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Dragor
2007-12-27, 06:59 AM
I want to play a Wizard, I really do. Yet, as hard as I try, I simply can't seem to think how I'd roleplay one. I've flicked through Complete Mage and I wasn't exactly inspired with ideas. I usually play combat or skill monkey characters, and the only time I played an arcane class was when I played on PbP with a Sorceress. It was good fun.

So, can anyone suggest to me some character ideas, or at least some inspiration to get that 'spark' set off for me? I don't want to play your typical tower-dwelling, paranoid Wizard with a bestiary of demons. :smalltongue:

Learnedguy
2007-12-27, 07:17 AM
You could play a snarky and arrogant student who "decided" to abandon his academy. Instead of being your typical intellectual smartass nerd, you could play him as a talkative jock or something. Furthermore, you got your own hook. Why the hell were you thrown out of the academy?

Iku Rex
2007-12-27, 07:21 AM
Level? Books available? Not all concepts work from level 1, or with just the core rulebooks.


Ideas:

- Shapeshifting transmutation specialist obsessed with change.
- Cranky old loremaster who knows pretty much everything and only fights with his trusty "walking stick".
- Construct maker who wants to build the perfect machine.
- Manipulative enchanter treating friends and foes alike as "minions".
- Cowardly buff-bot who refuses to directly attack the enemy and instead assists the rest of the party, taking credit for every successful strike.

mostlyharmful
2007-12-27, 07:21 AM
play a scientist/explorer, a nineteenth century type that goes around measuring everything and publishing back home, not in it for the money but for the pursuit of Knowledge (re: academic respect). Try reading some of the daft things that the victorians got up to, acrtic exploration to find the poles or the Northwest passage, Measuring mountains in the Himalayas just to know, trying to work out the weight of the earth by exactly charting a mountain in scotland to the hundredth decimal place. etc.. now try it from a botanical point of view, collecting specimins and samples from all the things that go bump in the night, documenting abberitions, outsiders, undead and all the other ugly gribblies, trying to understand the mating habits and migratory patterns of the Red Dragon without being fried for your troubles.

Give him a poncey name and make sure to hire minions that innevitably get eaten/sacrificed/turned-to-goo at every encounter. Use his extradimensional spaces to pack a really good picnic hamper and an entire laundry operation to keep his collars starched as you never know when you might be invited to a dinner party or expected to entertain in the middle of an uninhabited plain or underneath an active volcano.:smallsmile:

Kurald Galain
2007-12-27, 07:24 AM
Here's a few interesting archetypes...

* Curiosity. The kind of person who wants to know, well, everything possible. Comes with a lot of books, library savvy, and lots 'n lots of knowledge skills, takes notes on things he meets, and comes up with obscure bits of trivia at will. Convince the DM to let you take Bardic Knowledge for a feat, just because it's flavorful.

* An exotic ritualist wonderworker, who is not really a shaman because he's not religious, but nevertheless (used to) take care of a village/tribe's occult needs. Perhaps has a strange spellbook (knotted cords, tattoos, etc) and is strange but powerful.

* Hapless apprentice. Somebody who has worked with the likes of Merlin, and is totally in awe of the sheer power and beauty of that magic, but just can't manage it. Is disappointed with the fact that 2nd-level spells are very difficult, and strives very hard to keep up.

Iku Rex
2007-12-27, 07:24 AM
...collecting specimins and samples from all the things that go bump in the night, documenting abberitions, outsiders, undead and all the other ugly gribblies, trying to understand the mating habits and migratory patterns of the Red Dragon without being fried for your troubles. ...He will of course have to be working on his crowning achievement - a "manual of monsters". :smallsmile:

Emperor Demonking
2007-12-27, 07:45 AM
You could go for a member of the milita, a travelling band of rogues.

mostlyharmful
2007-12-27, 07:51 AM
He will of course have to be working on his crowning achievement - a "manual of monsters". :smallsmile:

Oh no. That was written years ago and has since become outdated, now he is working on the new, improved version, a new edition if you will, that will make all our lives better, give more accurate information on a wider range of monsters, provide interesting scenarios and environments and in all ways be entirely superior.... Blech.:smallwink:

Solo
2007-12-27, 02:20 PM
Oh no. That was written years ago and has since become outdated, now he is working on the new, improved version, a new edition if you will, that will make all our lives better, give more accurate information on a wider range of monsters, provide interesting scenarios and environments and in all ways be entirely superior.... Blech.:smallwink:

God forbid he cast Magic Mouth on this monstrosity so that it will read information from the "Monsterdex" to the user when the book is pointed in the direction of a cataloged monster...

Ralfarius
2007-12-27, 02:30 PM
If you were playing one of the less-standard races as a wizard, you could make a character with a big chip on their shoulder. Something to prove both to their own culture of their race, and the culture of the class. Highly competitive, doesn't take well to setbacks, always looking to one-up other wizards.

I had a friend once play a middle-aged wizard as a balding, paunchy man that rode a mule and had a chicken on a leash as a pet. Just sort of an unsuspecting older guy who happens to have a lot of power hidden behind his food-stained robes.

