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View Full Version : Describe the PCs in your D&D campaign.



Halberd
2012-04-01, 04:10 PM
What are your campaign's PCs like? You can go into as much detail as you want in your descriptions, which can consist of the character's personality, backstory, combat style, appearance, whatever. For example, the 4E group I DM for consists of:

A somewhat insane dragonborn fighter with an unhealthy love of execution axes. He has almost supernaturally good luck, and thus is the party risk-taker.

A bladeling ranger who was originally a melee warrior before deciding he liked archery better. He has an alligator companion named Lumpo, who he sends out into melee while giving ranged support.

An eladrin wizard who takes sadistic pleasure in inflicting as many control effects upon his enemies as possible. He tries to make the first move in every combat so that his enemies will be impaired from the beginning.

An unusually short half-elf who was raised by dwarves. His leadership skills in battle consist of inspiring his allies by bashing his enemies' brains in with a hammer.

A monk, who is a member of a thri-kreen-like houseruled race called the Insectoids. He tends to disregard psionic fanciness, instead favoring a good, violent, four-fisted pummeling.

An elven cleric of Melora, who is the party healer, leader, and Only Sane Person. He focuses on supporting and keeping the party alive and has little damage-dealing ability.

Bayonet Priest
2012-04-01, 09:38 PM
I'm playing in a game with about a dozen active players. It's a sandbox campaign where we go out in groups of 4-6 and explore (and plunder) the area around a small colony town in the "new world". I'll only list the characters that I've had enough time to get to know.



Blitzwand- Warforged Swordmage. The prototype of a new model of warforged soldier undergoing field tests on the edge of civilization. Learned, honorable, and protective of his newfound comrades. Kind of the straight man of the party, has shades of the Only Sane Employee.

Cero- Pixie Vampire (yes, really) This guy is the crazy, pint sized berserker of the group. Utterly fearless. He's only been with us a short while but he's definitely made an impression on the rest of us.

Eravan- Eladrin Wizard. Young (for an elf) scion of an immensely powerful and pretty damn evil Eladrin archmage/ruler. He's out here to gain power through adversity or die trying. He started out as pretty much a jerk but softened rather quickly (it's hard being mean to Ion) , now he's attempting to find a way out of his patriarch's watchful gaze to make his own way in the world.

Ionnina- Human Warlord. An Imperial officer in the recently ended war Ion is out in the West Marches finding her own way and trying to sort through some of her wartime experiences. Kind and considerate to a fault and also a fantastic leader. Team Mom. Has issues with goblins though, pirates too apparently... She is now learning spellcasting as a sort of apprentice to Erevan.

Lilac- Human Blackguard. A woman of class and nobility on the run from some family issues and a vengful stepmother. All grace and politeness until a fight starts (or her stepmother comes up) then heads will roll, literally.

Rhovan- Human Warlock. An arcane college dropout with an accidental pact garnered from a run in with a rather unpleasent secret society. Has taken up adventuring as the runaway hobo life just wasn't for him. Quite learned with a facility for languages, Rhovan prefers to solve his problems with fire and explosions. Usually cheerful and upbeat, always curious and fascinated by new arcane phenomena. (this guy is mine, backstory is kind of cliche but I've really enjoyed playing him)

Talbin- Shardmind Psion. ... This guy... Talbin's basically a cartoon character in a normal adventuring party. Very odd, some shades of Pinkie Pie exist. Is currently attempting to get the innkeeper to install a shrine to his god, Talbin-log (it's a wooden log that says "Talbin" on it)


Hopefully I've got them all right. I remember some of their motivations better than others.

The Bandicoot
2012-04-01, 09:40 PM
Well now I couldn't describe all the characters but I can describe my old character and my new one.

Old: Gnomeish bard named Flarg. Survived two assassination attempts, three near death experiences, and dieing(Lazarus Born feat yay). It took four javelins to the chest thrown by bugbears to kill him.

New: Halfing barbarian/cleric of Kord. Has taken a vow of poverty. Has the symbol of Kord branded on his chest(has an amusing care bear-esque effect when he turns undead)

Sucrose
2012-04-01, 10:15 PM
I'm presently in two Dungeons and Dragons campaigns at the moment, but one of them is relatively new, and we're still finding our footing as far as characterization goes. The other, though, is relatively long-running. It's a gestalt Eberron campaign based partially on the premise of Disgaea 2.

Virgil "Gil" Valentino: My character, whose full name has only recently been revealed by an NPC druidic diviner; he kept it secret due to the potential for retribution for the party's acts upon his wife, presently afflicted with a psychotic demon personality.

He's a pretty serious risk-taker, partially out of his focus on finding a way to cure the curse upon the world (and thereby restore Angie's sanity), and partially just because he's a little bit crazy. He is relatively cheerful, despite the circumstances (though how much of it is a mask is debatable), but brutally pragmatic when it is necessary.

Wields more weapons than the rest of the party combined (switching between them, not all at once). Tends to favor two-handed weaponry. An ardent student of the Sublime Way, and getting to the point where he's one of the foremost practitioners in the world. Focuses on Iron Heart, Shadow Hand, and Desert Wind maneuvers, with an increasing amount of Stone Dragon.

Laurence "Lawry" Rivertide d'Ghallanda: Daggerspell sorceror/shaper, smartass, unimpeachable host, and occasional bear. Has a largely pointless contest going on with Gil (who he generally sees as a friendly rival), and a possible budding romance with Ens. His wolf animal companion was killed, then reincarnated as a Shifter, who still has a link with him, but also has a fast friendship with Gil, who treats her as a protege.

In combat, he focuses on touch spells and AoE damage effects, though he's been making effective use of his Wild Shape lately. Renee is a pugilist.

Ens: A Kalashtar who was riven from her quori partner by the curse upon the world, and has been grieving ever since. She's a former nun, and afflicted by the impulses of the succubus whose form she has assumed, though she generally does a good job of keeping them in check. She is extremely focused on the war of the quori, and frequently mentions the turning of the age in her benedictions (Cleric//Warlock heretic). Frequent Freudian slips aside, generally one of the moral centers of the group, and certainly the most diplomatic.

In combat, she serves as a healer and buffer.

Sir Austin Tarthos: An amnesiac knight presently possessed of a hound's face, Sir Austin is the archetypal knight. Atop his griffon mount Buttercup, he smashes through the forces of evil with his lance. He is rather stoic outside of combat, and has not yet discovered much of his past.

One of our most consistent physical fighters, and still arguably the strongest. Mounted charging focused, though he does have a few other abilities.

Brayden Zwaard: Character of a player who's no longer able to make it to sessions, and so has to be played by his compatriots. Because of this, he has been somewhat exaggerated into the most hamtastic warrior that the world of Eberron has ever known. Caps lock is pretty much his default.

In combat, a nigh-unkillable tank that manages to deal fairly significant damage with single strokes of his Large greatsword.

Maker: The cool, somewhat morbid, mildly-arrogant Warforged psion; for a while, he was more of a zombie robot known as Warpstorm, who was frighteningly eager to unleash his eldritch powers upon pretty much anything the group encountered, though he was eventually changed back. Tends to be the most logical of the group, and even more pragmatic than Gil.

In combat, he focuses on elemental blasts for the most part, which seem to be rather effective. As Warpstorm, he was more focused on grappling things and sucking their life force out.

Ristelle: A newcomer to the group, who seems to be a rather sheltered girl from the Aundarian countryside. She is also a descendant of the Rakshasa, and consequently empowered by mightily by her bloodline. To her credit, she has studied her situation considerably, and seems to be a fairly impressive scholar.

In combat, she smashes things apart with her homebrewed variants of Eldritch blasts, and empowers the group through homebrew Marshal auras.

Baldwin: The DMPC, a Prinny Paladin. He's generally pretty quiet, but he's a fun guy to have around.

In combat, he's a low-level tank and secondary healer.

OverdrivePrime
2012-04-01, 11:08 PM
In my campaign, 5 humans from present-day Earth were pulled across the dimensions to the campaign world to go on an epic quest to free an ancient and crippled being by collecting five artifacts from around the world of Daera. They find that they are the only humans on the planets. Only when they collect these five artifacts will the being have its power restored and be able to send them back. (The original ritual took 1,500 years to complete.)
After a few months a new player joined the campaign, an elf from a continent under siege, seeking help. They might be miffed at me for using their real names, so I'll use their web handles.

Forger - A tall, heavy-set human male with a red beard and a powerful sense of justice. Sam owns a set of full plate armor that is stored in a magic ring. On Earth he was a graphic artist, but also has training as a veterinarian and several years of karate under his belt. We joke that he is a 'warpriest of awesome', but is a paladin/cleric with the travel and community domains. He usually tanks on the front line in his magical full plate, while carrying a warhammer and a heavy shield. He is married to Vielle.

Vielle - a slim, dark-haired human woman with quick steps, an inquisitive mind and deep knowledge of archaic music. She is talented with any instrument with strings from pianos to mandolins and cellos. She also really, really digs sugar gliders. On Daera, she has become a druid, and her ability to shift from a 130 pound woman to a gargantuan polar bear has caught more than her foes off guard. She fights with a shortbow, spells, diplomacy and claws.

Tannim - a tall, heavily built man who writes mystery novels, and until recently was an Army sergeant. Tannim has 15 years of kickboxing training, as well as two long tours in Iraq and a very dangerous insight into human motivation. Sick of too-many firefights, he now disdains guns, and is quite happy to be on a world without them. Tannim has learned the way the duskblade, and has also picked up some shadow magic thanks to a magical set of bracers. He fights with spells and any sharp melee object that he can get his hands on.

Brunhilde - a 6' tall, blond woman with a talent for languages. Stronger than most women, but hilariously clumsy, Brunhilde is a professional opera singer who nerds out on heroes of might and magic, and tomes and tomes of books. She's also known for breaking her hand in a karate match while punching someone's leg - which also broke. Clumsy but dangerous! She has become an archivist, and functions as a sort of 'sexy battle librarian.' She wears chain mail, and is armed with a longsword and a heavy shield, as well as a book of infinite pages. She mainly casts buff spells, as well as some mind-affecting command spells. Brunhilde is married to Kalin.

Kalin - yet another tall guy (90% of my male friends are over 6' tall, but only 2 are taller than me. Odd.) with a martial arts background. Kalin is an actor on screen and stage, as well as an immensely talented computer programmer. He has a zany sense of humor and an undergraduate career in physics. Now on Daera, he is a wizard who enjoys abuse of illusions, as well as field-control and team-buffs. He fights with spells and any sword he can get his hands on.

Lazziar - A male elf ranger from a continent under siege by much of the rest of the world. The elves are down to fewer than 100,000 in number, and only rarely have a mission important enough to risk one of their number, so Lazziar takes his quest very seriously. He is somewhat stoic, and frequently puzzled by the chatty and alien 'humans', which to him seem to be a combination of the best things about dwarves, orcs and hobgoblins. A mental stretch, to be sure. Lazziar is questing for an artifact that can bring relief to his people, as well as powerful help in the war against the hobgoblins and their allies. Lazziar fights with the traditional weapons of his people, the longbow, and paired longsword and shortsword.

abdima
2012-04-02, 09:57 AM
In our current campaign our characters are on an expedition to a new continent. The plot has yet to really kick in but the characters seem to be shining through anyway.

