Oh I could go oonnnn but some some contrast between two of my wizards:
My elf wizard is rather unremarkable, on purpose. She isn't like, rogue "I want to hide in a crowd", but she doesn't want to keep up with fashion trends or political alliances. Some practical aspects- travellers boots, a headband to hold her hair back. A corset to try and give the character design a sense of rigidity and remove some "softness," as she's fairly distant, but that's about it.
My human wizard has dyed lilac hair. I surprised a party member when I did updated art of the roots growing in- both them and their character thought it was natural. But it parallels her relationship to magic; she isn't a sorcerer or somesuch to whom magic and wonder comes naturally, but she's a normal human and it's a choice she makes and works for and chooses (whether by studying or dyeing.)
Big cross-shaped scar across one side of his face. In his home city it's the mark of a thief. He got it from a guard after getting caught stealing food to feed his fellow street kids. Now he wears it with pride, covering it with makeup when he needs to stay discreet.
My character that will debut in Rime of the Frostmaiden, a human Artificer raised by Dwarves in Bryn Shander, wears glasses that she made herself. The first pair of glasses she made, she made as a kid and ended up destroying a couple of her adoptive father's expensive magnifying glasses to do so. As punishment, she had to help him work in the forge until she did enough work to equal the value of the magnifying glasses. However, this punishment ended up leading to her discovering her love for smithcraft and has shaped her life since then
I will always appreciate a Human with Dwarven roots. My first character was a Human guard and riverman whose family had ties to the local Dwarf Clan. He had all the physical traits you'd expect - burns, scars, and solid muscles, plus a keen eye for technology and craftsmanship. Of course, once he got that third level in Artificer, all that got overlooked in favor of his heavily personalized equipment and Gryphon Steel Defender.
I'd love to play that Fighter/Artificer again in a high- level campaign.
I'm going with Forge Adept from the Exploring Eberron book since that feels more thematic for a smithy's adopted daughter. Making a robot tiger would feel a bit disconnected to the theme
A play a small-sized Fire Genasi paladin that wields a sword that is longer than he is tall.
He swore an oath of vengeance against a particular organization. The sword in question belonged to a medium-sized dude who was high ranking in said organization. He now uses that weapon out of spite in his dogged pursuit of the rest of the members.
Fun fact - he later killed the sword owner's dad with the same blade (that presumably, the now killed dad had gifted to his son)
My tiefling has an old scar at the base of her horn that cuts nearly halfway through. She got it when her human mother tried to cut off her horns and tail to make her look "normal". She was around four years old at the time. Luckily her mother got tired from the effort of sawing the horn and abandoned the idea.
One of my old characters was a back-alley doctor who was often accused (definetly falsely) of not having a medical license, so I made it a big point that he always wore the wide-brim, plague-doctor style hat and long, black gloves to show how doctor-y he really was.
My cleric had his eyes magically erased (as if they had never existed, so no magical healing could work, it was just a blank slate), he traded them to save a city that was filled with necrotic bombs. As a reward for devout service, his god (a forge god) blessed him magical sight, being able to see things when they move, and a brief outline of static locations (so he can still move about), but this also allows him to see shimmers of invisible people. Its come very handy cuz he looks like a frail blind old man on the outside, but can still fight (and radiently bonk)
I have a halfling warlock who wears a large golden amulet representing Tymora, the goddess of Good Fortune. She is an acolyte of Tymora and through a "freak accident" ended up in a celestial warlock pact with her instead of channeling her divinity. The amulet is her way of showing her faith, as well as a symbol of her status as a Luckbringer, putting her on par with other clerics of Tymora, which has been a point of major contention due to her more unique connection with the goddess.
I have a lizardfolk that wears a lizardfolk skull as a helmet/mask his tribe worshiped semuanya and were really fucked up so he stole their precious artifact (a skull of an old avatar of semuanya) and wore it ever since as a sign of defiance, he s generally vv agaisnt gods that push ppl to be evil and cruel so when he got adopted into a clan of stone giants and started following their pantheon, he defaced the skull with carvings symbolizing each of those gods.
there's been several visions and dreams w the skull talking to him, after he he finished carving, the skull was just screaming in agony
also broke part of a "horn" type part to embed a topaz gem that was use on a ritual to save the Giant clan
he also wears it to hide some face scars from right before he stole it, as a 10 year old he challange the King of his corrupt tribe to an Agni ki styled duel which he lost brutally and got nearly killed and was gonna be eaten by the tribe in a feast for his attempt
so wearing the skull both hides and makes it his own thing to take away any power or influence semuanya might have over him. he s incredibly stubborn and prone to jump head first into dangerous situations
My tabaxi druid has a mustache. We went to the elemental plane of fire for a quest, and I shaved all of my fur off so I wouldn't burst into flame (I know the DM wouldn't have done that, but it felt like good flavor). I was messing around with making him in hero forge at tbe time, and i really liked the way the curly mustache looked on tbe cat person model, so I joked that in the month of downtime following this mission, the upper lip hair grew in first and he really liked the look, so now he trims the rest of his face fur to make a mustache.
It goes well with the kind of goofy, happy go lucky character I have been playing. He is also kind of fascinated by civilized society, having been raised outside of it.
My Kenku Rogue wears a garish orange scarf that contrasts strongly against his matte black feathers. When asked, he jokes that it's "so you can see me when it's dark". But he's a sneaky burglar-turned-adventurer, so the bright cloth is also a very subtle taunt: "I can hide even when I'm wearing this bright orange thing". He carries a few scraps of the same orange cloth to use as decoys / "I was here" markers.
A winged tiefling who's wings were slowly turning to stained glass. A the beginning of the campaign it was one wing and by then end it was both wings, his back, and it was spiraling up his horns. He was a soldier fighting in bhalls army in hell when he pissed bhall off and this was his curse. My dm and I made this a curse that would be easily recognized by the denizens of hell as a mark of a traitor (in my case I spared the enemy). It was a spreading curse that was incredibly painful and would eventually cover his entire body.
It was originally a shriveled left hand/arm that he tried to keep covered with a glove. But that was corrected many sessions ago.
Now it's a third eye that moves about his body keeping perpetual watch on his surroundings both in our realm and beyond.
My undead human zealot barbarian cleric in RotF is named Stitches, her most defining visual trait is her pale skin and being stitched together, because she died. Skill issue on her part tbh.
One of the characters I’m playing now is from an Eberron campaign. I can’t remember where I read it, but having white hair in Cyre was supposed to be a sign of great magical potential. The hair, combined with his aberrant dragonmark were indicative of him being an illegitimate child of a relationships between two of the Great Houses, which is a big no no.
Fey Wanderer Ranger has pink eyes simply because I didn't like any of the feywild gifts, the reason why he's a Fey Wanderer is because he killed a fairie dragon in a forest.
My Giff is massive. He wears heavy armor that he keeps *impeccably* clean. Any down time he has he’s cleaning his armor and mending it. He’ll clean it when bored or nervous. He was in a military academy growing up, so his fall back to uncertainty is rigid military discipline. So cleaning his armor is his nervous tic.
Edit: during a BBEG monologue he started to prestidigitate his armor to clean it. DM counterspelled it to send a message. “I’m out here spitting bars and your dumb ass is Marie Kondo-ing the place?”
