Ahh the first time...

[j!nx]

hello fellow play grounders what was your first dnd character or 3.5e character,

first character- Halfling fighter (2 hand)
first 3.5 character- half-dragon(green) fighter/wizard

[j!nx]

first character died fighting tallmouthers and 3.5 character died in a dungeon traveling with a necromancer, and a bard, when I died the necromancer made me into armor with my bones thought that was pretty cool

[Saffron-sama]

A Wild Elf Barbarian.

[Manyasone]

2nd edition: tiefling thief
3rd edition: monk (eh, they looked cool att)
3.5: I think rogue
PF: none yet because I'm the DM

[Calthropstu]

My first d&d character was a 2e wizard who never made it through a single day. My brother was gm and his friends were jerks. I had charm person and sleep memorized.

They killed my character in a single round in a dickish ambush. I was 14 at the time. I smacked my brother with my coat on my way out because he had invited me.

More than 20 years have passed since then, and I have played in many different groups. But to be honest, a good third of the groups have been like them. There's a large number of jerks who play D&D style games.

[Manyasone]

My first d&d character was a 2e wizard who never made it through a single day. My brother was gm and his friends were jerks. I had charm person and sleep memorized.

They killed my character in a single round in a dickish ambush. I was 14 at the time. I smacked my brother with my coat on my way out because he had invited me.

More than 20 years have passed since then, and I have played in many different groups. But to be honest, a good third of the groups have been like them. There's a large number of jerks who play D&D style games.

Damn. That's harsh. Considering we've been at it for the same length of time. I never had that. No game yes. Bad game luckily no

[Telonius]

Honestly can't remember my first character - it was for a throwaway 1-shot campaign. The first one I played with any regularity was Praxus Talonborn, a Moon Elf Sorcerer/Arcane Devotee. His (Improved) familiar was a Pseudodragon named Rossal. First 3.5 character? I think that was probably Mordechai, my Lesser Drow VoP Monk.

[ksbsnowowl]

First Character (2e): Puck, Elven Fighter Str 18/93, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8
First Character (3e): Conversion of the above character, using the free 2e -> 3e conversion booklet that came out back in 2000.
Strength 22 felt awesome back then.

[ComaVision]

My first character was a Human Rogue. He almost got to level 5 before we stopped playing.

I still have the character sheet. He's done totally wrong. I calculated the point buy wrong and I have a mix of 3.0 and 3.5 feats. The DM helped me build him though so I refuse responsibility for my cheating.

[Morcleon]

My first character was a Half-Elf Duskblade who was pretty much built exactly out of DictumMortuum's handbook. xD

[Inevitability]

First D&D character was a warforged artificer, in 4e. Great character; too bad I was a horrible player back then.

First 3.5 character... The oldest I can find was a NG air goblin sorcerer, though I never ended up playing that one. I honestly don't remember my oldest PC that saw play.

[The_Jette]

1st character: 2e Thief in a Spelljamming campaign
1st 3e: human monk that I played for 6 years; literally my favorite character, and made me a huge fan of monks in general
1st 4e: Barbarian that I broke with the PH and PH2, it was a one shot level 16 character that went toe to toe with a CR 25 undead beholder
1st 5e: human moon druid; only played to level 4, though

[j!nx]

when I started it was only 3rd edition don't know much about anything like ad&d and 2nd edition was the spelljam a campaign setting? and how do you have 18/93 str

[j!nx]

My first d&d character was a 2e wizard who never made it through a single day. My brother was gm and his friends were jerks. I had charm person and sleep memorized.

They killed my character in a single round in a dickish ambush. I was 14 at the time. I smacked my brother with my coat on my way out because he had invited me.

More than 20 years have passed since then, and I have played in many different groups. But to be honest, a good third of the groups have been like them. There's a large number of jerks who play D&D style games.

that is harsh, that's rough your first exp being that, at least you gave it another shot man

[The_Jette]

when I started it was only 3rd edition don't know much about anything like ad&d and 2nd edition was the spelljam a campaign setting? and how do you have 18/93 str

It was a 2nd edition fighter thing... we don't talk about that anymore.

[GilesTheCleric]

Mine was "Giles Hamburg, the Jolly Fisherman". I got up to Clr 15. The only books I owned back then were the PHB, AaEG, and CD. I didn't get the latter two until I was already pretty high-level, as you can tell from my feats and gear.

NG Human Cleric of Pelor 15 with Healing and Cold (?) domains
stats
str 12
dex 14
con 15
int 13
wis 20 (temp: 28)
cha 16

gear
Heavy Mace
Heavy Xbow
Scythe
+1 Self-Loading, Quick-Loading, Bane: Outsiders [Evil] Great Crossbow
+1 Bane: Constructs, Bane: Outsiders [Fire] Double Mace
+5 Mithril Breastplate
+3 Mithril Heavy Shield
+2 wis ioun stone
+6 Periapt of wis
Wand of mass CLW, 50 charges
Eyes of Charming
85,279 gp

skill ranks
Concentration 18
Heal 7
K:Arcana 7
K:History 1
K:Religion 14
K:Planes 1
Ride: 7 (cc)
Spellcraft 18

feats
Weapon Focus: Mace
Rapid Reload
TWF
PBS
Rapid Shot
Imp Crit: Heavy Xbow
Augment Summoning
Domain Spontaneity

spells
I just wrote down as many 0th and 1st level spells as would fit on those tiny lines, then referred to pg 183. I don't have a sheet with any example spells I might have prepared. I've only filled out the spell DCs/ quantity section up to 6th level spells for some reason. Who needs 7th and 8th level spells anyway?Needless to say, I was about as optimal as the playtester wizard who used True Strike and Rapid Shot with their bow. Despite being a fisherman, I didn't have any fishing gear. What I did have were some blue suede shoes, though. Pity I never put points into Perform: Dance. I did manage to purchase a 16-candle candelabra and carry that with me, too. Because why not?

