Best 3.5 Character You Ever Had

[missmvicious]

So talking to my hubby about his first character and it got me thinking, what has been our best characters ever?

Picking my favourite 3.5 character was actually pretty difficult. I ended up really liking many of my characters. Eventually I decided that my my favourite was actually my first character. Most because the group dynamics and the fact that I got to be a character that was not dark and brooding and that was fine for the campaign. I like darkness as much as the next girl but its nice to take a break from the stress of the every day and kick it as a flippant bard. My first character was Ellywick Nigel the gnome bard. She was on a quest for knowledge more then anything. Now she loved her some treasure and she loved her friends even more but she had put herself in danger more then once just trying to learn more about a long abandoned city. She rode atop the shoulders of Ruminster the half orc cleric of Kord (my husband's character) and was about the most useless character in combat you could have ever seen until she figured out how to fashion exploding arrows and then she started really dealing damage. With her we saved a half elf from himself by tying him up and not letting him kill himself. Teamed up with half giant bar tenders and dapper scam artists to fight off an army of driders. Which after looking back at it we got totally ripped off by the DM for that we should have made like 20 times what we should of that.

Neways what was all of your favourite 3.5 caracters?

[Jack Zander]

My favorite has got to be my swashbuckling rogue aptly named Perry Fenserson. He was a straight rogue but I cheesed out his AC and he became the party tank (along with dps when he was able to land a sneak attack). Once he became disarmed and it looked like he was going to seriously lose, then I realized that none of his combat ability was in his rapier, and his AC was so high that it was worth it to take the AoO for fighting unarmed. So I just pummeled the attacker to the ground with unarmed sneak attack damage.

He had a major weakness though. I dumped his wisdom and he was pretty aloof and often became the target of mind controlling spells. More than once he turned on his fellow party members, but fortunately for them I don't think he ever landed a sneak attack.

[Chad30]

I've never played pen and paper, but I did play as a Dwarf barbarian in DDO. High strength and constitution, with some points put into willpower to resist enemy spells. I had a lot of fun with him. I put points mostly into rage enhancements, with some in toughness and dwarven spell resistance.

He was a two handed axe wielder. Tough enough to solo in the early game, and later in the game was a decent powerhouse. I used intimidate, which is a class skill, and it really helped draw mobs to me for glancing blow damage and kept them off the squishier teammates. Not very effective against bosses, though. It was a controversial decision. Most people said not to, but after playing with and without intimidate I found I liked having it.

The half Orc class came somewhat recently, but I didn't have the money to buy it, so I never tried it out. It's basically more power for less defense compared to Dwarves.

[Inferno]

An old Bard/Gold Dragon Disciple (with a barbarian dip)
Somehow he managed to be the most powerful character in the party despite my being new to D&D. I tried to solve every problem with fire(being immune) and nearly caused more then a few party members to meet a fiery end. Eventually I killed that campaign when we were captured and thrown in a cage in a pirate ship. A pirate ship made of wood...I raged, made some crazy strength check to bend the bars, grabbed a torch and started lighting stuff. Long story short: I grabbed the wizard, and flew off while everyone (including the rest of our 5 man party) and all our stuff burned up, and sank.

[Jopustopin]

Phaethon Conjurer. I still think Phaethon is the coolest race ever made. It's in Races of Ansalon.

[silver spectre]

Gregory the untouchable. A half ogre raised by humans.
Sorceror 4/ Wizard 5 when he retired.
7 and a half feet tall.
Gained and lost a total of 11 levels before his retirement.

[Tokuhara]

Phaethon Conjurer. I still think Phaethon is the coolest race ever made. It's in Races of Ansalon.

Barely deserves a 2LA IMO

[Jarveiyan]

This is my most favorite 3.5 character. Joined the party in Myth Drannor for The Pools of Radiance. And i kept playing her till this point, has a part of MD that she lives and patrols. Talindra had a falling out with the clan and stays in altered form to try and avoid being found by any of grandmothers searchers or her own abilities. doesn't usually like to make snap decisions about people. Will usually try to sneak around a situation unless theres a reason to face it head on.

Talindra Dlardrageth (CR 25)
Female fey'ri rogue 3 / ranger 3 / assassin 10 / dread commando 5 / beastmaster 2
CN Medium outsider (native)
Init +22; Senses Darkvision 60' Low-light vision Listen +29, Spot +29
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnoll, Goblin, Sylvan

AC 35{45}, touch 21{31}, flat-footed 35{45} (+6 Dex, +9 armor, +5 deflection, +5 natural,{+10 defending})
hp 206 (23 HD)
Immune sleep effects
Resist evasion, fire 10
Fort +13 (+18 against poisons), Ref +27, Will +11 (+2 against other enchantments)

Speed 60 ft. (12 squares) / fly (poor) 80 ft. (16 squares)
Melee +5 (evil outsider)bane defending metalline sure striking elven thinblade +27/+22/+17/+12 (1d8+5/18-20x2)
Melee +5 (evil outsider)bane defending metalline sure striking elven lightblade +27/+22/+17/+12 (1d6+2/18-20x2)
Melee +2 (undead)bane heavy mace +25/+20/+15/+10 (1d8+4/x2)
Ranged +3 [+5str] composite shortbow +30/+25/+20/+15 (1d6+8/x3)
Base Atk +18; Grp +23
Atk Options Death Attack, Quick Draw
Spell - Like Abilities (CL 23rd):
1/day--darkness, dimension door, suggestion(DC 18)
at will--alter self
Assassin Spells Known (CL 10th):
1(5/day)--detect poison, featherfall, obscuring mist, true strike
2(5/day)--foxs cunning, illusory script(DC 18), spider climb, undetectable alignment
3(4/day)--deeper darkness, false life, misdirection(DC 19), nondetection
4(4/day)--freedom of movement, greater invisibility, locate creature, modify memory(DC 20)

