A disruptive adhd noble only child, need help.

[BadaiRei]

Hey guys, I made a character who is a child of noble parents but he has adhd and is embarrassing his parents he is an antithesis of nobles and is sent the military school by his parent to learn some manners, yet he is not complainant and he gets along a lot better with the common people, cooks, janitors, and such.
He ran away from the military and he is presumed dead.
He wants to live a simple life for he does not like the hypocrisy and fakeness of the high class.
I was thinking that his parents are high elfs, and that makes him one as well but because of his resentment towards the high class and his wish to live a simple life I want him to get the traits of a wood elf.
He hides his true identity from others only telling the truth to ppl he trusts.
He himself is living a fake life and that is a part of his conflict, since he himself hate fake people.
I need help figuring out the traits he might have as I don't like the noble backround traits. And maybe more ideas to finish up the character.
Thanks a lot!

[Unoriginal]

If this dude want a simple life, why is he an adventurer?

Also, High Elves aren't noble Wood Elves, the two are different kinds of elves. There are High Elves cooks just like there are Wood Elves nobles.

I kind of have a hard time imagining High Elves as stuffy parents who'd send their son away to teach him discipline, because High Elves are chaotic and value freedom and self-expression. Heck, most elves could be described as having something sharing symptoms with ADHD.

[Neknoh]

Just be careful about playing disruptive characters in groups without discussing it with them beforehand, every body is in the game together and somebody constantly trying to be disruptive in social situations "Because it fits the character" can cause irritation or make other players enjoy the game much less.

Would the character be better served by trying to narrow down the characteristics?

Hating lies and the fake air of nobility whilst lying and putting on a fake persona themselves is all ready a very big thing, but be careful how you play it, being uncomfortable with lies might be better than being hardcore hating on them, since if your party needs to lie and your character puts up a conflict about it, it will again risk breaching the social contract at the table.

Do they tell just one fake backstory to every one or do they constantly lie about their origin?

Having been an embarrassment to thier parents and being sent off to an officer's school could work, at what point did the character escape? The wagon? After having spent time at the school? After graduation? Were there any important people in their life?

Some character traits might be:

Every one should be a friend, no masters and servants

A person should be judged for their deeds, not their birth

They ran away from an abusive school/family, leaving his friend/sibling behind

Because of this, they can't stand telling the truth of their origin and keeps lying about who they are and where they're from.

Their major flaw is that they are incredibly uncomfortable with lies and this makes them hate themselves for not being able to tell the truth of their origin.



This gives the DM a few plothooks to play with:

Is the family or academy pursuing them?

Will their travels take them back to that place and/or make them meet the person they left behind?

If they meet somebody who is as reliant on lies as they are, how will they react?

What if they need to work for somebody who requires subterfuge and discretion, making them lie and hide their identity?

What if they need to work for a noble? A good one or a bad one will cause different responses as well.

[sophontteks]

This is a modern story. There is no military school to send bad children to. All noble children would have private tutors teaching them combat. This is espesially true with elves, who are all profecient with several martial weapons, no matter their background.

A high elf is considered an adult at 100 years old and they live to be up to 750 years old. This drastically changes how they would develop vs. a Human.

[Neknoh]

This is a modern story. There is no military school to send bad children to. All noble children would have private tutors teaching them combat. This is espesially true with elves, who are all profecient with several martial weapons, no matter their background.

A high elf is considered an adult at 100 years old and they live to be up to 750 years old. This drastically changes how they would develop vs. a Human.

A half-truth, for instance, historically, prestigious weapons experts would have either personal schools where they taught their martial arts, or take service in the courts of kings or nobles where they served as weapon masters, Men at Arms and noble youth would be sent to these places in order to learn under the masters. There were also universities as well as monasteries. And since DnD does not properly portray the middle ages or renaissance, a point could be argued that there is at least some form of officer's school to where some noble youths are sent in order to become true warriors and military tacticians. The hazings would likely be brutal and there would be a very "might makes right" type of culture between students (as well as "my father is higher than your father, kneel."), there would be brotherly bonds and friendships as well, and teachers would range from tyrants to harsh to wizened and friendly. But it would be a place where true warriors are made and would likely not sit well with somebody even remotely similar to the character suggested.

The character itself is very modern, and in order to better fit in to the world, a gateway between the modern and the fantasy-historical might be needed.

It is less "send away because we cannot handle" and more "send away so that they'll get the best education",

[sophontteks]

Thanks for elaborating on possibilities. I didn't want to write an essay but I think its safe to say noble children weren't punished by being sent to military school. At the very least they would be personally tutored and learning to fight was considered essential.