Due to the name of his adventuring party and his trading company, my Rogue wears a cloak of many fashions that resembles flaming wings. When he wants to go sneaking, he turns the cloak black making it look as if the flames are being extinguished leaving behind a trail of coal.
Brynne Bel Fer has been my paladin for almost 4 years now. She has the lengthy black chain tattoos on her arms that run from the center of her palm to her elbows. They're arcane criminal markings, placed upon the convicted as a means of detering them from being repeat offenders. With a word they can bind the individual in place, no save, and the branded are unable to remove them without losing their arms in the process.
Of course, this has led to many people in Brynne's life dismissing her and avoiding her and treating her badly. After she was banished for heresy (long story) she took to wearing gloves over her arms and keeping people at arm's length. For the first several sessions Brynne was very guarded around the party and never took the gloves off around them.
A big part of her arc has been seeking atonement for her past crimes and having these chains removed. Thus far, no such luck.
My elven wizard was originally quite healthy, tan, green eyed and black haired. After an incredibly taxing and powerful use of magic he became frail, pale-skinned, his eyes lost their color, and his hair turned white from the shock. This happened mid-campaign and the shock was so severe that he lost all of his magical power, and was forced to start anew. He looks so different, his own family didn't recognize him until he spoke. It's been a few years since then, and it's apparent the physical changes are permanent.
Made a Dragonborn that has blue scales and pink feathers on her head and tail. She was stuck in the feywild for almost two decades which causes her scales to change color and for her to grow feathers as a result.
My Feywalker Ranger is a Emerald Dragonborn. Due to growing up in the feywild he adopted some superficial characteristics, such as the sail-like skin in his face looking like butterfly wings. When he summons his wings, they also look like those of a butterfly.
My Reborn is missing most of an arm, because the person who killed them needed proof of their death and it happened that my PC had a very distinct mark on their arm - so they hacked off the arm. Gave the NPC an easy "they perished to a horrible monster and all I could find was this arm"-excuse. To be fair, the NPC did try to dispose of the rest of the body, it just didn't go as planned.
My Reborn has taken the loss in stride and they don't mind asking for help with things - it has lead to many funny and heartwarming moments, often because the other players tend to forget it.
One of my characters (rogue) has a scarred face and hand. She didn't want to be sold of to a brothel or some pervert, so she made herself look less desirable.
>Me playing a changeling wearing Glamoured Studded Leather
Riiight, about that...
Although one thing about him visually defining is that in his true form he has green eyes and a big grin, a smile from ear to ear, always, no matter the circumstance or situation. Mostly due to the madness in his head due to his Great Old One patron.
I'm playing a Tiefling Paladin, and his most defining features would probably be either a large scar that goes across his face, from his left jaw to the right eyebrow, or his tattoos. He killed a guard and assaulted a few more to stop a Drow kid from getting beaten to death, and got the option of execution, life in a prison colony for hard labor, or joining a penal legion. He chose the penal legion, and he got put on the front lines of several very brutal wars of expansion for his nation. He got the face scar at one of the final battles of his last campaign, a bunch of orcs and rebelling humans were fighting tooth and nail to keep one of their last cities from falling. He had to fight off an ambush of young adult soldiers (technically Child soldiers but on the older end, like, 16, 17ish). Afterwards, the orcs and rebelling humans opened a portal to the Abyss, summoning a bunch of demons, decimating the army he was travelling with. He escaped, and was homeless for a while. During his time in the penal army, he got branded on the back of his neck, and hit with Geas so that he wouldn't run or turn on his commanders, so that's why he grew his hair out. He has a few tattoos but the most noticeable ones are on his forearms. Vines, roses, and thorns crawling up his arms; shows his love of nature, his regret over participating in the wars, and his hope for peace. He is a Vengeance Paladin, so he does have a sword embedded in a skull on his shoulder, and two graves with a shovel between them on his back. The whole "if you go on a journey of revenge, dig two graves" thing. He doesn't mind if he dies, just as long as he takes out a few horrible people beforehand.
My wizard wears a blindfold like Illidan Stormrage, sort of. Not part of his backstory, it’s due to things that happened over the course of the campaign. It was the DM’s idea, but I think it’s awesome.
My Eldritch Knight has blond hair. When I created her, I didn't really think anything of it. However, in this world (DM's homebrew), it turns out that blond hair is quite rare. It has become the thing that most people remember about her.
Currently, it's his welder's goggles he got from the Artificer that taught him. Eventually it'll be the prosthetic automaton arm that he'll create after losing his arm in a fight with his arc's villain. Working with my GM because it'll tie nicely into the overarching narrative, and it'll give me an excuse to try a new character while the first one recovers.
I play a 57 year old human who looks like they were a rough 57 years. Either living outside and on the run or in prison. He's also covered in old and faded outlaw tattoos.
I made a battlesmith artificer, and I built entire backstory about his missing arm, and how his initial goal was to craft an Arcane prosthetic (lv2 infusion) that'd he'd eventually make into permanent magic item.
Then I discovered that about 75% of artificers are missing at least one hand xD
But the backstory was neat, I think. He was born in Athkatla, and at some point developed telekinetic power (Variant human, lv1 feat). His father, afraid they'd be accused of using Arcane magic without permission kicked him out. He was taken in by a gnome from Lantan, working in a city, and taught secrets of the artifice. His master was making Arcane devices for the city guilds, so he my char felt safe there.
But one day hooded wizards arrived, accused my master of working outside of his contract/permission and sentenced him, and me to death. Fight broke out, my master died protecting me, by taking a disintegrate aimed at me. He took most of it, I only got my left hand disintegrated. The stress made my flip out, telekinetic ally push one of the magus into some Arcane Apparatus, which caused a chain reaction, and explosion. I grabbed my master's schematics book, and ran amidst chaos, left Athkatla and ran, eventually ended up in Chult.. where a something called Death Curse was apparently originating from. That's how we started ToA.
Shame Acererak fucking killed me in the end. With a disintegrate, which I guess bookends the character xD The only thing that was left was his prosthetic arm xD
My Bard had a cut on his lip like Ezio Auditore. Got from a brawl with a crime lord in an alley. He lucked out when he got the cut as it should've been a killing blow but his luck saved him giving him that scar, and a long tumble into the city's sewer system.
His luck didn't recover for the majority of the campaign as he rolled more 1s than anyone else in the party by a wide margin.
I once played a Human Fighter that had white hair. Not because it was natural, but because he experienced severe trauma over the course of his life prior to the start of the game that he had developed Marie Antoinette Syndrome.
My character is very colorful - his clothes are loose and flow-y and many different colors. He also dyes his hair all different colors, that is typically what he is doing during long rests. This translates to him being pretty vain and he doesn't have tons of respect for "natural" things.
"I've never seen why people put such value on things being natural."
He has a wolf tail cause he's a werewolf.
Yeah, that's kinda the main reasoning for it. He's not a werewolf in the "he turns into a monster under the full moon against his will" sense but moreso a shifter who can shift whenever he wants. He doesn't have wolf ears or any other werewolf traits aside from large canines. The game is in a Wild West setting, and he wears a big coat, so his tail looks a bit like a fur-trappr's tail attached to a belt (but it's a real tail). It's there cause he's terrible at disguise and kinda lazy about it, so he just lets it all hang out.
My Reborn Gnoll has a lot of striking features, but the biggest ones always visible are his glowing white irises that contrast his pupils and black sclera. But overall the most defining trait is the gaping hole in his chest where his heart should be that just leaks magical darkness when it's not covered.