Abilities Str 20* Dex 22(28)* Con 18 Int 22 Wis 20* Cha 20
SQ Animal Companion[ex], Armored Ease[ex] acp -4, Combat Style[ex](two-weapon fighting), Death Attack[ex] DC 26, Favored Enemy[ex](elves +2), Hide in Plain Sight[su], Improved Uncanny Dodge[ex], Sneak Attack[ex] +7d6, Stealthy Movement[ex] no penalty hide or move silently while moving at normal speed & -10 when running or charging, Sudden Strike[ex] +3d6, Team Initiative Bonus[ex] +5, Uncanny Dodge[ex], Wild Empathy[ex] +12
Feats Alertness<bm 2>, Dodge, Endurance<rgr 3>, Improved Initiative, Improved Weapon Familiarity, Mobility, Quick Draw, Superior Initiative, Skill Focus(handle animal), Track<rgr 1>, Weapon Finesse
Skills Balance +36(5rnks), Bluff +12(5rnks), Climb +25/+27 involving ropes, Decipher Script +11(5rnks),Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +31(23rnks), Disguise +9/+11 in character(4rnks), Escape Artist +20/+22 against ropes(5rnks), Handle Animal +16(8rnks), Heal +15(10rnks), Hide +31(20rnks), Intimidate +7, Jump +44(5rnks), Knowledge(dungeoneering/geography/nature) +10/+10/+12(5rnks ea.), Listen +29(20rnks), Move Silently +29(20rnks), Open Lock +31(18rnks), Ride +11, Search +31(23rnks), Sleight of Hand +16(5rnks), Spellcraft +11/+13 decipher scrolls(5rnks), Spot +29(20rnks), Survival +20(15rnks), Swim +21(16rnks), Tumble +46(15rnks), Use Magic Device +23/+27 for scrolls(18rnks), Use Rope +14/+16 involving bindings(5rnks)
Possessions Hewards Handy Haversack, bedroll, flint and steel, signet ring, 100' silk rope, small steel mirror, 2 lbs of soap, 3 travelers outfits, waterskin, whetstone, winter blanket, masterwork thieves tools, grappling hook, +5 glamered heavy fortification Mithral Shirt, Amulet of Natural Armor +5, Ring of Protection +5 and Major Spell Storing (mass heal), Vest of Escape, Ring of Mind Shielding and Sustenance, Boots of Swiftness, 38 Potions of bulls strength, 38 Potions of cure light wounds, 38 Potions of cure moderate wounds, 38 Potions of cure serious wounds, Elixir of vision, Wand of Magic Missile [CL 9] 20 chge., Wand of Cure Critical Wounds [CL 20] 50 chge.
Wealth 500 gold pieces

121 yrs-old 5'5" 116lbs. fiery red(green) eyes Purple(golden blonde) hair deep red(bronze) skin
Alias - Talindra Lyine "sister wolf"

* - +5 inherent to strength from book, +2 inherent to dexterity from book, +4 inherent to wisdom from book


Draconis
Wolf
N Medium animal
Init +3; Senses Low-light vision Scent Listen +3, Spot +3

AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 26 (4 HD)
Resist evasion
Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +2

Speed 50 ft. (10 squares)
Melee bite +6 (1d6+2/x2)
Base Atk +3; Grp +5

Abilities Str 14 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 2 Wis 12 Cha 6
SQ Link[ex], Share Spells[ex]
Feats Track<wolf>, Weapon Focus(bite)
Skills Hide +4(1rnk), Jump +10, Listen +3(2rnks), Move Silently +4(1rnk), Spot +3(2rnks), Survival +2/+6 when tracking by scent(1rnk)
Tricks: +2

[gbprime]

Aradin Greenmantle. The name is a nod to Gandalf, and that's how he was played much of the time over the 28 months of the campaign. The game spanned 600 years, and he was an advisor to kings (and people who eventually became kings) as well as a source of wisdom, lore, and magic. Mechanically, he was a Beguiler with Mind and Oracle domains, and eventually picked up the Saint template and a handful of exalted spells.

[BillyBobJoe]

I played an Elven Hexblade with 11 HP, 16 AC, and did exactly 2d6 damage in an arena game where everyone was a level higher. Never even got touched once, due to insane luck. He died because of a random encounter with a shadow. :smallfrown:

[Daftendirekt]

My favorite character so far was Audric. He was a stereotypical drow to start off with, evil as **** and murderous. He was an assassin sent by the clergy of Lolth to the surface to take out worshipers of Eilistraee. However, during his time among them, he was won over by their goodness and starting to become one of them

Yes, I'm aware that Drizzt has made "bad drow gone good" a cliche, but I've never read any of his books, and the idea was not based off of him.

Sadly, the campaign he was in was cut short just as we reached the "starting to be kind of a good guy" part of his story, and I haven't had an adequate chance to bring him back yet.

[RagnaroksChosen]

Artimi "Master Drell" Brewer
human noble1/swashbuckler 1/expert 1/Feat rogue 3/

It was a d6 game. No magic users. No magic items...
I played a mage. Well... not realy a mage, I played an alchemist. It was awsome. at my 3rd feat after 6th i was allowed to take brew potion.

He was kinda based of merlin from the new King arthur. Though less celtic.

[Gotterdammerung]

It's hard to pick. I think from a purely "memorable roleplay" standpoint, it is a tie for me.


First, Atun Auromir, my backlunish wiz3/druid3/bst1/arcane heirophant6.
It was in RPGA living greyhawk setting (very restricted setting with lots of extra rules on what you could and couldnt do) and was my 1 special brightlands character.

His pet for most of his career was a cerval from sandstorm. there was a breif period where he kept the company of a giant crocodile "Kalif", then a dire tortiose "Bronta", and eventually a roc "Nebechenezar". But for the most part he kept coming back to his pet cerval "Jasmine".

The reason he was one of my favorite roleplay characters, was he was a jerk. He was sexist, racist, pragmatic, cold jerk. Normally, when you play characters like this, they get themselves into trouble by pissing off the wrong NPC. But this guy was just blessed i guess. No matter how bad of an idea it was to state his opinion, he always just said it anyway. And instead of boning him like it should of, it always ended up rewarding him.

