Finalizing character concept [Archive] - Wizards Community

Finalizing character concept [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
KavonRa
10-16-07, 10:45 PM Hi

Im having some trouble finalizing my character concept. Im looking for a fitting base class (no prc's). I have searched every book i have yet nothing really catches my eye thus i need some outside help because im too close to the concept. I also cant ask my fellow players because i dont want to spoil my concept before we play. (meta gaming reasons ^^)

Preference
character is "blind"
non melee combat
non psionic
lvl 2-3

The concept
A blind 22 year old human female. She has lived all her life in a small "celtic flavored" village. Most people saw her as a sweet and gentil girl, whom often helped out even tho she she was blind. Others were suspicious of her for superstitious reasons. She knew many people in the village but had only 1 real friend. After some horrible events involving magic, the people start to look at her as the cause due to gossip. As her (class) powers start to awaken the people are convinced she is the cause of the events. Some of the druids do not agree but the people are not convinced. The druids told her it would be best to leave the village as they cant not guarantee her safety. She leaves the village together with her friend who is a member of the village militia.

I appriciate any and all help with my character.
echelon_house
10-16-07, 11:49 PM What role do you see this character filling in your party? She's obviously not the fighter or rogue if she's blind, but she could still make for a decent caster or healer. Maybe even a diplomat, if another character was willing to point her in the right direction.
JulesCARV
10-17-07, 04:43 AM Maybe go bard. Maximize ranks in listen, and maybe her fascination with music and sound could partially compensate for blindness (the "blind musician" trope).

Also, maybe take the wild cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) feat or use the simple variant (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedCoreClass.html#simple-bard) bard that gets an animal companion and other benefits in lieu of some features. Get a dog, horse, or the like who's trained to be your guide or mount.

Alternatively, perhaps artificer from the Eberron Campaign Setting? You'd be an artificer of the sort focused more on making useful stuff for others in the party, rather than buffing up and fighting, but it could work, and you'd contribute a lot without having to personally wade into the fray.
KavonRa
10-17-07, 07:36 AM first of all thanks for the replies.

The role i see her fulfil is that of a potential healer or diplomat as sugested. Due to her inability to see things like other people she somehow uncovers some magical/divine/nature powers.
She is somewhat of a pacifist prefering to talk instead of fight yet she is naive when it comes to this. A sheltered life made her believe talking solves problems, tho not so much in the "real" world.

She will have her friend in the form of a cohord (fighter lvl1-2).

Additional info:
Familiar would be a mouse.
Animal companion would be a dog.
JulesCARV
10-17-07, 01:17 PM Hmmm... bards are consummate diplomats, but they're rather mediocre in the healer role. They can heal a moderate amount of hit point damage, and can eventually neutralize poisons, but they have no resurrection magic, no ability to remove diseases, and no ability to cure ability damage.

If you want to be an excellent diplomat and a mediocre healer, bard is fine. If, on the other hand, you want to be a mediocre diplomat and an excellent healer, you might go cloistered cleric (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedCoreClass.html#cloistered-cleric) -- a cleric without the combat focus and more skill points.

To enhance your diplomatic role, domains to look at might be trickery (for bluff) and charm (for the charisma boost and enchantments). Unfortunately, I know no way of getting sense motive as a cleric (besides spending a feat on skill knowledge or the like), although you could buy that cross class.

Listen would also be cross class for you, although you could pick up blindsight at 5 feet if you have 19 wisdom, blind-fight, and +4 BAB. Could be done by level 9 or so, something you'd be unlikely to achieve as a bard.

I'm not sure what setting you're playing in, so I'm not sure what deity would be appropriate for those domains.
Olpolokk
10-17-07, 02:30 PM I know that makeing your character blind adds some "cool" flavor to it but mechanically speaking it sucks and bottom line its not worth it. You still can add some other quirks to the character to give him flavor try reading the 101 character quirks thread.
Gejiin
10-17-07, 04:29 PM I guess this character could be the diplomat because she learned to be and she has always been so kind. I don't think it should be related with her newly awakened powers. For the village to throw you out and tell you that you're in danger, I think your powers have to be frightening, or at least, their origin must be frightening. They might also be seen as an omen of ill.

I'd go for the Warlock character class in Complete Arcane. You suddenly awaken terrible and dark powers, those of the warlock. People are afraid, the druids of the village fear you will bring misfortune to your village if you stay any longer, they insist on telling you these are not normal, that you are in danger.

A warlock normally needs some kind of pact to be made with fiends or the like. Your character is really not the type to make pacts with evil creatures, but some parent of yours, or one of your ancestors may have made one.