Jo: A womanizing rogue with several self-destructive tendencies. He is a changeling, which the rest of the PCs have recently been informed of, after bounty hunters came to kill him. His fighting style mainly consists of standing back in combat and shooting his enemies with hand crossbows. In close combat, he is adept with a rapier.
Azling: A psion who believes her abilities to be shamanic. She mainly stays behind and lets her "spirit companion" heal people in combat.
Tayna: A gnome bard who has had an abusive past. She was the less favored twin and has worked as a prostitute after several tragedies had befallen, the possible breaking point being the discovery that she is barren. Has had a sexual liason with Jo in the past. Neither particularly enjoyed it and it was a source of much tension between them. When she isn't healing people with her songs, she uses her bardic magic to insult people into suicide (as our group likes to put it).
Elly: A gnome wizard who was the favored twin. She was sent on the expedition to learn and has thus stayed in the capital to continue her research on the natives (fox people). While she was on the team, she would mainly use lightning against the enemy.
Orcanus: An Aventi barbarian who has a story that goes far beyond this campaign. To the PC's knowledge he is the defender of the ocean and the final hope against the great evil that currently inhabits the seas. His rage is legendary and while he is slightly out of his element on land, his still one of the heaviest hitters of the group, wielding a sword made from coral and the teeth of sharks he has killed.
Ardent: A Dragonborn monk, who was left on the streets by his parents at an early age. When he tried to steal from a monk, he was soundly beaten and taken in for training. Due to his monk training, he has several rules by which he must abide, or else fast for a day. They usually leave him at something of a disadvantage in combat, though he has found a few work-arounds to the rules. While generally a kind young man, he has an animalistic side that becomes manifest the more times he is hit. He is another heavy hitter and uses only his fists.
Vackery: A kitsune (fox person) fighter, who joined the group after they helped her with a rebellion against the kitsune empire. Most of them had owed her, considering she saved their lives after a shipwreck. Her ax is something to be feared.
Herok The Seeker: A new addition to the group, Herok is a human paladin who leads a fairly normal life. He joined the group as a replacement for Elly and his holy might is to be feared.

ChimingCopper
2012-04-02, 02:47 PM
Well, in our homebrew setting Pathfinder campaign...

Naruza Gar, CG orc fighter. From a well-known mercenary family. She wields a spiked chain, and loves to rush into GLORIOUS BATTLE! Current ambition is to kill her evil twin magic user sister in a fair fight. Also wears fabulous fresh fur fashions. Party tank.

Gengaidhael Erique (Gen Erique {er-ic, not er-eek} for short) started out as a CG human fighter. He then bought a whore's freedom, fell in love with her, and set out to become worthy of loving her by becoming a LG paladin of the goddess of love. He dual wields swords and fights defensively. Party leader, but will be staying in the city due to his new responsibilites ending indentured servitude.

Ashtu Vetreyu, LN human DMPC. Aforementioned ex-whore, has some magic and monk capabilities. She apparently likes the party fine, but her culture is much colder and more impersonal. Confuses Gen on a regular basis as to whether or not his affections will ever be returned.

Peregrine, CG elf ranger. Or would be if she wasn't so ADD. Half of any successful plan is getting Peregrine out of the way first. She is the project of a wizard trapped in a rock, who goes by the name of Sutras, whose sole goal for five years is to make Peregrine a useful member of society. She uses a bow and a halberd and is amazingly effective...so long as she can concentrate long enough.

Karken, CN Junglefolk rogue. Aaaand...that's really about it. She's been collecting copper pieces for who knows what. She hasn't done anything to the party...yet... Sneak attacks with kukris.

Thyme Scarborough, NG human cleric of the god of dreams. Also has a less than savory identical twin, Sage, who is a cleric of the opposing goddess of nightmares. His family is a member of the aristocracy, but he is terribly out of touch with his own class. Often sleepy and easily annoyed, the party is the first time he's had people he could call friends. The party's only dedicated spellcaster, he mostly heals and casts sleep spells.

Giggling Ghast
2012-04-02, 02:57 PM
Manx: Unaligned, halfling rogue. Extremely selfish and greedy. Seeks any advantage he can find over others. Assumes others are doing the same.

Magda: Unaligned half-elf cleric of the Raven Queen. Devoted to her god. Shows flashes of compassion for others, but also extremely ruthless at times.

Frank: Good human fighter. Very mercenary, generally dislikes most other races.

Nas: "Lawful good" eladrin wizard. Not particularly concerned with getting innocent casualties in the crossfire.

Aust Nailo
2012-04-02, 03:31 PM
Bastion-Mercenary knight assigned to the party, tends to act as the straight man is most cases. Meat shield to the extreme, not built for damage, just to draw aggro and not die.

Xavier-Newest member, mobile Scout archer, and brother to Bastion (in game and in real life). Under contract to bring the party under arrest and deliver to a wizard as part of a deal to save his mother. The wizard is after the party for the robbery of a store by Mooin and Aust, however the only party member known by name to the world is Cecil so he always ends up being the target of these hunts. :smalltongue:

Cecil-Duskblade, glass cannon with emphasis on the cannon. Has a tendency to kill bosses in the first hit, but since we've hit level ten this has stopped happening as much. Takes a lot of trophies from dead enemies and carries around several greatswords. Has tendency to roll lots of crits. Also plays straight man when needed, has a saved macro to smack Mooin in the back of the head. Loves to use Vampiric Touch through his sword while letting loose stored Scorching Rays.

Luma-Bard/ Master of Masks. Party buffer and some comic relief, mainly because of his tendency to roll Nat 1's at least once per combat. Fights with longbow. Keeps a disguise on at almost all times.

Mooin-Party Rogue going for Invisible Blade and Master Thrower chain of prestige classes. Likes throwing knives and collecting obscure magical items. Definitely a lover of chaos, once he smashed a dragon in the desert with a galleon... while the dragon was flying. :smalleek: He and Aust tend to act as a tag team of crazy ideas. As a team they have robbed a wizard blind (which led to the party being pursued to this day), started a civil war in a Dwarven city (while framing a party member for it), proved that party member's innocence while implicating the ruling family of the dwarven city (hence the civil war), used a catapult to become a 2 man aerial bombardment to destroy a group of orcs and plenty of other things I'm sure. Mooin owns some low cost housing in one of the major cities in the game and has set himself up as something of a slum-lord.

Aust-Rogue/Sorcerer/Daggerspell Mage, the 2nd damage dealer in the party. Focuses on evocation and dragon related spells. Plays as Mooin's straight man when nobody else is around and generally gets wrapped up in the crazy schemes. Love to throw fireballs and lightning bolts when possible, owns a magic ring to turn invisible at will, Tumbles and moves though the battlefield to get the drop on enemies. (My character) :smallbiggrin:

Dr Bwaa
2012-04-02, 06:59 PM
Here are a couple of parties I've been involved in with some somewhat eccentric characters.

The Wanderers (long-running campaign, gone through lvls 1-16 so far)
Partially-insane half-silver-dragon formerly-wizard sorceress specializing in evocation and immorality* :smalleek:
Overconfident human fighter-type bodyguard/tank with long-standing unrequited crush on said sorceress; will not refuse her on any matter.
Monk prone to fits of social stupidity rivaling his close friend the fighter's; frequently masquarades as blind using a blindfold of True Seeing.
Childish rogue/bard equally likely to sing to you or stab you; incapable of taking anything seriously unless it involves forced confrontation with something he can't sneak attack.
Quiet druid who knows lots of relevant prophetic secrets but refuses to tell them to the party; recently pregnant by the rogue.

The Wardens (high-level all-casters campaign)
Young Wizard/Incantatrix/Abjurant Champion from Faerun, mildly addicted to magic; can see magical effects inherently.
Killoran Druid/Sorcerer/Arcane Hierophant who tends to accidentally create/wildly enhance nearby plant life when deep in thought; specializes in varied forms of lightning magic.
Venerable Human Wizard/Cleric/Mystic Theurge with under three years to live; astonishingly popular with the ladies.

*not a typo

Darth Stabber
2012-04-02, 08:15 PM
Lee - CE Human Unarmed Swordsage/shadowsun ninja/barbarian1 - Wisecracking Taxidermist, tank by default, recently became main healer. He's a decent damage dealer in a party full of good damage dealer. Loves making trophies, and despite evil tendencies like to share. Only reason he's evil is his love of killing. Exiled freedom fighter from Necromancer Empire.

Apple - CN/CE Tibbit Dread Necromancer - Everyone else thought they were playing D&D, she didn't get the hint and thinks we're playing pokemon. Her character thinks that zombies and skeletons are people too. Her ritual to create a slaymate companion spawned a powerful undead abomination that is now threatening the world, and is now the main plot driver. Her current force consists of 5wights, 1 skeletal wolf, 1 slaymate, 1 huge monstrous spider zombie, 1 owlbear zombie, 3 human warrior skeletons 1 human warrior zombie, 1 oni zombie (some big nasty spider oni from OA), and one quasit familiar. Battlefield controller + former main healer (The character that have been in from the beginning all have TTS). Exiled mental patient of necromancer empire.

Zelm - TN Elan Psion(Shaper)/Uncarnate - permanently unamused voice of reason DD/Control. With the group to escape his former Cabal in the necromancer empire. Most affected by the DN's insanity (and bf of the DN's player). Contributes a lot of utility through intelligent use psionic powers and UMD (I ruled UMD and UPD to be the same skill, same with spellcraft and psicraft).

Jane Doe - NE Halfling Rogue/Assassin - Joined a couple sessions ago. Adds a second voice of reason, albeit a more vicious one. Was convinced to join the party, then found out later exactly what the drive forcing them on their adventure was. Frequently sarcastic and brash, and walks with a smug combination of overconfidence and entitlement. Has spent more time at negative HP than the rest of the party combined. Has promised a back story with a real name, but so far it has not been forthcoming. Known to be from the theocratic empire ruled by the church of Pelor. Rapier focused (claims to be an experienced fencer, and nothing more).

Elana - TN Elf Sorceress - Jane's traveling companion. The player is really quiet, so I haven't got a good feel for her character yet (after three sessions, she's still super quiet). Mostly damage focused, but has become quite enamored with Evard's Black Tentacles.

The two new players shake up the previous party dynamic rather interestingly. They previously had an ID(dn) Ego(ss) Super Ego(psi) thing going on, but with the new players in the mix it is interesting to see the party interaction shift. The game started out very sandboxy, but when the DN decided to make a slaymate, they got drawn into the current quest. I am really enjoying the whole evil party thing, and I find that it has caused few of the issues that other people around here always talk about. I guess the key is always making the players deal with unintended consequences of their actions, and the ease of motivating the greedy.

seregsarn
2012-04-02, 08:49 PM
I've got a party of six in my 3.5 game, but the sixth slot has rotated a lot until recently and a recent death (and the subsequent departure of the corresponding player) has left us with five. All but one of them are relatively new to the game, so we started from level 1 to ease everyone in, and we're only a few levels in. As such, the characters aren't really exotic or anything, and the optimization level is extremely low in most cases-- but I've been absolutely loving all the weird interpersonal dynamics in their party. They call their group "The Flunkies" because, so far, they basically just keep asking their noble patron for whatever jobs she needs done:

Gannon Glimmerschmidt Thistlebottom, a gnomish illusionist/bard who's adventuring primarily as a means of advertising, to generate interest in his merchant business. This is the experienced player. 21lbs would be a medium load for him(!) due to his extraordinarily low strength score, so he carries most of his possessions in a gnome-sized, goat-drawn vardo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardo_(Romani_wagon)) that also serves as his mobile storefront. He's roleplaying a merchant to the hilt-- Aside from his weaponry and alchemy supplies, he spent all of his substantial starting gold (full gold plus a background-based bonus) on miscellaneous trade goods and long-term investments. :smallbiggrin:

Stiggo, a "freelance information retreival specialist." He's a streetwise rogue who focuses on infiltration and acrobatics, getting into places he shouldn't and stealing information rather than goods, because goods can only be sold once. He actively discourages questions about his past or his full name, but reacts extremely violently to talk of slavers and slavery, so that may tell you something. His favorite battle tactic is to climb up somewhere high where nobody can reach him, and then throw daggers down at folks from on high. Deeply loves cats, who he feels a particular kinship with. In fact, he's sometimes prone to forgetting that he's not actually a cat himself.

