Your definitive build

[FabulousFizban]

What is your build. The character that you made that is quintessentially you. The one that you stand back and go, "yeah, that is my character." Not your min/maxed munchkin lord, not the character that had the best adventures, but the one that makes you go, "yeah, this is my character, this is what i want to play, this is a role i can inhabit."

Mine is a bard3/cleric3 hunchback named Jasper. He is a lore bard, knowledge cleric support character. He does the baggage. Mechanically he is a skill monkey with a combat focus on boosting martials. A perfect buff/debuffer. Out of combat he manages the day to day **** of the party that usually gets overlooked: transport, rations, payment. He speaks with a cockney accent and was born the bastard son of a prostitute. God I love playing that character.

[EugeneVoid]

Paladin 2/Wizard X.

Probably not optimal, I just like 9s and smiting.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I've had three characters so far that have perfectly met the "Yes I enjoy this, this is what I wanted out of this character." feeling, but out of those three only one of those characters has reached a status where I could safely say "This is peak DND, this is what I've always wanted to do in an RPG and it's come alive through this medium."

That would be my Paladin, Roland Brakmore (Currently Redemption Paladin 15/Hexblade Warlock 2)

He protects people, he buffs people, he takes all the damage in the world and keeps on trucking and his skillset is diverse enough that he can be both a physical and psychological threat on the battlefield. I'm playing the supporting hero role that I'd always envisioned a Paladin would be. I can pretty safely say that even if I'm rarely the one landing definitive killing blows on all of these demons and other such terrifying creatures we've been facing as of late that my presence alone has made a mountain of difference.

I've enjoyed almost all of the characters that I've put together in 5E but this one is going to be very difficult to move past once this campaign is done.

[airless_wing]

I don’t think i’ve been more satisfied then when the DM allowed my Matador-themed Sword Bard to grapple Minotaurs using his expertised Performance skill. It was exactly the kind of thing i wanted to do with that character, and i did fulfill that.

[CheddarChampion]

I am currently playing Solomon Eagle, a Conquest Paladin 8/Zealot Barbarian 3.
He's learning what it means to be strong while in a position of leadership that he isn't comfortable with.
The campaign is supposed to go to 20 at which point Solomon will be a Conquest Paladin 13/Zealot Barbarian 3/Lore Bard 4.

[HiveStriker]

Hmmm...

While I love Cleric and Paladin mechanically, Cleric is a no-go because of religious ties, and even Paladin Oaths feel like too strong of a daily commitment (it's one thing to have strong values, it's quite another to strictly enforce them every day whatever circumstances may be).

For the same kind of reasons (plus the extremely strong ties with nature while I'm really a city guy -even if I do love nature in general), Druid is out, although one of my top three favorite classes, as well as Warlock (you may not technically be aware of your tie with Patron, but I don't feel like viewing the pact that way so...).
Following the same kind of reasoning as for Paladin (plus the physical commitment), Monk is out so here goes another of my favorites. XD
Fighter being a pure martial is also a no-go. Ranger is borderline, but kinda too tied to nature.

Rogue, at least in the traditional sense tied with thievery or at least mischief, does not go well. Plus while I'm actually an expert in a few select areas, I'm really curious of all so of generalist essence.

So the one character that I would feel like my own shoes would probably be a mix of Bard, Sorcerer and Wizard, like 2/1/1 (or if higher level 3/1/2, later 5/3/3, with either Ritual Caster for my knowledge craving or Actor to hone my theatrics skills).
- Bard for the social skills and all the artistry (instrument with Expertise, poetry, literacy) and the unchained curiosity (Jack of All Trades imo can represent this fair enough), I would probably go Lore (Glamour is too much socialish to me, the martial ones are obviously out, Whispers is too "scary" and "manipulative).
- optional Sorcerer level to express self-confidence (magic born from self), possibly Divine as a way to represent interest in supernatural without feeling tied to it.
- Wizard to express the extreme bookworm that lies inside me, with everything that entails (great memory, reading extremely fast, and as many may have noticed great trouble keeping messages under a 10 line bar ;)). No clear idea of the School except no Necromancy (I like my Zombies dead FOR GOOD) neither Bladesinger (I'm Human), possibly Transmutation or Illusion as they would allow many creative things.