[j!nx]

Mine was "Giles Hamburg, the Jolly Fisherman". I got up to Clr 15. The only books I owned back then were the PHB, AaEG, and CD. I didn't get the latter two until I was already pretty high-level, as you can tell from my feats and gear.

NG Human Cleric of Pelor 15 with Healing and Cold (?) domains
stats
str 12
dex 14
con 15
int 13
wis 20 (temp: 28)
cha 16

gear
Heavy Mace
Heavy Xbow
Scythe
+1 Self-Loading, Quick-Loading, Bane: Outsiders [Evil] Great Crossbow
+1 Bane: Constructs, Bane: Outsiders [Fire] Double Mace
+5 Mithril Breastplate
+3 Mithril Heavy Shield
+2 wis ioun stone
+6 Periapt of wis
Wand of mass CLW, 50 charges
Eyes of Charming
85,279 gp

skill ranks
Concentration 18
Heal 7
K:Arcana 7
K:History 1
K:Religion 14
K:Planes 1
Ride: 7 (cc)
Spellcraft 18

feats
Weapon Focus: Mace
Rapid Reload
TWF
PBS
Rapid Shot
Imp Crit: Heavy Xbow
Augment Summoning
Domain Spontaneity

spells
I just wrote down as many 0th and 1st level spells as would fit on those tiny lines, then referred to pg 183. I don't have a sheet with any example spells I might have prepared. I've only filled out the spell DCs/ quantity section up to 6th level spells for some reason. Who needs 7th and 8th level spells anyway?Needless to say, I was about as optimal as the playtester wizard who used True Strike and Rapid Shot with their bow. Despite being a fisherman, I didn't have any fishing gear. What I did have were some blue suede shoes, though. Pity I never put points into Perform: Dance. I did manage to purchase a 16-candle candelabra and carry that with me, too. Because why not?

that's awesome you still have all the info, and the blue suede shoes man hell yeah that's some flavor :smallcool:

[Luccan]

I don't remember too well (I started "playing" dnd very young). Either a gnome fighter/magic user or a human monk. My first 3.X character was probably a sorcerer, but the only ones I really remember were a bard/dragon disciple, a gestalt fighter/rogue (maybe ranger/rogue?), and a druid.

[Remuko]

I think my first D&D character was a 3.0 human fighter that was literally just Sephiroth from FF7 only not evil lol that was way back when 3.0 had just come out too. I was really silly back then.

My first 3.5 character was likely my favorite character that I have rebuilt over and over since I started playing: Sapphire a human female Monk.

[ngilop]

1st D&D character ever A paladin ( rolled the 2d6 in order way) and I whined cuz I was not a fighter..ps keep I mind I was 5 at the time

1st D&D character for 3rd edition A shield and sword fighter and I cried because the druid's wolf companion was leagues better than me at 4th level..PS keep in mind I was 24 maybe 23.

1st D&D character to die Dwarf Fighter/Cleric

1st D&D character to die for 3rd ed Cleric

hmm I noticed a trend on characters 2st in dieing

[yellowrocket]

1st character I can remember was a half orc monk. Because when you're going to be level 1 what's better than rolling a 3d6 18 strength (in stat order) and being able to kill a level appropriate opponent with a 1 damage roll because you carry a +5 modifier (+2 to str from race).

I know, I know, magic, but at level 1 it was just fun to punch things to death.

[j!nx]

I think my first D&D character was a 3.0 human fighter that was literally just Sephiroth from FF7 only not evil lol that was way back when 3.0 had just come out too. I was really silly back then.

My first 3.5 character was likely my favorite character that I have rebuilt over and over since I started playing: Sapphire a human female Monk.

I've done the sephiroth character build from ff7 too haha

[j!nx]

1st character I can remember was a half orc monk. Because when you're going to be level 1 what's better than rolling a 3d6 18 strength (in stat order) and being able to kill a level appropriate opponent with a 1 damage roll because you carry a +5 modifier (+2 to str from race).

I know, I know, magic, but at level 1 it was just fun to punch things to death.

no better then that at level 1 I agree a:smallbiggrin:

[Calthropstu]

that is harsh, that's rough your first exp being that, at least you gave it another shot man

How could I not? Before that I had been reading the dragonlance chronicles. I was brought up on games like zork. When I saw the rulebook, I HAD to play. I knew my brothers friends were jerks... I didn't think they'd go that far though.

So I found other people to play with.

[SCOTTEPIPPEN]

hello fellow play grounders what was your first dnd character or 3.5e character,

first character- Halfling fighter (2 hand)
first 3.5 character- half-dragon(green) fighter/wizard
Korsh, the half-orc warrior; i wanted to make a master thrower because it looked cool, but then i realized that by playing 1 session/week for 1 year i levelled from 1st level to 3rd...yes my master was DMing a low XP/low wealth on my first campaign ever...

