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View Full Version : [PF] Odd character concept - The Ditzy Necromancer



TheMinxTail
2010-04-12, 06:02 AM
So I have this idea for a character that I thought I'd draw up for my sister (we're fourth level and she still hasn't learned the rules well enough to make a character yet - she's not dumb, just lazy). I was hoping that maybe if I made it a fun and intresting addition to the team (secondary characters are a hassle, but I only have two players at the moment), she'd get her head in gear enough to really play the game - just in time for the adventure climax too (I was thinking the commander of the enemy orc army should be a Rakhasa in disguise, but tht's neither here nor there). Though I am a somewhat inexperienced DM, so I'd appreciate help with the rules. I know I easily can - because I know the rules and supplements best out of the group - just say 'it is this way because the DM says so - and I'm the GOD here', but I prefer to stick to existing rules for now, if only because they're usually more comprehensive than the things that I say.

So anyway, enough preface, the character goes something like this; a complete idiot of a dark cleric. I mean, 'are you sure I NEED more than negative three skill points?' supid (and yeah, I know the minimum is one/level). Chaotic Neutral alignment - hell, maybe even Good, but still using negative energy. And a crow taht tells her what to do - the voice of evil in her head taht tells her to cast animate dead 40 or 50 times to make plaguespreader zombie crows and unleash them upon the enemy army (Vile Warfare: Murder of Crows) so that any foe that falls rises as an undead monster that she can Command. IE the one taht she's too stupid to not obey or realise is the master, not servant. Her niche with the PCs would be to help them because she lacks the intellect to live independantly after being seperated from her demonic crow companion, and too stupid to realise that as a raiser of dead, she might be threatened by teh groups Paladin if she hangs around too long. I know this is somewhat rambling, but my thoughht processes tend to be until brought to a head. Oh yeah, and we're playing Pathfinder.

So far, my ideas go something like; Human Cleric 5 (Death and Chaos Domains); WIS 20, CON 14, STR 10, DEX 9, CHA 14, INT 5; Feats: Command Unded, Improved Turning, Extra Turning, Spell Focus (necromancy).

I am willing to use material outside of Pathfinder, of course. This is just something I thought up with core rules in a mere couple of minutes. Tell me what you guys think. Thanks for reading.

eepop
2010-04-12, 04:04 PM
I don't know your sister, but be careful that you don't elicit a response of:
"Fine, I don't want to play your dumb game then."

If thats the character she wants to play, then great. But you are treading on dangerous ground when you make a character like that for someone else to play. I could very much see her seeing that and thinking you are making fun of her or that you don't want her to play with you.

iamstillwater
2010-04-12, 04:13 PM
I'm a complete newb to RPing and such, but I have to ask...

Isn't part of the fun of having a RP session creating your own character, rather than giving someone a premade, even an amusing premade like you have?

She might not want to make the character now, but if you're impatient and give her something she doesn't want, then you might just alienate her.

Why not suggest general ideas, and help her create her character with her by describing what that character would play like, so she can imagine it in her head and make a choice for herself?

eepop
2010-04-12, 04:18 PM
I usually ask first what the new person's favorite fantasy/movie/comicbook characters are. Then I try to find the common thread and make something similar.

First time roleplayers generally seem to want more to recreate the essence of the characters they have enjoyed before. In my experience people tend to start enjoying the "quirky" odd concepts once they have sufficiently played their favorites.

shadow_archmagi
2010-04-12, 04:21 PM
General rule: If they don't think that designing and customizing a character to be just the way they want is fun, they probably don't want to play D&D.

Almost everyone I know who started off as "You know I really can't be bothered with this NUMBERS and RULES crap, could you just do all that for me?" very quickly degraded into

"I am really bored because combat boring and talking is boring and man this is the worst game can we watch a movie?"

eepop
2010-04-13, 11:21 AM
I disagree Shadow. In an old playgroup I had in high school, the guys house who we played at had his whole family play with us.

Father, Mother, and Sister. None of them made their own character mechanically, they told us a rough idea of what they wanted to play, we made it for them, and they played with us for many years.

They were often times more into the game than some of the people who did love playing with all the fiddily bits of making a character.

We also have had people just like you describe, but I would disagree that there is any correlation with their desire to mess with the mechanics of making a character.

RagnaroksChosen
2010-04-13, 11:24 AM
I usually ask first what the new person's favorite fantasy/movie/comicbook characters are. Then I try to find the common thread and make something similar.

First time roleplayers generally seem to want more to recreate the essence of the characters they have enjoyed before. In my experience people tend to start enjoying the "quirky" odd concepts once they have sufficiently played their favorites.

I disagree it realy depends I have had first time roleplayers that get over welmed making a cahracter and ususaly hit at wanting us to make it or flat out having us want to make it.

Riffington
2010-04-13, 11:33 AM
Father, Mother, and Sister. None of them made their own character mechanically, they told us a rough idea of what they wanted to play, we made it for them, and they played with us for many years.

They were often times more into the game than some of the people who did love playing with all the fiddily bits of making a character.



This. So everyone should make their own character. But making a character means making a personality and general history. The exact mechanical details you can do for her, but bounce the "dumb necromancer" concept off her - she may like it, or may prefer to make up her own archetype. And then you can do the fiddly bits for her, that part's fine.

Lost Wanderer
2010-04-13, 04:06 PM
@OP: Run the character concept by her. In fact, get a concept for a character she'd be interested in out of her, and make something to represent that. It is not a good idea to throw weird concepts at new players if you don't already know they'd like it.

That said, I'd play that character in a heartbeat. She sounds fantastic. Though with a Wisdom that high, I'd say she's completely capable of taking care of herself, and further is aware of the fact she's bad at certain kinds of thinking. Therefore, with her normal Int-thinker gone, she seeks out help in that department and finds the party. She sounds like there's more to her than meets the eye, really.


General rule: If they don't think that designing and customizing a character to be just the way they want is fun, they probably don't want to play D&D.

I too have to chime in with a counterexample. I have a friend who hates character building. He rushes through it as quickly as he can, just so he's done, and often makes poor mechanical decisions in the process. In 3.X he largely eschewed spellcasters because he didn't want to have to bother with picking spells, and in 4th he seemed vexed that a Fighter took as long to make as any other class when he tried to make a simple character in a hurry. Character building on the mechanical end just annoys him.

But you hand him a pregen with a sketch of a personality and a background, and he will flesh it out and make it his own. And he'll do it quickly, and it'll be interesting and he'll really enjoy both doing that and actually roleplaying the character. We went to a convention recently, and both of the pregens he got he took in directions the GM didn't expect, but realized it was a totally viable way to interpret and play the character.

Some people like designing characters mechanically, others like building and fleshing out concepts and personalities, some prefer the improv acting aspects of getting a character outline and rolling with it. While the last type is less likely to like D&D, there are plenty of other RPGs they'd like, and there's no reason at all the second type couldn't enjoy D&D.