Iconic Characters in Literature

[Tarlek Flamehai]

I would like the Playground to help build a list of characters in literature that are clear examples of Iconic RPG character classes.

Barbarian: Conan

Bard: Felimid Mac Fall

Cleric: ?

Druid: ?

Fighter: Druss the Legend

Monk: ?

Paladin: Sir Galahad

Ranger: Aragorn, Robin Hood

Rogue: Hanse Shadowspawn

Sorcerer: Lythande

Wizard: Gandalf, Pug

Psion: Camber of Culdi, Professor Xavier, Dragon Lord Lenardo

Psychic Warrior: ?

Soulknife: ?

Wilder: Jean Grey


I look forward to your inputs.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Barbarian: Hercules

Bard: Orpheus

Cleric: Teiresias

Fighter: Perseus

Paladin: Achilles

Ranger: Atalanta

Rogue: Odysseus

Sorcerer: Circe

Wizard: Medea

[Beleriphon]

Barbarian: Cú Chulainn or Fafhrd

Bard: Dandelion

Cleric: Archbiship Turpin

Druid: ?

Fighter: Herakles

Monk: Sun Wu Kong

Rogue: The Grey Mouser

Sorcerer: Ningauble or Sheelba

Wizard: Merlin

Psion: ?

Psychic Warror: Luke Skywalker

Wilder: ?

[Dienekes]

In what way is Achilles a Paladin? Achilles, the guy who ditched his friends because his boss was mean to him, owned and repeatedly used personal sex slaves implied to be taken by conquest, so raped by our standards. He desecrates his enemies corpses. He's most well known for flying into uncontrollable rages. And tries to break his sworn oath by disguising himself as a woman. There's nothing paladin like about the guy.

Anyway, uhh

Fighter: Ajax, no social skills only fights, no magic on his side. Has one uncontrollable bloodlust rage but that was a curse from Athena so I wouldn't count it.

Frenzied Berserker: Logan "the Bloody Nine"

Scout: Legolas

If we can expand outside of 3.5
Cavalier: King Arthur, knight with a focus on leadership abilities.

[Dire Moose]

It's true that Aragorn is the original "iconic ranger." In the same vein, Legolas and Gimli are the iconic elf and dwarf.

Bilbo Baggins is probably one of the most prominent characters that inspired the Rogue, and for the association between halflings and rogues in general.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

In what way is Achilles a Paladin? Achilles, the guy who ditched his friends because his boss was mean to him, owned and repeatedly used personal sex slaves implied to be taken by conquest, so raped by our standards. He desecrates his enemies corpses. He's most well known for flying into uncontrollable rages. And tries to break his sworn oath by disguising himself as a woman. There's nothing paladin like about the guy.

1) God-given or at least god-blessed weapons.
2) Protection from harm by a divine source.
3) Charismatic leader to the point that his people didn't fight in a life-death struggle without his guidance.
4) Divine patron or patrons that acted on his behalf directly.

As for his flaws, they were not much different from what various Arthurian legend figures did in their stories.

[Frozen_Feet]

Artificer: Seppo Ilmarinen (Kalevala)
Wizard: Väinämöinen (Kalevala)
Fighter or Barbarian: Kullervo and Lemminkäinen (Kalevala)
Witch: Louhi (Kalevala)

[BrokenChord]

Sorry to be the person to bring this up, but...

Paladin: Gandalf

Only half joking, because I know he isn't presented as a Paladin. But it sure represents him a lot better than Wizard does.

[Red Fel]

Barbarian: Sun Wukong (Journey to the West) - a furious monkey spirit who railed against the gods and was pressed against his will into the service of a Cleric.

Bard: Tom Bombadil (Lord of the Rings) - nobody's clear what he's actually doing in the story, he just sort of sings a bit. He entertains and makes people feel good.

Cleric: Xuanzang (the Journey to the West literary version, not his historical inspiration) - a student of theology who undertakes a sacred mission to recover holy texts, undergoing divine trials and tests during his pilgrimage.

