SilverClawShift
2007-05-25, 11:37 PM
I've allready seen threads about bizzarre characters, but this is a slightly different topic.
Has anyone ever run or been a part of a game where you intentionally made misfit characters that had no real excuse to exist? My groups DM is usually overwhelmingly lenient about our class/race/feat picks, he lets us get away with murder (but we're not powergamers, so it doesn't really matter except to make our games more eccentric).
But in this one campaign, the DM gave us the full out "I have to approve your character or you can't play it" restriction. We all agreed to it beforehand cause this was a game we wanted to play.
The DM would ONLY approve characters that were just completely horrible misfits. Not just picking opposite concepts and slamming them together, but real 'elf wants to be a dentist' misfits.
And yes we sang the "Why don't I fit in?" song every session.
my character was just a halfling bard. Sort of. My characters concept was that they had severe Attention Defecit Disorder on a massive scale, and would never take more than one level of any class for any reason other than flat out running out of options. The DM liked it so much, he declared alignment restrictions null and void to me if I gave him a reason, because he knew I wasn't gonna make a career out of any one class, so it wasn't a big deal if I bounced around wrapped in a shroud of lies.
So my second level was paladin, "Cause they're all respectable and daring and the like it's a right pretty sight it is". My only justifaction.
It WASN'T as unviable of an option as you'd likely have guessed. I mean, I was never gonna be a high level wizard (or a high level anything), but I got by surprisingly well on my charm and wits. And the fact that my saves were bulletproof. Every level I was getting +2 in at least one saving throw, usually two, or even 3. Sure my base attack sucked like a mages, but I had so many little tricks up my sleeves that the baddies never saw coming. A 1d6 warlock blast if I found myself without a weapon, 1d6 sneak attack, detect evil, rage (haha), lotsa cantrips, a few first level spells (and I pretty much wound up with every first level ever for obvious reasons). I even qualified for a level of dragon disciple :D
The others in my group were:
A pixie barbarian who refused to use weapon finesse, because she had a bad attitude and refused to 'pretend she was all dainty and precious and get the hell out of my face"
One player suggested a lawful evil drow wizard. And almost got away with it too. Reason? "No one plays a *expletive* evil drow." The DM laughed hard, then thoguht better of it. So that player wound up as an elf favoured soul. Of GRUUMSH.
A half elf wizard/sorcerer played one for one. Because his elf mother insisted he be a wizard, but his father swore up and down that he was brimming with NATURAL arcane potential. He did both to keep his divorced parents happy, and just told each that he was the other class.
And my personal favorite. A Brain in a Jar Rogue. Who used telekinesis to move around ("Sneakily?" "Very sneakily"), and the DM houseruled that when he used his psionic ability to dominate one of the party memebers willingly (a natural ability for a brain in a jar) he could control us directly to use his rogue skills, despite that not being officially how the spell works. He could only move under his own power three times a day, and could only control a person to expend his skills once a day (the DM gave him some feats to expand his uses per day on the dominate person ability, and I picked up the slack by basically having a few ranks in every skill, and a supply of roguely tools).
So one of us (usually the half elf) would carry him around in his sealed little arcane 'tinted window' jar, and when it was time for him to sneak somewhere (?!?) we'd set him down and let him do his thing. Or dominate someone to sneak to his objective and unlock/pick pocket/ect it. He was actually pretty effective. Since he had no STR or CON, his DEX was usless (DM ruled it didn't add to AC, so this tiny brain in a jar had magical armoring smithed onto it randomly), he just pumped INT and CHA like crazy, magically and naturally, with a few WIS boosts too. The result was skill points in the 12+ range per level, and a charming little bastard.
Sickly? That was one of our longer running campaigns. Banded together, the misfit psychopaths were actually a good team, and the DM is good at catering to our eccentricities.
So how about anyone else? Real MISFIT characters, not just weird ones, anyone?
Has anyone ever run or been a part of a game where you intentionally made misfit characters that had no real excuse to exist? My groups DM is usually overwhelmingly lenient about our class/race/feat picks, he lets us get away with murder (but we're not powergamers, so it doesn't really matter except to make our games more eccentric).
But in this one campaign, the DM gave us the full out "I have to approve your character or you can't play it" restriction. We all agreed to it beforehand cause this was a game we wanted to play.
The DM would ONLY approve characters that were just completely horrible misfits. Not just picking opposite concepts and slamming them together, but real 'elf wants to be a dentist' misfits.
And yes we sang the "Why don't I fit in?" song every session.
my character was just a halfling bard. Sort of. My characters concept was that they had severe Attention Defecit Disorder on a massive scale, and would never take more than one level of any class for any reason other than flat out running out of options. The DM liked it so much, he declared alignment restrictions null and void to me if I gave him a reason, because he knew I wasn't gonna make a career out of any one class, so it wasn't a big deal if I bounced around wrapped in a shroud of lies.
So my second level was paladin, "Cause they're all respectable and daring and the like it's a right pretty sight it is". My only justifaction.
It WASN'T as unviable of an option as you'd likely have guessed. I mean, I was never gonna be a high level wizard (or a high level anything), but I got by surprisingly well on my charm and wits. And the fact that my saves were bulletproof. Every level I was getting +2 in at least one saving throw, usually two, or even 3. Sure my base attack sucked like a mages, but I had so many little tricks up my sleeves that the baddies never saw coming. A 1d6 warlock blast if I found myself without a weapon, 1d6 sneak attack, detect evil, rage (haha), lotsa cantrips, a few first level spells (and I pretty much wound up with every first level ever for obvious reasons). I even qualified for a level of dragon disciple :D
The others in my group were:
A pixie barbarian who refused to use weapon finesse, because she had a bad attitude and refused to 'pretend she was all dainty and precious and get the hell out of my face"
One player suggested a lawful evil drow wizard. And almost got away with it too. Reason? "No one plays a *expletive* evil drow." The DM laughed hard, then thoguht better of it. So that player wound up as an elf favoured soul. Of GRUUMSH.
A half elf wizard/sorcerer played one for one. Because his elf mother insisted he be a wizard, but his father swore up and down that he was brimming with NATURAL arcane potential. He did both to keep his divorced parents happy, and just told each that he was the other class.
And my personal favorite. A Brain in a Jar Rogue. Who used telekinesis to move around ("Sneakily?" "Very sneakily"), and the DM houseruled that when he used his psionic ability to dominate one of the party memebers willingly (a natural ability for a brain in a jar) he could control us directly to use his rogue skills, despite that not being officially how the spell works. He could only move under his own power three times a day, and could only control a person to expend his skills once a day (the DM gave him some feats to expand his uses per day on the dominate person ability, and I picked up the slack by basically having a few ranks in every skill, and a supply of roguely tools).
So one of us (usually the half elf) would carry him around in his sealed little arcane 'tinted window' jar, and when it was time for him to sneak somewhere (?!?) we'd set him down and let him do his thing. Or dominate someone to sneak to his objective and unlock/pick pocket/ect it. He was actually pretty effective. Since he had no STR or CON, his DEX was usless (DM ruled it didn't add to AC, so this tiny brain in a jar had magical armoring smithed onto it randomly), he just pumped INT and CHA like crazy, magically and naturally, with a few WIS boosts too. The result was skill points in the 12+ range per level, and a charming little bastard.
Sickly? That was one of our longer running campaigns. Banded together, the misfit psychopaths were actually a good team, and the DM is good at catering to our eccentricities.
So how about anyone else? Real MISFIT characters, not just weird ones, anyone?