Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Osiris Memnoch 04-05-05, 02:17 PM	I need a compelling story for my necromancer. So compelling in fact that it would cause a DM I don't even know to go, "that's a cool story. I'd like to have that in my game." You see, I just started using an online DnD gaming forum and want to make my mark by making my first online character a good reflection of what I as a player am capable of. I'm toying with a few ideas right now. Obviosly these will be presented more interestingly (complete with names for everybody) when I actuall make this character. Atticus "9-Finger" (human, necromancer) Neutral Grew up in a small city. Parents both small city adventurers which eventually and inevitably led to their deaths (me age 9) Orphanage for a year or 3. Adopted by a powerful LE wizard Wiz becomes a very harsh teacher. He is trying to mold me into his son. By 15 I'm as evil as he is. 16 I die during training for the first time. 16 1/2 I die again. ect 20 I am now level 1 (I would be closer to 6 or so if not for all that dying) 21 Wiz dies of old age. 22 I'm an evil guy now 23 I have an epiphany and realize that this isn't the way Mom and Dad wanted me to be. Today- trying to attone and work my alignment upto a good one Any thoughts? Interesting details? Personality? Anyone?
Morka 04-05-05, 03:30 PM	2 things I'm not sure: 1- Both your parents abandon you to go adventuring? Why? Or perhaps were you in the cart while they were fighting Red Dragons? 2- An evil wizard raising you from death 5 times? Why should he spent so much money for an "unworthy" student?
Osiris Memnoch 04-05-05, 07:29 PM	Maybe I wasn't clear. My parents both DIED while adventuring. And sorry for confusion about my resurections. This guy knew his time was almost up so he didn't have time to start training a new replacment. Also, his training was very tough. Death of his student was half expected to happen at least once. Oh, and as for the nickname "9-Finger," that happened during training. I have a really cool illustration of Atticus's hand. I'd post it but I kinda can't. Right now I'm really trying to come up with what caused Atticus's change. I was thinking he could run into an astranged younger sibling. Maybe they where seperated when different people adopted them. I'll post some kind of personality summery later.
Harrow Blade 04-06-05, 10:23 AM	Here is something that you can take or leave as you will. Every body has scars, some fade, some stay with you a life time, if you're lucky thats all. Let me share with you a little about me and pray you don't bear the same scars I do. I don't even remember the name of the small city I grew up in. I don't even know if was truely a city, it was big and I was small and oh so innocent. I had two loving parents, they didn't love me, they loved the adventurers life and all the thrills that came with it so it fell to nurse maid to raise me and upon news of my parents death she ransacked the house and took all that was any worth, apparently I didn't rate much back then and so i got left behind. Starving and dirty i was finally dumped at an orphanage by a rotund mechant who was kind enough to take time out from his customers to ensure that I would never darken his door begging for bread again. My ninth birthday was celebrated a few days after being taken into the orphanage. When i say celebrated I really mean that I was beaten for asking for a blanket that I didn't have to share with two other children and a host of insects. For a year endured the orphanage longing for the rare oprtunity to impress the few brave caring souls who came to addopt the less fortunate children i lived with. So it was silent rejoicing and great hope that I went to live with my adopted father, an elderly gentleman with rich if sombre dress and sallow skin. My Joy was short lived however, it lasted until three steps into the dark stone building that was my new home. I remember it vividly on step three two rotted corpses staggered from the gloom, the stench making my eyes water. I was sure right then and there I was to become a smaller rotted corpse tottering here and there obeying every vile comand, but it was to be worse than that. I spent my first night huddled in a corner of what was later to become my room listening to the scrape thud of the zombie patrolling the corridor out side. Frightened to death and muddled from lack of sleep i began my training to follow in my masters foot steps. When I say training I don't mean I got a fresh spell book and was gently shown how to scribe my first cantrip or had some one lead me through the gestures and words to invoke my first spell. I was directed to disect corpses, many of which got off the slab and staggered to complete a task once I had been berated then beaten for doing it wrong. I witnessed hideous creatures being brought to a semblance of life and bent to my masters will. But most of all I remember dieing. How can I remember dieing you may ask? When dark magic takes hold of your soul and shoves it back into your tattered body you don't tend to forget it in a hurry. I remember the first death most vividly, I had progressed in my studies and tasked with raising an undead creature to add to the many that filled the place where we lived. It worked, mostly. I had succeded in granting unlife to a corpse but instead of it obeying my commands it attacked me. Even as i lay bleeding on the ground, the creature feasting on my innards the look of disgust my master gave me before I was torn from life haunts me today. I awoke to a sea of pain, burning me from the inside out, tearing a scream from my throat, only to be choked by a liquid being