[j!nx]

How could I not? Before that I had been reading the dragonlance chronicles. I was brought up on games like zork. When I saw the rulebook, I HAD to play. I knew my brothers friends were jerks... I didn't think they'd go that far though.

So I found other people to play with.

nice series man

[BananaNomNom]

(3.5) Gnome Dread Necromancer, Died in what can only be called a squirrel Stampede.

[noob]

I did not read the forums and I did a monk as a first character.
That was pure lose.

[j!nx]

Korsh, the half-orc warrior; i wanted to make a master thrower because it looked cool, but then i realized that by playing 1 session/week for 1 year i levelled from 1st level to 3rd...yes my master was DMing a low XP/low wealth on my first campaign ever...

mhmm ive been in a situation of leveling like that before so the DM fixed it by changing exp points a bit, what he did was every game you got a point and every 3 points was a level so if someone never showed up for the game they were behind a point etc. it was basically taking the exp you needed to level up divided by 3, it worked well for that game campaign because there was always some one new or missing coming to it, but when I prefer the exp points,

[j!nx]

I did not read the forums and I did a monk as a first character.
That was pure lose.

monk is not a bad first character its your first so what as long as you had fun and brought someone new to the table,

every new player that I have ever had to deal with I always suggest the human fighter so they learn the mechanics of the game, there not the best but hey its a first character

[j!nx]

(3.5) Gnome Dread Necromancer, Died in what can only be called a squirrel Stampede.

please elaborate.. this sounds like its gonna be good :smallbiggrin:

[noob]

monk is not a bad first character its your first so what as long as you had fun and brought someone new to the table,

every new player that I have ever had to deal with I always suggest the human fighter so they learn the mechanics of the game, there not the best but hey its a first character
Well with monk as a first character I could not even sightly participate in a battle.
Out of battle I did not had enough skill points for doing skill stuff.
I could have been a commoner it would have been not different.
I think that fighter is way too hard as a first character when compared to a barbarian: you have to pick up feats and only one feat on ten is not a trap and then with phb only you are weaker than a barbarian who did not pick up any feat unless you did chose the right feats but even then you will have huge trouble against equivalent cr opponents.

[j!nx]

Well with monk as a first character I could not even sightly participate in a battle.
Out of battle I did not had enough skill points for doing skill stuff.
I could have been a commoner it would have been not different.
I think that fighter is way too hard as a first character when compared to a barbarian: you have to pick up feats and only one feat on ten is not a trap and then with phb only you are weaker than a barbarian who did not pick up any feat unless you did chose the right feats but even then you will have huge trouble against equivalent cr opponents.

I see your stuggle with the monk I disagree a little with you about fighter barb, a brand new player that don't know what a feat is perfect with a human fighter they learn young and grow strong disciplined and fast, I do agree with what you are saying about the way of the barbarian tho

[j!nx]

any hoots and haggs this is about reminiscing the beginning :smallbiggrin:

[SCOTTEPIPPEN]

mhmm ive been in a situation of leveling like that before so the DM fixed it by changing exp points a bit, what he did was every game you got a point and every 3 points was a level so if someone never showed up for the game they were behind a point etc. it was basically taking the exp you needed to level up divided by 3, it worked well for that game campaign because there was always some one new or missing coming to it, but when I prefer the exp points,
Looking back at that campaign,I laugh: we were a fighter, a swashbuckler and a bard.
That was hard man, i remember not having money to buy food.

[EvulOne]

D&D (pre-AD&D) A 1st level Elf class
Ad&D a fighter that I played as a knight (pre-Cavalier)
2nd: grey elf thief/magic user
3.5: fighter

[BWR]

Pike, a Thief in Basic. He lasted until the very first attack by the very first enemy in our very first encounter in our very first attempt at playing RPGs. So, about an hour all told, character creation included.

It was a lesson to the DM that when a PC says "I have 2 hp, I'll hide behind the guy with more", it's a good idea to let him do that instead of saying "This is a heroic game, no cowards here," and having the hitherto sluggish skeletons leap over the other PCs (how they managed to fit between the PCs and the ceiling is a mystery) and attack the hiding PC.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.

BECMI/RC: another Thief, Hades, I think
2e: um, I think this was Arne Bloodaxe, a berserker (Complete Fighter kit). I'm unsure because he may have started in RC and converted.
3e: some random half-orc for that little intro adventure
3.5: depending on how you count, Agememnon, a Knight of Solamnia converted from 2e or....can't remember. A psion I think but I could be wrong.
PF: first and so far only, a fire Oracle of ixion called Guiseppe

[Allanimal]

1st ever: D&D basic set in like 1978.... I don't really remember, but probably an elf.

1st 3.5e: dwarf barbarian/hellreaver. He tattooed himself with a drawing of each of his kills. I amazingly always rolled 11 or 12 for his barb HP, witnessed by the whole table, through 7th level.

1st and only pathfinder: halfling bard. Ran through most of the Rise of the Runelords (started late, about 3 sessions in, but made it to the end)

1st and only 5e: cleric ... the campaign only lasted a few sessions unfortunately.

[Greymane]

My first D&D was 3.x. My first character was a human sorcerer named Tynan Kross that was an incorrigible lech and had a thing for flirting with Halfling women.

