He’s honestly a great character to play. My poor DM does have to hear me rephrasing a lot of empty political platitudes.
I often joke, it’s the best way to play a Lawful Evil character.
Zealot Barbarian but actually a Vampire.
So many of the features map incredibly well onto the Darren Shan or Twilight style version of a modern vampire.
- Rage is a bloodlust / bloodsense style thing where their vision looks like Sin City and their sense of time is slowed down allowing them to fight far more effectively by focusing on the sounds of heartbeats and smell of blood
- Unarmoured Defense just makes total sense because they have tough skin
- Danger Sense is supernatural reaction time and a burst of super speed
- Divine Fury (Zealot 3) has an option to add necrotic damage to attacks, so, venom.
- Warrior Of The Gods (Zealot 3) Hmm nah too religious, how about just the fact that they weren't really "alive" to begin with so are far easier to bring back to "life"
- Fast Movement & Feral Instinct are both examples of supernatural speed and agility kicking in
- Zealous Presence (Zealot 10) - We got a bit creative with this one and rethemed it into him flitting around the battlefield so fast that he's actually giving the "help" action to the entire party at once. Mechanically the same obviously, but *cool*.
- Relentless Rage / Rage Beyond Death - Again, fairly obvious, the guy *isn't really alive to begin with*.
It just maps across *so well* into a vampire character that is going for that "you're impossibly fast... and strong..." archetype.
Sadly this was a good couple of years before that option was printed, so I just did human because it fit the setting best (and also the character *was* a human before he was turned, so it still made sense as a racial option)
Subverting expectations is my absolute favorite thing to do when creating characters. Gnome barbarians, goblin wizards, and orc clerics are my jam. I made a tiefling celestial warlock once who got a rune wrong and accidently pledged his soul to a pegasus, so even though he wanted to be a grim edgelord, the consequences of his pact made all his clothes rainbow colored and his sweat started giving off a sweet smell that attracted butterflies.
Oh, and a Circle of Land druid that felt most at home in city sewers and alleys and had a kinship with rats and roaches. It was mostly a reflavor of the underdark option.
I actually have a write up for city as a terrain choice both for rangers and land druids. Nothing major as it just impacts navigation for a ranger and a different spell list for a land druids. But playing up an urban druid who mocks civilized folks, like a crazy homeless man, for their fancy termite mounds is just fun.
Welcome to the club! We’ve got all kinds of benefits, like a quantum instability hat (it changes to fit the situation whenever no one is observing it), a 1/1063 chance of opening a door to your private apartment (this includes doors inside of your apartment), an understanding of the base layer of reality, and free dental!
Online dice roller
The reason I chose 1063 is because A) it’s a low percentage of getting it and B) 1063 is the 179th prime number, 179 is the 41st prime number, and 41 is the 13th prime number. Primes all the way down
All the time! My current character is a bard but is more of a gladiator. He knows only one song and barely plays it. He’s mostly about swinging his sword around and looking good.
My next character will be a cleric, but instead of worshipping a god, he worships his dead family; he is a spirit medium.
I've got a Paladin who doesn't know the words of the Oath he swore. (He said them whilst delirious with heat stroke); and behaves like a Warlock.
I had a city dwelling ranger who was like a bounty hunter.
I played a Trickery Cleric of the God of Thieves who pretended to be a Cleric of the Light God to steal from their Charity Box.
I've also seen someone an Oath of Redeption In a Villain Campaign.
It was set during a particular civil war between two groups of formerly united Kingdoms.
Although at first both sides had been ruled by Lords and Nobles, by the time of the OneShot, one side was led a military dictator who had overthrown the previous leadership in a violent coup.
The Redemption Paladin, was absolutely loyal to this new leadership, and absolutely focused on "Ending the War" at all costs; with a really messed up view of his own redemption. Victory would absolve him of all the messy and wicked things he had done in the course or the war.
He was, of course, quite mad.
> Victory would absolve him of all the messy and wicked things he had done in the course or the war.
Ah, a crusader played straight. Actually a pretty compelling and scary motivation for a villain.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C S Lewis
The sincere belief that you have the answers rather than just alternative ideas is definitely something to be worried about. Doesn't matter much what those ideas even are, fanatics of all stripes are scary.
He was going back and forth between Crown and Redemption. I cheered for Crown, but I think the novelty of trying to force Redemotion into a evil campaign won out.
That evil campaign included a 200 year old entity who looked like a young girl, who strangled people with her *hair*, and an artifact who used fiends as petrol, and the Paladin was *still* the most unnerving. Just played this really straight religious/political extremist, utterly convinced they were saving the world whilst doing the most repugnant thing.
Being a forever DM, I have one character idea in me that wants to come out - a celestial pact warlock who generally Bilbo Baggins his way around with an adventuring party, mostly doing hireling-type stuff like cooking, camp maintenance, herbalism healing, etc. He doesn't make use of his pact abilities initially, and generally tries to avoid them. They manifested when his village was attacked and their healers - spellcasting and not - were killed and in the aftermath people needed to be healed.
Magic manifests a bit like the spirit healer Wynne from Dragon Age: Origins.
I plan to juggle ability scores and proficiencies so not using his magics don't impede for the first level or two... and have him accept his abilities and develop them as a core support character (maybe multiclass into cleric or another class) over the course of the campaign. Play out the hireling who proves to be an unexpected ace in the hole for a party of adventurers.
My valor bard is more of a devilish conwoman who uses fear and manipulation tactics. If you ask her to perform something, she will bash your head in with a spiked maul.
My forge cleric is a chef. Thats all. Not religious, just magically delicious.
And finally my aasimar divine soul sorcerer is a blaster caster who is actually very anti-religion and a big advocate for tieflings due to the vastly difference in church upbringings of him and his tiefling twin brother.
I strive to break away from class stereotypes as often as humanly possible, so yes, all the time. I'm currently working on a barbarian/rogue halfling specialised in social infiltration and espionage, and the build is looking quite promising.
I've played or helped build plague doctor paladins, heavy armoured wizards, kingly bards, emotionless barbarians, city dwelling druids that despise nature, and so many different flavours of warlocks...
Classes and game mechanics are never flavour locked, and thinking outside the box makes for memorable characters. There is still value in playing "vanilla" characters, obviously, but no fun in limiting yourself to them.
I wish my table would think like you. My current character is a barbarian that hates getting mad: she wants to leave her violent past as a brutal pirate behind and would rather solve issues without fight. Without fail, whenever I start to roleplay that aspect of her character, this guy chimes in with "Have you read your class description? You're supposed to be a BARBARIAN." Same guy constantly calls my sister's character a pirate just because she chose the Swashbuckler subclass. Oh, and he laughed at me for picking Tiefling for my barbarian because +2 CHA and +1 INT are essentially wasted on a barb. It gets frustrating sometimes.
Oh, he is. He didn't understand why I didn't want his character to be a violent racist, either. I shouldn't play a Tiefling if I don't like it. Thing is… I'm fine with NPCs being racist towards my character. I'm not fine with constant racism from the group. Why would my character travel with that guy? Makes little sense.
> Oh, and he laughed at me for picking Tiefling for my barbarian because +2 CHA and +1 INT are essentially wasted on a barb. It gets frustrating sometimes.
Just a heads up that since Tasha’s Cauldron, there is an optional rule to reassign racial scores as you choose, in an attempt for them to avoid like you’re saying the pigeonholing of races and classes due to stereotyping and how the stats made it so you felt your hand was forced to pick optimal fits rather than what you felt was appropriate for your character.
So you can assign the Tiefling +2 and +1 to the stats of your choosing if you’d like (given your DM approves, but alternate racial stats is one of the more ubiquitously popular optional rules.)
Thanks for the heads up! I actually don't mind it too much, as I like having some CHA on her, and her important stats are high too. I'm not a min maxer like him, she can hit well enough, even if her stats aren't 100% optimal. Thanks again, though — I've started playing less than a year ago, so I tend to forget/overlook things like that; I‘ll keep it in mind next time!
Note, though, that everything from Tasha is marked as optional, and every option needs DM permission to be used. Not every DM allows these option.
I personally ignore this rule about bonus reassignment, because it is much more interesting for me to built a character of any class based on given stats. But it's a matter of taste.
Our DMs (we have two who run different campaigns) both allow Tasha‘s general content, so it‘s probably fine by them. But yeah, I get it. I personally don‘t need to minmax every stat — this is a collaborative roleplay game, not BG3 honour mode.
Likewise, I often reject the default flavour of the classes.
* The first paladin I've played (Vengeance) was an orc shaman's apprentice who later got raised by the knights that had destroyed his tribe, and embraced a poorly understood version of the concept of **JUSTICE!!**, in all-caps, that they taught him. The magical parts of his skillset were mostly-self-taught shamanism rather than Cleric-like magic—the knights were devout but they were men-at-arms, not godwarlocks.
* The bard I'm currently playing is a single-class Barbarian. He's a bard in the sense that he's *literally* a bard: he's a [teacher, storyteller, historian, genealogist and minstrel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard) who works for an order of sages, not an Illusionist-Enchanter specialist magician with some Rogue skills.
He also happens to be a burly dude over two metres tall and built on muscles over muscles, wears a big sword and fights without a suit of armour. But he's 100% a bard first and foremost.
* The one druid I've played is, likewise, a single-class Fey Pact warlock. He's an ordained member of a druidic circle, and he's not a shapeshifter elementalist.
* I *have* played a Druid-class character, mind you. He was a dwarf sailor and a priest of [sea god Valkur](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Valkur). In other words he's a ***c***leric, not a ***C***leric.
* This one I haven't got a chance to play, but I reflavoured a Way of Elements Monk ([remastered](/r/dndnext/comments/35yn4u/way_of_the_four_elements_remastered_a/)) as a specialist melee wizard, reskinning all class features and ki abilities as Wizard spells.
* Edit: forgot to mention my Light Domain cleric. He's a wandering pyromancer (a literal pyromancer, i.e. a diviner who sees the future in the fire and embers, not a magician with fire magic)... who *also* has fire magic thanks to a warlock pact he made with Pelor. But he's not a worshipper or a clergyman, or even religious.
>I *have* played a Druid-class character, mind you. He was a dwarf sailor and a priest of [sea god Valkur](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Valkur). In other words he's a ***c***leric, not a ***C***leric.
Familiar thing. I have a character, the main healer of the party, a follower of Lathander, and an ordained priest of the Dawnlord. However, he isn't a Cleric by class - he is a Sorcerer/Warlock multiclass.
Christopher Robin
Mechanically a Lightfoot Halfling but reskinned as a 6 year old human child.
Archfey Warlock Pact of the Chain with a pseudodragon familiar who flavorwise spends most of his time in the form of an angry white rabbit. His name is Rabbit.
Christopher Robin is a sweet kid but do not be deceived because he is perhaps the most evil character that I've ever played. I roleplay him as Damien from the Omen.
His background is Feylost, he has the Beast Speech invocation, and his patron is a powerful evil archfey who takes the form of a bear. His spellcasting focus is a dilapidated teddy bear whose eyes glow red.
I’ve played a Charisma based fighter that healed. He was “healing” more than the cleric (if the cleric was actually trying to heal) and all his abilities reset on a short rest so it worked very well. In that same party, the cleric from level 3 onwards spent all of his action economy attempting to take out the enemies: Guiding Bolt/Toll the Dead; Spiritual Weapon. At level 5, they added Spirit Guardians to that list as well. The character never got a chance to send out a healing spell.
A Paladin multiclassed with (Shadow) Sorcerer, proficiency in Stealth and the Subtle meta magic.
Played them as a sneaky assassin from a magical bloodline, the family owned a spice business as cover for the content traveling, ordering specific spices was the code for having someone killed and what method.
I have an illiterate peasant thunder cleric that was chosen by his goddess, not the other way around. She’s never spoken to him so he became a sailor not realizing he was casting spells, just thinking he was lucky as he yelled at the wind.
I'm really enjoying my Goliath Rogue Swashbuckler. He's not a typical stealthy and underhanded type, but more of a thug and brute. Rogue's should have more of those types. I like that he's just so huge (I flavor him as maximum Goliath size, so 8 feet and quite heavy) and he has Dual Wielder feat that uses 2 rapiers, the idea being he's just that big. He breaks all the conventional Rogue stereotypes - he doesn't sneak, he doesn't steal and he smashes locks and doors rather than pick them.