An elven druid who gave her name as simply "Shrimpie," and her sea lion companion Sparkles. Sparkles is probably the most spoiled animal companion ever; Shrimpie doesn't like putting her in danger at all, ever. Anyway Shrimpie fights from a distance with a spear, and loves summoning wolves-- which are all named "Wolfie", "Wolfie II", "Wolfie III", etc. She keeps a tally of how many of her summoned wolves have been killed in action. I'm unsure yet whether this grim calculus will have any long-term implications.

Marin Steelheart, the world's only known free warforged. It's a long and (in my opinion) pretty intriguing backstory, but basically most of the warforged in our world are the property of a totalitarian, human-supremacist state which mass-produces them and indoctrinates them as (totally disposable) crusaders in a holy war. Marin was created there, but is an artificer, taking after the "father" who rebelled by creating him and helped him escape. Since he's (quite intentionally) far from that country, Marin is often mistaken for a mindless golem since warforged aren't known locally.

Agaricus, a rogue myconid cleric who left his colony (or was kicked out?) to pursue an independent life seeking the power that comes from wisdom and knowledge. Called himself "Toad" as a nickname, which caught on much better with the party than his real name did. He started as nominally LN, worshipping the Plant and Water domains. This seemed reasonable enough to me. His actions in the game, however-- wanton murder, brutal torture, attempted enslavement of prisoners, and a certain fascination with dismembering defeated foes and collecting the parts in a giant bag, while smearing the blood all over himself to intimidate other potential foes-- quickly reclassified him as CE. The other Flunkies particularly disliked his habit of spending healing spells on incapacitated foes so that he could continue to torture them after they lost consciousness, while his fellow party members were bleeding and wounded. Toad's dead now, by his own hand-- another long story, I fear. :smallfrown:

Ogden, a half-orc fighter wielding a sword that is actually taller than he was, originally filled the party's "muscle" slot. He ended up quitting after the party's first mission due to other obligations, but he sent a friend of his, a fellow half-orc named Gell, to take his place. Gell was a paladin of freedom who fought at the local arena for honor, booze, and the glory of Kord. He signed on at Ogden's recommendation for the chance to take down some evildoers, and maybe make a name for himself doing so, in order to gain popularity with the arena crowds. Gell didn't get along with Toad at all, as you might imagine, but in any event Gell's player soon decided D&D wasn't really his "thing," so he quit shortly after their third mission and Gell happily went back to the arena with his newfound reputation as a hero.

Their new melee fighter is Seraga, a human quarterstaff-wielding swordsage who is blind-- he lost his eyes to some form of injury-- but is no less deadly for all that. He's not as beefy as his "muscle" predecessors, or even as sturdy as Marin with his steel frame, but he does absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage as long as the miss chance for being blind doesn't mess him up. Seraga's a strange one at first glance; they found him challenging drunks to bar brawls for food-and-drink money in the poorest district in town. He's a man at his lowest point, basically, and seems to have no interest whatsoever in money, advancement, glory or justice. When they described the villainous deeds of their current foe to him, though, he changed his tune and signed up enthusiastically-- he really doesn't like what he's heard.

LikeAD6
2012-04-02, 08:50 PM
I am DMing a 3.P campaign. It is a setting of my own design, in a world with seven semi-unified nations and magical technology approximately on par with that of Eberron. My PCs are a band of minstrels, though none of them have the bard class. Because the campaign has recently begun, they have not yet encountered any major villains or their followers; currently, they are preparing for a New Year's celebration in which they are performing by attacking rival minstrels they deem as less "true" or "legitimate." They also plan to somehow get involved with the warring troglodyte/kobold and orc/goblinoid tribes surrounding their village.

Anyway, here are my PCs:

Amanu "The Captain" Inferno (N Male Vanara Ranger) is an accomplished street performer and the singer of the band. He lives in a tree house near the other party members and spends his days capering about town performing for coin and adoration of peasants. His snarky comments sometimes grate on the nerves of the other members, though his combat and athletic abilities have proven useful in getting out of tight spots.

Gaahl Burzum (NE Male Gnome Sorcerer) is the apparent ladies-man of the group. He plays guitar in the band and is frequently seeking to have sexual intercourse with female fans, regardless of the potential consequences. (He once fell unconscious due to having taken damage from a drow woman while engaged in the act.) Gaahl is the most power-hungry member and is currently trying to find the location of magic items. He wears corpse paint and black robes.

Boulder Bloodrage (CN Male Dwarf Warblade) is the most overtly temperamental and violent member. He plays drums, which serves as an outlet for some of his aggression. In battle he seeks to lay low his opponents using a combination of brute strength and precise striking with his falchion; Diamond Mind is his preferred martial discipline. He and Gaahl are inseparable and always room together; Amanu sometimes insists that the two are gay.

Uther Smith (CG Male Human Fighter) is the supposed moral compass of the party. He plays bass guitar in the band and fights with a greatsword. While not as easily roused to violence as Boulder, his methods are more brutal and straightforward. While perhaps the most heroically inclined member, Uther has a strong distaste for the law, and engages in minor illegal activities, such as procuring illegal fireworks to enhance the band's live shows.

Hammer Smashface (N Male Goliath Cleric) is the loony of the party. He plays keyboards in the band and worships the deity Munchkinus, the supposed deity of adventuring for personal gain. Hammer insists on using hare-brained tactics in battle, such as having Gaahl put enemies to sleep and then pulling their pants down to their ankles so that walking becomes more difficult. He is often able to convince Uther to assist him in this scheme, prompting Amanu to suggest that they are gay.

Suichelle (insert some long French-sounding name here; this particular player loves long-winded, difficult to pronounce names written in chicken scratch) (LG female flying elf warrior (due to level adjustment of flying template she has to be NPC class for now; she will eventually become a fighter)) is a newly-met party member; Uther found her while chasing down a bandit who had captured an unconscious Amanu. (This character's player was not around for the first session so I had to introduce the character somehow.) She is encased in leather and chain armour to make her seem more mysterious. Suichelle's preferred combat tactics are to fly toward an enemy while throwing spears and then to finish by stabbing the enemy with her spiked gauntlets and boots, using her wings for propulsion to free up her other limbs for attacks. She eventually wants to obtain a pegasus mount, as she thinks she is best suited to riding a flying creature, as if she is dismounted, she will not plummet to her death.

Morithias
2012-04-02, 09:10 PM
Our X-crawl campaign currently has the following.

Human Giantborn ranger - Skilled with traps and trained in X-crawl methods. Prefers to kick down doors instead of opening the lock. A brutally strong human who loves the blood of the sport.

Human Cleric of Kord - A competitive and strong cleric who loves his greatsword. A brutally powerful caster who is childhood friends with the Ranger.

Alisa (the only character whose name I know) Warforged Monk - A special golem designed to enter the x-crawl arena. Was going to be held back by the team's coach, but only having two people brave the storm he summoned he decided to allow the golem to enter his testing dungeon with them. She is machine like, but learns via watching and has adaptive AI, and is learning humanity from her fellow X-crawlers.

Jergmo
2012-04-02, 09:42 PM
The DMPC, Emily Case: a hyperactive, absent-minded bard with a single father (a cooper) with two siblings, having chanced upon meeting one of the main characters in the last campaign she idolized as a child, the party having saved her village.

Elisa Brandyberry: a quiet, nerdy druid who is the daughter of one of the world's greatest huntsmen and best friend of the DMPC since childhood and her gorilla companion, Corwin.

Evelyn Malheras: A closed-off and more calculating battle dancer, originally raised by an evil female ruler who ran from home to the neighboring kingdom.

Kaiden (I forget :smallannoyed:): A snarky fighter and the party's general butt monkey (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButtMonkey), caught in the middle of the madness due to being wanted by said evil ruler (of a vassal nation) due to filing a report that revealed the ruler was skimming extra off the top and committing treason.

SandroTheMaster
2012-04-02, 10:40 PM
First time I drop by the forums in a looooong time and by chance I see this. Since I've gone back to DMing in a longer time still, why not?

Juan, the extraordinary Halfling. This is a lucky, lucky PC. His rolls were amazingly high. His lowest stat is a strength of 14. He is rogue/diviner in pathfinder, which makes him ALWAYS have his action, even in a surprise round (you may have an idea of how useful this is for a rogue, and the player ISN'T a munchkin). He is a compulsive liar and will go out of his way to open his mouth and spew some more even when the absolute best thing he could do is remain quiet. He is always leaving the group to his own errands, which once left him in the situation of being ambushed by an illegal arms dealer (he sought out himself). Also, the puck is absurdly hard to hit. Most combats he is the only one leaving mostly (or even fully) unharmed while the rest of the group is barely alive.

Athos, the cranky wizard with mystic eyes. Since the dice gods are a fickle and jealous sort, all the luck the last player had was sucked right from this one. His states were mostly average, with the exception of a single 17 that was balanced with a hilarious 6. While mulling over where the 6 would go, he figured he'd like to have a House-alike wizard, grumpy and pathological in his quest to stay miserable and hated. The first time I've seem a charisma used as a dump stat for nice roleplaying purposes and he's paid a LOT for this low charisma, even going as far a being held prisoner by a tavern-keeper for insulting him (an old but still impressive veteran) until he was timely "rescued" by the rest of the group. He is an universalist wizard who sees the importance of all schools and thanks to some unique background bonuses from the setting he can see into both the ethereal plane and shadow plane, giving him a series of sensory bonuses that more often than not proves to be more of a curse than a blessing.

Mésdoran, the idealist elven warrior. A fighter with well-rounded stats, having nice mental attributes who longs to create a new nation for the elves and save them from the brink of extinction (in this setting the elves just lost a long and bloody war to a massive goblinoid alliance, most of the elves left are now slaves to a Rome-like minotaur Empire, because the goblinoids mostly eat them. Also, their Goddess was too enslaved by the Minotaur God). He is also on a quest to find out the fate of his promised bride before the fall of the Elven nation. So far he is in the right track. An extremely loyal companion, he'd do anything for the group, but he demands in turn that they aid him in whatever is needed to further both his quests. So far he managed to half-convince four elves to follow him (a ranger who just figures she owes him, a sorceress who is afraid of him, a thief who thinks he can gain something out of it before Mésdoran falls back on reality and a child who is just following the ranger around). He plans to eventually take leadership, but we already discussed that he first must be able to gather some willing followers.

Velnias, the corrupted Ronin. A being corrupted by an alien force that is slowly taking over the world, he was trained by a samurai but rejected by his clan. He earns to find a lord to serve who'll accept him for who he is. His stats are very average, with his best being a 16 in strength (after a bonus from his corruption) and the rest being between 10 and 12, with a negative-bonus charisma. He keeps mostly to himself but has a growing respect for Mésdoran. If Mésdoran, who was of noble lineage between elves (something that counts for squat nowdays), ever has his blood recognized by both his people and the human realms, Velnias will probably be very tempted to beg the elf take him as servant. Which would be interesting, because by going from Mésdoran's personality, he'd probably decline out of speciecism.

