Refining a "Dark" character

[Sabeta]

So, I'm not really the best at Roleplay and would like some assistance in building up my character concept. The general idea is a "dark", perhaps even "dangerous" girl that you would be on edge to have around, but whose powers are undeniably useful. Just


Wendy the Bereaved, from Don't Starve (Together): She's haunted by the spirit of her Twin sister Abigail. Killing creatures allows you to summon Abigail as a companion and she fights with you and protects you. Wendy is also extremely sane in the face of all the spooks DST throws at you (which is amazing because not starving is surprisingly easy in DST)

Edda, from Final Fantasy XIV: She was the group's Conjurer (Healer). The group had quite a bit of in-fighting and finger-pointing which ultimately lead to her Fiance (the group's Tank) getting killed. She keeps his head, which creeps the **** out of the other two so they disband. She would eventually attempt to murder the rest to bring back her Fiance. Edda eventually becomes a Ghost wearing the wedding dress she never got to show her beloved.

Enchantress, from Suicide Squad: I'd give you a backstory but the movie was terrible and didn't include one. Have a GIF (http://49.media.tumblr.com/c62281db52f21d674cca464b5b5908e8/tumblr_o5g8p73Wgi1udwsc5o2_500.gif) instead.

So, to lay down some groundwork:

She should be generally attractive, and shouldn't be a part of a race generally known for their cheeriness nor their broodiness. This leaves (imo) Elves, Half Elves, and Humans.
Her Class and Background should reflect her dark nature. This pretty much translates well to a Warlock with the Haunted Background.
She is not interested in harming the Party, but is also more interested in self preservation than saving lives.
I would prefer her to be Evil, and to sneak away from the party (perhaps during rests) to go do bad things before returning. It is not mandatory, but it's the option I'm more inclined to take.
Generally quiet or soft-spoken. Basic information such as her name and a VERY generic description of her powers are given freely. More than that begets silence or a brief non-answer.


So I have a basic working concept down. I would specifically like help fleshing out this character more. For example, why this "haunted" girl decide to become an Adventurer? Following that, why would she join anyone's party to begin with? What dark events (possibly her Pact, but it would be more interesting if her Pact was made to help her cope with her troubles imo) caused her to be this way, and most importantly how can I convey all of this to my party members so that they're engaged in my design as much as I am. (One vision I have is using Darkness to solo a few weak enemies; taking my time to carve them up while the party wonders what to do about the giant black sphere. Then dropping it to reveal the blood bath)

As a last small note, I'm mainly creating this character for three reasons.
1) To have an understated personality with an interesting character. Specifically useful for new players as I don't risk her overshadowing, speaking, stepping on toes while they explore their RPing muscles.
2) My current character is a Fighter who likes to Fight and doesn't back down from a fight. Read: borderline suicidal and may need replacement (A fight with a Young Dragon at level 3 went very bad very fast...I'm lucky to have survived. My party opted not to help me because they realized it was suicidal)
3) Spooky girls are cute!

[AmayaElls]

In my mind an evil character doesn't necessarily need to go off and do "evil" things to be that way. Once I read something that suggested your alignment was how your character treated strangers, they may still be friends with the group and even protective. However when it comes to achieving their own goals an Evil character does not care at all about strangers, some may kill any in their path, others may be manipulative leaders and others still might kill only when necessary but not have any second thoughts about it. With your quiet character I would say neutral evil but it's hard to tell.

While elves and humans could easily fit the bill a tiefling could also work. I used this concept for one evil character I play, she wishes to unlock the power of her devil blood so was adventuring to become a more powerful wizard, she just happened to fall in with a good party and they are useful tools, who mop up the main issues while she collects the forbidden knowledge these particular cultists were using. The thing about using a tiefling is it may seem a bit cliche.

I would simply advise first figuring out what your character wants. If they have a strong enough or dangerous enough goal an evil character won't be opposed to aligning themselves with a good party who might help. Once you know this reason the rest of the personality will be easier to rp.

[Gastronomie]

Random idea: Warlock of Orcus. Perhaps ask the DM if he's up for a homebrew Eldritch Invocation like:

So I Heard You Like Zombies
Pre-requiste: level 5 or higher, Fiend Pact with Orcus as your Patron
Once per long rest, you can cast Animate Dead using a Warlock Spell Slot.