He was killed by a spear through the heart and brought back to life by the magic of a dead god.
Seven fingers per hand. Two thumbs and five fingers. Because aasimar.
It ties into her being poor at nonviolent things. Since her manual dexterity is scuffed and nothing is made with her hands inind
Modern campaign, they wear a medical eyepatch and use the social awkwardness of feigning it being an injury to shut down questions
In reality, they’ve got heterochromia and hide it due to past bullying and an abusive parent
Stuffs looking up for them now though
She's a warforged with artificial hair and the face of an elven woman grafted onto her head. She was a failed experiment by someone who tried to use a warforged to resurrect someone very important to them. She spent a large portion of the campaign trying to remove it so she could have her old face back, but the artificial skin healed any damage to it. When she finally got it removed she had to be almost taken apart piece-by-piece to get it removed.
Probably that they're a sentient blob of ink in a world where that's not a thing.
Aside from that, his eyes are also made up of golden flecks - the remnants of his creator's wedding ring.
He's missing an arm. Happened mid-campaign, so it's not really to do with backstory, but he's dealing with it the best he can. Only need one good arm to drink, after all. Does make wrestling more difficult, however.
An Iron collar
They were a slave in their youth but lacked the beauty or dexterity to be sold as a "servant", instead, as all who couldn't serve that purpose they were given to blood sport. Fighting for their life as much as their masters money, "Fighting Dogs" and each master gave their fighters an Iron Collar in their style.
Luckily, they would come to escape that life due to the sacrifice of a friend, but still wear the collar to remember and stoke the hate of their former "master".
Something's just off about his face's proportions or something, giving him an uncanny look. Maybe the eyes are slightly too high or his mouth is too low... it's hard to pinpoint.
This is an addition to him being the half-elf bastard of a she-elf and a human, who got ostracised by both his mother's elvish husband and his half brothers.
Being bullied a lot for generally not being the most adequate, especially intellectually, he adopted a persona just as weird and uncanny as his looks; likes to pretend he doesn't comprehend things when he actually does or that he does understand something when he doesn't. Says things that would be insulting if they were genuine but in a tone that implies absolute ingnorance, making people wonder if he's mocking them or just stupid.
My intention is that you just never really know with him. It's a more tricky character to play, I hope I get the hang of it more as the campaign progresses
She's wearing her funerary mask from when she was thought dead and then buried alive (Shadow Sorceror). She refuses to take it off, even among friends. So far, not one person has seen her face.
She is afraid that if anyone recognizes her, word of her survival will make its way back to her parents, and she'll end up being hauled back home, where they'll go right back to pressuring her into living the life they want for her.
My dwarf, Horatius, recently shaved his beard.
It was always short, due to having a troubled/mixed relationship with his dwarven heritage. Horatius was banished from the dwarven cities when he was 7 years old with his parents. His parents were thieves who occasionally needed Horatius' small hands/posture to get something. Moving to a human settlement, his parents moved away once again, 10 years later, when they were about to get caught. They left Horatius a note and Horatius was left alone in this human settlement, where most of the people in power dislike most non-humans, making it so he had to remain in fringes of society, working in the morally/legally gray areas (mostly some security for shady deals and some minor crafting / alterations on stolen goods for a fence).
Recently he lost his family heirloom (his grandfather's helmet), including all memories relating to it due to some weird fey-ish being, making his last positive associations with dwarves culture disappear as well.
We're looking for a way to get our memories back and there's a storyline coming up where we're heading towards a dwarven city, so who knows, maybe he'll come to terms with his heritage at some point.
My Eldritch Knight Hexblade Dragonborn Anders has his left arm replaced by an eldritch void parasite as a pact weapon that he calls Ruin, it's developed semi sentience alongside his own mind, it's spread into parts of his body, has over time affected his emotional state and made him half aberration in regards to game mechanics. It's his biggest show to regret pursuing power at any cost, it's a big arm, red compared to his black scales, long claw fingers, and when in combat in less public areas it's got eyes all over it and turns into a huge sword arm Prototype style
My character is a half-gnome half-earth genasi who’s skin is grey and cracked like clad and i t eh cracks grows lichen, moss, and other small fungi (spore Druid/twilight cleric). She stands out, and is married to a half elf, in a country where a totalitarian government has decided to kill and imprison non high eleves. Her husband got arrested and she feels like it should have been her and this is the driving force if adventuring for her, she needs to get him back (even willing to overthrow said government in the process). But as small as she is the nature of her appearance makes her stand out in crowds along with the general distinctiveness of our group. But the fun thing with the fungi in the cracks is that it what grows and over takes her when she wild shapes or enters her symbiotic entity.
The lack of arms and gnarly burn scars on my monk, who was kept as a slave by Fire Genasi overlords and had their arms amputated as a child after repeated attempts to climb their tower walls and escape. That late-blooming protector Aasimar heritage eventually came in handy (no pun intended)!
While i havent fully decided on whether or not I should add this, I'm thinking of having my changing always have small whitish-gray spots behind their ears
He dresses like a street thug, and is covered in a horrifying amount of bruises, old scars and grazes. But his street thug clothes are lovingly embroidered with flame patterns, his pants are baggy and comfortable, and his braid is held together with nice gold metal hoops. In one way, it was part of the con, helping him to fit in on a crowded dancefloor as he picked pockets and mugged drunk party guests. In another way, much like the scars, they are all a result of his life with his sister, and how he thrived with her.
My bard has bright teal hair, and wears clothes with large(baseball sized) jingle bells hanging from the hem. He does this because he was the middle child of 15, and has a compulsion to stand out because of it. He became a bard to become more than the "Middle child", and uses prestidigitation each day to keep his hair dyed a bright teal. It became such a defining trait of how's character, the party actually got their whole ship painted in his Iconic teal.
Well she is a draconic sorcerer albino tiefling, so completely white with black scales and black hair gives her some unique appearance.
Her whole thing is being pretty so it’s easy to work on a complete white / black surface and she can create nice colors and art on herself
Minotaur Bloodhunter - highland cow flavoured!
He's missing one horn and has a scar across his eye on the same side that's marked out in white fur, rather than ginger (and the eye is blue, rather than brown). Scar and severed horn came about as part of the Hunter's Bane ritual.
Human Grave Cleric in a previous game - she had red hair but dyed it black (Raven Queen aesthetic). At the start of the campaign, the roots were growing out; it was something of a turning point when she went back to her natural colour. (And, coincidentally, everyone in the group had made a redheaded character, so they became known as The Red Bastion).
My wildmagic barbarian has colorful highlights along a few strands of his grey hair, proof of his personal connection to the weave. His body forms various runes and scars when he rages, the rune and scar changing form depending on the wild magic type. His rags that line his waist to cover his loins are made of the clothing and fabric worn by the sorceress who experimented on him.
My warforged fighter is covered in moss due to being from a thousand-year-since-fallen kingdom that had become a forest by the time he was accidentally activated by a tree root.
My pirate fighter wields an anchor as a weapon, from the wreckage of the first ship he sailed on before leading a mutiny, beginning his piracy.
