Looking for character ideas for a player who can only make half the sessions

[Klorox]

My first idea was some kind of wild magic sorcerer who accidentally teleports around.

Perhaps he can play side games with the DM.

I’m stuck though.

I figured if anybody would have an idea, it’d be you guys.

[GreyBlack]

My first idea was some kind of wild magic sorcerer who accidentally teleports around.

Perhaps he can play side games with the DM.

I’m stuck though.

I figured if anybody would have an idea, it’d be you guys.

Great Old One warlock. Every so often, Cthulu just kinda pops him out of existence for the lulz.

[Galadhrim]

We had a player that missed about half of our sessions. He played a madness cleric and would just "wander off" on days he could not attend.

When he was able to return full time we played an entire arc that revolved around his backstory and how he became mad. Once we finished it, the madness lifted and the dm let him reclass.

http://www.eberron5e.com/creating-a-character/classes/archetype/madness-domain

[No brains]

A firbolg so shy they just hide for entire days at a time.

[PastorofMuppets]

I recently had the idea of a phase shifting curse kind of thing. The character is trying to stay on the material plane of existence and this could be the questing motivation. At random times, ( when the player is away) the character becomes ethereal and ghostlike. It can be seen by the other players but it can’t interact with the world, it just looks angry or sad and slowly drifts through the world. When the player returns to the game session the problem is over for now and the character drops back into reality fully.

I liked the idea of making the AFK type times a potential plot point since it is impactful when the player can’t be there and it’s possible that it would change. Also somewhat inspired by this unfortunate Venture employee. http://mantiseye.com/img/caps/509/notes/outofphase-full.jpg

[Tangleweed]

I played a Chauntea Cleric and missed a lot of sessions. We said she was busy with “priest stuff” such as weddings, name giving ceremonies, blessing harvests and such. Became a cool character that was more rooted in the adventure area and had her loyalties tied to the villages where the adventure took place and helped the other PCs when they where needed to keep the stars safe. The fact that she was gone and busy on non-adventure stuff added to the character I felt, but doing that when I could not make it to the sessions meant that it didn’t distract from the main story lines as we didn’t need to play it out.

[LordNibbler]

Blink spell gone terribly, terribly wrong.

[Temperjoke]

"Other duties" - the idea is that this character isn't an adventurer like the rest of the party, but someone assigned to assist them by some higher authority. When the player can't be there, it means that the character is off reporting to this higher power, or another higher priority assignment is going on (which explains why this person keeps up in experience levels despite missing things).

[Feddlefew]

I played an item-slinging rogue based on the Resident Evil 4 merchant once.

Dude would lie in wait and sell passing parties equipment and such, sometimes deciding to pack up and traveling with them for a few hours, only to disappear without a trace.

[Monster Manuel]

Back in a 2E game, I had to come up with a similarly on-and-off character. The trick is, within the narrative, it can be very hard to justify the re-appearance. You're on a ship, hundreds of miles from where the party left me, there's just no good way to justify "poof - I'm back!".

So, the rationale I gave was that my character was doing experiments with a permanent illusionary disguise, and it went wrong. So, for the time that I had to miss a lot of sessions, my character was uncontrollably becoming illusionary and shifting back again. On the days I could be there, he was able to pull himself together and be at least partially real (like the shadow magic spell). On the days I couldn't, he was a full-on illusion of himself, run as an NPC. So, no worries about me dying or using resources or whatever while I wasn't there, but there was no need to narratively hand-wave my coming and going.

In a later campaign, I just played a pretty simple vanilla archer fighter and one of the other players picked him up when I wasn't there. His whole deal was that he was easygoing to a fault, would go along with whatever the team wanted, and was just doing the adventuring thing for a lark. The running joke was that the rest of the party was always trying to uncover some deep, dark backstory, and he just didn't have one.
"Tarvok? Wasn't the bully who used to torment you as a boy? Do you harbor a deep-seated resentment and have therefore sworn vengenace?"
"No, no, we talked it out when we were teens. He's actually a great guy, we've kept in touch. I went to his kid's Bar Mitzvah".

An easy-to-play character with a simple roleplaying hook makes it easy for the rest of the group to remote-control your character while you're not there. If you've got a fair amount of trust in the rest of your group, this way works pretty well, too, without the narrative gymnastics to justify blinking in and out of existence.