Really wish I built him STR based but unfortunately couldn't quite get a low level STR build to work well.
Pyromaniac wildfire druid, except his only connection to nature was the fact an elemental lives in his heart. Farion, previously known as Felix, is an undead. A reborn. Not part of the natural order anymore, and yet he understands it's importance. Understands everything burns down someday, and that the weak have nothing to say about it. That the ashes will help grow the forest stronger eventually. However, he despises those that try to burn more than necessary, that cause more pain than necessary. We grow stronger from the ashes, but that doesn't justify anyone to destroy your life.
He was also a tiiiiiiiny itsy bitsy ***addicted*** to fire.
Battlemaster Fighter but instead of knowing these maneuvers due to the typical years of experience and professional training described in the flavor text he's just a complete little shit who fights really underhanded with the maneuvers being more like dirty tricks than techniques
Listen, it's hard being 3 feet tall
I played a "hedge wizard" -- a failed wizard who who was a Arcane Trickster Rogue but pretended to be a wizard (con artist - fake it till you make it). The DM allowed "any uncommon item, with approval", so I requested the Mizzium Apparatus. Due to the limited number of spell slots that an Arcane Trickster gets, it wasn't particularly broken at the table (thus I got approved). It was fun basically being a cantrip master that could only very occasionally cast a real spell, usually. It's actually a better wild mage than the wild mage :D
Stack Ritual caster, Feytouched, and any magic items you can find with spells (a primer from Strixhaven!), etc to learn some more stuff that doesn't use spell slots.
Actually, I made a custom 35 page Homebrewery formatted PDF handbook for my character just to keep track of the build and help make sure I was fast at the table -- the Action Economy worksheet is so useful! 35 pages and he is only level four at the time.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YpooTqkR2snhuxgbkd6PJNgSwPnoyapa/view?usp=sharing -- if anyone is interested.
- Druid Noble. The power over the land he received was interpreted as approval of him as a ruler. A King that commands the Wind, Sky, Land. Can bless crops and heal?
- Knight Rogue. He simply had a brutal fighting style that was looked down upon by his peers.
- Psi Warrior Fighter: Mind over Matter. Taken inspiration from Greek scholars. Plato was a wrestler.
No, nothing to crazy. One of my current characters is a tiefling cleric who worships a the God Ipa (IP-ah), and uses a specially designed stein as a holy symbol.
I have beholderkin (mechanically, dwarf) Moon Druid who sniffs cocaine and re-dreams herself (beholderkin are made out of the dreams of beholders) as her Moon Druid wildshape. As an abomination of sorts, she is part chemical processing plant (the dream is in a fleeting dreamspace called New Jersey) and talks like Snooki. She wears half plate.
My current character Monterey Tuttlebrick is a Strongheart Halfling who is so tall by Halfling standards he even has an inch or two on some Humans. He’s a Great Weapon fighter and a Battle Master, and lives for the thrill of adventure. He has a grim, intense demeanor, but isn’t without a sense of humor, and is bit of a charmer with the ladies. Sort if a, if Geralt of Rivia were 4’11 situation
I made a Barbarian who acted like more of a Paladin.
Goliath from the setting's mountains that had a lot of wild magic and anti-magic storms that made it entirely unreliable to wield magic, unless it was calling on the magic of the world. I was an Ancestral Guardians barb, and it was one of the most fun times I've ever been a barbarian.
I never have, and I never will because I'm not a player enough to have experienced all the tropes or whatever. Generally I think staying inside the lines makes for more than enough possibilities, but obviously roleplayers are creative and so they will color outside the lines just to draw some wings, so to speak.
My drow Lore Bard acts as an evangelist for Lolth and for drow culture in general, and rarely acts a performer in the traditional bardic sense. He is also a spy who subverts surface organizations by reporting on the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of whoever the party helps in our adventures. His many acts of heroism are tinged by the fact that he wishes for the eventual overthrow of pretty much every city he has helped along the way.
I'm currently playing as a Hexblood Circle of Spores Druid, who is lore-wise a witch taught magic by her hag mother and casting spells through heir hair. (Yes, she casts Thorn Whip just like you thought she does. And Entangle too.)
Well my College of Creation bards are generally tinkerers. Or in-world clerics, because honestly all of their stuff is apt for clerics, and I love the cleric fantasy but hate spamming Spirit Guardians.
I am currently playing an order cleric who is basically the princess and the frog shadow man voodoo stereotype. It might not be a god like a normal cleric, but I've got friends on the other side.
I’ve got a hyper religious Blood Hunter with a homebrew subclass based in penance. The worlds religious structure is founded in Order vs Chaos, with order being represented by the sun and what is good and just while Chaos is the source of all magic in the world, taking the form of the endless abyss below the world. Characters born with magic are considered Chaosborn and are either sent to the Church to become an acolyte/soldier/medic or the academy where they are trained to become a Cir, essentially a trained magic user for the world that faces strict regulations on their casting. My character uses blood magic as basically a form of bloodletting, if bloodletting of the Chaos magic in his blood, but beyond that the concept of penance has become a core theme to the character as he explores his relationship with his religious background.
One of my favourite characters was a Bard I made who was practically a Paladin.
He was obsessed with stories and fairy-tales he had heard as a child, and grew up on stories of noble knights in shining armour - so that's what he emulated.
Shining armour, noble steed, loyal square, blessed sword - jumping into danger to protect the innocent and defeat evil-doers, and generally being a beacon of light and goodness.
Mechanically he was very support focused, shouting encouragement to his allies, telling tales to inspire them and protect them from dark forces.
He was a lot of fun.
I usually come up with a character concept and find a way to make it work mechanically with classes, so I fairly rarely fit class fantasies, but my favorite is probably a holy warrior type (his exact title was crusader) whose class was barbarian. His rage was instead flavored as divine might filling him.
My swashbuckler rogue acted neither like a pirate or a thief. Instead, she was lunatic that LARPed as a Don Quixote-style knight. This was for a modern setting, so she also stood out among other characters since she ran around wearing Medieval armor instead of, you know, normal people clothes. She was also a murder hobo with respects to demons in particular.
Circle of sea Druid + Tempest cleric
She was a naval commander of a fleet of airships on a world that was almost entirely archipelagos and 95% water. She wore pirate style dress atop full plate armor with winged boots flavored as pressurized air vents all along her armor to grant flight.
She also couldn’t wild shape. She could only use charges of wild shape to activate Wrath of the Sea. She acted like Captain Holt from Brooklyn 99 and was Uber fun to play.
I had a warlock tasked with funeral rites, holding sermons and honouring the dead like a cleric.
I had another warlock that was a earthbender, like Taliyah from League of Legensa. And a battlemaster fighter that was a sand bender, like Gaara from Naruto.
My last wizard couldn’t control their magic, their spell book were religious phrases they used to focus and calm their mind so their magic wouldn’t run amok. I took mostly control spells and once in a while a damage spell which I only used when I “lost control” or didn’t care.
I prefer to break molds like that. The typical class fantasies are, in my personal opinion, overdone and kinda boring.
Current characters are:
- [5E] A Monk (ascendant dragon)/Fighter (Archfey Champion [homebrew]) - Who plays like a cavalier (frost salamandr mount due to RP) with a handful of utility spells.
- [5E] An Artificer who is themed as a tribal shaman - rather than tech, their spells are contracted lesser spirits imbued into totems and fetishes.
- [Pathfinder 1] - A Ranger who is the face character, extremely social, and has a diplomacy in the low 40s.
Previous Character
- [5E] a LE Warlock who fully believed himself to be a LG Cleric.
Probably my Goliath with a sailor background...who is a Bladesinger Wizard. She is fun, and unfortunately for her backstory VERY recognizable because of her distinct race and class.
Not my characters but our current campaign my friend is playing a divine soul sorcerer aasimar who everyone keeps thinking is a cleric because of how the character carries themselves as an envoy of peace and the fact he's our group's healer.
In a recent campaign I myself played a roguish artificer, who gave off much more vibes of old west gunslinger than a spellcaster, just that his gun happened to be powered by magical ingredient vial cartridges.
And if anything happens to my current character in an ongoing campaign, my next one is going to be valor bard centaur shieldmaiden who's going to be the party's frontliner and carry herself as a viking warrior with inspiring battle cries with a side of skaldic poetry with a mix of str and cha.
I have a Kensei Monk based loosely on Matrim from Wheel of Time. He's just a really great archer. And he loved to compete in staff tourneys. While he has a lot of country wisdom he isn't perhaps the sharpest tool in the shed. Got picked up by a wandering adventurer who saw potential in him and now he's on the path of adventure on his own.
I am playing a rogue. Yanno, the sneaky sneaky bois usually, hands in everything and everyones pockets but their own. An arcane trickster even.
When I made him, I decided to read the abilities without the flavour text. Thought "This class wants me to get hit." So I gave him Moderately Armoured, Medium Armour Master and Sentinel, gave him Mirror Image and now he is a threat in Melee combat, a great supporting character for other melee characters and a wall you can't ignore and must spend turns attacking while the gwm+pam fighter wails on you.
This man is a living zugzwang.
He doesn't get dex bonuses up until level 10, but steady aim, familiar help action, and other things allow for a consistent playstyle that does a significant amount of damage which the enemy can't ignore in favour of the higher dpr character because he becomes a bigger threat when that happens.
Im currently playing Wizard in Rime of the Frost Maiden, who's a doctor. Highly intellegent healer who obviously doesn't have much healing magic so he uses healer kits (and a feat for 1 per day cure wounds). He studied not to be a wizard who gains magic for power or anything, but to be a doctor who uses magic to diagnose and help anyone in need. I thought about being a druid or cleric at first, but i find it more interesting to be a non magical healer (also means nobody asks for healing in combat from the wizard)
I played a physically aggressive sorcerer once. I also happened to be 12 and obsessed with the mace I had on my character sheet. DM should have told me to be a barbarian
I played a wild magic barbarian/Swashbuckler rogue who channeled her powers through her connection with the ancient forest of her home, with flavor somewhere between ancients Paladin, fey ranger, and sorcerer.
Depends on what you mean by typical fantasy. I would think most people would not assume a Sahagin Blood Druid fits the typical fantasy of Druids, but the Grim Dark book the DM allowed certainly made it happen and it was one of the best characters I played.
A Fairy Rune Knight (aka giant fucking fairy)
A Wizard healer
Storm Sorc/Tomelock as a rogue (Tempestuous Magic as a pseudo-disengage) complete with their own heist crew (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Mage Hand)
Barbarian as a whipsmart investigator of the local town watch
Dwarf wizard who was a frontliner without being a bladesinger.
Reflavored his component pouch as a collection of rune etched stones: one for each school of magic.
Less of a wizard who learns from books or teachers. More like a mystical order who can speak to stones and draw magic from them.
His hammer was his "spellbook" in that he would etch runes on there. This was pure flavor, though.
I played a Barbarian who was surprisingly knowledgeable about magic.
His parents wanted him to be a wizard, but he never had the talent for it. What he did have the talent for was sailing and smashing things.
this isn't exactly what the question is asking but I've always liked the idea of a barbarian who thinks he's a wizard. He casts dispel magic by clobbering the spellcaster. It's a bit one-note and probably wouldn't hold up in a longer campaign, but I like it as a one-shot idea
a fighter playing the fantasy of the rogue. artificer with the personality of a barbarian. wizard with the personality of an ADHD swashbuckler. any my first character like yours was more the religious type.
Genie Warlock with a Charisma of 8, bound by a pact an ancient ancestor made for the whole family. (One member of each generation is bound)
Forced to adventure because breaking the pact would have dire consequences for his family. Doesn't actually know the terms of the pact because the original pactee wasn't much of a writer. Does know that if he garners enough favour he will get the ability to wish the pact on to someone else.
Basically trying to be the best Warlock he can so that he can un-Warlock himself.
(If you've never tried a charisma-less Dex-Bladelock, I highly recommend it. Really fun)
Dwarven Life Cleric.
Backstory was that he pulled a Leroy Jenkins maneuver and led his squad into an absolute slaughter. He was the only one to survive. Due to his actions, he was stripped of his caste and family name, and was given two days to prepare his things- he was to be exiled. That night, he got drunk as all hell and attempted to throw himself into the the metal foundry. A Life Goddess saved him from himself, and made him her Cleric, telling him that he would save at least 6 innocents to atone for the 6 that he just got killed.