We didn't understand all the rules very well at all, but my Magic Missile could do damage no matter what, and that was obviously overpowered. I found myself in mysterious zones where magic didn't work for most encounters we had (only affected me, nobody else was interested in magic users). Even an old attic that had nothing of value in it! Take THAT Magic Missile! :smallannoyed:

[Mystia]

Elf Ranger, totally not Legolas. Died to an AoO made by a minotaur skeleton controlled by an evil necromancer.

After that, I fell in love with necromancy. Huh, never realized this until now.

[WarKitty]

3.5 Druid/fighter mix, Kellen. Pretty solid but I hadn't quite absorbed the power of the casting class. (I did on my next character and decided to never do that again.)

[IcarusWulfe]

First character was Tharior Amastaca, a generic elven wizard who did nothing but spam Magic Missile and Flaming Sphere. While I had no idea what I was doing I retain fond memories of that character because he was not only my first D&D character but my second RPG character I ever played.

[Fizban]

Human or possibly elf paladin, in 3.0. The rest of the party proceeded to burn down shops while the town was under attack and then yell at me for not sitting by the door like they ordered while everyone else got to fight. When we got to a cave with some sort of "fairy water" that healed people, I peed in it.

Then we jumped to I think 12th level characters in a module. We were told we could craft during character creation, so I made a sorcerer with a staff of Disintegrate. I Disintegrated my way through the first few encounters and royally ticked off the DM. It's fine, since he was bad at it anyway.

That was it for quite a while, I later joined a group that only actually played DnD at their sessions about 50% of the time and was kicked for being too pushy with the DM, but that was find since being locked up in the garage waiting and yelled at for sticking my head in the door thanks to their parent's health issues while everyone else was goofing off on the computer inside, was bogus.

[Crake]

My first character, back in the days of 3.0, was a spellsword (sorcerer of course, because come on spontaneous casting is WAAAY better than prepared), with otiluke's resilient sphere as his favourite go-to spell. We played a giant team deathmatch with like, 10 people, on a map that was made of 5mm grid paper on about 5x5 A4 sheets, so a bloody giant arena, basically think hunger games, only way before hunger games came out. About halfway through it, the teams were dissolved, and it became a fully on, last man standing deathmatch. We never actually finished it, because we got distracted, and some people didn't show up during lunch break (we were in high school, and we played during lunch breaks), but I do remember that my character was standing before it was over.

I also rememer one of the characters was a vampire, who avoided sunlight by being completely decked out in fullplate so no sun ever hit him direction XD

[Remuko]

I've done the sephiroth character build from ff7 too haha

Oh it got better, I gave him a pet dragon named Masamune after his sword which was a homebrew dragon based on the white dragon that had a healing cone breath weapon.

[prototype00]

First character: Lvl 1 human Priest Adnd, died defying the devil in a haunted house on the hill.

First 3.5...: Dwarf Cleric, Cliff (geddit?!) a Warhammering, charging fanatic of Moradin.

[Arbane]

First character: Basic D&D Elf. (Fighter/Magic-User, they'd call it in AD&D)
First 3.5 character: Human Fighter. Died by blowing a Fortitude save.

[Nosta]

I Started Playing Dice Games five years Ago thanks to My friends introducing me to it.

My First Character Was in a 3.5 Game, A Gestalt Waforged Vop Monk/Blue Dragon Shaman Started At level 4 Got To level 7 Before I lose him

My Favorite One was My Human Warblade (Iron Heart user who Abused Robiliars gambit and other AoO Tricks, well using A Meteor hammer)

[Uncle Pine]

My first character was an elf druid. We played through the Sunless Citadel and while I don't remember an animal companion to speak of, I recall Nuleivrilo was an archer and that as soon as I hit 5th level and got wild shape my first reaction was to turn into a pigeon to flee from combat instead of dying fighting. :smallbiggrin:

[yellowrocket]

My first character was an elf druid. We played through the Sunless Citadel and while I don't remember an animal companion to speak of, I recall Nuleivrilo was an archer and that as soon as I hit 5th level and got wild shape my first reaction was to turn into a pigeon to flee from combat instead of dying fighting. :smallbiggrin:

Finally.someone who plays the way the designers intended, not turning in to a flesh raking velocaraptor

[Inevitability]

Finally.someone who plays the way the designers intended, not turning in to a flesh raking velocaraptor

There is a middle ground, you know. :smalltongue:

[Quertus]

First character built: an unnamed "paladin" (I don't think we actually had paladins back then; he was just a lawful lawful good fighter type). Never played him, he was killed by the party for loot and XP.

First character played: Thalius Deathstalker, a cleric known for using tents / tarps to let skeletal dragons fly, who achieved a sort of immortality.

First character roleplayed: tough call. I'm going with Quertus, my signature tactically-inept academia mage.

First character converted to 3e: Quertus.

First character created in 3e: Han. His original concept was Hercules. Forgetting this part way through playing him, he was just made of fail. He was an anti-build of trap options. Still fun for a while, as, like about half my characters, he was actually a different character who had achieved godhood (or equivalent) coming down in mortal guise. So that character got to see the world through this Han fellow's eyes.

First character built in 3e: Khan Ravensblood v4.0. I've made several characters with that name, all of whom are casters riding zombie dragons. Version 4 was an Arcane Spellcaster / Tainted Sorcerer, built to cherry-pick the skills and spells I liked, and to cast them for free thanks to Tainted Sorcerer's Blood Component.

