Backstory for an Anthro Bat?

[Zombulian]

What are some creative ways to explain an Anthro Bat PC? I’ve considered pairing it with Wedded to History and being a member of a now-extinct race. There’s also the obligatory “magical experimentation blah blah”.
But really, has anyone thought of any answers for why an anthro bat would exist, and then why it would be adventuring?

[AvatarVecna]

Parents got shot in an alley by a mugger. Guess they shouldn't have taken that shortcut.

[RoboEmperor]

A wizard did it. They did it for owlbears so why not anthro bats.

[MisterKaws]

Parents got shot in an alley by a mugger. Guess they shouldn't have taken that shortcut.

I laughed.

But seriously, if your DM is chill, you could just add the race itself to your world and be born as a bat-boy to bat-parents in a bat-village.

[Zombulian]

A wizard did it. They did it for owlbears so why not anthro bats.

I just feel like it’s a bit of a cop-out answer, hence my referencing it in the OP.
Don’t get me wrong it *is* a very D&D answer. But it doesn’t feel very compelling.


I laughed.

But seriously, if your DM is chill, you could just add the race itself to your world and be born as a bat-boy to bat-parents in a bat-village.

I’d considered this, but since it is such a strange race I was thinking it would be prudent to assume you’re the only bat-boy.
However, it’s a two part question. Why would a bat-boy from bat-village go adventuring?

[Maryring]

A wizard sits down to read Nagel's thesis on the qualia of consciousness, gets as far as the title before his Wizarding Sparkiness trigges, and decides that the best way to answer the question is to create a Man Bat and then send him out to discover that answer for him. :smallbiggrin:

Alternatively, if outsiders have a very strong connection to certain animals, then it could be a manifestation of some sort of demonic bloodline. And because people are a cowardly and superstitious lot, adventuring seems safer than living in normal society.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Well, when a mommy anthrobat and a daddy anthrobat love each other very much...

Seriously, you live in a fantasy world. With fantasy creatures. Why do all PCs have to be midget humans with the serial numbers filed off, pointy ears, or green skin?

[MisterKaws]

Why would a bat-boy from bat-village go adventuring?

Why would a human-boy from a human-village go adventuring?

You get me?

[The Glyphstone]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Boy_(character)

Just steal that 'backstory', modify as appropriate. No one will ever recognize the source material.

[OgresAreCute]

Perhaps created or selectively bred into existence by a druid who farms fruit? Bats are great fruit-eaters.
Or you could go in the other direction and say it's some sort of creature made by vampires who wanted something a bit more reliable than their usual (animal) bat spies.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

I’ve considered pairing it with Wedded to History and being a member of a now-extinct race.
This is amazingly clever, and I'll be using it. But then how to explain the fact that you're only level 1 despite having lived for eons?


Parents got shot in an alley by a mugger. Guess they shouldn't have taken that shortcut.
:D

My suggestion : wanting to discover what you are, who created you and if there are others like you could be your character's motivation. Tell your GM during character creation, and perhaps he'll use it as a plot hook !

[daremetoidareyo]

I'd make a culture based on bats. They're kinda socialist (vampire bats will share food as a sort of colony safety net) with a strong rebuke for cheaters (no more sharing).

If little black bats are your model, Maybe they follow Giant swarms of aerial prey and have a nomadic lifestyle.

Make them a subraces of desmodu that live above ground after escaping the underdark. If that's the case, there is probably a strong history of tribal trauma as part of their exodus from the underdark. Solemn holidays and strong rituals commemorating the fallen would be appropriate.

[Zombulian]

This is amazingly clever, and I'll be using it. But then how to explain the fact that you're only level 1 despite having lived for eons?