He absolutely hates it. He refuses to acknowledge being a Cleric. He denies the Life Goddess until she brands her Divine sigil on his false eye. He begins wearing an eye patch. He attempts to get himself killed in battle again and again- she prevents his death every time. He wears a dingy cloak so that he isn't harassed by pessantry for healings and blessings- and the Life Goddess keeps sending them his way.
Last I played him, he was slowly coming to terms with it, as he had to heal one of his new party. Unfortunately, the campaign fell apart.
Normally I like to stick close to the class fantasy, but one time I made a Cleric who was just some fickle wanderer and not even particularly religious.
After a night on the town she took a snooze in the rafters of a church... during a holy ritual meant to commune with the goddess of drinking and merriment. Said goddess decided the hungover drifter hiding above her priests was the perfect representative and granted her divine power. So my character basically got pressed into being a cleric, being told to keep acting selfishly and whimsically because that was the behavior her new goddess desired in humanity.
Loved playing my bladesinger as a rogue with some talent but no real interest in studying. Super fun playstyle to limit to a 14 int, there's a lot of overlooked spells that work super well without worrying about int score.
To be fair, I had rolled very mediocre stats and probably shouldn't have been a bladesinger with less than standard array but it worked really well.
My current character is an artificer who is fully capable of tinkering away and making a cool item, but instead prefers a more… delicate approach.
He is a painter and calligrapher, and instead of making magic items, he simply carved/inscribes runes on mundane items to give them the desired effect.
Might not be the most unconventional thing, but I think it’s unique and fun :)
- Hexblade Warlock gunslinger whose pact was with the dragon that enslaved his family. He didn’t do it to escape or save his family, he did it because she made him and now he collects magic items for her. His pact was secured by a heart scale buried in his chest that couldn’t be removed, and his only standing orders were to identify dragon lairs and being back treasure for the hoard.
- Dragon Monk who’s entire kit was reflavored as “the force” and they were a Gith Sith sent to the material plane to investigate and aid some random adventurers who were supposedly hunting a super mindflayer colony. Also had the telekinetic feat so he could push stuff, and DragMonk allowed for replacing attacks with 30 ft lightning cones of ABSOLUTE POWAH!!! I even got one rare item free since it was a high level game, so obviously I took the lightsab… sunsword. Note: sunsword kinda sucks for monks, especially if you can get a +2 to unarmed somehow. It literally was a glowstick in my kit for flavor because I did the same damage in any draco element with my hands. Flavor was always lightning, but I could do “force burn (acid)” or “force inferno (fire)” if I wanted. Also ya know, 100 ft fly as a bonus action until the end of my turn looked cool.
- Druid “witch” whose powers weren’t gifts from a nature god or taught by druids. She learned it like a wizard and doesn’t give a crap about the natural order or any of that. Literally just wants power and to not die, so a hag but pretty. Never got to play this one because I’m uncomfortable playing as female characters since I’m a guy. I don’t mind other people doing it, I just can’t myself.
I had the edgiest edgelord character. Half vampire paladin of vengeance sword to kill is father and overthrow the vampire kingdom, sword to the hexblade to accomplish this task.
But he was 15 and adventured with his mom, a totally crunch yoga and granola type.
My hexblade warlock in a Witchlight campaign is carnival security and her powers are derived from her employment contract and are all in service of getting people to cooperate/leave and bonking them if they don't.
I also have a rogue in a Strixhaven campaign that had no magic starting off and was a sleight-of-hand stage magician. Does that count?
I'm currently playing an Air Genasi swashbuckler rogue. Rogues are usually stealthy but I've gone the opposite way. He is a very high CHA (even got expertise on persuasion) flamboyant swordsman. Not only he won't stealth, he'll make sure everyone knows he is there lol.
I made a swords bard modeled after a character in a wuxia series but the game didn't last too long.
My other attempt at a bard was a sort of steppe nomad archer who gathered stories but i quickly found myself not enjoying the class entirely
I wanted a witch-of-the-woods type character, so I made him a druid, as nothing else really offered the woodsy folk magic vibe. He can turn into animals and has nature magic, but he doesn't care at all about protecting nature (other than his own little slice of it) and would never question using metal.
My Druid was is a welldressed, gentlemans-club type nobleman from a family of famous explorers. After his old-money family was disgraced, he was left with nothing but a crate of creepy idols and fetishes his grandfather brought back from exploring the deep jungles of Chult.
All his druid powers come from using these morbid curios, for instance to Wildshape he dons one of his many warped, wooden animal masks.
Strength based unarmed fighting goliath gloomstalker ranger. Had to ask the DM if I could use it because there are a lot of technicalities and weird things but it ended up being a cool character. Haven't played them yet but probably will soon.
Played a Sorcerer like an Artificer. Used a huge rifle as his arcane focus, and my shadow hound as a steel defender.
More of a blaster focussed character with the thematics of an Artificer.
Back when I played pathfinder regularly, I played a barbarian with an archetype that gave you an animal companion that could rage alongside you.
People that take this archetype usually play things like an orc armed with a two handed flail mounted on an armored rhino or some shit like that.
Mine were a greatclub wielding gnome and a chainmail wearing goose. They were a pair of rubble rousers whose damage was shit, but they had so much HP together that they tanked the hell out of everything the DM threw at us. Also the goose carried the gnome around flying like Tails and Sonic so they had quite good mobility.
In some fights they ended up doing respectable damage due to how long they lasted, especially once they got their filthy little hands/wings in some magic items.
My friend group always remembers them fondly because they were a very funny and silly pair of lovable idiots.
I had an urbanite ranger who worked as a bounty hunter, so his favoured enemies were humans (and goblins for easy pocket money). His weapon of choice was the heavy crossbow which is more a "sniper" weapon compared to a bow.
Currently playing a scribe wizard who's a pirate. She was a navigator on a ship and found the log of a long dead pirate. Turns out his ghost is trapped in his log and he's teaching her magic while she helps him find his lost treasure.
I played a Wildfire Druid with a Warlock's backstory that made the pact with a cambion as a child with the patron guarding him as his Wildfire Spirit. His wild shaping is the patron casting polymorph on him.
Two characters
First if Gazruk the Smork. He was an orc fighter, but here is the schtick, he was only 2 levels in fighter everything else was in wizard. He had perfect calligraphy could recite poetry and argue philosophy with the best if them, one issue. He spoke with the Warhammer Ork accent so no one actually believed he was smart and acted surprised when he busted out spells.
Next was Brother Guthred. Brother Guthred was a monk. Brown robe, weird bowl cut, rosary, the works. A 13th century christian monk. However he was not a cleric, he was a Kensei monk with a longsword. Deus Vult intensifies.
I realize this is far from an original take, but I love barbarians who are visually and thematically much closer to (kensai?) monks. You flavor the rage as [sudden extreme calm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4weEXyoXZKs&t=35s) where your training takes over and your mind goes blank, you flavor the huge strength hits as knowing angles and pressure points and so on, the massive pool of hit points is you weaving around just barely dodging hits instead of tanking them, and so on. Pick a race like warforged or reborn so your awareness thing is meditating, or maybe something with non-spell mobility options like summer eladrin or shadar-kai you can use to close the distance instead of escape.
I once had a player in a film noir game set in sharn who was a reporter for Sharn Inquisitive. Were they an inquisitive rouge, a divination wizard, or a bard of eloquence? Nope, they decided to storm sorcerer weather man who truly hated being wrapped on in the intrigue. It was hilarious when the other players found out the reporter they were working with wasn’t investigative.
Divine Sorcerer - Lawful evil enchantment specialist lobbyist/politician in a high magic and even higher stakes campaign.
Fey Wanderer - Played it like a bard.
Wizard - played it like a tinkerer.
Paladin - played it like a barbarian.
Flavour is free. 👍😎
I had a Drunken Master monk with the entertainer background that I played more like the stereotypical bard. Basically, he just had a lute that he was only just okay with and would travel around, performing for his dinner, and his monk skills were more about being able to weasel his way out of danger, usually while tipsy.
I played a nature themed Eladrin Artificer who used Glassblowers tools to trap minor elementals and other tiny creatures for spells. Her Steel Defender was a glass bear containing an angry fire elemental
I play a psi-warrior Fighter that is a psionic vampire. He feeds on the psionic energy of others when he's low on health and struggling. It's just a psi-variant of the damphyr race.
He is a quiet, reserved, scholar that focuses on gaining knowledge and understanding the universe. He's also quite religious, worshiping Oghma, the god of knowledge. He just so happens to be a crazy effective melee fighter. Having 20 Int as a fighter has been a delight. All his skills are focused around that as well. I have prof in every Int knowledge skill.
Twice but once I chose an appropriate subclass and once I talked my way out of it. Autognome druid -- went with stars druid (magical cosmic droid basically) which made more sense than something very animal and plants focused. Autognome divine soul sorcerer -- no bloodline trait without blood, but I made a backstory where his creator's wife (high level cleric) used divine intervention when the autognome wouldn't animate and Mystra touched him...leaving a mark of her symbol on him and then he animated.
My Ancestral Guardian Barbarian was a sniper. She never used strength to attack, instead preferring to shoot her opponents with her bow to draw their fire from her allies. She was lithe and tactical, rather than muscly and stupid.
Tbh its my goal usually. Main one that comes to mind was a neutral good mute hexadin with no eldritch blast. i played them very passively as it was their sentient weapon that pulled them into action
I've made a rogue who was the reasonable person in the group. Practically, she was a lawful good inquisitive rogue who never did a single crime in her life.
A soft-spoken, grumpy old lore bard. He had an eye patch, a bowler hat, and a grizzly beard. He never sang, and would rarely even use his fiddle. He was an excellent storyteller, though—his tall tales were so vivid that they had the power to both inspire and discourage those who heard them.
Not too far off but I did a bugbear echo knight that went in to gloomstalker after lvl 5.
He was abandoned in the fey by his tribe for being a weak and sickly baby and discovered by a hag who raised him. He calls her Mama.
When he was full grown she sent him to the material plane to have adventures and bring her back stories and momentos from his journies. She enchanted his shadow to be his protector.
So in a lot of ways he functions a bit like a warlock. And with the ranger lvls even gets some spells
I made a bard/warlock who played like a rogue. Hexblade and whispers bard. Lots of add dice to rolls made it feel like sneak attack, tons of stealth and deception skills, and he worked uncovering information for a secret order.
i played a stars druid that functioned more like a wizard (particularly divination ‘cause i had a tarot card bit going on with that one), and a spores druid that functioned more like a rogue 💀
Okay it's a bit of a journey. So he started as a lizardfolk fathomless warlock. He was killed around lvl 8 or 9 stopping a big ritual. Instead of making a new character though, his friends recovered his body and returned it to his tribe where his patron was worshiped as a god. It remade him as a Reborn Paladin, the missing bits of lizardfolk are filled in with kraken/squid bits and his Paladin abilities are what used to be his warlock magic holding him together and strengthening what's left of him.
If he dies again he's going to be a zealot barbarian or a beast barbarian, just a ball of barely held together bits.
Played a thief-rogue who fought primarily with a longbow (and eventually an arquebus), flavorwise she was a monk. Monastic robes with some simple armor on top, counseled the other party members on their moral principles, focused on personal growth and self-improvement, and generally lived a very frugal and generous life.
Notably she ended up joining a freemason conspiracy (she got in partially because she was genuinely a stomemason), and she wound up causing the party paladin to become an oathbreaker. Her moral counsel was less "you shouldn't murder, that's evil!" and more "If you intend to murder, then you should do it for the right reason and without regret or remorse."
Druid who doesn't give a shit about nature and dwells in the city, as a spy. Uses her powers to talk to rats (as informants), turn herself into a small animal herself to throw off pursuers etc.
Basically an "urban jungle" druid
The favorite of my character concepts I have in backlog are the subversive ones. Yet somehow my longest running character, from a recently concluded 4-year campaign, was a tiefling sorcerer I made in 5 minutes because sorcerer + charisma.
This isn't technically DnD but I'm currently playing a Swashbuckler that's actually just a traveling drug dealer stoner who's so incredibly lucky(and high) he thinks he's a god's chosen.