Think about it, three generations away in your family, a member of your family made a pact with a devil. Your family, at the time, was living in misery, so your ancestor asked for help. He got help from a devil. In exchange, the devil asked your ancestor a favor, which the man didn't care about, never accomplishing his part of the deal. The devil grew angry and swore the man's family would be cursed until it would be totally extinct. The curse circulated into the family's blood during three generations, and now it seems that it's finally time for it to awaken.

The family has been forgotten by the devil in question. And today, he still lives. But such a demonstration of power from a blind girl cannot remain unnoticed, the devil is going to come back, track her, to finally kill her and her family. the druids know that something bad is going to happen related to the girl's powers, but what? They don't know exactly.

For the blind thing, there's a Warlock invocation (a least invocation) that's called "Devil's sight" which gives you a magical darkvision that can even see through magical darkness (a magical darkvision can actually give you the ability to see, even if blind).

So, what do you think?
KavonRa
10-17-07, 06:08 PM @ JulesCARV

The cloistered Cleric class is really something,tho i have chosen for the warlock option, a player of mine asked for his cleric to be replaced with the cloistered cleric. Your adviced helped him instead :) thank you.

@ Olpolokk

As an experienced roleplayer im well aware of the difficulty involved with blind characters, tho this is not my first blind character. Not every aspect has to give the player an advantage ;).