Well the Ancient Characters (or Elder? I don’t remember) article that introduced Wedded to History tackled this issue. They generally recommended against level 1 Elder characters but gave a few hooks. Maybe your character was a powerful mage in another era but through some event lost all of their powers. This could be that they were forcibly sent to the future by some sort of magic (think like in Skyrim when the nords banished Alduin) that also stripped you of your ability. Or maybe you lived through some major magical cataclysm like the collapse of Netheril. Or you were put into some sort of stasis for countless eras, and when you awoke you find that the source of magic you drew from simply isn’t around anymore.
This last one is the one I’ve been leaning towards most recently. An Anthro Bat Archivist who was at one time a Cleric of some now long dead night god. He awoke from whatever slumber he was put into to find that his people were gone and he no longer had a patron to grant him spells, and now his motivation is to compile a prayerbook that will not only aid him in reacquiring power but to gain some insight into whatever apocalypse befell his people and his god.


My suggestion : wanting to discover what you are, who created you and if there are others like you could be your character's motivation. Tell your GM during character creation, and perhaps he'll use it as a plot hook !

I like this one too, as it opens several avenues already mentioned. Some being that knows that it’s strange and alien, but it doesn’t know where it even came from. Was it a Wizard’s familiar? Was it a member of some forgotten race? He’s gonna find out.


I'd make a culture based on bats. They're kinda socialist (vampire bats will share food as a sort of colony safety net) with a strong rebuke for cheaters (no more sharing).

If little black bats are your model, Maybe they follow Giant swarms of aerial prey and have a nomadic lifestyle.

Make them a subraces of desmodu that live above ground after escaping the underdark. If that's the case, there is probably a strong history of tribal trauma as part of their exodus from the underdark. Solemn holidays and strong rituals commemorating the fallen would be appropriate.

I like the bat swarm nomad idea a lot! Since Anthro Bats are small sized though I was leaning towards fruit bats like flying foxes.
Exiled desmodu slave race is also very nice.

[KillianHawkeye]

What are some creative ways to explain an Elf PC? Has anyone thought of any answers for why an Elf would exist, and then why it would be adventuring?

[Zombulian]

Well, when a mommy anthrobat and a daddy anthrobat love each other very much...

Seriously, you live in a fantasy world. With fantasy creatures. Why do all PCs have to be midget humans with the serial numbers filed off, pointy ears, or green skin?


What are some creative ways to explain an Elf PC? Has anyone thought of any answers for why an Elf would exist, and then why it would be adventuring?

Your snark isn’t really appreciated. Elves are a base race with several worlds worth of lore and fantasy baggage attached to them. Anthro animals are a template from the back of a splat book that is applied to animals. With that in mind, I think it’s fair to say that a DM isn’t going to just happen to have them in mind while creating their game, but you can probably put good money on them having elves in their game and probably a good idea of how they fit into the world. So unless you want to make the DM fit a whole new culture into their gameworld, the onus is on you the player to have a compelling reason for the character to exist.

[KillianHawkeye]

Your snark isn’t really appreciated. Elves are a base race with several worlds worth of lore and fantasy baggage attached to them. Anthro animals are a template from the back of a splat book that is applied to animals. With that in mind, I think it’s fair to say that a DM isn’t going to just happen to have them in mind while creating their game, but you can probably put good money on them having elves in their game and probably a good idea of how they fit into the world. So unless you want to make the DM fit a whole new culture into their gameworld, the onus is on you the player to have a compelling reason for the character to exist.

I disagree.

First of all, anthropomorphic animals have been a thing in myths and legends for at least as long (if not longer) than elves have been around.

Secondly, it's up to you and your DM to work together to figure this stuff out anytime you use something that's not in the core game books, so making a bigger deal about incorporating anthro-bats into your game setting than warforged or dragonborn (or any of the other animal-like races such as gnolls or catfolk) is disingenuous.

Third, reasons for a person to leave their home and go adventuring are pretty much universal no matter what race you're playing as. You can just say that very few anthro-bats ever have any reason to leave their caves if you need to explain why nobody knows what you are or whatever.

Sorry if you're offended when somebody points out your precious anthro-bats are no more fictional or alien than elves and dwarves, but that's not really my problem.

[TheYell]

what system are you playing?

if Pathfinder you can work with your GM to develop an advancement path for an anthro-bat prestige class, giving yourself Racial Points as you level up.

The theory behind this is, you are the anthro-bat Chosen One. You are the divine focus for the bat colony prayers and rituals. Their energies are channeled into your physical form.