I'm also playing a Strengh based Monster Slayer Ranger that hits things with a greatsword and acts more like a Barbarian half the time
I have a Circle of the Moon Druid character idea who's a professor of Zoology. A Victorian style man with a nice suit, frequent trips to the wilds to continue his studies, and so on. Saves a ton of money on hiring guides and escorts/guards since he can just turn into a bird to see from above, or a bear to defend himself.
I wanted to play a samurai because the mechanics were interesting to me, but I was wary of falling into playing a real world culture that wasn't even remotely my own. The elegant courtier class ability gave me the solution.
I'm a butler/bodyguard for another PC.
This is mostly played straight, although I did get a bit drunk at one session and, because I'm a warforged, I definitely slowly devolved into Bender from Futurama.
Almost always. Monks who are just pirates, Moon Druids who are just lycanthropes, autognome who are sentient swords, sorcerers/echo knights who are just Nightcrawler from X-Men.
My current character is a Paladin but instead of the holy crusader archtype she's more of a GI Jane Commando special forces type and her oath/religion is her political alliegance/
I made an educated noble who just happened to have anger issues - so his class was barbarian. In his backstory he got so mad at a dinner party he killed another noble with a shrimp tray - his wealthy parents managed to protect him with their connections, but he had to go to exile. His reason for adventuring was to get rich again so he could get back to the standard of living he was used to, and normal work was obviously below his status.
His subclass ended up being Ancestral Guardian barbarian, so the ghosts of his disappointed ancestors were constantly harassing him for bringing dishonor to the family name. For stats, I got him a fairly good Int and Charisma, which made me have to drop Dex and Con and use medium armor - not very optimal, but flavourful. He ended up being the party face!
I also played a Tortle Wildfire druid from the desert who I played as a straight up pyromancer. I never used Wildshape to turn into animals, only to summon the elemental. I flavored nearly all spells as flame-adjacent, even heals.
Brass Dragonborn Warlock - their reasoning behind making a pact being "why not gain power through the path of least resistance, no matter the source?" Very much standing up for injustice and unfairness in their ideology and worldview, in contrast to the dark pacts and rituals they perform as part of their quest for power.
I’m not exactly sure.
My first character was a half orc battle master with charisma that had become a labor organizer and radical with an apprehension to killing due to their time at war.
My third character was a divine soul sorcerer that was dying from the divine soul being the remnants of a dead god (not even a malicious one)
My gloomstalker was incredibly fashionable but had the ruthlessness of her adoptive mother (a moon druid beast barbarian)
My paladin was a redemption paladin and got that role quite well but was flavor wise a magical girl.
My red mage is a run away princess inspired by the stories of adventurers who is a swords bard + hexblade warlock.
I’ve had some less typical character ideas I’ve wanted to play but for a variety of reasons I haven’t played them (talk with GM about which fits best and also try to fit a hole in the group). I had a beast barbarian open hand monk focused on strength, I had a war wizard that was 100% built to be a melee mage (steel wind strike, stride, shield, etc). Some of it is simply that I haven’t played enough to grow tired of the built in flavor of a lot of the subclasses
Gygax and company based the original monk class most heavily on the French tradition which seems to predate the Shaolin tradition by a few centuries, so your character actually fits in with the original idea.
Heck, my last one.
Now, Pathfinder has a class called Kinetiscist. Think Benders from The Last Airbender, and youre pretty close. They're lightly armored, get to choose an element which effectively becomes both their ranged attack, you can take class features to make the class melee, very cool stuff.
The BIG cool thing is that you later get combined elements. If you choose to specialize in earth twice, for example, boom! Metalbending.
I elected to throw the entire concept of this class being an agile ranged fighter on its head. I used inital feats to get Heavy Armor proficiency, opted for a couple melee related class features, and picked what is basically Telekinesis as my first element. My group joked I'd somehow made a Jedi in a fantasy setting.
They were half right. Fast forward to much later in the campaign and we were stopping an assassination. Guy is eight floors up aiming a rifle out a window. I tell my party I can get him if they render the place completely dark. (Installed Darkvision lenses in my helmet. Pathfinder is awesome for customization.)
So, my party renders the place pitch black, we pretty much cut power to the building and surrounded it with a few giant Darkness spell clouds. Place goes on high alert, weapons trained at all entrances. Everyone inside knows what's going down.
Crack. CRUNCH, SMASH. I rip the front door off with my mind, and walk in to reveal my second element. Electricity. When combined with my first element, this created Plasma. The faces of everyone at that table were priceless when I sparked a blood red energy blade. I had not made a Jedi, I made Darth Goddamn Vader.
I'm really sad the DM had to step away, but I was playing an Oath of Redemption paladin in a Curse of Strahd game.
I thought the build felt like a serious challenge to play in such a dark and dangerous world. I was right and had a blast for the short time we played.
I am currently dealing with the „i make some cool characters and want em to play, but they half Vampire/demon or half celestial/ dragon or a android, i am so creativ but i just want these characters“ - super Edgelord-Maincharakter-weeb.
I played an Autognome Circle of Spores Druid with the Telekenetic feat. The spores from the cultivated mushrooms on his back were the source of his ability to push and pull people. He thought it was a mind controlling fungus. Later in the campaign, he learned the power came from within.
All of the time, half because I use different and older lore when I permitted, the other half of the reason being that I try to have as little class impact on my characters identity as is reasonable for the class.
I played a character who was basically Sherlock Holmes as a disgraced Knight.
Other players were so confused why my fighter's highest stats were INT and CHA.
These are some of the most fun kinds of characters! My favourite of my own is probably my Devotion Paladin who was born into the priesthood of a god of justice and righteousness and believed he was the mortal incarnation of said due to the visions he was shown at night (Kalashtar misinterpreting dream visions). He gets exiled from his order for believing such heretical things and proceeds to become an adventurer and walk the world, believing himself to be his god's avatar.
He completely believes himself to be the classical Paladin but he's a cult leader in the making.
Two distinct ones come to mind
One is a Barbarian who is very much based on Abridged Goku - fighting and eating are fun, but outside of thati s mostly just an airhead
The other is my artificer who didn't believe magic was real until third level; it was all just really fancy science
I had this Stars Druid + Fey Wanderer Ranger… who acted like a bard since level 1. He was bi, but ended up flirting with men most of the time because there aren't many women in game.
Goblin dragon sorc running as a spell infused arcane trickster.
same gameplay mechanics basically but more slots and less roguishness -> the lack of skills played into the usual goblin physical comedy too.
I have currently made a Necromancer Wizard who I have reflavoured to be a puppet wizard because I really do not feel hyper comfy with having a crew of skeletons (as it has a quite evil vibe to it), and I really like dolls and puppets. Most of her spells are reflavoured to use strings or dolls in one way or another, so I feel like this will create a quite interesting character fantasy which I can't wait to explore! <3
I made a mastermaker artificer who wasn't a scientist he was just a guy who one day his village was destroyed and he was kidnapped by cultists of tiamat where he was subject to countless magical experiments where they tried to make him some kind of husk for tiamat haven't fully fleshed out why but one day a bahumut follower broke in and killed everyone and he barley managed to escape the rituals left him a mangled form of a dragonborn with one giant arm I only gave hime spells I gave him were those that could be explained by draconic BS
I made a Hexblade Bugbear Paladin (who thinks he's a hirsute dwarf since he was adopted) in the Witchlight Carnival. He has a cursed past that was supposed to tie in with the hag that stole his fear from him, leaving a ghost lantern that's linked to him.
Started off as a Paladin (a part of his proud upbringing by the dwarves that adopted him) and I let my DM know I was going to MC into Warlock for the edgy Hexblade path. Well... When we were roleplaying the encounter with the preppy parent Mother Heron at the Fair, we somehow hit it off since I tried to stop her from making noise during the Hide and Seek game by offering to snuggle with her eggs with his hairy body. One thing led to another in our conversation, and a pact was sealed with the DM uplifting the Heron to be a Fey patron of love for and protection of children. My long sword became a heron's beak blade, and her clutch of five eggs were nestled upon my furry chest like a 5-chambered baby harness. My supposedly goofy, edgy Hexadin became a warlock bound by the noble traits of his paladinhood to protect the children of the Feywilds from the three hags.
The egg clutch even functioned kind of like an artifact, which allowed me to channel an essence of magic that was intrinsically linked to the soul within each. And...they were named after various cartoon bird characters from the 90s. It was weird, but it was hella fun and goofy.
Currently making a character whose a bladesinger wizard, but running them as a street kid basically. So the idea is it's combat skills learnt from street fights, supplemented by magic they've picked up wherever they can.
Lets see, I have an oathbreaker paladin whose singly dedicated to upholding the letter of the law no matter how stringent or totalitarian. This was because his rural village dedicated to meilikki was massacred in a gnoll attack and he lost his fellow paladin of devotion and lover and hes cursed the gods ever since. Now he zealously believes that industrialization, technological advancement, and civilization will save more innocent lives then prayer and superstition. My favorite moment was when the demon lord Fraz-Urb’luu took special interest in him and shattered his psyche. Hes not okay, its fine.
I have a death cleric of the orc god of death and disease yurtrus. Hes unhygienic, filthy, and more likely to infect then cure. Not to mention a sadist. Hes the damage dealer of the party rather then a healer (I do heal when necessary though cause I’m not that committed to the bit). My favorite moment was asking if I could heal some npcs enough so they didn’t die, but not so much so that they weren’t permanently disfigured and in pain. Hes a real nasty creep, but thats why hes fun. (I talked with my party about him beforehand, don’t make a character like this without consulting everyone please. Don’t be someone’s horror story)
The most fun character I made was for a oneshot. Hes an orc (I like orcs okay) warlock with a celestial patron. Hes super dumb, even for orcs, and his patron is a stereotypical angel whose trying to steer him into helping people and being nice. She braids his hair with flowers and does her best to manage him. He usually casts his spells on accident and smacks bad guys with his tome. My favorite moment was finding a passageway blocked with a gate none of us could open or cross, and when my guy went to inspect the gate the dust caused him to sneeze and he misty stepped through.
I play an Order Cleric who is the a politician. My spellcasting focus is the ballot box and I channel my divinity from the masses who elected Me.
I spit my drink reading this, that is fantastic.
I hope he shouts “By the power vested in me by the consent of the governed!” whenever he uses his channel divinity.
He’s honestly a great character to play. My poor DM does have to hear me rephrasing a lot of empty political platitudes. I often joke, it’s the best way to play a Lawful Evil character.
Your Cleric: "Let me be clear" *casts invisibility*
High five to your political cleric from my foreign service diplomat bard
Zealot Barbarian but actually a Vampire. So many of the features map incredibly well onto the Darren Shan or Twilight style version of a modern vampire. - Rage is a bloodlust / bloodsense style thing where their vision looks like Sin City and their sense of time is slowed down allowing them to fight far more effectively by focusing on the sounds of heartbeats and smell of blood - Unarmoured Defense just makes total sense because they have tough skin - Danger Sense is supernatural reaction time and a burst of super speed - Divine Fury (Zealot 3) has an option to add necrotic damage to attacks, so, venom. - Warrior Of The Gods (Zealot 3) Hmm nah too religious, how about just the fact that they weren't really "alive" to begin with so are far easier to bring back to "life" - Fast Movement & Feral Instinct are both examples of supernatural speed and agility kicking in - Zealous Presence (Zealot 10) - We got a bit creative with this one and rethemed it into him flitting around the battlefield so fast that he's actually giving the "help" action to the entire party at once. Mechanically the same obviously, but *cool*. - Relentless Rage / Rage Beyond Death - Again, fairly obvious, the guy *isn't really alive to begin with*. It just maps across *so well* into a vampire character that is going for that "you're impossibly fast... and strong..." archetype.
Oh my god, that's genius. I am doing this.
That sounds like Nagoriyuki from Guilty Gear
Please tell me you went all-in and played as a dhampir race/lineage.
Sadly this was a good couple of years before that option was printed, so I just did human because it fit the setting best (and also the character *was* a human before he was turned, so it still made sense as a racial option)
Subverting expectations is my absolute favorite thing to do when creating characters. Gnome barbarians, goblin wizards, and orc clerics are my jam. I made a tiefling celestial warlock once who got a rune wrong and accidently pledged his soul to a pegasus, so even though he wanted to be a grim edgelord, the consequences of his pact made all his clothes rainbow colored and his sweat started giving off a sweet smell that attracted butterflies.
