Giving PCs/NPCs Some Character

[Chronicled]

Before my laptop died on me, I had a text file with a whole bunch of great RPG ideas that I'd seen while browsing the intarwebs. Everything from interesting character quirks to fun traps to use when DMing. Well, that file's inaccessible at best, so I'm making a new one. Starting with interesting character concepts, quirks, and the like.

What is the greatest one you've seen or used? Anything from:


I had played a dwarven barbarian who when fighting a Remorhaz that surprised him, got half of his face melted off. There was no cleric in the party, so the wound had to heal on its own. It left him horrifically scarred and half blind in one eye. But worst of all, it burned half of his beard off and left only scar tissue. He ended up getting so pissed off that he took strips of chainmail and pierced them to his chin and face to make up for his lost beard.

to "A bard that uses a violin with adamantine strings and a steel bow. It needs lubricant to not sound horrible, the best being... blood. As in this picture:" http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb177/ClericofPhwarrr/bards.jpg

Okay, go!

[arguskos]

Wow... that barbarian was pretty awesome.

As to interesting characters I've seen, there was this one wizard who decided he didn't like living anymore, and figured he would turn himself into a warforged. Well, in the process, he lost his memory, and went around calling himself Crush, since that was the first thing he did (he landed ass-first onto a Red Wizard's face, thus pulping him instantly).

Not the most original, but fun enough.

More to come as I remember them.

-argus

[chiasaur11]

A Kobold Paladin raised from birth to think of Kobolds as a race of heroes and legends.

The real world kinda punches the poor guy in the face.

A Cleric who's devoted his life to raising the dead to full life...
Until the first letters of the names spell out "Choke on it Death, Orcus, and the Three laws of Thermodynamics!"

A chain-smoking Zombie private detective.

A ninja who, while bad at stealth, has really good bluff checks. "No, really, I was there all along. It's not my fault you couldn't see me!"

And a warforged warlord who convinces his party he's a ahard boiled vetran of the great wars... when really he was a wizard's student project just a couple of weeks ago.

[Dr Bwaa]

This is a cool thread; I'll give it some thought. You should add lankybugger's character in here.


Last night I was told to make a level 5 character, preferably someone who could tank, heal, or was a skill-monkey (the primary was a Bard, at the moment).

Enter Diego "Ash" Althaes, former scout for the Imperial army and now an Acolyte in the services of the Fharlanghn. He is a rather frail looking human youth with a windblown shock of ash gray hair (hence the nickname "Ash"), wearing only the robes common to many of the Fharlanghn's priests and wielding only a worn-looking, if well made Bastard Sword at his side. A sturdy, if also well-worn traveling pack sits comfortably on his back as he strides the road. The only curious thing about him, aside from the bastard sword, is a red ribbon wrapping one arm. It ends well short of his hand, but you'd almost swear it was occasionally letting a drop of blood fall. Looking behind him, you can see that this is the case, as every few hundred paces or so you can just make out dried blood following in his footsteps.

In game terms, he's a Human Rogue 3/Cleric 2. He started out as a Rogue, and he's found god after a particularly nasty battle, which resulted in the cursed ribbon being placed on his arm by his foe. The curse is slowly sapping his life from him. In game terms he only heals at half the normal rate for a character of his level. At the end of every day he must take a just a sip from a potion he's learned to brew (DC 19 Craft: Alchemy check, with a sale cost of 300 Gold for five flasks worth, with me being able to brew five flasks with one check) or take 1d4-1 temporary Con damage, no save. The potion lasts for roughly thirty sips before I have to brew more. The most frightening aspect of the curse for Ash is that the magic used to make it was incredibly rare, and normal avenues for removing curses just don't want to work. A diviner has told me that the only way he knows of to break the curse is to kill the one who gave it to me. PsychoDM told me to make an interesting character with plot hooks, so I unleashed my imagination. A cursed soldier who's found God, looking for the cure to his curse? Plot hooks aplenty with this one. The only thing I asked PsychoDM for in return for this curse was an extra feat, that feat being Skill Focus Craft: Alchemy.

[Chronicled]

This is a cool thread; I'll give it some thought. You should add lankybugger's character in here.

Oh, good call! (How could I forget, with the number of times I've linked to that thread? :smallsigh:)

[Sstoopidtallkid]

This Sunday I get to start running my Malkonverter. She's a 12-year-old human female who only summons evil creatures, because interrupting a good creature and making it fight for you would be rude. Character Pic:http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj145/ninjalindz/lumiere.jpgWe also have a womanizing, alcoholic, slightly crazy Duskblade/Warblade going into Eternal Blade. 6 Cha, and a sword that injects booze into his blood when he wields it. And, of course, the Warmage Drill Sergeant and the fey-touched Elderitch Disciple. I expect good things from this group.

[TheCountAlucard]

There was the time the PCs thought they'd encountered a whole bunch of clay golems standing by the road. Really, they were just sculptures...

See, a clay golem had somehow gained intelligence, and got lonely standing there on its own.