You are to enter the wider world, making allies of other species, and at the appointed moon, you will be told to return, with whatever companions will follow you, and

be sacrificed to awaken the Sleeping God

or not, in which case you pick a mundane class and stop advancing as an anthro-bat.

[AnimeTheCat]

During the passing of a comet composed of highly compressed and volatile magic essence, strange events occur. One of the more notable was the actual teleportation and switching of the entire positive and negative energy planes causing clerics across the prime material to be stricken with an incurable illness, or worse cause them to spontaneously combust and be magically stricken from memory of the world. So catastrophic was this event that many other, less publically visible events went relatively unnoticed.
For instance, in the small fair village of douselhoff, a boy was walking home as the sun start to set. He could hear the bats starting to become alive as the chased down their morning meal. It was an eerie yet comforting sound, familiar to his ears around this season. Not all was pleasant and familiar though, for the sky was alight with an eerie green-blue glow from the slow moving comet. Cautiously looking up at the sky, the boy failed to see a root protruding from the ground and tripped, breaking this leg as he tumbled. Scared, injured and afraid, he began crying and praying to the pantheon of righteous gods to help him. His prayers were heard, but not by the gods. A bolt of raw magic arced out across the sky and struck the boy. There was no more pain. He felt warm, weightless. Then all faded to black.
When he awoke, he knew it was already midmorning and that his family would be worried sick. He tore off towards his home, not even thinking about the events the night before. He exited the forest's edge just a short distance from his family's house. He knew they were worried because the village marshal and 2 soldiers were there talking to his father and weeping mother. The boy yelled out to his mother "Here I am! I'm ok!". At least, that's what he tried to say. What came out were the high pitched screeches that sounded eerily familiar. The boy looked at his hands and feet and immediately started to panic. When looked up he saw pure trauma on his parents faces as they ran towards the house and the guards began drawing their blades and notching their crossbows. He had to run. Somehow he managed to lose the guards in the forest. Over the following months the boy would try to make contact, leave signs, and come home, but he was always met with fear and anger or hostility. There was no place for him in this peaceful fair town any longer. As the months passed on and the days grew shorter, summer gave way to autumn and autumn began fading to the cold gray winter. The boys thoughts turned back to the stories his father once told him about visiting the capital. Fantastical stories about magical creatures and heroic warriors. He knew the way, just follow the northern road for 5 days travel. It was not as easy as it seemed however. On the boys second day he was ambushed by brigands. Driven to cannibalism by the coming winter and dying food trade, the bandits relished the chance to feast on something new. Powerless to stop them the boy knew his time had come. Just as an axe was beginning its downswing to finish him an arrow exploded through the bandits head and similarly the other bandits met a swift end. From up the road walked an elf, a human, and a tall robed figure. The elf drew her bow in caution, but relaxed as the robed figure raised his hand. He approached the boy and started dressing his wounds. Without saying a word the man picked him up and began walking north.
What happens next is up to you.

[pabelfly]

For backstory on how your character exists, work with your DM to come up with something you're both happy with in terms of the DM's world and story, and you for your character. Do you want your anthro bat to have family and friends and a tribe of the same race as it, or is he or she truly alone? If they belong to a race, work with your DM to build some basic info and flavour about that race to define your character so he or she can have opinions and feelings about all of that. If they're a tribe, do other races know about anthro bats (or do they keep themselves secret, which could work if you're putting them into a pre-existing world) and if so, how do they feel about them? If they are a unique creature, work out with your DM why your character exists (even if your character doesn't yet know it).

Once you have backstory and information for your character, you can then work out what might motivate your character to go and seek danger and adventure. If they come from a tribe, maybe they're adventuring to gain status and/or money outside of the tribe which would improve their standing within the tribe. Maybe they feels disconnected from their tribe, or are bored of their roles and duties in the tribe, or have a low standing and want to leave. Maybe they want to bring back new knowledge and ideas and technologies and improve the tribe itself.

Alternatively, if they're a loner, maybe they want to find their origin and why they exist. Maybe they want to make friends and be wanted and feel belonging and maybe even find someone else even remotely like them.

