Character Concepts. Share The Wealth.

[RealCheese]

So one of the things I love about dnd is having a good character concept. Room for development but still a solid back story.

So share memorable characters, or concepts you thought of but will probably never play.
I'll start us out with a character concept I thought of for the rare group where I get to play instead of gm, but then wound up having to discard because the group had too many martials and as the more experienced player, I decided to roll up a full caster instead. (Wound up as a forest gnome nobel divination wizard. No regrets, fun as balls. )

Thorgood Thorbjorn was a viking sailor with a loving family waiting at home. Or so he thought. Upon returning a few days early from a trip of several months, he found his wife in the arms of another man. Flying into a blind rage the usually gentle man murdered them both and fled the scene, leaving his young daughter behind, as he did not wish a life on the run for her. Now a traveling adventurer, the neutral good Thorgood lends his shield and axe to any good cause that might redeem himself in his own eyes.
Thorgood was to be a totem barbarian variant human with the sentinel feat and depending on stats rolled/array used either wear medium armor or go armorless but shield either way. Perhaps a fighter dip for action surge, dueling style and possibly further for crit fishing, but not until after second totem feature. Totems where to be wolf, then eagle, then bear, his carried totem his wifes broken whalebone mirror, handle carved with his token animals.

[KiltieMacPipes]

My current character is a Mountain Dwarf Open Hand Monk blacksmith.

His master forged a warhammer so fine that when it was complete Moradin himself was so impressed that he imbued it magic (+1 in the hands of a Dwarf). It was stolen soon after and the master was killed defending it.

Dougan has vowed never to use a crafted weapon until it is recovered and his master's death avenged.

[Spacehamster]

Gronk Justicebringer is my half Orc lvl 1 rogue lvl 1 paladin that started his life on the streets stealing and pick pocketing to make a meager living, until he as a young lad of 11 years old tried to pick the pockets of the dwarven paladin Thorolf Dawnblade, that instead of turning in the thief decided to raise him as his own as he and his wife were not able to get babies of their own. So the young thief were brought up by the good hearted paladin and his gnomish wife Helga Honkhorn that were a bard, leaving their marks on the young man.

Now as an adult he will mainly walk in his foster fathers footsteps as a vengence paladin but will also dabble in the rougish ways and bardic ways. Making him a strange man that sings happy songs while beating baddies faces in.

Spacehamster to infinity and beyond

[Rallicus]

My current character is a Mountain Dwarf Open Hand Monk blacksmith. .

I read this as Mountain Dew open hand monk.

I'm sorely disappointed.

[Frenth Alunril]

I had my players randomly roll backgrounds, and one of them is a perfect psychopath. Wood Elf ranger with a hermit background... Interpreted as follows:

Amber was a good girl and loved her family, possibly too much. When her love of her sister turned to infatuation she was ostracized from her family. Generally detached from others and uninterested in wealth and property, she chose a life of hermitage due to secret thoughts of bloodlust which overcome her. She choses a life of adventure to satisfy her dark thoughts, though, her impassable character never seems to register danger.

For a noob, the kid does quite well ;)

[MadGrady]

The first character I ever created for any tabletop RPG is still my favorite. I have made some iteration of him in every game system since.

Carafin Broadleaf

Elven Evocation Wizard with emphasis on fire spells (if an option)

Carafin grew up as the middle son of an elven noble family. While not as well loved as his older brother, he still had a fairly good relationship with his father, who was also on the Town/Village/City's magic counsel. Carafin showed prowess with magic at an early age, and began its study with great vigor.

He married, and led a fairly peaceful life until he came home one day to find his brother in bed with his wife. In a fit of passion and rage, he burnt the entire house down in a wild firestorm of magic. When the smoke cleared, only he remained. Instead of being executed, his father, instead, exiled him, and he wandered in the desert. His fair elven skin was baked by the son, and to this day his face is scarred by the sun damage. It is a constant reminder of his failing to maintain control - and it is a driving force behind his continued study of the principals of magic.

My current 5e version of Carafin replaced the instance with his wife with the discovery of an ancient tome of power. During an attempt to discern its properties and powers, he triggered a trap, which caused an explosion. This left him scarred, and the book now magically bound to him. (the book is the trinket I took). Fearing what else might happen, his father and the village counsel placed him under house arrest, but he fled, and now scours Faerun, searching for a way to unbind the book from his soul and allow him to return home.