[M3tal_H3llth]

First ever character, 4e Greatsword Wielding Half-Elf fighter named Tyrion (after the Warhammer hero, I hadn't seen Game of Thrones nor read the A Song of Ice and Fire yet). Only made it about 4 sessions before the group splintered, Hilight was landing the killing Blow on a Vampire, way over CR for the party. (This was also the only 4e game I ever played)

First 3.5 was Garviel something-or-other (again named after the Warhammer Hero, seeing the pattern yet?). He was again a Half-Elf, Cleric/Fighter multi-class. Ran him through Red Hand of Doom. He was slain when we were Ambushed on the way back from gaining support of the local Dwarven Clan. DM offered to let me armor up as a standard action, but I couldn't do it, donning Full Plate in under 6 seconds? In what universe? So while the party dealt with hellhounds and mooks, I ran outside in naught but my skivvies to challenge the leader of the ambush (A stone giant, and I was like level 6!!). Predictably i ended up as red paste, but it bought the party time to get out of the burning hovel they were trapped in and deal with the rest of the assailants. RIP Garviel :smallfrown:

[Uncle Pine]

Finally.someone who plays the way the designers intended, not turning in to a flesh raking velocaraptor
We only had the three core manuals at the time. Incidentally, after that adventure ended the one who DMed it disappeared bringing our PHB with him and was never heard afterwards so we were left with less than the three core manuals.

[Morphic tide]

Well, not D&D, but rather Pathfinder, my first character was a Human Brawler. The game didn't last long enough to get out of the basic setup feats, but my goal was to use Display feats and the temporary feat thing to be a sort of lockdown/debuff setup. The party's tactics largely revolved around heavy use of healing and AoE spells. When our only healer was a Warpriest and the one with the AoE spells was an Undead bloodline Sorcerer. The fourth member of the party, filling in the role that would normally be done by a Rogue, was a Ranger.

Delicious mess. I wound up one of the more valuable players during a fight with a significant number of incorporeal enemies we ran into at level 3 which had Strength damage by wisely staying behind the Warpriest and tossing my +1 Returning Dagger once per round. I did not have Weapon Focus in it. I had Weapon Focus in Unarmed Strike. And a Tekko Kagi was present, which usually was left to be +1 AC. I also had a sickle as one of the things I had at the start. I was going for having a Slashing weapon, a Piercing weapon and my fists, to cover all three damage types from the start. I picked Sickle for Trip and Tekko Kagi for being a buckler when not being used as a weapon.

The builds were a huge mess, I dumped Charisma and Intelligence(still got Combat Expertise because Brawler) and was looking to go into Display feats and combat maneuvers at the same time, with the reasoning of being able to fill in badly needed spot coverage with the Brawler's temporary feat ability. I don't recall what the other people in the party were looking at doing, but it was a huge mess on a lot of levels.

If I were to do that over again, I'd go for a Cleric built to carry out the shenanigans of t1 in the role of making sure the rest of the party doesn't get screwed by building bad. Less carry the party, more support them so they aren't useless. Like t1s usually do in actual play with their pet t6s through t3s. Unless you're a Druid, in which case you are probably soloing most encounters once you get 3rd level spells. Mainly because you have a literal pet that is usually better than a t4 class and 5th level comes with a single ability that is often better than a t3 class.

[IIzak]

My first ever D&D character was a 2nd edition foppish Bard that I don't remember the name of.

My first ever Tabletop character was a Wookie from SWSE. He was seriously awesome. His name was Haldaar but everyone called him Snooki the Wookie because of a joke right at the beginning of the game.

My very first D&D 3.5 character I'm a bit embarrassed to say was Raistlin Majere. I had just got done reading a bunch of Dragonlance books and I thought he was the coolest.

[Kol Korran]

I started playing in 1st edition (The Red Box). I played a thief (There was no race/ class separation then. All thieves were human). I remember the first encounter, with some creatures who's name I didn't know, and from the description I imagined were some sort of greyish wall climbing giant worms with horns (Later I searched what "Gargoyles" meant). I died in the 1st session.

The next character was a halfling, who got blinded in one eye in the next session, and his leg cut off in the next. (Our DM and the dungeon were... quite brutal). I still loved "Mr. Gimpy", and when he got to 4th level, I can still remember the fabulous session of "Day of the Dragon". (I was about 8-9 years old then).

I only DMed AD&D. My only character was in the computer game of Baldur's gate, which was an evil gnome cleric/ illusionist.

After a loooonnng break, I got back to D&D 3.5. (In my late twenties). The first character was Bruthus d'Tharashk (I read about Eberron by that point, though we played in FR). He was a cleric of The Red Knight. (Not for the benefits, I never knew of DMM then. I just really liked the deity's portfolio). We played through the "Tearing of the Weave" Module, and the one that came next. I really liked him, even though that other than a healing and buffing, he SUCKED mechanically. He later turned to Lathander. I got quite attached to him... It was a very turmoulous time in my own life, and I think I subconsciously tried to work out personal stuff through him...

Which can go also for my first Shadowrun character- Simply Jack, who was an ex soldier, traumetized, mental patient, who now lived in the burned down clinic he used to visit, which was haunted by ghosts of the past (I understood the connection only years later! Talk about Oblivious).

I mostly DM. Rarely do I actually play.

