New Player With a Crazy Character Concept

[Nykolo]

First, I want to say that I am an intermediate DM. Not too experienced, but I have a few games under my belt.

With that being mentioned; I have a group about to be forming with a couple new players. One of them is a good friend of mine, but there is one slight problem. She wants to play a "Sea Goddess". Now, I know right away that is NOT going to work as a 1st level character. I talked with a couple guys in the group, and they gave me a suggestion:

They say to to give her the sea goddess concept, except have her limited. Something happened to where she isn't as powerful, and she is forced to wander the world until she has her powers returned. It is something that has gotten me thinking, but I don't know if it will be a good idea.

One idea I came up with at first, is to have her play a Druid of the Coast (Druid from the Circle of the Land with the Coast circle spells). But I also have the Plane Shift Zendikar downloaded, so I have my eyes on the Merfolk. Still, For any experienced DMs, would you allow new players access to the Merfolk race?

I would like to hear your thoughts on how you would go about this situation. The druid is definitely something I will recommend to her; but what about the others? What would you do if you were brought with this concept?

[Coretex]

My first thought is Sea Sorcerer from the UA. It has heaps of thematic abilities that fit with being a Sea Goddess, including cursing and moving around as liquid at a high level.

If she has only got the concept but no class planned out then I would suggest that your idea for a Goddess regaining/unlocking/stealing back/earning her powers would work really well.

If she wants to be a full blown Goddess from the start then perhaps going the route of Belief=Power might provide a path for progression. Something like what is seen in Terry Pratchett's Diskworld books (especially "Small Gods") where she has to encourage people to worship/believe in her as she goes to get more power.

Or you could go with the classic Wanna-be-a-god who is trying to gain the power to eventually BECOME a Sea Goddess... if shes up for that.

[Guran]

The first thing that came to my mind was pirates of the caribean; the sea goddess trapped in a mortal body due to betrayal. It can be an amazing concept, especially in a story/character focussed game.
I'd advice you to sit down with her and flesh out the concept a bit more until you arrive at a result that she is content with and that fits in your campaign.
Then, if you have a clear picture of what she wants, you can take a better look at what would fit her character best. Just make sure that she eventually chooses the class and race herself. Players have the right to that decision.
There are plenty of options. We have water genasi, tritons or the zendikar merfolk as you mentioned. If necessary you can always refluff a race or class to make it thematically fit your concept better.

[BurgerBeast]

The issue here, if there is going to be an issue, is special snowflake syndrome. I would not allow it, personally, but that's because I don't think I have the tools to work through it, or more likely I just think the desire to play such a character is dooming the campaign from the outset. This is because, in a story about three, or four, or five, or six characters, when one of them is a god, then the story inevitably (to my mind) becomes about the god-character. It's not Zeus and the four guys... it's that time Zeus travelled around with those four other guys.

One possible way to overcome this (if you take my view that it is doomed from the very start) is to openly or secretly have all of the other characters also be gods.

Just my thoughts. Good luck in any case.

[imanidiot]

The issue here, if there is going to be an issue, is special snowflake syndrome. I would not allow it, personally, but that's because I don't think I have the tools to work through it, or more likely I just think the desire to play such a character is dooming the campaign from the outset. This is because, in a story about three, or four, or five, or six characters, when one of them is a god, then the story inevitably (to my mind) becomes about the god-character. It's not Zeus and the four guys... it's that time Zeus travelled around with those four other guys.

One possible way to overcome this (if you take my view that it is doomed from the very start) is to openly or secretly have all of the other characters also be gods.

Just my thoughts. Good luck in any case.

Thor is far and away the most powerful member of the Avengers (shh nobody bring up Sentry) And he gets very little story focus.

[BurgerBeast]

Thor is a character in a story. The author writes the story how he sees fit.

An RPG is different. Give one player a level 8 character while everyone else is level 2 and you have a problem. Not only that, there is other baggage that comes along with such a character. This usually comes in the form of the DM trying to maintain the same base-level of expectations for all characters, but this inevitably doesn't feel right given that this character is a god and scenes play out in ways that fail to match player expectations.

