover the truth.

i left a few of the more interesting parts of my background "carte blanch" to the GM to do with as he pleases, if he so chooses. he's a great GM who has no qualms about making happen for the sake of the story so i'm sure he'll whip something up. he's also the guy i trust to GM GURPS properly.

and yes. at level 8 i am putting one of those points into intelligence, retraining for wizard multi-class and getting an owl familiar which will stay in my mouth, cooing and hooting until i unleash owlish fury.

[Ravens_cry]

Currently I am playing a human paladin in an Arabian style campaign. He is strong, bold, and dedicated to his faith. Faced with wrong doing by other members of the part, he will confront them about it, in private when possible, and forego ill-gotten gains. He loves yelling heroic sounding catchphrases such as, "Burn before the fury of the Sun Goddess, evil doer!" and " Get you back to the abyss, hell spawned coward!". Because of the MAD of paladins and the limits of point buy, he tends to whiff frequently, but he is a lot of fun to play none the less.
The others include, living and dead, a half orc cleric of a god of death,a really nice guy, owned a cat, a racist elf cleric of a god of self perfection, a human wizard convinced of his own deity-hood, a human fighter based off the Footman of Warcraft 2, a grizzled middle aged woman human barbarian, a half orc female paladin, a real snarly type, a gnome barbarian/sorcerer, very wee free men like, only more violent, and a shamanistic half orc sorcerer.

[Callos_DeTerran]

What do I play...? I usually play martial types because there is more challenge in playing them and I find the style/challenge to be very exciting. I can picture it all in my head as part of an action movie. Usually I end up playing spellcasters though since nobody else in my group will do so and they are just so...bland to me.

More specifically my favorite character was a warblade, Aevin. First character I played once I got Tome of Battle and he was so very...different from the rest of the party that he was hella fun to play. The other characters were very fixated on getting money, loot, political pull, or personal power (levels) but all he wanted to do was be famous. Get a saga told about him after he died a heroic death and because of that he did some monumentally stupid things that always seemed to turn out okay for him.

Such as battling a cryo-hydra almost entirely by himself and WINNING (due to DM ruling) or other such suicidal things because it all would be part of his legend. If it meant being note-worthy he even forgot entirely about loot and other such treasured things for PCs. Oddly enough, the party chased away a bard-like NPC Aevin hired to tell his story.

[Ostien]

I usually like to play a spell caster of some type. I play clerics fairly often because I like being the indispensable buffer and healer of the group (which most people see as being a burden). Also like to play wizards for their versatility, I find the sorceress too constraining and don't like basically being artillery (not even touching Warlock). This also ties in with liking to play high int or high wis characters (which is why I do like to play int based rogues).

That's generally the types of characters I play mechanic wise. As far as roleplay I don't have a set character type although I usually don't play lawful, usually play chaotic. I've played, a libertine cleric, a sarcastic gladiator rogue type, a con-artist merchant mage, a spiteful escaped drow ranger, a feral halfling psychic warrior raised by druids, to name a few.

[Masaioh]

I am typically the DM, because all of my group's other games have ended due to schedule issues. When I'm not DM, I typically play the melee brute or spontaneous caster. Currently, I'm just working on homebrew for my campaign setting and I might be starting up a tutorial session for a new player.

[Sudduth]

Ormazd, Evil Dragonkin Warblade. Stalwart tank of the group. Loyal bodyguard, despite not speaking Common.

Characters who dont' speak common are interesting.

[Haven]

I am most proud of my Dwarven Grandma character actually.

*snip*

That is incredibly sweet. This is what roleplaying should be like IMO.

For a one-shot I recently played a kobold with this (http://4chan.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/3038348/images/1227335089780.png) as his backstory. He became an Avenger of Avandra (goddess of luck IIRC) after that. XD

[Tyndmyr]

Mmmm, I've been playing for...ten years now? I've done most things(though not every class...definitely not every type of build, so much variety to choose from). I'm on a wizard kick atm. I've also got a tendancy torward humans as my most frequent race.

Other than D&D, my favorite RPG is 7th Sea, in which I tend to play an Avalonian Glamor Mage....ends up being a really flashy version of a gish.

[Dragon Elite]

I tend towards halfling rogues. I have been playing since I was 8, for about 3 years. (My birthday is the 28th of September, BTW) Here's what happened.

I sneak attacked and criticalled, 1-shotting a boss :smallbiggrin:
Then I sleight of handed the rest of my parties stuff (up to, and including their pants :smalltongue:)
Then, i went off to save a princess.
All of this in under 30 min.

[dentrag2]

When i'm not DMing, i play a Human Barbarian named Sarevok (Lulz) or a Shade(Homebrew) Wizard.

[Fiery Diamond]

Generally I DM.

Whenever I'm a player, I'm usually a human sorcerer. Usually a fire-based blaster. Basically, I play characters who are mostly NG, with some strong Chaotic tendencies. Good, respectful, diplomatic, humorous, trigger-happy pyromaniacs. Yes, I'm aware that I used respectful and diplomatic in the same sentence as trigger-happy pyromaniacs. Fun characters.

[Curmudgeon]

Mostly Rogues, with some dips: Cleric, Shadowdancer, Thief-Acrobat.

[Flickerdart]

I like different things. Lately, I've favored skirmishers, up to the game going on right now where I'm using a Swiftblade (albeit not a very good one). Skirmishers are awesome and I'm not sure when I'll get bored of them. Being able to meet the enemy on your own terms without being a full caster is awesome.

[Thurbane]

I'm currently playing an 11th level Human Dragon Shaman (Copper), playing through EttRoG. When we finish up, I'll be DMing - either a 3.5 conversion of RttToEE or EtCR. :smallsmile:

[Kallisti]

I DM occasionally, but I play a lot of diverse characters, although I tend towards intelligent characters with a touch of darkness to them. Currently I'm playing a shapeshifter who goes from cat to human form and manipulates everyone around him, an awakened cat with curse powers and a bad attitude, a washed-up nineteen year old juvenile delinquent who speaks to the dead (that one is a character someone else wrote and I took over, though), a clerk-turned-barbarian with a bad temper, an amnesiac mage-mercenary who has no idea what kind of mage he is, a ghostly little girl who plays with puppets that kill people, a brain-in-a-jar AI running a golem body, a psychatrist with three alternate personalities, a Totemist occupying a clay statue of Anubis, a rabbit magician who pulls humans out of his hat, a H'raani businessman, myself, Shepherd Booke, a Heinlein fringe cultist on his way to mars as an engineer...