Of course, your character can have goals like more generic adventurers, such as becoming rich or strong or famous or whatever - the draw of attaining these goals can work just as well for your character as it would for any more generic PC.

Hope this helps.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Maybe take some pointers from other bizarre origin backstories. It works best if you include some/many things that are completely made-up.

Example (completely unrelated to the thread):
A while back I played a svirfneblin earth kineticist, his origin/backstory was that the deep gnomes had discovered a living earth node deep underground and wanted to harvest it. It was guarded by stone-men and earthen-men, elemental warriors sculpted from the living earth. The gnomes brought along a few ksilisab (reverse-basilisk), whose gaze turns earth and stone creatures into flesh, with which they were able to weaken the guardians and defeat them. In exploring the tunnels around the living earth node, they found a room filled with unfinished and discarded sculptures. A ksilisab gazed upon one such sculpture, and it became my character, as once he became flesh he was alive, having been sculpted from a living element. He appeared as a gnome, and was adopted by the svirfneblin and taught to wield his inborn powers over the element of earth.


Ok, I've got something.

A powerful transmutation wizard was growing quite old, and wanted to find a way to prolong his life. After years of research on forbidden techniques, he thought he'd discovered a way to both form-swap and mind-swap with another being. This would effectively give him the youth of his target. It's an extended ritual, so it wouldn't really work on an unwilling subject. For convenience, he selected his bat familiar, and began casting the spell. Half way through he suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving his bat familiar only partially transformed into a human. Having been a familiar, the abomination retained some manner of intelligent thought, it had picked up on many of the wizard's skills, and maybe even retained a bit of his personality. It likely remained in the wizard's tower for quite some time afterward, possibly having been discovered by a woman selling cosmetic products door-to-door...

[ZamielVanWeber]

Last time I played an anthro bat my backstory was that the anthrobats were a proper race, not "anthropomorphic bats." There were extremely secretive and lived in the deep jungle protected by high ranking druids and clerics (mostly of Obad Hai). My character was a mid leveled druid so offered to leave and observe the growth and direction of global societies and bring that information back once he felt he had enough.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Last time I played an anthro bat my backstory was that the anthrobats were a proper race, not "anthropomorphic bats." There were extremely secretive and lived in the deep jungle protected by high ranking druids and clerics (mostly of Obad Hai). My character was a mid leveled druid so offered to leave and observe the growth and direction of global societies and bring that information back once he felt he had enough.But... But it's not an elf! Or a dwarf! Or another race-that's-just-a-human-but-isn't-really-we-promise! How dare you infect D&D's fantasy with your own...imagination. *shudder*

[gooddragon1]

A druid started going a bit further than awakening animals to be able to protect themselves better and by extension perhaps the wilds. You are a bat. Either descended from another one or one of the original ones. You are supposed to protect the wilds, but free will is as free will does.

[MisterKaws]

Your snark isn’t really appreciated. Elves are a base race with several worlds worth of lore and fantasy baggage attached to them. Anthro animals are a template from the back of a splat book that is applied to animals. With that in mind, I think it’s fair to say that a DM isn’t going to just happen to have them in mind while creating their game, but you can probably put good money on them having elves in their game and probably a good idea of how they fit into the world. So unless you want to make the DM fit a whole new culture into their gameworld, the onus is on you the player to have a compelling reason for the character to exist.

Are you actually somehow believing in the misconception that Anthros somehow never appeared in fantasy? There's an entire RPG for them. Every single Japanese fantasy setting has them. Most of the newer western webnovels do as well, and there's some really good ones out there.

DC always explains that their non-human are mostly from other dimensions or planets, so maybe you could get your DM to make it a planetouched of the Beastlands or whatever equivalent plane of nature. Make it an Outsider and give it the +1 LA it deserved from the start.

[AvatarVecna]

There is a difference between "working with the DM to establish a weird race as part of the general world" and "figuring out my personal characters backstory". While all races typically have a particular class they're best suited to mechanically (to the point that maybe you never see anybody play that race with a different class), that doesn't mean the whole race is that way. Class is where you come from and where you're going, race is just an additional flavoring.

