High Wisdom Insanity? [Archive] - Wizards Community

High Wisdom Insanity? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
TinySilverChalice
09-12-03, 10:28 PM I'm playing with the idea of an evil aligned PC cleric who is insane. (If you're into details, she thinks she's undead, but really isn't... for now :devil: She was driven insane by being locked in a tomb with other undead for about a year and rescued by tomb robbers.)

I'm a method actor big-time when it comes to my characters. I've this weird need to understand everything about my characters' mindsets before I bring them to the table.

Then I realzied something I can't even begin to try to put together. She's a cleric, thusly having a high wisdom. Now... can you have a good wisdom score and be insane? You'd think such a stat would prevent such a thing, being so in touch with and perceptive of the world around you and all. Is it possible at all? HOw can one go about RPing this?

I'd hate to see an interesting character concept get flushed because of this. Help me let her be crazy! :looloo:
Lord of the Ninth
09-12-03, 11:37 PM You want to be crazy? And you want to be wise? Cool bean. Here's the deal: You have your delusions (or dead or whatever), but with everything else you are perfectly rational, in touch and often insightful.

Out of curiosity, what sort of undead are you (or rather aren't you) any way?

But anyway, you're undead, and you act like it. If anyone questions you, you say somehting like "I'm a ghoul, we eat people" or what have you. However you don't believe your insane, and you have absolutely no delusions about the rest of the world. You are completely unaware of your delusion, not because you are unobservant but because that is the nature of your ailment.

This should be an interesting character, please tell us more.:cool:
Zoticus
09-13-03, 12:49 AM i like your character concept.

Lord of the nineth is correct in his assesment of how you should play this character IMO.

One thing that this character might do is occasionally put formaldehyde or some other embalming fluid on his/her body "just to be sure i don't rot". The stuff smells awful, so don't have to worry about them sticking around to ask too many questions. :devil:
PhaedrusXY
09-13-03, 04:25 AM You could give him/her a low charisma, since charisma typically reflects awareness of one's self, whereas wisdom reflects awareness of one's surroundings.

Sounds like a funny character concept. I'd just advise not overly dominating the group's role-playing time with weird antics... unless they don't mind. :D
Moblin
09-13-03, 08:05 AM Do you have access to DotF?
If so ask your DM if you can get the Madness Prestige domain.
Now this domain is quite powerful (especially with the nerfing of spell casters in 3.5e) but it does allow you to play an insane Cleric
If you can’t get the domain then listen to the previous posters
good luck
Moblin
Laelenie
09-13-03, 08:19 AM in this world (i mean the real one) really wise persons seem completely mad to a large part of the population...

Maybe try thinking an eccentric super wise Zen Master, whose quotes nobody understand. Everithing is perfectly rigth by his own point of view... but actually people think he is lost in his own madness...

Of course... they are completely clueless...

And of course this may be stuff for another board... (char development...)
Dell Kallyan
09-13-03, 10:34 AM Here is a problem with your character- undead don't breathe... nor do they drink or eat (well, they don't need to eat but some like to, like ghouls) or sleep. Considering her high wisdom and having lived around undead for such a length of time, she would notice this. So she would have to be delusional in one of the following ways (or one you make up):

1) She thinks she is undead but still eats, drinks, sleeps, and breathes for some reason she makes up (she wants to, she doesn't want other people to know she is undead, etc.)

2) She has a Ring of Sustenance or equivalent magical effect, and if she is an elf she can make excuses for her meditation, if she isn't an elf... she could think of some excuse to sleep. As far as breathing... she would need an excuse (maybe combine this choice with choice 1.)

3) Perhaps she thinks she is a special kind of undead that looks and acts pefectly humanoid, but still needs to perform all acts she normally would if she were her base race.

As far as the wisdom versus insanity... your score in any particular attribute represents the average of your ability in that area, since all the attributes cover so many areas (especially wisdom.) She may be very perseptive, have good common sense, and be generally wise, but in that one repect of her not realizing she isn't undead she could just be too delusional and emotionally scarred from living with the undead to ever grasp the fact she isn't undead. Sorry for that messed up run on sentence.

Maybe there was a curse in the tomb she was locked in...

There are plenty of other ways, you just need to think of them (what an obvious fact, but still it needed to be said.)

Good luck.