...weird stuff, mostly.

[GoufCustom]

I'm generally the bard.

However, the character I enjoyed the most was my character in our BESM campaign. Kogoro Kyo, split levels between Samurai and Student. High STR, high CHA, low WIS. Max ranks in the defect Guy/Girl Magnet. We fought off a cult, and all the survivors converted it to a cult to me. I also killed one of the other party member's nemesis in the first round of combat.

It was fun. ^_^

[AintThatASeamus]

In my group, I DM maybe a third of our campaigns. When I'm playing, well, back in 2E, I was "the guy who plays the cleric" since no one else in my group ever would. I've had a lot more chances to branch out in 3.X, but 2 of my favourite and most memorable characters were paladins, and they're probably the class I play the most.

[Golden-Esque]

I'm still on the newer side to the hobby, and I want to take my hand at DMing more in the near future. I've been a part of three major campaigns, and I've been a Multi-Classed Arcane Spellcaster of some sort each time.

In my first campaign, I was a Sun Elf Wizard / Rogue. That character was funny; he was socially awkward and tended to think lowly of others. He was extremely Intelligent, and our one fighter HATED him for for it. The entire campaign was a beautiful analogy for high school stereotypes; my Wizard was the nerd everyone picked on, we had jock Fightrer, a drama queen Cleric, a antisocial psion, and a ranger who was "That Guy Everyone Liked". Later, we were joined by a Frat Barbarian. Good times, good times. Until my wizard rolled a Natural 1 on a Fortitude save, lost all his Constitution, and died :(.

My second character was a human Fighter / Sorcerer who specialized in Water Spells. He did this using Spell Thematics from Magic of Faerun, and it was fitting since he was a sailor. Then entire campaign took place on the open seas. He was a card; he kept on a relatively happy and naive front to compensate for his dark past, in which his father slew his mother for hiding that their son was a budding mage (his father was highly magiophobic). We got to roughly 8th level in that campaign, and it ended with a fighter hired by my character's father to round him up challenging my character to a duel and almost winning if a zombie outbreak didn't meddle the whole thing. My character ended up splatting the duelist's head against the pavement when interrogation didn't provide anything useful, surprising even the most evil of characters (this was an anti-hero campaign).

My last character was a Half-Vampire Bard / Rogue; the Half-Vampire being a homebrewed race I was helping to test. My Bard was the KING of smarmy, spoony bards. He was pretty well-rounded in everything; he was strong, agile, smart, charismatic, though lacking some in the common sense department. This character was my favorite because he was just so apathetic towards everything. His Charisma was useful, but without requests from the rest of the party, he didn't care enough to try. Being an outcast all his life really made him numb to the needs of others :).

[Ozymandias9]

I have two regular tables (both primarily 3.5), both of which rotate DM duties through most of the players on a campaign basis. I'm long winded, so hooray for spoiler tags.

Table One: Low Magic Frontier SettingOne table changes campaign style once every month or two, and I tend to change characters to suit. We're just starting an interesting little low magic campaign setting this weekend: spell lists and items aren't limited, but caster class levels can only be taken once every three character levels and Paladins and Rangers are the non-caster versions from CW. The campaign is a frontier setting: limited human settlements, woodsy elves, lots of other savage races nearby. Arcane Archer's seems to be in as an option, so I'm thinking Half elf Rgr/Wiz/AArch or Ftr/Wiz/AArch. It's actually starting at level 1, which will be a nice change of pace for this table.

I've written up two character histories: the one I use will depend on what flavor of elves the DM decides on. The first has the character as the first generation on the frontier as a result of the parents being exiled: I'll play this one if the standard flavor of elves is used. Its a bit hackneyed (oh noes! The country bumpkins are racist! We don't like not half breed city folds in these parts!), but there are a couple people at the table who really shine in the roleplaying department for settings like this, so letting them have the spotlight isn't a bad thing.

There's a also a decent chance that the DM will decide to flavor the elves far more in the realm of old fairy tale fey (complete with the treachery and such) rather than the generally benevolent Tolkien-esque standard. In that case, the character's going to be the result of rape (by means of magic and deception on the part of his elven father). The racist overtones will likely be more prevalent in this case: I might have to actively conceal the character's elf heritage. The Dm will probably let me have some kind of magic item to hide his ears (alter self or some form of illusion, probably in ring or tattoo form) at minimal cost to starting wealth for these purposes.

Table 2: Renaissance setting, normal magicThe other table is currently in a setting that is more or less the Italian renaissance as brought about by D&D style magic in addition to science. The setting has veered a bit towards the magi-tech angle as the campaign progressed. It's a strictly human setting (at least as far as humanoid races go) It's also got quite a bit of the court intrigue angle. I'm playing a sorcerer/cleric in this one (on the old side, hid in the church to hide the sorcerous ancestry most of her life. I had to be relatively careful about using arcane spells early on, lest it got back to the more conservative elements of the church.
The current BBEG is an Ancient Green Dragon who had been posing as a bishop to try to halt the growing acceptance magic by the church.

[Sillycomic]

Wow. Thanks everyone. I'm glad my character was pretty cool. I thought so when I made her, and after a few play session she got into her groove in the group, and she just became outstanding. I've noticed that for the longest time I played oober fighters and damage dealing characters to my heart's content. And then I challenged myself to play what I thought of as the weakest class in D&D... a wizard who had evocation as a banned school.
Yeah, then I found these boards and realized I had mistakenly made one of the most powerful characters in the game! ha ha, since then I have been playing mostly arcane or divine spellcasters.


Well, non D&D characters that are my favorite.

Warhammer:

I played a halfling Troll slayer. If you know warhammer fantasy game, Troll slayers are for dwarves only, and halflings are, pretty much the weakest race in the game.

Well, Littlefoot was actually raised on his own mostly. He became a laborer doing odd jobs. So, a group of dwarves were curious about mining and some minor adventuring, they pick up Littlefoot mostly as a cook, maid type person. He cleans and such while they go out adventuring.

So, he grows up with these dwarves, and considers himself part of their culture. So, he wants to do things just like dwarves do, such as mine and fight and stay up to keep watch. One day after a particularly long day of training on his part, they let him keep watch.