Telonius
2007-12-27, 02:48 PM
In the D&D world, arcane power is there for anyone to use, if they want to spend the time and effort to do so. Why would someone want to do the things that a wizard can do? There are lots of different answers to that question. When you find an answer you think is compelling, you've found the motivation for your first wizard character. :smallsmile:

Some easy ones... Simple curiosity. Desire for power. Social expectations (dad, granddad, great-granddad, etc. was a wizard). Social counter-expectations (dad thinks wizards are bad). Economic considerations (wizards can earn lots of money). Training (apprenticed to a wizard from a young age). Made a promise to study the art. Wanted to defend against an enemy wizard. Wants to find a spell that will do a specific thing (undo a misfortune, dispell an epic curse, turn self into a ham sandwich, whatever).

Telonius
2007-12-27, 02:50 PM
Here's a few interesting archetypes...

* Curiosity. The kind of person who wants to know, well, everything possible. Comes with a lot of books, library savvy, and lots 'n lots of knowledge skills, takes notes on things he meets, and comes up with obscure bits of trivia at will. Convince the DM to let you take Bardic Knowledge for a feat, just because it's flavorful.


Loremaster prestige class is the way to go for that one. :smallsmile:

Solo
2007-12-27, 02:53 PM
In the D&D world, arcane power is there for anyone to use, if they want to spend the time and effort to do so. Why would someone want to do the things that a wizard can do? There are lots of different answers to that question. When you find an answer you think is compelling, you've found the motivation for your first wizard character. :smallsmile:

Some easy ones... Simple curiosity. Desire for power. Social expectations (dad, granddad, great-granddad, etc. was a wizard). Social counter-expectations (dad thinks wizards are bad). Economic considerations (wizards can earn lots of money). Training (apprenticed to a wizard from a young age). Made a promise to study the art. Wanted to defend against an enemy wizard. Wants to find a spell that will do a specific thing (undo a misfortune, dispell an epic curse, turn self into a ham sandwich, whatever).

Having fun should be in there too.

Study hard, party harder.:smallcool:

Telonius
2007-12-27, 03:21 PM
Oh, forgot the most obvious one ... trying to impress their preferred romantic partner.

Triaxx
2007-12-27, 03:35 PM
Try the magic monster approach. The wizard who's answer to a question is to start launching spells at the person who asked it. Even if it's: And who might you be? From an average commoner. The wizard who blasts first, blasts again, then starts asking the trees questions when the fighting is over.

'What were the monkey's doing climbing you?'

TMZ_Cinoros
2007-12-27, 04:26 PM
I want to play a Wizard, I really do. Yet, as hard as I try, I simply can't seem to think how I'd roleplay one. I've flicked through Complete Mage and I wasn't exactly inspired with ideas. I usually play combat or skill monkey characters, and the only time I played an arcane class was when I played on PbP with a Sorceress. It was good fun.

So, can anyone suggest to me some character ideas, or at least some inspiration to get that 'spark' set off for me? I don't want to play your typical tower-dwelling, paranoid Wizard with a bestiary of demons. :smalltongue:

My favorite type of wizard to play is the "story teller." This idea plays off of the curiosity theme that many other people in this thread have mentioned, but it is much more specific, differentiating you from the blandly generic know-it-all wizard archetype. As a story teller, you do your best to collect stories, knowing that most tales have some seed of truth behind them. Of course, you want to become more powerful via the arcane arts, but you also believe that most stories can lend guidance to how to live life.

Luckily, there is a prestige class in the DMG that directly supports the flavor of this class: the Loremaster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/loremaster.htm). The Loremaster is my favorite prestige class, as it has great potential for flavor while being a powerful, but not broken, prestige class. Another cool aspect of the Loremaster is that he gets "Lore," which is essentially bardic knowledge (so you can get Bardic Knowledge, as Kurald Galain mentioned, without bending the rules).

This concept works particularly well if you specialize in Divination (barring Evocation, of course). Justify this by explaining that you believe that knowledge is power, and that situations are best won through cunning and subtlety, not with the hammer of blasting spells (which suck anyways). The more you invest in the part of the story teller, the more fun you will have as well. If you do this, try to work with your DM and brain storm stories that you can tell at the session. Your DM will love this, because it gives him lots of good hooks for the campaign. For bonus points, invest in Perform (oratory) (even though it is a cross-class skill until you start Loremaster) and Knowledge(History). Ask your DM if you can apply the synergy bonus that Knowledge(History) normally gives to Bardic Knowledge to Lore instead, as the flavor and mechanics are exactly the same.

If you are a min-maxer, this idea has a lot of potential as well to be a Batman Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19085). For extra flavor and power, you can be a gray elf. You get to be an arrogant bastard when you first meet people. Once you get to know them, you have them gather around the campfire and tell a story about, say, the war between Bahamut and Tiamat.

If you want to kick it up a notch in a high level campaign, go for the Archmage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/archmage.htm) (also in the DMG), to represent your increasing desire for mastery over the arcane arts. Wizard 7 / Loremaster 6 / Archmage 3 / Loremaster 4 is a classic build. Just remember to always use your powers for good (or for awesome). Don't show boat, and always have the right spell prepared to turn certain defeat into victory at the most dramatic moment.