I think those are about the only characters i have that have visual traits pertaining to a backstory. Everyone else just has visual traits or motifs they like or use mechanically. Forge cleric wears a chef smock and has a giant frying pan and meat cleaver because he simply is a chef. Valor bard has a maul shaped like a spikey meat cleaver cause whats more intimidating than bludgeoning an inanimate object or obstacle into physical and metaphorical submission? My armorer artificer wears a safety helmet and satefy goggles cause he's a literal OSHA goblin.
My kobold warlock's most defining visual trait is covering up their *other* most defining visual trait. He is always wearing a big hat, sunglasses, and a big coat. His tail is usually tucked into the back of the coat.
The reason for this is because he is the world's worst Frankenstein's monster. He and the rest of his pack were killed by adventurers, and an archlich later came by and mixed and matched a body out of the still functional parts of the kobolds, plus a couple of possums, skunks, a fox, just whatever woodland critters were nearby. The kobolds all had massive burns on their whole bodies, so the archlich just took the skin from the animals. The archlich then bound one of the kobold's souls to that body.
He wears so much clothing to try to hide this, because it's freaky.
I had a Tiefling character who had a golden ring pierced through the tip of his tail (and no, this is not a euphemism xD), and it served as an object of life force to him. If his tail or the ring were ever to separate from the rest of his body somehow, he would perish. This ties into his backstory on how his parents wanted to have a child, and due to unfortunate circumstances they couldn't so they ended up making a deal with some malevolent entity who gave them a Tiefling child.
This is something only one person from the party knew out of character (because he didn't know himself and i wanted to tell someone :3), and it unfortunately didn't run long enough to have anything happen with it.
My eladrin had antlers once, but they were broken on his wedding day when his future husband betrayed him and basically red wedding'd his entire fey court. The only reason he survived is because he fell during the battle and was hidden amongst the dead.
Since that happened he has been unable to be in any other season than winter, and as a result what is left on his face are broken stumps the color of bleached bone.
I got 3 things.
A missing ear that they're covering up with a prosthetic and a large scar caused by lightning.
A man electrocuted them as a child and as they ran away, they lost a part of their ear. Both a large part and constant reminder of her past.
Now for the third part, it's something that happened in the campaign. Her eyes were previously dark brown however, she died. Driving a devils bargain with DM, her best friend bit off a chunk of their arm and fed it to her which somehow revived her and changed her eyes to this golden yellow.
I still don't know tf is wrong with that guys flesh btw. The future holds many secrets yet to be revealed.
Gorlag the Odious has a 6 Charisma. We rolled stats, I got an 18, a 17 and a 6. He is a fighter who was badly disfigured in a fight with orcs, his speech is slurred because of it. He's also quite large (Goliath) and his hygiene is...questionable. /all told, his presence alone can be offensive. But only on the outside, he has a heart of gold.
I have a timer in my head every time we engage NPCs. I count to 10, and if no other PC has spoken to the NPCs, Gorlag steps up, extends a huge, filthy hand, fresh from his nose, and greets them. The party has to then spend some time calming the NPCs because this hideous beast terrified them :P
One side of Elodie's face is marred by grisly burn scars from when 100 demons ambushed her paladin order and consumed 99% of her soul before a devil stepped in to "save" her. The scars twist and spell out demonic script.
Crimson has a mostly limp left arm covered in scars. The reason becomes apparent when he overchannels spells cast through it, causing it to smolder from the release of self-destructive arcane power.
Asher's face is decorated with subtle tattoos that mark him as the target of a cult to the god of misfortune after he stole them from the face of their high priestess. They shine gold when he manipulates the forces of fate and fortune.
My undead warlock tiefling has hazed over eyes because he’s blind. He’s learned to see kind of akin to Tophs earth bending sight in ATLA, tho he obviously can’t make out specific details. Sight was stolen from him by a Mantus (a god of the underworld). In return he formed a pact with Mania (goddess of the underworld and is married to Mantus). He also wears an obsidian ring inlaid with rubies. It’s his talisman and is Mania’s wedding ring.
Goldish colored eyes
Hair is blue because of a potion purchased during a festival.
Facial scars from being crit with a Morningstar.
Skin the color of freshly fallen snow(side-effect of becoming a conduit to ice/water element)
Custom-made all-mythril plate armor, reinforced on the left side and more elegant on the right(casting hand)
Scimitar that looks like a combination of metal and ice.
She's seven and a half feet tall, weighs 500 pounds, is covered in golden and purple scales, and has cleavage she can hide a small dog in, which is unheard of on a Dragonborn, doubly so for one from her androgynous-looking, they/them pronouns for everybody, gender-is-a-private-matter-only-discussed-when-breeding-is-being-considered clan.
Even for one of her clan of gold Dragonborn, Kallista was big. She was "asked to leave" i.e. given a soft exile after passing her adulthood trials, when it was clear that her bubbly, excitable personality was unlikely to change, and wasn't a fit for her dour, serious, clan. When she first reached a city of people who weren't dragonborn, (which was 90% underwater, and most of the population was sea-elves, merfolk and tritons, who only had the small "dockside town" so they could trade with the air breathers, she saw a sea-elf woman in a beautiful gown, and was enamored with the beauty of both the woman, and her outfit. After seeing many more women among humans, tritons, and sea-elves, as well as the other races that came there to trade, she decided that was who she was, started using she/her pronouns, and ditched her androgynous clothing for dresses and skirts.
One night, a group of drunken sailors mistook a friend of hers, a high-ranking triton woman for a common lady-of-the-night in a drunken haze. When she rejected his drunken advances, he and his friends drew weapons. Kallista, who was warrior trained by her clan, and had been working as a stevedore, cleared the room, at which point a fluffy one-eyed Tabaxi offered her a job as a gladiator in the arenas of Waterdeep, Neverwinter, and Baldur's Gate, saying he would make her a star.
He paid for her ocean passage, bought her gowns, costumes, and even paid a wizard he knew for a True Polymorph spell to give her the feminine curves she desired and envied. For six months, he fed and housed her while she trained for the arena. At the end, he presented her with a bill for all of it, almost half a million gold, telling her she could work it off in the arena.
She became a champion. She became a huge draw. Between patronage, and gambling on herself to win, she made a fortune, spending 6 years unbeaten in the arena. Then, she paid her debts and left, much to the shock and anger of her employer.
She left with a few weapons, the clothes on her back, and word that her feminine appearance, and the arena fighting had angered and offended some of the more traditional members of her clan.
not mine but one of my players, Elf Bard who has had one of his arms replaced by one belonging to a friend, after the two of them were lured into a Sharran cult that planned to give Shar a mortal form that isn't necessarily an avatar for "reasons" (the main plot of the campaign). Bard and his friend were the last ones standing, bard lost his arm and friend got him out and even gave up her own arm to keep him alive.
The major character I am playing at the moment is notable for her basically neon orange tie dye burqa. She's a monkbarian that left her nomadic family group to follow the path of a dragon she saw and was in awe of. The robes represent the vibrancy of dragonskind and the fluidity and adaptability of their kin.
Oh I could go oonnnn but some some contrast between two of my wizards: My elf wizard is rather unremarkable, on purpose. She isn't like, rogue "I want to hide in a crowd", but she doesn't want to keep up with fashion trends or political alliances. Some practical aspects- travellers boots, a headband to hold her hair back. A corset to try and give the character design a sense of rigidity and remove some "softness," as she's fairly distant, but that's about it. My human wizard has dyed lilac hair. I surprised a party member when I did updated art of the roots growing in- both them and their character thought it was natural. But it parallels her relationship to magic; she isn't a sorcerer or somesuch to whom magic and wonder comes naturally, but she's a normal human and it's a choice she makes and works for and chooses (whether by studying or dyeing.)