Poor Littlefoot fell asleep. A group of wandering orcs came and slaughtered the entire dwarven clan while Littlefoot slept. Cause he was so small and curled up, they didn't even notice him. When he woke up, all of his friends were dead, and it was his fault.

So, he had dishonored his family and friends. And in Warhammer, what do you do when that happens? You cut off your beard, put animal fat in your hair, and pronounce yourself a troll slayer. To restore honor you will go out and try to kill the biggest and baddest thing around.

He was a halfling, don't get me wrong. I played him as fun and happy. He loved to cook and enjoyed simple things in life. But every time an adventure came up... he took a regular axe (looked like a two handed axe for him) and drove straight forward into the fight hoping for an honorable death.


Vampire: Middle Ages.

I must admit, when I played it a while ago, I never understood the concept of vampire. I mean, vampires are evil, why are they grouping together to do something? Unless it's stop another vampire who is even more evil.

So, all of the vampire types never really got to me. I was still young to role playing, and thought you were supposed to be a hero and go fight evil things. Ha ha, young and naive!

Until I got to Nosferatu. Nosferatu are the only clan of vampires that think of being a vampire as a curse instead of a gift. So, I played a preacher who was corrupt and had lost his faith. A Nosferatu saw this, and gave him the curse of immortality to pay for his sins.

Since then, the preacher condoned for what he had done as a human, and is now trying to undo what he did wrong. He is a vampire with true faith. At the time, I didn't know how powerful True Faith really was in the game. It's powerful. If you yell out the word stop, every vampire around you either does exactly what you say or flees from you in terror.

[arguskos]

DM, or beatstick jockey as a player. I liek teh crushing, driving and lamentations. :smallamused:
You don't say? :smallamused:

Anyways, I am always the DM, sadly. My kingdom for an experienced RP heavy group to be a player in.

When I do manage to play rather than run, I gravitate towards the archetype of the "Knowledge is Power" mage. It's an archetype I really enjoy RPing out, and never honestly get a full chance to do so, meaning I'm not really tired of it yet.

[Count Dravda]

I usually DM, so playing is a rare opportunity for me. For the longest time, I thought that the slightly-nerdy, antisocial wizard was my type, since that's who I am in real life. After flitting from character to character, I eventually realized that I get enough of me in real life. I like to roleplay my opposite.

So I'm always the hulking brute. The big, quiet one who everyone fears or hates. The epitome of this archetype was Alpha 1.

They were created in the darkest hour of the darkest age. War had engulfed the world, and it seemed that all of civilization would be forever torn asunder. Desperate for more soldiers, their king commissioned the creation of war golems: animated suits of armor that could fight tirelessly. It was decided that money could be saved by making each soldier incapable of speech: they would communicate through hand signals. Each was designed to be as terrifying as possible, with a faceplate like a demon, and an unsettling inscription on the back:

We are the sons of holy wrath
We are the shining light in the dark
We are the ones who walk amongst you
We have no trace of fear in our hears
We are the ones who will still remain
When all is laid to waste
We are the Undying

Their identifying symbols were placed on their shoulders: his is A for Alpha. He was the battle leader of the Undying, built to kill. And kill he did. Leading his troops, human and construct, to incredible victories, they were war heroes. Life was good.

But of course, it couldn't last. The war ended, the battalion of warforged were shunted quietly into the corner, and eventually, everyone forgot the war and his part in it.

Everone, that is, except him. He grew to hate his creator race: they shunned him! They avoided him, saying he was an abomination! A mistake! They forgot all he did for them.

Resentment turned to anger, and in the flames of anger was forged razor-sharp purpose: he would regather his soldiers, and go back to do what he had always done: fight and kill. He was good enough at it: eventually, he would make enough money to build up a fortune: he would retire and would be respected and loved by those who now shunned him.

Alpha 1 was a blast to play. Big, quiet, and menacing, he inspired fear or at least uneasiness simply by walking into a room. Each soldier had sharp, needle-like claws that I modeled with spiked gauntlets. Alpha 1 was a warblade with heavy emphasis on the White Raven discipline. In battle, he never showed emotion. As mentioned, characters who don't speak Common are a blast to play, but Alpha 1 didn't speak AT ALL, which made for some fun roleplaying, since only the wizard spoke Sign Language. To communicate with the others, he was forced to use writing.

My biggest regret? That the campaign ended after only a couple levels. the wizard and I had a great dynamic together. The wizard was everything Alpha 1 hated: physically weak, arrogant, and treated the living constructs like mindless golems. In turn, the wizard loved the fact that Alpha 1 had been conditioned to follow orders from organics for so long that he instinctively fell in line, but the two were at opposite philosophies (his CN-going-CE vs. my LN).

[Gnorman]

Mostly the DM, sad to say. Not that I don't enjoy it, but it'd be nice to be on the other side of the screen now and then.

When I do play characters, they're almost always hybrid skill monkey/spellcasters. I prefer Conjurers/Malconvokers or Beguilers/Enchanters - I love playing the smart guy, but my smart guys are always capable social skill monkeys with plenty of charm and wit.

I nearly always play a gnome, as they are without a doubt my favorite archetype in the game. I'll dabble with tieflings, humans, and dwarves on occasion, but I'll never touch elves, because I hate hate hate them to death. I do have a special place in my heart for out-of-place orcs, too.

Gnorman the Tinker, my iconic rogue/illusionist - the first character I ever played. He was a stereotypical gnome down to the last detail - he was mildly insane, endlessly curious, more than a little annoying, and extremely obnoxious. But he was devilishly smart and quite charming when he wanted to be. He dabbled in mechanical and alchemical pursuits, and eventually retired to a life of item creation rather than adventuring. He toted around a heavy crossbow that he claimed was his polymorphed wife.

Zil Skorvar, a gnomish beguiler. He was a lot of fun, though the campaign didn't last long. He was quite the dashing rogue, with a weakness for pipe tobacco and pretty gnomish girls. He rode around on the back of a Warforged Crusader. He gave a stirring speech to three apathetic orcs in the beginning caverns of the World's Largest Dungeon, which was perhaps the best speech I've ever written as a player.

