My character is bland, and I want to make him interesting.

[RndmNumGen]

Over the past couple sessions, I've noticed that my current Pathfinder character seems rather bland. He's a Lv6 NG Gnome Wizard who, like many adventurers, was originally stricken by wanderlust and wants to travel and... that's... it. So my character can really be boiled down to "I want to travel, help people and learn stuff. Woo." I've been wanting to change things up a little to make him more interesting to roleplay, but I'm not exactly sure which direction I want to go in...

The events thus far(kinda long):

Several years ago he was taken as a slave on his travels and forced to work in a coal mine. After several years of this, a fallen paladin who was trying to atone attacked the slave camp and freed him and several others, who upon joining forces, formed into an adventuring party that started a slave revolt and overthrew the leadership. After this event, we traveled to the closest city in order to delay progress of an army to the slave camp, which resulted in us being captured by church officials. After some ordeal, we were sent into an underground ruin, only to awake a day later outside of the ruin, not remembering anything but having found shiny new loot(and EXP). Events in the ruin caused our characters to be drawn to certain places across the world, so we set off towards the nearest one.

We then arrived at a temple that was once something else, but had been desecrated and converted to what appeared to be an abandoned temple of Nerull. Here we encountered another group of individuals claiming to be researching the ruins and were followers of Boccob. We believed them, up until the point they started engaging in ritual sacrifice and demon summoning. We then attacked them and after a difficult battle, forced the evil mages to flee while their lackeys lay bleeding at our feet(we were able to save one's life, who turned around and is serving us now).

We then proceeded into the temple and found out it's not quite so abandoned after all. We killed an evil cleric in a very difficult fight and then while resting, were attacked by ghosts. This caused us to flee the temple and, on our return, found another group of individuals who claimed to be here to purge the temple of evil. They ended up closing some sort of portal to Hell(Good), only to start taking slaves and throwing hellfire around shortly after(Bad Bad Bad). We attacked them then, and following another very difficult fight, killed the evil summoner before her Eidolon grabber her corpse and flew off. We had our own casualty though, as the party rogue succumbed to hellfire.

This led up to us traveling to the nearest town to get our friend raised. We were able to do this, then about a week later found out there was an army of gnolls on the way to siege the town. We tried to go sneak into the camp and take out their leadership, but failed, and though we were able to cause a good deal of chaos and confusion, I don't think it's significant enough to change the outcome of the upcoming battle much.

So there you go - the story up to this point. As I said, I want to have my character evolve to become more deep, have stronger motivations, and in general be more interesting. However, I'm not sure if his experience as a slave would make him want to be more of a freedom fighter, or if the suffering he has seen would make him more dedicated to helping others, or if recent events would make him feel the need to be more ruthless. I really don't know what to do with him, given he doesn't have much of a base to start with. What does the Playground think would be more interesting? Does anyone have any other ideas?

[Elasair]

Give him a mohawk.

[Jay R]

When he was enslaved, only the paladin would help. He should now be fiercely loyal to his teammates, and insistent that slaves should be saved. He is also contemptuous of those who will not fight to end slaves.

This town, for instance. If they aren't preparing to fight the gnolls, why should you? Let the cowards flee. (Don't worry about losing the XP - the paladin will insist on fighting them. But your wizard should question why these people are worth it.)

You should be willing to help people who have had a tragedy and are working to overcome it, or are too hurt to do so, but not people who are unwilling to help themselves.

Also, he's been captured by church officials, lied to by demon summoners, fought an evil cleric, and then worked with a so-called "good" religious-based party that turned out to be slavers. He should be very wary of any cleric, or anyone claiming to serve any god. (Again, the paladin will deal with them, so this will add color to the party, rather than change the action.)

But if he suspects a place of holding slaves, he will be adamant about freeing them, and will berate the paladin for not being good enough if he has another goal.

Finally, if you plan to use the paladin to play off of, let the player know. The game is more fun if you are both playing it, and he needs to know when you are actually trying to change the party's goals (when slavers are near) and when you're just adding character flavor (dealing with priests).