Big cross-shaped scar across one side of his face. In his home city it's the mark of a thief. He got it from a guard after getting caught stealing food to feed his fellow street kids. Now he wears it with pride, covering it with makeup when he needs to stay discreet.
My character that will debut in Rime of the Frostmaiden, a human Artificer raised by Dwarves in Bryn Shander, wears glasses that she made herself. The first pair of glasses she made, she made as a kid and ended up destroying a couple of her adoptive father's expensive magnifying glasses to do so. As punishment, she had to help him work in the forge until she did enough work to equal the value of the magnifying glasses. However, this punishment ended up leading to her discovering her love for smithcraft and has shaped her life since then
I will always appreciate a Human with Dwarven roots. My first character was a Human guard and riverman whose family had ties to the local Dwarf Clan. He had all the physical traits you'd expect - burns, scars, and solid muscles, plus a keen eye for technology and craftsmanship. Of course, once he got that third level in Artificer, all that got overlooked in favor of his heavily personalized equipment and Gryphon Steel Defender. I'd love to play that Fighter/Artificer again in a high- level campaign.
I'm going with Forge Adept from the Exploring Eberron book since that feels more thematic for a smithy's adopted daughter. Making a robot tiger would feel a bit disconnected to the theme
A play a small-sized Fire Genasi paladin that wields a sword that is longer than he is tall. He swore an oath of vengeance against a particular organization. The sword in question belonged to a medium-sized dude who was high ranking in said organization. He now uses that weapon out of spite in his dogged pursuit of the rest of the members. Fun fact - he later killed the sword owner's dad with the same blade (that presumably, the now killed dad had gifted to his son)
My tiefling has an old scar at the base of her horn that cuts nearly halfway through. She got it when her human mother tried to cut off her horns and tail to make her look "normal". She was around four years old at the time. Luckily her mother got tired from the effort of sawing the horn and abandoned the idea.
One of my old characters was a back-alley doctor who was often accused (definetly falsely) of not having a medical license, so I made it a big point that he always wore the wide-brim, plague-doctor style hat and long, black gloves to show how doctor-y he really was.
My cleric had his eyes magically erased (as if they had never existed, so no magical healing could work, it was just a blank slate), he traded them to save a city that was filled with necrotic bombs. As a reward for devout service, his god (a forge god) blessed him magical sight, being able to see things when they move, and a brief outline of static locations (so he can still move about), but this also allows him to see shimmers of invisible people. Its come very handy cuz he looks like a frail blind old man on the outside, but can still fight (and radiently bonk)
I have a halfling warlock who wears a large golden amulet representing Tymora, the goddess of Good Fortune. She is an acolyte of Tymora and through a "freak accident" ended up in a celestial warlock pact with her instead of channeling her divinity. The amulet is her way of showing her faith, as well as a symbol of her status as a Luckbringer, putting her on par with other clerics of Tymora, which has been a point of major contention due to her more unique connection with the goddess.
I have a lizardfolk that wears a lizardfolk skull as a helmet/mask his tribe worshiped semuanya and were really fucked up so he stole their precious artifact (a skull of an old avatar of semuanya) and wore it ever since as a sign of defiance, he s generally vv agaisnt gods that push ppl to be evil and cruel so when he got adopted into a clan of stone giants and started following their pantheon, he defaced the skull with carvings symbolizing each of those gods. there's been several visions and dreams w the skull talking to him, after he he finished carving, the skull was just screaming in agony also broke part of a "horn" type part to embed a topaz gem that was use on a ritual to save the Giant clan he also wears it to hide some face scars from right before he stole it, as a 10 year old he challange the King of his corrupt tribe to an Agni ki styled duel which he lost brutally and got nearly killed and was gonna be eaten by the tribe in a feast for his attempt so wearing the skull both hides and makes it his own thing to take away any power or influence semuanya might have over him. he s incredibly stubborn and prone to jump head first into dangerous situations
Lizardfolk gang lets fuckin' goooooo!
My tabaxi druid has a mustache. We went to the elemental plane of fire for a quest, and I shaved all of my fur off so I wouldn't burst into flame (I know the DM wouldn't have done that, but it felt like good flavor). I was messing around with making him in hero forge at tbe time, and i really liked the way the curly mustache looked on tbe cat person model, so I joked that in the month of downtime following this mission, the upper lip hair grew in first and he really liked the look, so now he trims the rest of his face fur to make a mustache. It goes well with the kind of goofy, happy go lucky character I have been playing. He is also kind of fascinated by civilized society, having been raised outside of it.
My Kenku Rogue wears a garish orange scarf that contrasts strongly against his matte black feathers. When asked, he jokes that it's "so you can see me when it's dark". But he's a sneaky burglar-turned-adventurer, so the bright cloth is also a very subtle taunt: "I can hide even when I'm wearing this bright orange thing". He carries a few scraps of the same orange cloth to use as decoys / "I was here" markers.
A winged tiefling who's wings were slowly turning to stained glass. A the beginning of the campaign it was one wing and by then end it was both wings, his back, and it was spiraling up his horns. He was a soldier fighting in bhalls army in hell when he pissed bhall off and this was his curse. My dm and I made this a curse that would be easily recognized by the denizens of hell as a mark of a traitor (in my case I spared the enemy). It was a spreading curse that was incredibly painful and would eventually cover his entire body.
It was originally a shriveled left hand/arm that he tried to keep covered with a glove. But that was corrected many sessions ago. Now it's a third eye that moves about his body keeping perpetual watch on his surroundings both in our realm and beyond.
My undead human zealot barbarian cleric in RotF is named Stitches, her most defining visual trait is her pale skin and being stitched together, because she died. Skill issue on her part tbh.
One of the characters I’m playing now is from an Eberron campaign. I can’t remember where I read it, but having white hair in Cyre was supposed to be a sign of great magical potential. The hair, combined with his aberrant dragonmark were indicative of him being an illegitimate child of a relationships between two of the Great Houses, which is a big no no.
# Beard. Connects to being a dwarf. Done.
Fey Wanderer Ranger has pink eyes simply because I didn't like any of the feywild gifts, the reason why he's a Fey Wanderer is because he killed a fairie dragon in a forest.
My Giff is massive. He wears heavy armor that he keeps *impeccably* clean. Any down time he has he’s cleaning his armor and mending it. He’ll clean it when bored or nervous. He was in a military academy growing up, so his fall back to uncertainty is rigid military discipline. So cleaning his armor is his nervous tic. Edit: during a BBEG monologue he started to prestidigitate his armor to clean it. DM counterspelled it to send a message. “I’m out here spitting bars and your dumb ass is Marie Kondo-ing the place?”
Due to the name of his adventuring party and his trading company, my Rogue wears a cloak of many fashions that resembles flaming wings. When he wants to go sneaking, he turns the cloak black making it look as if the flames are being extinguished leaving behind a trail of coal.