[j!nx]

first ever character, 4e greatsword wielding half-elf fighter named tyrion (after the warhammer hero, i hadn't seen game of thrones nor read the a song of ice and fire yet). Only made it about 4 sessions before the group splintered, hilight was landing the killing blow on a vampire, way over cr for the party. (this was also the only 4e game i ever played)

first 3.5 was garviel something-or-other (again named after the warhammer hero, seeing the pattern yet?). He was again a half-elf, cleric/fighter multi-class. Ran him through red hand of doom. He was slain when we were ambushed on the way back from gaining support of the local dwarven clan. Dm offered to let me armor up as a standard action, but i couldn't do it, donning full plate in under 6 seconds? In what universe? So while the party dealt with hellhounds and mooks, i ran outside in naught but my skivvies to challenge the leader of the ambush (a stone giant, and i was like level 6!!). Predictably i ended up as red paste, but it bought the party time to get out of the burning hovel they were trapped in and deal with the rest of the assailants. Rip garviel :smallfrown:

heroic death 2 thumbs up

[daremetoidareyo]

2ed Ravenloft. We were just kids, so we looked at that descent into darkness chart on the DM screen, where you become more bestial and accursed with every act of depravity. After the first few penalties, you get mechanical game benefits.... So the game became an ante up of the most despicable behavior that we could think of.

[j!nx]

2ed Ravenloft. We were just kids, so we looked at that descent into darkness chart on the DM screen, where you become more bestial and accursed with every act of depravity. After the first few penalties, you get mechanical game benefits.... So the game became an ante up of the most despicable behavior that we could think of.

never played ravenloft, would that be like playing fable and doing everything evil

[Mjr Lee Fat]

I was introduced at the tender age of 8. It was right at the time 3e came out, and they had that basic set with the eight premade characters and three booklets that took you up to level 3 (anyone else remember that? What was it called?)

My first character in all of D&D was Eberk, the dwarf cleric from that set. I remember always being outdone by my older brother playing as Tordek...

First 3e character ever built - Jack (I was super creative back then), a human rogue. I wish I could just tell little me how awful my build was back then. Good thing he only got to level 5

First 3.5 character built (incorrectly, mix of 3e and 3.5) - Sanderson, a pixie cleric. My older brother made HP (Head Pixie), a pixie sorcerer. Yes, they were 100% based off of the pixies from The Fairly Oddparents.

First 3.5 character built (correctly) - An aasimar cleric/runecaster. This actually became my longest-running character, lasting all the way until 13th level.

BONUS - first (and only) Gamma World character - Twitchy, a hypercognitive/prescient. The joke was that he consumed so much coffee constantly that he could keep track of everything going on around him and predict the moves of enemies. But he had the world's shortest attention span. His need for coffee actually ended up becoming a plot point.

[denthor]

A thief named denthor

[Elkad]

I played someone else's character after school a couple times. Don't even remember what it was, probably a Fighter.

First character of my own was an Elf (The original gish, long before gish was a word). D&D box set. Died at about 3rd level to Ghoul Paralysis along with the rest of the party (B2 Caves of Chaos). Many years later I recounted this story to someone else. They pointed out that elves were immune to Ghoul Paralysis. I said "I think that's just 1st edition" or something, but dug the Basic book back out and looked. Yup, there it was.

Immunity to Ghoul Paralysis: All elves are naturally immune to the paralyzing attacks of ghouls. Other types of paralysis, such as from a carrion crawler or gelatinous cube, may affect them.
With my Flame Tongue sword (+4 vs Undead!) I might have had a chance. Probably not though.

1e. Magic-User (Wizard to you darn kids).

2e. 9 levels of Fighter for the HP and saves, then multiclassed to MagicUser. Under 2e multiclassing rules, that meant I couldn't actually use any of my Fighter abilities until my M-U level surpassed it, so I was adventuring with my 9th level companions as a 1st level MU. (But with 9th level gear - and I'd been planning the swap since 1st level, and about 100HP). I'd use my 2 Magic Missiles, and then stand up front and be a HP soak while failing to hit anything with my dagger on the 1st level Wizard attack table. But I leveled every encounter at first, and by the time the rest of the party was 12th-ish I was Fighter9/MU11 or something.

3.5 Rogue. I wanted to play Wizard, but another guy did as well, so I let him have it and grabbed the skillmonkey role, despite not even really understanding skillpoints yet. This was my first ever "No PvP! No, not even then!" game. No stealing from party members. And the GM was harsh about pickpocketing even NPCs, or even just hiding loot from the party for my own use. Every time I went scouting, I'd run into Orcs with Scent or something, so that never worked out either. So I felt really cramped in the class/game.

Next game (same DM), I got a bit mad and built a Wizard, went full Conjuration-Specced (Evo and Necro banned) "God Mode" (without looking at any Guides, I just used prior version experience and obvious shortcomings in the 3.5 rules) and took glee in carefully breaking all his encounters just enough that he noticed, but the lower skill players didn't, other than saying "how come you never cast any damage spells?" on occasion. DM went on a frantic quest of designing encounters to beat whatever tactic I was using, so I hit the net looking for counters of my own (finding GiTP forums, treantmonk and dictummortis guides, BG forums, etc), and went on a spree of expanding my spellbook and changing my spell loadout every single morning.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

My first character was a Halfling NINJA/Rogue/Master Thrower.
She was so lucky(I mad all my saves in the game except 1 and hit almost every attack).
She got a Crit every time she was fighting alone vs a huge or bigger enemy(A Hydra was coming to us, I jump on my dog and got to a bush in her way and used snipe in order to kill her in 2 hits at level 6).