I've been on both sides of this. As a kid I made a 2e ranger who I pictured as the main character in Last of the Mohicans. He fought with two hatchets. A few scenes I was in, my character failed to live up to expectations that I (unjustifiably) built up in my head. I wasn't happy about it, but luckily I was mature enough to recognize that this was my problem. Now I often watch others fall into the same trap. For example the dwarf with the backstory that he singlehandedly defeated three ogres... but then his whole party gets TPK'd by four ogres. For example, the character who has haunted dreams of the final boss or the vital machuffin, and is "fated" to discover his destiny and how it relates to his dreams... but he gets killed in a kobold ambush.

Any time a player joins a game and brings in a backstory that somehow tries to raise his level of importance above the others, it inevitably leads to problems.

Like it or not, the game works best when low level characters are just that: low level characters.

[Snivlem]

I'd suggest this: Let the player play a water-themed caster of her choice. Let her character be concinved (for some reason you can make out together) that she is some kind of goddess trying to unlock her power, but that doesn't necessarily meen she is correct. Perhaps the information she is building her belief upon will turn out to be false, perhaps she is simply deranged or similar. That's for the story to unfold. You don't even have to decide straight away what is the true answer, but decide on what fits the story best when it's time.

[Unoriginal]

I've never watched this anime/read the Light Novel, but doesn't that "crazy character concept" of a water goddess traveling with adventurers come from KonoSuba?

[Isaire]

Hah well if she plays her goddess like Aqua in KonoSuba then I don't think you'll have too much of a problem :P
Otherwise, goddess cursed to walk the mortal world without any of her former powers. I mean, you could get good character development out of a character forced to come to terms with mortality, when that has never been a concern.

[Theodoxus]

I'd allow Merfolk. They're far from broken. Obviously, you'd want Emeria (Wind) for the Wisdom bonus, though Ula (Water) fits thematically... however, if you did decide to go with Sea Sorcerer, Cosi (Trickery) would be perfect - not only would she be hiding her true self from her own people, but she'd be hiding her True Self from herself as well!

To play up the uniqueness / snowflake aspect, I'd go in the opposite direction than BurgerBeast suggests, and rule that all the other players have to stick to standard book classes and races, only the sea goddess gets to use UA/Plane Shift material. It's not that they're inherently more powerful, just exotic.



I mean, you could get good character development out of a character forced to come to terms with mortality, when that has never been a concern.

Only problem I have with this is, all 1st level characters tend to have problems coming to terms with mortality... to paraphrase Rush "everyone's immortal, for a limited time." Unless there was a "Session 0" (or at least an actual story/manga/anime/film/etc for the backstory) that played out or showed the goddess at peak power being summarily thrown into a mortal body for whatever reason and told to sod off and figure it out... I'd have a hard time getting into character if all I was given was "You were once a powerful sea goddess, now you're Ariel... have a ball!"

[Sir cryosin]

So in the lore of Forgotten Realms the a god (can't remember name) kicked all the other gods out to the prime material plane except for helm( needed a gate keeper). Untell the stone tables that had all the gods portfolios on was returned. This event caused the spell plagueleading into 4e. So my suggestion is she is a goddess in a mortal body. Given a tasked to reclaim her goddess status. Think like Hercules and his 13 task. Also you can talk to the other players and see if they are ok with a campaign around the one player trying to reascend to Goddess status. Or you can just give her a list of tasks that she needs a complete throughout the campaign and then at the end of the campaign she will send back into heaven and gain Hurghada status once again.

[Naanomi]

That was Ao, the Overpower (not actually a God, Overpowers are different beings that have incredible power over the Gods as they relate to one Prime Material Crystal Sphere, but little ability to reach beyond their own Plane of influence)

I'd be fine with the concept so long as it has absolutely no mechanical benefits. Water Gensai or Triton perhaps; unless you are getting swimming+water breathing from a class option.

[Sir cryosin]

That was Ao, the Overpower (not actually a God, Overpowers are different beings that have incredible power over the Gods as they relate to one Prime Material Crystal Sphere, but little ability to reach beyond their own Plane of influence)

I'd be fine with the concept so long as it has absolutely no mechanical benefits. Water Gensai or Triton perhaps; unless you are getting swimming+water breathing from a class option.

Thanks I there's just too many beans of higher powers. Then there are gods dying or losing there portfolios or people tacking up gods names (like Midnight thanking up Mystra or what ever she was called at the time.). I bad with names but I remember events.

[Gryndle]

The concept can work. I would talk to her and let her know in no uncertain terms that her power levels are going to limited to the game framework, and that while she has HER story for the character, and some game time may be spent on that, that the game is not HER story alone. Sort of a pre-session 0. If it were me I would tell her, "Hey, I think I can work with that, and I think we can all have fun with it. BUT you need to understand that there are other players at the table and this is THEIR story to tell as well as mine."