EDIT: I feel like I misunderstood the OP goalpost.
If it's the character I would like the most, then it's easy: either a dual class Bard and Sorcerer, or a tri class Ranger / Druid / Cleric.

[KorvinStarmast]

What is your build. The character that you made that is quintessentially you.

Ranger, Gloom Stalker, level 5 (so far) in a ToA campaign that is currently on hold. Hal O' Ginya.

Spoiler: ToA Event Spoiler

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He got a boon from the Sage of Orolunga that boosted his Wisdom by 2.

He is AL legal as of Season 7, but our DM finally got fed up with AL changes in Seasons 8 and beyond, so I am not sure what this character's AL status would be.

Background: Criminal/Spy. vHuman.
Fighting Style: Archery.
Feat: Medium Armor Master

He has low charisma but ended up sort of being the party leader in the jungles since he was the one with advantage on Survival checks (DM ruled that forest/jungle matched up as favored terrain). (And our Nature Cleric would cast Guidance on him ... )

Favored Enemy: Giants
If he ever gets to level 6, he'll add Undead to Favored enemy, given the numbers of zombies and ghouls we have fought with so far.

I really like this character.
The Gloom Stalker kit is a pretty darned good combination of features.
I am hoping to get to level 11 to get that sweet "if you miss, you get to attack again" feature.

[da newt]

The one that fit me most was a Wood Elf, AT Rogue / BM Fighter who was all about the sneak and peak - stick and move, do a bit of everything, and all with a smirk. Not the most optimized, but handy all around.

The one I had the most fun playing was a more devilish version of the same sort - MM Rogue / HEX-Chain lock w/ IMP and Mask of Many Faces. The IMP and Mask of Many Faces are so much fun to mess around with (shenanigans for days, the party isn't sure what race or gender they are) - and the lucky finds of a Staff of Defense and Robe of Eyes allow them to dance through many fights with hardly a scratch.

[Nagog]

I have 2 definitive characters, maybe 3.

First is Moze, my Necromancer. He's a Wizard, but in personality and playstyle he plays like a Bard, causing shenanigans and making friends/enemies all over the place.

Second is more of a theoretical character type, I've made a few characters based on it. It's a strength based grappling Rogue, using Tavern Brawler and Grappler feats to gain advantage and therefore sneak attack on grappled targets, with a greater option being the Racial Trait that allows you to calculate carrying capacity as though you are a large creature. With those all in play, a reasonable argument can be made for using grappled enemies as a weapon against other enemies, and further arguments can be made for Grappler to give advantage to those attack rolls, and from there you'd be dealing double your sneak attack damage (Sneak attack damage to both grappled target and enemy hit with said target, as they're both the same attack roll) per turn. Pretty crazy, out-there build, and definitely not optimized, but loads of fun regardless.

[JellyPooga]

This is an interesting question. There are mechanical builds I like better than the character I'm going to put forward as my answer to this question and there are roleplaying opportunities and ideas I think are more interesting to explore, but this character is really the quintessential "me" build, based on years of playing different characters, races, classes, etc. NB - I have never had the opportunity to play this character, but I cannot think of one I'd rather play for a given game of Dungeons & Dragons (5ed, specifically).

Race: Halfling. I've always liked the short folk, always will. Their mental resilience, inherent luck and that they're underestimated for their size, combined with an inborn capacity for stealth and a reputation for larceny (whether deserved or not)...it's just a package that I can identify with.

Background: Outlander. I love this background. Not only does it grant Athletics and Perception, two almost auto-pick skill proficiencies, not only is the Feature widely applicable for any adventuring sort, not only does it grant an additional language which in some campaigns can be invaluable, but it grants proficiency in a musical instrument, which for me is a roleplaying device I adore for making my characters feel...like more than just a bunch of numbers. Art gives characters life and no art touches the soul better than music (IMO).