[Keravath]

Honestly, any semi-believable thing you make up is all that is required. The players know why the other player can't make it and their character unfortunately just pops out/wanders off/takes a break/gets called away/is teleported out by their patron/diety/best friend the mad wizard who needs them to help with their latest spell. If you want, you can tie whatever fluff reason you come up with to the character background or past events but it isn't really needed since you are just trying to come up with a fantasy game world reason why the character suddenly leaves and arrives.

[nickl_2000]

I feel like any class would work with a Shadra'Kai (spelling sucks, sorry. The shadow elf). You have a curse on you that transports you to the shape realm.

To get out you have to get a friends help, who can put you wherever you want.

[Shuruke]

My first idea was some kind of wild magic sorcerer who accidentally teleports around.

Perhaps he can play side games with the DM.

I’m stuck though.

I figured if anybody would have an idea, it’d be you guys.

If u do wild magic
For the sessions your gone its cuz your a potted plant

Or talk to DM bout your character just being a magic item that when player can't be there your the smug Halfling trinket from phb
He'll make a sorcerer that's a genie in training u , can't grant wishes yet cuz you need more time training your Magic

[Wuzza]

Character that is torn between the Astral and Material planes? He could reappear with useful exposition.

[TyGuy]

Not super original, but when facing this dilemma I considered a permanent condition from a magic poison that rendered the PC unconscious randomly (when the player was absent)

[Imbalance]

Semi-sentient Warforged, with full autonomy only when the player is present. When the player isn't there, the character has entered command mode, and will obey simple instructions from the party such as "wait" or "follow". If the player is cool with it, they could use it in combat, too (some groups totally use an absent player's char, others treat it as some kind of sacrilege - ymmv).

Inexplicable curse causes character to instantaneously shrink to microscopic size, which, from their perspective is akin to warping to another dimension where, due to scale, they don't realize that the giant fleas they must defend against are on the Tabaxi's hindquarters.

How about a body-swapping, symbiotic spirit that the character allows temporary possession?

Maybe it's the party who is absent? Or, this character is such a good scout that they can go out days or a week ahead of where the party will end up and be there waiting with expositional intel.

[Kane0]

Was trying to make the feign death spell good and ended up making it too good, every now and again it kicks in.
“Oh Fynegan? Don’t mind him, he’s just dead. He’ll be back sooner or later, do you guys just want to throw him on the back of a cart or something?”

[nickl_2000]

Was trying to make the feign death spell good and ended up making it too good, every now and again it kicks in.
“Oh Fynegan? Don’t mind him, he’s just dead. He’ll be back sooner or later, do you guys just want to throw him on the back of a cart or something?”

Or have the player play a zealot barbarian and have him actually die over and over again. That may be fun.

Bonus points if you cast reincarnate instead of raise dead to bring him back and he comes back as a different race every game.

[Seclora]

Any warlock except, ironically, Hexblade, would work for this. Their Patron called them away to do...I dunno, Patron stuff. Maybe it's babble incoherently in the Far realms, or suffer torture in the nine hells, maybe it's just an Arch Fey booty call. The important thing is that they always come back short rested.

Clerics are a good second choice. Their god has called them away/to some other matter.

Following that is magic being screwy. Maybe they've inherited a family curse that turns them to vapor when they're too far from home, but they can sometimes overcome the curse. Maybe they're prone to spontaneous Planar Shifting, or they merge with a friend's shadow when they sneeze. It's magic, bull**** your way through anything.

[Contrast]

Can I just make an argument for not bothering with an in game explanation if its going to be a very common event.

When they're not around the other players just don't mention their absence, don't use their abilities and never gets appears on the battle map but they find themselves with the party on their return and no-one mentions it.

It'll honestly save a lot of headaches and I think people do try to tie themselves in knots trying to make a fiction to explain something that's really easier just to ignore. It's a game and real life sometimes intrudes. Don't waste more game time trying to explain out of game events.

[Matrix_Walker]

Check out Matt Mercer's "Lingering Soul" if he's a spirit he might just fade in and out!

[Mjolnirbear]

The wise, enigmatic guide: "I had a feeling you guys would need me today." "we're on a boat 500 miles from shore, how did you get here??" *smiles enigmatically*

A cleric doing priest things like weddings.

A warlock or cleric whose patron/god is meddlesome.

A Curse or spell gone wrong.

An accidental talent for planeswalking.

An unknowing possession or divine incarnation.

Seizures, sudden comas, narcolepsy.

Multiple personalities (maybe one is the BBEG!)