-D
Alrunic Silverfyre
09-13-03, 12:24 PM 3) Perhaps she thinks she is a special kind of undead that looks and acts pefectly humanoid, but still needs to perform all acts she normally would if she were her base race.

I am thinking this may be your best bet. Or perhaps have her merely be "pretending to be alive" so that she fools the masses and those around her. She is keeping a grandeous secret or so she believes. While you are at it, make her a worshipper of Shar. That makes sense to me at least.
Teron Gorefiend
09-14-03, 07:01 PM Originally posted by Alrunic Silverfyre
I am thinking this may be your best bet. Or perhaps have her merely be "pretending to be alive" so that she fools the masses and those around her. She is keeping a grandeous secret or so she believes. While you are at it, make her a worshipper of Shar. That makes sense to me at least.
This is the best suggestion so far. She'd think she could safely stop anytime, but would "pretend" to breathe in order to fool her allies, thinking they wouldn't understand and would try to destroy her (said allies might be perfectly aware of her delusion). Even when alone, she could keep breathing, sleeping, etc. out of habit or fear of being discovered.
The Philosopher King
09-15-03, 09:03 AM One option you might want to consider is Dissociative Identity Disorder (ie multiple personalities). The 'undead' personality split off from the normal cleric personality by the trauma, and for a while, the cleric remained, until the next time she had to turn/rebuke. Say, for example, it didn't work. Personality #2 wakes up. P2 likes being awake, and doesn't have amnesia of P1, which can happen. P2, being wise, and liking being awake, knows how to keep P1 in the unconscious, (because P2 is apparently a Freudian :)).

Alternatively, paranoid type I schizophrenia: delusions and hallucinations. For example: She believes she's an undead. She's not breathing, her enemies are trying to get her to think she is. She sleeps because she's cursed by her enemies. Eating staves off ...something. You get the idea. She devotes her wisdom to outsmarting her enemies, and doesn't have time to ponder that maybe she's mad. Wisdom is more gut feelings than rational INT.

They're somewhat longshots, and not technically in line with the DSM, but options all the same.
Morka
09-15-03, 09:53 AM Originally posted by Dell Kallyan

2) She has a Ring of Sustenance or equivalent magical effect, and if she is an elf she can make excuses for her meditation, if she isn't an elf... she could think of some excuse to sleep. As far as breathing... she would need an excuse (maybe combine this choice with choice 1.)

An elf doesn't need to sleep at all, they spend 4 hour of meditation to remain in contact with their reality to avoid becoming insane. Play an insane elf who doesn't meditate! She believe she is a Banshee, and is regularly screeming, but she doesn't realize there is no effect. She could be a cleric of Orcus.
TinySilverChalice
09-15-03, 09:10 PM Thanks a lot everyone! I was so stumped and now I'm bringing her to the table tomorrow!
Here's what I finally decided on:

Timarie a woman of almost 30 years. Born to a house slave in Thay, she was sold at 13 to an older red wizard, a necromancer of mediocre talents. His wife of an arranged marriage, 20 years his junior, was displeased somewhat that the old man still harbored amorous intentions. She was even more irritated that her powers and authority did not excite him, and that he had to "take it out" on a "simple dirty slave". Timarie was her owners' constant compainion, but knew that expressing her disgust at his occupation would cease his kindheartedness. After almost 15 years in his service, he died. Timarie was not so grief-stricken as upset at the question of her future. Surely the mistress had no use for her only talent. As all were leaving his entombment, the mistress sent the girl back into the tomb complex to fetch something. The tomb was sealed and the mistress believed she was relieved of one less mouth to feed.

Timarie did not die then, nor did thoughts of her. The other house slaves thought their mistress had been to thoughtlessly cruel to the girl. One young stablehand made it a point during his brief trips into Thaymount proper to mention to some passing bards that a "gem of great beauty" was buried in a tomb with the master outside the city. Tombrobbers eventually picked up the tale and two years after Timarie was disposed of, graverobbers came to visit.

