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the clumsy bard
2010-10-25, 03:20 PM
As the thread says I have 3 character concepts.

The campaign I am currently in is rapidly nearing its inevitable conclusion. We as characters are levels 20-23. Epic game at this point.

Once the game ends we are going to start a new campaign DMed by one of the current players. The new DM is a very good story teller and I quite enjoyed being in another one of his games for a couple of years. This particular DM enjoys roleplaying and doesn't particularly allow massive optimization (read millions of prestige classes and every source available) He is also a long time friend and I would like to make things easy on him. Therefore I am going to post 3 short character concepts and would like anyone who reads this to give me their opinion on the ideas and if its viable.

Unfortunately, so far my friend the DM to be hasn't given us any idea what kind of world the campaign will take place in. He has however told me that the more interesting the character concept the more he can fit the character in. As said before he is much more about the story and roleplay then the numbers.

Also keep in mind that the main idea of two of the concepts is similar, but the class chosen is very different. That way it will vary the roleplaying experience in that way.

Concept # 1

An orc who is captured by another orc tribe. Orc tribes are known to take other orcs who they consider weak (after defeating them) as prisoners of war, so to speak. Orc will be played as prisoner (OMG eh!) who will hook up with another character who was taken prisoner (spoken to another player about this)

The orc will be a practitioner of Capoeira
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira

to see it in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YerdFjHX_CE&p=2292C94D3E1F1F68&playnext=1&index=12

not the greatest of examples, but one some people may have seen already.

In any case the character will escape with the aid of other prisoners (including the other pc)

However the dm has us meet, my character and the other pc will be companions (building an existing history)

My character will only speak to the other pc and thus the other pc will be the voice of my character to others.

That said I believe monk is the obvious choice for character.

Concept # 2

An orc who is captured by another orc tribe. Orc tribes are known to take other orcs who they consider weak (after defeating them) as prisoners of war, so to speak. Orc will be played as prisoner (OMG eh!) who will hook up with another character who was taken prisoner (spoken to another player about this)

The character comes from a tribe of Orcs known for their connection with magic and who are great craftsman. The other tribe destroyed them because of fear, but kept him as prisoner in hopes he would make things for them. After many refusals, the other orc tribe cuts off his arms.

Over many years he will make a bond with another prisoner (read other pc) and will instruct the pc on how to create arms for him. ( a little ironman-ish but hey...) Insert warforged arms (graft) and then the orc will escape with the other prisoner (pc)

Artificer Orc (will play general and decide whether or not to go the meleeficer, blastificer or hordeficer route.


Concept # 3

This one is pretty straight forward, but it's an interesting twist on a normal character concept.

A Paladin. Race doesn't really matter.

The twist? Playing lawful good as a member of an evil church.

How does this work you say?

Person is raised to believe said evil God is really a benevolent deity who is good and virtuous.

Example a LG paladin who is spreading the good will of insert evil god's name here (Hextor, Vecna, etc...)


Again these are general concepts and I have yet to really develop the backgrounds as I tend to go over and beyond and would like to first know which one sounds the most interesting / entertaining

Thanks in advance

Sitzkrieg
2010-10-25, 04:06 PM
My character will only speak to the other pc and thus the other pc will be the voice of my character to others. This is a little worrisome for me. Would you really enjoy not speaking to anyone at the table besides one PC? Even so, isn't that an unnecessary burden for that player and for the others who would want to speak to your character? This just seems like an unnecessary burden tacked onto an otherwise solid concept.

Besides that one thing, I like one and two the best. I see the third one as being a struggle for the DM, who will have to adjudicate whether evil actions performed by a 'good' hero are worthy of falling or not. Perhaps the concept could be pulled off more easily in a character whose powers aren't directly related to religious service, like a wizard or something else totally unrelated. The god of the character could still define the roleplaying, but this would make it a lot easier if your DM does decide that your evil actions should change your alignment.

nedz
2010-10-25, 05:37 PM
I have to second the reservations about the mute idea.
It sounds like a really cool concept until you try and role-play it. I had a member of my group play a mute in LARP, it was very hard. All RPGs are aided by communication.

I'm not sure the paladin idea works. IMHO many LE types behave as they do because they believe that they are doing the right thing (due to honour/ideology/etc), so a Paladin of an evil deity would be LE. There are plenty of varient paladin classes you could take to fill this.
One varient which might work however is if you were LG/Nieve and so went with your plan, expecting (OOC) to fall into Blackguard/whatever when you (inevitably) fall from grace. Although I'm not sure how you attain a state of grace in the first place whilst following an evil deity ?