poured down my gullet. i will never forget that day, it was then I hell bent on escaping or killing my master. Three more times I awoke chained to the dungeon wall after being torn apart but my masters creatures as I sought escape. Death was not an escape only a tool of punishment and learning and how I came to know it well, the feel of it upon my soul, its touch leaching into my body. It took a long time for my opportunity to present itself but as I grew in knowledge and power my masters body failed until it reached the point where he felt it was time to make the transtion from living master of the undead to terrible undead creature. Although he had spent many many hours choosing, protecting and hiding his phalactery I knew what and where it was. thus as the concoction that facilitated the change from living mage to undead Lich I sought out the housing of his soul and smashed it, destroying my master once and for all. But I had missed one important thing in my haste to freedom. I missed spell trap lurking on the gem and as the hammer struck magic, foul and dark tore into my body devouring my life's essence, clawing at my soul. I survived but only just, a shadow of what I once was, bearing the scars of my life and of my deaths. Barely able to muster a light glamer I crawled out into the darkness of the world I had been barred from and let it swallow me. As the sun rose over a new begining I swore I would never go back to a life as a slave to anothers will, never would I subject any one to that horror. With enough horror and evil recorded in scars on my body and soul for a lifetime I have set about building a new life. But how can I build when all i have is the bones of the dead and the cries of a tortured soul.
Osiris Memnoch 04-06-05, 12:47 PM	Woah, I wasn't expecting you to write my whole life story, but I'm gonna complain. That's some good stuff right along the lines of what I had always imagined Atticus's life to be. I'll edit it a little. I'll add a bit to the end and include the part where His finger is biten off. Once again, thanks for all the help. That definately saves a lot of time.
Harrow Blade 04-07-05, 12:03 AM	No worries, I am a firm beliver in a character background being the back bone to good and interesting roleplaying. An idea i had concerning the finger being bitten off was that as a result of the first death the master could cut off a finger as punishment and constant reminder of the price of failure. It is possible that there is also some enchantment there to stop you ever growing it back through regeneration or healing. Your character bearing a prominent reminder of the masters cruelty. I tried to incorporate the story framework you had set out while providing an emotional environment that would lead the character to evil as his only obvious path early on as it was all he knew. Finally coming to the realisation that it would only turn him into that which he despises. Now with all that in his back ground he is trying to build a better life doing good all his skills and knowledge is caught up in necromancy and life he was forced into. You should have an interesting time developing the character from there. I hope you enjoy the character
Osiris Memnoch 04-07-05, 02:13 AM	I'm having the lost finger come from an encounter with an skeleton or zombie that involved biting. I was pretty sure that lost limbs could only be restored by Divine magic within a certain time frame, but if that's not the case, a spell by Master is always possible. Here's an apendix for the original story: "As the sun rose over a new beginning, I swore I would never go back to a life as a slave to another’s will, never would I subject any one to that horror. With enough horror and evil recorded in scars on my body and soul for a lifetime I have set about building a new life. I hasn’t come easily. There have been plenty of slips, but I am trying. You know, it’s funny. I’ve never spoken of this to anyone, and I almost never speak this much at all; especially to someone who I’m supposed to be interrogating. People have been trying to get me to talk about myself for years and all they would have had to do was gag themselves. There’s something special about you. It would really be a shame if things don’t work out the way my employer wants. I’m not such a bad guy really. This whole “mercenary” thing is really just a way to make ends meet and pass the time. Plus I am pretty good at it. I’ve done my share of good deeds too, but of course all people like you ever hear about are how I deal with my enemies. Not too many people know this, but Atticus isn’t my real name. When I was little my name was Oliver, and then Master renamed me Verata. I’m neither of those people now. Now most people just see my left hand and say, “Oh no, it’s Atticus Nine-Fingered. Let’s run away and assume he’s a bad guy.” It’s not like I chose this life, you know Do you know what it’s like to grow up the way I did? Do you know what it’s like to have negative energy running in your veins since the age of 10? Do you? How would you like it if I ran negative energy through you? Would you like that? Think you can handle that? Do you? Do you Oh, dammit. I guess I got carried away. I’m sorry about this, I really am. You should consider yourself lucky that I’m the one that killed you and not some other Necromancer or you’d be getting me a drink right now." Personality wise, Atticus is going to be just a little bi-polar. He's usually quiet and dark, but he's also seeking to do good. He'll usually avoid killing as a first option. Think Raven from Teen Titans. Conversly, at times he gets a little crazy. For a good example of that just look above.