[hamishspence]

While this fits well with the Bytopia ethos given on Mimir.net:

The Equalitarian - Bytopia

Character

All beings are born equal. You make your own fate. Only by toiling and hard graft can you elevate yourself. Work well in all things, and you will achieve what you deserve. Life is an auction, and those who bid the highest stakes will reap the greatest rewards. Help others, but help them to help themselves first. Charity is worthless if those who you aid don't take steps to improve themselves. If someone is willing to make an effort then they deserve as much help as you can give. There is no room for free-loaders or slackers, and do not feel guilty about their fate - they chose it for themselves.

Contradiction

Equalitarians maybe don't always see the whole picture. Perhaps your fate isn't entirely controllable by your own hand; some sods just have hard lives. Other have bad luck. Can you control whether you're handsome or ugly as sin? An equalitarian would just shrug and say: 'Probably. Try harder'. That's a little cold sometimes, when all a body's looking for is a handout to see him through the night. Why should folk have to try and fit in to a society which doesn't treat them right, anyway? Are there enough jobs to go round? What if you don't know anything useful? What if you're crippled or insane; how then do you make yourself useful to society?

it might be interesting to diverge somewhat from that in one manner or another.

There's also other ways to personalize him- who/what does he dislike most? who/what does he like most? What are his hobbies? Quirks?

[RndmNumGen]

When he was enslaved, only the paladin would help. He should now be fiercely loyal to his teammates, and insistent that slaves should be saved. He is also contemptuous of those who will not fight to end slaves.

This town, for instance. If they aren't preparing to fight the gnolls, why should you? Let the cowards flee. (Don't worry about losing the XP - the paladin will insist on fighting them. But your wizard should question why these people are worth it.)

You should be willing to help people who have had a tragedy and are working to overcome it, or are too hurt to do so, but not people who are unwilling to help themselves.

Also, he's been captured by church officials, lied to by demon summoners, fought an evil cleric, and then worked with a so-called "good" religious-based party that turned out to be slavers. He should be very wary of any cleric, or anyone claiming to serve any god. (Again, the paladin will deal with them, so this will add color to the party, rather than change the action.)

But if he suspects a place of holding slaves, he will be adamant about freeing them, and will berate the paladin for not being good enough if he has another goal.

Finally, if you plan to use the paladin to play off of, let the player know. The game is more fun if you are both playing it, and he needs to know when you are actually trying to change the party's goals (when slavers are near) and when you're just adding character flavor (dealing with priests).

Cool, thanks. I really like the suspicion towards religious figures - though a casual worshiper himself, I can easily see him being wary towards those claiming to represent one deity or another due to previous events.

[Omeganaut]

Give him a flaw. It doesn't have to be mechanical, just something that causes his character to have trouble dealing with a certain state of mind, or an outside influence. And don't make it so that he can't overcome his flaw, just that he'd rather not. You could have him be claustrophobic due to working in the coal mines. Or afraid of fire, due to the coal going up and his multiple encounters with demons. You could give him a slight Napoleon complex, or make him uncomfortable around women. If your character is boring, that's because he's missing a mental problem that makes him different. Whenever there is a conversation, have your character reason out a reaction, and then impact the conversation from his own perspective. If you notice him moving in a weird direction, encourage it and create uniqueness. It is easier at creation, but I'm sure you can think of more quirks by yourself even in the middle of a campaign.

[DabblerWizard]

The various events you've been describing could each have a significant impact on the character's views. Depending on how introspective he is, you might decide that he's significantly impacted by just one event, or only starts believing in a cause after repeated exposures to an injustice.

You could of course make him impervious to the events taking place around him, but cold and indifferent might not be too far from aimless.

Sticking with his various slave experiences, your character might decide that he wants to free all slaves. He becomes a medieval abolitionist, striving to end undue suffering and disenfranchisement.

You have to decide how powerful this motivation is. Would he rather ignore a pending gnoll attack if it meant he had a chance to free slaves elsewhere? That would certainly mean he's got a very strong motivation to free slaves.