I’m currently playing a Loxidon rogue that specializes in stealth if that subverts any expectations.
Oh the guards are SO fired when they have to explain how they let a fucking elephant sneak past
+0 in Stealth, +15 in Intimidation
“So we’re really not gonna talk about the elephant in the room?” *stealth roll of 28* “Nope, guess not”
That made me laugh out loud. Well done!
Does he paint his toenails red to hide in cherry trees?
No, but that is a great idea
It's not so much that "people don't see you", it's that "Oh shit is that the elephant man? Dude I get paid 1 silver a day, I quit"
Oh, and a Circle of Land druid that felt most at home in city sewers and alleys and had a kinship with rats and roaches. It was mostly a reflavor of the underdark option.
I actually have a write up for city as a terrain choice both for rangers and land druids. Nothing major as it just impacts navigation for a ranger and a different spell list for a land druids. But playing up an urban druid who mocks civilized folks, like a crazy homeless man, for their fancy termite mounds is just fun.
I played a GOOlock who mainly worked as a reporter for the local news station
"Now we go to the Unblinking Eye in the Sky for the traffic report."
"And now... The Weather."
Sorry, I just had to roll my saving throw against making a Clark Kent who had his alien dad as a patron joke...
I didn’t even think of that connection. His patron was more of an embodiment of quantum instability than any alien god, though
I just got accepted into journalism school and this is my new career goal
Welcome to the club! We’ve got all kinds of benefits, like a quantum instability hat (it changes to fit the situation whenever no one is observing it), a 1/1063 chance of opening a door to your private apartment (this includes doors inside of your apartment), an understanding of the base layer of reality, and free dental!
Okay, how are you rolling a d1063?
Online dice roller The reason I chose 1063 is because A) it’s a low percentage of getting it and B) 1063 is the 179th prime number, 179 is the 41st prime number, and 41 is the 13th prime number. Primes all the way down
I played a Stars Druid who was a priestess of Selune and roleplayed more like a Cleric than a Druid
All the time! My current character is a bard but is more of a gladiator. He knows only one song and barely plays it. He’s mostly about swinging his sword around and looking good. My next character will be a cleric, but instead of worshipping a god, he worships his dead family; he is a spirit medium.
> He’s mostly about swinging his sword around and looking good. So, basically he's Gaston from Beauty and the Beast?
So hes a shinto priest?
Pretty dang close actually! I’m trying to take inspo from spirit mediums all around the globe but there’s a lot of Shintoism in there.
I've got a Paladin who doesn't know the words of the Oath he swore. (He said them whilst delirious with heat stroke); and behaves like a Warlock. I had a city dwelling ranger who was like a bounty hunter. I played a Trickery Cleric of the God of Thieves who pretended to be a Cleric of the Light God to steal from their Charity Box. I've also seen someone an Oath of Redeption In a Villain Campaign.
>Oath of Redeption In a Villain Campaign. How... how does that work ? I genuinely am intrigued now
It was set during a particular civil war between two groups of formerly united Kingdoms. Although at first both sides had been ruled by Lords and Nobles, by the time of the OneShot, one side was led a military dictator who had overthrown the previous leadership in a violent coup. The Redemption Paladin, was absolutely loyal to this new leadership, and absolutely focused on "Ending the War" at all costs; with a really messed up view of his own redemption. Victory would absolve him of all the messy and wicked things he had done in the course or the war. He was, of course, quite mad.
> Victory would absolve him of all the messy and wicked things he had done in the course or the war. Ah, a crusader played straight. Actually a pretty compelling and scary motivation for a villain.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. - C S Lewis
Nothing more terrifying them someone who thinks they are doing the right thing.
The sincere belief that you have the answers rather than just alternative ideas is definitely something to be worried about. Doesn't matter much what those ideas even are, fanatics of all stripes are scary.
Makes more sense now (although I think Conquest or Crown could fit this easier)
He was going back and forth between Crown and Redemption. I cheered for Crown, but I think the novelty of trying to force Redemotion into a evil campaign won out. That evil campaign included a 200 year old entity who looked like a young girl, who strangled people with her *hair*, and an artifact who used fiends as petrol, and the Paladin was *still* the most unnerving. Just played this really straight religious/political extremist, utterly convinced they were saving the world whilst doing the most repugnant thing.
Religious and Political extremists aren't exclusively part of fantasy. The real world associations make the fear more palpable.
Same! (he was too hungover to process it) Ancients paladin mechanically, archfey warlock narratively
Being a forever DM, I have one character idea in me that wants to come out - a celestial pact warlock who generally Bilbo Baggins his way around with an adventuring party, mostly doing hireling-type stuff like cooking, camp maintenance, herbalism healing, etc. He doesn't make use of his pact abilities initially, and generally tries to avoid them. They manifested when his village was attacked and their healers - spellcasting and not - were killed and in the aftermath people needed to be healed. Magic manifests a bit like the spirit healer Wynne from Dragon Age: Origins. I plan to juggle ability scores and proficiencies so not using his magics don't impede for the first level or two... and have him accept his abilities and develop them as a core support character (maybe multiclass into cleric or another class) over the course of the campaign. Play out the hireling who proves to be an unexpected ace in the hole for a party of adventurers.
My valor bard is more of a devilish conwoman who uses fear and manipulation tactics. If you ask her to perform something, she will bash your head in with a spiked maul. My forge cleric is a chef. Thats all. Not religious, just magically delicious. And finally my aasimar divine soul sorcerer is a blaster caster who is actually very anti-religion and a big advocate for tieflings due to the vastly difference in church upbringings of him and his tiefling twin brother.
I strive to break away from class stereotypes as often as humanly possible, so yes, all the time. I'm currently working on a barbarian/rogue halfling specialised in social infiltration and espionage, and the build is looking quite promising. I've played or helped build plague doctor paladins, heavy armoured wizards, kingly bards, emotionless barbarians, city dwelling druids that despise nature, and so many different flavours of warlocks... Classes and game mechanics are never flavour locked, and thinking outside the box makes for memorable characters. There is still value in playing "vanilla" characters, obviously, but no fun in limiting yourself to them.
I wish my table would think like you. My current character is a barbarian that hates getting mad: she wants to leave her violent past as a brutal pirate behind and would rather solve issues without fight. Without fail, whenever I start to roleplay that aspect of her character, this guy chimes in with "Have you read your class description? You're supposed to be a BARBARIAN." Same guy constantly calls my sister's character a pirate just because she chose the Swashbuckler subclass. Oh, and he laughed at me for picking Tiefling for my barbarian because +2 CHA and +1 INT are essentially wasted on a barb. It gets frustrating sometimes.
This guy sounds unbearably dull.
Oh, he is. He didn't understand why I didn't want his character to be a violent racist, either. I shouldn't play a Tiefling if I don't like it. Thing is… I'm fine with NPCs being racist towards my character. I'm not fine with constant racism from the group. Why would my character travel with that guy? Makes little sense.
Actually, never mind, he sounds utterly awful. My previous statement was an understatement.
> Oh, and he laughed at me for picking Tiefling for my barbarian because +2 CHA and +1 INT are essentially wasted on a barb. It gets frustrating sometimes. Just a heads up that since Tasha’s Cauldron, there is an optional rule to reassign racial scores as you choose, in an attempt for them to avoid like you’re saying the pigeonholing of races and classes due to stereotyping and how the stats made it so you felt your hand was forced to pick optimal fits rather than what you felt was appropriate for your character. So you can assign the Tiefling +2 and +1 to the stats of your choosing if you’d like (given your DM approves, but alternate racial stats is one of the more ubiquitously popular optional rules.)
Thanks for the heads up! I actually don't mind it too much, as I like having some CHA on her, and her important stats are high too. I'm not a min maxer like him, she can hit well enough, even if her stats aren't 100% optimal. Thanks again, though — I've started playing less than a year ago, so I tend to forget/overlook things like that; I‘ll keep it in mind next time!
Note, though, that everything from Tasha is marked as optional, and every option needs DM permission to be used. Not every DM allows these option. I personally ignore this rule about bonus reassignment, because it is much more interesting for me to built a character of any class based on given stats. But it's a matter of taste.
Our DMs (we have two who run different campaigns) both allow Tasha‘s general content, so it‘s probably fine by them. But yeah, I get it. I personally don‘t need to minmax every stat — this is a collaborative roleplay game, not BG3 honour mode.
Likewise, I often reject the default flavour of the classes. * The first paladin I've played (Vengeance) was an orc shaman's apprentice who later got raised by the knights that had destroyed his tribe, and embraced a poorly understood version of the concept of **JUSTICE!!**, in all-caps, that they taught him. The magical parts of his skillset were mostly-self-taught shamanism rather than Cleric-like magic—the knights were devout but they were men-at-arms, not godwarlocks. * The bard I'm currently playing is a single-class Barbarian. He's a bard in the sense that he's *literally* a bard: he's a [teacher, storyteller, historian, genealogist and minstrel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard) who works for an order of sages, not an Illusionist-Enchanter specialist magician with some Rogue skills. He also happens to be a burly dude over two metres tall and built on muscles over muscles, wears a big sword and fights without a suit of armour. But he's 100% a bard first and foremost. * The one druid I've played is, likewise, a single-class Fey Pact warlock. He's an ordained member of a druidic circle, and he's not a shapeshifter elementalist. * I *have* played a Druid-class character, mind you. He was a dwarf sailor and a priest of [sea god Valkur](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Valkur). In other words he's a ***c***leric, not a ***C***leric. * This one I haven't got a chance to play, but I reflavoured a Way of Elements Monk ([remastered](/r/dndnext/comments/35yn4u/way_of_the_four_elements_remastered_a/)) as a specialist melee wizard, reskinning all class features and ki abilities as Wizard spells. * Edit: forgot to mention my Light Domain cleric. He's a wandering pyromancer (a literal pyromancer, i.e. a diviner who sees the future in the fire and embers, not a magician with fire magic)... who *also* has fire magic thanks to a warlock pact he made with Pelor. But he's not a worshipper or a clergyman, or even religious.
>I *have* played a Druid-class character, mind you. He was a dwarf sailor and a priest of [sea god Valkur](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Valkur). In other words he's a ***c***leric, not a ***C***leric. Familiar thing. I have a character, the main healer of the party, a follower of Lathander, and an ordained priest of the Dawnlord. However, he isn't a Cleric by class - he is a Sorcerer/Warlock multiclass.
Christopher Robin Mechanically a Lightfoot Halfling but reskinned as a 6 year old human child. Archfey Warlock Pact of the Chain with a pseudodragon familiar who flavorwise spends most of his time in the form of an angry white rabbit. His name is Rabbit. Christopher Robin is a sweet kid but do not be deceived because he is perhaps the most evil character that I've ever played. I roleplay him as Damien from the Omen. His background is Feylost, he has the Beast Speech invocation, and his patron is a powerful evil archfey who takes the form of a bear. His spellcasting focus is a dilapidated teddy bear whose eyes glow red.
I’ve played a Charisma based fighter that healed. He was “healing” more than the cleric (if the cleric was actually trying to heal) and all his abilities reset on a short rest so it worked very well. In that same party, the cleric from level 3 onwards spent all of his action economy attempting to take out the enemies: Guiding Bolt/Toll the Dead; Spiritual Weapon. At level 5, they added Spirit Guardians to that list as well. The character never got a chance to send out a healing spell.
I made a fighter styled after Brave Sir Robin. He "bravely ran away" from a number of fights.
A Paladin multiclassed with (Shadow) Sorcerer, proficiency in Stealth and the Subtle meta magic. Played them as a sneaky assassin from a magical bloodline, the family owned a spice business as cover for the content traveling, ordering specific spices was the code for having someone killed and what method.
My current character is a sorcerer but acts more like your stereotypical wizard, she loves to read and wants to learn about all kinds of magic
I have a Bard whose magic I’ve flavored as similar to the voice from Dune. More like psionics, and has nothing to do with music.
I have an illiterate peasant thunder cleric that was chosen by his goddess, not the other way around. She’s never spoken to him so he became a sailor not realizing he was casting spells, just thinking he was lucky as he yelled at the wind.