Osiris Memnoch 04-10-05, 12:38 AM	I'm not satasfied quite yet. I want some more input :bump:
SpoonyBard 04-10-05, 02:18 AM	Are you taking the feat in Libris Mortis that lets you heal from negative energy instead of positive, cause that would be perfect on a guy like this... Anyway, you know what'd be hilarious? Use the necromancer adaptation in Unearthed Arcana to get a skeletal minion, and state that it was your former master!
Ashianyl 04-10-05, 06:51 AM	Not quite suggestions but some questions for you to answer that will help define your character. What drives you? - your goals and desires should be listed here... and how far you are willing to go to achieve them. ex. You seek to do good, but you are cursed with dark power. Does the power fascinate you in any way? If you were allowed to master its power in all its entirety in return for all that is good in you, would you take it? Or do you seek to get rid of it? Fears? - it can be an insecurity, a fear of someone or something, the fear of a prophecy or your fate. It can be tied to what drives you where your purpose is always to prevent your greatest fear from affecting you. ex. Why do you ask others what it is like being a necromancer? Are you afraid of the power it offers? Do you hide behind that mask of power because deep down, you are afraid? Are you afraid of undeads and your own heritage, which is also the reason why you seek to master your fears? Hope this helps. :)
Osiris Memnoch 04-10-05, 01:49 PM	To answer a few questions, Atticus uses the dark magics because it is all he knows, or in out of game terms, you can't change your specialized school. He plans to continue using Necromancy but in ways that are not so obviosly evil. He is driven to be a better person through acts of good. Plenty of adventurers do that kind of thing so why not him? The problem is that alignment shifts are (or should be) much easier said than done. He fears loneliness and not being in controle of what he does whether it be through magic or other circumstances. He asked that one guy if he knew what it was like being a Necromancer and killed him because he was venting his childhood stress and angst. In game, scenes like that will be very, VERY few and far between. After all, what DM would want to play with someone who's history allows them to do acts of unspeakable evil for no real reason. Those feats you mentioned might be cool for flavour, but I don't have those books and besides, I like to make my characters with as much core stuff as possible. So far the only things I'm using that aren't in the PHB are Negative Energy Ray and Able Learner. If my DM allows me I'll presige into Blood Magus but I can live with being a level 20 Necromancer if the DM has a problem with it.
Ashianyl 04-10-05, 08:12 PM	He is driven to do good, yet when the (rare) opportunity to vent out his frustration at being a necromancer arose, he took it. Dark impulses there. He fears loneliness, yet does not share his frustrations with those alive but rather with one whom he was about to kill, perpetuating his loneliness. Self defeatist attitude. You sure this is what you want to present to your new DM? ;)
Osiris Memnoch 04-10-05, 10:25 PM	Absolutely, I want to present this character to my DM. Can you even begin to imagine the roleplaying possibilities here? That is, as long as I can stick to the character concept which I feel fully capable in doing. I've been at this game for a while and roleplaying has always been my specialty. He's not a cookie-cutter character stereotype like so many characters before him. How many heroes in movies and books and so on have phycological and emotional problems that they either don't fully realize or have trouble adressing? Let's see here: Batman, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, all the X-men (let's face it, anyone from Marvel), and that's just comic books. If I where a slightly bigger geek I could probably fill pages of examples from other mediums. [quote]He is driven to do good, yet when the (rare) opportunity to vent out his frustration at being a necromancer arose, he took it. Dark impulses there.[quote] That's why his alignment is neutral to begin with. As the game progresses I want to either do enough good to overshadow the bad or stop the bad so he can have a good alignment. I'll probably have him do his bad acts in between adventures so that I can stay in character without messing up the game. Not that being bad now and again would mess up the game but you never know how the DM would take it.
epifreak 04-12-05, 12:18 AM	From the sound of his life story, he's going to be pretty callouse as well. He's probably going to appear pretty harsh in his opinions. Let me explain. He has been playing with dark magic and the power of life and death for his entire life. He's died several times, and seen horrors most people couldn't dream of. Despite trying to become better, he's probably going to have a fairly low level of respect for human life.