As for spell fluff, you can do stuff like:
-Have Eldritch Blast rot away and melt off the target's skin and flesh
-Change "Armor of Agathys" so that she has ghosts flying about her, protecting her for damage and attacking at guys who come near
-Have "Hex" create a spooky brand on the target's skin (maybe like the Dark Mark from Harry Potter or something)
-Change "Hold Person" so that rotting hands and shadows rise up from the ground and grasp the target

...And the sort.

BTW, I have an illustration of a spooky girl that I used for a necromancer character myself. If you're interested:http://i68.tinypic.com/15570ih.jpg

[Sir cryosin]

Do you see her as a warlock or is it because it's the most evily class? Because I can picture a black dragon sorcerer. Or shadow monk, oh if you can use UA there's the shadow sorcerer. Any class really. If you want your character to be that dark spooky girl but also the quiet type just described how she looks or how she reacts to certain things maybe every now and then give her a small quick little monologue or she lost her Giggles or says something when she kill somebody or she might not finish somebody off and torture them a bit before killing them. Does your DM alow homebrewed ?

[MrStabby]

Are you Douche's alter ego?

[NecroDancer]

I made a "dark character" who was a teifling warlock, who dispite dressing in black all the time was cheerful and happy. The party later found out that he was bat-sh*t insane. I believe his finest moment was when he burned down an orphanage because he thought the orphans were cold.

[ZenBear]

You could go Bladelock with the Pact of The Undying from SCAG. You made a Pact with the "apparition that has haunted your family for generations" that grants you the power to cheat death. Perhaps it's a long dead relative; you're Half-Elf, and your Elven ancestor tried to become Baelnorn (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Baelnorn_lich) but failed in some way that turned it into a incorporeal spirit shackled to the Prime Material Plane. Perhaps it saved you from some monster that butchered your family. Perhaps it went mad and it did the butchering, perhaps through you, and now whispers its madness into your ear and urges you to commit acts of evil. I say Bladelock because of your suggestion of "using Darkness to solo a few weak enemies; taking my time to carve them up while the party wonders what to do about the giant black sphere. Then dropping it to reveal the blood bath". Use a dagger at first until you hit level 3 and pick up a rapier through your Blade Pact.

[Easy_Lee]

It sounds like you're building a standard emo Mary Sue. One who does her own thing and probably doesn't work well with the rest of the party.

There are a variety of reasons why I cannot, in good conscious, assist you with this.

[ZenBear]

It sounds like you're building a standard emo Mary Sue. One who does her own thing and probably doesn't work well with the rest of the party.

There are a variety of reasons why I cannot, in good conscious, assist you with this.

What he means to say, but is too rude to properly articulate, is don't be a standard emo Mary Sue. Work with the party, come up with your own reasons to stick with them instead of expecting the DM to do it for you, and generally follow the social contract of a team game. You can be the "dark" character and you can even be Evil without going off on your own and acting against the party. Don't be an antagonist, be an anti-hero.

[Easy_Lee]

What he means to say, but is too rude to properly articulate, is don't be a standard emo Mary Sue. Work with the party, come up with your own reasons to stick with them instead of expecting the DM to do it for you, and generally follow the social contract of a team game. You can be the "dark" character and you can even be Evil without going off on your own and acting against the party. Don't be an antagonist, be an anti-hero.

Did you just call me rude? I didn't tell her not to do it, I said I wouldn't help. You're the one telling her what to do. Now which of us is actually being rude here? Hint: it's not me.

[ZenBear]

Did you just call me rude? I didn't tell her not to do it, I said I wouldn't help. You're the one telling her what to do. Now which of us is actually being rude here? Hint: it's not me.

Oh, but it is you. She asked for help, which I offered. You refused, and insulted her concept.

[MrStabby]

It sounds like you're building a standard emo Mary Sue. One who does her own thing and probably doesn't work well with the rest of the party.

There are a variety of reasons why I cannot, in good conscious, assist you with this.

Yeah, but this one is dark and therefore cooler than all the others. This one is different to all the others as she has cool stuff going on and is very serious about it. There are secrets and things other players don't know and a really cool backstory and stuff.

The character is really missunderstood because they are different, and this one is attractive so that makes her different as well because no other dark characters are attractive.