Kimara, the wild, wild druidess. Played by a woman I'm not sure if is just crazy or trying way too hard to fit in. She is bissexual, gets naked easily and for little reason (got the group expelled from a couple of taverns already), and despite her high stats is hilariously badly optimized. While I respect that, I fear it is mostly inexperience, though she refused profusely to heed any advice. Her AC is at least 4 points lower than it could easily be without even beginning to munchkin it out, she chose nature affinity with the ice element, which I personally considers by far to be the weakest, and she is mostly only allowed in the group because she is THE only healer they could find. She is crazy about making goodberries every day and has a bad habit of resting far, far away from the group. Though she has probably grown out of it since an ambush by skeletons at night almost killed her. Also, she is the foil of Mésdoran, always and constantly testing his faith in his own race.

Right now they're in a wizard-ruled realm investigating a rift in the very earth (an actual rift), dealing with several wizard researchers and trying to unveil a conspiracy about the purpose of the rift. I know, a bit too Lovecraftian for a D&D setting, but so far they're digging it, and soon enough they'll enter the rift to kick the ass of whoever is creating it so it should balance out.

Adam...?
2012-04-03, 12:17 AM
Clayton Banebridge: Human fighter. Originally came from a noble family, but after his uncle led the family in an ill-advised rebellion against the ruling powers, the Banebridge family had its title of nobility revoked. Needless to say, there were executions involved. Through various adventurers and schmoozing, he has recently achieved his goal of reclaiming the title of Lord Banebridge. Clayton acts as the party's de facto leader.

Donovan Banebridge: Human cleric. Clayton's younger brother. He doesn't care so much about the nobility thing, but he's a pretty devoted servant of Kord. He seems to be the only person in the party concerned with watching where their moral compass is pointing ("hey, maybe assassinating kings isn't the sort of thing we should be getting into. Yes, even if they ask us nicely").

Reagan: Human sorcerer/rogue. He's a skilled, fast-talking, streetwise magic-user who was invited to join the party, despite warnings of "personality flaws" and "problematic behaviors." When he wants to, he can be a master manipulator, stealthy bastard, or unstoppable assassin, but most of the time he's too busy ******* around.

Alcibaedes: Elf wizard. "Sid" was an aspiring arcane researcher who got tossed into the life of adventuring as a sort of "work study," and found that he had a knack for it. His research has now taken a back seat to saving the world. As a powerful mage, he has the thankless job of bailing out the party when their plans inevitably go haywire, and also has been voted "party scapegoat."

Alyssa: Human monk/swordsage. Not a lot to say here. She punches people. She's put forth funding to start building a monastery so she can train the next generation of people-punchers after the world has been saved. Her mysterious inner mystical powers have manifested themselves as swordsage levels. Walks around permanently enlarged, which is occasionally hilariously inconvenient.

TheCountAlucard
2012-04-03, 12:18 AM
Does it have to be D&D? If it does, why's it on this more-general RPG area, rather than the 3.5/4e areas?

Cieyrin
2012-04-04, 03:39 PM
Does it have to be D&D? If it does, why's it on this more-general RPG area, rather than the 3.5/4e areas?

I won't complain to see characters from your games, especially the Exalted ones. :smallbiggrin:

Raleigh Bottleblower: Halfling Chef Sorcerer with a penchant for pyromancy. Uses a lot of bravado and blowing things up to cover his over-developed sense of self-preservation (read: cowardice). His brand of magic has been branching into making escape and subterfuge easier as he discovers his heritage isn't merely a means to set everything on fire.

Cor: Human Monk/Fighter with an, shall we say, over-developed sense of greed for anything and everything that jingles. Lacks any common sense and seems to bluster into anything and everything, which is belied by his inability to make saving throws despite his high saves. It's a wonder that he's still alive.

Thiplug Beeteater: Elderly Halfling Rogue/Sorcerer/Cleric of Fharlanghn, formerly cursed with a major speech impediment, remains aloof even from his fellow halflings as he is haunted by the destruction of the halfling homeland, as he was of age among the party halflings to remember it. Tends to avoid conflict unless strictly necessary and tends to keep to himself and his own devices.

Torum: Half-Orc Barbarian with a large sword and a larger heart. Superstitious of magic and still confused by the concept of halflings, he is especially confused by having all these short people around who use strange magics. This hasn't been helped by the fact that when he initially showed up at the dungeon the party was exploring that he was charmed by Raleigh to force him to join the party as their new 'friend'. Now dead to us, since the player decided to have a nonsensical tantrum and stormed from the game for us not agreeing with him leveling midgame.

Zandra Lastname I can't remember: Halfling Cleric of Wee Jas/Knight, she walks around in a breastplate we think she stole from a dwarf and a heavy shield, she looks like a mobile trashcan. The party tank, healer and moral compass, she takes the burial of fallen enemies seriously and makes sure that anyone who meets their end around us gets their last rites. She's curious of other religions and goes out of her way to learn whatever she can about them, especially dead/forgotten religions.

New Player who I haven't caught the character's name yet: Elf Druid with a cheetah companion that the DM has a vendetta to destroy, apparently came out of a what I can only describe as a life pod from 1000 years in the past, before the Twin Cataclysms (forgot, this is a flavor of Greyhawk) struck down the Baklunish and Suel Empires. Haven't got a good feel for what his character is about yet to have any real impressions yet.

FearlessGnome
2012-04-04, 05:01 PM
A Good/Exalted Gestalt game I'm in.

Tara: Homebrew Exalted WoW Troll Ranger//Monk. Does not optimize, so the DM keeps throwing insane bonuses at her. (This does balance things more often than break them, though, so that works out. She is, however, carrying around an artifact that tears a hole in the world every time she plane shifts...)

Brandis: Exalted Barbarian//Cleric/Kensai. Dispenser of Insane damage extraordinaire, and Champion of Freedom. His Kensai vow/Exaltedness results in him... taking issue... with slavery, and we've occasionally had to damage his intelligence down near nil to avoid him brutally bringing justice to local slavers when we need to keep a low profile. Also a Mul, so imagine a two meters tall dwarf-in-fullplate Champion of Freedom. Just about unkillable as well, with one of those fancy Starmantle cloaks, and Trues Resurrection from his equipment once per day.

Shennanigans: The party halfling Naughty Rogue. Originally wanted to be evil, but reconciled himself to playing Neutral Crazy. Has botched so many social situations that we now refer to anyone turning a potential ally into an enemy "pulling a Shen". Despite the bad rep that CN Rogues get, Shen is hilarious. He just... needs to go sit in a corner and be quiet every now and then, while the rest of us handle important NPCs. The Deck of Many things turned him into an Astral Deva for a while, which was... interesting...

Lastly Meeee: Half-Fey Druid//Sorcerer/Geomancer.
Imagine this, but with two sets of wings, "Green, bushy Eyebrows", and Sorcerer casting:
http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/41785_154845693169_5141598_n.jpgFor Great Justice.


The Final Enemy is a Lawful Insane super-angel of Doom who wants to unite everything under his rule to avoid inefficiency in the face of a vaguely defined enemy hivemind from outside time and space.

TheCountAlucard
2012-04-04, 06:06 PM
I won't complain to see characters from your games, especially the Exalted ones. :smallbiggrin:Okay, if you insist. :smalltongue:

Shen, the Bright LionShen was a scavenger-lord, a treasure-hunter of some renown. Hailing from the Hundred Kingdoms, Shen and his small crew of thaumaturges had successfully braved a number of ruins; earning a favorable reputation with the Guild.

Shen's life changed while exploring a First Age ruin; he had inadverdently triggered a trap, and had thus separated himself from the group. Worse still, the walls were closing in on him, and his tools were with the others. Nonetheless, he ran for the far door, and began trying to disable the lock. Panic built up in him, but he fought to keep a cool head as he worked. Suddenly, Shen experienced a flash of gold, and in a moment of brilliance, he opened the lock with a mere touch.

As other dangers presented themselves, he was able to navigate around them with effortless ease; guardians did not see him, traps did not trigger, and the way forward was lit with a brilliant radiance. When he returned to his companions, his arms were full of treasure, and upon his forehead was a blazing ring of light. They were terrified, and did not recognize him, for the bright aura that surrounded him obfuscated his features. Only then did Shen realize that he had taken his Second Breath; he turned to his companions and told them not to be afraid, and offered up to them the bounties of the tomb.

The bit of his backstory that very few know, however, is that before he was a scavenger-lord, Shen was a prince. When he was a child, his parents ruled over one of the Hundred Kingdoms, and he was educated in history, etiquette, geography, calligraphy, debate, martial arts, commerce, language, and a hundred other skills that would serve him when he ruled. However, a warlord known as Iron Scar rose up and usurped Shen's family; Shen managed to escape, but could never return home. Now, though, with the power of a Lawgiver, there might yet be hope of taking back what is rightfully his.

Here's my picture of Shen...
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa100/TheCountAlucard666/Pictures/Shen.jpg
Alastar, the Radiant Archivist[Note: I'm still not certain as to the spelling of his name, as it seems to change each time I look at it. :smallconfused:]

A simple youth, enslaved to work in the service of a powerful sorcerer, Alastar taught himself to read behind his master's back, borrowing volumes from the well-stocked library and learning of the previous age. He learned of sorcery, and vowed that he would learn the art, and use it to protect and create. As his knowledge grew, so did the cruelty of his master, who took Alastar out into Wyld-tainted lands, where a single raksha awaited them.

Alastar slew the Fair Folk and fled from his master at the behest of a veiled being, who told him that if he wished to learn sorcery, he would need to sacrifice his old life. He eventually found an abandoned manse, its library stocked with ancient knowledge. As he studied within its walls, he received a vision of a golden, winged figure, and a brilliant brand appeared on his forehead, and so he became the Radiant Archivist.
Lyst SuacoWordswordswords
NuresWordswordswords

Edog
2012-04-06, 12:54 AM
Well, in our current campaign, we've got a human dread necromancer, a gnome illusionist wizard, a drow assassin who just joined us, and a grey elf Archivist (me). And we all have tomb-tainted soul, since negative energy isn't evil in this campaign.

The dread necromancer is really evil. I don't know much of his backstory OOC, and none at all IC, but one of his hobbies is torturing people. I foresee...issues...with him in the future.

The gnome illusionist is neutral--meaning, he'll only do something if there's money in it for him. I don't really know anything about his backstory, the guy who plays him doesn't actually roleplay very much (to the point where I had to remind him that he'd probably say something a bit worse than "damn" when he lost half his total HP from an attack).

The drow assassin only joined last session, and it was a short one. He was completely new to DND 3.5, too, so he was too busy trying to work the rules out to do much roleplaying.

And that leaves me, the grey elf archivist. While I'm good-aligned, I'm more interested in books than people. Still, I try to keep the torture to a minimum.

Morithias
2012-04-06, 08:50 AM
This campaign hasn't actually started yet and some data isn't confirmed 100% yet, but here are all the PC's data for the war campaign.