This is where the problem lies. As a High Elf he will have his racial profeciencies in martial weapons and have his known cantrips. This assumes that he was raised as a high elf. Both of these would require years of training. With elves possibly even decades of training.

Instead of noble, maybe a merchant class would be a better fit. The Merchant class better represents how we view the upper class today. Nobility of these times don't really exist anymore.

[Neknoh]

Not in the way children are today, but being sent off to learn under a master as part of a larger groups of noble youths would not be out of the question, nor would being sent off to a monastery or university to study. A particularly problematic, family-ruining second child (or further down the line) could be permanently sent off to a monastery or into service of a higher noble, however, unless their other siblings died, they likely would never be expected to return to their original family.

[Willie the Duck]

Hey guys, I made a character who is a child of noble parents but he has adhd and is embarrassing his parents he is an antithesis of nobles and is sent the military school by his parent to learn some manners, yet he is not complainant and he gets along a lot better with the common people, cooks, janitors, and such. He ran away from the military and he is presumed dead.

Given how broad D&D (and often ahistoric, even from the start) is, all interpretations of military school vs. trained at home could be the case. If one wants to mine the 'sent to boardingmilitary school trope,' there's nothing wrong with that. One issue for me, depending on the realism you want to bring into your portrayal, is that angry, antisocial teens are antisocial to everyone. The old 'doesn't like his stodgy parents, so he gets on with the help' trope is fairly unrealistic.

As others have pointed out, wood elves are not commoner class high elves, and high elves are not nobility wood elves. Having this character be an elf at all seems to be an unnecessary complication to an already complex roleplaying burden. I'd suggest doing so only if it is essential to the character concept.


He wants to live a simple life for he does not like the hypocrisy and fakeness of the high class.

He hides his true identity from others only telling the truth to ppl he trusts.
He himself is living a fake life and that is a part of his conflict, since he himself hate fake people.

My first instinct is to suggest re-reading Twain's The Prince and the Pauper for noble trying to pass as commoner tropes and Salinger's Catcher in the Rye for hypocritical teen rebel seeing hypocrisy in others but missing their own.


I need help figuring out the traits he might have as I don't like the noble backround traits. And maybe more ideas to finish up the character.

Well, neither does he, that's why he left. :smallbiggrin:
Honestly though, I think you've established your character's defining event, and you should hand craft bonds, flaws, and characteristics based on this guy's history. Mechanically, I would give the equipment and Rustic Hospitality feature of folk hero. As to skills and tool/language/etc. proficiencies, it depends on how skilled you want the character to be at either noble or commoner skills (perhaps based on how much education he got before running away, and how much actual simple living he has accomplished), and also how well you want him to be able to succeed at convincing others that he's who he says he is, instead of who he really is?

Completely unconvincing- perhaps don't give the character deception.
Good enough unless pressed- perhaps give him deception (probably not with expertise, even if you play a rogue or bard), but then have him retain the skills of the noble background, and not have the skills of the folk hero background. Thus he can convince people that he's a poor peasant, etc., but then they eventually notice that he couldn't milk a cow to save his life, but seems to be well versed in noble heraldry.
Good enough to pass unless plot-relevant- give him the skills of the folk hero background (and maybe also deception with expertise and high charisma).

[GlenSmash!]

Hey guys, I made a character who is a child of noble parents but he has adhd and is embarrassing his parents he is an antithesis of nobles and is sent the military school by his parent to learn some manners, yet he is not complainant and he gets along a lot better with the common people, cooks, janitors, and such.
He ran away from the military and he is presumed dead.
He wants to live a simple life for he does not like the hypocrisy and fakeness of the high class.
I was thinking that his parents are high elfs, and that makes him one as well but because of his resentment towards the high class and his wish to live a simple life I want him to get the traits of a wood elf.
He hides his true identity from others only telling the truth to ppl he trusts.
He himself is living a fake life and that is a part of his conflict, since he himself hate fake people.
I need help figuring out the traits he might have as I don't like the noble backround traits. And maybe more ideas to finish up the character.
Thanks a lot!

The neat thing about backgrounds is, they are flexible. You can be from a noble family, but not have the noble background easy enough. If your noble family is form very far away, the Far Traveler background works just as well.

If your you have an heirloom from your noble family the Inheritor background might fit better.

Since your guy is living a lie, the Charlatan Background might fit.

Edit: Custom backgrounds are also completely OK by the rules, as long as you have DM approval. You can mix and match from the backgrounds to get what you like and call it something like Ignoble.

[Willie the Duck]

If your you have an heirloom from your nubile family the Inheritor background might fit better.

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[oxybe]

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The character is nobility.

It's possible that they were given a dowry in the form of an heirloom from the hot cousin they might have been arranged to marry.

[GlenSmash!]

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Yup. Going back to edit.