The Big List of Player/Character Stereotypes

[StoryKeeper]

The Rules Lawyer and Role Player, the Evil Lich Arcanist and the Sticky-fingered Rogue. I finally got around to making this thread after seeing another post. What are some of the characters we see time and again in fantasy, sci-fi, or whatever?

[Saintjebus]

Dwarven Fighter in Full plate w/ Greataxe.
Elven Ranger/ archer style

[DownwardSpiral]

Good character, but the twist is his race is evil, and he's constantly trying to re-enforce that he's good. Or something. He also has two scimitars.

[Tuataralad]

All dwarves have a scottish accent.
All elves are pretty much hippies.
The standard lawful good paladin.
There are a lot...

[elliott20]

All dwarves have a scottish accent.
All elves are pretty much hippies.

You mean there are dwarves who DON'T wear kilts? OH THANK GOD! Now a gust of wind is no longer the deadliest thing that can happen in a dwarven community!

So is this thread about the stereotypical players or the stereotypical characters? cuz that's like, two books worth of materials.

[Nohwl]

All dwarves have a scottish accent.
All elves are pretty much hippies.
The standard lawful good paladin.
There are a lot...

ive had complaints because i didnt give my dwarf a scottish accent.

[gibbo88]

I like the halfling rogue thing:

"I think ill play a halfling"
"So we have a party rogue, excellent"
"Wait, no, I was thinking something else"
"HAHAHAhahahahaha....hahahaha.....good one"

[Archpaladin Zousha]

That guy who'll only play paladins because he likes to play the heroic knight-in-shining-armor and any dark or morally ambiguous characters immediately send him running for his blanky and teddy bear, the pansy!

(That guy is me.)

[Kris Strife]

The loonie
the loose cannon cop
the hardboiled detective
the hippie druid

[Enlong]

The pyromaniac sorcerer.
The chaotic neutral psycho who does jump off bridges as often as he walks across them.
The baby-sitter paladin.
The Druid who stays in animal form all day and uses Natural Spells and buffs just his animal companion, occasionally deigning to give the Fighter packmule privileges. (AKA: The Druid)

[Lord_Ventnor]

The Big Dumb Fighter

The Evil Guy who wants to Kill Everything and yet is somehow on the heroes side

The Elven Archer

The Dwarven Drunkard

The Horde of Orcs who all die in one attack

[SurlySeraph]

That guy who'll only play paladins because he likes to play the heroic knight-in-shining-armor and any dark or morally ambiguous characters immediately send him running for his blanky and teddy bear, the pansy!

(That guy is me.)

On a different note: the excessively hardass, "Smite them all and let St. Cuthbert sort them out!" paladin who acts in no way Lawful Good.

[SoD]

On a different note: the excessively hardass, "Smite them all and let St. Cuthbert sort them out!" paladin who acts in no way Lawful Good.

Miko?


Ah, my arch-nemises, the ten character minimum length rule, we meet again. But this time, the odds are in my favour! For, you see, you have just fallen into my trap, bua-ha-ha-haa!

[Kesnit]

Good character, but the twist is his race is evil, and he's constantly trying to re-enforce that he's good. Or something. He also has two scimitars.

Just for kicks, I played The Unnamed One in a mod in NWN1. (Didn't have the right enhancements on the scimitars, but close enough.) It was rather amusing, but the attack penalties for duel-wielding scimitars suck.

Back on topic...
The Min-Maxing player when other PC's are not min-maxed.

[Thurbane]

Dwarven Fighter in Full plate w/ Greataxe.
A friend of mine just joined our regular group 3 weeks ago. He hadn't played D&D since the 1E days (when he was about 12, over 20 years ago).

His very first 3.5 character is...:smallbiggrin:

[random11]

Barbarians - It seems that almost by definition, there is only one way to play them.


Orcs - An entire race whose only purpose is killing, pillaging and enslaving other races.
Goblins - An entire race whose only purpose is killing, stealing and serving orcs.
Kobolds - An entire race whose only purpose is serving as cannon fodder while either killing, stealing or serving orcs.

[Paramour Pink]

The stereotype that all stereotypes make a character bad.

[Laurellien]

Barbarians - It seems that almost by definition, there is only one way to play them.


The highly cultured dwarf in my avatar would like to disagree with you there. He was an intelligent, wise, charismatic aristocrat who also happened to have levels in THREE classes that granted him rage-like abilities that stacked. He was well mannered, friendly and good to the core, but hurt one of his friends and he would go rage/frenzy/battle fury on your ass.

Back on topic

... The meek cleric that stands at the back and casts healing spells
... The insane gnome illusionist
... The supposedly wise but actually intensely annoying and uppity elf mage
... The sorcerer or wizard that dies in one hit in the first session
... The noble fighter/paladin/knight that habitually burns, loots, murders, terrorises and generally acts CE
... The unassuming, bookish wizard who appears weak, but in battle kills everything with fire, laughing maniacally.
... The unassuming, bookish archivist with a level in Sacred Exorcist who seems like a harmless nerd until he enters battle, where he turns into a gargantuan half-fiendish eldritch giant made out of iron.
... The Thrannish Cleric in Eberron who has levels in Church Inquisitor.
... The dashing swashbuckler
... The monk that just survives doing absolutely nothing until one day a boss actually fails two fortitude saves against him and dies.

[monty]

... The unassuming, bookish archivist with a level in Sacred Exorcist who seems like a harmless nerd until he enters battle, where he turns into a gargantuan half-fiendish eldritch giant made out of iron.

Heh, I remember that one. Good times.

[Kurald Galain]

The "I'm not a cliche, honest" who is the exact reverse of the cliche.

[Eorran]

The party that assumes that calling themselves Chaotic Good means they are free to behave in a Neutral Evil manner.

The player who only enjoys the game if he feels like he's "winning" over the DM/other players. Tends to either smirk or sulk. Tends also to be struck by lighting, falling rocks, randomly appearing monsters...

The elf who's better than you, at everything, forever.

The Bad Guy whose only motivation is being Evil.

[Satyr]

My personal nemesis: The player who overidentifies with his character, wants to be like him and is personally offended when something bad happens to the character.

[Ravens_cry]

Barbarians - It seems that almost by definition, there is only one way to play them.

Or, you could take the noble savage angle. Or the educated savage, who uses the synargy of what he has learned in both worlds to become a much more effective war leader. Or you could play a gentle giant who you don't want to get angry. Or you could play the fierce frothing at the mouth berserker who relishes battle.
Or an infinity of other ways. There is never just ONE way to play a character.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Chaotic Neutral characters who speak completely in non sequiters.

[TricksyAndFalse]

The world's greatest whatever who is effectively level one because he has amnesia. His xp is a function of remembering how to do stuff, not because he's learning it for the first time.

[Miraqariftsky]

On a different note: the excessively hardass, "Smite them all and let St. Cuthbert sort them out!" paladin who acts in no way Lawful Good.

Oh-ho, what about the preacher paladin who tries converting people before he unleashes the divine wrath? How about the poetic paladin who waxes eloquent with every breath, inspired by everything from the faintest dewdrop to blood-spattered steel to rolling thunder in the high heavens?

[Funkyodor]

Let's see...

The Wizard / Cleric / Druid player that hogs play time to look in the PHB for every spell he trys to cast, because he didn't do the prep work to write / print them out ahead of time. Very frustrating.

The player busy reading book information while the DM is dialoging, then asks whats going on and makes him repeat the highlights. Got so bad it was almost game breaking.

The Noisy Eater, that doesn't realize that chewing cheetoe's with his mouth open is LOUD!