Timarie was scared at first. The stinking shambling guards were more gruesome than what the master typically had freshly raised. She hid from them for months, surviving on molds at first. Soon her diet came to include rats, incects, and her former master. Eventually she stopped hiding from the zombie guards... They being all she could interact with, she quickly began to understand their patterns and what could be called their behaviors. Soon they ignored her completely. She at first cried to all the gods for someone to save her... then she began speaking to the tomb walls... then to the darkness. She'd ask the walls to give way just enough for her to reach a larger incect or to warm more quickly as she tried to sleep. She knew many stones individually and named them. She asked them what they had seen, and if anyone would ever come to see her. She asked the darkness to hide her, to hold her, to cover her eyes from what visions she saw, real or imagined. Soon the walls and darkess answered. She still thinks of them often and how they saved her.

The zombies did not recat to her, in fact they behaved as if she were one of them. She felt that if she "lived" as they did, then she must be as alive as they are. Their bodies were dead though, she knew that much. Yet somehow they moved and acted on. She being the newest of them did the best job of keeping her host body well. She had not yet forgotten what it needed to stay fresher. The body must be cared for if we must continue to pretend to live. Thus she let her body sleep. She fed it what she could find and let it breathe the air. If she did not, she would rot. If she rotted, then those who would taken her later would want someone less rotten.

When she was rescused, she did her best to be attractive to her saviors. They were more interested in the riches of the tomb than a crazy woman. They realzied she had been a slave before and felt no qualms about giving her away. However they could find no buyers for a woman so seemingly haunted. Even when they did not tell the buyer of her past, they sensed the girl was not right. Timarie tried to do a better job of being alive, but few would accept her presence for long.

She continued to use the only talent she could remember and has made some fair coin from it. The darkness which speaks to her gave her another talent: to fix or harm the bodies of those who pay well for such.

I figured since her two higher mental stats are wis and cha, she can fake being living (or sociable) for a while, but accute observers would notice that she has prepared responses for most conversations and seems to look through people more than at them. She giggles sometimes at other's body functions, including eating, sleeping, and the reproductive process. She find them funny because they are useless to something like her. Overall she is very detacted, a pretty woman with a ten miles stare. She's going through the motions, doesn't quite remember why, but hopes the drakness and stone will tell her one day why they helped her understand what she is today.

She's a NE human Clr 1 of Shar with Evil Brand and Lichloved as her first feats (from BOVD) and Darkness and Cavern as her domains.

Did I miss anything? Thanks again everyone!
Alrunic Silverfyre
09-16-03, 12:07 AM Nope. Perfect.
Morka
09-16-03, 09:48 AM What is her current goal? To study the living, and perfect her acting? Does she seek some kind of revenge to her former mistress? Or is it far behind her?
TinySilverChalice
09-16-03, 03:39 PM Her goals currently are to keep up appearances. The darkness and the stones (read: Shar) told her they have a special purpose for her. She no longer views life (or exsistance) as a series of goals to reach, but simply an unending loop of maintaining the fuctions of exsistance until it either ends or something changes the status quo.

Don't mind if her logic doesn't make much sense... she's kind of low in the INT department.
PhaedrusXY
09-17-03, 05:38 AM That is by far the creepiest character bio I have ever heard of. Excellent job. I'm not sure I'm going to sleep well now. :D
Poukis
09-17-03, 06:31 PM That was very inspired! Very good indeed. For sanity and insanity you should read the "call of Kthulhu" rulebook... It's very good.
Good Luck with your character!

PS. I just thought... Since she spoke to the "rocks and darkness" she doesn't actually know that she is a cleric of Shar... So you shouldn't make any reference to her... Just a thought...
Lord of the Ninth
09-17-03, 07:37 PM Have you read The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le'Guin? The main character is a young priestess of the Nameless Ones, and the have this big thing about a labyrinth, in parts of which light is forbidden. And there is a lot of stuff about talking to the shadows and the darkness. No undead per se, but the themes are rather close. :b:

That's a nice character background you have there.:cool:
TinySilverChalice
09-19-03, 08:08 PM Thanks, guys! The other players like her so far also. A few have already given her a little charity, which I had her spend on acquiring her adventuring gear. Someone also recommended that she adventure rather than turn tricks for coin. She's considering the idea currently...

Oh, Cthulhu... Lovecraft, that old :censored:... I lost three PCs to madness checks over the last three years. ("Vote Cthilhu 2004!")

