What was the WEIRDEST fluff that you had for a completely normal character?

[ImperatorK]

For example you where playing a human, but you fluffed it to be something entirely different, or you where playing a Fighter, yet in-game it was a Wizard. :smalltongue:
Come on, show me the best and weirdest that you've got! :smallbiggrin:

[Zaq]

I played a DFA who was Inspector Gadget. We started with Go Go Gadget Flamethrower and moved on from there. (We eventually included Go Go Gadget Boombox and Go Go Gadget Google Map Street View. No joke.)

I also played a Binder/Incarnate (eventually Chameleon) who totally reinvented himself every day and didn't tell the party what he really was. "What do you mean, yesterday I wasn't a Cleric? Of course I was a Cleric. I've always been a Cleric. See the full plate? Now hold still and let me heal you." (That was more a really fun mix of crunch and fluff than a strict refluffing, though.)

Then there was the unwilling Spirit Shaman. He was from Boatmurdered (yes, THAT Boatmurdered). His spirit companion was an elephant—which was actually the spirit of his dead husband (who pulled a Chrysanthemum Vow and killed himself to meet with my character in spirit on a promised day, despite being off fighting the Elephant Wars), but he didn't know that—and rather than go off seeking spells with it, every morning he just drank until the elephant went away. (I managed to keep the "communing with the spirits" joke under wraps until the game started, which was hard.) He was also totally paranoid about that elephant (always looking over his shoulder for it . . . Alertness!), and it kept stealing his spells from him (auto-concentration!).

If you don't mind me bringing in 4e, I'm currently playing an illumian Truenamer (mechanically, a human Runepriest) who's actually my OLD Truenamer from 3.5. He just happened to sneeze while saying a truename, opened up a portal to the 4e dimension, and tumbled through. He's still not sure where these muscles came from, and he only hits people with his sword as kind of an afterthought (the real attacks come from Truespeech). [For the uninitiated, Runepriests are inexplicably STR-based.] For extra punniness, I call him the Rune Aimer. In that same game, I'm currently building Simon Belmont. Yes, that Simon Belmont.

So yeah, I use weird fluff.

[IonDragon]

Using a homebrew psionics system, I played a psionicist who carried a blank spellbook, had high ranks in Kn. Arcana and every time he manifested an ability said the right incantation, used the right material components, and the correct somatic components for the most similar arcane spell. He wore red robes (evocation, in this setting) and maintained through thick and thin that he really was a Wizzard.

He even kept a cat and claimed it to be his familliar. It was an exceptionally dumb cat.

[BobVosh]

I usually go the other way around of the most odd crunch I can manage to the most standard fluff I can do.

I had a barbarian playwright with dual personalities based on whether he was raging or not. He always felt his most superb moments of insight of the human psyche was when raging, but unfortunately he eventually went frenzied beserker so he had issues controlling this divine inspiration at its most base level. I think I named him Billy Spearshaker or something silly like that.

I play most games at level 1 and go from there, mostly I don't believe in back stories for a level 1 character. I consider level 1-4 basically being the back story.

[ImperatorK]

Lets expand this also to concepts that you would like to play (but didn't have the opportunity). I'm sure many of you have something in your mind that only waits for a good occasion. :smallsmile:

[IonDragon]

I usually go the other way around of the most odd crunch I can manage to the most standard fluff I can do.

I'm just curios how a split personality, illiterate writer seems like normal fluff.... And how Barbarian to Frenzied beserker is abnormal crunch?

For abnormal crunch, a friend of mine played a standard meat tank who cross classed into anything that would give him a feat easily and a high Fort save, then sunk every single feat into Improved Toughness. He was a "Fighter".

[Amnestic]

I've always wanted to play a Tibbit Bard (perpetually in Kitty Form, of course) with many a rank in Perform (Dance). Maybe a few in Perform (Keyboard) too :smallwink:

[BobVosh]

I'm just curios how a split personality, illiterate writer seems like normal fluff.... And how Barbarian to Frenzied beserker is abnormal crunch?

For abnormal crunch, a friend of mine played a standard meat tank who cross classed into anything that would give him a feat easily and a high Fort save, then sunk every single feat into Improved Toughness. He was a "Fighter".