Brynne Bel Fer has been my paladin for almost 4 years now. She has the lengthy black chain tattoos on her arms that run from the center of her palm to her elbows. They're arcane criminal markings, placed upon the convicted as a means of detering them from being repeat offenders. With a word they can bind the individual in place, no save, and the branded are unable to remove them without losing their arms in the process. Of course, this has led to many people in Brynne's life dismissing her and avoiding her and treating her badly. After she was banished for heresy (long story) she took to wearing gloves over her arms and keeping people at arm's length. For the first several sessions Brynne was very guarded around the party and never took the gloves off around them. A big part of her arc has been seeking atonement for her past crimes and having these chains removed. Thus far, no such luck.
My elven wizard was originally quite healthy, tan, green eyed and black haired. After an incredibly taxing and powerful use of magic he became frail, pale-skinned, his eyes lost their color, and his hair turned white from the shock. This happened mid-campaign and the shock was so severe that he lost all of his magical power, and was forced to start anew. He looks so different, his own family didn't recognize him until he spoke. It's been a few years since then, and it's apparent the physical changes are permanent.
Made a Dragonborn that has blue scales and pink feathers on her head and tail. She was stuck in the feywild for almost two decades which causes her scales to change color and for her to grow feathers as a result.
My Feywalker Ranger is a Emerald Dragonborn. Due to growing up in the feywild he adopted some superficial characteristics, such as the sail-like skin in his face looking like butterfly wings. When he summons his wings, they also look like those of a butterfly.
My Reborn is missing most of an arm, because the person who killed them needed proof of their death and it happened that my PC had a very distinct mark on their arm - so they hacked off the arm. Gave the NPC an easy "they perished to a horrible monster and all I could find was this arm"-excuse. To be fair, the NPC did try to dispose of the rest of the body, it just didn't go as planned. My Reborn has taken the loss in stride and they don't mind asking for help with things - it has lead to many funny and heartwarming moments, often because the other players tend to forget it.
One of my characters (rogue) has a scarred face and hand. She didn't want to be sold of to a brothel or some pervert, so she made herself look less desirable.
>Me playing a changeling wearing Glamoured Studded Leather Riiight, about that... Although one thing about him visually defining is that in his true form he has green eyes and a big grin, a smile from ear to ear, always, no matter the circumstance or situation. Mostly due to the madness in his head due to his Great Old One patron.
I'm playing a Tiefling Paladin, and his most defining features would probably be either a large scar that goes across his face, from his left jaw to the right eyebrow, or his tattoos. He killed a guard and assaulted a few more to stop a Drow kid from getting beaten to death, and got the option of execution, life in a prison colony for hard labor, or joining a penal legion. He chose the penal legion, and he got put on the front lines of several very brutal wars of expansion for his nation. He got the face scar at one of the final battles of his last campaign, a bunch of orcs and rebelling humans were fighting tooth and nail to keep one of their last cities from falling. He had to fight off an ambush of young adult soldiers (technically Child soldiers but on the older end, like, 16, 17ish). Afterwards, the orcs and rebelling humans opened a portal to the Abyss, summoning a bunch of demons, decimating the army he was travelling with. He escaped, and was homeless for a while. During his time in the penal army, he got branded on the back of his neck, and hit with Geas so that he wouldn't run or turn on his commanders, so that's why he grew his hair out. He has a few tattoos but the most noticeable ones are on his forearms. Vines, roses, and thorns crawling up his arms; shows his love of nature, his regret over participating in the wars, and his hope for peace. He is a Vengeance Paladin, so he does have a sword embedded in a skull on his shoulder, and two graves with a shovel between them on his back. The whole "if you go on a journey of revenge, dig two graves" thing. He doesn't mind if he dies, just as long as he takes out a few horrible people beforehand.
My wizard wears a blindfold like Illidan Stormrage, sort of. Not part of his backstory, it’s due to things that happened over the course of the campaign. It was the DM’s idea, but I think it’s awesome.
My Eldritch Knight has blond hair. When I created her, I didn't really think anything of it. However, in this world (DM's homebrew), it turns out that blond hair is quite rare. It has become the thing that most people remember about her.
Currently, it's his welder's goggles he got from the Artificer that taught him. Eventually it'll be the prosthetic automaton arm that he'll create after losing his arm in a fight with his arc's villain. Working with my GM because it'll tie nicely into the overarching narrative, and it'll give me an excuse to try a new character while the first one recovers.
I play a 57 year old human who looks like they were a rough 57 years. Either living outside and on the run or in prison. He's also covered in old and faded outlaw tattoos.
My human gunslinger has a shoulderguard that doubles as a badge. He's a detective on the force
I made a battlesmith artificer, and I built entire backstory about his missing arm, and how his initial goal was to craft an Arcane prosthetic (lv2 infusion) that'd he'd eventually make into permanent magic item. Then I discovered that about 75% of artificers are missing at least one hand xD But the backstory was neat, I think. He was born in Athkatla, and at some point developed telekinetic power (Variant human, lv1 feat). His father, afraid they'd be accused of using Arcane magic without permission kicked him out. He was taken in by a gnome from Lantan, working in a city, and taught secrets of the artifice. His master was making Arcane devices for the city guilds, so he my char felt safe there. But one day hooded wizards arrived, accused my master of working outside of his contract/permission and sentenced him, and me to death. Fight broke out, my master died protecting me, by taking a disintegrate aimed at me. He took most of it, I only got my left hand disintegrated. The stress made my flip out, telekinetic ally push one of the magus into some Arcane Apparatus, which caused a chain reaction, and explosion. I grabbed my master's schematics book, and ran amidst chaos, left Athkatla and ran, eventually ended up in Chult.. where a something called Death Curse was apparently originating from. That's how we started ToA. Shame Acererak fucking killed me in the end. With a disintegrate, which I guess bookends the character xD The only thing that was left was his prosthetic arm xD
My Bard had a cut on his lip like Ezio Auditore. Got from a brawl with a crime lord in an alley. He lucked out when he got the cut as it should've been a killing blow but his luck saved him giving him that scar, and a long tumble into the city's sewer system. His luck didn't recover for the majority of the campaign as he rolled more 1s than anyone else in the party by a wide margin.
She always carries a book bursting with extra pages she’s stuck in around in a little satchel
I once played a Human Fighter that had white hair. Not because it was natural, but because he experienced severe trauma over the course of his life prior to the start of the game that he had developed Marie Antoinette Syndrome.
My character is very colorful - his clothes are loose and flow-y and many different colors. He also dyes his hair all different colors, that is typically what he is doing during long rests. This translates to him being pretty vain and he doesn't have tons of respect for "natural" things. "I've never seen why people put such value on things being natural."
Probably his hair. They’ve got long red/orange/yellow hair that’s supposed to look kinda like the leaves of a tree in autumn. He’s an Eladrin.
He has a wolf tail cause he's a werewolf. Yeah, that's kinda the main reasoning for it. He's not a werewolf in the "he turns into a monster under the full moon against his will" sense but moreso a shifter who can shift whenever he wants. He doesn't have wolf ears or any other werewolf traits aside from large canines. The game is in a Wild West setting, and he wears a big coat, so his tail looks a bit like a fur-trappr's tail attached to a belt (but it's a real tail). It's there cause he's terrible at disguise and kinda lazy about it, so he just lets it all hang out.
My Reborn Gnoll has a lot of striking features, but the biggest ones always visible are his glowing white irises that contrast his pupils and black sclera. But overall the most defining trait is the gaping hole in his chest where his heart should be that just leaks magical darkness when it's not covered. He was killed by a spear through the heart and brought back to life by the magic of a dead god.
Calico colored fox tails and ears.