Just to give you an idea of the kinds of things he would get away with. On his first adventure, a suel guide is responsible for leading the party to a dragon's cave. Without the guide you aren't supposed to be able to find the cave without a very high survival check for lvl 1 (DC20 5 checks). The suel and baklunish cultures kinda have an ancient hate thing going, a lot of people have grown past it and don't care anymore, but Atun is not one of those people. He spit in the suel's face and announced that "A Suel offering to lead me anywhere is an affront to my honor." Then he added, "Do what you suel do best, and get lost." There was almost a fight between the skorned guide, but he decided against it, given that the party outnumbered him and he couldn't be sure they wouldn't come to Atun's aid. So he skulked off. The GM then announced that the mod was over. I asked why? He said because the party doesn't have any trackers and there is 5 real high track checks without the scout to lead you. The party started to get mad at Atun for scaring off their only tracker, when i asked the GM if i could roll the checks. He said not without track. I said that i had track. Then we had an argument over his misconception that only rangers tracked in which i pointed out a druids wisdom attri dependency and natures sense giving bonuses to survival and how they are more likely to have the 5 rnks in kn nature to ensure the synergy bonus at 2nd lvl and beyond. It turns out my first lvl druid with the track feat had a +10 and my cat had been taught how to hunt so could aid another me in my check for a +12. So just as the party started to get mad at Atun for chasing off their only tracker, He shooshed them all, told them they were fools for wanting to follow a suel, and marched off into the desert calling back "Keep up, I don't slow down for fools."

Anyway his entire career was filled with countless stories like this, where he was an abrasive, uncompromising jerk. And then he backed it up with luck and skill and suffered no consequences.

Sneaking through an evil Bartertown looking outpost city by riding through the middle of town on a dire turtle disguised as a desert merchant with tyrannical tendencies (not a far stretch at all), while the party had to sweat as they danced through the partols on the outskirts of town because they weren't bold enough to stroll right in to the middle of town.

Provoking an NPC in such a way that they had to draw swords or loose honor. Then finding out later, after he was killed, that the NPC was actually the villain of the whole arc and we just shortcutted by calling him out. Complete accidental bypass, as Atun originally provoked the NPC just by spouting out real insults about the guy that he truly believed.

Anyway, immensly rewarding character for roleplay and as a bonus, all the players loved him and all their characters hated him.


The other character was Reginald Spearmont, a sharakim (RoDestiny) duskblade. His character wasn't to far outside the description of the race. But its a fun roleplay description. They are cursed humans who look similar to orcs, and in order to distance themselves they wear the finest clothing and try to speak as eloquently as possible and seek out esoteric knowledge. It was a blast to roleplay this brutish beast trying to be a noble scholar. In combat it was funny to see him try an elegant swordplay maneuver only to explode the enemy from his monstrous bulk. It was just juxtaposed. Parry parry thrust riposte in his mind, and bloody brutish explosion in reality. Then it was also fun outside combat. He would get upset over dirt on his clothes, spend hours plating his hair, try to have chess matches with everyone, commonly hold a book open wherever he went in a showy way (like "Hayy look look I'm smart, im reading look look!). For added flavor i would put 2 marbles in my mouth where tusks would be, and then try to speak like captain picard. I had to speak real slow to pull it off and over articulate everything. It gave him a real wonderful voice.

The other strangely wonderful thing about this party was the other characters. No one talked or schemed when making their characters. We all went off into corners and made them then came back. But when we compared them the theme was there and it was wonderful. Reginald the Sharakim who acted like a noble scholar, Archibold the son of a merchant family who had been brought up well with a crash course in many things (factotum), Percy the hedonite cleric who was grossly overweight and very similar to hedonistbot from futurama, and Theobold the high class wizard.

We named ourself "The Fancy Lads"

[MachineWraith]

My favorite character in 3.5 was a Thri-Kreen ranger named Chuka-tet. He used his four arms to dual-wield katanas, which had been home-brewed to a 18-20x2 crit if wielded with 2 hands.

With the Thri-Kreen natural +30 (if I recall correctly) to jump checks, I pulled off all kinds of ridiculous acrobatics. At one point, the party got attacked by a bullette. It trampled and then swallowed the rogue, and was going to do the same to the wizard. I jumped into the air, came down on its back, used my bottom, clawed arms to latch onto its back, and then repeatedly stabbed a katana into its back.

It flipped out when it couldn't get me off (really lucky grapple checks), basically ignoring the rest of the party in its panic to remove me. I basically soloed it :smallcool:

After that, Chuka-tet became known as "The Demon Flea". :smallbiggrin:

[JackRackham]

I'm gonna have to go with my namesake for these boards on this one: Jack Rackham. He was a rogue swashbuckler who would've prestiged into Scarlet Corsair. He was a super MAD character, something like 14, 16, 12, 16, 10, 12, not remotely optimized. He was a JACK of all trades who carried just an obscene amount of mundane equipment on the back of his mule (which was protected by blink dogs and locked in a cage - the DM indicated that he was likely to attack the mule and steal the gear. The concept was that a rogue and some rope could do anything a wizard can do (I know, not really), so marbles instead of grease, a net instead of hold person, a springwall, snorkle, rope, manacles, magnet, flour pouch (see invisibility), etc. Also the guy was head-to-toe in silk and velvet with a damn cape and a wide-brimmed hat. I never got to RP him though, as the campaign died. I re-invented him later as an NPC in a campaign I'm now DM-ing.

[Seharvepernfan]

My favorite has got to be my swashbuckling rogue aptly named Perry Fenserson.

Isn't he friends with Ray Pierre?

[JackRackham]

Either way, I'd like to introduce them to my good buddy, Aidan Plainsight ;)

[DeAnno]

The original Mailman was an 8 year old Arctic Kobold (who acted more like an 8 year old human than an 8 year old Kobold) with good alignment and 6 wis. Of course he believed the rest of the party when they told him all those other people were bad and he had to blow them up.

[Chad30]

I don't suppose there are any roleplays on this board that I could use my barbarian with?

[Baron Faey]

My favorite so far, has to be "Anthony the Elegant!" the human rogue/swashbuckler. He had very high bluff and disguise modifiers (and a very poor sense motive). The campaign began in a marketplace, and I decided he would be stealing stuff. I stole a hat of disguise (from one of the other PCs) and when he found me I was stealing a cart full of fish (the first fight involved me sneak attacking people with a swordfish) and so I made up the lie (which succeeded) “this cannot be your Hat sir, because clearly it is an octopus.” For the rest of the campaign, the “default” setting for the hat was an octopus.
Second place would have to go to “Grandfather Redstone.” I played him as a one-shot ally NPC in an epic level time-travel campaign. He was a gold dwarf (sorcerer), with all his spells refluffed as mafia-esque effects (IE Fireball= Molotov cocktail, summon monster ix = Family Reunion (summoned 256 level 1 dwarven mobsters, Dominate person=make ‘em an offer… etc.)