[Easy_Lee]

Oh, but it is you. She asked for help, which I offered. You refused, and insulted her concept.

Want to take this to IMs? I don't care to explain all of the reasons why you're incorrect in this thread, as that would be off topic.

[smcmike]

There are a lot of ways to be dark. It's mostly about layers.

You could be dark on the surface, but basically good-hearted. You have some dark secret, which keeps you from opening up to people and makes you seem evil, but you really aren't. This is very common - the tough with a heart of gold - and the narrative arc is generally focused on 1. Establishing her bona fides as a tough and then 2. Slowly revealing her underlying goodness.

Same as the above, but with a third layer - your dark secret compromises your character to the extent that deep down, you really ARE evil. This is generally a tragic character, who adds a third step where she confirms her basic nature and then usually dies.

Alternatively, the top layer can be sweetness and light, and the reveal can be her underlying depravity (this doesn't sound like what you are going for).

Straight darkness, with no glimmers of humanity, is much harder to make interesting or conducive to team play - it probably requires a lot of DM support to throw such a character in with the party.

[Sabeta]

In my mind an evil character doesn't necessarily need to go off and do "evil" things to be that way.
While elves and humans could easily fit the bill a tiefling could also work
I would simply advise first figuring out what your character wants.
1) Understood, but that's just part of the character I want to play; though to be honest it may be in conflict with other things I want the character to be. Perhaps she should be Neutral Evil, and should be less about causing terror to citizens and more about delivering to the BBEG.
2) Tiefling is out of the question. They're out for the same reason Pact of the Fiend is out. I'm not interested at all in Demonic powers, and in fact the character is forbidden from using any Fire spells (should have mentioned that earlier...). If it isn't a debuff/control spell then it's either Cold, Force, Poison, or Necrotic damage.
3) That's largely the reason I made this thread.


Random idea: Warlock of Orcus

I love the picture, another fine example of what I'm striving to create. The Ghostly familiar aspect of Wendy is not a mandatory part of the concept, and it's one that can be easily achieved with Chainlock if need be, so while I'm sure an Orcus themed Warlock would be cool it's not really something I'm looking for. I had actually thought of a lot of those fluffs already. Hold Person was to be spectral hands sprouting from behind my character and grasping my target, I actually thought Hex just came with a spooky brand, but Eldritch Blast I was just going to change to a wispy white rather than something even more necrotic.

I would like to avoid Homebrew though. Refluffs are easy to work with, but I want my character design future-proofed. For that reason I will avoid Homebrewed content as much as possible.


Do you see her as a warlock or is it because it's the most evily class?

It's mostly for the ghostly themed powers like Thaumaturgy, Hypnotic Pattern, Darkness, and Hex. It has that "Witch" style that strongly appeals to me. Despite being my favorite class I have yet to actually play Warlock. The rest of those classes listed would work perfectly fine for a Dark Girl, just not the one I'm aiming for. The notes on Roleplaying are well recieved though. Small in-combat things I can say or do, as well as habits I can take out of combat to crank up the "creepy" factor are all welcome. See above for my notes on Homebrew.


I made a "dark character" who was a teifling warlock, who dispite dressing in black all the time was cheerful and happy. The party later found out that he was bat-sh*t insane. I believe his finest moment was when he burned down an orphanage because he thought the orphans were cold.

Sheogorath, is that you?


snip
Thank you for the detailed suggestion. I'm not very interested in Bladelock, but the rest of the concept sounds intriguing. I'll do some digging around about the Undead version of the Warlock though. It could be cool (right now I'm leaning towards GoO or Fey)


It sounds like you're building a standard emo Mary Sue. One who does her own thing and probably doesn't work well with the rest of the party.
There are a variety of reasons why I cannot, in good conscious, assist you with this.

"A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities. Often this character is recognized as an author insert or wish-fulfillment" - Wikipedia

I'll give you emo, as that sort of comes with the territory of any dark character, but a Mary Sue she is not. Sues are flawless characters, powerful in every way and often beloved by all. Typically they either didn't work at all for their power and status, or somehow worked harder than everyone despite being younger and less driven. I can see how you would think that though, with the comments about how she's not interested in being overly helpful nor harmful to the party, yet not above showing off. I'll take that into consideration and adjust accordingly, thank you. Even if you said you weren't going to assist me, you've done just that. Pointing out flaws in my character helps with the "refining" that I'm going for.

