Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Foolosophy 12-26-03, 11:49 AM	hi, I need some advice on how to enrich the background story and behaviour of my newest char. the game is 3.0, the system is point buy 32 and we are playing in Faerun. Shriek, anthromorphic bat, cleric stats (after racial mods): Str 6, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 22, Cha 8 the char will advance as cleric until it qualifys fo the Divine Oracle prestige class. It will avoid fighting at all costs and melee especially (no natural attacks, str 6) but will probably use a light crossbow for self-defense. planned feats: skill focus (scry) to qualify for DivineOracle, flyby attack, maybe spell focus divination. domains: madness and luck background (thats where I need your help, its lacking a bit) Shriek was a normal, happy bat for most of his life but due to a mad wizards experiment or some magical accident (haven't decided yet) became antromorphic. This seriously confused Shriek and is the main source for his mental problems. He had troubles coping with his new shape, as well with suddenly having complex thoughts and facing moral decisions. He still trys to sleep upside down even though he usually wakes up in the middle of the night because he lost balance. He also started having strange visions and hallucinations, most of them just byproducts of his insanity, but as time passed Shriek managed to somehow make sense of some of them.As a result of this he started to pursue the path of a cleric and started to develope the insight that true wisdom needs insanity, seeing as a person with a twisted view of reality will be able to see what other can't. He kinda realizes the pointlessness of existence but on the other hand he will continue his incurable, funny optimism that once he has grown "wise/insane" enough everything will start to make sense again, even though it doesn't do right now. He is adventuring to gain experience and make sense of his "gift", as he likes to call it. He is basically a good hearted, but sometimes severely confused persona. His hallucinations will appear randomly and most of the time be nonesensical and confusing, while he gradually learns to control and harness some of his visions (i.e. casting divination spells). In situations that need good ideas and advice (i.e. the group deciding what to do, solving a riddle or having an important conversation) he will either be really helpfull or completly useless. On the latter case he will recite bogus aphorisms and confused "wisdom". His "mad" persona will be influenced by dialogues & characters from Georg Büchner's "Leonce and Lena" and Samuell Becketts "Waiting for Godot". If anyone is familiar with the books: think Valerio, Leonce and Vladimir/Estragon. it would be nice to get some feedback on the character concept as well as ideas to improve his background and personality. Also right now he is a cleric without deity, getting his spells through devotion to his idea of madness&wisdom, but in a forgotten realms campaign it feels to have a character without a patron. But I cannot find a god that would fit or a reason for Shriek to seek patronage from god that has not much to do with his "belief". any ideas?
howlingwolf 12-26-03, 07:27 PM	Nice concept! There is one thing to be wary of though, which is true of all 'unhinged' characters, is to be careful of playing them as they should be. Not the sterotype raging lunatic. :D If looking for some entertainment value, when on a 'Visonary' moment, do some takes from confucious. ^_^ May raise some guffaws at the table, and also add some colour to the character.
TinySilverChalice 12-27-03, 05:04 PM	Unless your DM plays it loose, this Cleric wouldn't work in FR. He'd need a god and no gods fit that domain listings. If I remember, Madness is a prestige domain, which are only availble when you take a class that gives you a presitge domain, like Complative, etc. If you didn't mind some switching around, any non-divine casting class would be no problem. If you really need to play something like this, well, you can steal an idea I had here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98744&highlight=high+wisdom+insanity). A cleric Shar can be quite insane and definatly be patronized by her. You'd have to be evil, but you can easily be the kind of evil that just doesn't care and isn't "actively" commiting evil acts. An anthrobat would seem to me to be evil; werebats are evil and he may be mistaken for one (Be prepared for pesents with torches). Or if you wanted to go with less evilness and just being confused as all H-E-double-hockey-sticks, you could go with a CN cleric of Lurue or Selune. "Waiting for Godot" is a good choice, although I'd recommend "Happy Days" as a better source.
Morka 12-30-03, 12:00 PM	I see the same problem than TinySilverChalice: who is your deity? I could suggest Beshaba, you could easily consider what happen to you as the badest luck ever encountered, she offers domains of luck, chaos & fate, and you can be CN. Jergal could be another good choice for a crazy diviner, with the fate domain. Also, how did you escape from the mage? Where did you live after? How do you meet your actual party? If you were living alone in the nature, how did you learn what is a cleric?
Foolosophy 12-31-03, 11:43 PM	thanks for the replies, well the god thing is pretty much solved, I originally created this character for Greyhawk and Boccob has the mentioned domains, now we're playing Faerun but my dm has been so kind to add Boccob to the FR pantheon (though only as a minor god of magic) thanks for the background pointers aswell ;) finding a reason how he became a cleric will be interesting/tough...