Druid: Radagast the Brown (Lord of the Rings) - a powerful magical being who separated from his more civilized brethren to live among the plants and animals, abandoning the pretense of humanity and becoming their guardian.

Fighter: Too many to list. Pick one out of wuxia at random, you'll be fine.

Monk: See Fighter.

Ranger: Aragorn (Lord of the Rings). Yeah, I'll say it. He traveled in the wild, he fought, he tracked, he knew the paths and secret ways, he was a Ranger.

Rogue: Robin Hood. He sneaked, he stole, he bluffed, he tricked. He picked pockets and held up nobles, he disguised himself and infiltrated. So he lived in the woods and used a bow; big deal.

Sorcerer: Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files). Hear me out. On the one hand, some of his spellcasting requires ritual and circles and the like. But he doesn't prepare spells in advance; they are inherent to him, he simply "draws out" the magic around him. Further, his primary arsenal consists of, let's face it, blasting spells - generally more associated with Sorcerers than with Wizards.

Wizard: Pick any literary depiction of Abe no Seimei. The onmyoji were basically Wizards - scholarly masters of the occult who spent more time studying the stuff than actually zapping stuff. What they did was highly ritualized and complex, often taking hours; much of what they did consisted more of studying scrolls and omens than more traditional spell-blasting. Nonetheless, they were considered masters of mysticism, harnessing the five elements with incomparable skill. Abe no Seimei was the historic icon who basically inspired most, if not all, literary depictions of the onmyoji.

[Arbane]

Barbarian: Sun Wukong (Journey to the West) - a furious monkey spirit who railed against the gods and was pressed against his will into the service of a Cleric.

In addition to being a stone monkey who could beat up gods, Wukong was also a powerful spellcaster. His class, obviously, is 'munchkin'.

Barbarian: Iron Ox (From Heroes of the Water Margin)

Fighter: Too many to list. Pick one out of wuxia at random, you'll be fine.

Objection! Wuxia characters are too mobile to be fighters. Swordsages, maybe.

Fighter: Gimli, from Lord of the Rings.

Monk: See Fighter.

Monk: Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu. I'm pretty sure he was one of the primary inspirations.

[...]

Fighter: Gimli, from Lord of the Rings.

As opposed to Gimli, from the "Lost Episodes" of the 2005 TMNT show.

[ghendrickson]

Barbarian- Conan

Fighter- Beowulf

Rogue- Bilbo Baggins

Magus/Sorcerer- Elric and Corum

As for Gandalf, even though he's said to be a wizard, he never uses a spellbook and his magic seems to be created on the spot and more of the elemental kind. Maybe more of a sorcerer, not really a wizard.

[Marlowe]

1) God-given or at least god-blessed weapons.
2) Protection from harm by a divine source.
3) Charismatic leader to the point that his people didn't fight in a life-death struggle without his guidance.
4) Divine patron or patrons that acted on his behalf directly.

As for his flaws, they were not much different from what various Arthurian legend figures did in their stories.

what.

1,2,and 4 are just nepotism.

For 3, if by "his people" you mean "The Achaians", then you're just wrong. If by "His people" you mean the myrmidons, of course they're not going to fight without their leader.

Anyway, there's a classic Paladin in the Illiad. And it's Hector. He even has the self-righteousness down pat.

[Jeff the Green]

Sorcerer: Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files). Hear me out. On the one hand, some of his spellcasting requires ritual and circles and the like. But he doesn't prepare spells in advance; they are inherent to him, he simply "draws out" the magic around him. Further, his primary arsenal consists of, let's face it, blasting spells - generally more associated with Sorcerers than with Wizards.

Thaumaturgy doesn't work well as Wizard casting anyway; it takes much longer than evocation while Wizard and Sorcerer magic takes the same amount of time. Incantations work much better. I'd peg Molly as a Beguiler.