[Ifni]

My favorite, no contest, was my Living Greyhawk sorceress/wildmage. She started out as an extremely overconfident kid who was absolutely convinced that the Magic was a universe-spanning sentience that loved her and wouldn't let her be harmed, and also believed wholeheartedly in some very strange conspiracy theories about the various factions (she had Wisdom 8, and I would've dumped it further if I could have, she was meant to be extraordinarily gullible). The idea was that in the course of her adventures she would grow up, learn that the world wasn't so simple, come to understand that bad things could happen to good people, experience emotional development, etc...

The problem? She was really, really persuasive. And the dice REALLY liked her.

By 15th level she was convinced she was a goddess/avatar of magic, she had several hundred NPCs and a non-negligible number of PCs among her worshippers, and her crazy conspiracy theories had not only infected much of the player base, but had actually become in-game reality due to them leaping the fourth wall and infecting some of the writers.

She was so much fun to play.

She was also my private experiment in poking fun at the alignment system, by playing someone who combined several distinctly Evil attitudes (in particular, she saw other people as things to be owned, not as humans like herself, and she had a chromatic dragon's hoarding/possessiveness instincts), which completely logically led to selfless and kind behavior (because she was ultra-protective of her "possessions", the same way that most adventurers are about their expensive magic items, and went to great lengths to show off their amazing abilities). I used to introduce her as, "The sweetest most generous red-dragon-descended undeath-tainted necromancer you're ever likely to meet", and that was fairly accurate.

[Chad30]

My favorite, no contest, was my Living Greyhawk sorceress/wildmage. She started out as an extremely overconfident kid who was absolutely convinced that the Magic was a universe-spanning sentience that loved her and wouldn't let her be harmed, and also believed wholeheartedly in some very strange conspiracy theories about the various factions (she had Wisdom 8, and I would've dumped it further if I could have, she was meant to be extraordinarily gullible). The idea was that in the course of her adventures she would grow up, learn that the world wasn't so simple, come to understand that bad things could happen to good people, experience emotional development, etc...

The problem? She was really, really persuasive. And the dice REALLY liked her.

By 15th level she was convinced she was a goddess/avatar of magic, she had several hundred NPCs and a non-negligible number of PCs among her worshippers, and her crazy conspiracy theories had not only infected much of the player base, but had actually become in-game reality due to them leaping the fourth wall and infecting some of the writers.

She was so much fun to play.

So you accidentally made a Mary Sue? For shame!

[Fisticuffs]

Larph the goblin.
Rogue 10/ Shadowdancer 20

He was my first character and I had no idea what I was doing. He had two pet Grimalkins that eventually breed to have four kittens(named afetr the Marx brothers). The mother Grimalkin was a wizard(i don't remember how many levels, probably 3-6, and she never really had a spellbook) but he wore them all as articles of clothing:Mother as a hat, father as a necklace, and the four kittens as earrings(DM said they could become anything their size or smaller). His peaceful goblin tribe was killed by fearful humans when he was young causing burns on his left-side and a violent phobia of humans. He really only was good for the roleplaying, I enjoyed using broken "goblin logic" to come up with interesting conclusions.

[AspectOfNihil]

My favourite would have to a Thri-kreen.

At eighth level he was a Fighter/Rogue/Ranger/Barbarian/Monstrous Humanoid. He was an *******, pure and simple. He believed Thri-kreen to be superior to any other humanoid out there and he let others know it. But he had some right to believe that. He was powerful, he was strong, he was fast, he was smart. So one time when the party got sick of him and sold him off to the slaver they had made a deal with, but my character was the only one who had figured out he was going to doublecross the party. So while my Thri-kreen was in a spindly wooden cage guarded by a single slaver, he just stood, arms crossed, while the party got grappled, disarmed, tripped, sundered, and pretty much every other special move under the sunned with a smile on his face. Then once they were tied up, he broke through the cage, raged, killed the guard, took back his four fullblades and proceeded to lay waste to the entire camp through a series of pounces, sneak attacks, and ambush tactics over the period of a game day. Once he had killed them, he took all the party equipment, all the bandits equipment, horses and wagons, and put the party, in their cage, on a wagon, and took them to the nearest city, where he sold the party as slaves, sold the equipment, and opened up his own bounty hunter business, and hired on a bunch of people (the new party) to fill out the ranks. So the party sold him as a slave, and he ended up as one of the most notorious warriors out there (you see that four armed insect thing over there? Yeah, that one, the one with the mithral armour and black swords, I heard he took out an entire army single-handedly, unarmed. Apparently he turned into a demon and tore them all limb from limb, laughing all the time (not too far from the truth). Don't look him in the eye, or he'll steal your soul too!), with his own business, an insane amount of cash, and a rather large boost to his intimidate check. Sometimes, being an ******* pays off, literally :smallbiggrin:

[Ifni]

So you accidentally made a Mary Sue? For shame!

Oh yeah, anyone reading her adventures from the outside (and not getting the internal thought processes, and not seeing the dice rolls) would totally tag her as a Mary Sue. She even had the unusual eye colors, by the end (because her usual response to "funny magical effect" was "Ooh, I poke at it!" - she went through quite a few temporary templates in her career, and some of them had lingering aftereffects).

Once you got the internal thought processes you'd see that what was going on inside her head was not what most external observers would assume (see my edit to the previous post), and the wiser PCs who knew her regarded her as quite dangerous, by the end of her storyline - she was highly unpredictable, had almost nothing in the way of behavioral filters, and she had a lot of people who would've followed her without question. The lack of any concept that you might do something wrong leads to a pretty inhuman outlook.

[Chained Birds]

Gil (Gilgamesh) was one of my favorite characters ever. A CW samurai with great intimidation and two-weapon fighting feats (Being optimal an none-optimal at the same time) he was a very competent melee character in addition to being the leader of our party. He was very Paladiny and had a great sense of honor. He respected his weapons, and any items procured from the enemies he fought (A great club from an Orge he slew in an epic showdown being of greatest significance). He also had a facination with Gold Dragons and was searching for the Dragon Lord he swore himself to when he was younger.
He even gained a NPC goblin ally, who he spared and later saved from mentioned Orge, who he treated like a student of war/son and tried to teach him the ways of Honor and Respect.
Some of his best moments were lucky roll moments in which he saved a bunch of townspeople from a magicaly-warded church; stabalized people by jamming his wakizashi into them (Happened a few times); and surviving at exactly 0 HP to perform several outstanding final acts before fainting.
He was also bull-headed and challenged every enemy to "Righteous Battle" and was comically one-shotted to 0 HP several times during his first 2 levels.
He died when the DM initiated a no-win situation that ended in a party-wipe... But was fun while it lasted.

