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View Full Version : Find a way to shove this concept into a class



detrevnisisiht
2008-12-02, 10:45 PM
I was accepted into a game with the background to follow, and I have yet to pick a class for him, but the background kinda screams "Barbarian" which I don't want to use, I want something interesting to fit the personality rather than the cultural stereotypes of his history. the time skip section in vague enough that any manner of training could be edited in.

Any class from completes is ok, and other books on a case basis ('cept ToB and PHB2)
(note that A healing type would be awesome)
I just can't find something to fit....maybe I need sleep:smallamused:
any ideas?

Name:Leon Whose Scars Tell Stories (Leon the Scared for short)
Race:Human(1/8 orc but who's counting)
Age:26
Description: Leon looks far older in body then his age should allow. His black hair and tan skin are common among his people's appearance, the rest of him, however, is not.He is a torn mass of just to ragged cloths and greasy hair, already looking as if ready to gray. His skin, already slightly rougher than normal due to a slight genetic...hiccup in his mothers side of the family(his great-grandfather had a thing for orcs they say) is all the more ravaged by countless gashes of scar tissue and burns. His piercing blue eyes seem to be the only young thing left in him, for those are the eyes of a child.
Personality:As his tribal name may suggest, Leon has quite the number of scars, and every one of them has a story to tell(not to mention all the stories of less dangerous nature he collects) He has grown with the mentality that as long as you have friendly faces, a meal, and a new story waiting at the end of every endeavor that nothing else mattered. He lives his life by this mentality to this day. Always carefree and extroverted at the end of the day. Quick to form friendships and quicker to hand out help for any interesting task. He rarely sees a sad or unhappy moment even when faced with a possibility of death. "all epic stories end with a death" to quote his own words. He is also more than fine with a little exaggeration to make things more interesting.
Background: His early life is no great tale, the only event worth mentioning other than his leaving was a time as a small child. We have all heard tale of the overly curious child who disappears, and is often found having drown in the river, luckily for Leon rivers in the desert are rarely so deep. Life was an endless drudgery for his clan, herd animals this way herd them that way, find water, fight off the scorpions so you don't die in your sleep. Life was a constant struggle, and not a very interesting one at that. On top of all this, racial tension had been mounting in The North Desert, orc and human tribes began to compete more fiercely for control of the oasis. Tribes like Leon's, with mixed blood, were viewed with equal disgust from both parties.

The snapping event was during a trading foray with some rather savage humans. Trying to barter for a horse (to use upon leaving the desert, for his plans for departure were already being planed) he and the human came into a disagreement, and as the human seemed to hold a lot of sway with the people of the tribe, Leon's insistent dealings in an attempt to salvage something from the horrible deal lead to a tribal fight. He ended up escaping with the horse and all his goods, but what he had witnessed and, maybe in a small way started, was the beginnings of the Dwarf-Human War(Named for the winners, seems some tribes had outside connections). It was not until after a night of rest that he came to realize that he was missing the little finger on his left hand, he saw teeth marks and assumed that some angry man was hungry as well as violent. He mourned his lost loved ones for many days, but came to see that if he had lived, that he must go and live! To do otherwise would bring disrespect to the countless victims of the senseless slaughter.

For the next several years he traveled, always gaining new scars to go with the first, a day spent 'learning' to juggle axes from a street performer. Helping a farmhand calm a mad cow. Helping an old priest out of a burning temple. all for a cheep meal given in thanks, and a smile when he sits among new people and begins.."Let me tell you of the time a savage, gigantic, leper bit off my finger..."

Stupendous_Man
2008-12-02, 10:49 PM
Bard, perhaps?

Dark Herald
2008-12-02, 10:56 PM
Well, without any fighting style mentioned,

Fighter
Ranger
Rouge

With the alignment NG...

mabriss lethe
2008-12-02, 11:04 PM
I'd second Bard

Savage bard variant maybe?

You haven't by chance been reading Ikoma's story in L5R's Way of the Lion, Have you?

detrevnisisiht
2008-12-02, 11:04 PM
Bard maybe, we have a fighter and a scout already.....
@^ no savage bard, and haven't ever heard of it

SilverSheriff
2008-12-02, 11:05 PM
Well, without any fighting style mentioned,

Fighter
Ranger
Rouge

With the alignment NG...

yes a rouge is always a good class to play...

(I think you meant Rogue):smallwink:

Darrin
2008-12-02, 11:05 PM
Bard 4/Ranger 2/Barbarian 2/Runescarred Berserker 10. (And yes, he gets healing spells... CLW via Bard and CMW as Berserker.)

Hmm. Instead of bard, you might be able to put some Warrior Skald in there instead...

detrevnisisiht
2008-12-02, 11:16 PM
That's nice and all but I'm looking for role play capability..... I burned all my creativity just writing that in one sitting.

@v: Hmm....where to I find this Blood Magus?

Rei_Jin
2008-12-02, 11:20 PM
Hmm... perhaps a bard going into Blood Magus once you meet the pre-reqs? It's certainly not a powerful (or common) mix of classes, but it would be a good fit for his background

WhiteShark
2008-12-02, 11:27 PM
Savage Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard)
No because you don't know what it is or not permissible? It's a nice variant, and it fits nicely.

detrevnisisiht
2008-12-02, 11:28 PM
No variants, specified by GM

Eclipse
2008-12-02, 11:48 PM
Well, I'll second bard and ranger as very viable options.