I was originally going to say "if you can't assist you shouldn't have posted", but then I swallowed my pride.


The character is really missunderstood because they are different, and this one is attractive so that makes her different as well because no other dark characters are attractive.

1) I don't know who Douche is, so I'm just going to assume you were being rude. I'm nobodies Alt, and this account is three years old.
2) The character isn't meant to be exceptionally unique. I even listed three examples of this trope, and hell I'm sure it's probably got a TvTropes article.
3) I just like spooky girls. She's a tragic, perhaps even creepy character, but she's not here to be endearing or well loved. She's not not misunderstood, and the attractive aspect only helps to contrast the dark atmosphere of the character. If an ugly character were this brooding and creepy you could easily surmise that a lot of people probably just made fun of her and she grew up with a lot of negativity as a result. A pretty one however was probably beloved by her family and peers until whatever tragic event warped her into what she is now.

[MrStabby]

1) I don't know who Douche is, so I'm just going to assume you were being rude. I'm nobodies Alt, and this account is three years old.


Sorry, he/she is a poster on these forums. They make some provocative posts but sometimes are funny. A particular style he/she seems to emply is a satirical attack on tropes by writing posts seeking to add them to games.

I just mistook your post for satire.

[Sabeta]

I don't really see how you could think that. Is it really so uncommon to enjoy a particular trope?

[ZenBear]

Want to take this to IMs? I don't care to explain all of the reasons why you're incorrect in this thread, as that would be off topic.
I don't care to hear your excuses. You can keep that to yourself.

I don't really see how you could think that. Is it really so uncommon to enjoy a particular trope?
Not at all, and you shouldn't be flamed for it. Enjoy your character!

[MrStabby]

I don't really see how you could think that. Is it really so uncommon to enjoy a particular trope?

It's pretty uncommon to persue something so close to the stereotype that gets mocked, at least without a comment that shows it is done ironically.

There are tropes, and there are cliches and as the cliche says, they are cliches for a reason. Some are popular because people actually like them.

This is why there are not just threads about "dark" characters (seriously, look at the main Roleplaying Games forum for a sense of how they are parrodied) but also others like the famed lesbian drow stripper ninja played by a male player (as a side note I have never seen a female character played by a male player where the character is unatractive, or even where that is in doubt (although for further clarity this is not a reference to you gender as i have no idea what that is)).

None of this is a reason why you shouldn't play the character if it would be fun for your table though. The one piece of advice I would give is work out 5 things that set your character apart from other "dark" characters. Something that makes her less generic than secretive brooding attractive female possibly with a dark secret past. Really find some things to give her character, to me contrast works best - dark on more dark and so on all the way down is a bit boring. Tragedy is what might have been, the love the joy that is too late to save but lingers on just a little more than expected. There is more mournfulness in a faded smile than in all the extra grimmness you can layer on.

But most of all, have fun and enjoy.

[MBControl]

This somewhat reminds me of a Character Dan Telfer played on the nerd poker podcast. She was an evil dark elf warlock (I think), and what I enjoyed with his role playing, is that he didn't play it dark. It was actually a pleasant, and friendly character that really enjoyed getting good characters to do evil things.

It was a corrupting with kindness approach, that was actually a lot creepier, once you caught on what he was doing.

[Sabeta]

None of this is a reason why you shouldn't play the character if it would be fun for your table though. The one piece of advice I would give is work out 5 things that set your character apart from other "dark" characters. Something that makes her less generic than secretive brooding attractive female possibly with a dark secret past. Really find some things to give her character, to me contrast works best - dark on more dark and so on all the way down is a bit boring. Tragedy is what might have been, the love the joy that is too late to save but lingers on just a little more than expected. There is more mournfulness in a faded smile than in all the extra grimmness you can layer on.

But most of all, have fun and enjoy.

That is the intent with this thread. I'm trying to make her gloomy, tragic, dark, and whatever adjectives you might use; however this character is often not given significant character development in any medium I've seen. More often than not they're just a token bad-gal who uses her tragedy as a reason for why she's evil and tormenting the MCs. See: Sophia from Tales of Zestiria and pretty much every Dark Girl in the Magical Girl genre of Anime (Homura Akemi, Li Xiaoran, Fate Testarosa).

