Expanding upon a flat character... Improving the story of my first character.

[NVDax]

Roughly a year or so ago I started playing Dungeons and Dragons, and going forward I really can not get enough of it. I am involved in two different sessions, one in which I play as a Priest of Myrkul(disguised as a priest of Kelemvor) who's goal is to revive his god to his former glory. He has high ambitions, he has master plans in the works while "assisting" the party to better his own ends, he intends to bring those who abandoned Myrkul for Kelemvor or Cyric back by any means necessary. The second session, which we started a year ago... I play a Halfling rogue who has no real high ambitions. He's just sort of there for the ride and coin, the only reason he's fighting the Dragon Cult is because they kidnapped him during one of the episodes.

I don't know where to go with him, he was my first character and I have improved drastically on creating characters, backstories, and going on with a characters goals. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Davamros to die a pathetic death. I want him to have his fun, but I am not enjoying the character as much as I should, especially when I have a character plotted after him who can go so much farther.

Davamros is flat, outside of a simplistic backstory there isn't much to him. He grew up shoved around by his Halfling peers as well as various other races due to his height(as tall as Belkar actually, only he is Chaotic Neutral and Rogue(thief subclass)). This has left him slightly bitter towards anyone who isn't a halfling or Gnome, and growing up dirt poor for Halfling standards he set off on his own turning to petty thievery and adventure to claim his fortune. As he travels among the party he makes it clear he has disdain for all of them for not being Halflings, and has particular hatred for the elf and Dragonborn(doesn't care if he's a gold dragon, it's all the same to him). I don't know where to go with him outside of this, I don't know how to develop his character outside of him maybe gaining Sorcerer powers(multiclassing into it if the dm allows me, ridiculously high charisma on-top of my high dex). What should I do with him, where could I even start?

[Ralanr]

What are his positive traits? What does he like to do in his free time. What does he specialize in (Expertise)?

[NVDax]

What are his positive traits? What does he like to do in his free time. What does he specialize in (Expertise)?

Despite his sour attitude towards other races he is incredible in otherwise social situations where the sort of behavior would not be acceptable(18 Charisma) and for a Halfling he's incredibly Dexterious, having a Dex of 19. He's not above admitting when he was in the wrong though, tending to belittle any who do not prove their worth... That changed last session when he developed a small bond with a strange human npc who has been with us since the start of summer. Telk the Absent Minded Reporter as he called him, following them on their adventures only because he wanted a good story and proving to be a nuisance to the party. He has ran from fights, volunteered Davamros for the more dangerous jobs(sneaking into the middle of the camp of the cult of the dragon and stealing a horse, which I rolled a nat 20 on hehehe) but he also enabled Davamros to do this by risking his own life, which was a far cry away from what he started with by running away from a few bats in a sewer.

Last session our Cleric cast a light spell in a cave which started a hoard of the things, as well as these strange mosquito things that attacked us all. Davamros being so small was pinned by this creature, he had already stabbed it with a dagger but it didn't let up. Telk comes over and in a rage induced hysteria because of his fear of bats smacks the thing off of me. Davamros of course was surprised by this, convincing him to harness the rage he felt to help them get through this scenario. We saved the party and pressed on through the caves, finding a bunch of Kobolds training these drakes. Telk went to fight with the rest while I hung back and fired arrows, but Telk was hit by a critical and suffered a massive amount of damage. Horrified by this sight Davamros felt something he hadn't felt for others before, firing at the drake that attacked and critting it right back and killing it, saying nothing more than he owed Telk one. Telk later in a surprising twist HEALED Davamros back to full health from earlier(leading me to believe he is a paladin, cleric, or some other form of class) before promptly running behind a corner in fear of Cyanwrath. I am not opposed to the idea of these two developing a friendship moving forward.

Davamros is a skilled thief, that being said he doesn't go around advertising this fact. His persona in front of crowds is friendly, he seems to attract people to him as a result of his Charisma. His highest proficiency are Stealth and Persuasion(both being at a base of 12, generally getting good results on anything higher than single digits) He dabbles in Deception, Performance, Sleight of hand, and intimidation.

Edit: I should note he swindles people quite often, undefeated in poker and go-fish thanks to his marked cards.

[Coyote81]

So I was thinking on this while I was working and I basically feel he needs a story that cause a drastic alignment change. (I often feel that chaotic neutral characters with no direction become boring). So I can see him head down 1 of 2 paths.

Good path:
Davamros take heart to his companion Telk's actions and starts to take pride in being his friend and perhaps even starts to want to know more about his possible background and faith. Maybe after a bit he wants to join Telk in following his religion. (This is where you multiclass into a vengeance paladin. You can use you quick melee attacks to deliver righteous blows to the enemy and you natural charisma will make you and excellent weapon of righteous power.) Becomes chaotic good. Destroying evil, or at least what Davamros determines is evil, yet has no issue with theft, because it further his cause against evil, and if you are not helping him destroy evil, maybe you are evil.)

Evil Path:
Davamros take his companions actions as acts of pity. He doesn't want to be pitied by his companions, he already dislikes them for their race and now they are pitying him. If her was more powerful, then maybe they would respect him instead of pitying him. Davamros find dark methods of becoming more powerful. Bitter and spiteful Fey beings decide that he would be the perfect vessel for their power. Davamros become malicious and devious Bladelock, set on proving his power and forcing people to respect him, through persausion, intimidation or even magic. The end will justify the means. Becomes Neutral Evil.