Patrica: A fire souled, magic blooded, human urban druid/rogue/urban soul. The queen of the Kalypso empire and heir to the Heterodyne throne. Was raised from birth to be queen and took over at the age of 18 when her father "mysteriously" died. Has great ties to the empire's capital city, and spends most of her time in the palace looking over business. She uses her magic blooded spell-like abilities to mask herself as a Lawful Good being, yet secretly she is a lawful evil tyrant who believes not only that she deserves to rule the world, but rather that it is her divine RIGHT to rule all of creation. She worships no higher power, and cannot fathom a creature greater then herself, yet she's not stupid enough to say that to their faces. She carries the "tomb of jebel" a dark tomb which is basically the evil overlord list given to her by a bard, which she references constantly to use to her advantage.

Rance: Patricia's cohort. An aasimar ancestral speaker cleric, and paladin of tyranny/blackguard. Was sent to Patricia's side by the same bard who gave Patrica the tomb of Jebel. Is a powerful warrior and is capable of smiting anything regardless of alignment. Believes Patricia to be his soulmate due to some magic the harvester devil used to get him to go to her side. As an outsider he does not need to sleep or eat, so him and Patricia often spend long nights together in the Palace gardens.

General S (character doesn't have a name yet to my knowledge): A fiend binder conjour with a mother cyst. Plans to bind fiends to his will with their truenames then use the necrotic tumor spell to make it so he doesn't need their truenames to command them. Is the General of the Kalypso military.

Big boss: Ranger/Monk/dragon initiate - Is the head of fear and propaganda. Due to Patricia's high approval rating he is rarely needed, but he will likely see use after they begin Patricia's acts of war and conquest. Is planning to work with Patricia's sister to build a giant construct capable of dominating the region.

G: Head of espionage and spying. Assuming the player uses the build I'm going to offer him, will be a dark changling deathstalker, and cleric of the god of murder.

J: Head of Police Force, I have no other data on this PC's character.

~Back up character~

Agatha: Patricia's twin sister, who is an Artificer/Imagist. Has no desire to rule the throne but will take over if her sister is killed. Never goes far without her bodyguard the warforged monk/soul eater/thayan gladiator Havoc. Only wishes to create her magical items and weapons for the empire in her shop. Is currently working on a new mundane weapon called the "musket". Is also drawing up prototype plans for a massive construct that her and Big boss are planning to use to keep the civilians in line should they ever need to. Is aware of her sister's plans, and has promised to take over should Patricia die.

Cardea
2012-04-06, 11:38 AM
For a campaign I'm finishing:

Wizard: Enchanter-specialist, barring Evocation and Necromancy. A bit of a sociopath. Does not get social tendencies that fast. Is from, and references, 'The Academy', and does not ever explain what it is. We're all a bit concerned for her.

Cleric: Gnome Cleric of Kord. Took Improved Unarmed Strike. Took Improved Grapple. Makes 'gnomish holidays' on a whim. One of them involves making people eat bananas. Another involved blowing up night hags with explosives. Killed a Troll with a monstrous centipede, among other things.

Barbarian: Barbarian who never rages. Took Bear Warrior. In campaign, lost her arm after having it infected by a God-like being, which was taken by the wizard for her studies. It turned into a Dragon, who then referred to Barbarian as 'Mom'. Makes puppets.

Hexblade: Hexblade who tries to figure out who his parents are. Has yet to do so. Very stoic swordsman archetype. Paints. Runs around in noble's clothing, beating people with a magical walking cane. Also makes high use of Intimidate and general other debuffing tactics. One time an Owlbear snuck up on him.Did I mention he paints?

Bard: Elven Bard from distant islands, looking for the man who killed his wife. Currently hates his Patron, and uses a set of stomach drums. Likes making use of the odder bard spells, as well as headbutting things with the antlers on his helmet. Makes heavy use of throwing knives. Was found in a spider cocoon.

I have so many stories about this group. They're all lovecraftiangly terrifying and wonderful.

RandomNPC
2012-04-06, 01:39 PM
Whisper Gnome Sword Sage
Does not want to kill. Had a blade made of diamonds, and plans to make it the tenth sword (trained by a Master of Nine) His first three kills were against a necromancer and some minions, he got blinded, and the party was going to be turned into undead if they fell, he drew his sword (steel at the time) and killed 3 out of four humans while blind.

Whisper Gnome Rogue
Seeking her former trainer, if she can retrieve what was stolen she'll be made "Queens thief" if not, she better not get caught in the kingdom again.

Human Fighter
Sub-optimal spiked chain trip build, with enlarge person permanently cast.

Human Scout
Makes all sorts of archery equipment, seeks to become an Order of the Bow Initiate.

Human Hexblade
The only blatantly evil character, he's almost gotten to blows with the Sword Sage. He tries to sell everything, it doesn't matter what the vendor usually deals in, he tries to sell them everything.

Newest addition:
Half Orc/Half Giant Druid
Built to be an offensive powerhouse, his strength comes in at 29. He protects natural sites from destruction, but doesn't seem to mind people wandering as long as they respect the natural side of things. We've yet to see what his monkey gripped club can do, the snowflake ooze they fought separates into two with half the original health each when you bludgeon them.

Ertwin
2012-04-07, 07:54 PM
For the campaign we just finished today. (by killing the demi-god big bad in a 5 round curbstomp battle. He really didn't expect us to go nearly 1000 years backwards in time to strike him when he was just starting out as a demi-god.)


Freynor Stormaxe: Dwarven Ranger, uses full plate, and specializes in stealth. Former member of an elite military company that was wiped out in a masacre. After getting caught in an explosion, he was given an infusion of nanites from Mechanus, and had his arm, and part of his torso replaced with mechanus parts. These were sentient, and a symbiotic AI dubbed 2.0 shared his mind. He was given an artifact heart by Odin, after taking a lance through the chest in a duel. Went on to do for justice what Inevitables do for law.

Ernest Lancaster: Half-Elf Ardent. From a formally noble family, has a very shady past, including being a former Vecnite. Eventually faced off against an inevitable, and was saved by an artifact book of law. Odin had the book of law fused to his very essance.

Skippy Dessert: halfling sorcerer. Her parents were killed by orcs when she was very young, this lead her to be rather unhinged. Odin dubbed her "The Entropic Destruction of The Universe" and gave her a staff said to bring about ragnarock.

Katrimi: A gnome shaman. Her sister was cursed into the form of a fairy. Odin granted her a cloth soaked in the waters of knowledge. Sadly it was a bit too much knowledge and she went a little crazy. Also Vecna seems to have an interest in her.

Quori: Goliath Warden. Her village was destroyed while she was away. To this day she has no idea what it was that did it, only that from looking at the footprints, it was very large. Odin dubbed her "the oncomming storm" and granted her Thor's hammer.

Grendus
2012-04-09, 10:19 PM
My group doesn't use D&D, but seeing as this is the general roleplaying forum...

Low Throw (A.K.A "Mub the Mad Minibomber")
Halfling. Likes to throw grenades, poisoned daggers, and pretty much anything else. Has so little strength he has trouble carrying his treasure and weapons at the same time (we "help").

Artemis (A.K.A. "Remus", A.K.A. "hey, Dog, initiative!")
Shapeshifter. Was raised by wolves until she was captured and tamed. Likes to go into fights in wolf form, with a pack of trained wolves at her back. The player has a tendency to get distracted, forget to roll initiative, then roll low thus the nickname. Tends to take a lot of damage between herself and her pets, and never brings healing potion.

Slijkis (A.K.A. "I clone the Jaguar... again")
Kobold. Loves cats for their aloofness. Has a pet Jaguar and a pet Sabertooth Tiger (both named Zazzles), and likes to summon copies of them. Two inches taller than Mub, and very quick to point that out. The party wizard, doctor, magic item crafter, trap detector, illusion dispeller, amateur fencer, animal handler, and exotic dancer (just kidding, he hates swords). Tends to pee on things if he can't get them to work, mostly to get a rise out of the DM.

Porro Proudfoot (pronounced purr-oh, A.K.A. "The tall guy")
Anthropomorphic Tiger. Was adopted by halflings, presumably to reach things on the top shelves. Tends to forget whether he added in his innate bonus to unarmed combat damage from round to round. Occasionally pulls off amazing feats, like doing 84 damage on 2d6 (long story).

Centaur (A.K.A "Bummer of a Birthmark")
Centaur. Hasn't actually named her character yet. Likes: charging into battle with pole weapons. Dislikes: armor. Has the unnatural tendency to be targeted by every enemy capable of hitting her, even when the odds are weighted against them targeting her (the DM tends to roll dice for what the enemies do if one option isn't obviously better than the others). Tends to roll the lowest possible damage for every attack, except when kicking things with her horse half. Became notorious for running in circles to get the charge bonus on all her attacks. Surprisingly effective for all her misfortune.

theMycon
2012-04-09, 10:57 PM
From a 4e game.

Striker of the week:
I think we've gone through 6 strikers so far. They tend to last one adventure (one city, one dungeon... the path between the two). We never get too attached to them. The corpse of the last one is our primary source of income. (All this aside, he does a great job of roleplaying and keeping the game going and being fun. I meta-game consider him the perfect companion.)

Perion, the bard who wants to be a paladin:
I'm the moral center and I try to keep us all on-target. I fail miserably, but when we get going I manage to keep the pace. I'm the utility box (but cause no damage on my own). I know all the utility magic, have a way to generate any type of damage, can heal, buff, and position. Given infinite time can always get us past some puzzle, trouble, or trap. I can hit any defense, and just generally always have some way of making sure we're never stuck.

Actual paladin:
He always wants to kill the bad guys. He dislikes the extreme "annihilate all that we consider wrong" paladins, but tries to push us all to do the same (but considers himself more reasonable because we can have fun doing it, cursing, drinking, and generally ignoring every law along the way). Crunch wise, he does ok damage, has ok durability and defenses, gives out an ok heal, and can never do less than ok; even just sitting there he's much better than nothing. He can never do better than ok; using optimal tactics he'll never add or prevent much damage.

(There's also a fighter & a druid. But, they both perform their jobs extremely well, and spend 80% of the game distracted and talking about Magic:The Gathering or how bad an idea it is to go after that next bad-guy.)

DigoDragon
2012-04-10, 07:49 AM
Describe the PCs in my D&D campaign? They're your simple salt of the earth folk. You know...
Morons. :smallbiggrin:

Movie quoting aside, here's the current team in my homebrew world, Dracadia:

Rodrigo - Arkasti rogue/sorcerer (Arkasti are a race of cat-like people, but instead of being about agility or strength, they are about intelligence and tinkering with machines). Though after mentioning intelligence, I should point out Rodrigo is the kind of person who thinks sneak-attacking with a fireball in a crowded city street to kill the zombies is a good idea. To be fair, he has evasion, the zombies don't.
Role: party Blaster and Snarker.

Mina - Drache fighter/duskblade (Drache is what my world calls dragonborn folk). "She's Actual Size" by They Might be Giants is appropriate to describe Mina. Sure she is the tallest member of the party, but the way she tanks the front lines with her dual bastard swords you'd think she was a warforged titan in a compact suitcase. Also breaks fighter convention by having a non-dumpstat INT score (She has an MBA degree- Military Battle Academy).
Role: party Wall of Iron and "Woman's Intuition" expert.