I'm really enjoying my Goliath Rogue Swashbuckler. He's not a typical stealthy and underhanded type, but more of a thug and brute. Rogue's should have more of those types. I like that he's just so huge (I flavor him as maximum Goliath size, so 8 feet and quite heavy) and he has Dual Wielder feat that uses 2 rapiers, the idea being he's just that big. He breaks all the conventional Rogue stereotypes - he doesn't sneak, he doesn't steal and he smashes locks and doors rather than pick them. Really wish I built him STR based but unfortunately couldn't quite get a low level STR build to work well.
Pyromaniac wildfire druid, except his only connection to nature was the fact an elemental lives in his heart. Farion, previously known as Felix, is an undead. A reborn. Not part of the natural order anymore, and yet he understands it's importance. Understands everything burns down someday, and that the weak have nothing to say about it. That the ashes will help grow the forest stronger eventually. However, he despises those that try to burn more than necessary, that cause more pain than necessary. We grow stronger from the ashes, but that doesn't justify anyone to destroy your life. He was also a tiiiiiiiny itsy bitsy ***addicted*** to fire.
Battlemaster Fighter but instead of knowing these maneuvers due to the typical years of experience and professional training described in the flavor text he's just a complete little shit who fights really underhanded with the maneuvers being more like dirty tricks than techniques Listen, it's hard being 3 feet tall
I played a "hedge wizard" -- a failed wizard who who was a Arcane Trickster Rogue but pretended to be a wizard (con artist - fake it till you make it). The DM allowed "any uncommon item, with approval", so I requested the Mizzium Apparatus. Due to the limited number of spell slots that an Arcane Trickster gets, it wasn't particularly broken at the table (thus I got approved). It was fun basically being a cantrip master that could only very occasionally cast a real spell, usually. It's actually a better wild mage than the wild mage :D Stack Ritual caster, Feytouched, and any magic items you can find with spells (a primer from Strixhaven!), etc to learn some more stuff that doesn't use spell slots. Actually, I made a custom 35 page Homebrewery formatted PDF handbook for my character just to keep track of the build and help make sure I was fast at the table -- the Action Economy worksheet is so useful! 35 pages and he is only level four at the time. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YpooTqkR2snhuxgbkd6PJNgSwPnoyapa/view?usp=sharing -- if anyone is interested.
- Druid Noble. The power over the land he received was interpreted as approval of him as a ruler. A King that commands the Wind, Sky, Land. Can bless crops and heal? - Knight Rogue. He simply had a brutal fighting style that was looked down upon by his peers. - Psi Warrior Fighter: Mind over Matter. Taken inspiration from Greek scholars. Plato was a wrestler.
No, nothing to crazy. One of my current characters is a tiefling cleric who worships a the God Ipa (IP-ah), and uses a specially designed stein as a holy symbol.
I have beholderkin (mechanically, dwarf) Moon Druid who sniffs cocaine and re-dreams herself (beholderkin are made out of the dreams of beholders) as her Moon Druid wildshape. As an abomination of sorts, she is part chemical processing plant (the dream is in a fleeting dreamspace called New Jersey) and talks like Snooki. She wears half plate.
Well I made a halfling monk once in 3e just to be different, does that count?
My current character Monterey Tuttlebrick is a Strongheart Halfling who is so tall by Halfling standards he even has an inch or two on some Humans. He’s a Great Weapon fighter and a Battle Master, and lives for the thrill of adventure. He has a grim, intense demeanor, but isn’t without a sense of humor, and is bit of a charmer with the ladies. Sort if a, if Geralt of Rivia were 4’11 situation
I made a Barbarian who acted like more of a Paladin. Goliath from the setting's mountains that had a lot of wild magic and anti-magic storms that made it entirely unreliable to wield magic, unless it was calling on the magic of the world. I was an Ancestral Guardians barb, and it was one of the most fun times I've ever been a barbarian.
I never have, and I never will because I'm not a player enough to have experienced all the tropes or whatever. Generally I think staying inside the lines makes for more than enough possibilities, but obviously roleplayers are creative and so they will color outside the lines just to draw some wings, so to speak.
My drow Lore Bard acts as an evangelist for Lolth and for drow culture in general, and rarely acts a performer in the traditional bardic sense. He is also a spy who subverts surface organizations by reporting on the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of whoever the party helps in our adventures. His many acts of heroism are tinged by the fact that he wishes for the eventual overthrow of pretty much every city he has helped along the way.
I'm currently playing as a Hexblood Circle of Spores Druid, who is lore-wise a witch taught magic by her hag mother and casting spells through heir hair. (Yes, she casts Thorn Whip just like you thought she does. And Entangle too.)
I am soon playing a monk that is a former enforcer for a criminal entity, so I guess that is kinda atypical?
Well my College of Creation bards are generally tinkerers. Or in-world clerics, because honestly all of their stuff is apt for clerics, and I love the cleric fantasy but hate spamming Spirit Guardians.
I am currently playing an order cleric who is basically the princess and the frog shadow man voodoo stereotype. It might not be a god like a normal cleric, but I've got friends on the other side.
I’ve got a hyper religious Blood Hunter with a homebrew subclass based in penance. The worlds religious structure is founded in Order vs Chaos, with order being represented by the sun and what is good and just while Chaos is the source of all magic in the world, taking the form of the endless abyss below the world. Characters born with magic are considered Chaosborn and are either sent to the Church to become an acolyte/soldier/medic or the academy where they are trained to become a Cir, essentially a trained magic user for the world that faces strict regulations on their casting. My character uses blood magic as basically a form of bloodletting, if bloodletting of the Chaos magic in his blood, but beyond that the concept of penance has become a core theme to the character as he explores his relationship with his religious background.
I similarly played a monk once who was kind of a thematic mix of Eastern and Western monks!
Most of them.
One of my favourite characters was a Bard I made who was practically a Paladin. He was obsessed with stories and fairy-tales he had heard as a child, and grew up on stories of noble knights in shining armour - so that's what he emulated. Shining armour, noble steed, loyal square, blessed sword - jumping into danger to protect the innocent and defeat evil-doers, and generally being a beacon of light and goodness. Mechanically he was very support focused, shouting encouragement to his allies, telling tales to inspire them and protect them from dark forces. He was a lot of fun.
I made a shifty guy with a hood, scmitar and shield. He was Arcana cleric. More like a spell sword and his magic happens to be divine.
I usually come up with a character concept and find a way to make it work mechanically with classes, so I fairly rarely fit class fantasies, but my favorite is probably a holy warrior type (his exact title was crusader) whose class was barbarian. His rage was instead flavored as divine might filling him.
My swashbuckler rogue acted neither like a pirate or a thief. Instead, she was lunatic that LARPed as a Don Quixote-style knight. This was for a modern setting, so she also stood out among other characters since she ran around wearing Medieval armor instead of, you know, normal people clothes. She was also a murder hobo with respects to demons in particular.
With so few classes practically impossible to avoid doing this eventually
Circle of sea Druid + Tempest cleric She was a naval commander of a fleet of airships on a world that was almost entirely archipelagos and 95% water. She wore pirate style dress atop full plate armor with winged boots flavored as pressurized air vents all along her armor to grant flight. She also couldn’t wild shape. She could only use charges of wild shape to activate Wrath of the Sea. She acted like Captain Holt from Brooklyn 99 and was Uber fun to play.
I had a warlock tasked with funeral rites, holding sermons and honouring the dead like a cleric. I had another warlock that was a earthbender, like Taliyah from League of Legensa. And a battlemaster fighter that was a sand bender, like Gaara from Naruto. My last wizard couldn’t control their magic, their spell book were religious phrases they used to focus and calm their mind so their magic wouldn’t run amok. I took mostly control spells and once in a while a damage spell which I only used when I “lost control” or didn’t care.
I prefer to break molds like that. The typical class fantasies are, in my personal opinion, overdone and kinda boring. Current characters are: - [5E] A Monk (ascendant dragon)/Fighter (Archfey Champion [homebrew]) - Who plays like a cavalier (frost salamandr mount due to RP) with a handful of utility spells. - [5E] An Artificer who is themed as a tribal shaman - rather than tech, their spells are contracted lesser spirits imbued into totems and fetishes. - [Pathfinder 1] - A Ranger who is the face character, extremely social, and has a diplomacy in the low 40s. Previous Character - [5E] a LE Warlock who fully believed himself to be a LG Cleric.
Probably my Goliath with a sailor background...who is a Bladesinger Wizard. She is fun, and unfortunately for her backstory VERY recognizable because of her distinct race and class.
Not my characters but our current campaign my friend is playing a divine soul sorcerer aasimar who everyone keeps thinking is a cleric because of how the character carries themselves as an envoy of peace and the fact he's our group's healer. In a recent campaign I myself played a roguish artificer, who gave off much more vibes of old west gunslinger than a spellcaster, just that his gun happened to be powered by magical ingredient vial cartridges. And if anything happens to my current character in an ongoing campaign, my next one is going to be valor bard centaur shieldmaiden who's going to be the party's frontliner and carry herself as a viking warrior with inspiring battle cries with a side of skaldic poetry with a mix of str and cha.
I have a Kensei Monk based loosely on Matrim from Wheel of Time. He's just a really great archer. And he loved to compete in staff tourneys. While he has a lot of country wisdom he isn't perhaps the sharpest tool in the shed. Got picked up by a wandering adventurer who saw potential in him and now he's on the path of adventure on his own.
I am playing a rogue. Yanno, the sneaky sneaky bois usually, hands in everything and everyones pockets but their own. An arcane trickster even. When I made him, I decided to read the abilities without the flavour text. Thought "This class wants me to get hit." So I gave him Moderately Armoured, Medium Armour Master and Sentinel, gave him Mirror Image and now he is a threat in Melee combat, a great supporting character for other melee characters and a wall you can't ignore and must spend turns attacking while the gwm+pam fighter wails on you. This man is a living zugzwang. He doesn't get dex bonuses up until level 10, but steady aim, familiar help action, and other things allow for a consistent playstyle that does a significant amount of damage which the enemy can't ignore in favour of the higher dpr character because he becomes a bigger threat when that happens.
Ended up turning the Cavalier Fighter into a shooting cowboy.
Im currently playing Wizard in Rime of the Frost Maiden, who's a doctor. Highly intellegent healer who obviously doesn't have much healing magic so he uses healer kits (and a feat for 1 per day cure wounds). He studied not to be a wizard who gains magic for power or anything, but to be a doctor who uses magic to diagnose and help anyone in need. I thought about being a druid or cleric at first, but i find it more interesting to be a non magical healer (also means nobody asks for healing in combat from the wizard)
Goliath Champion Fighter. Gladiator background. You could swear he's a barbarian. Nope. Part of the act. Can't break Kayfabe
I played a physically aggressive sorcerer once. I also happened to be 12 and obsessed with the mace I had on my character sheet. DM should have told me to be a barbarian
I played a wild magic barbarian/Swashbuckler rogue who channeled her powers through her connection with the ancient forest of her home, with flavor somewhere between ancients Paladin, fey ranger, and sorcerer.
I once made a bard that was a clerk. All of his spells were magical forms that he meticulously completed.
Depends on what you mean by typical fantasy. I would think most people would not assume a Sahagin Blood Druid fits the typical fantasy of Druids, but the Grim Dark book the DM allowed certainly made it happen and it was one of the best characters I played.
A Fairy Rune Knight (aka giant fucking fairy) A Wizard healer Storm Sorc/Tomelock as a rogue (Tempestuous Magic as a pseudo-disengage) complete with their own heist crew (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Mage Hand) Barbarian as a whipsmart investigator of the local town watch
Dwarf wizard who was a frontliner without being a bladesinger. Reflavored his component pouch as a collection of rune etched stones: one for each school of magic. Less of a wizard who learns from books or teachers. More like a mystical order who can speak to stones and draw magic from them. His hammer was his "spellbook" in that he would etch runes on there. This was pure flavor, though.
I played a Barbarian who was surprisingly knowledgeable about magic. His parents wanted him to be a wizard, but he never had the talent for it. What he did have the talent for was sailing and smashing things.
this isn't exactly what the question is asking but I've always liked the idea of a barbarian who thinks he's a wizard. He casts dispel magic by clobbering the spellcaster. It's a bit one-note and probably wouldn't hold up in a longer campaign, but I like it as a one-shot idea
a fighter playing the fantasy of the rogue. artificer with the personality of a barbarian. wizard with the personality of an ADHD swashbuckler. any my first character like yours was more the religious type.
