Which class for a thwarted mind?

[noce]

I have a concept of the kind of character I want to make, but I don't know which class to pick.


My goal is to shock other players with a gruesome, dreadful acting of a disturbed person, the kind of disturb that lets you hear voices, injure yourself for no apparent reason, speak inconsequentially and so on. There will be a reason for his madness, something that really tore his sanity apart in the past.

I don't want him to be excessively detrimental for the party, neither I want an evil character. Obviously, he will not be totally mad, but sometimes his mental problems come to the surface, and this could happen without notice.

As a background hint, I thought of the clichéd family murder (by someone else), when he was just a kid: hanged father, mother put on a torture rack, raped sister, these kind of things.
As a plus, he could be a mentally disturbed race to start with, like a Daelkyr Half-blood or Kalashtar, or a devious one, like a Changeling.

For the last 10 years he lived lonely trying to stay outside the spotlight, while fighting to maintain his own sanity, up until he meets a group of people he trusts and, believing they could help him keep his mind together, decides to travel with them.
As a result, this character only rarely acts involuntarily as a psychopath, but he really wants to recover and he always tries to help the group, within the limits of his condition.

Now, what class could help me create that feeling of a tortured soul?

I initially thought about Twisted Lord. This PrC even lets the madness visually manifest! But, unfortunately, it is quite weak and the fun part arrives very late. It could be a good PrC to represent someone gone mad later, more than someone that has been mad for years.

Another class to consider is Blood Magus, between self-inflicted wounds, scarification, own blood drinking and so on, but hey, you have to die, pick two bad feats and lose two caster levels, and you just get "self inflict 3 damage, your spell deals +1d6". It seems too little for me.

Then I considered Dread Witch and Avenging Executioner (separately), but they are too evil for what I have in mind, while Telepath Psion, Madness Cleric and Alienist are not quite the kind of madness I want to represent.

Maybe I should go Binder? It could fit better than other classes I mentioned, but I'm not very familiar with it.

Can you suggest me other classes or PrCs that could fit the theme?
Thank you very much for every one having the patience to read through this wall of text!

[Nifft]

Most horrifying possible choice: exactly the same class as what one of the PCs is playing.

Got a PC Cleric? This guy is everything wrong with Clerics.

Got a PC Wizard? This guy is why Arcane Magic has a bad name.

Got a PC Paladin, Barbarian, Rogue, Druid, or Bard? You know what to do.

[noce]

Most horrifying possible choice: exactly the same class as what one of the PCs is playing.

Got a PC Cleric? This guy is everything wrong with Clerics.

Got a PC Wizard? This guy is why Arcane Magic has a bad name.

Got a PC Paladin, Barbarian, Rogue, Druid, or Bard? You know what to do.

As I said: "this character only rarely acts involuntarily as a psychopath, but he really wants to recover and he always tries to help the group, within the limits of his condition."

[Westhart]

Assuming 1st level starting?
I haven't played one, but you could go binder, who tried to bind something and ended up with a glimpse of the far realms etc... or a scryer type... but by the time you would be able to do such things it would be past 1st...

warlock who gains his source from a far realm entity (need some refluffing for this one)... or a cleric with the madness domain could fit...

[Nifft]

As I said: "this character only rarely acts involuntarily as a psychopath, but he really wants to recover and he always tries to help the group, within the limits of his condition."

Yes, and?

The most horrifying choice is still something that says to the players: "That could be you."

Meta-game advice: pick something you're familiar with because running the game without a DMPC is difficult enough.

Crafters (like Artificer or Wizard->Fleshwarper) might also be useful, in terms of giving party-wide benefits but not overshadowing any PCs.

[Telonius]

Honestly, I don't think the class is quite so important as you think. If you want the kind of elements you're describing, just crack open Heroes of Horror and add a Depravity score to whatever character you like. There are a few classes that would be a good thematic fit; Warlock and Binder (as already mentioned) would work. So would something like a Shadowcaster. Maybe a Totemist or a Druid, and fluff the soulmelds or wildshapes as your inner bestial nature becoming manifest. But really, any class could have this sort of a setup.

[Westhart]

Honestly, I don't think the class is quite so important as you think. If you want the kind of elements you're describing, just crack open Heroes of Horror and add a Depravity score to whatever character you like. There are a few classes that would be a good thematic fit; Warlock and Binder (as already mentioned) would work. So would something like a Shadowcaster. Maybe a Totemist or a Druid, and fluff the soulmelds or wildshapes as your inner bestial nature becoming manifest. But really, any class could have this sort of a setup.