[No brains]

Or have the player play a zealot barbarian and have him actually die over and over again. That may be fun.

Bonus points if you cast reincarnate instead of raise dead to bring him back and he comes back as a different race every game.

+1 this idea!

[Droodicus]

Horizon walker, oh look a portal I must go and close it see ya in a few.
*pops up literally anywhere* hey guys job done, hell of a time catching a portal back, had to flush myself down asmodeous toilet.


Or yes pot plant wild mage

[Fryy]

I played a Chauntea Cleric and missed a lot of sessions. We said she was busy with “priest stuff” such as weddings, name giving ceremonies, blessing harvests and such.

Ooh. How about a Bard who part-times as a Wedding Singer?

[Spriteless]

If you want something more mundane, there is addiction.

"Bob wakes up with a hangover, just in time to help"

[Man_Over_Game]

Horizon walker, oh look a portal I must go and close it see ya in a few.
*pops up literally anywhere* hey guys job done, hell of a time catching a portal back, had to flush myself down asmodeous toilet.


Or yes pot plant wild mage

This is where my thoughts went.

Wild Mage, Horizon Walker, Conjuration Wizard, Abjuration Wizard, Storm Sorcerer, Arcane Archer. They all get swept away into some random portal because of some weird planar BS.

The reason I suggest this is because there's longevity in this choice. Other options stop making sense as soon as you start leveling into something else. Making someone's physical location being unstable and prone to portal mishaps is something that can span across multiple builds and multiple classes, while also supporting the narrative/mechanics of those builds.

[jaappleton]

Don't tie it to a class because it pigeonholes them into that class.

A god of Fate believes this character to be incredibly important. They also believe that its important to not rely on gods interference. Ergo, that character arrives only when they are meant to be involved.

[MilkmanDanimal]

They're just in the bathroom; "Sorry, guys, had a big lunch. Did I miss anything?"

[Kurt Kurageous]

I gave up on continuity and don't bother to justify it. Just roll with it, its a fantasy game.

Or are you writing a novel?

[Imbalance]

Maybe they could play as one of the two gnomes in a trenchcoat.

[XmonkTad]

Druid that occasionally gets stuck as the wizard's familiar or ranger's animal companion.

Intermittent petrification.

Worshiper of Levistus who has to encase themselves in a block of ice every once in a while.

[Kyutaru]

"I return to you now at the turn of the tide." - Gandalf, lvl 5 Wizard with mostly unimpressive magic

Just an idea but a famous guy we all already know was barely even present for half the campaign. Somehow the DM Tolkien found a way to make it all work and it was glorious.

Might even make this character a super awesome race to make up for lower play time. Like I dunno, half-angel.

[pragma]

A friend of mine wound up playing as a summoned creature (like the barbarians summoned by the horn of Valhalla). The magic item that summoned him had an irregular recharge time, so he just got summoned whenever he could make a session.

If I have a player miss a session irregularly, I just explain they're not adventuring today because they have an embarrassingly bad flu.

[FrancisBean]

They're just in the bathroom; "Sorry, guys, had a big lunch. Did I miss anything?"

Dude! I told you the Happy Hobgoblin's All-U-Can-Eat Burrito Buffet was a bad idea!

[SVamp]

Prayer.

Each day, you pray to the god or goddess of whatever for help. Sometimes your prayer is answered and you get extra help for the day.

Bonus fun points: allow the missing guy/gal to switch characters depending on what the party needs more at the time, lol.

[poolio]

If it's a more open world type game, then i would suggest to your dm the character is a merchant of some kind, and when they're not around it's cause of work, have to check on shipments and stuff like that, could also give chances for some plot hooks to improve the business and the missed games could be downtime where you were making money.

[GlenSmash!]

The Current Critical Role Campaign has an Aasimar Barbarian that disappears for half the games. might be worth checking out.

[Tallytrev813]

We had a buddy of mine who wanted to try, but had a GF who planned a lot of weekend trips and could only come 1/2 the time.


I created him a Divination Wizard who dabbled in time travel. The effects of his time travel were unstable, and caused him to - at times - travel in time/space randomly against his will (inspired by Quantum Leap).

Any time he couldn't make it, we'd have a session where at the start he'd just zap away through time/space. Next session, he'd Wizard himself back to the party. The best part was - our session recap acted as his character's chance for us to tell him what happened, so he (realistically) didn't always know what was going on outside of combat.