Class: Rogue. I love the Rogue class; I think it has some of the best features on offer for a true "adventurer". Yes, other classes make great warriors or mages or priests. Yes, other classes might be great scouts, or explorers. Yes, other classes might be versatile. But the Rogue...just seems to get it right, for me, at least. It would also have to be Thief Archetype; while strictyl speaking, Arcane Trickster might be more powerful and fun to play mechanically, with the diversity of options available via spellcasting, the Thief appeals to me because of its lack of magical aptitude and for me it really epitomises what it means to be a Rogue.

Paladin. Specifically Ancients. I really like the 5ed iteration of the Paladin. No longer the uptight, LG knight in shining armour, 5ed opened up Paladins to all flavours of strong personality types and I really identify with the Tenets of the Oath of the Ancients. Tie that strong martial discipline as a warrior to the dedication to making the world a better place and a wanderlust born of race and background, then bundle that all up into the skills and versatility of a Rogue and you have a character that just speaks to me on so many levels.

The actual breakdown of levels and feats is largely irrelevant; it's the potential of the build that I like and the avenues for roleplaying and mechanical options in play that appeal to me. It's mobile, it's good at range and even better in melee, it's supportive of other characters (mechanically and socially), good in the social pillar of play and useful in exploration too, it can have a summoned ally, it has Expertise allowing for specialisation, it's resilient physically, mentally and magically.

A humble traveler, that wants for nothing except to bring joy and laughter, safety and prosperity. No lordling pretending to self-sacrifice or domineering preacher, he's one of the people and accepted as such. Likeable, personable and friendly, but deadly to those that would threaten the light of the world.

[intregus]

Mine is Nikolai a bronze dragonborn Paladin/Bard

He has a thick Russian accent, sings all the time, sings the praises of Bahaumet. He's everybody's friend, wants to do the right thing, thinks Bahaumet us the most powerful and wise god.

In 5e I made him an ancients Paladin and lore bard(probably would do glamour if I were to remake him) swoard and board with. Protection fighting style. He's all support but can tank and is really fun socially.

I will play him for the rest of my life probably.

[Man_Over_Game]

Ancestral Guardian Barbarian + Drunken Master Monk, as a Hill Dwarf with the Dwarven Fortitude feat.

I can do so many things, like Reckless Attack an enemy to taunt after using Step of the Wind to force an enemy to attack me, Reckless+Flurry to hit-and-run while dealing massive damage, Bonus Action Dodge to heal while engaging in melee combat, or blend my options to throttle between damage, durability, and support.

[zinycor]

A polearm master that I played as Vegeta.

[Laserlight]

Lord Sharl, who started out as a gutter thief with only a knife, and eventually became a fast warrior with bow and katana, a baron's protege, lord of a small frontier town, and a husband and father.

Junior, paladin of St Dale the Intimidator. If Gomer Pyle were a fearless paladin, and had a thicker accent, then that'd be fairly close to Junior.

[Dienekes]

I'm a bit boring. I have two, but my first is simply Battlemaster Fighter. No other fighters are as fun to play, and let's be clear in a world where everyone is breaking the laws of physics and your goal is to slay monsters large enough to eat you in one bite, there is no one cooler than the guy who picks up a sword and takes on the world.

The possibly more interesting build that I've enjoyed is my Outlander Goliath Paladin Oath of Conquest 7 / Warlock 13 or as I have nicknamed him, Ganondorf.

[Ertwin]

It was back in fourth ed, just after the book with Monk had come out. I was playing a revenant sorcerer, but monk is my favorite class, so with the help of the DM, we basically smushed the two classes together for a hybrid Monk/sorcerer.

This is the character I weaponized a bazaar with. The character who got the secondary antagonist to rethink his entire plan. The character who in the epilogue stays alive and keeps a city safe forever just to spite the main villain who is chained up outside heaven until that city falls.

Harold was a fun character to play is what I'm saying. He also had a top hat.

[SociopathFriend]

When you are many different things to many different people- it becomes difficult to define "you".