Ah yes, I forgot about depravity, good point... there was also insanity in Unearthed Arcana...

[noce]

Meta-game advice: pick something you're familiar with because running the game without a DMPC is difficult enough.

I didn't clarify enough about this, but in that game I will be a player, not the DM, this is the reason why I wasn't convinced by your advice to play the same class of another player in the first place.

Thank you all for your advices, I thought about Warlock indeed.
Good catch for Shadowcaster.

Regarding depravity score, I'd prefer to avoid to ask my DM to introduce a mechanic just for me, but it obviously would fit perfectly.

[Menzath]

Most horrifying possible choice: exactly the same class as what one of the PCs is playing.

Got a PC Cleric? This guy is everything wrong with Clerics.

Got a PC Wizard? This guy is why Arcane Magic has a bad name.

Got a PC Paladin, Barbarian, Rogue, Druid, or Bard? You know what to do.

I dig this. Maybe go factotum/chameleon and really "cling" to the rest of the party.
And I mean this from another player perspective. You get stability not only from them, but by emulating them.
Maybe at later levels step it up a notch if things start going crazy after people die, pretend they are still there but it's really you.

[AvatarVecna]

When you were still going through your late development stages, you were kidnapped and experimented on by an insane mage - not just you, of course, many others, but you were the only one who managed to survive whatever arcane processes he was working on your body. The end result, unknown to you, was that your adrenal gland had been replaced with some ungodly powerful version of itself, pumping out normal adrenaline most of the time at even the smallest things, but really ramping up when a real life-or-death scenario comes about...and this world is a dangerous one, I'll tell you what.

There's a number of side-effects that have emerged from this almost constant rush of adrenaline through your veins: your nerves are nearly deadened to pain, but your body is stronger, faster, and tougher than it has any right to be. Your senses are heightened, constantly on high alert for any incoming danger, to the point that it's almost impossible to get the drop on you. These adrenaline rushes make you less concerned for the thoughts and feelings of others, and long-term exposure to such surges has left you rather empty of empathy even when things are calm. That's okay though, because it makes it easy to do things you might feel bad about when they become necessary to your survival. You're constantly ready to either fight or flee, if you have to be, and while that's great when combat is nigh, it makes even the most basic of interactions with other people a constant struggle to stay calm and not lash out at somebody for saying hi when you didn't notice they were there. Of course, this would be much easier to deal with if you were some kind of violent sociopath to begin with, unafraid of the world around you, but the fact of the matter is that the world is a scary place and you're slowly going out of your mind wondering if the weird noise you just heard is something about to try and kill you - and, since you're an adventurer, probably being true at least 50% of the time.

Barbarian into Frenzied Berserker. Probably take Improved Initiative, Quick Reconnoiter, Reckless Offense, and Power Attack, if you've got the feats for them.

As for playing it, the main idea is that you're a very dangerous coward who has an advantage that will let them survive, but one they hope they never have to use. Every time something suddenly happens in-game, whether it's somebody popping up to have a conversation, a door being slammed open/closed, supposedly-harmless animal getting mentioned as being near you, freak out a bit. Make some noise, draw a weapon, give the thing your attention, even if just for a moment. Play up the paranoia: you're a fearful person whose aware of how easy it is to die and how many things could kill you, with a body that refuses to just let you ignore things happening around you because what if you ignore that noise or person or animal and it eats your face? Also, play up the amoral aspect - not immoral, amoral. Being the nice, helpful party member who wants to see us all live through this harrowing adventure, but is more or less fine with eating you if we wind up trapped somewhere with dwindling rations.

[Nifft]

I didn't clarify enough about this, but in that game I will be a player, not the DM, this is the reason why I wasn't convinced by your advice to play the same class of another player in the first place.

Thank you all for your advices, I thought about Warlock indeed.
Good catch for Shadowcaster.

Regarding depravity score, I'd prefer to avoid to ask my DM to introduce a mechanic just for me, but it obviously would fit perfectly.

Ah, got it.

Warlock is a great class for funky re-theming.

In this case, we need to know what tools you have available: what sources will your DM allow for you to build this character?