Lord of the Ninth: I'm not familiar with that book... Thanks for the tempation to add more to my pleasure reading list. So much to read... only two eyes. :bigeyes:
nick012000
09-21-03, 07:53 AM You could always consider taking the Bleaker feats from the official Planescape website at www.planewalker.com
Peepi
09-22-03, 05:39 PM It's not that conflictive, really. I once had an NPC cleric with a wisdom of 16. He was perfectly sane and observant except for the fact that he had a bizarre obsession with mathematical pi and e . Thought of them as a divine force. That just made him so much more fun to play.:D
TinySilverChalice
09-22-03, 09:02 PM I've also taken a bit of advice from the film "A Beautiful Mind".
(*Movie Spoiler in case anyone hasn't seen it yet...)

***************Crowe's character is really in touch with what's in front of him. He's more of a high WIS and INT guy, low in the CHA department. He's very good at recognizing patterns in the world around him and figuring them out. So good he starts seeing patterns that aren't really there. Timarie is a high WIS and CHA girl, with a low INT. She sees patterns easily regarding interpersonal relationships, even some that aren't there. From seeing these false patterns of behavior, she makes conclusions based of frayed and faulty logic. (i.e. "I'm here. The undead are here. We get along; thus we must all be the same.")***********

Half of what I love about my characters are their one-sided and self-centered faulty thinking. I love faulty heros.
Silverstone
10-01-03, 05:01 AM [QUOTE]Originally posted by Lord of the Ninth
[B]You want to be crazy? And you want to be wise? Cool bean. Here's the deal: You have your delusions (or dead or whatever), but with everything else you are perfectly rational, in touch and often insightful.

Perhaps... or maybe the division of insanity and wisdom is much more subtle for you. You try to devise a reason having to do with fate or divine purpose for which you were placed in such a predicament in the first place and what is has to do with your role in the universe. And linking this to your god's purpose for you could make you that much more fanatically or insanely sure that you have an important role for spreading (most likely with force) your beliefs.

"What does it mean to lose ones mind? Is madness in it's purest form subjectively defined? and then by whom? by the folks that come before us? Why should I be struck as mad by hearing shakespeare's chorus?"

"My drummer hears my thoughts, plays my songs, we bleed the same. It's curious to me why human people say insane. As if it's real, what if it's not? A plane misunderstanding, there's an aircraft in your back yard and it's coming for a landing."
unknown
Trydan
10-01-03, 08:54 AM TinySilverChalice : That's a terrific background story! Well done... I really like it!!

I'd reiterate the recommendation about Tombs of Atuan (ToA), although I'd recommend reading the first book in the series A Wizard of Earthsea first, to set the context.

ToA is not directly related to your story, but there are a large number of similar concepts, and I think it would help you a lot in visualising the mood surrounding such creepy places.

Not that I think you need any help. Again... that's a cool background.
TinySilverChalice
10-01-03, 05:40 PM Thanks for even more "insight" guys! I only found out reading F&P earlier this week that Sharism is often very attractive to the insane.