Dizlag
2010-10-25, 05:46 PM
Regarding the third concept, as others mentioned you will give your DM a bit more to worry about going that route. However, you could flavor your background as being a LG paladin from an evil deity who fell. A paladin who fell from an evil deity's graces only to be lifted back up by a good deity. The evil cult was in your past and you're trying to run from it or just keep it in your past as a secret. This would give the DM a chance to mess with you create some adventure hooks specifically tied to your character. :smallbiggrin:

Good luck!

Dizlag

Dark_Nohn
2010-10-25, 08:51 PM
C1: Instead of Monk, working up to Fist of the Forests is a good way to get some unarmed damage-style characters without being tied to the monk class, you could work towards shadowdancer, and use all of the dance-related combat maneuvers and feats for more Capoeira-like character than usual for the monk image.

C2:
MM2: Half-golem - works like grafts.

C3:
If he nixes the paladin of an evil deity and you still want to play this route, Wee Jas is looking for a few good smiters to bring all of that lovey-dovey lawful good death to evil. Also, for roleplaying implications, this paladin could work at (or have worked at) a funeral home.

mucat
2010-10-25, 09:24 PM
I would say #3 is strongly world-dependent, which is a problem since you don't yet know much about the DM's world.

In a world like Eberron, where alignments are grey and the gods are distant presences who may or may not actually exist, an honorable paladin of an evil religion could well exist; hell, it's not even unusual there. But if it's a setting where divine magic and paladin-like powers flow unambiguously from known gods, it's hard to imagine an evil deity empowering a good paladin in the first place.


On #1, I would agree with what most others have said: give careful consideration to the whole selective-muteness idea. If you're not sure it's something everyone at the table would find fun, then don't do it. Other players might feel that you're impeding the flow of the game, just to indulge a quirk that's not really necessary for the character to work.

BenTheJester
2010-10-25, 11:32 PM
Concept #3 is nothing new, plenty of LG paladins spread the word of the most evil, secretive and evil deity; Pelor.

the clumsy bard
2010-10-26, 08:42 AM
Thanks everyone.

Concept # 1 - He's not mute, but rather speaks an older variant of Orc then the other characters would understand, except the friend, who perhaps I should have said from the beginning likes to talk, and will take what I say and interpret it his own way etc... believe me though he likes to talk... its not essential, the quirk is more to stop me from talking... I have a tendency to do this way too much.

Concept # 2 is more then likely to stick to warforged arm grafts... half golem while fitting the bill is more then likely a little too overpowered for the DM of this upcoming game. Still a very good suggestion though.


Concept # 3 was more of a back up concept to the first 2 concepts in all honesty and something I wondered about having never played something like that, so thank you for the feedback its all been very helpful.

mucat
2010-10-26, 08:59 AM
Concept #1 is sounding a lot better to me now, for several reasons. You've clearly thought through how the character's mode of speech will affect the dynamics at the table; if you think it will be a good thing, then by all means give it a shot. I also like the "archaic orcish dialect" explanation better than what I thought you meant, which was "too traumatized to talk with anyone but his trusted friend." The latter version would run a strong risk of coming off as sullen and passive-aggressive, and might also make other players uncomfortable because of the constant reminder of his past trauma.

Plus, if he simply doesn't understand modern Orcish or Human tongues, you can have him learn them over time, at whatever rate seems best for the game. And a character who kind of speaks the others' language can make for some great roleplay moments (as he confuses similar words, forgets key words like "dragon" at the worst possible moment, and takes idioms and metaphors perfectly literally at first. Just don't let him turn into a mean-spirited "ignorant foreigner" stereotype.)

Also, the other two seem a little gimmicky ("This guy is interesting because he made himself mechanical arms, and this guy is interesting because of unusual alignment dynamics") while #1 sounds like he could simply be he's interesting. The language issue is a small detail of his character, not the central theme he's designed around.

the clumsy bard
2010-10-26, 09:23 AM
The over time plan was to have the character learn and actually understand the others languages and maybe after a heated argument or very large discussion have him give his 2 cents in a very intelligent logical manner.

The hope here being to surprise the other characters.

Stupid orc isn't actually so stupid.

Prime32
2010-10-26, 10:16 AM
There's some Eberron material (in Secrets of Sarlona and Races of Eberron) which could help with capoeira. Most of it is kalashtar-specific, but since it's a cultural restriction you should be able to get around it. Some of the material is psionics-related, which is good since it fits a Tashalatora build.

Apart from that there's Roundabout Kick/Circle Kick (can't remember the name) which lets you make a free unarmed attack when you crit, and Snap Kick from ToB which is a sort of flurry.

Capoeira has a lot of sweeping strikes, so war mind (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/warMind.htm) might be a good fit, or warblade with some Iron Heart maneuvers which strike multiple squares.

Sir Swindle89
2010-10-26, 11:52 AM
concept 1 IS a battle dancer (base class from the dragon Compendium) like even fluff wise you should take a look at it.