Sycorax - Warforged warlock. If ever there was a demonic pact made where the demon got shafted in the deal, this would be it. Sycorax uses warlock powers like old American cars guzzle gas. He hasn't touched the ground in 2 months thanks to Fell Flight and if a problem can't be solved with a liberal application of eldritch blast, than it's not worth his time.
Role: party Flying Stealth Ninja Bomber (minus the ninja. and the stealth)

Kesslokiowa - Xerda monk (Xerda are a race of short, medium-sized fox people with a Native American ancestry). Kess is a monk in-so-far as Miko was a paladin (OotS). Hailing from a "Lawful Guutral" alignment, Kess is about punching things for money, glory, and... money. He also moonlights as a "magician" and a "rogue", as long as the class entry requirements are solely based on wearing a Robe of Useless Items and poking traps with a stick. He think's he's the best thing since sliced bread. Don't bother arguing that point. He won't hear you over the sound of how awesome he thinks he is.
Role: party fisticuffs and scout

Pelor - Human cleric of Pelor. Breaks the sterotypical CoDzilla by weilding a greatsword and a slew of 3rd-person quips into melee. Buffs? Pelor needs no buffs, he is mighty by his faith alone! Heal the party? Pelor needs not heal the party, they can walk off the CON damage, and it's only a DC 15 to remove the negative level in the morning! His social life, however, tends to be on par with the creature type he's specialized in defeating with his turning ability...
Role: party damage sponge and "Common to English" translator

Shadow - Xerda rogue/cleric/druid/master of masks. If you ask about whether or not certain classes can combine in a "Will It Blend?" way, Shadow is what happens when the answer is Yes. He's like a first-gen multi-function printer with no instruction manual and a factory recall. Sneak attack and evasion? Check. Every Knowledge skill in the book? Check. Ability to stealth past that dragon in invisible wolf form? Check. Able to handle an encounter over CR 3 without massive magic item upgrades? ...working on it. Forever.
Role: party Fill-In the Blank and Ne'er-do-well.

Project_Cobalt
2012-04-10, 09:08 AM
In my campaign, we've got a group of five players.

Shane plays Vallon Godsteel a foundling Paladin in the service of the only recognized God in my setting - he was an orphan raised and named by the church, and has since married and has a baby on the way. He is confident, and constantly trying to prove (usually to himself) that he is a capable adventurer. He can be found in between his party and the enemy at all times.

Monika plays Alessandra Wildborne a fighter who the rest of the party calls Alessa. She has a similar backstory to Vallon - an orphan found and raised by the church. Where her story differs is that she, being a member of a barbarian tribe (and dressed as such when the church found her), was raised and named in order to be a proper member of society - which led to her rebelling against the church. She is brash, impulsive, and resents authority. She can be found in the front lines, crushing enemies with her giant hammer.

Gerry plays Bryant Wainwright a marshal, and medical prodigy with a military background. He was born into a noble house, but left to find his own destiny and help those in need, which led him to the party's service once he graduated from the academy. He is cool, wise, and determined. He can be found in the rear of the party, guarding from attacks and shouting orders and encouragement.

Jenny plays Aurora Half-Elven a sorcerer, half-elf, and air-headed bimbo. Her natural magical talents, and good heart, make up for her lack of intelligence or common sense - and her constant attempts to flirt with any viable male. She was trained by her grandfather - the last of the Elven Sorcerers - and her cat familiar is the offspring of his own. She can be found in the rear of the party, slinging magical ice at the enemy.

Jenna plays Andrea Flint a ranger, and outlaw whom the party calls "Drew". She is the defacto leader - decisive and self-assured. She was a robin-hood style outlaw and rebel, fighting against a corrupt Duke whom eventually forced her to flee her home and join the party. She can be found about fifty feet ahead of the party, guiding them through the wilderness or sneaking around to flank the enemies.

I'm sort of pushing to have Aurora and Vallon have a thing, but the players will determine that, I think. Otherwise Alessandra and Vallon's interaction has been the best part of the campaign - he the voice of reason to her voice of bullheadedness - she the call to action and telling Vallon to stuff it.

They've only ever interacted with one NPC, as the party has been trekking through the frozen wilderness for two sessions, but I have plans for a Tiefling (who in my setting are looked upon as fiends and blasphemers by the Church) to interact with the party and see how that works out between the two of them.

Hunter Noventa
2012-04-10, 09:28 AM
We're currently playing a rather over the top Gestalt campaign, using a mish-mash of 3.5 and pathfinder rules.

First is the only surviving member of the original party, my character, Katsumi Nightseeker. She's a Catfolk Soulknife(PF version)//Swordsage. She's got a bit of a thing about doing what's right, and letting her fists do the talking. She's also basically a Super Robot Magical Girl, because she uses Gauntlets as her Mind Blade, can throw them like rocket punches, and has a homebrew prestige class that lets her throw her maneuvers on her gauntlets, gives her a Barrier Jacket, and lets her convert maneuvers to high-powered beam weaponry. If Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha had a character based on Domon and the Burning Gundam, Katsumi would pretty much be it. She even has her own version of Erupting Burning Finger as a homebrew maneuver.

The next most ridiculous party member is the infamous Doctor Octavian Secamundo and his Zeitgeists. using some variants rule for creating golems, he's essentially created suits of power armor, and used Leadership to get his teenagers with attitude to pilot them. This man brought a sentai squadron into a D+D game. Along with an appropriate rival, who's latest creation was similar power armor for an Amethyst Dragon. That was defeated with rocket punches.

Next is the newest addition to our party, after the player's previous character saw fit to try and end the world and was promptly beaten to a pulp. The man simply known as Bram is a Summoner//Oracle, whose Eidolon is a massive Aztec god-styled serpent, capable of crushing even golems in it's coils. A man who examines the tread of the shoes of those he meets, and hands out enchanted feathers to those he approves of.

Then there's our resident Arcanist, Kethian, a Wizard/Arcane Archer//Ranger (I think). A simple man, dedicated to stopping the resident evil empire, but having fun doing it.

Finally our Rogue, a four-armed elf by the name of Capri who is a combination of Rogue and Binder. Quiet and a bit ruthless, when she can get into position for a full sneak attack, things tend to die VERY quickly.

Honestly I'm really shuddering to think of what could be next for our heroes, since that Gargantuan Amethyst Dragon in Power Armor was the last boss we fought. Doctor Octavian's rival still has the Super Prototype (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperPrototype) Zeitgeist Zero and he's not even the real boss of the Evil Empire, who is presumably some kind of Lich.

JediSoth
2012-04-11, 02:33 PM
My D&D campaign is a bit unusual. I'm taking a group of players through Classic Adventures using each D&D edition (as defined by me) in turn whilst blogging about it. I call it "Doctor StrangeRoll: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love All D&D."

We started with Basic D&D (Mentzer BECMI/Rule Cyclopedia). We've just finished the third session.

CHARACTERS
Finias Jinx (thief) met Wikki Swiftwind in a tavern somewhere where the elf was brewing awesome brew. Wikki saw Finias trying to “entertain” the bar with jokes and music, sort of a stand-up comedian bard. Fin used his entertainment as a distraction to try and pickup money by picking pockets. Fin liked even better how Wikki’s brew made the people in the bar even less sharp, giving Fin an even better chance to snag some goodies. The two hit it off and even though Wikki knows Finias is a thief, he looks the other way. Wikki may not be too fond of Finias’s disappearing and reappearing at odd times, but if he appears and saves Wikki’s butt with a backstab at some point he probably won’t mind that.

Herrick Moriarty (cleric) Herrick Moriarty was born in the small village of Ralenshire. Even as a child he was fascinated by the world around him wanted to know more of the world. He would wander away for days at a time scaring his parents. He would always return and act as though nothing happened. His father decided that it may be a good idea to focus this wanderlust in to something a little safer than running around the countryside so he contacted the local church of Fharlanghn. They sent out a priest, Salvatore Paradiso, and Herrick agreed to hit the open road with him. They spent a few years traveling around from village to village spreading the word of Fharlanghn.

One day Salvatore and Herrick were attacked by a group of highwaymen. Salvatore was mortally wounded in the attack, before he died he asked Herrick to see the rest of the world for him. Months later Herrick met the dwarf Kilos Battlebrand and they quickly became friends. Kilos was on a mission to gather clanless dwarves and Herrick thought this was as good of a quest as any so he decided to follow. The pair met up with “Lucky” Copperpot’s caravan and decided to travel with them for a little while. Herrick took on the role of the caravan’s herbalist.

Kilos Battlebrand (dwarf) [the player didn't give me a background...he uses twin axes & bickers with Herrick like an old married couple]

Lorelei (fighter) signed up as a guard for a caravan, serving as an example to everyone that a woman with a sword is no one to be taken lightly. She does her best to keep the miserly dwarf leader of the caravan (an NPC), and other members of the caravan, safe.

Pat (dwarf) [the player didn't give me a background...s/he is a dwarf whose gender identity isn't clear. The player has purposely avoided the question when asked "Is Pat male or female." S/he tends to be the "kick-open-the-door-and-charge" type.

Wikki Swiftwind (elf) met Finias Jinx in a tavern somewhere while brewing awesome brew. Wikki saw Finias trying to “entertain” the bar with jokes and music, sort of a stand-up comedian bard. Fin used his entertainment as a distraction to try and pickup money by picking pockets. Fin seemed to appreciate how Wikki’s brew made the people in the bar even less sharp, giving Fin an even better chance to snag some goodies. The two hit it off and even though Wikki knows Finias is a thief, he looks the other way. Wikki may not be too fond of Finias’s disappearing and reappearing at odd times, but if he appears and saves Wikki’s butt with a backstab at some point he probably won’t mind that.

Pat's & Wikki's players have each missed 2/3rds of the sessions in which they'd be playing those characters, so I haven't really seen how well they work with the other characters. I made of point of having all the players tell me how they each knew at least one of the other characters, to enforce a sense that they've been working together and know each other (and to help prevent a situation I had in a previous campaign where at least one player created a character that had no logical reason to ever be with the party).

I have an alternate campaign I run when enough people are absent that the Doctor StrangeRoll campaign wouldn't make sense (or when we're feeling sci-fi instead of D&D): Star Wars - A Galaxy at Peace. It takes place in The Old Republic, after the end of the Cold War depicted in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

CHARACTERS
Padawan Jakar, a mon calamari formerly apprenticed to Sith Lord Darth Ul. Jakar is working on redeeming himself and is currently apprenticed to bothan Jedi Master Shayl Bey’lya

Khalendri, a togorian bounty hunter sent by Darth Ul to track down his wayward apprentice, Jakar. The mercy and goodness Jakar showed towards the bounty hunter caused him to experience a crisis of faith and he, too, has switched allegiances.

Baccus, a human pirate stuck on Tython. He hooks up with the Jedi and his bounty hunter friend as a way to escape a garden world full of stick-in-the-mud Jedi.

legomaster00156
2012-04-11, 03:45 PM
Current party?

1. Mercy, a Half-Elf Cleric and leader of the party. Devoted completely to the party's success, although she sees herself as one of very few competent members. One of only two surviving members of the original party.
2. Tom, a Dwarven Fighter and meat shield of the party. He is rough, tough, and loyal, although a bit unwise on occasion. The other surviving member of the original party.
3. Saytor, a Human Samurai and major damage-dealer of the party. Not much characterization yes, as he was only introduced in the last session.

Forrestfire
2012-04-13, 10:33 AM
My campaign world is a homebrew post-apocalyptic world set 800 years after a war between the Gods and the Tippyverse. Tippyverse won, but broke the planet in the process. Now the majority of the known world is mountains and Arizona-like desert with different city-states and clustered towns.
Since all the gods are dead, the four major religions are devoted to elemental forces and ideals on the axis of chaos vs order (Flame, Land, Sky, and Storm). Also, Jurassic Park-style velociraptors roam the desert instead of the normal wild animals (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool).

Anyway, my party is full of insanity.