These are just my thoughts, you can make these changes over time, develop his hatred, or his passion, becoming a righteous weapon, or a being of power to be feared and respected. Either way Davamros ends up with real goals and ambitions.

Hope this helps.

[djreynolds]

I read the Iron Tower Trilogy, similar to LoTR, but very cool and Halfling focused. Point for reading is the main guy and his sort of "competition". But very cool.

[Vogonjeltz]

NVDax,

I'd start by defining his:
1) Personality Trait
2) Ideal
3) Bond
4) Flaw

Much of this is highly dependent on relating to his background (what is it by the way?)

I'd suggest (from the Urchin background),
Personality Trait: I eat like a pig and have bad manners.
Ideal: Retribution. The rich need to be shown what life and death are like in the gutters. (Evil)
Bond: I escaped my life of poverty by robbing an important person, and I'm wanted for it.
Flaw: Gold seems like a lot of money to me, and I'll do just about anything for more of it.

That provides a framework to roleplay your character's actions on.

[Hudsonian]

So from what I can tell from some of the outsiders that I knew growing up is that they tend to be pretty loyal and if you ask them for something or need something they WILL get the job done. I feel like if you let him build his relationship with not just the NPC, but also open up to a few more people (but maybe not the WHOLE party) then you can really let that chaotic part shine when he defies logic to back someone up, or when he HAS to get this item because his friend might want it. I might also make him particularly touchy about size, or when seeing someone else get bullied. But besides that you'll also want a particular goal that is his and his alone. Maybe he would want to meet his dad, to see if he has an answer as to why he left you and let you get bullied by everybody, and also because, as a halfling, you are curious to see if he is as tall as you are. (I have some ideas along this story line as far as shaking up your characters mental framework, but it would really work better if you didn't know it ahead of time. Simply put, you're mother won't talk about him except to say, "He was more than just a man to me" or "Your father protected me when nobody could".)

[NVDax]

So I was thinking on this while I was working and I basically feel he needs a story that cause a drastic alignment change. (I often feel that chaotic neutral characters with no direction become boring). So I can see him head down 1 of 2 paths.

Good path:
Davamros take heart to his companion Telk's actions and starts to take pride in being his friend and perhaps even starts to want to know more about his possible background and faith. Maybe after a bit he wants to join Telk in following his religion. (This is where you multiclass into a vengeance paladin. You can use you quick melee attacks to deliver righteous blows to the enemy and you natural charisma will make you and excellent weapon of righteous power.) Becomes chaotic good. Destroying evil, or at least what Davamros determines is evil, yet has no issue with theft, because it further his cause against evil, and if you are not helping him destroy evil, maybe you are evil.)

Evil Path:
Davamros take his companions actions as acts of pity. He doesn't want to be pitied by his companions, he already dislikes them for their race and now they are pitying him. If her was more powerful, then maybe they would respect him instead of pitying him. Davamros find dark methods of becoming more powerful. Bitter and spiteful Fey beings decide that he would be the perfect vessel for their power. Davamros become malicious and devious Bladelock, set on proving his power and forcing people to respect him, through persausion, intimidation or even magic. The end will justify the means. Becomes Neutral Evil.

These are just my thoughts, you can make these changes over time, develop his hatred, or his passion, becoming a righteous weapon, or a being of power to be feared and respected. Either way Davamros ends up with real goals and ambitions.

Hope this helps.

Alas, I fear the worst after examining the book I let a friend borrow... I do not intend on using my chance at feats/ability score improvements to raise my (possible strength of 9, it may be 11 though) to get my strength to a 13 as the prerequisite to multiclass into Paladin. It appears as if I'm being pigeon holed into the bad ending :( which is fine though, because I liked both ideas. I'm actually in the process of planning something out with a friend if the multiclass happens before he "officially" joins in on the campaign, so we had it worked out they apparently knew each other in the past and he was one of the few people Davamros didn't hate. They'll need to get to know each other for the first time again, so to speak. He'll certainly become more... assertive, in his demands.


So from what I can tell from some of the outsiders that I knew growing up is that they tend to be pretty loyal and if you ask them for something or need something they WILL get the job done. I feel like if you let him build his relationship with not just the NPC, but also open up to a few more people (but maybe not the WHOLE party) then you can really let that chaotic part shine when he defies logic to back someone up, or when he HAS to get this item because his friend might want it. I might also make him particularly touchy about size, or when seeing someone else get bullied. But besides that you'll also want a particular goal that is his and his alone. Maybe he would want to meet his dad, to see if he has an answer as to why he left you and let you get bullied by everybody, and also because, as a halfling, you are curious to see if he is as tall as you are. (I have some ideas along this story line as far as shaking up your characters mental framework, but it would really work better if you didn't know it ahead of time. Simply put, you're mother won't talk about him except to say, "He was more than just a man to me" or "Your father protected me when nobody could".)

I hadn't thought about the idea of him searching for a parent, but it sounds like it'd be simple enough to implement with what's going on above. Something personal he wouldn't want to share with anyone but Telk and my friend who will be joining relatively soon. But as I said, we'll have to see where the break happens and where he ends up going rogue. I'd say after being possessed hey may even want revenge for being abandoned.