As for concept; I have to echo Sea Sorc and either Merfolk, Triton or even Asimar. If Asimar maybe trade their innate spell ability for water breathing and swim speed.

I would caution you though, what you do for her, be prepared to do for everyone else.

If she is reasonable, you can have the fallen sea-goddess concept without it becoming a special snowflake character. Really it comes down to the same rules for managing characters of any concept or background: Let them have their moments, maybe even let them drive the story here and there, but do so fairly, organically and for everyone at the table, yourself included.

[Nykolo]

Thanks a lot for the response, everyone. I'll take everything into consideration and talk it over with her.

[Beelzebubba]

It was said before, but Water Genasi is a great start. Grab the free Elemental Evil Player's Companion pdf, it also has a bunch of elemental spells that give a lot more options for an element-themed spellcaster.

--

In a larger sense, though, the Goddess thing isn't limiting enough.

Ask her what type of goddess she wants to *be*.

She could be the Water Goddess of War, and you can use Eldrich Knight and fluff all the spells she takes to be water-driven. (Expeditious Retreat means her lower legs turn wave-like and she surfs along the ground leaving a trail of salt water on the ground. Cloud of Daggers looks like pieces of sharpened coral.)

She could be the Water Goddess of Peace, and just be a re-fluffed Cleric with the Life Domain. (She heals by pouring water out of her hands over the wounds, which magically heal.)

It's not hard. 5E is really flexible that way.

Changing some spells from fire damage to something else - force, probably - is a tiny bump in power, but not terrible. And she can still easily do thunder, cold, and lightning and stay within the theme.

Tweaking some background skills to re-flavor them to be divinely-powered should be no problem too - for example, Outlander has the ability to forage food and water for up to 5 people per day, as long as the land isn't barren. How about she does the same thing, but literally conjures it up out of a conch shell, with edible seaweed and fresh water, as long as it's not too dry?

This is totally do-able, as long as you have the 'vulnerable mortality at low level' rationale down.

[BurgerBeast]

To play up the uniqueness / snowflake aspect, I'd go in the opposite direction than BurgerBeast suggests, and rule that all the other players have to stick to standard book classes and races, only the sea goddess gets to use UA/Plane Shift material. It's not that they're inherently more powerful, just exotic.

I'm not sure how you can seriously say this. This is not only highly likely to present problems - it should present problems. A different set of rules for one player? Totally unfair.

If the person wants special treatment, then you've just fed the fire. But if the person genuinely just came up with a cool idea and doesn't want special treatment, then you just started the fire. In any context.

[Klorox]

I'd suggest this: Let the player play a water-themed caster of her choice. Let her character be concinved (for some reason you can make out together) that she is some kind of goddess trying to unlock her power, but that doesn't necessarily meen she is correct. Perhaps the information she is building her belief upon will turn out to be false, perhaps she is simply deranged or similar. That's for the story to unfold. You don't even have to decide straight away what is the true answer, but decide on what fits the story best when it's time.

This right here.

[Unoriginal]

I'd suggest this: Let the player play a water-themed caster of her choice. Let her character be concinved (for some reason you can make out together) that she is some kind of goddess trying to unlock her power, but that doesn't necessarily meen she is correct. Perhaps the information she is building her belief upon will turn out to be false, perhaps she is simply deranged or similar. That's for the story to unfold. You don't even have to decide straight away what is the true answer, but decide on what fits the story best when it's time.

Not a good idea. The *character* being convinced they're something they might or might not be is fine, but the *player* should know about it.

"It turns out your character's not who you thought they were" is a good way to piss a player off, and to make them lose interest in playing the character/in your campaign.

[Telwar]

I'll echo basically what everyone else said...as long as she realizes she's at the same power level as everyone else, that's fine. Maybe she can be delusional, maybe she can be a lesser goddess, or reduced into a mortal form, all of those are fine.

[GlenSmash!]

Jumping on the Bandwagon here but Goddess trapped in a mortal body is great. Tyranny of Dragons had a custom background that was a Gold Dragon turned into a mortal and trying to earn back his dragonness. I'd try getting a hold of that background and see if any of the Bonds, Flaws, etc. could inspire the player.

I'd also go Water Genasi Sea Sorcerer, but there are a lot of ways to do this.