Favorite Archetypes? (Not Pathfinder)

[Ninja_Grand]

I see a thread about your least favorite class, but I think its time we look at the other end. What is your favorite archetype?

Im not talking about

Monk
Rogue
Fighter

Im talking about

Martial artist or Zen master
Assassin or Thief
Knight or Ruffian


For me I just LOVE a holy warrior of some sort (And they ALL have white hair!). My two best PCs were a Mage-slaying follower of the god of magic, and a foolish "monk"(Not the class) who slays evil and promotes good with that corny customer service voice you all hate. And the one thing I want to play is Barbarian (Once more, not the class) who in battle turns into a storm of blades!

So tell me. What do you like to play? What do you like to feel like?

[Vhaidara]

Cocky leader, fallen angel, disgraced noble, Tiefling scion (descended from a demon lord/archdevil), and dedicated Protector are my favorites.

[Honest Tiefling]

Scrappy wizard who relies just as much on trickery, deception, and being an all-around scoundrel as much as their spells.

And anything tiefling of course. I approve wholeheartedly, Keledrath.

[Segev]

Mystic Prankster

Puck, Q, Discord, Genie, Xellos... I like magically powerful beings/reality warpers who use their powers casually and frivolously to just have a good time. If he's floating at an odd angle and enjoying life as if it were an interactive movie whose actors he can critique in real-time, he's probably greatly amusing me.


Hypercompetent Archmage

Similar scale of mystical might, but opposite personality. I also like the mage who envelopes himself in mystery and, though he clearly has magics in play for his own convenience, they more seem to emphasize his regality than to strictly be for comfort or ease. He is reluctant to drop casual solutions with magic, but when he finds his hand forced, he seems to have exactly the right spell (or the overwhelming power) needed to make things happn.


The second one's actually easier to pull off, because his "reluctance" can actually be masking the fact that his power is far less than he lets on. Like a good D&D wizard, he may need time to prepare his tailor-made arsenal, so he simply "holds back" until he can unload with "a fraction of his power" that is actually a tailor-made magic bullet for the problem (and may take more out of him than he lets on).

Conversely, it's a trickier one to play because it's hard to willingly hold back for the opportune (or dramatic) moment once the solution is at hand. And even harder, at times, to really recognize that dramatic moment as the right one or not.

[Spore]

Scoundrels and smugglers. Followed by scientists who probe the borders of humanity and the shining knight. Nothing says "Evil begone." like a glowing radiant piece of polished steel and a set of shining but battleworn armor.

Tricksters and pranksters. Their role emphasizes on what makes D&D fun. Having fun (and sometimes ridiculing) in a light hearted game. They are of superior skill or insane magic but instead of trying to rule the world or blackmailing the king they just have a good time.

[Ninja_Grand]

Scoundrels and smugglers. Followed by scientists who probe the borders of humanity and the shining knight. Nothing says "Evil begone." like a glowing radiant piece of polished steel and a set of shining but battleworn armor.

Tricksters and pranksters. Their role emphasizes on what makes D&D fun. Having fun (and sometimes ridiculing) in a light hearted game. They are of superior skill or insane magic but instead of trying to rule the world or blackmailing the king they just have a good time.

Ah yes, the Tricksters and Scoundrels. I have a soft spot for them but alas, its not my role to play. Just having a good time is key! I try and have a bit of that, even with my Holy pc's (Cause even the god of ale gets a prayer!)

[Xerlith]

Wandering loners. Call it an 8-grader syndrome or whatever else, but there's something that speaks to me on a very deep level thrugh characters like Dark Tower's Roland, LoL's Yasuo (Yeah, well, I love the design), 7 Samurai, Firefly's Malcolm Reynolds. Basically, disilussioned, charismatic people with a Past (tm) who follow a strange code of honor.