[j!nx]

My first character was a Halfling NINJA/Rogue/Master Thrower.
She was so lucky(I mad all my saves in the game except 1 and hit almost every attack).
She got a Crit every time she was fighting alone vs a huge or bigger enemy(A Hydra was coming to us, I jump on my dog and got to a bush in her way and used snipe in order to kill her in 2 hits at level 6).
how come you went ninja rouge or rouge ninja? just curious btw.. riding dog sweet deal

[BloodSnake'sCha]

how come you went ninja rouge or rouge ninja? just curious btw.. riding dog sweet deal

I started with a Ninja, invisible 4 times a day at level 2 is really nice but at level 3 I realized how weak the Ninja is and started taking levels is Rouge(My DM let me add sudden strike to my SA dice).

Riding dog is the best :)

I still have the sheet.

[j!nx]

I started with a Ninja, invisible 4 times a day at level 2 is really nice but at level 3 I realized how weak the Ninja is and started taking levels is Rouge(My DM let me add sudden strike to my SA dice).

Riding dog is the best :)

I still have the sheet.

alright now it makes sense your DM allowing SS to SA, I had one character that had a riding dog
Copper Avala
ranger/hafling outrider/ wild plains outrider
she wore all copper colors hair, cape, the whole shebang

she died in intense battle in the middle of the field I led a group of outriders in combat trying to hold enemy lines back while my partner who was a stormsinger could sing up a tornado awesome battle I died but the bard lived on to tell the tale

[Someone Else DM]

This post made me realize how damn old I am...had a hard time remembering my 1st characters...

AD&D - Dwarf Specialty Priest of Tempus

3.0 - Possibly the Human Monk/Drunken Master

3.5 - Loxo Ranger/Fighter/Shadow Dancer (it is not always about optimization)
She had self-esteem issues about her comeliness, and was known to trample those who commented on it. Still brings a smile to my face when the large elephant would hide in plain sight. :smallbiggrin: Images of cartoon characters mystically thinning out and hiding behind light poles or saplings...

4e - None

5e - None

Pathfinder - None

[death390]

First character was a 3.5 rouge/thief-acrobat that got the eternal wand of shades from The Illusionists Daughter module. in order to get rid of the wand DM caused an Alchemical Explosion (i used acid storm in what her turned into a liches alchemy lab, we were actually helping the lich get his phalactery back from his apprentice who was terrorrizing the countryside) this also set off the magic items on the dying party members (DM ruled the items exploded -_-)

originally the character died but a player (who survived the cl 13 acid storm and alchemy explosions @lvl6) whos dwarf character died in the magical explosion and was extremely attached to the character threw a fit so he had me retcon what happened (i was helping DM partially). so we came up with the wand of shades plane shifted the party (my char and the 1 other who technically would have survived) to the plane of shadows.

we made a large number of changes due to new books for our group and reworked both characters. The dwarf was race changed to a acid dwarf (reworked earth dwarf), and my character was radically changed.

My elf was turned into a Acid Elf (reworked fire elf) and we really needed a caster so was turned into a wizard/ Metaphysical Spellshaper/ Shadowcraft mage due to the released energy from the wand of shades, being trapped in the plane of shadow for a bit, and magically energized acid/ alchemical solutions (using Heighten spell shenanigans).

unfortunately life reared its ugly head and i wasn't able to play that char very much after the retcon.

[mabriss lethe]

Mine was Mabriss (as per my handle) a 1st ed Elf that was sort of a mash-up of Zelazny's Dilvish the Damned and Moorecock's Elric.

My first 3.0 character was a sorcerer for a one shot who's name I can't recall.
My first 3.5 character that saw table time was Jimmy, Cleric of S(et)...ombody. (there was a paladin in the party and hiding Jimmy's faith was something of a running gag) Retired to NPC status as I wound up becoming the GM of the game.

Which reminds me, we're starting a new game tonight, and I'm planning on running a Wu jen entry Jade Phoenix Mage. better lay the groundwork

[rrwoods]

My first character is still going. Hengeyokai fighter 7/warshaper 4/war blade X. I started it before I really knew what I was doing, and the campaign has run a long long time (there was a 2 year gap at one point). Skittish but fiercely protective fox, just a *little* bit dumb.

[Talwar]

First character was a human wizard. I don't know what version of the game it was, but we played it for a couple of weeks in the summer of '95 in a mining exploration camp. I don't recall the character's name; the DM gave him a total of one spell known, an enlarge/shrink person deal with a mandatory system shock roll to avoid death. None of the party wanted to risk it, so in combat I tried to shrink bad guys.

First 3.5 character would be a dwarven cleric for a PbP game. I rolled abilities rather than point-bought, and it was a bit of a head-scratcher as to where the 5 should go. It ended up in Intelligence, so the background was that he'd been oxygen-deprived during birth. Once he'd begun to manifest spellcasting, his parents reluctantly trained him in the basics of independent living and let him set out to do Moradin's will, assuming he'd probably ended up killed sooner rather than later.

[TheBrassDuke]

First D&D character was a Magic-User. No real story. Killed by his own spell. His fifth. Ever cast.