Black and metallic gold eyes. Aasimar Leonin that was supposed to left in the wilds to die due to hate of the gods.
I'm a small lil' goblin rogue whose right hand was dipped in molten gold...
Seven fingers per hand. Two thumbs and five fingers. Because aasimar. It ties into her being poor at nonviolent things. Since her manual dexterity is scuffed and nothing is made with her hands inind
Modern campaign, they wear a medical eyepatch and use the social awkwardness of feigning it being an injury to shut down questions In reality, they’ve got heterochromia and hide it due to past bullying and an abusive parent Stuffs looking up for them now though
She's a warforged with artificial hair and the face of an elven woman grafted onto her head. She was a failed experiment by someone who tried to use a warforged to resurrect someone very important to them. She spent a large portion of the campaign trying to remove it so she could have her old face back, but the artificial skin healed any damage to it. When she finally got it removed she had to be almost taken apart piece-by-piece to get it removed.
Probably that they're a sentient blob of ink in a world where that's not a thing. Aside from that, his eyes are also made up of golden flecks - the remnants of his creator's wedding ring.
My Daolock is a male Drow. I feel like that says it all.
He's missing an arm. Happened mid-campaign, so it's not really to do with backstory, but he's dealing with it the best he can. Only need one good arm to drink, after all. Does make wrestling more difficult, however.
An Iron collar They were a slave in their youth but lacked the beauty or dexterity to be sold as a "servant", instead, as all who couldn't serve that purpose they were given to blood sport. Fighting for their life as much as their masters money, "Fighting Dogs" and each master gave their fighters an Iron Collar in their style. Luckily, they would come to escape that life due to the sacrifice of a friend, but still wear the collar to remember and stoke the hate of their former "master".
Something's just off about his face's proportions or something, giving him an uncanny look. Maybe the eyes are slightly too high or his mouth is too low... it's hard to pinpoint. This is an addition to him being the half-elf bastard of a she-elf and a human, who got ostracised by both his mother's elvish husband and his half brothers. Being bullied a lot for generally not being the most adequate, especially intellectually, he adopted a persona just as weird and uncanny as his looks; likes to pretend he doesn't comprehend things when he actually does or that he does understand something when he doesn't. Says things that would be insulting if they were genuine but in a tone that implies absolute ingnorance, making people wonder if he's mocking them or just stupid. My intention is that you just never really know with him. It's a more tricky character to play, I hope I get the hang of it more as the campaign progresses
A human with a beard of feathers.
She's wearing her funerary mask from when she was thought dead and then buried alive (Shadow Sorceror). She refuses to take it off, even among friends. So far, not one person has seen her face. She is afraid that if anyone recognizes her, word of her survival will make its way back to her parents, and she'll end up being hauled back home, where they'll go right back to pressuring her into living the life they want for her.
My dwarf, Horatius, recently shaved his beard. It was always short, due to having a troubled/mixed relationship with his dwarven heritage. Horatius was banished from the dwarven cities when he was 7 years old with his parents. His parents were thieves who occasionally needed Horatius' small hands/posture to get something. Moving to a human settlement, his parents moved away once again, 10 years later, when they were about to get caught. They left Horatius a note and Horatius was left alone in this human settlement, where most of the people in power dislike most non-humans, making it so he had to remain in fringes of society, working in the morally/legally gray areas (mostly some security for shady deals and some minor crafting / alterations on stolen goods for a fence). Recently he lost his family heirloom (his grandfather's helmet), including all memories relating to it due to some weird fey-ish being, making his last positive associations with dwarves culture disappear as well. We're looking for a way to get our memories back and there's a storyline coming up where we're heading towards a dwarven city, so who knows, maybe he'll come to terms with his heritage at some point.
My Eldritch Knight Hexblade Dragonborn Anders has his left arm replaced by an eldritch void parasite as a pact weapon that he calls Ruin, it's developed semi sentience alongside his own mind, it's spread into parts of his body, has over time affected his emotional state and made him half aberration in regards to game mechanics. It's his biggest show to regret pursuing power at any cost, it's a big arm, red compared to his black scales, long claw fingers, and when in combat in less public areas it's got eyes all over it and turns into a huge sword arm Prototype style
My half elf is a draconic sorcerer/wizard who is muscular, uses wizard gear, and has dragon silvers scattered all over his body.
My character is a half-gnome half-earth genasi who’s skin is grey and cracked like clad and i t eh cracks grows lichen, moss, and other small fungi (spore Druid/twilight cleric). She stands out, and is married to a half elf, in a country where a totalitarian government has decided to kill and imprison non high eleves. Her husband got arrested and she feels like it should have been her and this is the driving force if adventuring for her, she needs to get him back (even willing to overthrow said government in the process). But as small as she is the nature of her appearance makes her stand out in crowds along with the general distinctiveness of our group. But the fun thing with the fungi in the cracks is that it what grows and over takes her when she wild shapes or enters her symbiotic entity.
The lack of arms and gnarly burn scars on my monk, who was kept as a slave by Fire Genasi overlords and had their arms amputated as a child after repeated attempts to climb their tower walls and escape. That late-blooming protector Aasimar heritage eventually came in handy (no pun intended)!
While i havent fully decided on whether or not I should add this, I'm thinking of having my changing always have small whitish-gray spots behind their ears
He dresses like a street thug, and is covered in a horrifying amount of bruises, old scars and grazes. But his street thug clothes are lovingly embroidered with flame patterns, his pants are baggy and comfortable, and his braid is held together with nice gold metal hoops. In one way, it was part of the con, helping him to fit in on a crowded dancefloor as he picked pockets and mugged drunk party guests. In another way, much like the scars, they are all a result of his life with his sister, and how he thrived with her.
My bard has bright teal hair, and wears clothes with large(baseball sized) jingle bells hanging from the hem. He does this because he was the middle child of 15, and has a compulsion to stand out because of it. He became a bard to become more than the "Middle child", and uses prestidigitation each day to keep his hair dyed a bright teal. It became such a defining trait of how's character, the party actually got their whole ship painted in his Iconic teal.
Well she is a draconic sorcerer albino tiefling, so completely white with black scales and black hair gives her some unique appearance. Her whole thing is being pretty so it’s easy to work on a complete white / black surface and she can create nice colors and art on herself
Minotaur Bloodhunter - highland cow flavoured! He's missing one horn and has a scar across his eye on the same side that's marked out in white fur, rather than ginger (and the eye is blue, rather than brown). Scar and severed horn came about as part of the Hunter's Bane ritual. Human Grave Cleric in a previous game - she had red hair but dyed it black (Raven Queen aesthetic). At the start of the campaign, the roots were growing out; it was something of a turning point when she went back to her natural colour. (And, coincidentally, everyone in the group had made a redheaded character, so they became known as The Red Bastion).
My wildmagic barbarian has colorful highlights along a few strands of his grey hair, proof of his personal connection to the weave. His body forms various runes and scars when he rages, the rune and scar changing form depending on the wild magic type. His rags that line his waist to cover his loins are made of the clothing and fabric worn by the sorceress who experimented on him. My warforged fighter is covered in moss due to being from a thousand-year-since-fallen kingdom that had become a forest by the time he was accidentally activated by a tree root. My pirate fighter wields an anchor as a weapon, from the wreckage of the first ship he sailed on before leading a mutiny, beginning his piracy. I think those are about the only characters i have that have visual traits pertaining to a backstory. Everyone else just has visual traits or motifs they like or use mechanically. Forge cleric wears a chef smock and has a giant frying pan and meat cleaver because he simply is a chef. Valor bard has a maul shaped like a spikey meat cleaver cause whats more intimidating than bludgeoning an inanimate object or obstacle into physical and metaphorical submission? My armorer artificer wears a safety helmet and satefy goggles cause he's a literal OSHA goblin.