[Dazed&Confused]

Mine was a 20th level Wizard with Arcane Disciple, having quickened Divine Power + extended Shapechange to Balor + Wraithstrike + a later Improved Blink(or persistent Blink), with a Keen Haste Falchion on his hands, Power Attack and Arcane Strike. It was crazy, attacking as touch at full BAB, 41 strength, 15-20 crits, sometimes denying dex to AC, blowing Arcane Strikes all the time, even the AC was enormous(68). Powerhouse!

It also had an awesome flavor, my background got 9 pages with a very detailed history and the "whys and becauses" for my Wizard to like fighting in this manner.

A shame I could only do that for a few encounters, my DM didn't like it very much :smalltongue:

[Tokuhara]

I have to say my fave character was Gal'Deran, a Half-Elf Half-Aasimar Aristocrat 1/Dragon Shaman 7/Marshal 2/Dragon Lord 10. He was a cross between Alistar from Dragon Age and Cyclopse from X-Men. He was a born leader with a sad and rather dry sense of humor. I know he was a great character because when the spiked ceiling trap squashed him flat, the party stood up and cheered.

[OverdrivePrime]

My favorite 3.5 character actually started as a 3.0 character, and then switched over around level 6 when we updated the game. We all started from level 1, and the game ended around level 10 when the game started to break up. But before that it was a awesome.
Click for the character sheet of Cern aka Solin Vanir. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=93841)

Character Story Follows:
The game was set in the middle of a vast desert, starting in a city state on the northern shore of an inland sea - the only open water for hundreds of miles. Slavery was common, and the average alignment of the city seemed to drift between chaotic neutral and neutral evil.

The city was in a state of cold war with another city state on the western shore of the sea, but also in a hot war with some monster desert tribes, and allied with a bunch of tribes of slavers.

Cern was bought by the mistress of a brothel when he was a child. His dwaven owner, Mistress Umoe, bought him on the cheap from a slaver band and charged Cern with performing all manner of menial tasks and errands. In return, he was trained in what women want, and his benevolent Mistress saw to it that his gift for music was well-fostered.

Cern shocked Mistress Umoe at the age of 16 by buying his freedom with a tiny fortune he had squirreled away from earnings at taverns and from well-to-do patrons. The two remain friends, though Cern occasionally gets in heated arguments with her over the ethics of her support of the slave trade by buying up orphaned children. He sees her point but...

As a youth on the streets of Heita, Cern was introduced to the practice of astrology and greatly enjoyed the combination of the beauty of the heavens with the duping of the foolish. He picked up the trade quickly and combining astrology with his natural wordcraft and empathy, Cern is able to guide many people toward more favorable decisions. What cause those decisions favor generally tilts toward Cern's benefit.

In public, Cern has abandoned his slave name and goes by "Solin Vanir", which he feels has a more dashing and roguish air about it.

One fateful night, when Solin was 17, the town came under attack by the combined tribes of giants and gnolls. It was a night of fire and chaos... and Solin fled the town, taking whatever valuables and tools he could from the house of the lower noblewoman he had lain with that night.

With a stolen bag of gold and gems, he bought passage to Si'Nara, the city on the west coast, and with another bag, bought himself a small flat and a beautifully made mandolin. He began to build a new reputation.

He was soon the toast of the court of Si'Nara, with his amazing performances and diplomatic skill winning him favor, but getting him into some dangerous missions. He was sent out to entreat with dangerous enemies, win alliances and contracts, or just find out hard-to-get information. He succeeded time and again, usually with a minimum amount of blood shed.

But it was within Si'Nara that he worked the most on his own - working with his newly adopted Church of the Sun God to stamp out slavery within the city, and eliminate the brutal underground fighting pits. Obviously, this made him many enemies, and he was forced to flee the city to evade the mob.

His story is paused there, far out in the desert, seeking the aid of a giant clan whose trust he has earned.

[Brauron]

Varus Sellsword, a CG Human Duskblade. I believe he was about 9th level when we completed the campaign.

He was incredibly vain and constantly preening -- he once spent an entire encounter focused solely on one demon out of about five because that one had hit him in the face. He had his armor, his sword-hilt, his belt and I believe his boots monogrammed. He was also a ladies man, constantly chasing any skirt in sight.

Other than his fabulous good looks (14 CHA, IIRC) and beautiful girls, his other primary interest was the accumulation of wealth. Very mercenary, and his "catch phrase" was "This is going to be one of those not-for-profit jobs, I can just tell..."

His primary weapon was a +1 Demonbane Greatsword (rolled randomly, for the hell of it) and later on he picked up a +1 Keen Rapier from a pirate captain we had an incredibly intense fight with. As for spells, his two favorites were Seeking Ray and Blade of Blood.

The final villain of the campaign was some sort of homebrewed Outsider/Lich godling, and Varus actually died early in that fight -- but the Raven Queen (ported in from 4e, because the DM liked her better as a death deity) owed the party a favor, and sent me back to finish the fight, though coming back from the dead cost me about 10 years off my life -- and I begged the DM to allow that to manifest, on my return, as a distinguished touch of gray at the temples that the ladies would find irresistible.

[Anderlith]

Eldrith Hawkflight, Eldrith was a paladin of Pelor & did some pretty awesome things

[denthor]

I tend to stay only with the core book.

3.5 character was Valmont a cleric of Bacob/thief (final level 7/3) he had a back round with a childhood friend that he used to fence items and mandate from the courts to not deal with thievies. I had a LN member of the church that was to enforce this rule. She would hire thievies to follow me around town and check with who I was meeting with. Favorite express "You are an extremeist" He was NG so an LG LE CG or CE was branded such over looked that he was NG extreme good. Oh well a hypicritcal priest say it ain't so.

Church before party. Friendship before Church. I sold my party out to my church at every opportunity. They got cash for this. I got the credit.