Gruthtak Skullkeeper, my orcish conjurer - he was a witch doctor who enjoyed bullying his summoned creatures around. His name came from his tendency to keep the skulls of his enemies as trophies, obviously - by the end of the campaign, I believe he had collected a dozen elf heads, a couple of dretch skulls, a young black dragon skull, and that of a medusa - his prized possession.

Dietrich Karsten, a tiefling beguiler. He was a private detective in Sigil, loosely based on Hellboy. That campaign petered out rather quickly.

And my latest, Malcolm Blackwood. A gestalt Malconvoker/Factotum, he's a do-everything party face and battlefield controller. Glib, sarcastic, and extremely good with words, he's a special agent within the Breland government, having defected from Zilargo to join up.

http://th08.deviantart.com/fs26/300W/f/2008/119/a/6/a67a788d40011b113dae78945b9657f8.jpg

[Kaiyanwang]

I started at ten, now I'm 27. Woooow.

In basic, I've been Shiean, an Elf (so, in modern terms, a Gish) with a lust for weapon expertise.

In AD&D, I've been a DM. Of a bunch of morons, but we had so much fun.

In 3.0, I've been Valerius an human cleric of pelor (converted from basic), sort of undead hunter , shortly an half-orc barbarian, then a DM

Short crazy 3.0 campaing, DM

3.0 and 3.5 I DMed a loong epic campaign for years.

Now I restarted a gestalt campaign in the same world, 1000 years after. DM; again. But I love it.

[AslanCross]

I'm typically the DM, as I have a lot of the books on hand. I'm also the only person with the organizational and managerial skills necessary to get a campaign going among the people I play with.

I've also played as:
1. a Warforged warblade
2. a female human artificer
3. an elf blaster wizard/Silver Flame Pyromancer.

[axraelshelm]

I play casters but at the moment I'm playing a salamander rogue gunsmith.
I like to cast spells that has multible effects but each one helps and support each other for an amazing effect.
Best scene "Having 200 hundred teiflings swear fealty to me"
Best action "Swung from a cavern ceiling while setting off a explosion caving on top of a dragon, road a tree tied to the dragons legs was thrown from a great height used my backpack to skyboard down on to the marsh to break my fall, ran up it's back which lead to me throwing a bag of black powder into it's mouth setting off another explosion. It ran away with half it's face"

I play support buff characters best let the other players put themselves into danger.

[Vizzerdrix]

The two I'm most proud of are both gish characters. One was a Barb/Sorc and the other was Fighter/wiz

[Kaiyanwang]

The two I'm most proud of are both gish characters. One was a Barb/Sorc and the other was Fighter/wiz

Cool. One "savage" or "made of instinct" both as a caster and as a melee, the other one "trained" both as a caster and as a melee.

[Glyde]

I've dabbled in just about everything... I really can't have a favorite at this point.

Lets see...3.5e only, this is what I can come up with.


Half-Fiend (modified to LA0) Human/Glabrezu (Best not to think about it.). Warblade/Bard with an affinity for being really gosh-darn impressive at what he does. He's effectively ageless, so he's been around the bend quite a few times on his quest to seek vengeance on his father (The...The Glabrezu, not the Human.) for tainting the multiverse with the character's presence. Being NE himself, his methods are less than savory, but he wouldn't attack the party or go against the grain for any reason - He knows that it's probably easier to take down a demonic general with a group instead of alone. Currently he's in the Faerun setting doing generally good-guy stuff and destroying evil the only way he knows how - By being deliciously evil himself.


Next up is probably the above's polar opposite. Minotaur/Ibixian priestess (and saint) of Good (Formerly a follower of Eldath.) Fair dose of pacifism (That eventually turned into a belief against needless killing.) and cuteness. She couldn't speak Common, because the Human cleric that raised her didn't see a need since he could speak Giant. She learned a little bit from a star(moon?I cant remember they're all the same) Elf bard who eventually became her love interest. After a few events that I can't quite remember (Its been a looong time) She turned herself to stone in order to stop a wall-crush-party trap. They took her statue to the headquarters and I got to play around with another character (Below) for a while. After wishing her back, she sported the Saint template and pretty much just went around rocking evil about. She retired up in the mountains with the bard and started a small community there.


'Human' old age VoP unarmed swordsage. Long beard, wooden sandals, canvas shorts and a wide wiiiiide wiiiiiiide straw hat was his entire inventory. He spoke about the words of creation a lot, then drop-kicked (evil)people while they were wondering what he was talking about. He was liked by half the party, hated by the other half. He wasn't pacifist like the above character was, but he was just so damn... kung-fu-y.


Human Wu-Jen. He was banished from his own country for reasons unknown to him (initially). He fell in love with a being that his culture found sacred, was really, really shy about it all, and didn't come to terms with it till *after* he ruined the groups chances of having an ally with the country he was from (Icelance'd his dad who was the current chieftain.) Apparently he was being controlled by elemental spirits, rather than binding to them. With the help of Love Interest he got rid of the spirits and was allowed to retrain into Monk (With a bit of modifications, of course.)


Changeling rogue/swordsage/assassin, LE. She had a rough childhood (only changeling in the campaign setting that I know of) that consisted of stealing money and food just to get by, and then when she got older her childhood friend was captured and taken by the guards. She spent the rest of her life taking on odd-jobs that ranged from information gathering to assassination. At campaign start she was recruited by a heavily armored rebel leader who hid his face and was employed to be his personal bodyguard and secret hand. They fell in love eventually, he got captured, and she...Wore his armor and shapeshifted into his form and took over for a while. He returned as a pawn of the enemy and the party managed to free him from his mind-control collar. He passed on command to my character and now they live in an underground lava fortress (They also used to have a submarine but that blew up :( ).


Syda...Human Flavored Soul of Valarian. She's being played as part of a maptool campaign with a bunch of folks from these very forums. Raised by a single parent (her father) and told that 'good girls keep quiet'. Due to that and her dad's abusive nature, she developed Lalophobia (Fear of speaking.) She still speaks for verbal components, but in order to speak to someone that she doesn't trust she needs to make a will save with the DC dependent on how many people are in earshot. Even speaking to the party can be difficult, and her love interest is the only one that can get a word or two without a roll being needed. Currently...She's out of spells and in the middle of a cultist outpost. I'm thinking she needs to give a certain someone a certain letter before something bad happens. She's had a few River Tam moments (Lucky crits with a spear are fairly painful.) and mood swings quite a bit from her quiet, peaceful self to an angry, why-are-you-doing-that-I'll-stab-you one.