[Zombulian]

There is a difference between "working with the DM to establish a weird race as part of the general world" and "figuring out my personal characters backstory". While all races typically have a particular class they're best suited to mechanically (to the point that maybe you never see anybody play that race with a different class), that doesn't mean the whole race is that way. Class is where you come from and where you're going, race is just an additional flavoring.

I’m fully aware of the difference. I was just wondering what backstories people have created in their own experience. I like getting ideas from these boards to try to work with. Obviously every player should work with the DM to figure out how their character fits in the world. Apparently though because anthros are no more fantastical than elves this was a stupid and pointless question :smallsigh:

[MisterKaws]

Apparently though because anthros are no more fantastical than elves this was a stupid and pointless question :smallsigh:

Now you're just making us sound like the bad guys.

You yourself said it as if anthros were some sort of inconceivable eldritch aberration, when they're just humans with some fur, weird faces, and maybe an extra limb here or there. Hell, Anthro-Eagles are almost the same as Avorans, and Anthro-Lizards are basically Dragonborn/Kobolds. Those fit in most fantasy worlds just fine, as do Centaur, Lamia, Kuo-Toa, and Yuan-ti, who are grossly more monstrous than Anthros, yet everyone is okay with them. Why is that? It just feels weird to me.

Maybe cause weirdos took anthros out of proportion and made a practice out of worshipping the "perfection" of furries. But what do I know?

[Spore]

Honestly how about a primal theory? Tribes have all kinds of weird totem creatures for various reasons. Bulls are strong and wild, Bears are enduring and intimidating. Bats are known to be perceptive, bring about change (signifying death as in the end of an era) and signify home (I think we have a saying in Europe that a steeple has finally settled in when bats or falcons live in there)

You are basically the chosen child born under the new moon that is about the be blessed by the bat god. Think about where you want your backstory situated. Do you rip off the Aztec bat god Camazotz? Is the bat just revered for its superior vision at night, its ability to eat vermin (and prevent an insect plague), the rumored ability to drain blood (and gain the drained individual's power)? Or is your birth a bad omen forcing the tribe to exile you at a young age, shortly after which they get destroyed by ominous forces?

Symbology is such a weird subject that you can interpret all kinds of backstories for your bat boy.

[AvatarVecna]

I’m fully aware of the difference. I was just wondering what backstories people have created in their own experience. I like getting ideas from these boards to try to work with. Obviously every player should work with the DM to figure out how their character fits in the world. Apparently though because anthros are no more fantastical than elves this was a stupid and pointless question :smallsigh:

Not quite what I meant.

Literally all you've given us to go on is that he's a bat-person. If Bat-people is just a race in the setting you're playing in, that's not enough information to go on because it tells us basically nothing for narrowing options down - his nonhumanness isn't that special or weird. However, if Bat-people are extremely rare but explicitly-existent in the setting you're playing in, then "why is me bat-person" probably has an answer somewhere in the lore of the game you're playing. If im playing an OA game with PH races and a rare but explicitly allowed "humanoid fox" race, the DM probably has some lore to share with players wanting to play that race, but I could also pretty easily guess they're intended as a kitsune standin.

Lets pivot.to a different example with dwarves in various settings. In dwarf fortress.everybody is a dwarf so "i wanna play a dwarf what backstory makes sense for him" is a meaningless question. Every backstory leads to "dwarf", so asking "what backstory leads to dwarf" is a nonstarter.

Or maybe you're in a setting closer to LotR, where dwarves are an established race with complex lore and history but they're not the only thing there is. Asking "but why is.my guy a dwarfc isn't a great question because its like asking cbut why is guy asian" well because you decided he was from asia ya dingus. "Why am dwarfc is still a very brpad question...but itxs one that can be narrowed down. For example, why did my dwarf become a rogue, or a bard? Those aren't typical dwarf classes, so what life path led them there? Well maybe that dwarf rogue was kicked out of the family and had to get by with his natural talents...which for him was sneaking around and picking locks...or maybe he's part of a banking clan and he sharpens his B&E skills in order to test the clan's defenses so they can improve their techniques for countering thieves...or maybe he's an elite scout/assassin in the dwarven armies, real CoD Ghost type of guy. Maybe that dwarf bard is a leaning on the bardic knowledge aspect, and plays the wise old mentor who nudges his party members in the right direction, always seems to know a bit about everything, and would fight if he could but has been retired too long and gotten too old to be really good at it...or maybe hexs a militant skald who learned his craft as part of using music to signal tactics to a squad in skirmishes and battles, but who can't rejoin society because those wars haunt his mind and his skills are too focused on the battlefield...or he's an attention-whore looking to make a name for himself outside of his surne by dping great deeds so he can prpve to himself and his that he was good enough to make a living without their help.

