Breathing life into existing characters?

[Clone]

So I've got an issue with one of the PCs I play.
I'm playing through Out of the Abyss and while I am enjoying it I've come to question the personality of my Sorcerer.
I have a solid Jedi/ Earthbender vibe with him through being a Stone Sorcerer Tank, my spell selection and use subtle spell a lot. Mechanically he is great and in combat I have plenty of things to do while being effective.

How do you guys spice up a character you enjoy playing crunch-wise, not not as much RP-wise? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Most of my other characters were character concepts who then became a class which suited that concept the best. This character was a desire to play a subclass which I thought sounded cool and the concept followed, which is the root of the problem I suspect.
He has a backstory, goals, vices, inner demons etc etc but the personality strength of the other party members seems to outshine him, while his quirks and mannerisms don't make a memorable character. The campaign hasn't allowed him many opportunities to explore the parts of him I am happy about with due to the campaign details themselves (no spoilers, but if you know OotA you know what I mean for the first half or so of the campaign).

[Laserlight]

How do you guys spice up a character you enjoy playing crunch-wise, not not as much RP-wise? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Emotional and eccentric = interesting. Calm and normal = boring. Find some aspect of his personality that you want to explore, dial it up to 11 and keep going. When you get to "no sane person would...", you're probably about where you need to be.

The guy who taught me that used as an example Heruzar, priest of Vulcan. No fire resistance but he'd worked at he forge so long that he didn't flinch at fire damage; he'd reach barehanded into a flame without hesitating (and had the scars on his hands and face to prove it). He was a walking armory and made a point of using a different weapon for every turn. "This is a pattern welded falcata, great for chopping! And here we have a sand-cast mace! Now I think it's time for exploding horseshoes!"

A more subtle example was the halfling whose family had been, for generations, slave/servants to the noble family which had produced a playboy / vigilante, and the halfling was his valet. Except the halfling's loyalty was to the family, not the playboy. The halfling plotted to get his master exiled so he wouldn't (further) embarrass the family, was willing to ruthlessly murder anyone who who might damage the family's reputation (including his own sister), and tried hard to get his master to stop being such a scatterwitted spendthrift and start adulting.

[ruy343]

One of the problems with the Out of the Abyss adventure, as written, is that there are very few interesting choices in your day-to-day, and instead you're wondering about how you'll find food and such. This somewhat limits roleplaying opportunities, aside from annoying the group with fireside songs you make up on the spot.

As such, try to do interesting things each day, asking yourself, "What weird thing would my character do today that I wouldn't do". You'll probably come up with something if you're constantly looking for it.

[Mr.Spastic]

My advice would be similar. Take something interesting about you character, or bland, and play it as far as you can go. If you are playing a jedi type character with a stone theme mabye he patiently thinks things over ALL THE TIME. That could be hilarious. "What do you want for dinner?" "Give me ten minutes to reflect upon my options."

[Laserlight]

One of the problems with the Out of the Abyss adventure, as written, is that there are very few interesting choices in your day-to-day, and instead you're wondering about how you'll find food and such. This somewhat limits roleplaying opportunities, aside from annoying the group with fireside songs you make up on the spot.

If everyone in the party has a secret or two, and some pre-existing relationships, you can have RP opportunities enough. My character is relentlessly inquisitive and wants to know who our rogue really is, whether he's lower class scum or a disgraced noble or a spy, and why our patron assigned him to the party. Who is the paladin's lover, why did she turn down an arranged marriage, why doesn't she marry her lover? Why has the ranger lived in a swamp for the last 100 years, and why does he know the Vistani? What is the prophecy which made the divine sorc hermit come out of seclusion, and why won't he talk about himself?

[Unoriginal]

Think of the various Jedi and Earthbenders on their respective work.

Sure, members of each group shared traits, but all of them were different, especially in how they handled said common traits.

Earthbenders are about observing until getting a favorable moment, and when the moment come either apply direct force to the issue until it moves in their favor or tanking the issue the best they can until the next opportunity, which can lead them to go to 0 to 100% to back to 0 in one second. But then each of them express that differently: Bumi is a trickster who encourage others to use lateral thinking to perceive all the possibilities that surround them, Toph is very sharp when it comes to discover the heart of a problem, but afterward goes into "my way or the highway" mode, the Dai Li agents are silent and constantly spying, doing their best to not be noticed until they can unleash overwhelming force in a Firebending-style aggression.

The Jedi believed in the control and repression of all personal emotions, as well as letting the Force guides their ways. But doesn't mean they were all the same either. Kit Fisto mastered the Form I of lightsaber combat despite it being considered mostly obsolete and clumsy, simply because the wild and fluid movements of the style fit his personality. Obi-Wan dealt with the emotional detachment required by the Order via a large amount of snarking and half-truths, and he reacted to the death of his master by becoming the greatest master of the defensive Form III of lightsaber combat. Yoda was kind, but he also believed that Jedi needed to separate themselves from emotions to the point of accepting your friends be tortured and die rather than try a nearly hopeless rescue, and at one point even arrogantly believed that as a master Jedi he didn't have any inner darkness (a flaw he thankfully got over when confronted by said inner darkness).

What are your character Bond, Trait, and Flaw?