That said one of my greatest joys is the character I arguably had the least planning in ultimately designing.
Ro'Shi - the Lizardfolk Chef from 5e's Tomb of Annihilation.
Started as a Barbarian but simply ate anything he could. First bit of gold he got as an adventurer in Chult? Bought a pig. Ate the pig. In the market. Without killing it. Because he was hungry and why not?
He later met with the Prince Merchant of cloth. Demanded to know what the soft-skins had to cover themselves with such flimsy stuff. Got kicked out without an answer- alas.

Then half the party (which to be fair was like 8-12 people varying) quit for various reasons. And we had not a single magic-user left. So the DM offered anyone who wanted could class change so long as they kept their stats. We could rearrange them but couldn't reroll them.
Ro'Shi became a Lore Bard. Simply because it was the right call- we had no magic and I knew the last part of the adventure was a giant dungeon crawl.
The only holdover from his Barbarian days was his Con- which I kept at 18 and then 20 as my first maxed stat.
And Ro'Shi became funny because he still acted like his Barbarian self- but now he was charismatic at it.
He would buff with a roar and use magic with a dance. He was the tribal shaman that was seemingly impossible to put down between his naturally high health, AC, and Cutting Words.

And then the DM cursed him with a set of enchanted lightning armor (which was wrong on his part- though I wouldn't know it till months later) and Ro'Shi was unable to cast spells and nobody could fix him because he was the only magic-user. And we were nowhere near a level where he could learn Remove Curse.
So Ro'Shi became a Fighter. And now was a Charismatic and chaotic as hell Bard that not only had a high HP, he got a high AC to match it along with a shield.
Every battle with Ro'Shi was a blast because there was very little planning on my part and I RP'd him as such. Ro'Shi rolled with the punches and went with his gut- and his gut got him into plenty of trouble but usually got him out as well.

Ended that Campaign as 10 Lore Bard, 2 Fighter. 184 HP, 19/23 AC, and plenty of magic both Bardic, items, and poached spells.
And almost none of it planned from the beginning or indeed all that much planning towards the end. Spent most of the campaign literally roaring at people (Vicious Mockery) to deal damage.

[Bannan_mantis]

Hmmm I have 2 that come to my mind, those are my human fighter and lizardfolk monk/barb

My fighter is named Sir Otto Hunton Coleric and he's been a character I've been using for a long time. I don't always get to use him since he has a bit of homebrew backstory of being a legendary hero who's retired and while physically weak is looking to get back in too adventuring, the problem is that him being a legendary hero often impacts the lore or setting. That said when I have a DM who's allowed it it's been great and it's been really fun when a DM decides to use the aspect of his past and put it in the lore or campaign. Plus he's the first character I ever tried homebrew with since I had an idea of a character who had limited physical ability but great skill and battle insight so I homebrewed around with the idea of a fighter who uses wisdom and he kinda got me into the fun of trying and making homebrew supplements. Also roleplaying him is fun, basically he's someone who's got a mixture of both old, wise and kind mentor aspects but also elements of a young confident hot shot with some rude humour and insults too boot. Finally mechanically he's fun to play, the majority of his homebrew aspects have given him wisdom based boosts which is fun for out of combat but he's also got a lot of options in combat with him functioning similar to a battlemaster but with changes here and there which has been fun since I enjoy the power and abilities martial characters have but enjoy to have tactical options in combat.

My second character is a monk/barb and someone who I made around a year into D&D, his names Garsan Krilux. I enjoyed Garsan a lot for multiple reasons, from lizardfolk as a race being so unique when compared to other races, the combination of monk and barb with a few flavour changes leading to a character who functioned like a literal animal in combat, the roleplay aspect of him with his personality being really fun to play out and too add a cherry on top he was a tank and tanks are my personal favourite role, other roles are cool but the feeling of having piles of defences and shrugging off damage that would one-shot your party wizard is just so fun. This said I think part of the fun of him comes from a few interactions I've had whilst playing Garsan between him and other PCs, essentially he had a pretty rough upbringing which left him mentally scarred so while he's physically 7 feet tall (little bit of magic there) he's mentally similar got a few traits you'd find in a shy and nervous child which has been really fun to roleplay out.