BTW, if anyone is interested, this character features in a little story I wrote for The Writers' Challange: Mercy? (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106788&perpage=30&pagenumber=2).... And, uh, don't mind all the OT stuff about Labyrinth.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
TinySilverChalice 09-12-03, 10:28 PM	I'm playing with the idea of an evil aligned PC cleric who is insane. (If you're into details, she thinks she's undead, but really isn't... for now :devil: She was driven insane by being locked in a tomb with other undead for about a year and rescued by tomb robbers.) I'm a method actor big-time when it comes to my characters. I've this weird need to understand everything about my characters' mindsets before I bring them to the table. Then I realzied something I can't even begin to try to put together. She's a cleric, thusly having a high wisdom. Now... can you have a good wisdom score and be insane? You'd think such a stat would prevent such a thing, being so in touch with and perceptive of the world around you and all. Is it possible at all? HOw can one go about RPing this? I'd hate to see an interesting character concept get flushed because of this. Help me let her be crazy! :looloo:
Lord of the Ninth 09-12-03, 11:37 PM	You want to be crazy? And you want to be wise? Cool bean. Here's the deal: You have your delusions (or dead or whatever), but with everything else you are perfectly rational, in touch and often insightful. Out of curiosity, what sort of undead are you (or rather aren't you) any way? But anyway, you're undead, and you act like it. If anyone questions you, you say somehting like "I'm a ghoul, we eat people" or what have you. However you don't believe your insane, and you have absolutely no delusions about the rest of the world. You are completely unaware of your delusion, not because you are unobservant but because that is the nature of your ailment. This should be an interesting character, please tell us more.:cool:
Zoticus 09-13-03, 12:49 AM	i like your character concept. Lord of the nineth is correct in his assesment of how you should play this character IMO. One thing that this character might do is occasionally put formaldehyde or some other embalming fluid on his/her body "just to be sure i don't rot". The stuff smells awful, so don't have to worry about them sticking around to ask too many questions. :devil:
PhaedrusXY 09-13-03, 04:25 AM	You could give him/her a low charisma, since charisma typically reflects awareness of one's self, whereas wisdom reflects awareness of one's surroundings. Sounds like a funny character concept. I'd just advise not overly dominating the group's role-playing time with weird antics... unless they don't mind. :D
Moblin 09-13-03, 08:05 AM	Do you have access to DotF? If so ask your DM if you can get the Madness Prestige domain. Now this domain is quite powerful (especially with the nerfing of spell casters in 3.5e) but it does allow you to play an insane Cleric If you can’t get the domain then listen to the previous posters good luck Moblin
Laelenie 09-13-03, 08:19 AM	in this world (i mean the real one) really wise persons seem completely mad to a large part of the population... Maybe try thinking an eccentric super wise Zen Master, whose quotes nobody understand. Everithing is perfectly rigth by his own point of view... but actually people think he is lost in his own madness... Of course... they are completely clueless... And of course this may be stuff for another board... (char development...)
Dell Kallyan 09-13-03, 10:34 AM	Here is a problem with your character- undead don't breathe... nor do they drink or eat (well, they don't need to eat but some like to, like ghouls) or sleep. Considering her high wisdom and having lived around undead for such a length of time, she would notice this. So she would have to be delusional in one of the following ways (or one you make up): 1) She thinks she is undead but still eats, drinks, sleeps, and breathes for some reason she makes up (she wants to, she doesn't want other people to know she is undead, etc.) 2) She has a Ring of Sustenance or equivalent magical effect, and if she is an elf she can make excuses for her meditation, if she isn't an elf... she could think of some excuse to sleep. As far as breathing... she would need an excuse (maybe combine this choice with choice 1.) 3) Perhaps she thinks she is a special kind of undead that looks and acts pefectly humanoid, but still needs to perform all acts she normally would if she were her base race. As far as the wisdom versus insanity... your score in any particular attribute represents the average of your ability in that area, since all the attributes cover so many areas (especially wisdom.) She may be very perseptive, have good common sense, and be generally wise, but in that one repect of her not realizing she isn't undead she could just be too delusional and emotionally scarred from living with the undead to ever grasp the fact she isn't undead. Sorry for that messed up run on sentence. Maybe there was a curse in the tomb she was locked in... There are plenty of other ways, you just need to think of them (what an obvious fact, but still it needed to be said.) Good luck. -D
Alrunic Silverfyre 09-13-03, 12:24 PM	3) Perhaps she thinks she is a special kind of undead that looks and acts pefectly humanoid, but still needs to perform all acts she normally would if she were her base race. I am thinking this may be your best bet. Or perhaps have her merely be "pretending to be alive" so that she fools the masses and those around her. She is keeping a grandeous secret or so she believes. While you are at it, make her a worshipper of Shar. That makes sense to me at least.