A second one would be a nigh-deadpan snarker. Think Devil May Cry's Dante, Dragon Age's Alistair, DA2's snarky Hawke. One of my more succesful characters was a Dante-inspired moon elf (FR) bladesinger, focused mostly on being goofy with a serious face when interacting socially. Was loved and hated equally.

For a combat style archetype, definitely martial mage. Negima's Negi, for instance. Anyone who blends magic and swordplay scores high in my book. Currently learning to differentiate from that.

[Spore]

Ah yes, the Tricksters and Scoundrels. I have a soft spot for them but alas, its not my role to play. Just having a good time is key! I try and have a bit of that, even with my Holy pc's (Cause even the god of ale gets a prayer!)

There is no reason a pious PC has to be a stick in the mud. You can play tricks on the party's wizard and still smite evil at the end of the day (although some very averse DMs could disagree).


Wandering loners.

Lone Wolf is a pretty popular archetype but it only offers one benefit to telling stories. You can REALLY focus on your main character. Other than that I prefer a "reasonable loner" to an "adamant one". Company and assistance is sometimes needed and improves your odds. One should find a good mixture between the

"Friendship and Teamwork solve EVERYTHING." and

"Only *Lone Wolf* can save us now." tropes.

[Ninja_Grand]

There is no reason a pious PC has to be a stick in the mud. You can play tricks on the party's wizard and still smite evil at the end of the day (although some very averse DMs could disagree).

This is true. Like I said, a bit of fun. A great time was when I used my holy radiance (Got a halo as part of the stance I was in) I used it to play with the wizards cat. I made the most bad ass laser pointer with a old top hat.


A good archtype that my friend Brandon love to play is the Two-Face. He LOVE having a good half and evil half in him. Good for the party, except one person. That person is in the AoE of every fireball spell.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I like experts. As long as my character is an expert on something (okay, something useful), it's good. For example, a warblade is an expert with a given weapon, a wizard is an expert on magic (and dweomerkeepers are even more experts on magic). It's also a way to have something of a niche in the universe you can fill in with [whatever you make up IC].

Other than that, my characters generally drink tea, when possible, because that's what I do OOC as well. Maybe I should build a Mad Hatter tea-throwing build. Alchemist/drunken master (refluff) combo?

[Psyren]

I'm a big fan of "Beast Within" natural weapon melee, e.g. Totemist, Alchemist, Druid, even Natural Style/Wildshape Ranger. I don't like getting 20 attacks or whatever (hi Synthesist) but 3-7 swings/round are fine with me.

Bonus points if the class I'm playing also has utility forms, like a small flying form to scout in, a larger one for aerial combat, an aquatic form, a sneaky form like a mouse or snake etc.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I'm a fan of Magic Knights. Moreso a martial character approaching magic than a magic-using character dabbling in physical combat. Preferably arcane, though some holy warrior classes scratch the itch. Also, in as heavy armor as possible.

[Optimator]

I've always liked the Archer, both Stealthy/Skilled and Battle.

[TheIronGolem]

I like non-evil necromancers. Whether they're actually heroic or just morally ambivalent, I like the way they embody Dark Is Not Evil (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkIsNotEvil). Even when my necromancers are evil, it's for reasons unrelated to necromancy.

I like non-good angels too, for essentially the same reason (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LightIsNotGood).

I'm also fond of buddy-cop-style pairings between dissimilar archetypes, like the honest and forthright paladin teaming with the amoral mercenary. Speaking of which, I'm also a sucker for that mercenary going the Han Solo route and gradually getting roped into being one of the good guys.

[Spore]

I like non-evil necromancers.

I am intrigued by that. I can never wrap my head around why a good or neutral necromancer wouldn't just resort to other powers that are maybe weaker but are not fueled by corpses. That being said, a guy who raises the dead and some guy who uses spells that are just a tad radical are two entities in my head. Shivering Touch isn't the same as desecrating a graveyard and raising everyone.