Holly was a fighter/thief/magic user(final levels 6/4/4) My party liked to go into dark places she had to pick up magic user to assure she could see. In the end dark vision was her spell of choice. Ended up buying a wand the only one in the party(they used it never paid for the charges). brew potion was great never ran out of dark vision.

[navar100]

Very tough question. I really liked all my characters. The only way to distinguish a "best" has to be by game mechanics. All characters were fun to roleplay, and to pick one as the best is a disservice to the others. Therefore, I need to choose that one which had the most fun in using its abilities. In that criteria alone I can pick one.

Godric Desaro - Crusader 11/Swordsage 2/Master of Nine 5 (Crusader progression) at campaign end. The use of the maneuvers and stances were superb. I still remember one particular round of combat.

Swift Action - White Raven Tactics on party member
Move Action - Shadow Stride to teleport 50ft next to bad guy
Standard Action - Greater Insightful Strike to deal 2 x (d20 + 30) damage, automatically hitting because I was in Aura of Perfect Order stance; thus I auto-rolled an 11 to hit which did.

By the end of the campaign I had 11 maneuvers readied, 9 granted to start, and refreshed for free every three rounds (Extra Granted Maneuver).

Every round of combat I did something awesome. Even if I didn't attack for whatever reason on my turn, White Raven Tactics and/or Order Forged From Chaos made the party fight so much better. Fellow party warriors certainly appreciated being able to move on my turn so they can full attack on their turn since they're now next to the bad guy.

I love Tome of Battle!

[Urpriest]

I have to DM too often, unfortunately.

I'd probably have to give the honor here to a level 1 warlock, Norebo Jasadin, who I played for a short campaign. The concept was that he got his warlock pact from a powerful, ancient ghost (sort of like a WoD Geist), who gave him See the Unseen on the condition that he had to help ghosts achieve things that they couldn't in life. He was raised by the church of Wee Jas (after a short period being cared for by the ghosts of his dead parents), and he convinced himself that his mysterious powers came from her. I put him at the minimum allowed age for a starting character, and had him use very childish mannerisms ("Wee Jas loves me very much!"), but he was entirely matter-of-fact about death ("I go around the battlefield closing the dead goblins' eyes so they can rest in peace"). For those interested in Wee Jas lore, Jasadin is a term for a devoted follower of Wee Jas and Norebo is a CN god of roguery who has a rather chaotic relationship (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BelligerentSexualTension) with her. The idea was that the church had a sort of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" attitude towards him, so that's the name they ended up giving him.

[Das Platyvark]

A delusional paladin, convinced that whatever mysterious being gave him power is the only true god. Practically psychotic, but still convinced he serves good.
He's gonna fall soon.

[croaker]

well being the main dm i have only had the pleasure of making three characters one a complete failure of a wizard (first time playing the game) died lvl2
2nd was a druid the most awesomest druid ever he could turn into beholders and mindflayers but then he was targeted by a lich

and last but not least the best ever character was Xarith a lawful neutral doppleganger lvl2 monk /4 rouge. on a quest to discover the maker of dopplegangers believing them a creation of wizards magic. while growing stronger by being bounty hunter for hire. undercover of course alas he was destroyed by an eventful meeting with a meanspirited green dragon not fond of being questioned

[Greymane]

My favorite character? Ezekiel Nefzen. The first name because I had a thing for biblical names at the time, and I cribbed the surname out of the NWN name generator.

He grew up the sole survivor of an orc raid on his village when he was roughly ten years old. He was studying magic under the resident wizard, and when he somehow survived, let his slain master's imprisoned Imp out of its confines, and together plotted and exacted revenge on the tribe responsible by exploding them with all the magic items still in his master's home. Joined a Wizard school run by a cult to Shar for a time, and began using the Shadow Weave. He turned his back on it after murdering the headmaster there in a wizard's duel because the headmaster had used his influence to bed the girl little Zekey boy had a crush on.

He became a little disillusioned with the Gods, feeling they merely used mortals like pawns. Especially because the above-mentioned crush was a Cleric of Shar and had been driven mad by her divinations. He joined an adventuring party, out of really not having any ambition (the Imp was pissed he didn't take over the wizard school after killing the headmaster) or goals. While the party was mostly made up of Chaotic Selfish-Jerks, he got along amazingly well with the party Favored Soul of Illmater. He traveled with them for a long time, mostly because he felt the Favored Soul needed someone like him around; she was extremely naive to the ways of the world and the dishonesty of others. She was an escaped Drow slave, her Damaran parents had fled to the caves during the wars with the Witch King and they were captured by Drow.

He felt they had somewhat similar origins, in terms of tragedy at least, and that she did not grow embittered or angry as he did caused him to re-examine his life. Witnessing how her kindness and charity improved the lives of everyone they met moved him as well, despite the other less scrupulous members of the party attempting to swindle, steal and do everything antithesis to just that.

And so she taught him by example, while he ended up teaching her more intellectual pursuits. How to read (!), the nature of the magic she herself commanded (!!), and about the planes and their inhabitants.

However, just when he was coming around to the idea that some gods were okay, and being a nice person paid off in its own way, a bizarre disaster struck. In the time they had traveled together, they had become quite learned and quite powerful adventurers in their own right, and single-handedly ended a vicious siege on a city; however, when it came to saving a single new mother, hemorrhaging from just given birth, not even the Favored Soul's ability to create Miracles would save her. Ezekiel even expended his most powerful spell, a Wish to save the woman's life, but it was to no avail.

He understood how magic worked. He had studied it long and hard, and he knew that those called Favored Souls were invested with their power early in life, and it could not be taken from them the way it could from other, normal priests and priestesses. The only conclusion he could draw, was that her own god must've been working against her, proving that even the good gods had their own goals and agendas that superseded anything mortals wanted.

From that day forward he decided he would end the tyrannical hold deities have over mortals. Worship them, or be stuck in the Wall of the Faithless and lose yourself. So he endeavors to bring the Wall down, and save everyone on the Material Plane from slavery.


... That was long. That got a little away from me, there. :smallredface:

[CIDE]

Flint. My Cleric Troll. Yes, I know it sounds incredibly odd but I liked RPing it out. Used the idea in two separate campaigns now.