That was weird fluff, normal crunch. I tried to give my best example that the thread is actually asking for :D Also barbarians are literate if they take any other class, including...frenzied beserker. No, I don't understand why.

[ImperatorK]

I've always wanted to play a Tibbit Bard (perpetually in Kitty Form, of course) with many a rank in Perform (Dance). Maybe a few in Perform (Keyboard) too :smallwink:
Huh? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ) Something like that? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4NMoJcFd4)

[Lord_Gareth]

I once ran a bearbarian build that used Bloodstorm Blade levels to initiate maneuvers with boomeraging, pouncing dire bears (plural).The fluff? She was the little known minor deity of bears, stripped of her divinity for sleeping with Elhonna's daughter(s). All eight of them.

[Gorfang113]

For me that would have to be Yip-Yip the Shockingly Obese (which he was), Self Proclaimed Lord of all Kobolds. His weapon was an entirely unenchanted greatclub. He was a bit of a joke to everyone he met. After all he was just a fat kobold with a big stick, right? He also Fighter 2/Barbarian ?/ Frenzied Bezerker ? (can't remember for sure). He did something like 50+ damage with power attack/ rage/ frenzy going on (along with a few other things which, once agian, can't remeber). So that fat kobold with a stick could kill you in one hit (death from massive damage save :smallbiggrin:)

[Salanmander]

I played a Wu-Jen one time that was a woodlands-living shaman type character. He was as tree-hugging as they come, took track and boosted his kn. nature and survival, cast many wood-type spells, and took obtain and improved familiar to get (with DM permission) a wolf familiar.

My crowning moment of glory was when, midway through the session (it was a one-shot), after a few encounters, we were trying to plan a way to sneak into a building. I suggested that I could get a scroll of invisibility.

Other players: "No, that's only an arcane spell."
Me: "I know. I'm an arcane caster."
Other players: O.O "Wait what?!?"

[Ravens_cry]

Corvus and Master
Corvus was once a familiar to a wizard. I bet you can guess what kind.
But an evil mage transformed him into a halfling and his master into a large dog, taking away his masters intelligence. By statistics, he was a halfling on a riding dog, nothing special. But it made for an interesting dynamic for the character.

[subject42]

"What do you mean, yesterday I wasn't a Cleric? Of course I was a Cleric. I've always been a Cleric. See the full plate? Now hold still and let me heal you."

We have always been multiclassed with Eastasia!

[Grendus]

My favorite refluff was Cackling Rikkle, a former circus clown and amateur magician who got on the bad side of an amateur Tasha's Hideous Laughter spell and cackles uncontrollably as a result. Mechanically, he was a human swordsage with a pitifully low charisma and a flaming spiked chain. Went around in an Entertainers Outfit with his face painted like a sad clown.

What can I say, I liked The Cape. A lot.

[Flame of Anor]

We have always been multiclassed with Eastasia!

Yes, oh yes :biggrin:

[Prime32]

I've done a ton of builds based on fictional characters - in those cases it's more startling when I don't have to refluff much. :smalltongue: Some examples in the "Homebrew" link in my sig.

[Acanous]

Once, I had a Human Illusionist who was a stage magician in a travelling circus. He pretended all his spells were stage tricks, and kept a deck of cards, some dice, cups and a ball, and a blatantly fake wand. (Was actually a club that he had painted)

He had Dazzling illusion and I'd fluffed that the "Dazzle" part looked like cheap fireworks and smelled slightly like tungsten.

His familiar was a rabbit, which he kept in his tophat, and he'd constantly lament about the situations the party would get him in.

Of course, that changed when he hit lv 10, but still, was fun while it lasted ;)

[Deimess]

I've made several level 1-4 characters that i've never played but just liked coming up with odd backgrounds.

One idea that I really liked was a sane Derro, who was restored to his sanity through miracle/wish. One of my players made a half-dragon who used to be a great warrior but lost a duel with a gold dragon and had his memory erased and was raised for good instead of evil.

[Glimbur]

I once played a crusader named Frank Smith. Frank had a fairly standard child hood. Parents were farmers, he helped, etc etc. One day he got a nasty knock about the head, and seemed to forget a few things. He seems to think he has to try as hard as possible to blend in to human society. Won't say why, but changed his name from Archibald Casperson III to Frank Smith. He seems to think he has to try as hard as possible to blend in to human society. Has also established a code of conduct. Follows it seriously. Strangely, it seems to actually work... he has powers similar to those granted to other devoted folks.