Members:

Teth, a CN human warlock, whose power comes from a unique trait of his that draws in the souls of dead gods. They talk to him and are currently trying to use his body as a way back into the world, giving him magical powers as a side effect. He has a fair amount of control over his actions and is not influenced (much) by the voices in his head, but he was driven insane long ago by them. No real important goals.

Zachariah Bishop, a LG human warblade who was trained in the mountains since a young age by his father. When his father died of illness, he left to become an adventurer (five years before the story). He has a strong moral code and works to do what he thinks is the right thing, even if he uses questionable means to do it. His goal is to make himself a legend and show the strength of his father's teachings.

Fate Lingod, a NG human Fighter/Wizard (planned Master Specialist and Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil). Fate's family was taken in by the master wizard Appoleon when he was young, and he was trained in sword play and magic. Sometime between then and now, his sisters and mother disappeared without a trace. Fate had never left Appoleon's floating tower until about two months ago, when he was left in the desert in the middle of the night with provisions, gear, and his spellbook. He met up with Zachariah Bishop and adventured with him. Fate has a strong personal moral code, and will go out of his way to help someone if he can. His goals are to find out why he got left in the desert and to become a master mage. His familiar is magically imprinted with the personalities of his 2 sisters and his mother.

Fey Tahl, a CE human Druid who was part of a caravan that left her accidentally in raptor territory. She managed to not get eaten by one of the roaming packs, and she pretty much followed it for a while, surviving off of scraps from kills. Anyway, the pack she was following got killed by elves, and she rescued one of the animals. It is now named Jarvis and is her animal companion. She has been alone in the desert for something like 7-8 years, and honestly believes that Jarvis is her brother and treats him as if they are the same species. Her goals are to make her own pack, and to kill any elves she finds.

Dion, a CN "human" Bard who is actually a former god of chaos and debauchery. When he realized that his side was going to lose the God War, he went through a ritual to give up his godly powers and make him human. This ritual, combined with magical fallout, put him into a stasis underground in a magically-fortified dungeon that survived until present-day. 30 years ago, he was unearthed by Flame templars who were taking the temple for his own, and since then has frequented the temple and while he doesn't see eye-to-eye with the law-oriented Flame religion, they hold no animosity towards each other and he is welcomed at the temple. Dion does not age, and he is old adventuring buddies with the current head of the sect, Ganon. His goals are to collect and retell stories, as well as subtly sowing minor conflict to instigate more interesting events.

SleepyShadow
2012-04-13, 03:32 PM
I'm currently running a Ravenloft campaign, and I'm starting to think I should have run Bunnies and Burrows instead :smallmad:

To start off the list of stupidity we have Mr. Fluffy, a tibbit druid who is, as expected, a very fluffy white cat. Mr. Fluffy refuses to come out of cat form, and instead of doing normal druid things, he uses Versatile Caster to cast exactly one spell: Summon Swarm. Specifically, to summon a swarm of cats (refluffed rat swarm). He claims that he has forsaken his original species in favor of the superiority of cats. He takes this far enough that he refuses to even wildshape.

Next, we have Ascuse Dracu, otherwise known as Ed. He's a human rogue who wields his mighty longspear with god-like strength, his brawn only matched by his charm. However, his muscles have clearly cut off the oxygen to his brain, for both his intellect and his wit are low enough to make Belkar seem a genius by comparison. He also apparently has glass bones, because he has yet to stay conscious through an entire fight. Why is he referred to as Ed, you ask? This is what he plays his character as. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujL4lr-7edI) That should answer your question.

The party's cleric is Shane, a seemingly normal cleric who specializes in destroying undead. However, he fits in perfectly with the first two goofballs because his personality and speech are patterned after Captain James T. Kirk (he quotes William Shatner as often as possible). He also constantly hits on any female they encounter.

Lastly, we have Clarice, an NPC and the only native of Ravenloft in the party. She is a soft-spoken swordsage who was originally present to shore up the party's otherwise inept front line, but frequently finds herself acting as the moral compass (usually reminding the good-aligned party that slaughtering peasants is a bad thing). She is also the most frequent target for Shane's lechery.

qwertyu63
2012-04-14, 09:11 AM
I've got:
*A Dragonborn paladin with a unicorn mount
*A Scout/Monk who's seems to be out for blood
*A Crusader/Bard who has a draconic linage and an evil twin
*A Necrotic Infester with an undead "daughter"
...along with 5 other character's that I don't have much to say about yet.

UserShadow7989
2012-04-17, 10:34 AM
The following characters are for a 3.5e campaign I was in a few months back that sadly died out. It was my first actual campaign- the 'first' first one having ended before it could even begin- and I have fond memories of it. We used a bunch of homebrew material, the campaign itself started on a discussion of various bits and pieces we found on the net (such as a few things off the d20 wiki, the Ozodrin, and some of my own homebrew I was flaunting at the time).

The group had been jailed for various false accusations including murder, treason, and corrupting the youth with forbidden arts (though considering some of the members...) and broken out by a mysterious 'man of wealth and taste' who wanted them to gather pieces of a gem for him in exchange.

Gwen Wallace - Lawful Good Human Monk/Sorcerer
My character. Descended from a long line of berserker escapees from a immortality obsessed sorcerer's experiments, one of her more recent ancestors joined a monastery to learn self-control. Gwen's White Dragon heritage manifested as albinism, the temperature around her dropping off sharply when emoting, and the supernatural side of her monk class abilities.

She was globetrotting in the hopes being exposed to people of different walks of life would help her become more level-headed. Slightly restrained and generally passive, she preferred non-lethal means of dealing with enemies (even monsters) but didn't impress this philosophy on the rest of the party; it was more a practice of self control than anything.

Hard on herself over failures, perceived or otherwise. Her calm but friendly nature meant she was on at least polite terms with the entirety of the party. Was particularly friendly with the party bard and party rogue. Had hilariously bad luck with grapples, to the point she gained a deep paranoia of monsters with tendrils or otherwise 'grabby'.

Made with my homebrew monk, she ended up being the party beatstick thanks to a combination of a Frost Gauntlet (flavored as her being able to freeze things she touched; this was before we learned of the Draconic Fist alternate class feature) and Flurry of Blows.

Her level of sorcerer was for the requirement of the Draconic Heritage line of feats from Complete Arcana, which also netted her a 'pet' in a (snow) owl that somehow kept finding its way into her traveler's cloak. Was going to be remade as a full monk using some homebrew feats to get around the sorcerer level requirement, but it never came into play.

Looking back, I think her motive is a bit too general. If I remade her now, I would use her flaw (nightmares that hint at the future causing penalties if it looks like it might come to pass) and say she was looking for a way to remove her visions, or have her looking for a relative who fled the monastery. (Perhaps both? Had a vision of her brother going on a rampage, or such?)

Melody - Chaotic Good Elven Bard
An adventurous sort, loyal to her friends and fairly level-headed so long as alcohol didn't enter the equation. She was understandably put out about the situations the party ended up in and a bit quick to leap into action, but always with reason.

She didn't socialize with much of the party, more for the fact that the party was mostly comprised of people who preferred keeping to themselves and was brought together by necessity instead of preference than anything on her end. She and Gwen were on amiable terms, the latter consenting to being her drinking buddy (partly out of concern) and also expressing a desire for dancing lessons when the danger died down.

Melody used the Snowflake Wardance feat (Frostburn official supplement) and a special whip (think Ivy from Soul Calibur) to great enough effect that she could fight pretty well. She acted as one of the two healers in the party and provided buffs otherwise, being surprisingly effective in combat for a Bard.

Her flaw was an insatiable desire for Alcohol (particularly elven wine). If she spotted any consumables of that nature, she needed to make a will save or else drink and take a temporary -1 to Wisdom. Part of the reason Gwen offered to be her drinking buddy was to keep an eye on things out of concern for her health- one memorable moment involved Melody leaping over the edge of a ship after a bottle when it was close to land.

This has led to Gwen attempting to physically restrain her at one point, which due to low rolls on grapple checks led to her alternately being dragged around be a clingy half-drunk bard and having to pull her in the direction the party was going.

Elace - Chaotic Neutral Kitsune Rogue
A kleptomaniac of the highest order, Elace has two loves in her life: shinnies and friends. The kitsune would pick any pocket that isn't on the person of a close friend and has a massive collection of assorted objects she has pinched over the years stuffed in her bag of holding. She seemed to be in it for the mischief value and challenge rather than a straight profit, always searching for a chance to test out her abilities.

Despite the thieving streak, Elace is far from the average Chaotic Neutral Rogue. She cares deeply for the people she calls friends, and prioritizes their safety over the acquisition of more shiny prizes. She is also the most outwardly friendly of the group, endearing herself even to the more steadily lawful party members. She became fast friends with Diometricus (or Dio as he went by, knowing his name was a bit of a mouthful).

She stole a single gold piece from Dio early in the campaign (with Dio's player's permission); a result of Elace claiming she prefers to steal from people to teach them a lesson and Dio pointing out that doing so would leave people like Saja without even the clothes on his back (a mental image the majority of the party cringed at and a point Elace was forced to concede to). She intends to return it to him in a few hundred years or so.

Elace's RPer based her off an idea he had for a character a while before the campaign for an immortal (and as a result, reckless) thief. He used my homebrew Kitsune race, but I'm not sure what other homebrew was involved or even what flaw she had.

A few notable moments for her involved her 'profession' (during a bit of OoC chatter, the group agreed 6 free ranks in a joke profession would be worth some fun- Arkay chose 'Lighthouse Maintenance' (we were at a lighthouse at the time, so it turned out to be a big help), Gwen picked 'Massage Therapist' (I wanted something involving her knowledge of the human body), and Elace chose 'Lethal Chef'.

She basically used it to create 'foods' (poison) and was unaware of the lethality of her cooking. This resulted in Elace offering Gwen 'tea' (a drop of which began eating through the floor after being spilled) at one point, and the monk, too polite to turn it down, steadied herself and swallowed it in one big gulp (resulting in 3d6 damage and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Elace still did not figure out the dangers of her cooking.

Diometricus - Lawful Neutral Human Skeleton Swashbuckler (?)
I don't recall his class, but I remember his player was going for a build that abused the hell out of attacks of opportunity and was likely a Dex-based or Int-based class. My money's on Swashbuckler, but I'm not certain.

Diometricus (Dio to his friends for the sake of simplicity) was rather secretive about his past, though hints were dropped that he was once a cruel king to a nation that fell apart around 400 years prior, and rose again as a sapient skeleton through some means. An impeccable gentleman through and through, his goal seemed to be shedding his old self- the cruel, self-absorbed tyrant- in order to become a better person.

His polite mannerisms and surprising patience for the wilder party members' antics (though even he had his limits) quickly overcame the initial distrust caused by his appearance. In particular, Elace was drawn to him as a friend through both the uniqueness of a sentient skeleton and his ability to tolerate her wild side. Tends to be the voice of reason of the group, alongside Gwen and Arkay.

His skeletal form was part of the flaw his player took, which I think was an excellent choice for its backstory potential. Rapiers were his weapon of choice, which fit both the flavor and the crunch well. As stated, AoOs were his bread and butter. Come to think of it, he may have taken levels of the Duelist prestige class, but I know nothing beyond that.

Arkay Wilde - Lawful Good Human Cleric
Devotee to the Red Knight, a figure of strategy and tactics. A bit cold and distant at times, but considering her 'company' that's difficult to hold against her. I didn't get a good feel of her during the campaign, but she seems to be a level-headed, reasonable, and calculating individual. Though certainly heroic, she had no trouble with going the pragmatic, lethal-damage route.