These are the two characters I find myself coming back to a lot for the enjoyment that comes from using them in combat but also the roleplay elements of their characters. That said I still tend to use characters other than them but when I can use these guys and they fit the game in most ways I tend to use them.

[Mr Adventurer]

If we're allowed other editions, then Apollo Argonos, my gestalt Warblade//Factotum. A peerless warrior (thanks Warblade) who always, always had the appropriate answer to any situation (thanks Factotum). It felt like he could literally do anything.

[Arkhios]

Edit: Realized I misunderstood the topic.

The character that is quintessentially me is the one I've made for 5th edition:

Oath of the Ancients Paladin with tribal barbaric heritage. Dual wielding two mismatched big weapons (longsword and warhammer), recklessly wading into the thick of battle, like any self-respecting barbarian would.

Ideally I would like for this character to obtain a reliable means to cast spells that deal either lightning or thunder damage, which means I might multiclass with either bard (thunderwave) or sorcerer (thunderwave or something else) at some point.

FWIW, I have The Ruby of the War Mage already, so I can actually cast any spells using one of the weapons (warhammer) as the spellcasting focus, regardless of spell list.

So far he's only at 5th level, with the following "build"

Paladin 5, Oath of the Ancients
V.Human (Dual Wielder)
Defense Fighting Style
Resilient (Constitution)
Reflavored Uthgardt Tribe Member (Wolf Tribe)
Actual Rolled Stats: Str 18, Dex 9, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 16
Downgraded to Point-buy: Str 16, Dex 8, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14
Reason for Con > Cha is that the character is basically barbarian in all but class, and barbarians are tough and hardy

[Rukelnikov]

Regardless of the edition, it is a Gish "tank", a character good AC that focuses on self buffing for melee combat and tries to ensure the survival of the rest of the party.

[Thunderbird]

For me it's probably a Mercenary Veteran Human Celestial Chainlock/Battlemaster Fighter. I have a lot of fun using Battlemaster Maneuvers while attacking with GFB and the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones invocation helps with both Second Wind and Healing Light features, so I can tank hits quite well. Plus I can heal allies and have a cool Pseudodragon familiar. Overall a pretty fun build.

[carrdrivesyou]

Gotta say, my 65 year old celestial warlock. Variant human with magic initiate, pact of the tome. He gets like 10 cantrips for maximum versatility. He looks down on everyone, especially the youth, and is always berating people for suboptimal choices or work. Think: a stodgy old grandpa with magic powers always pushing you to do better through harsh words and high expectations.

[Belac93]

Blind Drow Redeemer Paladin with maximized charisma over strength. Fun roleplaying a 'fish out of water' character, high Dex means stealth is decent, and redeemer lets me be an awesome face (+13 Persuasion at level 5). Decent in combat too, because paladins always are.

Played as basically a typical goody-two-shoes, but without any respect for law or dead bodies, and with an added bit of trying to convince the goblins to stop murdering people because they'll get killed otherwise.

[sandman102]

Protector Aasimar Lore Bard. Got my DM to homebrew the Radiant Soul feature to apply to healing instead of damage.

With Healer Feat, Aura of Vitality, Cutting Words, Misty & Far Step, made for an amazing angelic combat medic.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Glarandas, an Eldritch Knight 3/War Wizard x variant human with the Healer feat. He was all about defense and utility, got in over his head often due to cockiness, jury rigged the weirdest things, was a sarcastic butt to the rest of the party, but was also the one most often saving lives. Supposedly Lawful Neutral, but bent rules more than the rogue and did "good" more often than the rest of the party combined, because he secretly wished to be Chaotic Good I guess. Despite being brave had a couple 'nopes!', like he just would not get involved with curses, dark rooms, or dragons in general. Saved a crate of babies found in a dangerous wasteland, left a cleric to have his soul eaten by a hag. Successfully told a cosmic demigod to shut up and sit down, ran and hid from an adult red dragon. Also got two endings, because the DM wanted me to keep playing instead of becoming the shadow master of earth and opening Hogwarts, which was absolutely his definitive ending. So instead he settled for being a king.