Cynthia, Kobold Revolver Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95595). She was saved by a wealthy Lord from slavers and lived with him and a bunch of others in a mansion as his personal servant. He was the first one who showed her any kindness...Then he died. The other residents of the mansion kicked her out, and soon after the current party took her in. Not too much has happened in that campaign, but the class itself is damn fun to work with.

Two characters that I haven't used (yet), but will be used soon... and I'm putting them on the list for completion's sake.

Iris and Dahlia, NE Dvati twins Wizard. Kind of like Jack and Jill except they went crazy when Jack 'broke his crown'. A bit of modifications to the race (Removed LA, removed the cacophony stuff, gave them cooperative spell) and its all good. Going to make a couple of little signs to use at the table to show which one is talking...And no, I didn't get a raven familiar. That would just be overkill.

Legend Lore/L.L./L2, Warforged Archivist. He was built by a powerful wizard and used to memorize books, kind of like a walking encyclopedia. His master died of old age, and L2 decided to travel the world to expand his knowledge and put it to good use - Helping others. Going the whole knowledge devotion route... Hes not terribly good at combat, though. He's got a dart thruster built into his arm which he could load with special expensive darts if he really wanted.



Whew...That was a mouthful. Honorable mentions are Tik'Tak the young Thri'Kreen fighter/master thrower, Goliath the classic Warforged Fighter, Regal Blazebeard the dwarf wizard with a beard that was on fire, Kalev is a human fighter with monk unarmed progression and really low charisma based on Zell from FF8, and Raijin Stormherald - a Human/Dragonborn Fighter/Vassal of Bahamut with a thing for hunting red dragons (A red dragon killed his wife and kids.) That guy's got a big sword.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I'm still usually the DM, although of my four players two run their own campaigns. That's because I'm the only one who always does his game on the same day, same time every week (well, almost. We had a rare miss last week). Because the other two don't have a definite time set and just "do it whenever there's all three of us around and we feel like it" we play their games maybe once every two weeks on average.

It's a shame, because I really like my PCs from those other two games. All five of them. Since there's three of us (two players and one DM in each game), we're all allowed to run more than one character. In my friend Drunk Vegeta's game, I play Beogar, Half-Orc Druid 4 and Aisha, Human Psychic Warrior 4. Beogar is an optimistic young initiate in the Northern Grove (there are four great "groves" of Druids, worldwide) who wants to find some adventure while he's young, prove that orcs are worthier than perceived, and retire as a quiet village priest somewhere with good food.

Aisha is the last of a destroyed order of warrior-monks from a distant land. After her order was defeated by a conquering Emperor, he lashed the survivors into a boat and set them adrift. Aisha was the only one who survived the trip to the Western Continent. She combines a rigorous lifestyle of self-denial with an absolute devotion to "Justice" or "Dharma" (uses the words interchangeably) and believes when she annihilates her ego and becomes One with All (represented as achieving her Psychic Focus) her sword will always act with true justice.

My character in my friend Rakuguren's game is Young Male, Neanderthal Gestalt Barbarian/Feat Rogue 4 (usually known as "Brom" instead of his secret true name).

YM was an adolescent Neanderthal who, by hunting mishap, fell into a block of ice 30,000 years ago. After being discovered by men sent to retrieve ice from the mountains, he thawed out and recovered, then escaped into the wilderness. After being taken in and taught the common speech in a village so small its landlord had forgotten its existence, YM became a wandering trapper and huntsman for hire. His life picked up when a chance encounter introduced him to a vampire noblewoman (vampires are just one of the common races in this setting), who's father (an epic-level wizard) forcibly recruited him into playing her bodyguard after revealing their family was feuding another vampire dynasty.

Playing YM is awesome since it's a challenge to keep his speech as simple and short as possible without going into "me Tarzan" territory. Also awesome since the guy is completely wild and reckless in battle as being the last Neanderthal on earth makes him almost suicidally depressed. Aside from being jacked as only a STR 20 Barbarian with Fighter feats can, he's charged into what my DM thought was certain death several times and come up unscathed. This is despite his 1/2 movement flaw + hide armor reducing him to 15 ft. a round/30 charging.

[9mm]

currently, I DM. When I play I have a soft spot for fighters, but it's usually what ever has caught my eye.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

I'm the DM 99% of the time; when I get to play, I tend to be any Int class in 3e (favorites being psion > factotum > warblade > wizard) or any fighter-type in 1e/2e.

[Doc Roc]

Every build I touch turns to ash. I'm a GM only, but sometimes I get to play DFI bards. That's always pleasant.

[Draz74]

I mostly DM, and most of the campaigns I've played in have been short-lived. But here's the characters I remember playing, off the top of my head. I'm probably forgetting some.

2E Half-elf Ranger
2E Elf Wizard
2E Elf Ranger/Wizard
Gnome Cleric with 3 Dexterity (rolled)
Human Fighter
Dwarf Rogue/Fighter
Human Wizard (pacifist, athlete)

[vollmond]

I always seem to play a druid. In Diablo II, I keep remaking bear shifters w/ bear summons. In Shadowrun, I was a Troll Norse mage who did lots of fire magic and shapeshifting (usually to a tiger), and before I died I was saving Karma for an Ally Spirit. In my current microlite20 D&D game, I'm a druid with a dog Animal Companion.

No more, though! Next D&D char will probably be a fighter, next SR char will be melee or ranged combat, next Diablo char will be barb or javazon.

Must... change...

[Yukitsu]

Pretty much all over the place, but 9 times out of 10, I'll be the one with either the charisma based skills or the knowledges, pretty much regardless of class or archetype.

[playswithfire]

Generally play an unarmed combat; something along the lines of a Barbarian/Unarmed Swordsage moving into my homebrewed Empty Hand Master when I can. What I'd really like to make is an effective drunken master; I had a fun gestalt one spec'ed out at one point with Crusader reflavored more towards drunken boxing.