[Jbones]

Blothar The Unclean,
Half-Orc Paladin/Rogue of Mask

Blothar was conceived by human parents of a wealthy trade family whom held strong ties to the deity Waukeen. Blothar was considered their "miracle baby" as his parents had suffered multiple miss-carries. On his day of birth Blothar was immediately
outcast by his father and they announced a still born. Not one person knew about the dark secret hidden in his mothers family tree (not that it would make any difference). A troubled great grandparent deep down the linage had taken a orc as a partner whom gave birth to a half orc. Over the generations the orc was bred out leaving no trace until the day the strength of orc DNA eventually allowed this human to conceive. So what should have been scientifically a blessing turned out to spiritually be a curse. Naturally the bond between mother and infant is strong and for a while this was the case. The curse child was spared sacrifice and given the human name Thewin. For 2 years his survival was kept secret and he was quietly raised by his mother. Eventually the stress of possibly being discovered raising such a thing would tarnish the family name and the father forced her to give him up. She willing obliged feeling he was now old enough others would have enough pity to not kill him. Shortly after his second year alive he was handed over to a church orphanage as a small boy. Thewin discovered a temper and was overly rough with his retaliations. Especially towards the children who teased him. It wasn't too soon he was being handed off as churches grew tired of these antics. At the age of 7 in hopes someone could teach him some restraint and order Thewin's last stop as a orphan was the wavering church of Helm. Known to be more military like and to favour lawfulness it was thought Thewin would benefit from this rigid framework that they live by. Thewin was promptly given over to aid a aging Paladin. The hope was that during this mans last years of he life could teach Thewin something helpful. As the years dwindled by Thewin did learn a couple things as he matured. He learnt the benefits of law and gained a partial restrain over his lashing. No one can take the Gruumsh ingrained drive for vengeance though. This all made Thewin more weary and unsatisfied with his role in life. He still suffered from racism from some fellow followers and he felt someone owed him the life he was supposed to have. Some months after his charges passing Thewin found himself at the age of 10 with no direction in life. The church of Helm had provided him with the structure he needed but it had ultimately failed and Thewin felt no bond. After tending to that Paladin who left the Realms poor and broken from service Thewin clearly saw this church was not going to provide what he wanted; the wealth and the land he felt robbed of. He was given the ultimatum: Give himself to priesthood or pack up and leave; he was too old to freeload now. Thewin moved on. He took the Orcish name of Blothar and along his travels stumbled across the church of Mask. This church taught everything he wanted. It was here he was nurtured and finally accepted. Blothar soon discovered his true powers. It wasn't long before he would set out to take back what he deserved.

[Rfkannen]

welp here are some concepts I have not had a chance to use

Male, orc, bellydancer. entertainer

Gul was born a slave to the drow, but his life was very different from what you would expect an orc slave to be like for one reason, he was realy effeminate. Some blamed it on recesive human genes, but what ever the reason his appearance intrigued a priestess of lolth at a slave auction, and he was bought to be her personal entertainer. He was raised to dance to traditional drow songs to amuse the priestess's friends. Slowly however he noticed that he could spin magic into his dances. With this knowledge he trained in bardic magic in secret. Eventually on one of the priestesses private dances Gul used his magic to kill her. From her corpse he stole a scimitar, and with a combination of this sword and his magic he managed to slaughter his way to the surface. The second the light glanced off of him his fine garments and sword turned to dust, and he was reborn as a free man.

Racist agaist elves because they enslaved him(doesnt know diffrence between elf and drow) His bardic performance is dance.

still can't pick which archetype to do with him though. I like the valor archetype better and that was why he had the scimatar, but the other one might make more sense.



PLuu

human moon druid. outsider

Once Pluu was the noble mammoth mount of a oath of ancients palandins. However in a fight with a wizard he was pollymorped into a human and his paladin was killed. He saught solice for his grief in a circle of moon druids who promised him that if he became a powerful enough druid he could reasume his true form and kill those who killed his master.


Hooty

awakened owl, wild sorcerer, sage

Hooty was once the familiar of an elvish archmage who experimented with the wild energies of the univeres. With each spell the arch-mage cast Hooty was filled with magic. Eventually the mage died and hooty was left alone to become an adventuerer, armed with the magic which spilled into him


Bruce

werebear, illusion(or maybe enchantment) wizard, scholar

Bruce was born a wearbear, and as such he was perceived as a brute by the elves that lived in the city. However Bruce was no were near as primitive as the elves beleived, no instead he was a very talented wizard skilled in the art of enchantment and illusion. He breezed through wizard skill and went out to adventure to prove to those darn elves that he could be 10 times the mage any of them could, and that he was not a savage animal.

Bill

halfling, hunter druid, guild merchant

Basic concept was a trapper who was hired to skin monsters and sell the skins, he used dual hatchets and had realy good sideburns.



Hays

aasimar, lore bard, acolyte

he was bassicaly a false profit who said that he was the physical body of pelor and made a cult.

[Bacchanalian]

Neyrin Strongarm

Halfling Bard, College of Valor

He's an NPC in the campaign I'm DMing.