[Segev]

I am intrigued by that. I can never wrap my head around why a good or neutral necromancer wouldn't just resort to other powers that are maybe weaker but are not fueled by corpses. That being said, a guy who raises the dead and some guy who uses spells that are just a tad radical are two entities in my head. Shivering Touch isn't the same as desecrating a graveyard and raising everyone.

The non-evil necromancer philosophically does not buy into the idea that corpses are anything but empty husks. He is not harming anybody; he's just optimizing labor pools by letting the now-discarded bodies keep providing work-hours.

[TheIronGolem]

I am intrigued by that. I can never wrap my head around why a good or neutral necromancer wouldn't just resort to other powers that are maybe weaker but are not fueled by corpses. That being said, a guy who raises the dead and some guy who uses spells that are just a tad radical are two entities in my head. Shivering Touch isn't the same as desecrating a graveyard and raising everyone.

I'll offload most of this to a spoiler because I don't want to derail the thread, but the short version is this: I hold that there's nothing intrinsically evil about animating dead bodies, it's just something that most people find disturbing and/or distasteful. Granted, this only works in settings where undead are powered by "negative energy" or some similar force, rather than being tortured souls forcibly bound to a rotting corpse or the like.

I have a city-state run by necromancers, where much of the manual and service labor is performed by zombies or skeletons. When a citizen dies, their body becomes the property of their family. The family can choose to either pay for the body's animation and keep it to help with running their household/business, or they can have the state buy it, where it will be put to civic or military use. So you have squads of skeleton soldiers commanded by living officers, crews of zombie street-cleaners supervised by living foremen, zombie butlers tidying up the family mansion, skeletons tending bar, and so on. As one necromancer from my game put it: "Any task that can be done by the dead is by definition a waste of the living".

The culture's values put a lot of emphasis on the division between body and soul, and they are very adamant that your body isn't you, it's just the meat suit you were wearing, and once you've moved on from this world there's no reason to let the thing go to waste - let your family inherit it like the rest of your property.

The undead themselves are taken care of physically by their owners, and neglecting that care is considered uncouth and low-class. Legally, they are required to be dressed all in white, which the living are forbidden to wear. This is a further psychological reinforcement of the distinction between living and undead.

As for creating sentient undead like vampires - BIG no-no. Sentient undead, according to their models of magic, are powered by forcibly-bound souls, and they consider that too cruel a fate to inflict on even the worst of criminals.

In the rest of the world, which takes the more usual view of animating the dead, these people have a predictably poor reputation. Stereotypes about sinister black-robed cackling necromancers abound. But like most people, some of them are good, some evil, and most just regular Joes trying to get by.

[DMVerdandi]

1.Psychic
Psionics and psions have a certain rawness to it that worked magic doesn't, and that appeals to me. I like the spooky flavor that they have as well. Even though there is certainly a light side to psionics with self-awareness, meditation and unifying one's mental self, you can also play it pretty well for the horror genre.
I enjoy both thoroughly.

2. Arcane fighter
I really like mages that use their magic for the purpose of making themselves better hand to hand fighters. Yeah, you can just cast at range, and be a God wizard, which I like well enough too, but something about a decent gish just makes my day. Quick, deadly, and versatile.

3.Clerics
Yes, I like the archetype by itself. It's a Chaplain. awesome. It gets even better once you kind of dispense any theme or feeling of the cleric NECESSARILY being a templar. Oriental Adventures made a Sohei class once, and Instead, Imagining the Cleric in that role works perfectly. Fantastic powers, able to wear heavy armor, decent physical scores. Yes.
It is the perfect class for the warrior monk, the fantasy hero, a devotee of an idea, a zealot, oh man... The cleric can do SO much.

4.Druid
I like the druid for it's archetype as well. Even in the past, it is taking the same role as the cleric, that being a warrior-priest, but instead having a more environmental bent. Still great. The druid can work well in any environment, and can really deeply commune with it, and the problems it faces. Or it can just be a person with their own agendas, but is still incidentally close enough with the spirit of nature that they are empowered by it.