However, druid or spirit shaman could also fit well, as he seems to be very tied to nature by his upbringing, as could a nature based cleric.

Of course, with enough effort, you could probably make any class fit the backstory, really. Then again, that's my feeling with just about everything.

To me though, the backstory screams spirit shaman or, as mentioned earlier, ranger or bard.

Keld Denar
2008-12-02, 11:50 PM
Why? Roleplaying is divorced from mechanics. With the exception of a couple rare classes, roleplaying is what you make of it, and dice are how the mechanics fall into play. Play the class with the mechanics you like, and use the story you wrote.

Why is this so hard to understand?

AmberVael
2008-12-02, 11:58 PM
^: There are different ways of working out a character. Designing mechanics and playing them along with any given concept feels a little jarring to some people. If you work mechanics and fluff at one time rather than each singly (or base one heavily off of the other), it can feel like you have a more cohesive character.


To give another option...

Totemist from Magic of Incarnum could be pretty fun. Perhaps reflavor it to have each meld you use represent a different scar he's gained (would be quite interesting with the character).

Prometheus
2008-12-03, 01:08 AM
Sounds like a great bard to me.

But ranger, fighter, rogue, and even monk unarmed swordsage or paladin (just because he is from the wilderness doesn't mean he is chaotic) all fit the character sketch. You could justify multiclassing into a wide range of classes. While you mentioned your character as human, it wouldn't be a bad character to pick a humanoid race with a LA or bloodline levels (provided you can stand that it won't be optimized). Alternatively, work in racial paragon levels to emphasize your raw abilities.


Bard maybe, we have a fighter and a scout already.....
Sometimes parties are more fun when they are lopsided. Besides, Bards seem to be one of the options available to you that is furthest from the others in that you get to place skillmonkey, diplomancer, healbot, and/or glass-canon in addition to meat-shield.

Stupendous_Man
2008-12-03, 01:11 AM
You can specialize a bard to be a caster, skillmonkey, or combatant.

Mystral
2008-12-03, 01:18 AM
Sounds like a bard, jup. Maybe with a few levels of barbarian thrown in.

Just pick perform oratory as your perform skill and war chanter as a prestige class.

mikeejimbo
2008-12-03, 01:52 AM
I immediately thought Savage Bard. Why no variants? It's not like it's overpowered or anything.

On the other hand, nothing says you can't RP a normal Bard LIKE a Savage Bard.

Honestly, he sounds more like a Bard than the Bard IS.

Stupendous_Man
2008-12-03, 01:54 AM
Depends on what your definition of "is" is.

mikeejimbo
2008-12-03, 01:59 AM
That would fall under your purview of philosophical problems...

But yeah, I guess so. I mean, what I meant by that was "More like the historical definition of a Bard", although that too isn't really all that accurate.

elliott20
2008-12-03, 02:09 AM
hell, you didnt' make any mention to things he has done specifically other than learn to juggle an axe. He also likes to tell stories, so a couple ranks in perform is warranted. But full blown bard? if you want to make the performing part the biggest part of his character, sure. (As most of his powers work off of performing) but if this is just a flavor or it's just something he does in addition to his other abilities, you can just about go any direction with it.

dspeyer
2008-12-03, 02:22 AM
I suspect ranger will serve you well here. Take the able learner feat at 1st level, and you can easily dabble in dozens of skills (7+int per level, 1-point 1-rank, and all the things this character should be really good at are class so you can place those ranks every level). An animal companion is a reasonable thing for a wanderer (maybe the horse?). It's capable in combat and has cure spells on the class list (even if the spells per day are very low, it means you can use wands). MAD is a problem, but not an insurmountable one.

Just ignore the fluff in the PHB.

Keld Denar
2008-12-03, 09:15 AM
^: There are different ways of working out a character. Designing mechanics and playing them along with any given concept feels a little jarring to some people. If you work mechanics and fluff at one time rather than each singly (or base one heavily off of the other), it can feel like you have a more cohesive character.


I dunno, I kind of have a problem with this. A character should be designed in such a way that it is fun, and can effectively contribute to the group. No one should get stuck with a mechanically weak character just because they thought up a cool story and end up taking 10 levels of commoner and can't participate in combat or RP encounters because they have no combat skills, no hp to survive, no skill points in relative skills, and nothing really to offer the party. Unless you want to play a rules light pure RP game, but then you probably shouldn't be playing D&D, as there are other systems that better model this style. You don't turn in a screw with a hammer, do you?

No one has fun when the really neato character concept they came up with doesn't do any damage in combat, or doesn't help disable opponents, or buff allies, or do ANYTHING meaningful in a game. You might as well not even be playing the entire time there is a combat. I don't care who you are, its not fun. Look at all the people who come to the playground with "help make my X more effective". They have little problem coming up with interesting characters, but because of the way the game was designed, they aren't having much fun with the mechanics and the way those mechanics function in and out of combat in the game. And I'm not saying every character has to be super optimized, but playing something like a ranger20 with a 10 str who at level 20 is still only doing 1d8 damage per hit with his sword when the barbarian is doing 2d6+60 or the wizard is casting 9th level spells, etc, is just not fun. Everyone should have the right to share the limelight, both in combat and out. Mechanics and story of a character have to be somewhat independant of one anothers.

Sorry for not posting this last night in response, but I fell asleep... :P