First 3.5 character was an Elven Druid (in Eberron) with a raven animal companion. We started off at level 1, and met up on a path between two cities, where his grove met the road. Initially wedded to a Dryad--whose tree he moved into, with her approval and making the appropriate accommodations--he was left with nothing but a lone branch after a contingent of goblin raiders came.

A Zil Gnome sorcerer happened upon the road during this attack, and assisted the wailing Druid as his wife and home burned before him. After they had destroyed the last goblin, the Gnome lit their corpses ablaze in a neat pile and then...put it out when he had to go.

A day later and my Druid had gone into a drunken stupor. The Gnome tried to help, but he couldn't bring back the Dryad. A Cannith Artificer and his Warforged manservant "Strongarm Armstrong" appeared, and...I can't for the life of me remember exactly what happened after that. But Tam--the Cannith--promised to help bring her back, as well as see the Gnome into Arcanix, as they were on the way there.

It died out after a few sessions, unfortunately, because the DM (my best friend's older brother) headed back north for school. Shame.

[An Enemy Spy]

I played Jozan the Cleric out of a box set my friend had when I was in fifth grade. All I remember from that game was fighting a Dire Rat.

[ross]

thri kreen druid

[DarkEternal]

I am cursed for being a DM in 90 percent of my time playing DnD, so I don't have many player stories. In second edition I just DM'd.


My first 3.5. character was a human paladin called Tyr (I knew not there was also a deity by this name). This was...I'd say in 2003. Didn't have much of an internet access back then, so I probably built him all wrong, but it was fun. I was at odds with the DM though who did what most DM's do, and that's that he desperately wanted me to fall so he put me in horrible situations all the time (steal from a character we suspect is a murderering human trafficker, parley with some of the refuse of humanity instead of killing them and so on), and he made every peasant I talked with about justice and valor a philosopher that butted heads with me at every point, meaning it was the voice of the DM every time, and not of a character. Played him for a few sessions before the party barbarian went berserk and slaughtered half of a village because they tried to sell us horses at too big of a price. Fun times.


First Pathfinder character was a kid gunslinger. I had fun with that one, and gunslingers are thematically great. Mechanically less so, but they are fairly simple with a lot of damage. The DM made me find a gun that was like three sizes too big for me, but hey, when you are specialised in touch weapons, those minuses to to hit are not as painful.

[Dante Daylight]

My first and to this point only D&D (3.5) Character is Dante Daylight, human paladin of heironneous 6/Fist of raziel 1 who started as level 1 around two years ago.

The campaign is still ongoing and I am still fully enjoying it.

[j!nx]

My first and to this point only D&D (3.5) Character is Dante Daylight, human paladin of heironneous 6/Fist of raziel 1 who started as level 1 around two years ago.

The campaign is still ongoing and I am still fully enjoying it.

good for you man keep on going I wish I still had my first character

[WeaselGuy]

My first character was a Tiefling Monk, named Zenthos Moonshadow (who everyone called Menthos). I went Monk 5/Tattooed Monk 10/Monk +15 (we went Epic).

I'm pretty sure I died at least twice, maybe 3 times in the course of 3 years. The first time I got stepped on by an Umberhulk, and the second time I fell into lava. I think I may have drowned once too, but I'm iffy on that one. I distinctly remember looking up Sahuagin stats, because I could Alter Self into an Outsider, and that was the only one that could breathe underwater (that I could find at the time).

My shining moment was using Quivering Palm on a Demon Lord (after significant debuffing by our Cleric), and snapping my fingers to kill him.

Our wizard also used a wish to turn my skin blue and gave me dimension door as an at will ability, to make me look like Nightcrawler.

[yellowrocket]

My first and to this point only D&D (3.5) Character is Dante Daylight, human paladin of heironneous 6/Fist of raziel 1 who started as level 1 around two years ago.

The campaign is still ongoing and I am still fully enjoying it.

Seems like any character gaining 6 levels is a big deal on these boards. So a paladin doing it? Congrats, keep it up.

[PraxisVetli]

Draegloth duskblade/ranger/barbarian/black blood cultist.
Those were the days.

[Sayt]

Urziz Therzeft, exiled dwarven princeliNG. Made it to Fighter 3/Dwarven Paragon 3/Battlesmith 2/Pious Templar 2, Before getting stomped all over by a Cornugon.

[Sajiri]

Gloaming Duskblade 3.5, was soon converted into a Magus for Pathfinder.

Sadly the campaign never finished thanks to the constantly changing roster of players joining then flaking out and we constantly had to retcon or catch people up to myself and the one other regular player.

A few months ago though the DM dug the setting up again and restarted it as a solo player game for me using a homebrew system and turned the other regular's character (flirty drunk half-orc barbarian) into a main npc. Now my gloaming is some kind of shadowdancer that also has a bit of divine magic and was raised to worship a sun goddess (for irony)

[Dr_Dinosaur]

My first was a halfling Eldritch Theurge. Big mistake, as it turned out. Not because it was to complicated, but because we were all new and I went deeper to build my character than anyone else. At-will flight and Eldritch blasts armed with Grease and Fireballs at level 8 were too much for the (also new) DM's game

[TorsteinTheRed]

My first DnD character was given to me by my cousin on my birthday many years back. "Trespassers" Will, young thief with a destiny, mentored in the thieves guild by Kolaari, the old Ratfolk master.