In the 3.5 campaign I recall he started Ranger and then went Cleric. In the 2nd (yes, people still play it) he started straight Cleric with the Savage Kit.

[Valameer]

.................. Damn. I just realised I DM way too much...

[DarkestKnight]

Keira of the cloth. Survivor of the church of pelor and healbot extraordinaire. faced down two tarrasques and a 20 demons. at the same time. persevered through the divine-blocking purple drank rain. known to heal ~20 hp on a cure light. got sguiggly-flayed by necrons twice. and lived. devised a way to break out of a hostile city using an impromptu yamato cannon, when the party ignored the wizard who had a wand of fly. drove a plane into a building. almost was swallowed by a shark that was promptly turned to stone, while in a blue dragon's cave, fighting said dragon. caused the dm to increase the cr of our encounters by 2. minimum. once stopped the dm's evil plan by walking into the room. saw the wizard shoot another member of the party with a crossbow bolt after which the wizard yelled assassins. i believed him. this all happened in the same campaign.

[PowerGamer]

O goodness... Favorite character... Hmmmmmmm...

Well as much as I love my weretiger soulknife, I'm going with my recently decest psion. Morpheus is an Unbodied Psion telepath 13 who saved the party many times with his powers. But his unstable mentality caught up with him and he got introuble with the law. and was bannished to one of the planes of hell. I hope the turture ends soon old pal. I wish i could have playeed you longer...

[DonutBoy12321]

My favorite was Bretheon, Elven archer ranger 20. In the very first quest, he fell in love with a Drow from the party. Of course, the party split, and Bretheon fell into depression when she was on the other side. He moped, then became a cold-hearted killer. Then, one day, he walked into a tavern and saw a familiar-looking Drow. He approached, and realized it was the Drow girl from the first quest. He approached, she recognized him, and Bretheon proposed using his ring of protection +5. Classic scene.

[Drekk]

Dricklan Stoutfoot, NG Halfling Ranger/Druid/Scout, in various combinations and levels. I've loved him so much, I always tie bits and pieces from his last incarnations into the new game, to reference and give him depth. He's seen three campaigns and occasional pickup games.

His first incarnation was as a Halfling Ranger 1, hired as a guide (classic). It had been ages since I'd played D&D and I unloaded a ton of quirks into the character as a result that made it into all subsequent versions. I'd included a brief captivity in his back story I no longer recall, so he had been scarred on the throat and generally all over and talked raspily (and could not talk at all when it rained). He had a manic phobia of fish that started after examining an unknown species of fish on the estate of a wizard PC and they dragged him in and did a whole 1 point of damage (actually he did it to himself by flailing in the fish urn but he blames the fish). His druid incarnations would not wildshape into fish, though octopi were OK as they were mollusks. A druid would know this..Naturally the DM loved it and threw fish at me whenever possible. His love of nature only went as far as the beach. He would cook them, though, and with relish (see below).

He rolled terribly on cooking checks, despite his first incarnation having ranks in Profession:Chef, and gave several parties diarrhea on several occasions. After that, I always had him insist on cooking and always gave him a -10 to all rolls to do so. Fish received a -20 and were always blackened. One of his class abilities was being immune to his own cooking. Another was always...ALWAYS carrying flour on his person, for using it to check for invisible things, to makeshift paper, to using it as grenades versus things carrying torches. Flour is his 10 foot pole.

My favorite version of him was the absurdly overpowered 15th level Gestalt Druid/Scout, which introduced the dragon Rak Gis as his companion for life (a halfling's life, not a dragon's, as Rak was all too keen to remind him). The game was set in Diskworld and a comedic game, which appealed to his chaotic streak. His back story was being bonded as familiar to a copper dragon hatchling he had been trying to free from a wizard's control. Both considered themselves the master and the other the familiar, and both enjoyed shapeshifting. And both gained the abilities a wizard's familiar would, on top of being a gestalt Druid/Scout and Copper Dragon/Sorcerer. Hilarity ensued, though Dricklan was still NG and had to clean up the CN Copper Dragon's messes on more than several occasions and made several of my own. The Diskworlds were disintegrating for some reason or another, and so I'd turned the ship we'd acquired into an Ark of as many unique species as I could find. The game ended before I'd gotten too far, (un)fortunately..

Still, the pair made one last apperance as a duo in another game...Dricklan a Ranger once more, sporting a Huckleberry Finn-esque straw hat and a passion for fishing, and Rak Gis the dragon as a Copper Dragon hatchling/Sorcerer, who managed to keep up the illusion of being human for ALMOST an entire session before melting something or someone with his acid breath, as he was wont to do. The DM was far too sane to let us be true familiars, but let us retain the empathic link as a nod to the last game.

And so, we end with him having been a successful demon hunter, and having come to more of an understanding with his dragon companion. Where his next adventure will lead, on what random plane of existence, who can say, but I can with confidence state that Dricklan Stoutfoot will be back once again to threaten the Multiverse with horrendous cooking..

[Gecks]

My fav so far was probably Sam Sharpe, a Supermutant Cowboy from a home-brewed d20 fallout campaign. He was actually originally a very optimized but wooden/under fleshed out character (the GM had a bad- though well intentioned- habit of bringing friends and families of PCs back in awkward and dramatically unsatisfying ways later on in his campaigns, which prompted me to write Sam as an orphan type who literally joined the party after they found him burying the last person he ever knew at the side of the road). For a while I was quite bored with him, but then I spent a night making a "character playlist/soundtrack" and thinking about his lonely past and how it would affect his character. I came out with a much better idea of what made Sam tick, and because he was now an interesting personality who was still quite optimized, he ended up becoming an epic figure indeed as the campaign went on.

I am currently playing a dwarven crusader named Gunnar who has an awesome, detailed backstory- best one I ever wrote by a mile- and a deep and complex personality I was dying to play, but in game he just doesn't seem to come to life, almost like he is a cool character out of a novel who sucks in the movie treatment because of bad casting. While I am hoping I get a better grip on him as time goes on, it really goes to show that a good character does not necessary come from an epic 10 page backstory; sometimes less is more.

[Drekk]

Ack; now I'm reminiscing and need to write ~ I've been living overseas and have not played D&D in years, though I browse these forums quite often; hence, me being a pixie.