I wrote out an actual code of conduct, which had a system for valuing people. It was going to be my in-game excuse for helping some characters more than others, but he was very devoted to Law. Might have been fun to play but the game fell apart.

[Starscream]

I used the multi-headed template in a gestalt game to play a two-headed guy with each of his heads having a different personality and class.

I called him HankDon, named after Hank and Don Hall, aka the superheroes Hawk and Dove. Hank was a Warblade, as well as a violent Chaotic Neutral nutcase. Don was a Healer and a Lawful Good pacifist. Needless to say, they didn't get along very well.

It was fun. When I needed to fight, Hank would take over and go berserk, while Don apologized and promised the enemies that if they lived he would help patch them up. When out of combat Don would heal people while Hank threatened them creatively.

[Xtomjames]

I like to fluff various game systems together at times, especially 3.5 and Rifts, and especially the use of the Heroes Unlimited books.

Not to long ago I played a game where I was Bard, but I'd talked my DM into letting me roll for a super power instead (for a +2 level adjustment) ended up getting super strength and natural armor was the tank for the entire game, without armor...yeah for the D20 conversion manual rule for converting natural MDC armor to Natural Armor...

~my natural armor btw was an annoying +36...

[Arbane]

A Champions character (not mine, but I heard about him):

A wizened old martial-arts master. Could hit amazingly hard in vulnerable places, had a special Ki Strike that took extra time to charge, could dodge (or at least roll with) partically any hit, could leap amazing distances.

That was the fluff. The crunch is that he was a completely standard "brick" type character. Lots of armor (the special effect being 'I dodged') and super strength (SFX: "precise strikes"). The special 'ki strike'? An ordinary Haymaker.

[hangedman1984]

Once, I had a Human Illusionist who was a stage magician in a travelling circus. He pretended all his spells were stage tricks, and kept a deck of cards, some dice, cups and a ball, and a blatantly fake wand. (Was actually a club that he had painted)

He had Dazzling illusion and I'd fluffed that the "Dazzle" part looked like cheap fireworks and smelled slightly like tungsten.

His familiar was a rabbit, which he kept in his tophat, and he'd constantly lament about the situations the party would get him in.

Of course, that changed when he hit lv 10, but still, was fun while it lasted ;)

just out of curiosity, why did it change at level 10?

[Psyren]

Tibbit Telepath with a commoner thrall that I forced to wear a pointy hat, voluminous robes, and carry a gigantic book full of gibberish that he had to pretend to read every morning.

[Morithias]

Aasimar with the vow of peace and subdue strike feats.

Also had vow of poverty, but the DM let me switch it to just "magic item don't work for her".

She was a writer who would had no idea of the concept of money, so she would write books and just leave them in bars (while often getting into bar fights, brutally smashing people with chairs but next killing them).

Joke was every time she came to a city, furniture makers demand went up, and all the bartenders learned celestial.

[Zolthux]

Right now I play a paladin/sorcerer who is the son of druids (verdant bloodline) and is going to become an eldritch knight, taking a bunch of fighter feats.

People at my table say i'm class confused

[Togo]

My wife played a bard.

The character was a duck who had been polymorphed into a human, and had failed all their saves, making the change permenant and getting the mentality of their new form.

Oh, and the bard had ranks in perform (ballet), and used her suggestion power to get villains to express their innermost feelings through the medium of dance.

She also used most of her low level bard spells to create the effects for her 'magical girl transformation sequence'. So, costume change, theme music, sparkly effects.

[noparlpf]

A "ninja" wearing bright orange. With Hide in Plain Sight.

[Ravens_cry]

A "ninja" wearing bright orange. With Hide in Plain Sight.
BELIEVE IT!

I played a halfling sorcerer enchanter who had been a human child that was killed by bandits and reincarnated as a halfling. A halfling adult. Basically I played it like I imagined a child with awesome cosmic power. Yes, it was a little twisted. It was still fun though.