In entirely too many words, I am asking for help making this character more than a sad wallflower with ghost powers.

Oh, and for what it's worth I'm a fairly bland and unexciting gay girl.

Edit: MBControl, is that a video Podcast, and can you provide a link? That sounds like something that would be really informative.

[Gastronomie]

Homura isn't really evil. She's just lesbian. And also yandere. And meaninglessly secretive. But not evil.

One thing I have in mind whenever I create a character is "what is this guy's motivation/goal?" This can lead to many unique characters. It can also lead to them doing terrible things to achieve their goals. Antagonists are like that -an evil character should be so too.

Maybe she wants to restore her daddy to life. …Except her daddy is an evil lich lord who artificially created her soul and body as an experiment.

And stuff like that.

[Sabeta]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg8xgMK24jk

Did you forget about the part where Homura's love for Madoka was so strong it became a Curse powerful enough to corrupt the entire Universe, becoming an Evil Goddess in the process?

Anyway, let's try using Wendy. She's the only character I listed that's actually a "good guy". Her notable traits include being comfortable in darkness and not being able to hit very hard. In game representation, that means she loses less sanity but deals less damage. She can also summon her twin abigail, and it's heavily implied that abigail was murdered by Wendy. ("Abigail! Come back! I'm not done playing with you.") Oh, and you summon her via Blood Sacrifice.

Despite all this, she is playable in a multiplayer survival game where she must work with others to live.

Porting over to D&D:
* Half Elf
* Warlock (Chain)
* Spirit Familiar (Refluff a normal one)
Origin Story: <Insert Pactmaker Here> offered you unknowable power if you performed one small deed for it. You more than happily sacrifice your twin sister, and with that the pact was sealed. By way of thanks, the Pactmaker allows you to keep your sister's soul, and she is forcibly bound to you and must do whatever you ask of her. (Functionally no different than a standard Chain familiar)

So what now? I find a Dwarf in Phandalin who asks for help, and I decide "sure, why not test out my newfound powers." I'm asked to investigate strange happenings in Red Larch and I think "Sounds like an adventure that'll give me a big power boost."? Not that those kinds of tropes can't be done, but they're hardly unique. I need help finding a motivation that ideally is unrelated to gaining levels/loot and the wishes of my Pactmaker.

In other words, I'm not very good at finding character motivations that can be forward compatible with most campaign settings. Have a picture of Wendy while I'm at it:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/dont-starve-game/images/d/de/Wendy_SNP.png/revision/latest?cb=20140523112734

[Temperjoke]

Why does she want more power? Is there someone she wants to surpass? Does she feel any remorse or guilt over her sister? Why was she given this offer of power, why not her sister? Perhaps your agreement did more than you thought, such as removed your memories of your past with your sister and you are working to recover them by growing stronger?

Curse of Strahd offers the Haunted One background, that you might want to consider given what you've got so far.

http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/CharacterBackground_HauntedOne.pdf

[Sir cryosin]

I'm just picturing a attractive Bellatrix Lestrange.

[Corran]

......
So I have a basic working concept down. I would specifically like help fleshing out this character more. For example, why this "haunted" girl decide to become an Adventurer? Following that, why would she join anyone's party to begin with?
.....

Well, one of the most classic examples of the moral dilemmas a DM throws from time to time at the party, is when having the party stumble upon a small village where the people are about to burn (or kill otherwise) a young woman who is accussed of being responsible for some recent and/or ongoing series of events (could just be some sort of plague, or whatever else). Then the party decides if they want to intervene or not, and if they are met with resistance from the villagers and/or local guards if any, how to respond and how far to go. Your character could be the above young woman, who was saved by the party from the people of her village who blamed her for (insert catastrophy). From then on you followed the party, maybe it was because you didnt know where else to go, maybe because you liked the security being around powerful individuals provides you with, maybe because you want to repay for saving your life by helping them in their/your endeavors, or any combination of all of the above.

ps: Whether your character was indeed responsible for what was going wrong in the village, is entirely up to you (and if it was, you have to decide if the party knows, whatever option you choose to go with, it woud help if you could agree with the rest of the party on these details beforehand and OOC, so that you dont have problems down the road after the campaign starts -some intrigue can add spice to a campaign, but be careful not to go too far with it, make sure the rest of the party is comfortable with your ideas).