Gavrus Firth ties with Dricklan as my favorite character. Got the name from a Paladin NPC that was the father of a hireling one of my PC's picked up, intending to generally abuse as was the wont of the entire party of Chaotic Neutral bastards. Gavrus never really did much in that game as it was a Planescape campaign, but I liked the name and eventually gave it to a Cleric of Kelemvor, set in Forgotten Realms. A smallish, salt and pepper haired, intense blue-eyed Damaran with a perpetual frown.

Gavrus is actually ageless; he had committed a crime against existence so foul, that Kelemvor deemed the Wall a mercy and sentenced him to serve as his Seraph of Death, continually in service, continually dying, and always being reborn into life to do it again. I'd hinted he was once a necromancer, but left it up to the DM. He was an immortal, but in the meanest possible way. He could die just as easily as any human, and when he did, he had to be reborn through a mother, and grow up aaaaalll over again, eventually remember who he was, become a cleric, and serve Kelemvor until he died, then do it again, to learn the sanctity of life. After a specified amount of rebirths known only to him and Kelemvor (the DM), he would be freed from the cycle and allowed to move onto whatever fate Kelemvor's clergy is granted. Basically a quasi-immortal (in hindsight, Favored Soul would have suited him far better). Gavrus was pretty fed up with anything mortal, so fine food, women, clothes, etc, were all nothing to him. He was doom and gloom, and perpetually bored with anything not combat, though he did keep himself neat and clean, along with his weapons.

He gained his first level in Doomguard by personally (via spirit) meeting with Kelemvor in his Crystal Spire and being forcefully reminded why he served. Kelemvor ran him through with his sword after Gavrus grew impertinent, and the scar transferred over to his mortal body, granting him his supernatural powers, and making his touch as clammy as a corpse's.

Though he almost got into a clash with the party when, while chasing a vampire into it's lair, Gavrus discovered it's lair was a tomb centuries old. It's hoard of treasure had possibly been plundered from adventurers, but a good deal of it had been buried there by the people who constructed it. So naturally, I told the party the treasure was off-limits. Non-negotiable...They were cowed by his force of personality on the matter, though they very nearly decided to off me right hten as I casted various glyphs on the entry then stone-shaped it into a solid slab (the party members considered themselves CG/NG, by the way). And certainly could have if they tried, but instead grumped about it for several sessions afterwards.

He had a second incarnation as an Inquisitor set in Ravenloft, and that's where he really shined RP-wise. His personality was all set for me to take advantage of Pathfinder's gun rules, so I pretty much ripped off every religious, gunslinging moody guy in a cape and brought him into it. Gavrus Firth the Inquisitor of Pharasma...And I got to find out that Lawful Neutral just might be my favorite alignment ever. Naturally he clashed with the party, especially the monk, when I started breaking fingers to get information out of the bandits we'd captured. Gavrus' honor sense was deeply ingrained, and he paid close attention to their reactions on that first meeting. The Druid opted complain and then immediately to leave the scene, showing an lack of decisive moral conviction that Gavrus detested. The Monk protested, but did not act on his convictions, only warned Gavrus he would not sit idly by next time. Gavrus (secretly) respected his Lawful streak, but considered him naive about reality and the ends truly justifying the means. However, the threats were always hollow and never acted upon, and so Gavrus eventually grew to lose respect for the Monk, who only talked the talk about order and law but never backed up his convictions. But, Gavrus saw him as a pure individual and so never outright hated the Monk, either. The half-orc warrior was generally useful, and never got in the way, so Gavrus didn't care one way or another about the mercenary orc.

Gavrus is still in development, but he has as much potential as Dricklan. Though he's a heavy RP-character...Not for a silly game or hack n' slash. He would be a Favored Soul of Kelemvor if he ever came back.

[Thiyr]

Time for this thread again? Works for me.

Favorite character is a hard choice. Most were pretty fun. Probably a toss up between Grim and Crunch (they really can't be separated for purposes of this), the goblin wizard and ogre cohort barbarian/suel archanamach, or Jack, the aasimar warlock/escalation mage.

The first one because it tempered both a tendency for the eccentric with effectiveness and being a wonderful party face figure (owning a shop in a game in Ptolus, and being fairly unique, as despite the city being very eccentric itself, goblins riding on a platform carried on the back of ogres wearing enchanted tin foil hats and helmets with listening horns are fairly uncommon), and their pairing together made for some VERY strong RP. And sometimes, some confusing moments where in character he held a conversation with the DM (who was speaking entirely out of character). Needless to say, the rest of the party was very confused as to what he was talking about. Who says being crazy can't be fun?

The second because it outright redefined the LE alignment in our playgroup, the idea of having an evil PC in our playgroup, and managed to be one of those wonderful cases where clever play and good use of resources built up a strong enough reputation that he has become something of a memetic worldbreaker. Being mostly affable and practical, while being brutally efficient and having no scruples over doing what had to be done to save the world definitely made him a memorable one. Oh, and wearing out opponents through repeated use of infinite resources is useful. Silly yugoloths and your dispel magic 3/day. Doesn't hurt that I managed to get another character in a Faustian bargain by the end of the game.

[TurtleKing]

Oh my who should it be? The Baby Black Dragon Duskblade in a pirate capaign, or Roran… Gnome Bard Alchemist (not PF class) with an unhealthy fascination with explosions? Nope only one can be it with that one being my first. Thigardox Prinny Diety of Legend or Thig for short. Started off as an Aasimar Adept in a low magic campaign with a maxed out Burning Hands being powerful. Over the course of play trying to ressurect basically five human pantheons that are dead. After going through several trials eventually ends up setting up the meeting that raises the group to dietyhood at level 5. It was that or going back in time by about 24? MILLION years to handle a near diefic race that was almost wiped out. He went from the goofball failure to the wiser than before grandfatherly hellbent on kicking ass to get them ressurected. Why? In love with Freja inspite being a golfball for DEATH, 12k years, treks through the abyss, more nuclear explosions, time travel, goblin defecation, spear injection up the rear end, abuse from everyone else, and being punted though ALL planes. Futures exploits of raising a layer of the Abyss to Celestia, and starting a war with the Prinny God himself.

[missmvicious]

Oh my god I busted out laughing so much reading every one's responses to this. I was a bit worried that I would only be given tech stuff but yalls back grounds and exploits were golden.

I am really glad I got to hear all of your epic moments and what not.