[Shpadoinkle]

Never played this one, but I came up with the idea of a fighter who's actually a kind of magical prodigy, and uses magic to enhance his combat abilities. No, not a sorcerer, not a wizard, not a paladin or anything like that, he just has levels in fighter. He can charge his sword with magic energy so he can hit harder... but the fact that he has to focus his mind on that means he has a harder time spotting times where he can get a hit past the enemy's defenses (i.e. a refluffed Power Attack.) He can also reinforce his armor with magic, but again, the fact that he has to focus on doing so takes focus away from attack (refluffed Combat Expertise.) Stuff like that.

As for why he can cast in armor? Well hell, clerics do it! Bards do it! ANYBODY can do it, it's just a matter of training and practice. Some spells are easier to cast in armor, though.

[Maho-Tsukai]

Do BBEGs count, here? If so, then I have a plethora of oddball BBEGs that I have made. One of my more famous was originally not created to be all that odd, but ended up becoming very odd as he developed with my writing(I first made him when I was like 10-12...so yeah)...I originally made him just as an evil tyrant who ruled a sickeningly cliche' anime setting full of anime tropes(wild hair, too big weapons and FFVII/cyberpunk-ish tech AND magic in the same setting ect...)....

However, as my playgroup and myself got older and all became more creative, I revealed him to have actually been an otaku from earth who by stroke of luck ended up in a D&D world due to a powerful wizard's spell being disrupted by his crazy unpredictable familiar. He ended up studying magic from the wizard, killing him, taking all his resources and eventually became epic level. With his great epic wizard power he gained divine ranks, fused a bunch of worlds together and made them into what he thought was the most awesome world ever...hence explaining the totally cliche' anime-esc setting that our D&Ding started out in....the sad part? Even when his messed up backstory was revealed he still remained an evil, threatening villain, though he was SLIGHTLY less despised/hated(he was the most universally hated villain of my playgroup...so yeah.) after that reveal....maybe because my whole group(myself included) where(and still are, in my case anyway) anime fans.

I also once used GIEGUE as a BBEG, stated as a spell to power Euridte/Thrallheard. Currently, I am attempting to stat Nicol Bolas, of all people, to be used as a possible BBEG.

As for weird PCs? I have none really that I can think of that are too weird beyond two clerics with rather strange deity choices. One was a cleric of Giygas. The other was a cleric of Zorc Necrophades. I think that's all that needs to be said about those two.

[Arbane]

My wife played a bard.

The character was a duck who had been polymorphed into a human, and had failed all their saves, making the change permenant and getting the mentality of their new form. (SNIP)

Was she trying to defeat a deranged storyteller to save a heartless prince? :smallbiggrin:

Never actually played, but a friend of mine suggested making a Perfect Circle of Abyssal Exalted...based on Dethklok.

The scary thing is, I could totally see that working.

[Knaight]

I used the Warlock class to represent what was essentially a heretic priest of Nerull. The guy believed that Nerull was a just and even god who granted death to all in a fair manner once the world deemed it necessary of them, and thought that there was a deep corruption in the church that was taking it over from inside. The warlock abilities worked much better than the cleric ones for a character like this, and being able to fluff the eldritch blast as being glowing coffins flying through the air at people sold the deal.

[noparlpf]

BELIEVE IT!


More along the lines of this: http://www.jpopexpress.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/anti_ninja_new.jpg
But yeah. Naruto was so eight years ago. And in Japanese it was a different catch phrase which I made sure to erase from my memory and hence can't quote here.

[panaikhan]

wierdest thing I ever did with a 'normal' character, was a rogue with a Hat of Disguise.
Whenever we encountered a group of enemies, the rogue would hide, use the Hat to look like one of them, then sneak into the middle of them to create mayhem. The wierd bit? The Hat always looked like a red-and-white knitted hat with a bobble on it.

[Zaq]

wierdest thing I ever did with a 'normal' character, was a rogue with a Hat of Disguise.
Whenever we encountered a group of enemies, the rogue would hide, use the Hat to look like one of them, then sneak into the middle of them to create mayhem. The wierd bit? The Hat always looked like a red-and-white knitted hat with a bobble on it.

I see what you did there . . . wait, lost it. Where'd it go?

[IonDragon]

http://www.fireflywiki.org/img/jayne-hat.jpg

"A man wears a hat like that... you know he isn't afraid of anything"

[Analytica]

My wife played a bard.

The character was a duck who had been polymorphed into a human, and had failed all their saves, making the change permenant and getting the mentality of their new form.