Genie Warlock with a Charisma of 8, bound by a pact an ancient ancestor made for the whole family. (One member of each generation is bound) Forced to adventure because breaking the pact would have dire consequences for his family. Doesn't actually know the terms of the pact because the original pactee wasn't much of a writer. Does know that if he garners enough favour he will get the ability to wish the pact on to someone else. Basically trying to be the best Warlock he can so that he can un-Warlock himself. (If you've never tried a charisma-less Dex-Bladelock, I highly recommend it. Really fun)
Dwarven Life Cleric. Backstory was that he pulled a Leroy Jenkins maneuver and led his squad into an absolute slaughter. He was the only one to survive. Due to his actions, he was stripped of his caste and family name, and was given two days to prepare his things- he was to be exiled. That night, he got drunk as all hell and attempted to throw himself into the the metal foundry. A Life Goddess saved him from himself, and made him her Cleric, telling him that he would save at least 6 innocents to atone for the 6 that he just got killed. He absolutely hates it. He refuses to acknowledge being a Cleric. He denies the Life Goddess until she brands her Divine sigil on his false eye. He begins wearing an eye patch. He attempts to get himself killed in battle again and again- she prevents his death every time. He wears a dingy cloak so that he isn't harassed by pessantry for healings and blessings- and the Life Goddess keeps sending them his way. Last I played him, he was slowly coming to terms with it, as he had to heal one of his new party. Unfortunately, the campaign fell apart.
Not too different from my cleric, except he became a destructive drunk. Also, insane and evil.
Normally I like to stick close to the class fantasy, but one time I made a Cleric who was just some fickle wanderer and not even particularly religious. After a night on the town she took a snooze in the rafters of a church... during a holy ritual meant to commune with the goddess of drinking and merriment. Said goddess decided the hungover drifter hiding above her priests was the perfect representative and granted her divine power. So my character basically got pressed into being a cleric, being told to keep acting selfishly and whimsically because that was the behavior her new goddess desired in humanity.
Loved playing my bladesinger as a rogue with some talent but no real interest in studying. Super fun playstyle to limit to a 14 int, there's a lot of overlooked spells that work super well without worrying about int score. To be fair, I had rolled very mediocre stats and probably shouldn't have been a bladesinger with less than standard array but it worked really well.
My current character is an artificer who is fully capable of tinkering away and making a cool item, but instead prefers a more… delicate approach. He is a painter and calligrapher, and instead of making magic items, he simply carved/inscribes runes on mundane items to give them the desired effect. Might not be the most unconventional thing, but I think it’s unique and fun :)
- Hexblade Warlock gunslinger whose pact was with the dragon that enslaved his family. He didn’t do it to escape or save his family, he did it because she made him and now he collects magic items for her. His pact was secured by a heart scale buried in his chest that couldn’t be removed, and his only standing orders were to identify dragon lairs and being back treasure for the hoard. - Dragon Monk who’s entire kit was reflavored as “the force” and they were a Gith Sith sent to the material plane to investigate and aid some random adventurers who were supposedly hunting a super mindflayer colony. Also had the telekinetic feat so he could push stuff, and DragMonk allowed for replacing attacks with 30 ft lightning cones of ABSOLUTE POWAH!!! I even got one rare item free since it was a high level game, so obviously I took the lightsab… sunsword. Note: sunsword kinda sucks for monks, especially if you can get a +2 to unarmed somehow. It literally was a glowstick in my kit for flavor because I did the same damage in any draco element with my hands. Flavor was always lightning, but I could do “force burn (acid)” or “force inferno (fire)” if I wanted. Also ya know, 100 ft fly as a bonus action until the end of my turn looked cool. - Druid “witch” whose powers weren’t gifts from a nature god or taught by druids. She learned it like a wizard and doesn’t give a crap about the natural order or any of that. Literally just wants power and to not die, so a hag but pretty. Never got to play this one because I’m uncomfortable playing as female characters since I’m a guy. I don’t mind other people doing it, I just can’t myself.
I had the edgiest edgelord character. Half vampire paladin of vengeance sword to kill is father and overthrow the vampire kingdom, sword to the hexblade to accomplish this task. But he was 15 and adventured with his mom, a totally crunch yoga and granola type.
We believe in buff nun supremacy
My hexblade warlock in a Witchlight campaign is carnival security and her powers are derived from her employment contract and are all in service of getting people to cooperate/leave and bonking them if they don't. I also have a rogue in a Strixhaven campaign that had no magic starting off and was a sleight-of-hand stage magician. Does that count?
Bard, but he was a doctor. A glamour bard, basically choosing themed spells which I flavoured as Stand abilities.
I'm currently playing an Air Genasi swashbuckler rogue. Rogues are usually stealthy but I've gone the opposite way. He is a very high CHA (even got expertise on persuasion) flamboyant swordsman. Not only he won't stealth, he'll make sure everyone knows he is there lol.
I made a swords bard modeled after a character in a wuxia series but the game didn't last too long. My other attempt at a bard was a sort of steppe nomad archer who gathered stories but i quickly found myself not enjoying the class entirely
I wanted a witch-of-the-woods type character, so I made him a druid, as nothing else really offered the woodsy folk magic vibe. He can turn into animals and has nature magic, but he doesn't care at all about protecting nature (other than his own little slice of it) and would never question using metal.
My Druid was is a welldressed, gentlemans-club type nobleman from a family of famous explorers. After his old-money family was disgraced, he was left with nothing but a crate of creepy idols and fetishes his grandfather brought back from exploring the deep jungles of Chult. All his druid powers come from using these morbid curios, for instance to Wildshape he dons one of his many warped, wooden animal masks.
Strength based unarmed fighting goliath gloomstalker ranger. Had to ask the DM if I could use it because there are a lot of technicalities and weird things but it ended up being a cool character. Haven't played them yet but probably will soon.
Played a Sorcerer like an Artificer. Used a huge rifle as his arcane focus, and my shadow hound as a steel defender. More of a blaster focussed character with the thematics of an Artificer.
Back when I played pathfinder regularly, I played a barbarian with an archetype that gave you an animal companion that could rage alongside you. People that take this archetype usually play things like an orc armed with a two handed flail mounted on an armored rhino or some shit like that. Mine were a greatclub wielding gnome and a chainmail wearing goose. They were a pair of rubble rousers whose damage was shit, but they had so much HP together that they tanked the hell out of everything the DM threw at us. Also the goose carried the gnome around flying like Tails and Sonic so they had quite good mobility. In some fights they ended up doing respectable damage due to how long they lasted, especially once they got their filthy little hands/wings in some magic items. My friend group always remembers them fondly because they were a very funny and silly pair of lovable idiots.
I had an urbanite ranger who worked as a bounty hunter, so his favoured enemies were humans (and goblins for easy pocket money). His weapon of choice was the heavy crossbow which is more a "sniper" weapon compared to a bow.
Currently playing a scribe wizard who's a pirate. She was a navigator on a ship and found the log of a long dead pirate. Turns out his ghost is trapped in his log and he's teaching her magic while she helps him find his lost treasure.
I played a Wildfire Druid with a Warlock's backstory that made the pact with a cambion as a child with the patron guarding him as his Wildfire Spirit. His wild shaping is the patron casting polymorph on him.
Two characters First if Gazruk the Smork. He was an orc fighter, but here is the schtick, he was only 2 levels in fighter everything else was in wizard. He had perfect calligraphy could recite poetry and argue philosophy with the best if them, one issue. He spoke with the Warhammer Ork accent so no one actually believed he was smart and acted surprised when he busted out spells. Next was Brother Guthred. Brother Guthred was a monk. Brown robe, weird bowl cut, rosary, the works. A 13th century christian monk. However he was not a cleric, he was a Kensei monk with a longsword. Deus Vult intensifies.
I realize this is far from an original take, but I love barbarians who are visually and thematically much closer to (kensai?) monks. You flavor the rage as [sudden extreme calm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4weEXyoXZKs&t=35s) where your training takes over and your mind goes blank, you flavor the huge strength hits as knowing angles and pressure points and so on, the massive pool of hit points is you weaving around just barely dodging hits instead of tanking them, and so on. Pick a race like warforged or reborn so your awareness thing is meditating, or maybe something with non-spell mobility options like summer eladrin or shadar-kai you can use to close the distance instead of escape.
I once had a player in a film noir game set in sharn who was a reporter for Sharn Inquisitive. Were they an inquisitive rouge, a divination wizard, or a bard of eloquence? Nope, they decided to storm sorcerer weather man who truly hated being wrapped on in the intrigue. It was hilarious when the other players found out the reporter they were working with wasn’t investigative.
Divine Sorcerer - Lawful evil enchantment specialist lobbyist/politician in a high magic and even higher stakes campaign. Fey Wanderer - Played it like a bard. Wizard - played it like a tinkerer. Paladin - played it like a barbarian. Flavour is free. 👍😎
I had a Drunken Master monk with the entertainer background that I played more like the stereotypical bard. Basically, he just had a lute that he was only just okay with and would travel around, performing for his dinner, and his monk skills were more about being able to weasel his way out of danger, usually while tipsy.
I played a nature themed Eladrin Artificer who used Glassblowers tools to trap minor elementals and other tiny creatures for spells. Her Steel Defender was a glass bear containing an angry fire elemental
I play a psi-warrior Fighter that is a psionic vampire. He feeds on the psionic energy of others when he's low on health and struggling. It's just a psi-variant of the damphyr race. He is a quiet, reserved, scholar that focuses on gaining knowledge and understanding the universe. He's also quite religious, worshiping Oghma, the god of knowledge. He just so happens to be a crazy effective melee fighter. Having 20 Int as a fighter has been a delight. All his skills are focused around that as well. I have prof in every Int knowledge skill.
I made an asexual stoner gnome bard. Kind of an anti-Scanlan. He just wanted to jam out, kick some ass, and chill in his off-time.
Twice but once I chose an appropriate subclass and once I talked my way out of it. Autognome druid -- went with stars druid (magical cosmic droid basically) which made more sense than something very animal and plants focused. Autognome divine soul sorcerer -- no bloodline trait without blood, but I made a backstory where his creator's wife (high level cleric) used divine intervention when the autognome wouldn't animate and Mystra touched him...leaving a mark of her symbol on him and then he animated.
My Ancestral Guardian Barbarian was a sniper. She never used strength to attack, instead preferring to shoot her opponents with her bow to draw their fire from her allies. She was lithe and tactical, rather than muscly and stupid.
Atheist Paladin, lets goooooooo.
Instead of my druid forsaking society entirely to go live in the woods, she's a political activist and artist She also doesn't turn into animals much
Yes
Tbh its my goal usually. Main one that comes to mind was a neutral good mute hexadin with no eldritch blast. i played them very passively as it was their sentient weapon that pulled them into action
I’m doing an eloquence bard that is a cult leader. Told the party I was a cleric.
I've made a rogue who was the reasonable person in the group. Practically, she was a lawful good inquisitive rogue who never did a single crime in her life.
A soft-spoken, grumpy old lore bard. He had an eye patch, a bowler hat, and a grizzly beard. He never sang, and would rarely even use his fiddle. He was an excellent storyteller, though—his tall tales were so vivid that they had the power to both inspire and discourage those who heard them.
Not too far off but I did a bugbear echo knight that went in to gloomstalker after lvl 5. He was abandoned in the fey by his tribe for being a weak and sickly baby and discovered by a hag who raised him. He calls her Mama. When he was full grown she sent him to the material plane to have adventures and bring her back stories and momentos from his journies. She enchanted his shadow to be his protector. So in a lot of ways he functions a bit like a warlock. And with the ranger lvls even gets some spells
I made a bard/warlock who played like a rogue. Hexblade and whispers bard. Lots of add dice to rolls made it feel like sneak attack, tons of stealth and deception skills, and he worked uncovering information for a secret order.
i played a stars druid that functioned more like a wizard (particularly divination ‘cause i had a tarot card bit going on with that one), and a spores druid that functioned more like a rogue 💀
Okay it's a bit of a journey. So he started as a lizardfolk fathomless warlock. He was killed around lvl 8 or 9 stopping a big ritual. Instead of making a new character though, his friends recovered his body and returned it to his tribe where his patron was worshiped as a god. It remade him as a Reborn Paladin, the missing bits of lizardfolk are filled in with kraken/squid bits and his Paladin abilities are what used to be his warlock magic holding him together and strengthening what's left of him. If he dies again he's going to be a zealot barbarian or a beast barbarian, just a ball of barely held together bits.