Murph's the clearest example of Swordsage I can think of (with a gun-based discipline). She uses throws and joint locks, derives most of her damage from correct placement of blows rather than brute force, and does a battle zen thing. Sounds like Setting Sun, Shadow Blade, and Diamond Mind to me.

Michael's a better Paladin than anyone mentioned so far. He's actually LG and would never dream of straying from it, is only at his best when fighting evil, and has minor magic powers. Galahad's close, but he didn't do magic.

[Dienekes]

1) God-given or at least god-blessed weapons.

That's equipment, not him.

2) Protection from harm by a divine source.

Dipped into a river of death hardly qualifies as a lawful good diety.

3) Charismatic leader to the point that his people didn't fight in a life-death struggle without his guidance.

Accurate.

4) Divine patron or patrons that acted on his behalf directly.

That's the nature of the epic and could fit a cleric just as well. Unless you're going to argue that every single warrior in the Iliad was a paladin (except the Ajax's) this doesn't get you much. It also ignores the lawful good restrictions on the paladin. Achilles certainly wasn't lawful nor good.

As for his flaws, they were not much different from what various Arthurian legend figures did in their stories.

Don't remember any rape in Arthurian legends but even if you're right. Not every Arthurian knight qualifies as a paladin. Lancelot was assuredly an oath breaker. Really, it's only Galahad who gets the honor.

[Super Evil User]

Warlock (Infernal Pact): Faust

[Fatal Rose]

Paladin: Holger Carlsen (three hearts three lions), Galad (wheel of time)

Knight: Neil MeqVren (kingdoms of thorn and bone), Barristan Selmy (song of ice and fire)

Ranger: Aspar White (kingdoms of thorn and bone)

Bard: Leovigild "Leoff" Ackenzal (kingdoms of thorn and bone) Blue Bard (ASOIAF)

Fighter: Bronn (ASOIF)

[Aedilred]

The Belgariad (and later the Malloreon have a few characters that check D&D class boxes:

Wizard/Sorcerer: Belgarath (and Polgara)
Fighter: Mandorallen (an argument could also be made for a nonmagical Paladin)
Ranger: Lelldorin (arguably a Ranger/Bard)
Rogue: Silk
Monk: Relg
Cleric: Sadi
Aristocrat: Ce'Nedra

Barak is basically a Barbarian/Druid. Hettar is a Fighter/Ranger. Garion ends up as something like a Paladin/Cleric.

[(Un)Inspired]

Summoner: Ash Ketchum from Pallet town

[Yora]

Rogue: The Grey Mouser

Psychic Warror: Luke Skywalker

Exactly. A good psion might be the Emperor, who almost entirely relies on mind powers with shoting lightning from the hands as backup.

[Gnome Alone]

Thaumaturgy doesn't work well as Wizard casting anyway; it takes much longer than evocation while Wizard and Sorcerer magic takes the same amount of time. Incantations work much better. I'd peg Molly as a Beguiler.

Murph's the clearest example of Swordsage I can think of (with a gun-based discipline). She uses throws and joint locks, derives most of her damage from correct placement of blows rather than brute force, and does a battle zen thing. Sounds like Setting Sun, Shadow Blade, and Diamond Mind to me.

Michael's a better Paladin than anyone mentioned so far. He's actually LG and would never dream of straying from it, is only at his best when fighting evil, and has minor magic powers. Galahad's close, but he didn't do magic.

Maaaan, do I wanna stat up Murphy as a Swordsage now.

Molly as a Beguiler and Michael as a Paladin make buttloads of sense as well.

Way back before I'd even read any of the books, I kept running across threads here proposing various ways to stat up Dresden Files characters; the main focus, shockingly I know, was on Harry himself. The thing that kept coming up over and over again seemed to be that he (and Dresdenverse wizzrobes in general) were better represented as some kind of Psion... maybe Erudite? Egoist? I have no idea, cuz my impression of psionics is "crystals, ectoplasm, barf barf barf, I'm psionics," but, y'know, I thought it was an interesting take.

[Beleriphon]

As opposed to Gimli, from the "Lost Episodes" of the 2005 TMNT show.