Born into a family of blacksmiths and warriors, he was the baby and his mother made certain he did not train as a fighter like his brothers. Being a fan of song and dance, she kept him close and in doing so exposed him to performance and many traveling minstrels. Eventually she managed to get an apprenticeship for him with a Bard. Assuming he was safe from a warrior's ways, he was left to his devices. He came into his own as a bard, but eventually he discovered the College of Valor and trained with them, desperate to have something in common with his family of warriors. He carries a sword and wears chain mail, presenting himself as a warrior to any who ask, despite the mandolin on his back.

At some point he got into a disagreement with a particularly nasty sorcerer who decided to curse him with wild magic as payment. As a result, anytime he rolls a 20, he rolls 20--one for the check, one to check for a wild magic effect. On a 1, he rolls the wild magic table.

My party hasn't discovered this last quirk yet, but it should keep interactions with him interesting.

[Forrestfire]

I have a large pile of character concepts I'd like to play, but haven't really made any 5e-specific ones other than the one I'm currently playing. So, I'll describe that one (warning: In the conversations with the DM while creating the character, we turned the snowflake up to 11).

The current setting of the campaign is a mostly stereotypical (in a good way) High Fantasy world. Gods, wizards, medieval stasis, ancient magic cities, fantasy kitchen sink of races, the whole deal. Said world also happens to be right on the edge of the AUS, an alliance of several civilizations including Earth. Set several centuries into the future, humanity has taken steps into the stars and allied itself with greys and a couple other species, and has also begun experimenting with Uplifting animals. There is also another space empire, this one run by scientifically-advanced Illithids. In any case, the planet is unique among worlds because it has Magic, powered by its gods.

Numbers (as he calls himself) is an uplifted monkey, who for reasons unknown to him, piloted his small starship towards the high fantasy planet Nibiru. When he arrived, he was shot down by someone, captured, and experimented on by a group of spacer scientists (that I've learned were Illithids) and mages. Through a fusion of advanced science and the physics-defying power of magic, the mad scientists were experimenting on a process to create monsters using elementals reshaped and injected into a mortal body. Using an artificial copper elemental as a base, they used druidic magic to bind four elementals (one of each type) to it and combined the resulting slurry into the poor monkey space pilot. A battle inside his mind and soul ensued, the created copper elemental attempting to take over his body and follow its programming, and Numbers having none of that business. Said battle ended up dealing catastrophic damage to Numbers' memories; the elemental consumed all he knew about himself and his past, and was attempting to feast on the rest of his mind when Numbers finally killed it.

In a way, the mad mages' and scientists' process was a success! The end result was an unholy abomination that could grow new mass, changing into a variety of metallic forms. It also had access to a small amount of the druidic magic that helped create it, utterly perverting nature's will to fuel its own power. The only problem was who was driving the body. Numbers barely had a chance to cope with having woken up a monster when the facility he was in was attacked by a paladin of the god of fire (another player's character), thirsting for vengeance against one of the mages involved. In the confusion, Numbers and the paladin managed to cause the facility to explode, although the scientists and mages escaped. Numbers (taking the name from a long serial number - the only identity he had now) swore to serve and assist this paladin in his quest, as gratitude for rescuing him from his fate there. I'd come up with some fluff for Uplift society in the AUS, and part of it was that instead of having concrete laws, Uplifts felt very honor-bound. "One's word is more important than one's life, because if you can't keep your word, what separates you from the animals we used to be?" Thus, Numbers began adventuring alongside the paladin Baqir.

Along the way, he's managed to befriend one of the four elementals bound within him, Forge the fire elemental, who now aids him by granting him enhanced healing and shapeshifting abilities (overall, the process was meant to create something that used all four elements together, but Fire was the one that governed reshaping of the base metal body). The other three inside him are aloof at best and actively antagonistic at worst, angry at being bound and angrier still at Numbers for being in control.

In any case, Numbers has been fascinated by the whole "magic" thing, both enjoying and hating his new abilities at times, and being a sucker for neat magic items. So far, he's collected various trinkets like spent ioun stones ("It floats without a hover module! How cool is that?") and some weirder stuff. His most prized possession is a broom of flying he found and bought in a high-magic city. He mostly uses it as a sort of magic jet engine, wrapping his body around it in his main alternate form (that of a horrifying pile of shifting metal plates and tendrils; similar to the mimics from Edge of Tomorrow, mechanically a Giant Octopus).

Mechanically, the character is currently a Halfling Rogue 2/Moon Druid 5, using his shapeshifting combined with the DM ruling I could wear gauntlets of ogre power in giant octopus form to provide powerful single-target lockdown (Expertise for Athletics, Grappler feat, insta-restrain on tentacles hit. Fun stuff). When out of wild shape form, he uses a plasma pistol salvaged from his ship's wreckage (hand crossbow that deals Lightning) with the Crossbow Expert feat to poke at things.