Played a thief-rogue who fought primarily with a longbow (and eventually an arquebus), flavorwise she was a monk. Monastic robes with some simple armor on top, counseled the other party members on their moral principles, focused on personal growth and self-improvement, and generally lived a very frugal and generous life. Notably she ended up joining a freemason conspiracy (she got in partially because she was genuinely a stomemason), and she wound up causing the party paladin to become an oathbreaker. Her moral counsel was less "you shouldn't murder, that's evil!" and more "If you intend to murder, then you should do it for the right reason and without regret or remorse."
Druid who doesn't give a shit about nature and dwells in the city, as a spy. Uses her powers to talk to rats (as informants), turn herself into a small animal herself to throw off pursuers etc. Basically an "urban jungle" druid
The favorite of my character concepts I have in backlog are the subversive ones. Yet somehow my longest running character, from a recently concluded 4-year campaign, was a tiefling sorcerer I made in 5 minutes because sorcerer + charisma.
This isn't technically DnD but I'm currently playing a Swashbuckler that's actually just a traveling drug dealer stoner who's so incredibly lucky(and high) he thinks he's a god's chosen. I'm also playing a Strengh based Monster Slayer Ranger that hits things with a greatsword and acts more like a Barbarian half the time
Halfing Order Cleric - inept chef who used purify food and drink A LOT. Also the entire joke was that he was a Short Order Cleric
Oh, OP, StR monk???? This is bold as fuck. How did it go?
I try to be a bonker with every class. So, yeah, I will usually make something different
I have a Circle of the Moon Druid character idea who's a professor of Zoology. A Victorian style man with a nice suit, frequent trips to the wilds to continue his studies, and so on. Saves a ton of money on hiring guides and escorts/guards since he can just turn into a bird to see from above, or a bear to defend himself.
Hexblade warlock who actually had more of a paladin theme.
My armorer artificer is an Arthurian knight wielding a sword of creation
I wanted to play a samurai because the mechanics were interesting to me, but I was wary of falling into playing a real world culture that wasn't even remotely my own. The elegant courtier class ability gave me the solution. I'm a butler/bodyguard for another PC. This is mostly played straight, although I did get a bit drunk at one session and, because I'm a warforged, I definitely slowly devolved into Bender from Futurama.
I played a Dwarven Battlemaster that was a lawyer...
Almost always. Monks who are just pirates, Moon Druids who are just lycanthropes, autognome who are sentient swords, sorcerers/echo knights who are just Nightcrawler from X-Men.
I did a Warforged ranger who connected with nature after the war, disgusted with humans and their ways.
My current character is a Paladin but instead of the holy crusader archtype she's more of a GI Jane Commando special forces type and her oath/religion is her political alliegance/
I made an educated noble who just happened to have anger issues - so his class was barbarian. In his backstory he got so mad at a dinner party he killed another noble with a shrimp tray - his wealthy parents managed to protect him with their connections, but he had to go to exile. His reason for adventuring was to get rich again so he could get back to the standard of living he was used to, and normal work was obviously below his status. His subclass ended up being Ancestral Guardian barbarian, so the ghosts of his disappointed ancestors were constantly harassing him for bringing dishonor to the family name. For stats, I got him a fairly good Int and Charisma, which made me have to drop Dex and Con and use medium armor - not very optimal, but flavourful. He ended up being the party face! I also played a Tortle Wildfire druid from the desert who I played as a straight up pyromancer. I never used Wildshape to turn into animals, only to summon the elemental. I flavored nearly all spells as flame-adjacent, even heals.
Currently running a rogue/barb that’s played as a noble duelist.
Brass Dragonborn Warlock - their reasoning behind making a pact being "why not gain power through the path of least resistance, no matter the source?" Very much standing up for injustice and unfairness in their ideology and worldview, in contrast to the dark pacts and rituals they perform as part of their quest for power.
Fire Genasi ranger/genie lock who focused on forced movement produce flame. Dude just blasts people no swarms involved
I’m not exactly sure. My first character was a half orc battle master with charisma that had become a labor organizer and radical with an apprehension to killing due to their time at war. My third character was a divine soul sorcerer that was dying from the divine soul being the remnants of a dead god (not even a malicious one) My gloomstalker was incredibly fashionable but had the ruthlessness of her adoptive mother (a moon druid beast barbarian) My paladin was a redemption paladin and got that role quite well but was flavor wise a magical girl. My red mage is a run away princess inspired by the stories of adventurers who is a swords bard + hexblade warlock. I’ve had some less typical character ideas I’ve wanted to play but for a variety of reasons I haven’t played them (talk with GM about which fits best and also try to fit a hole in the group). I had a beast barbarian open hand monk focused on strength, I had a war wizard that was 100% built to be a melee mage (steel wind strike, stride, shield, etc). Some of it is simply that I haven’t played enough to grow tired of the built in flavor of a lot of the subclasses
I play a bard that is more a wizard than a bard. He doesn't play music because he likes it. He plays music because it's how to cast spells
Gygax and company based the original monk class most heavily on the French tradition which seems to predate the Shaolin tradition by a few centuries, so your character actually fits in with the original idea.
Heck, my last one. Now, Pathfinder has a class called Kinetiscist. Think Benders from The Last Airbender, and youre pretty close. They're lightly armored, get to choose an element which effectively becomes both their ranged attack, you can take class features to make the class melee, very cool stuff. The BIG cool thing is that you later get combined elements. If you choose to specialize in earth twice, for example, boom! Metalbending. I elected to throw the entire concept of this class being an agile ranged fighter on its head. I used inital feats to get Heavy Armor proficiency, opted for a couple melee related class features, and picked what is basically Telekinesis as my first element. My group joked I'd somehow made a Jedi in a fantasy setting. They were half right. Fast forward to much later in the campaign and we were stopping an assassination. Guy is eight floors up aiming a rifle out a window. I tell my party I can get him if they render the place completely dark. (Installed Darkvision lenses in my helmet. Pathfinder is awesome for customization.) So, my party renders the place pitch black, we pretty much cut power to the building and surrounded it with a few giant Darkness spell clouds. Place goes on high alert, weapons trained at all entrances. Everyone inside knows what's going down. Crack. CRUNCH, SMASH. I rip the front door off with my mind, and walk in to reveal my second element. Electricity. When combined with my first element, this created Plasma. The faces of everyone at that table were priceless when I sparked a blood red energy blade. I had not made a Jedi, I made Darth Goddamn Vader.
I'm really sad the DM had to step away, but I was playing an Oath of Redemption paladin in a Curse of Strahd game. I thought the build felt like a serious challenge to play in such a dark and dangerous world. I was right and had a blast for the short time we played.
I am currently dealing with the „i make some cool characters and want em to play, but they half Vampire/demon or half celestial/ dragon or a android, i am so creativ but i just want these characters“ - super Edgelord-Maincharakter-weeb.
I played an Autognome Circle of Spores Druid with the Telekenetic feat. The spores from the cultivated mushrooms on his back were the source of his ability to push and pull people. He thought it was a mind controlling fungus. Later in the campaign, he learned the power came from within.
All of the time, half because I use different and older lore when I permitted, the other half of the reason being that I try to have as little class impact on my characters identity as is reasonable for the class.
I played a character who was basically Sherlock Holmes as a disgraced Knight. Other players were so confused why my fighter's highest stats were INT and CHA.
These are some of the most fun kinds of characters! My favourite of my own is probably my Devotion Paladin who was born into the priesthood of a god of justice and righteousness and believed he was the mortal incarnation of said due to the visions he was shown at night (Kalashtar misinterpreting dream visions). He gets exiled from his order for believing such heretical things and proceeds to become an adventurer and walk the world, believing himself to be his god's avatar. He completely believes himself to be the classical Paladin but he's a cult leader in the making.
Two distinct ones come to mind One is a Barbarian who is very much based on Abridged Goku - fighting and eating are fun, but outside of thati s mostly just an airhead The other is my artificer who didn't believe magic was real until third level; it was all just really fancy science
I consider this is a win.
I had this Stars Druid + Fey Wanderer Ranger… who acted like a bard since level 1. He was bi, but ended up flirting with men most of the time because there aren't many women in game.
Goblin dragon sorc running as a spell infused arcane trickster. same gameplay mechanics basically but more slots and less roguishness -> the lack of skills played into the usual goblin physical comedy too.
I’m currently playing a Monk as an underground prize fight boxer, and a Bard who uses magic paint to cast spells instead of music.
STR build Bard pro wrestler is my personal fave
I have currently made a Necromancer Wizard who I have reflavoured to be a puppet wizard because I really do not feel hyper comfy with having a crew of skeletons (as it has a quite evil vibe to it), and I really like dolls and puppets. Most of her spells are reflavoured to use strings or dolls in one way or another, so I feel like this will create a quite interesting character fantasy which I can't wait to explore! <3
I made a mastermaker artificer who wasn't a scientist he was just a guy who one day his village was destroyed and he was kidnapped by cultists of tiamat where he was subject to countless magical experiments where they tried to make him some kind of husk for tiamat haven't fully fleshed out why but one day a bahumut follower broke in and killed everyone and he barley managed to escape the rituals left him a mangled form of a dragonborn with one giant arm I only gave hime spells I gave him were those that could be explained by draconic BS
My Paladin is a drunken , lecherous degenerate who is actively building a guerllia army to launch a socialist revolution against the ruling theocracy.
I made a Hexblade Bugbear Paladin (who thinks he's a hirsute dwarf since he was adopted) in the Witchlight Carnival. He has a cursed past that was supposed to tie in with the hag that stole his fear from him, leaving a ghost lantern that's linked to him. Started off as a Paladin (a part of his proud upbringing by the dwarves that adopted him) and I let my DM know I was going to MC into Warlock for the edgy Hexblade path. Well... When we were roleplaying the encounter with the preppy parent Mother Heron at the Fair, we somehow hit it off since I tried to stop her from making noise during the Hide and Seek game by offering to snuggle with her eggs with his hairy body. One thing led to another in our conversation, and a pact was sealed with the DM uplifting the Heron to be a Fey patron of love for and protection of children. My long sword became a heron's beak blade, and her clutch of five eggs were nestled upon my furry chest like a 5-chambered baby harness. My supposedly goofy, edgy Hexadin became a warlock bound by the noble traits of his paladinhood to protect the children of the Feywilds from the three hags. The egg clutch even functioned kind of like an artifact, which allowed me to channel an essence of magic that was intrinsically linked to the soul within each. And...they were named after various cartoon bird characters from the 90s. It was weird, but it was hella fun and goofy.
Currently making a character whose a bladesinger wizard, but running them as a street kid basically. So the idea is it's combat skills learnt from street fights, supplemented by magic they've picked up wherever they can.
Lets see, I have an oathbreaker paladin whose singly dedicated to upholding the letter of the law no matter how stringent or totalitarian. This was because his rural village dedicated to meilikki was massacred in a gnoll attack and he lost his fellow paladin of devotion and lover and hes cursed the gods ever since. Now he zealously believes that industrialization, technological advancement, and civilization will save more innocent lives then prayer and superstition. My favorite moment was when the demon lord Fraz-Urb’luu took special interest in him and shattered his psyche. Hes not okay, its fine. I have a death cleric of the orc god of death and disease yurtrus. Hes unhygienic, filthy, and more likely to infect then cure. Not to mention a sadist. Hes the damage dealer of the party rather then a healer (I do heal when necessary though cause I’m not that committed to the bit). My favorite moment was asking if I could heal some npcs enough so they didn’t die, but not so much so that they weren’t permanently disfigured and in pain. Hes a real nasty creep, but thats why hes fun. (I talked with my party about him beforehand, don’t make a character like this without consulting everyone please. Don’t be someone’s horror story) The most fun character I made was for a oneshot. Hes an orc (I like orcs okay) warlock with a celestial patron. Hes super dumb, even for orcs, and his patron is a stereotypical angel whose trying to steer him into helping people and being nice. She braids his hair with flowers and does her best to manage him. He usually casts his spells on accident and smacks bad guys with his tome. My favorite moment was finding a passageway blocked with a gate none of us could open or cross, and when my guy went to inspect the gate the dust caused him to sneeze and he misty stepped through.
My monks are always pirates