He was weird and contradictory, a hero by accident as often as by choice. Boy I sure want to play him again.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

The build that I feel the most “ownership” of or investment in is the Kobold Finesse Barb. I haven’t actually gotten to play it sadly. But it was basically a concept I came up with and wrote out on my own for the most part and everything just clicked with it where I’m super excited about potentially playing it one day.

The character I’ve put the most into would be Larz Burnbalm, the deep gnome illusionist who works as lead fashion designer for Huey Vuitton and runs the surface world side of the business. In his later years he helped found a nation and create a senate. He served as Prime Minister. Very cheeky, spoke similar to Doofenshmertz from Phineas and Ferb (spellcheck), and was a lot of fun to play.

[Theodoxus]

Snip - Halfling rogue/paladin

I played this, although I went swashbuckler instead of AT, but it was a blast. First character I actually played in 5E (all of my experience before that was DMing). Rolled stats, had a 20 Dex and 18 Cha to start - by 4th level, I had Alert... So, +14 to my initiative... insane (nearly died a couple of times because he was rash and liked to get in over his head before the party got a chance to act...)

@OP: Theodoxus, my namesake and likeness. Hill Dwarf Life Cleric of Meriadar, goblin (mongrelman) god of food/cooking. Much like your cleric/bard, Fizban, only I grab a single level of bard for Prestidigitation and Mage Hand (to help with cooking). Guild Artisan - Cook for his background. Quintessential healer and party buffer. Bless the fighters (paladins in the current party I'm playing with); Sleep the badguys (thank you bard!); feed the army. I waffle anytime I play something else - but eventually always go back to Theo.

Oh, he speaks with a Russian accent, because Scottish is so overdone

[Willie the Duck]

Human or half-elven fighter with the criminal background or fighter-rogue.

[Bobthewizard]

This is my backstory. Sorry it is so long.

Spoiler

Show

I grew up in a small village in the forest. My parents, and everyone else I knew, farmed and raised goats and pigs. We were semi-nomadic, growing plants and clearing a nearby field to move to once our current fields stopped producing. We ate an assortment of vegetables that we either foraged or grew in our garden, but mostly corn, beans, squash and oats. We had milk from the goats for cheese and a few times a year at festivals we would have a town party and roast a pig or goat.

My older sister, Promise, was my best friend. She was my half-sister. My dad was married before he married my mom but his first wife died during childbirth with Promise. Promise wasn’t quite like the rest of us. She was a Tiefling. Apparently her mom was also a Tiefling. Not sure why, but Promise had a long blue tail and giant horns on her head. She was so cool! She was always popular and got along well with everyone. Well, almost everyone. She and my mom would argue all the time. I never knew why and tried to keep out of it. I couldn’t understand why my two favorite people in the world would ever fight. When I was 11, Promise got in another fight with my mom and ran away. She kissed me on the forehead, told me she loved me, and that she hoped to see me again, but she just couldn’t stay here anymore. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until that fall.

A few months later, just after the harvest was prepared for winter, a band of orcs and evil humans led by a large humanoid who called himself Gorak the Great, invaded our town and killed everyone in it except for 6 of us children. We were kept as slaves to tend the animals, cook and clean. The orcs and humans moved into our houses while we slept with the animals. We went through most of the town’s supplies that winter but all of us survived. We tried to plant crops for the next year but we were only children so it didn't work well. We all knew the harvest wasn’t going to be enough to get us through the next winter, but we didn’t let Gorak’s band know that. We told them everything was fine and that the crops we planted were supposed to come in later in the summer.

One day, just for sport, the orcs killed one of the other children. That night, they roasted and ate our friend. We knew we had to escape. Once the food ran out this fall, they would surely eat us all. Two days later, we reported that we found the wine stores. We had previously kept this hidden from them for fear of what they would do if they were drunk. Our plan was to let them drink all night and try to escape in the early morning. We were supposed to meet at the creek near, but out of sight of, the fork in the road just south and west of our village.