Who says that role playing and min-maxing are mutually exclusive?

DISCLAIMER: This post is meant purely for entertainment purposes. All advice is subject to DM approval. The author is in no way liable for any cheese or brokenness that may result from abuse of given character ideas. Use only as directed. No other warranty expressed or implied. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required.

Duke of URL
2007-12-27, 04:32 PM
There's the revenge/angst angle... if the character is a non-standard race, especially an unusual half-breed, (s)he can study magic in an attempt to become more powerful than the wizard whose experiments created her/him in the first place.

The Faceless
2007-12-27, 04:44 PM
He will of course have to be working on his crowning achievement - a "manual of monsters". :smallsmile:

Thank you for making me laugh uncontrollably for about a minute. I may just have to make this character sometime.

Lolzords
2007-12-27, 04:47 PM
I like the idea of the arrogant wizard who is rude and sarcastic to everyone, but cares deep down.

Tough nut with a soft centre. ;)

raygungothic
2007-12-27, 05:19 PM
Here's a few interesting archetypes...
Perhaps has a strange spellbook (knotted cords, tattoos, etc)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the image of an Inca wizard using a Quipu as his spellbook. I don't know if it's your idea or someone else's, but it leads to lots of interesting places.

(About to go away for a few days so replies may be delayed)

mostlyharmful
2007-12-27, 05:24 PM
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the image of an Inca wizard using a Quipu as his spellbook. I don't know if it's your idea or someone else's, but it leads to lots of interesting places.

(About to go away for a few days so replies may be delayed)

It's in complete Arcane, there are rules and everything. i've run an NPC on this, he was a fun over the water type mage that everyone looked down on but turned out good, it's a great mechanic if you want something weird and alien and exotic. (in the classic sense of the word)

ErrantX
2007-12-27, 06:34 PM
A roguish, dandy of a scholar who dresses nicely and drips with social grace and class. Taking the Able Learner feat from the Races of Destiny book and playing a human (or half-elf) will allow you to pump precious skill points into social skills on 1-for-1 basis with that feat. Basically a swashbuckler without the rapier.

-X

CactusAir
2007-12-27, 08:06 PM
God forbid he cast Magic Mouth on this monstrosity so that it will read information from the "Monsterdex" to the user when the book is pointed in the direction of a cataloged monster...

*Beep* Roving Mauler.

Large Magical Creature.

This creature is belived to be associated with...

Solo
2007-12-27, 08:16 PM
*Beep* Roving Mauler.

Large Magical Creature.

This creature is belived to be associated with...

... your stabbity death.

Reel On, Love
2007-12-27, 08:34 PM
A roguish, dandy of a scholar who dresses nicely and drips with social grace and class. Taking the Able Learner feat from the Races of Destiny book and playing a human (or half-elf) will allow you to pump precious skill points into social skills on 1-for-1 basis with that feat. Basically a swashbuckler without the rapier.

-X

Wow, that's almost exactly a character I played (only I used a feat to get some skills as class skills--City Slicker, I think). It was great fun. Being Snooty McSnootypants is awesome.

TempusCCK
2007-12-27, 09:07 PM
Right now I'm playing a Sorceror/Wizard hybrid type thing who realizes that the world is run by people who use power and influence for their own good, but not the good of others. He has thought long and hard on the situation (with his 20 INT) and has decided that only by doing what most other will not and can not do, can he make the world the way it should be.

So, we have a character who is essentially good, but routinely works for the Government on contract killings and sets buildings on fire for the greater good, all while dodging the town guard who has no idea he is actually trying to make their world a better place by removing people who would use it for their own profit.

It's great fun actually, I have all the joys of being an assassin, but none o the emotional burden, because what he's doing is removing a few black splotches on the face of existence.

The Faceless
2007-12-27, 09:29 PM
One concept i read about here a while back was a Dwarven wizard who used a rifle as his "spellbook", inscribing runes into the surface to store spells, preparing them by treating them with various oils and herbs and such, then loading in the material components and firing the rifle to cast spells. I always wanted to try a blaster wizard with that concept.

And now that that "Manual of monsters" concept is working around my head, i'm picturing him as a big game hunter type, with finely waxed mustache and monocle.

"What ho, a blue dragon! Wilkins, fetch my rifle, load the bat guano, and get ready to bag the blighter!"

Yami
2007-12-28, 12:38 AM
My favorite concept was the wrestler who wanted to be better at what he did. Strength as the second highest stat, Improved Grapple, and such spells as Balor Nimbus and Fearsom Grapple. Since your not a real wizard you can specialize in transmutation and drop enchantment and evocation. Those have the least amount of buffs.

The idea was that this person did not see himself as a Wizard, merely a Warrior who used magic to augment his already awsome combat capacity. He was the tank of the party and managed to save them at level 7 by holding off a CR 10 creature for 10 rounds while the rest of the party shook off the opposing side's save or suck effects. Later died in the 7th encounter of that dungeon after all his spells and hp had been depleted.