Combat-wise, she broke away from the norm of a 'mace to the face' cleric by specializing in archery (iirc, the player was going for a mounted archer) and using her more utility-based spells to give the party an edge in a fight rather than outright buffs or healing (though she did have the latter, at least).

Her flaw was a phobia of direct contact with another person or creature, though she luckily never failed the will save required to use a touch-range healing spell (high wisdom and a good save progression go a long way).

Saja - Chaotic Neutral Human Druid
Crazed know-nothing know-it-all Druid, with a perverted streak and a taste for the strange. His antics tended to evoke groans In Character and laughs Out of Character, though as time went on the party grew to find him more amusing than annoying; it certainly helped that he made himself useful and came off as too crazy to help it.

He often spouted out the first thing that came to mind when the group encountered monsters, usually horridly inaccurate information about things that were in plain sight (noted a monster as entirely harmless even as it was clearly telegraphing an intent to attack, for example). I personally pictured him as a crazy hobo, furthered by him attempting to make a hat out of a slain Darkmantle and using his giant bat animal companion's wings as shelter at times.

Eventually gained a hatred of Gnomes when a trio of insane Gnome wizards our party came across in the prison at the start reappeared and stole the aforementioned Darkmantle hat not long after the party escaped. (To be fair, he stole an Amulet of Natural Armor +1 from them first, which he then offered to Gwen in an attempt to flirt).

The gnomes showed up a few times after that to pester us, but never really got into a fight with the party. They ended up becoming a sort of in-joke for us (Specifically for a moment after the party tried to negotiate with them, provoking a confused flurry of agitated "WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT"s from them and resulting in a series of "...what?" from the party members)... but that's getting a bit off topic.

I honestly can't think of any homebrew off-hand. The giant bat animal companion might have been, but I never really learned what abilities/feats were chosen or even if he picked a flaw at all. One of my personal favorite characters from any of the campaigns I've been in. His strategies generally involved whatever seemed most crazy (and therefor in-character) at the time, one time defeating a trap that was sucking the air from a room by summoning a flying creature and having it clog the vent with its body, with 'send the bat' and Wild Shape being his contingency plans.

Ranmyako - Neutral Evil Lunarian Dark Knight/Ozodrin
Very much the odd one out- iirc, we were initially discussing an evil/neutral character campaign, or at least mostly characters of that type, but we ended up deciding on a more heroic party. The end result was this character being the only evil one in a mostly good/neutral party. Her RPer has a taste for bizarre character concepts.

There was a bit of inter-party conflict caused by how blatantly evil the character was (though she didn't do anything outright evil enough to spark a fight- she just put the other members on edge). I'm not sure how to describe it other than going out of one's way to be creepy. Which wasn't bad in and of itself, just laid on a little thick in the opinion of the rest of the group (and her RPer themselves as they looked back on it).

The young teen (for her species) explicitly did not get along with the cleric- Ran seemed to hold personal power above seeking out powers from outside forces, and believed her nature was that of a cut above. Was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of physical contact (just about the only trait she and Arkay shared), and remained fairly quiet and cautious about things.0

The race and the first class were both from the D&D wiki. Ran had a truly ridiculous hit point total between a d12 hit dice and several instances of Toughness as a bonus feat from the first class, and a high con score. She wielded a scythe one step too big for her, that and her class also making her one of our better damage dealers (though Melody and Gwen could both exceed her damage, in exchange for being less durable).

Dr Bwaa
2012-04-17, 02:45 PM
I'm currently running a Ravenloft campaign, and I'm starting to think I should have run Bunnies and Burrows instead :smallmad:

Eehehehehe. I like seeing the condensed descriptions of these guys from your snippets. They're just what I pictured.

I thought of another party that deserved mention in this thread: I'm the DM for this one; everyone started off as a level 1 Commoner (with 36-point-buy and -500 xp) with only the guideline: "give me a good backstory, and I'd prefer non-evil characters for this campaign."

Aura, a shy, charming young girl; reviled/pitied by the townsfolk on account of her Witch mother who died in childbirth, her (late) drunk of a father, and the fact that she can tell when people are sick or near death (precursor to a class feature she'll get at level 1).

Roryn, an aspiring druid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid) who appreciates Aura, as he considers her responsible for her "evil" mother's death.

Corey, a sadist who has tortured and/or killed most of the town's pets/other animals (no one is able to keep livestock anymore). He has not (physically) tortured any humans, with the exception of one fight he got in with his (late) older brother.

Aldon, whose backstory came to me entitled "The Itch", is the great-grandson of a very Faustian man. While Aldon is not enslaved to this Devil as his great-grandfather was, he (like his father and grandfather) is afflicted with an "Itch", which is assuaged by nothing short of murder. He has killed his entire family besides his older sister, as well as Aura's father, Corey's brother (at Corey's request), and various other townsfolk & visitors.


I'd prefer non-evil characters for this campaign
... yeah. :smalleek: I can't fault them though; they're good at what they do. It's a fun campaign, even though we haven't played in ages.

SleepyShadow
2012-04-17, 08:00 PM
Eehehehehe. I like seeing the condensed descriptions of these guys from your snippets. They're just what I pictured.

Oh it get's better. Have you seen the most recent snippet? :smallannoyed:

Frenth Alunril
2012-04-17, 09:07 PM
I thought about this for a long time. Should I do this? But, the answer is yes, so, here goes.

I am running a pioneer town game in the world of 3.5 Forgotten Realms. High Magic, High Treasure, in the blasted, forgotten hinterlands of Vaasa. Made up my own town with small town intrigue, and oddly appropriate small town imbalances.

The party:

Highen Eaglesoar: Lawful good Air Genasi monk of Waukeen. His charisma is horrid, and he plays a bookish acountiant who oversells and lacks personality to a T. using the affiliation rules and the business owner rules he has started both, and currently has a henchman who is trying to save the town and is responsible for something like 2.5million gp worth of supplies... They are in different places, it's going to be fun to see what happens here.

Aiden (no last name): 40 year old ex-ranger insurgent in the war against the Lich King. Hunting for whoever destroyed his hometown, and killed his wife. Plagued by dreams about his wife that are turning out to be a lot more real than he was expecting. He is the dual sword wielding front line of this party. (yikes.)

Wolfere: Young Human theif, didn't like the story, too much role play and not enough roll-play. Wanted to steal everything, and backstab everything else.

Reese: Human sorceror. Unaware of his powers as magical, the man used his charisma to gain trust of others. I run an open game, and let people suffer for their sins, Reese decided it was time to take over the town, but he couldn't control his blood lust either, and perverted a bard into assiting him, convinced the party to back him, swindled an old ladies heart to get a small fortune and a mine, and used his hired workers to throw the Paladins and Clerics of the trail while he framed an innocent shop worker for all the murders and evil god worshiping he had been doing behind everyones backs. Once he became town mayor, I took away the Character, and today...

Priums (Players new Character): Gnomish conjurer. He's really fun to have in the party because he talks over everyone elses heads, and is quite helpful. though, by what we saw that came before, we know that the player is quite manipulative, and knows his place. Currently married to a Halfling NPC and planning to make a school of wizardry with the Monk, who is also looking to expand his pawn-shop and tavern into an emporium of life (a strip mall with everything you want to buy, and a hotel with all the amenities.)

Vena: Drow cleric of Elistraee, started a temple as was her masters command, and it is now stuffed with refugees. Things were hard at first, but once the party discovered that the evil cult worship that almost threw the town into chaos of inquisition when Reese became mayor has not gone away, and at the same time discovered a sieres of underdark tunnels, so, while the party is off cleaning up messes they left last summer, the Drow refugees are mapping the tunnels.

Varmyr: Jungle Dwarf Barbarian, and soon to be "Scion of the Delhalls" a PrC we made up off of the "Chosen of Gynwyfre) (or, whater it is) from the Book of Exhausted Deeds.

The party is currently trapped in the Delhalls. Varmyr thinks that he may be decended from Delhalls dwarves, because of the dreams he has been having, but the Dwarf Ancester, "Sunt Hammersgore" thinks he is of lowly stock, and doesn't like him. Meanwhile, they are trapped by the Meenlocks who were created from the dwarves that were trapped by a Rakshasa. But the Rakshasa has been exiled from the Halls by the invading Slaadi who are immune to the effects of the Meenlocks.

When a Gray Slaad explains that he will lead away all the other Slaadi if the party is able to kill the death slaad, the party says, "that sounds like a plan." And then they realize that they will have to dispatch this Death Slaad quickly so they can turn an face the Rakshasa in disguise when she arrives.

It seems easy enough, quick and effective, get it done, set and ambush, and get it done again. Really push for results... but.... Because of their different natures, it seems like we are going to turn this into a huge mess when the Rakshasa arrives, because the party is afraid to face the Death Slaad, and they would prefer if everything just started bashing it out, and they got to take on the winner...

My players will never confront anything directly. which makes DMing really hard, because I just want them to be happy, and they just want survive. There is a gulf between our understanding.

I know one of them lurks here, but I trust he will keep his lips sealed about my opinions.

Dr Bwaa
2012-04-18, 09:47 AM
Oh it get's better. Have you seen the most recent snippet? :smallannoyed:

I have indeed (thanks for reminding me to comment though). :smallbiggrin:

Powerdork
2012-04-20, 12:31 PM
For our MLP Pathfinder campaign, we have...

Kal-Mar, neutral good Cleric of the true neutral Feca, former innkeeper, and all-around nice guy, following his god's commandments:
Protect the weak and the innocent. Remain Humble. Check your hair in the mirror. Use Glyphs if Provoked. Have fresh Linen for Guests. Volunteer for first watch. Don't pass out from excitement. Be wary of individuals who smell of sulfur (Our gun-fu master is mighty suspect to him). Don't cry wolf. Sleep in the stables if there are no rooms left.
Willing to risk dying in a level-inappropriate encounter situation to retrieve the fallen corpse of...

Sunny Runner, pegasus pony Sandman. Preferring to go by Slick, he only got his cutie mark when he was called back from Ysgard after he saved for half damage from a Fireball. His song puts people to sleep, and he can borrow magic. He's also the Diplomancer, having max ranks, and some simple feats (Eschew Materials, Nonverbal Spell) that make a simple clearing of the throat all he needs to do to cast Honeyed Tongue for roll-twice-take-higher with Diplomacy.

Rachna, unicorn pony Gun-Fu Master, and troubled hermaphrodite. Some drama was caused, and an alignment check was called, when she used the Stop Bleeding utility shot to give a restrained thief a burnt tongue and a speech impediment. She's lawful neutral now.

Shade Stone, unicorn pony Cleric of Celestia, playing out the awkwardness of interspecies romance with Kal-Mar. Lawful good/lawful neutral.

Tellarie, half-elf magus, playing out the awkwardness of interspecies romance with her spirit sword (or Black Blade, as I think I heard it). Ruthless neutral.

Snowflake, unicorn pony Kineticist, and our stand-in rogue until we get a cohort/cohorts. Neutral good, put his undesirable personality aspects in his psicrystal, in the form of Rodney the megaperv. This contributed to more delicious drama.

Kaede, elf Sorceress/Scout/Arcane Archer. DMPC, found locked in a chest in poor condition, in the place our party's first encounter happened, her ghoul-goo-infected wounds foreshadowing. Ghouls struck, and the starting town was burnt down.

And recently, we got our second performer, Kaerea the kitsune Bard. He lives for stories, and, like Kal, is a former innkeeper.