And drink they did. All night they drank. They killed all of the goats and pigs and gorged on those too. We stayed out of the way and all pretended to sleep in our assigned places. In the early morning, just before the sky began to lighten, I was the first to sneak out with a few days of food, and a small steel coin on a string that the orcs and humans in the band wore to show their allegiance to Gorak. I’m still not sure why I took it but I keep it to this day as my good luck charm. I think it may be lucky for me since I was the only one make it to the creek. Just after I left town, I heard a commotion behind me as some of the orcs starting yelling. I ran away, through the woods, and hid at our meeting spot. I waited for two days but no one came. Gorak must not have cared about me though because he didn’t send out any patrols to look for me.

After two days, I headed west for three weeks until I eventually found the town where my sister said she was going when she ran away. There, I was taken in, fed, clothed, and housed in a small orphanage, where I was treated well, but there was no sign of Promise. I worked odd jobs in the castle and the town. I was small for my age so there were a group of other orphans that would pick on me. I was out in town and had been cornered by a group of bigger, older kids. They were pushing me and teasing me when suddenly there was a crack of lightning and one of them was thrown to the side. I looked up and saw my sister, standing over them, with white light glowing from her hands and glowing white eyes. I was scared of her. The other kids were terrified and ran away. The light in her eyes and on her hands went away. I jumped up, threw my arms around her, and didn’t let go of her for an hour.

She didn't know what had happened either. We eventually found out that she had the blood of a blue dragon and was just learning her powers as a sorcerer. She got all the cool stuff from her birth mom. I moved out of the orphanage and into a small apartment in town with her.

As she practiced her sorcery, I got a job to begin my training as a soldier at the castle. I was not a very good soldier. I was smaller and weaker than the other soldiers and not very good with a longsword. I was pretty good with a bow but no one knew it because I often missed the target on purpose so I wouldn't get transferred to the Archers. They trained 16 hours a day, every day. Most people considered that an honor, but I just wanted to read. The Duke had a large library where he let us borrow books. I read them all, twice.

My first assignment was to be a personal guard for the castle’s wizard. He and the Duke were life-long friends who had gone on many adventures in their youth, even killing a dragon once. So when the Duke moved into this castle, the wizard came with him.

I would spend all day in his study while he practiced magic. He would let me sit and read my books while I worked so it was the perfect job for me. Eventually, he let me read his books on ancient magic and even look through his spellbook, a large leather tome with gold adornment on the cover, with words inside that were written way too large, although the spells didn't make any sense to me.

One day, though, as I was sitting in the corner of the room while the wizard studied at his desk, while I was reading his spellbook, one of the spells started to make sense to me. I read the words and they seemed to stick in my head. I closed the book and could picture their gold letters inside my head. I looked up, recounted the words, and a small flame shot out of my fingers, catching the curtains and the Wizard’s robe on fire.

I thought he would be mad. He shouted “I knew it. I knew you had it in you!”, smiled and flicked his wrist and put out the flames with some frost magic. From then on, I continued to work as a personal guard for the wizard, practicing as a soldier with the sword and the bow regularly during the day. But in the evenings, he would teach me about being a wizard.

This lasted about a year. I never went on any patrols or fought any battles. Sometimes I would help a drunk noble into their carriage. All of the other soldiers advanced in abilities and rank while I stayed as a private. But I was happy to be studying magic. When I was 17, the wizard presented me with a small, simple, leather spellbook. He told me that tomorrow he would teach me my spells and let me start copying spells out of his spellbook.

That night, however, the Wizard and his night guard were both assassinated, and his spellbook, magic staff, and magic robe were stolen. No one else was harmed. The assassin likely climbed in through the open window. The Duke, a kind man, knowing my situation and my grief, which he shared, gave me orders to leave, find another wizard, and complete my training. When I told Promise I had to go, she grabbed a bag, walked out the door,and said “well come on, you’re not going without me.” I left as a soldier with my armor, sword, my good luck charm, a few coins and a blank spellbook.

So I’m Bob the Wizard, but I’m not really a wizard yet.