[JackMage666]

I once had a Githzerai monk who, though he understood and knew how to speak it, refused to speak common. He understood other characters fully (though pretended not to, unless they spoke Gith or Undercommon), so the party was able to communicate just fine (unless he had a comment, which he relayed through the Dwarf who spoke Undercommon, but he was more a follower than a leader). The other characters had no problem letting the Gith follow them around and work with them, as he seemed to know what he was doing just fine.

The greatest moment in that campaign was when my DM put us up against a Githyanki, and my character said, in full common to the party "This one's mine. Kill the rest but save it's head for me." The party was stunned because that was the only thing I ever said in Common.

[Chronicled]

and a sword that injects booze into his blood when he wields it

*Puts in his "definitely will use" file* :smallbiggrin:

[Telonius]

Tales of the Dread Pirate Mara have been spread across the Seven Seas. She takes no prisoners, and none have seen her and lived. Though many scoff at the idea, and consider her merely a legend, the truth is far more surprising. She exists, and is none other than Amaranthia Shipsmith, Halfling. She and her crew operate a large ship, under the flag of Yondalla. Amaranthia has a strong sense of justice, and hates seeing people being pushed around. If her ship is ever attacked - and it happens quite frequently - she will trounce the pirates and relieve them of all of their possessions. Since losing to a girl literally half their size would be truly reputation-breaking to any self-respecting pirate, she suggests the scurvy dogs to tell their friends they were beaten by the Dread Pirate Mara. After all, surviving that would certainly save their reputations!

[Vazzaroth]

Oh boy. I have a history of playing character that do unexpected things like that Barbarian. First, I had a Half-elf mage named Illick. He grew up as an an apprentice in a secluded room, I asked jokingly how he went to the bathroom, since the DM said all the windows were closed permanently, and where he would throw the chamber pot. The DM decided I had a chamber pot that would teleport waste away with a flash. Illick, being the man of science (magic?) he was, decided to conduct an experiment. He procured a chicken. Then a small bell. He tied the bell onto the chicken, with intent to find the chicken later since he thought the waste might have been moved outside somewhere.

About 5 mins later, he had a pile of ashes and one badly charred bell in his pot. If only he would have cast Detect Magic, maybe he could see it was a Evocation spell, not a Conjuration Spell.

He also had another incident...a little more vulgar.

We were in some magic forest. The kind where you go in one grove, the DM rolls a % die, and tells you which part you teleported to. We kept finding this statue of an old wizard man. Illick deduced that it must be a petrified wizard who we must save. He cursed his lack of Scrolls of Stone to Flesh, and didn't know the spell. So, again, jokingly, I made a "Pull a scroll out of my ass" check, as I called it. I rolled a 19, and the DM rolled with it.
I produced a piece of parchment with a peculiar smell from out of the back of my robes, but, since it was a 19 and not a 20, it was just blank paper. :smallannoyed:

The best part: It had a quill rolled up in it. We decided Illick kept it in case he needed to write any notes down in an emergency. We rubbed the paper on the statue for good measure and continued on.


As far as concepts go, I played a Soulknife/Psychic Warrior/Elocater, Clay Brusad. He floated along the ground from the elocater class, and had a glowing blade. He was pretty much a Gundam. Later, I took a modified feat based off of the Shape Soulknife ones from Complete Psionic to make it a Spike Chain. Now he was Spawn too. Plus, I had a ring of blinking, and it was common practice for Clay to blink into a room first, one time resulting in him blinking into a flooded room filled with water, and when the party followed, he came tumbling out in the flood and delt damage to the person who opened the door :smallannoyed:



Edit: I just remembered. One game my friend ran before I was into DnD involved a PC who had become a cyborg in DnD terms. His lower half was built from wood and metal, running off steam. The greatest part? When he would thrust his hips, a flaming crossbow bolt would fly out. This was his primary attack.

[Dr Bwaa]

When he would thrust his hips, a flaming crossbow bolt would fly out. This was his primary attack.

That just reminded me of my friend's halfling rogue, who got a crossbow/codpiece from the gnomes when we saved Lantan from the eco-terrorists O_o It only had a 5' range increment, but it had a x4 crit and always threatened a critical if it hit :smalleek: He and I (gnome bard) also gained, that session (we were the only ones playing that night):
Statues built--of adamantine--in our honor
Masterwork Gnome six-shooters (only a 1% failure rate!)
A level 14 Half-orc Fighter/Barbarian Cohort named Hulga Logbash, whose skin has acid resistance (you don't want to know why).
An entire island nation ready to become our followers on-the spot if needed
Experience driving the OmniGorgon5000 (prototype hovertank with a 70mm gun :smalleek:
A large book on Inventing (when read and understood fully, provides up to ten ranks in Craft (Invention)).

[Shai'Hulud]

I once played a half orc fighter who was sent on a number of quests by a town mayor. This town mayor was rather short tempered when dealing with his 4 int. Eventually he got sick of it and decided to "run" for mayor. So he ran around town yelling "I am running for mayor." Until he ran into a wall, at which point he started walking for mayor.