Teron Gorefiend 09-14-03, 07:01 PM	Originally posted by Alrunic Silverfyre I am thinking this may be your best bet. Or perhaps have her merely be "pretending to be alive" so that she fools the masses and those around her. She is keeping a grandeous secret or so she believes. While you are at it, make her a worshipper of Shar. That makes sense to me at least. This is the best suggestion so far. She'd think she could safely stop anytime, but would "pretend" to breathe in order to fool her allies, thinking they wouldn't understand and would try to destroy her (said allies might be perfectly aware of her delusion). Even when alone, she could keep breathing, sleeping, etc. out of habit or fear of being discovered.
The Philosopher King 09-15-03, 09:03 AM	One option you might want to consider is Dissociative Identity Disorder (ie multiple personalities). The 'undead' personality split off from the normal cleric personality by the trauma, and for a while, the cleric remained, until the next time she had to turn/rebuke. Say, for example, it didn't work. Personality #2 wakes up. P2 likes being awake, and doesn't have amnesia of P1, which can happen. P2, being wise, and liking being awake, knows how to keep P1 in the unconscious, (because P2 is apparently a Freudian :)). Alternatively, paranoid type I schizophrenia: delusions and hallucinations. For example: She believes she's an undead. She's not breathing, her enemies are trying to get her to think she is. She sleeps because she's cursed by her enemies. Eating staves off ...something. You get the idea. She devotes her wisdom to outsmarting her enemies, and doesn't have time to ponder that maybe she's mad. Wisdom is more gut feelings than rational INT. They're somewhat longshots, and not technically in line with the DSM, but options all the same.
Morka 09-15-03, 09:53 AM	Originally posted by Dell Kallyan 2) She has a Ring of Sustenance or equivalent magical effect, and if she is an elf she can make excuses for her meditation, if she isn't an elf... she could think of some excuse to sleep. As far as breathing... she would need an excuse (maybe combine this choice with choice 1.) An elf doesn't need to sleep at all, they spend 4 hour of meditation to remain in contact with their reality to avoid becoming insane. Play an insane elf who doesn't meditate! She believe she is a Banshee, and is regularly screeming, but she doesn't realize there is no effect. She could be a cleric of Orcus.
TinySilverChalice 09-15-03, 09:10 PM	Thanks a lot everyone! I was so stumped and now I'm bringing her to the table tomorrow! Here's what I finally decided on: Timarie a woman of almost 30 years. Born to a house slave in Thay, she was sold at 13 to an older red wizard, a necromancer of mediocre talents. His wife of an arranged marriage, 20 years his junior, was displeased somewhat that the old man still harbored amorous intentions. She was even more irritated that her powers and authority did not excite him, and that he had to "take it out" on a "simple dirty slave". Timarie was her owners' constant compainion, but knew that expressing her disgust at his occupation would cease his kindheartedness. After almost 15 years in his service, he died. Timarie was not so grief-stricken as upset at the question of her future. Surely the mistress had no use for her only talent. As all were leaving his entombment, the mistress sent the girl back into the tomb complex to fetch something. The tomb was sealed and the mistress believed she was relieved of one less mouth to feed. Timarie did not die then, nor did thoughts of her. The other house slaves thought their mistress had been to thoughtlessly cruel to the girl. One young stablehand made it a point during his brief trips into Thaymount proper to mention to some passing bards that a "gem of great beauty" was buried in a tomb with the master outside the city. Tombrobbers eventually picked up the tale and two years after Timarie was disposed of, graverobbers came to visit. Timarie was scared at first. The stinking shambling guards were more gruesome than what the master typically had freshly raised. She hid from them for months, surviving on molds at first. Soon her diet came to include rats, incects, and her former master. Eventually she stopped hiding from the zombie guards... They being all she could interact with, she quickly began to understand their patterns and what could be called their behaviors. Soon they ignored her completely. She at first cried to all the gods for someone to save her... then she began speaking to the tomb walls... then to the darkness. She'd ask the walls to give way just enough for her to reach a larger incect or to warm more quickly as she tried to sleep. She knew many stones individually and named them. She asked them what they had seen, and if anyone would ever come to see her. She asked the darkness to hide her, to hold her, to cover her eyes from what visions she saw, real or imagined. Soon the walls and darkess answered. She still thinks of them often and how they saved her. The zombies did not recat to her, in fact they behaved as if she were one of them. She felt that if she "lived" as they did, then she must be as alive as they are. Their bodies were dead though, she knew that much. Yet somehow they moved and acted on. She being the newest of them did the best job of keeping her host body well. She had not yet forgotten what it needed to stay fresher. The body must be cared for if we must continue to pretend to live. Thus she let her body sleep. She fed it what she