5.Orator
I like the type of character who's words and speeches actually have tangible power, especially If they are actually talking about something. How I long to play a game using a Not!roman Senator as a character, who really flexes his Auctoritas to accomplish goals.

6. Killer
Not an assassin, but someone who kills, is good at it, and has a peculiar lust for it. A murderer. A cut-throat. But I like mine with hearts of gold. Or at least not coal. I have this idea in my head of an Agile, acrobatic knife wielding slasher who is incidentally in a party. He's not a bad guy, or unfun at all, but for all intended purposes, he is very good at killing things in a pretty horrific way, and he's got this supernatural evilness about him, even though he isn't actually evil in the day to day.
May dabble in evil magic for being able to cast fog spells to slow his victims down and confuse them, spells to become stronger, to make his weapon stronger, and his enemies weaker.

Without the mask, he may be the sweetest person, but once it's on, you can't even tell he's human anymore.

[(Un)Inspired]

Cop with a mustache. ESPECIALLY if they're only a few days from retirement when the adventure begins and they bring it up repeatedly.

Aliens (or outsiders in a fantasy game) who don't understand conventional personal space standards.

Imaginary friends that turn out to be real.

[Tuvarkz]

Chaotic Good Cheerful Mercenaries. Fun to play, also you can easily IC both pragmaticity and a degree of greed while still being with the good guys. Also RPing lots of mercenary tales and such.

[Spore]

Summoners are also a lot of fun. I always find the tactical mind of any wizard focussing his or her studies on conjuring up some measily fireballs, lightnings and spells that make my drink cooler very weird. You could make an extraplanar entity do your bidding, have connections beyond the realms of the material plane and force or ask them to help you in your quests.

That shouldn't mean I am against blasters. They are fun for a while and certainly in the right campaigns. But you need abilities to solve problems besides blowing them up. You don't gain enough firepower to solve a peace treaty through raw threats of destruction nor does it help when an ancient artifact has to be found or you should carry an injured ally to safety.

[Calemyr]

Every character I play somehow turns into one of three archetypes:

The Inventor/Gadgeteer: I like magitek. I like taking arcane concepts and twisting them into practical application. I like versatility and improvisation and turning the world on its head simply by considering new possibilities. I love playing the Inventor and watching the party and the setting evolve because of one person's insatiable creativity.

The Snarky Veteran: I love wiseasses. I really do, especially when I get to be the one playing them. Especially when the character's been around enough to know all to well how dangerous the situation is and not care because they've seen worse.

The Guile Hero: Big musclebound brutes with compensating swords and oil in the place of armor are boring. I much prefer to play the little guy who doesn't have much but makes good use of it. When a little quick thinking can make the difference between victory and defeat, that's my favorite place to be.

[Hrugner]

dabbler savant. The sort of person who is always pretty good at anything they try, but ends up being really bad compared to everyone else and is forced to use a wide range of skills and tricks together in order to overcome obstacles. This character has their hands in every type of power available in the world. There's no D&D support for this sort of character really, they make a start with a few class hybrids, but fail at cross skill set integration. Pathfinder's magus is pretty close, but it needs some monk and cleric mixed in and ends up lagging far behind everyone due to a lack of combined power.

second is the tireless loser. He's almost as powerful as the tough guys and always puts up a good fight, but ends most problems being dragged out of a puddle of his own blood and gore. His failure is always spectacular and costly for his opponents. He has no innate talents and isn't really built for his work, but manages to go to to toe with those blessed by the gods through force of will and determination... but he's still just some guy and it never ends well. Mostly, he's just the badass from a slightly lower scale world stuck in the wrong genre. D&D doesn't model this too well either, you'd need some sort of power and defense boost relative to damage taken.

third is divine assassin. There's something just awful about a person willing to murder for inscrutable higher powers. This is just made worse knowing that whatever happens to your body is just the start of your troubles.

[BWR]

Holy warrior, big crude bruiser and sneaky git.