When I want a change, usually bard or gish or bardic gish. I've got a gestalt Crusader//Sorcerer/Pale Master who I created to be a hard-to-kill BBEG, but I'd be interested in refluffing him as a PC

[KellKheraptis]

Imagine some cross between GOD and Batman, with a healthy helping of "I play with time, so nya!" So usually gish full casters :) My namesake's proudest moment was in 1st Ed, using the firemage (remember the elemental mages back in the day, when they were BAD @SS) spell Lead Spray and rolling a critical on a red dragon. Can you say HEAD SHOT? Went from level...7 I think, to like 14, in one spell. And the prestige of saying you killed a red dragon with fire!

[Tequila Sunrise]

No more, though! Next D&D char will probably be a fighter, next SR char will be melee or ranged combat, next Diablo char will be barb or javazon.
I always find myself playing sorceresses in Diablo. They're broken like 3e wizards, and they're easy on the eyes to boot!

[KellKheraptis]

I always find myself playing sorceresses in Diablo. They're broken like 3e wizards, and they're easy on the eyes to boot!

I'm an avid werewolf druid player in Diablo II...I like the challenge. It just peeves me no end though that every single patch they seem to add MORE bugs.

[hotel_papa]

I'm 25, and have been playing for about 13 years.

Often, I find myself as the "DM by default". In Iraq, when I was in the Marine Corps, I taught several gentlemen in my company (and a few decidedly non-gentlemen). That is where I really started to hone my storytelling and DMing style. I sometimes itch to play instead, but I find lately that I just don't enjoy the DMing style of some of the people I've played with. I'm not big on "DM vs. Players" or, it's ugly extrapolation "DM out to kill Players because DM's dad didn't hug him enough"... But, I digress, and risk a volatile thread derailment.

Instead, I'd like to showcase a few of my favorite NPC's. Most of these come from any number of Eberron campaigns.

My favorite of all time is Dubkirk, the Gnome Artificer that leveled with the party. (*Ding!*) He was based somewhat on the Tinker Gnomes from Dragonlance, and was a connsumate scientist and completly bats**t. My favorite instance with him is a toss up. On the one hand, having to save him from an experiment-gone-awry in his extradimensional workshop, only to have the workshop itself turn into a Colossal animated object, with myriad special abilities based on the traps within that the party failed to disarm. This hilarity is well-balanced with the tender relationship with a Warforged fighter that joined the party later on in the game, whom he saw as the son he'd never have.

Second is Aidni, named in reverse for a friend's daughter. He was known as Aidni the Incomprehensible, a powerful Warmage from ancient Grayhawk.

The campaign found themselves, after a breif but insidious dungeon crawl, in the presence of one half of a very powerful variant of Ring Gates. They were promised a sizable sum by their trusted guild master upon the recovery of the other gate. Passing through the gate, they found themselves in a tesseract. :smallbiggrin:

Long story short, the tesseract represented Aidni's anger, confusion and other darker, twisted emotions. Upon escape from that place, they were confronted with the challange of reliving his memories, in various points of Grayhawk history. For instance, they fought their way out of the Formorian conquest of the lowest plane of Arcadia. Lovely stuff. How did a powerful Ring Gate get into his head? They'll never know. The campaign, which was only ever intended to be a short-term one, ended when one of the players finally got off his butt and started running Cauldron.

Didn't like his DMing style, either.

[Artanis]

I like to play archer characters. I'll eventually wind up playing lots of different things, but almost always after I've used an archer.

Right now, I'm in a 4e campaign where I'm playing an Elf Ranger. I've got a Changeling Sorcerer and a Dwarf Fighter rattling around in my brain for future campaigns, but that's for the future :smallcool:

[Dienekes]

v3.5 Human Fighter.

Sure you have to work for it, but when you can usefully contribute in most encounters with a semi-optimized wizard and a druid it gives you a great feeling.

Edit: Though I must admit we use quite a bit of homebrew stuffs to help the fighter types.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Artanis' post reminded me of a theory I have about why players tend to pick their favorite classes and races: I've noticed that players often pick things that are opposite of their real life selves. For example a college gamer buddy of mine played gnome archers almost exclusively; and this buddy was a big guy, vertically and horizontally, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a sniper rifle. (Except when he was intoxicated, oddly enough.)

I like to play archer characters. I'll eventually wind up playing lots of different things, but almost always after I've used an archer.

Right now, I'm in a 4e campaign where I'm playing an Elf Ranger. I've got a Changeling Sorcerer and a Dwarf Fighter rattling around in my brain for future campaigns, but that's for the future :smallcool:
Are you by any chance lacking in the hand-eye coordination department?

[Count Dravda]

Artanis' post reminded me of a theory I have about why players tend to pick their favorite classes and races: I've noticed that players often pick things that are opposite of their real life selves. For example a college gamer buddy of mine played gnome archers almost exclusively; and this buddy was a big guy, vertically and horizontally, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a sniper rifle. (Except when he was intoxicated, oddly enough.)

Are you by any chance lacking in the hand-eye coordination department?

I have to agree with you. I've been gaming with the same group for a few years now, and three of us always pick the same archetype. I always play a hulking, intimidating brute; my brother, a laid-back badass; my friend, a high-charisma spellcaster, usually a ladies man. Personally, I think that we either play our opposite, or maybe we just play someone we'd really like to be.

[wastelander1667]

Lol my best moment was my very first 3.5 game.

I had a Human fighter named Hiro and we had been taken aboard a slave ship run by goblins. We had eventually made our way off the ship and into a cave, I had found a crate of apples on the ship and decided to take a few for the road, we came accost a large ravine and saw a few goblins on the other side, not knowing about distance penalties I decided to throw the apple accost to try to hit one of the goblins I crit and confirmed causing the head of the goblin to explode upon contact with the apple causing the other goblins to be shaken until they were slaughtered. Best use of an apple ever!

[Lioness]

At the moment I play an Elven Wizard. level 8. Int 21, Dex 16, Con 10, Cha 10, Wis 12, Str 8 (I think that's all). I have a raven familiar, but most of the time I forget it's there, because I don't really know when to use it. I'm True Neutral, because I couldn't be bothered choosing an alignment...well really, I couldn't think of anything that fit my character.

[Deepblue706]

I play everything.

Simultaneously.

[but never a Factotum, because they're silly]

[Kiero]

I will only play humans, and invariably males.

I'm playing a D&D4e game right now, my character is Blend, a former outlaw who learned how to be a decent man from Sunlord Lucius (the party's cleric). He's half-Rhegedmen and has been reconnecting with his barbarian family now he's in Icewind Dale.