@ Gejiin

Gejiin, one word SHINY! (Firefly reference!) I was so caught up with getting her to "perfect" feel i forgot all about her family as a hook of sorts. I especially like the "devil's sight" option. Thank you kindly.
Vitarri_Whitemane
11-03-07, 12:09 PM Just the obvious response. What about trying for divine oracle and fatespinner see the future and bend fate to make minor changes to peoples destiny's you may not see the present but the future is as clear to you as the present is to you're colleagues. You could have told the town of a terrible event about to occur and no one took you seriously but when it came to pass they blamed you for bringing it upon them. Mechanically it would probably progress Lv5 Wizard/ Lv10 Divine Oracle/ Lv5 Fatespinner some suggestions for alternate features Immediate Magic (Divination) PHB2, Focused Specialization (Divination) Complete Mage, and Spontaneous Divination Complete Champion these ought to reflect your penchant for insight but you may have to discus how you study with your GM perhaps with the assistance of your friend or if he will allow some kind of Braille to exist.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
KavonRa 10-16-07, 10:45 PM	Hi Im having some trouble finalizing my character concept. Im looking for a fitting base class (no prc's). I have searched every book i have yet nothing really catches my eye thus i need some outside help because im too close to the concept. I also cant ask my fellow players because i dont want to spoil my concept before we play. (meta gaming reasons ^^) Preference character is "blind" non melee combat non psionic lvl 2-3 The concept A blind 22 year old human female. She has lived all her life in a small "celtic flavored" village. Most people saw her as a sweet and gentil girl, whom often helped out even tho she she was blind. Others were suspicious of her for superstitious reasons. She knew many people in the village but had only 1 real friend. After some horrible events involving magic, the people start to look at her as the cause due to gossip. As her (class) powers start to awaken the people are convinced she is the cause of the events. Some of the druids do not agree but the people are not convinced. The druids told her it would be best to leave the village as they cant not guarantee her safety. She leaves the village together with her friend who is a member of the village militia. I appriciate any and all help with my character.
echelon_house 10-16-07, 11:49 PM	What role do you see this character filling in your party? She's obviously not the fighter or rogue if she's blind, but she could still make for a decent caster or healer. Maybe even a diplomat, if another character was willing to point her in the right direction.
JulesCARV 10-17-07, 04:43 AM	Maybe go bard. Maximize ranks in listen, and maybe her fascination with music and sound could partially compensate for blindness (the "blind musician" trope). Also, maybe take the wild cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) feat or use the simple variant (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedCoreClass.html#simple-bard) bard that gets an animal companion and other benefits in lieu of some features. Get a dog, horse, or the like who's trained to be your guide or mount. Alternatively, perhaps artificer from the Eberron Campaign Setting? You'd be an artificer of the sort focused more on making useful stuff for others in the party, rather than buffing up and fighting, but it could work, and you'd contribute a lot without having to personally wade into the fray.
KavonRa 10-17-07, 07:36 AM	first of all thanks for the replies. The role i see her fulfil is that of a potential healer or diplomat as sugested. Due to her inability to see things like other people she somehow uncovers some magical/divine/nature powers. She is somewhat of a pacifist prefering to talk instead of fight yet she is naive when it comes to this. A sheltered life made her believe talking solves problems, tho not so much in the "real" world. She will have her friend in the form of a cohord (fighter lvl1-2). Additional info: Familiar would be a mouse. Animal companion would be a dog.
JulesCARV 10-17-07, 01:17 PM	Hmmm... bards are consummate diplomats, but they're rather mediocre in the healer role. They can heal a moderate amount of hit point damage, and can eventually neutralize poisons, but they have no resurrection magic, no ability to remove diseases, and no ability to cure ability damage. If you want to be an excellent diplomat and a mediocre healer, bard is fine. If, on the other hand, you want to be a mediocre diplomat and an excellent healer, you might go cloistered cleric (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedCoreClass.html#cloistered-cleric) -- a cleric without the combat focus and more skill points. To enhance your diplomatic role, domains to look at might be trickery (for bluff) and charm (for the charisma boost and enchantments). Unfortunately, I know no way of getting sense motive as a cleric (besides spending a feat on skill knowledge or the like), although you could buy that cross class. Listen would also be cross class for you, although you could pick up blindsight at 5 feet if you have 19 wisdom, blind-fight, and +4 BAB. Could be done by level 9 or so, something you'd be unlikely to achieve as a bard. I'm not sure what setting you're playing in, so I'm not sure what deity would be appropriate for those domains.
Olpolokk 10-17-07, 02:30 PM	I know that makeing your character blind adds some "cool" flavor to it but mechanically speaking it sucks and bottom line its not worth it. You still can add some other quirks to the character to give him flavor try reading the 101 character quirks thread.
Gejiin 10-17-07, 04:29 PM	I guess this character could be the diplomat because she learned to be and she has always been so kind. I don't think it should be related with her newly awakened powers. For the village to throw you out and tell you that you're in danger, I think your powers have to be frightening, or at least, their origin must be frightening. They might also be seen as an omen of ill. I'd go for the Warlock character class in Complete Arcane. You suddenly awaken terrible and dark powers, those of the warlock. People are afraid, the druids of the village fear you will bring misfortune to your village if you stay any longer, they insist on telling you these are not normal, that you are in danger. A warlock normally needs some kind of pact to be made with fiends or the like. Your character is really not the type to make pacts with evil creatures, but some parent of yours, or one of your ancestors may have made one. Think about it, three generations away in your family, a member of your family made a pact with a devil. Your family, at the time, was living in misery, so your ancestor asked for help. He got help from a devil. In exchange, the devil asked your ancestor a favor, which the man didn't care about, never accomplishing his part of the deal. The devil grew angry and swore the man's family would be cursed until it would be totally extinct. The curse circulated into the family's blood during three generations, and now it seems that it's finally time for it to awaken. The family has been forgotten by the devil in question. And today, he still lives. But such a demonstration of power from a blind girl cannot remain unnoticed, the devil is going to come back, track her, to finally kill her and her family. the druids know that something bad is going to happen related to the girl's powers, but what? They don't know exactly. For the blind thing, there's a Warlock invocation (a least invocation) that's called "Devil's sight" which gives you a magical darkvision that can even see through magical darkness (a magical darkvision can actually give you the ability to see, even if blind). So, what do you think?
KavonRa 10-17-07, 06:08 PM	@ JulesCARV The cloistered Cleric class is really something,tho i have chosen for the warlock option, a player of mine asked for his cleric to be replaced with the cloistered cleric. Your adviced helped him instead :) thank you. @ Olpolokk As an experienced roleplayer im well aware of the difficulty involved with blind characters, tho this is not my first blind character. Not every aspect has to give the player an advantage ;). @ Gejiin Gejiin, one word SHINY! (Firefly reference!) I was so caught up with getting her to "perfect" feel i forgot all about her family as a hook of sorts. I especially like the "devil's sight" option. Thank you kindly.
Vitarri_Whitemane 11-03-07, 12:09 PM	Just the obvious response. What about trying for divine oracle and fatespinner see the future and bend fate to make minor changes to peoples destiny's you may not see the present but the future is as clear to you as the present is to you're colleagues. You could have told the town of a terrible event about to occur and no one took you seriously but when it came to pass they blamed you for bringing it upon them. Mechanically it would probably progress Lv5 Wizard/ Lv10 Divine Oracle/ Lv5 Fatespinner some suggestions for alternate features Immediate Magic (Divination) PHB2, Focused Specialization (Divination) Complete Mage, and Spontaneous Divination Complete Champion these ought to reflect your penchant for insight but you may have to discus how you study with your GM perhaps with the assistance of your friend or if he will allow some kind of Braille to exist.