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Snake-Aes
2010-08-25, 02:45 PM
My next set of adventures involves a traveling priest (d&d cleric) in the forgotten realms setting.
She's LG and worships Kelemvor, and mostly travels alone, occasionally taking on assignments from her old tutors as an exorcist.

Story's sketch:

From the day she was born, everyone was worried with her skin's unnatural white tone (similar to this (http://www.redcathedral.be/aztek-tv/gallery/review/2008/10-oktober/15/cthulhutechvademecumwhitexenomorph.JPG)). This was always a concern to her due to prejudice, gossip and her parents' superstitions.
A few years after her father died, she got infatuated with a traveling merchant and left to marry him. She was never welcome in her new home's city, but her husband's father was kind to her and life was good. Eventually she had a son with her husband, too.
On the day the kid completed 1 year old things went bad. She was awakened by a scream of rage that was interrupted by a gurgle. She ran to her son's bedroom to find both the kid and her father-in-law dead, stabbed by her husband. He attacked her and she only survived because he missed and lost his footing, and she managed to push him downstairs.
When other servants arrived, the scene they saw was of the woman in bloody vests, examining the kid as if not believing it died.
They assumed she was the murderer, and the only thing she could do was to flee with the kid's corpse.

Later that day she buried her son and wandered hopeless.
Eventually she met a priest of kelemvor whose wisdom gave her something to cling to, giving her comfort and purpose.
--------------
Inbetween that and the game's beginning, nearly 20 years have passed, and she never discovered why her husband did those things, and didn't try to discover a second time because she feared the populace would try to kill her.

Her husband's motivations are left unclear on purpose.
She travels without settling for too long anywhere, attending to whatever duties a priest usually has in the cities she stops by.

And most importantly, I am unsure on parts of her personality. The only things I'm sure of is that
1) she'll have a weary countenance whenever she is doing her priestly duties with the dead
2) her care for her duties is subtle, but unswerving
3) she is pleasing to casually chat, and is open, if ineloquent about her past.

But how does she view the daily life? How does she spend her free time? Did she get over the fear/prejudice most folk have because of her odd skin tone?

Adumbration
2010-08-25, 02:57 PM
You know, I might imagine her as having accepted what has happened - or at least so she believes. In other words, I would give her a pragmatic, solid, maybe almost cheery outlook on life, but so that she hasn't actually dealt with the issues of the past, merely put them behind her, thus doing anything necessary to keep past as a past, even to the point of ignoring new facts concerning the events unless pushed.

I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job of presenting what I have in mind. :/

Drakefall
2010-08-25, 05:57 PM
Kelemvor's teachings do tend to promote acceptance. It would make sense that she's moved on from the past. Since she's LG and a priest of Kelemvor I'd expect her to be very comforting towards those who have suffered loss and such.

So she's moved on... unless something regarding the incedent crops up. If that happens she would liekly become melancholy or terribly angry and emotional depending on the specific information. It may have turned out that her husband was mind-controlled by a rival merchant-wizard, and she somehow gains this knowledge and comes face to face with the wizard in question. What would she do in this situation? Maintain a degree of composure and meet out justice in appropriate LG style? Or perhaps she'll fly into an angry rage fueled by years of bottled up tears and do anything to make the wizard pay.

HunterOfJello
2010-08-25, 06:47 PM
The Player's Handbook 2 has lots of good suggestions on character archetypes, backgrounds and personality traits that you can match up and fit a character in to.


The PHB2's Wanderer archetype would match up well with this character along with maybe the Martyr, Prophet, Companion or Simple Soul.

A Wanderer is assigned the personality trait of Peaceful, which could match her character well. She could focus on using Diplomacy to deal with situations and try to avoid lethal combat except when necessary.

~

The darker part of her personality could take the form of a Martyr who takes risks and attempts to help others at any cost because she cares so very little for her own life.

Or perhaps she turned towards the path of a Prophet and has fully dedicated herself to her god seeing herself as the voice of her god, Kelemvor. This could have been created from the trauma of seeing her family members die, or from completely dedicating herself to Kelemvor more than anyone else in recent times.

The Companion archetype is always a party favorite. A perosn who is loyal and has a past connection to other party members which binds that loyalty is always favorable.

Simple Souls are good too. Perhaps when the character is fully distracted she regains a large portion of her old personality and is much more easy going. However, stress could bring the new, colder personality out just as easily.

~

There are lots tons of options for the player and the better the player sets up the character, the more fun she could be to play.

Hallavast
2010-08-25, 07:44 PM
Perhaps she's a bit like Wynne from Dragonage Origins. Is she maybe a bit older than the other party members? Perhaps she sees one or more of them as "substitutes" for her lost child. As a result, she might be motherly and overprotective of them. At the same time she might have a tendancy to be judgemental of their choices and may from time to time give lectures on morality, duty, faith, and hygiene. She doesn't sound like the overbearing sort, so these tendancies would be better presented with subtlety.

Snake-Aes
2010-08-25, 09:31 PM
Perhaps she's a bit like Wynne from Dragonage Origins. Is she maybe a bit older than the other party members? Perhaps she sees one or more of them as "substitutes" for her lost child. As a result, she might be motherly and overprotective of them. At the same time she might have a tendancy to be judgemental of their choices and may from time to time give lectures on morality, duty, faith, and hygiene. She doesn't sound like the overbearing sort, so these tendancies would be better presented with subtlety.

Very likely, given she's nearly 40. Only the elf should surpass her age.
Her rage is not driven physically. When she's upset, she curses almost inaudibly and when she's actually "angry enough to emasculate barbarians", she's more likely to drive into a catatonic stupor than lifting her spear.

devinkowalczyk
2010-08-25, 09:33 PM
A thing I do with my characters is isolate a part of myself (or a part I am missing) and try and play off of that.
Power hungry. Easy Going. Destructive. Manipulative. Good.

erikun
2010-08-25, 09:38 PM
Perhaps a sad cheerfulness? Someone who doesn't display much emotion, but is quick to give a smile when she thinks someone needs it. It could stem either from feeling emotionally drained after dealing with the relatives of the dead all day, or perhaps she has just distanced herself from her emotions after her son died.

As an aside, it sounds like she'd be a Cloistered Cleric more than a standard Cleric.

Serpentine
2010-08-25, 11:34 PM
Sounds like a pretty great basis for a character already. Here's my cheat-sheet again, anyways:

- Fears. What is she afraid of? Can be a full-blown phobia, or a more subtle dread or ickiness. I've seen one character with a phobia of undead, and another with a dread of letting anyone down who she could have helped.
- Fetishes. What does she have a thing for? Could be a full-blown -philia (not necessarily recommended), or just something she particularly likes. I've seen a character with a real weakness for nymphs, and another with a fondness for ginger ale.
- Short-term goals. What does she want to accomplish in, say, the next few months?
- Long-term goals. What does she want to do before she dies?
- Virtues. What makes her a good person?
- Vices. What makes her a bad person?