Or Manitoba. Gimli MB is only archetypal of small Canadian towns.

[Jeff the Green]

Way back before I'd even read any of the books, I kept running across threads here proposing various ways to stat up Dresden Files characters; the main focus, shockingly I know, was on Harry himself. The thing that kept coming up over and over again seemed to be that he (and Dresdenverse wizzrobes in general) were better represented as some kind of Psion... maybe Erudite? Egoist? I have no idea, cuz my impression of psionics is "crystals, ectoplasm, barf barf barf, I'm psionics," but, y'know, I thought it was an interesting take.

The problem with psionics for the Dresdenverse (and the Belgariad/Mallorean characters mentioned by Aedilred is that their magic requires speaking. In the Belgariad sorcery is even called "the will and the word".

[Super Evil User]

Archivist - pretty much any Lovecraft protagonist, but especially Wilbur Whateley's grandfather

[veti]

Paladin: Gandalf

Only half joking, because I know he isn't presented as a Paladin. But it sure represents him a lot better than Wizard does.

Yeah, whatever Gandalf is, he's nothing whatever like a D&D wizard. Cleric or druid, perhaps. Paladin, possibly.

Similarly, I'd peg Merlin as a druid.

Necromancer: Dr. Frankenstein.

[jaydubs]

Barbarian: Logen Ninefingers from The First Law

Bard: Kvothe from The Name of the Wind

I'd also argue Gandalf is a bard, since he casts some (but not too much) magic, handles himself well in a physical fight, likes to tell stories, and has a lot of obscure knowledge about the world.

Cleric: Thoros from A Song of Fire and Ice

Druid: Injun Joe from Dresden Files

Gunslinger: Vash the Stampede

Paladin: Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross from Dresden Files

Sorcerer: Harry Dresden

Wizard: The various wizards from Harry Potter

[Beleriphon]

Wizard: The various wizards from Harry Potter

That always struck me more as the way D&D presents sorcerers, although the actual magic does use verbal and somatic components and in some instances material components (or as 5E presuposes a magical tool).

[Prime32]

A few more unconventional suggestions:

Archivist - Hayate Yagami (Lyrical Nanoha A's), Index (A Certain Magical Index)
Barbarian - Cú Chullain (Celtic Mythology)
Bard - Mic Sounders XIII (GaoGaiGar)
Cleric - Byakuren Hijiri (Touhou; CoDzilla build)
Egoist - Inazuman (Inazuman), Martian Manhunter (DC Comics)
Factotum - Zelgadis Greywords (Slayers), Jack Rakan (Negima; gestalted with warblade)
Marshal - Captain America (Marvel Comics)
Monk - Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)
Soulknife - Psylocke (Marvel Comics), Kazuma Kuwabara (Yu Yu Hakusho), Archer (Fate/stay night)
Swordsage - Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender; Desert Wind focus), Sun Wukong (Journey to the West; Arcane Swordsage variant)
Totemist - Silva (Shaman King)
Wizard - Margery Daw (Shakugan no Shana; she doesn't fit much of the imagery, but she's a good example of the party role)

Arcane Archer - Anyone who uses astras (Hindu Mythology)
Impure Prince - Shinichi Izumi (Parasyte)
Ordained Champion - Signum (Lyrical Nanoha A's)
Sand Shaper - Gaara (Naruto)

[TheCountAlucard]

This feels a little too D&D-centric. There's more to RPGs than character classes and levels, after all.

[Gnome Alone]

Swordsage - Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender; Desert Wind focus)

Are there any Firebenders that can't be represented by Swordsage? It's a pretty natural fit. Ha, just the other day, my brother asked me if I had any char-gen ideas for a short campaign he was playing in starting at Level 8, and my first thought was, "Swordsage 1/Fighter 2/Swordsage 3/Dervish 3, specialize in Desert Wind, and resist the temptation to call yourself 'Prince Zuko'?" but in turned out that game was "no ToB," so ah well, and also man have I digressed here.