Mechanically he's a two-weapon Ranger, who uses a pair of battleaxes. He kicks much arse, both at range (Twin Strike is neat even for a character who isn't optimised for range, when you've got a longbow) and up close.

I haven't played any edition of D&D before that since 1995, when I was GMing a lot of AD&D2e. Can't remember any of the characters I played back then.

[Kol Korran]

i have been a DM for as long as i can remember, so it's a nice change for me to finally be a player. nearly 30, and now i have my first character!

the character is nothing special- a human cleric of the goddess of strategy (the Red Knight from FR). but what i like about it is it's roleplay-
Bruthus is a young noble that ran from his duties at home to join a war his country was in. there he discovered his devotion to his goddess. the war ended, he got back home, but got restless, and sought out a new purpose, a new quest, a new meaning.

the guy plays quite opposite to many of the characters i used to play as a DM- he is fiarly good and chivalreous, but not to a stupid extent. i especially likes the following:

Burhtus tends to look at things for omens and hidden meaning. "everything has a reason" is not just a sentence to him. he ponders and analizes major occurances. he also debates these with his fellow companions (the other players like this. wouldn't have imposed on them) and notable others. i like the inner pondering befitting a person on it's spiritual quest.
Bruthus tries to use strategy, invoking the teachings of the Lady of Stratregy (actually sayings of Sun- Tzu). this... doesn't go as well as i'd like, since the adventure i'm in is more the type of "kick the door, fight opponenets, heal, kick another door..." type of thing. still nice when it does happen.
Bruthus is young, and is a noble. i like playing him as slightly naive to the ways of the world. this goes well with the other players in our group.
Bruthus was sort of chosen as the group's leader, something i haven't planned about. i love the roleplay opportunities it gives when dealing with different interests in the party. i play the calculated reasonable voice, but even that can get strained.
i play the buffer in combat, and the diviner and face outside of it. i love both roles- buffing enables me to make others shine or save them from harm, which is my role as strategist i think. and the divination spells just give so much room for roleplay (especially since i consider it's source to be divine).

damn, took too long. in short- i just love roleplaying Bruthus. i find quite a bit of depth and interest in this fairly simple concept. i know i know, nothing special, but still- thought to share.

[Jergmo]

I've pretty much become the main DM of my group of friends, but on rare occasions I actually get to play.

Villains: Serthisz Ker'laundr, Chaotic Evil Elf/Red Half-dragon Sorcerer, a character from a past campaign that was working with another half-dragon, a barbarian, to unite various dragonkin (mostly kobolds, because we didn't get too far before the campaign ended) to form an army.

Baldric Blackadder, Lawful Evil human Necromancer currently in a friend's campaign and Bastard Understudy (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.BastardUnderstudy) to the BBEG, secretly manipulating events to work against his mentor, because it turns out he's an insane avatar of a dead God and is kinda destroying the world as he knows it, which is bad for him, seeing as he lives on it. Actually, he might end up being a kind of Anti-hero more than a villain, though he is currently evil.

Neutral characters: Garrick (just Garrick), Chaotic Neutral ogre barbarian. He worked alongside my friend's human sharpshooter in a one-shot campaign, and while not very bright or charismatic (though a bit higher than the average ogre), he had fairly good wisdom and that made up for it in various situations. He had a short temper, and quickly became caught up in a conflict that led to the slaughtering of a town's militia, but it was a rather big misunderstanding (and a fair amount of the DM, someone new to our group, just being a big jerk). I didn't get much of a chance to play him for very long, but it was still a fun character to play, though I usually prefer to play sorcerers or rogues. I'm one of the DEX/INT/CHA folks.
The most memorable thing that happened with Garrick: Garrick ended up falling into a trap and was on his way up from a cave, his companions being human, so he was the only one that could see in the dark. The DM tried to make it all imposing and mysterious because they hadn't seen what happened to Garrick, so he said that they saw a hulking, ominous figure approaching from beneath the ground etc. etc. and Garrick, when he saw them, simply said "Oh, hi.", ruining the suspense.

Amer Gustavo, Chaotic Neutral halfling rogue. Now this was a fun character to play, and I'm usually not one for Chaotic Stupid but I think I made a rather decent character, actually. This character showed up in two different campaigns, and wherever he went chaos and baffling awesomeness followed. In the span of 10 minutes he stirred up an entire town into chaos, the first domino being rolling a barrel into the town constable who was getting after him over sticking the hands of two passed out drunks into each others' pants. He committed chaos for the lulz, and his combat antics ended up bordering on ridonkulous.
He's the only level 1 character known to have sniped an archer from 100 feet away with a single dart, and at another time he took out an entire gang of bandits single-handedly while the drivers of the caravan he was protecting just struggled to stay alive. He burst from a crate because they were anticipating an ambush and he wanted to be prepared, sneak attack stabbing a bandit in the face followed by backflipping off the wagon to fight another, simultaneously using him as a body shield against a couple of crossbow bolts. He then used a club-wielder as a body shield against the other, leading to his death and then a feint followed by a well-placed dagger sneak attack to the groin.
Speaking of the groin, a recent acquaintance of his was being taken out back by a bunch of drunks after she tried to pull off some of the same wacky antics as him messing with people, so he charged up to one of the guys who was facing away and leapt onto his back, sneak-attacking him while another friend of theirs took out another. They were down to one eventually who was prone, and now Amer is also the only level 1 character to kill someone by placing a critical hit sneak attack kick to the crotch. I'd go on, but wow this is a wall of text already. One of the quotes of Amer Gustavo: "Sometimes, my dear, all it takes to drive someone insane is the little things."
Edit: The other friend, a dwarf fighter specialized in grappling and unarmed attacks joined the party because Amer beat him in a bar fight with nothing but improvised weapons, though he also hit him with his crossbow like a club. The final blows were made with his waterskin. Yes, he beat him upside the head with his waterskin.