Oh, and the bard had ranks in perform (ballet), and used her suggestion power to get villains to express their innermost feelings through the medium of dance.

She also used most of her low level bard spells to create the effects for her 'magical girl transformation sequence'. So, costume change, theme music, sparkly effects.

Princess Tutu? Awesome!

I have wanted to start a thread all week asking how to build the Sailor Moon warriors using Incarnum for transforming and getting weapons and strange uniforms... :smallbiggrin:

[Prime32]

But yeah. Naruto was so eight years ago. And in Japanese it was a different catch phrase which I made sure to erase from my memory and hence can't quote here.I wouldn't call it a catch phrase, he just used one particular emphasiser a lot - Japanese puts adverbs at the end of a sentence.


Princess Tutu? Awesome!

I have wanted to start a thread all week asking how to build the Sailor Moon warriors using Incarnum for transforming and getting weapons and strange uniforms... :smallbiggrin:Nah, play an FR cleric and pump Turn Undead.
"In the name of Selune I will punish you!"

You even get a spell with the effect "vaguely-defined plot device" (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/miracle.htm).

[noparlpf]

I wouldn't call it a catch phrase, he just used one particular emphasiser a lot - Japanese puts adverbs at the end of a sentence.

I know that, but in the English translation it ended up sounding like a catch phrase. That's how I think of it now.

[Graytemplar]

I think the funniest char. that i made was a Demon overlord (think Dagon level) who was fighting stumbled through a portal into the Marvel universe and ended up in Thor's Ragnorok. He foolishly tried to backstab the raging god of thunder, and got smited/ cursed so hard that he was sent back through the portal, into 3.5e, purged of all Demonic Powers, turning him into a modified hellbred, and "geased" into serving as bodyguard for a little kid who would eventually grow up to be a paladin of Thor!

Eventually, the ex-demon befriended his charge, but still wound up becoming an ur-priest to spite Thor.

[Akal Saris]

When my friends and I were just learning 3.0, I sat down with them to explain character creation with a high level sorcerer. Our combined input created Harloon of Halruua, a level 16 sorcerer with 8 int, and a 12 int toad familiar (Bobbo) that lives in a belt over his crotch and who he constantly argues and screams at. The 'sample character' ended up being a recurring NPC in my games.

I also had a lot of fun with a L1 Ardent in a playtest, who I played as a slightly unbalanced native of Sigil and constantly spoke in Sigil's cant. Good times.

[Analytica]

I know that, but in the English translation it ended up sounding like a catch phrase. That's how I think of it now.

I think of it as though he is something of an insane rapper, yo? Making everything a question, yo? Would make him damn near unbearable to be around, yo?

[Vandicus]

A straight LG deva paladin that was the reincarnation of my previous character, a LG goblin paladin and ruler of a city, who had(referring to the Deva), through the grace of the gods, been born before he died to arrive in time specifically to kill his previous self with the help of my underlings who conspired against me.

I didn't even do that myself either, my DM just decided to kill my old character with the help of myself?... I didn't even get to roll. :smallfrown:

Just to be clear, the Deva was the one who had been born before I had died(with my memories too, which is why I couldn't avoid being killed) and was actually OLDER than my goblin paladin before he died to be resurrected in the past.

[GuyLoki]

My favorite had to be 'Shepherd Kane'. He was a Cleric/Sorcerer/Mystic Theurge who none of the other players knew was a sorcerer. Despite that he had a familiar. Well rather.... that I plaid two characters.

The familiar was a Raven and had his own personality and the two of them in fact did not like each other and felt like they had been punished to be together. Stoker, the Raven, became the first mate on a pirate ship and later Kane bartered for passage aboard their ship (who doesn't want a healer along?). Stoker would fly into Kane's quarters and get enchanted with Personal effect spells and wander back up top. Entire combats would go by where Stoker participated and Kane did not until after. At one point Stoker even went on an adventure without Kane.

Most of Kane's feats were divine and used to amp up his healing (Sacred Purification for example) so that none of the other players ever felt that his usefulness as a healer had lagged behind the apparent level of the group.

[Typewriter]

I played a Djinn who was raised by Dwarves (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19XV2uiiTsSNqGEOL1n9K9Jk7dgdWwCAMTiSHAYxDEGU/edit?hl=en_US).