If you have access to Dragon Magazine, for example, you could take the Eldritch Claws feat, which allows you to use your Eldritch Blast to make melee attacks. You can make it very thematic: normally you're a reserved person who shoots carefully from the back row -- but when something dangerous gets too close, these freaky claws of arcane energy appear over your hands and you howl with rage: "GET AWAY FROM ME! I CAN SMELL YOU! GET AWAY!"

If you don't have Dragon Magazine, but you do have Dragon Magic, then you can instead take the Eldritch Glaive invocation and do much the same thing -- except it's a Reach weapon instead of two claws, so maybe the flavor would go something like... you do the whole howl-of-rage thing, and then you flail your arms, and the spectral image of a freaky chain bites into your foe. Maybe when you shoot your Eldritch Blast, the chains are briefly visible along your arms.

Warlocks get better access to UMD, so you can have some fun with items. Maybe you chew your wands, like how other people chew their pencils. Maybe you chew marks like a helix, which mirrors the chains on your arms that aren't really there. Maybe after level 4, when you take 10 on a UMD check, there are spectral chains briefly visible on the wand.

Stuff like that. You do normal things (from a rules perspective), they just appear inordinately freaky.

[Sagetim]

I have a concept of the kind of character I want to make, but I don't know which class to pick.


My goal is to shock other players with a gruesome, dreadful acting of a disturbed person, the kind of disturb that lets you hear voices, injure yourself for no apparent reason, speak inconsequentially and so on. There will be a reason for his madness, something that really tore his sanity apart in the past.

I don't want him to be excessively detrimental for the party, neither I want an evil character. Obviously, he will not be totally mad, but sometimes his mental problems come to the surface, and this could happen without notice.

As a background hint, I thought of the clichéd family murder (by someone else), when he was just a kid: hanged father, mother put on a torture rack, raped sister, these kind of things.
As a plus, he could be a mentally disturbed race to start with, like a Daelkyr Half-blood or Kalashtar, or a devious one, like a Changeling.

For the last 10 years he lived lonely trying to stay outside the spotlight, while fighting to maintain his own sanity, up until he meets a group of people he trusts and, believing they could help him keep his mind together, decides to travel with them.
As a result, this character only rarely acts involuntarily as a psychopath, but he really wants to recover and he always tries to help the group, within the limits of his condition.

Now, what class could help me create that feeling of a tortured soul?

I initially thought about Twisted Lord. This PrC even lets the madness visually manifest! But, unfortunately, it is quite weak and the fun part arrives very late. It could be a good PrC to represent someone gone mad later, more than someone that has been mad for years.

Another class to consider is Blood Magus, between self-inflicted wounds, scarification, own blood drinking and so on, but hey, you have to die, pick two bad feats and lose two caster levels, and you just get "self inflict 3 damage, your spell deals +1d6". It seems too little for me.

Then I considered Dread Witch and Avenging Executioner (separately), but they are too evil for what I have in mind, while Telepath Psion, Madness Cleric and Alienist are not quite the kind of madness I want to represent.

Maybe I should go Binder? It could fit better than other classes I mentioned, but I'm not very familiar with it.

Can you suggest me other classes or PrCs that could fit the theme?
Thank you very much for every one having the patience to read through this wall of text!

A Binder with terrible Diplomacy ranks. Combo with Scion of Dantalion and maybe binding Dahlver Nar too, and you'll be hitting the bases with things like telepathy and teeth body horror, and that whole vestigial faces thing that Scion of Dantalion gets.

Pretty much any bad pact can give you personality influences that will help with the theme of not always being in control, so having really crap diplomacy ranks will help with that (even if you have really good charisma, for high dc's and what have you). Focalor, for example, makes you depressed, morose, and mourn the death of those you kill (while also letting you call down the lightning), Dahlver Nar is straight up insane and his influence makes you ADHD, unable to focus on a task for more than 1 round, while Dantalion makes you act preening and proper, aloof and high class. Binding different things will give you a variety of personality defects to play around with, though you might have some issues with constantly making bad pacts when some signs are super blatant, like Amuanator's Amon's ram horns.

[noce]

In this case, we need to know what tools you have available: what sources will your DM allow for you to build this character?

Every official D&D 3.5 book, of any setting.
Exceptions: Dragon Compendium is not included, while Book of Vile Darknes, Fiend Folio and other 3.25 books are included.

Anyway thank you all for the roleplaying ideas! I'm happy to see you understood my idea of a character both scared and scary (or creepy).