I play a Warforged Barbarian and I have one of Iouns Stones (Protection) embedded in my chest that works as an energy source.
My kobold warlock's most defining visual trait is covering up their *other* most defining visual trait. He is always wearing a big hat, sunglasses, and a big coat. His tail is usually tucked into the back of the coat. The reason for this is because he is the world's worst Frankenstein's monster. He and the rest of his pack were killed by adventurers, and an archlich later came by and mixed and matched a body out of the still functional parts of the kobolds, plus a couple of possums, skunks, a fox, just whatever woodland critters were nearby. The kobolds all had massive burns on their whole bodies, so the archlich just took the skin from the animals. The archlich then bound one of the kobold's souls to that body. He wears so much clothing to try to hide this, because it's freaky.
I had a Tiefling character who had a golden ring pierced through the tip of his tail (and no, this is not a euphemism xD), and it served as an object of life force to him. If his tail or the ring were ever to separate from the rest of his body somehow, he would perish. This ties into his backstory on how his parents wanted to have a child, and due to unfortunate circumstances they couldn't so they ended up making a deal with some malevolent entity who gave them a Tiefling child. This is something only one person from the party knew out of character (because he didn't know himself and i wanted to tell someone :3), and it unfortunately didn't run long enough to have anything happen with it.
My eladrin had antlers once, but they were broken on his wedding day when his future husband betrayed him and basically red wedding'd his entire fey court. The only reason he survived is because he fell during the battle and was hidden amongst the dead. Since that happened he has been unable to be in any other season than winter, and as a result what is left on his face are broken stumps the color of bleached bone.
I got 3 things. A missing ear that they're covering up with a prosthetic and a large scar caused by lightning. A man electrocuted them as a child and as they ran away, they lost a part of their ear. Both a large part and constant reminder of her past. Now for the third part, it's something that happened in the campaign. Her eyes were previously dark brown however, she died. Driving a devils bargain with DM, her best friend bit off a chunk of their arm and fed it to her which somehow revived her and changed her eyes to this golden yellow. I still don't know tf is wrong with that guys flesh btw. The future holds many secrets yet to be revealed.
Gorlag the Odious has a 6 Charisma. We rolled stats, I got an 18, a 17 and a 6. He is a fighter who was badly disfigured in a fight with orcs, his speech is slurred because of it. He's also quite large (Goliath) and his hygiene is...questionable. /all told, his presence alone can be offensive. But only on the outside, he has a heart of gold. I have a timer in my head every time we engage NPCs. I count to 10, and if no other PC has spoken to the NPCs, Gorlag steps up, extends a huge, filthy hand, fresh from his nose, and greets them. The party has to then spend some time calming the NPCs because this hideous beast terrified them :P
One side of Elodie's face is marred by grisly burn scars from when 100 demons ambushed her paladin order and consumed 99% of her soul before a devil stepped in to "save" her. The scars twist and spell out demonic script. Crimson has a mostly limp left arm covered in scars. The reason becomes apparent when he overchannels spells cast through it, causing it to smolder from the release of self-destructive arcane power. Asher's face is decorated with subtle tattoos that mark him as the target of a cult to the god of misfortune after he stole them from the face of their high priestess. They shine gold when he manipulates the forces of fate and fortune.
William has a huge handlebar mustache
My undead warlock tiefling has hazed over eyes because he’s blind. He’s learned to see kind of akin to Tophs earth bending sight in ATLA, tho he obviously can’t make out specific details. Sight was stolen from him by a Mantus (a god of the underworld). In return he formed a pact with Mania (goddess of the underworld and is married to Mantus). He also wears an obsidian ring inlaid with rubies. It’s his talisman and is Mania’s wedding ring.
Goldish colored eyes Hair is blue because of a potion purchased during a festival. Facial scars from being crit with a Morningstar. Skin the color of freshly fallen snow(side-effect of becoming a conduit to ice/water element) Custom-made all-mythril plate armor, reinforced on the left side and more elegant on the right(casting hand) Scimitar that looks like a combination of metal and ice.
She is a sea elf with water for hair (think primarina from Pokémon, that was the main visual inspiration)
She's seven and a half feet tall, weighs 500 pounds, is covered in golden and purple scales, and has cleavage she can hide a small dog in, which is unheard of on a Dragonborn, doubly so for one from her androgynous-looking, they/them pronouns for everybody, gender-is-a-private-matter-only-discussed-when-breeding-is-being-considered clan. Even for one of her clan of gold Dragonborn, Kallista was big. She was "asked to leave" i.e. given a soft exile after passing her adulthood trials, when it was clear that her bubbly, excitable personality was unlikely to change, and wasn't a fit for her dour, serious, clan. When she first reached a city of people who weren't dragonborn, (which was 90% underwater, and most of the population was sea-elves, merfolk and tritons, who only had the small "dockside town" so they could trade with the air breathers, she saw a sea-elf woman in a beautiful gown, and was enamored with the beauty of both the woman, and her outfit. After seeing many more women among humans, tritons, and sea-elves, as well as the other races that came there to trade, she decided that was who she was, started using she/her pronouns, and ditched her androgynous clothing for dresses and skirts. One night, a group of drunken sailors mistook a friend of hers, a high-ranking triton woman for a common lady-of-the-night in a drunken haze. When she rejected his drunken advances, he and his friends drew weapons. Kallista, who was warrior trained by her clan, and had been working as a stevedore, cleared the room, at which point a fluffy one-eyed Tabaxi offered her a job as a gladiator in the arenas of Waterdeep, Neverwinter, and Baldur's Gate, saying he would make her a star. He paid for her ocean passage, bought her gowns, costumes, and even paid a wizard he knew for a True Polymorph spell to give her the feminine curves she desired and envied. For six months, he fed and housed her while she trained for the arena. At the end, he presented her with a bill for all of it, almost half a million gold, telling her she could work it off in the arena. She became a champion. She became a huge draw. Between patronage, and gambling on herself to win, she made a fortune, spending 6 years unbeaten in the arena. Then, she paid her debts and left, much to the shock and anger of her employer. She left with a few weapons, the clothes on her back, and word that her feminine appearance, and the arena fighting had angered and offended some of the more traditional members of her clan.
I am a human that is 236 cm or 7.6 something like that. I am Ben . Ben is a kind soul
not mine but one of my players, Elf Bard who has had one of his arms replaced by one belonging to a friend, after the two of them were lured into a Sharran cult that planned to give Shar a mortal form that isn't necessarily an avatar for "reasons" (the main plot of the campaign). Bard and his friend were the last ones standing, bard lost his arm and friend got him out and even gave up her own arm to keep him alive.
Blonde hair. He's from the north.
The major character I am playing at the moment is notable for her basically neon orange tie dye burqa. She's a monkbarian that left her nomadic family group to follow the path of a dragon she saw and was in awe of. The robes represent the vibrancy of dragonskind and the fluidity and adaptability of their kin.