And then in a setting that's more akin to IRL, except the DM lets you play a dwarf for some reason...the SM probably has a reason. You were transported from a dwarf world.to a not dwarf world through strange magic, or your cdwarf" is just a scottish midget, or there's a race of dwarves deep below the surface and only one dwarf a generation has the genetics to nkt be blinded burned by the sunlight and thus venture towards the surface and live among humans. The qiestion of what backstory leads to "dwarf" is baked into the setting because of how rare dwarves are.

Those are the three possible answers we can give: "everybody is a dwarf so make up whatever you want", "dwarves are common so make up whatever younwant based on the lore", and "nobody is a dwarf but you are so the DM probably has specifically made lore for it".

Which means, for a race without much lore in the books, the answers are "make up whatever you want", "make up whatever you want", and "ask your DM". Like what even can we answer with? I would hazard a guess to say that the bat-race is probably nocturnal and is a cave/underground-dwelling race? But neither of those is guaranteed.

[Spore]

Which means, for a race without much lore in the books, the answers are "make up whatever you want", "make up whatever you want", and "ask your DM".

I think he wanted a bit of inspiration or some idea to copy and is perfectly able to understand there is no lore for his character concept. yet.

[Malphegor]

Spitballing:


Grime City, 1469.

A wretched hive of scum and villainy. You should tread carefully, for there is poison ivy everywhere. Once the pinaccle of the continent, known for its technological marvels unlike any the world has ever seen, now an overgrown jungle where stone walls are overtaken by plantlife and the works of druids. Toxic spores fill the air, whilst mutagenic transformations caused by the orgy of wildshapes and love of nature spreads rampantly, and the few remaining human citizens live under the fear of the last member of the knightly order of the city.
A dark knight, whose wings block out the sky as he fights for justice. A bat, the size and with features of a man. A Man-Bat. Once the scion to a noble house, trained in the ways of the combat orders who defend the rewilded city-state, torn between the beastial urges and his own oaths to protect and fight for the people of this place.

I dunno, go wild with it. Bat-people are about as weird as sea elves imo ('we want aquatic adventures but want elves' 'eh just slap some gills on Legolas and call it a sea elf' 'sure'), so like, think up a backstory that fits a human that has bat-like traits and slap that on your more batty person.

Like, do they think they're a vampire? Are they Batman? Some bats have hideous faces by human values as they look like they've smashed into a wall and had their entrails explode through their face- perhaps it's ostracised by humanoid culture but finds monstrous humanoids are more accepting?

[liquidformat]

I just feel like it’s a bit of a cop-out answer, hence my referencing it in the OP.
Don’t get me wrong it *is* a very D&D answer. But it doesn’t feel very compelling.

I would actually say this is very setting dependent, take Eberron for example, House Vadalis is credited with creating a decent number of the magical beasts in the setting and have had whispers of human experimentation from time to time that need to be stamped out by the druids of the house.

So Eberron is already completely setup for 'a wizard did it' to the extent you can say it was a House Vadalis who went rogue and create a decent backstory.



I’d considered this, but since it is such a strange race I was thinking it would be prudent to assume you’re the only bat-boy.
However, it’s a two part question. Why would a bat-boy from bat-village go adventuring?

The other easy straight forward answer here that is also very D&D is the Anthro Bat community is relatively small and xenophobic rarely going outside their territory. Bat Boy had a bit of wonder lust and was exploring a bit beyond the territory when he was captured by slavers and sold into a circus. Since escaping said circus he now adventures in attempts to find his people and home, though he knows not where they live.