Aeivisa Ituror, Chaotic Neutral(has shifted between leaning towards Evil and Good, mostly Good at the moment) human rogue/swashbuckler. This is another character of mine that has sadly bounced around with campaigns that fall apart, an old character of mine from another game. She's been my Bad Girl, though I've not really brought focus to it and tried to introduce that into roleplaying much - partially because the friend whose campaign I played her in, as well as Amer, is kinda...creepy. I'll stop there, but luckily his attempts backfire reasonably when considering the personalities of my characters.
I've already sucked up a lot of space with my characters, so suffice to say, Aeivisa is intelligent, cunning, clever, and charismatic, and fairly well-rounded with her flaws, quirks, and qualities and loves sarcasm. Her cunning tactical mind and strong personality for leadership made her a recurring mercenary for a lieutenant in an empire's army, because frankly, she was a much better military mind, though in combat she was more comfortable with tactics than strategy and led a group of outlaws into enemy territory to bring forth havoc when the lieutenant wouldn't give her access to his scouts. She's been one of my favorite characters to play, and a lot has happened over the past couple years to develop who she is.

Ulaundr Illindil...I'm not entirely sure what his alignment should have been, really, but he was an elf wizard and my first character in D&D. He was entirely insane, an obsessive compulsive packrat, and deeply terrified the party's gnome bard with his Slasher Smile (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlasherSmile) and tendency to show up behind him conveniently when he brought up his concerns to the others about his demeanor. His eccentricities actually saved the party at one time, though, as one of his many jars of dirt (yes, among other things, he collected dirt) was thrown in the face of an ogre fighter that was the leader of a gang of bandits. Blinded and with jagged glass in its face, it was considerably easier to fight.

Good Characters: Swan (just Swan), Neutral Good human rogue. There's not a whole lot to say about Swan, she's been one of my more minor characters and wasn't used much. She was an orphan, not much else ended up in her backstory.

Kerwinna Tul'Arina, Neutral Good elf druid. This is another older character of mine from another game, and while Aeivisa is my Bad Girl, Kerwinna is my Good Girl, though she's not a Nun by a long shot. She ended up being a bit of a Mama Bear (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MamaBear) (except for the part about it being utterly terrifying), and her personality led some to believe that she was ditzy, but she was fairly intelligent and had a love for philosophy.
She was kind, compassionate, artistic and above all else loyal, and while she wanted to be a healer, her philosophy was that it was better to stand beside her friends in battle than stand behind them casting spells. One of the main quotes from her that a lot of folks remembered well and respected her for, when asked why she fought for the alliance of nations that she did when she doesn't feel beholden to its leaders, she said "I don't fight for the alliance, I fight for those who need to be protected."

Sorry that I've taken up so much space already, I've just been reminiscing and kept on typing. There are several I've left out. :smallredface:

Edit: *Cackles madly* Fear my links to tvtropes! You will never find your way out!

[OverdrivePrime]

I play the hero. Unless I'm DMing, I'm always the hero. Even if I start out as a sidekick or minor character, I wind up as a (or the) hero of the story.

I prefer skill & attribute point games (think Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Ars Magica, Immortal, etc) to level-based games (D&D, Palladium, etc), so when I do play D&D I'm usually a horrible amalgam of classes that I've picked from to try to get the character to do exactly what I want, rather than fit into the confines of one class.

I prefer to play the legendary ranger archetype - a man in tune with nature, whose fighting style blends savagery and tactical knowledge, and is usually able to perform some sort of elemental earth or plant-based magic. They're usually friends of the fey, and are surprisingly charismatic for a brawny forest-dweller.

In D&D, I used to try to make due with an amalgam of Ranger/Barbarian/Druid, but have lately really enjoyed the warblade class. Magic is great, but I prefer melee.

My current ideal character is something like a Ranger 1/Barbarian 1/WuJen 4/Warblade 2/Jade Phoenix Mage 10, with a heavy focus on Diplomacy and Nature-oriented skills. Not the most efficient or powerful character at level 20, but he does what I want him to do. :smallcool:

[Jergmo]

Artanis' post reminded me of a theory I have about why players tend to pick their favorite classes and races: I've noticed that players often pick things that are opposite of their real life selves. For example a college gamer buddy of mine played gnome archers almost exclusively; and this buddy was a big guy, vertically and horizontally, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a sniper rifle. (Except when he was intoxicated, oddly enough.)

I dunno, theories like that don't work as often as folks would like to think. I'm not a genius, but I am (jeebus I don't want to sound like an arrogant jerk here) quite intelligent, charming and have a strong personality. I don't really play my opposite most of the time, I end up putting pieces of myself in many of my characters, though it happened unintentionally. I tend to think a lot of people do that, actually.

[LibraryOgre]

I tend to play the Beta, moving into the Alpha when we don't have one. Most of my characters tend to be support/knowledge based, able to provide information that can help the party, and direction when needed. If we don't have a strong Alpha in the party, I tend to slide up there by making suggestions, rather than taking command.

[Kiero]

Artanis' post reminded me of a theory I have about why players tend to pick their favorite classes and races: I've noticed that players often pick things that are opposite of their real life selves. For example a college gamer buddy of mine played gnome archers almost exclusively; and this buddy was a big guy, vertically and horizontally, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a sniper rifle. (Except when he was intoxicated, oddly enough.)

Nah, I'm a human who always plays humans (if they're not in the setting, I won't play, not interested in non-human characters). And they're often athletic types, just like me. I don't play hulking brutes, or skinny rakes.

They're not avatars of me, but they're never opposites or wildly different.

[Artanis]

Are you by any chance lacking in the hand-eye coordination department?

Nah, my hand-eye coordination is pretty decent.

I didn't just mean tabletop RPGs. I mostly played a Rogue in Diablo, Amazon in D2, bow-user in Morrowind, etc.

[quillbreaker]

I play a half-elven slacker named Muragail. Before he was an adventurer he wandered all over the land doing whatever he felt like. He spent some years out in the dwarfish lands learning to climb mountains. He did an apprenticeship at a mage's guild. He learned to make bows, crossbows and arrows.

One day he was moving from one fully grown bar tab to find a place to grow a new one and he came across a fellow half-elf from his class at the academy, who had some things to do that needed doing. And from there, they rode north into a land which, unbeknownst to them, was soon to have some serious problems with some very unnatural, very cold weather.

Statistically, Muragail is a fighter/thief/transmuter, currently 2/2/1. His primary offense is a longbow. His primary thief areas are climb walls and move silently. Due to finding a ring of wizardry (1st) in a roll on the random treasure table, he has a stupid number of first level spells - I've done some things with Feather Fall and Unseen Servant which quite liked.