PLuu

human moon druid. outsider

Once Pluu was the noble mammoth mount of a oath of ancients palandins. However in a fight with a wizard he was pollymorped into a human and his paladin was killed. He saught solice for his grief in a circle of moon druids who promised him that if he became a powerful enough druid he could reasume his true form and kill those who killed his master.

This one sounds like a lot of fun, especially since mammoths are Int 3... It seems like it'd be extremely neat to not only roleplay the alien sort of mentality that an animal given human form might have, but also to think about how something might react to being given a whole new capacity of thought, as a human being rather than a mammoth. Neat.

[randomodo]

Half-elf changeling warlock (fey pact)

Telekas was raised on a ranch by his father, never knowing his mother. One day when he noticed a large bramble patch had appeared in their fields overnight. Investigating it, he accidently pricked his hands upon the thorns and fell asleep.

Awakening, he found himself in a strange new realm, at once both brighter and more dim than the world to which he was accustomed. He spent years in the Feywild, in thrall to a powerful mad sprite known as the Amadan. Sometimes, he seemed a prisoner, a slave; sometimes he was carefully and affectionately tutored in the ways of fey nobility. Throughout his time in the Feywild, he sometimes got glimpses of his home and discovered he had been replaced by a changeling. His father, far from pining for his absence, had no idea that he had ever vanished, for the duplicate of Telekas seemed absolutely real.

One day, his father died, and the Amadan released Telekas from the Fey realm. Telekas intended to take vengeance on the changeling that had stolen his life, but arriving (cloaked) at his father's funeral, he saw that the changeling was truly devastated by the loss of the man that both of them saw as their father. Telekas stayed his hand, uncertain wether the changeling was villain or victim, and uncertain as well about the Amadan. Why had the Amadan claimed him? Why was he released? And why are there whispers in his head, promising the powerful magicks of the Fey if only he will do the Amadan's bidding?

[JAL_1138]

Erol
Variant human or half-elf (not decided yet) valor bard

Erol is a relic from ancient days, from a previous version of the universe in fact, although he doesn't know it. Prior to suffering catastrophic level-drain and being thrown forward in time and across dimensions by a Demilich, Erol had survived the Temple of Elemental Evil, discovered the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, explored the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and braved the Tomb of Horrors (where he met with the aforementioned Demilich) in his world, and is consequently a paranoid wreck convinced that every living thing in the world is fully capable of killing him (he's seen more than one newbie wizard die to an angry housecat) and that every last room and object therein is a horrible trap. He expects to ambushed at any time, and will not sleep without rigging up alarms and traps. He attempts to have a spell, skill, toolkit, weapon, or escape plan for every situation that could possibly occur, at all times, no matter how absurdly farfetched it might be.

[Dalebert]

Male, orc, bellydancer. entertainer


You win the Internet. :smallsmile:

[deusflac]

my favorite character i've ever played was somewhat cribbed from the far corners of the internet. this is his 5e incarnation.

Erbin Metko a Cala****e Human Cleric (light domain) with the soldier background.

he fled a massive battle in the desert due to the heat, the savagery of the fight and honestly, he's a little bit of a coward. he wandered the desert for many days with little water. just as he was about to succumb to the elements he saw a beautiful lady come up to him. she brought a vial to his lips and in the container was the most refreshing and delicious nectar he's ever tasted. as he fully came around he noticed the woman has vanished but he had a revelation that is was the goddess pelor and he was personally chosen to go spread her word as redemption for his earlier cowardice. he also noticed the vial was still in his hands. in it contained the golden nectar that rejuvenated him earlier. so he goes around towns trying to preach sermons on behalf of pelor and his war cry whenever attacking or casting spells is "UNLEASH THE POWER OF THE SUN!"

[mephnick]

My current character is a Mountain Dwarf Open Hand Monk blacksmith.

His master forged a warhammer so fine that when it was complete Moradin himself was so impressed that he imbued it magic (+1 in the hands of a Dwarf). It was stolen soon after and the master was killed defending it.

Dougan has vowed never to use a crafted weapon until it is recovered and his master's death avenged.

Man, I like this.

This might show up as an NPC/adventure arc in my game..

[Feldarove]

Male Hill Dwarf Sorcerer with the Dragonic Bloodline


A dwarf, with golddragon in his blood. This guy FREAKING LOVES GOLD!. He has deep yellow hair, and a giant braided golden beard. His elbows, knuckles, and knees have gold scaling. His eyes are flecked with gold.

He wants gold, gold everything.

However, he is a dwarf with gold dragon in his blood, so he is Lawful Good. Any riches not gold....silver, copper, gems...he donates.