[SuperFerret]

Give him a flaw. It doesn't have to be mechanical, just something that causes his character to have trouble dealing with a certain state of mind, or an outside influence. And don't make it so that he can't overcome his flaw, just that he'd rather not. You could have him be claustrophobic due to working in the coal mines. Or afraid of fire, due to the coal going up and his multiple encounters with demons. You could give him a slight Napoleon complex, or make him uncomfortable around women. If your character is boring, that's because he's missing a mental problem that makes him different. Whenever there is a conversation, have your character reason out a reaction, and then impact the conversation from his own perspective. If you notice him moving in a weird direction, encourage it and create uniqueness. It is easier at creation, but I'm sure you can think of more quirks by yourself even in the middle of a campaign.

Just a note: Discuss the mental problem with your DM and group and make it a functional one. Had a friend make a functionally insane elf who thought he was a halfling (or possibly a duck) for a campaign I ran. He's still one of my favorite characters, but not everyone in the group appreciated his antics.

[BlueInc]

Also: Backstory. What friends, enemies, family, pets, employers, etc. does your character have? What type of situation did he (I'm assuming) grow up in? What was he taught, and how did he interpret it (believed it, rejected it, took what he liked)?

Why does your character know the spells he does? Why is he good at the skills he's trained in? Examples: If he has a high Knowledge (The Planes), does he always enjoy learning about things different than him, or does he have a desire for power from other places? If he has a high Concentration, does that mean that he's more accepting of people and disturbances or does that mean he cuts himself off from others easily?

Lots of things to think about :D

[subject42]

You could also play up the Bleaching (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Bleaching).

As a slave, he would be required to do difficult, repetitive, mind-numbing work. That's exactly the kind of thing that can cause the Bleaching in Pathfinder gnomes.

He might spend every night staring in a mirror, trying to figure out if the slavery started the bleaching. Is he starting to grow pale? Can he stop it? What will he have to do to stop it?

Mania would kick in, along with risk taking and other odd behavior.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Well you are a gnome, and a wizard at that. Obtain a Rod of Wonder and slowly drive yourself insane with it and its crazy randomness.

But in all seriousness, go into depth about the slave thing. Being a slave is a major part of a person, they don't just bounce back from being someones property with no mental scars or emotional baggage.

[Larpus]

Also, ask yourself: sure, he went to see the world, but what was his ultimate goal?

Was he on a self discovery voyage to find what was his place in the world?
Did he find it?
Does he have a purpose now?

Did he just want to see all the places in the world?
If so, how did he learn of such places? Legends? Bards? Family members who once adventured?
Also, is he still interested in this? Or does he want to settle down now?

Or maybe he wanted power?
But for what end?
To rule with iron fists? To be a powerful good samaritan?
Does he go after more power with passion or he simply takes what goes his way?

And he was slaved, put in a situation where he couldn't do anything to help himself and had to rely on outside help showing up so his life could change for the better, so maybe now he wants to do the same, travel around going from evil kingdom to evil kingdom overthrowing kings and governants in hopes to make the world a better place?
Or maybe he thinks he is a better candidate and now wants to take over an evil kingdom and turn it around into a prosper and peaceful place?

Also, will he ever go back to his hometown?
Or he prefers to die among his travel companions wherever that may be?
Does he want to start a family? Or traveling with friends is his ideal of happiness?

Those are all simple questions that you can answer and think about in order to make a more fleshed-out character.

For example, one of my favorite characters was this Wizard whose goal was to become Archmage of the kingdom, however, to do so he either needed to study and work his ass off in the academy for be able to maybe get that tittle on his 60's or adventure around and gather honor and praise, he chose the latter.

Then, he would jump to the opportunity to do good left and right, but for more selfish reasons since he was more interested in the recognition that would come from that than actually helping those people (not that he was an ass while doing that, just that his focus wasn't the sole well-being of everyone).

However, eventually he came around the possibility of becoming underling of one of his old academy teachers, who was appointed as one of the possible next archmages, but for that he would leave his group, so he ultimately decided to keep adventuring, now wandering the world to gather knowledge and, once he's too old to adventure, found an arcane academy to his name.