could find and let it breathe the air. If she did not, she would rot. If she rotted, then those who would taken her later would want someone less rotten. When she was rescused, she did her best to be attractive to her saviors. They were more interested in the riches of the tomb than a crazy woman. They realzied she had been a slave before and felt no qualms about giving her away. However they could find no buyers for a woman so seemingly haunted. Even when they did not tell the buyer of her past, they sensed the girl was not right. Timarie tried to do a better job of being alive, but few would accept her presence for long. She continued to use the only talent she could remember and has made some fair coin from it. The darkness which speaks to her gave her another talent: to fix or harm the bodies of those who pay well for such. I figured since her two higher mental stats are wis and cha, she can fake being living (or sociable) for a while, but accute observers would notice that she has prepared responses for most conversations and seems to look through people more than at them. She giggles sometimes at other's body functions, including eating, sleeping, and the reproductive process. She find them funny because they are useless to something like her. Overall she is very detacted, a pretty woman with a ten miles stare. She's going through the motions, doesn't quite remember why, but hopes the drakness and stone will tell her one day why they helped her understand what she is today. She's a NE human Clr 1 of Shar with Evil Brand and Lichloved as her first feats (from BOVD) and Darkness and Cavern as her domains. Did I miss anything? Thanks again everyone!
Alrunic Silverfyre 09-16-03, 12:07 AM	Nope. Perfect.
Morka 09-16-03, 09:48 AM	What is her current goal? To study the living, and perfect her acting? Does she seek some kind of revenge to her former mistress? Or is it far behind her?
TinySilverChalice 09-16-03, 03:39 PM	Her goals currently are to keep up appearances. The darkness and the stones (read: Shar) told her they have a special purpose for her. She no longer views life (or exsistance) as a series of goals to reach, but simply an unending loop of maintaining the fuctions of exsistance until it either ends or something changes the status quo. Don't mind if her logic doesn't make much sense... she's kind of low in the INT department.
PhaedrusXY 09-17-03, 05:38 AM	That is by far the creepiest character bio I have ever heard of. Excellent job. I'm not sure I'm going to sleep well now. :D
Poukis 09-17-03, 06:31 PM	That was very inspired! Very good indeed. For sanity and insanity you should read the "call of Kthulhu" rulebook... It's very good. Good Luck with your character! PS. I just thought... Since she spoke to the "rocks and darkness" she doesn't actually know that she is a cleric of Shar... So you shouldn't make any reference to her... Just a thought...
Lord of the Ninth 09-17-03, 07:37 PM	Have you read The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le'Guin? The main character is a young priestess of the Nameless Ones, and the have this big thing about a labyrinth, in parts of which light is forbidden. And there is a lot of stuff about talking to the shadows and the darkness. No undead per se, but the themes are rather close. :b: That's a nice character background you have there.:cool:
TinySilverChalice 09-19-03, 08:08 PM	Thanks, guys! The other players like her so far also. A few have already given her a little charity, which I had her spend on acquiring her adventuring gear. Someone also recommended that she adventure rather than turn tricks for coin. She's considering the idea currently... Oh, Cthulhu... Lovecraft, that old :censored:... I lost three PCs to madness checks over the last three years. ("Vote Cthilhu 2004!") Lord of the Ninth: I'm not familiar with that book... Thanks for the tempation to add more to my pleasure reading list. So much to read... only two eyes. :bigeyes:
nick012000 09-21-03, 07:53 AM	You could always consider taking the Bleaker feats from the official Planescape website at www.planewalker.com
Peepi 09-22-03, 05:39 PM	It's not that conflictive, really. I once had an NPC cleric with a wisdom of 16. He was perfectly sane and observant except for the fact that he had a bizarre obsession with mathematical pi and e . Thought of them as a divine force. That just made him so much more fun to play.:D
TinySilverChalice 09-22-03, 09:02 PM	I've also taken a bit of advice from the film "A Beautiful Mind". (Movie Spoiler in case anyone hasn't seen it yet...) ************Crowe's character is really in touch with what's in front of him. He's more of a high WIS and INT guy, low in the CHA department. He's very good at recognizing patterns in the world around him and figuring them out. So good he starts seeing patterns that aren't really there. Timarie is a high WIS and CHA girl, with a low INT. She sees patterns easily regarding interpersonal relationships, even some that aren't there. From seeing these false patterns of behavior, she makes conclusions based of frayed and faulty logic. (i.e. "I'm here. The undead are here. We get along; thus we must all be the same.")********* Half of what I love about my characters are their one-sided and self-centered faulty thinking. I love faulty heros.
Silverstone 10-01-03, 05:01 AM	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lord of the Ninth [B]You want to be crazy? And you want to be wise? Cool bean. Here's the deal: You have your delusions (or dead or whatever), but with everything else you are perfectly rational, in touch and often insightful. Perhaps... or maybe the division of insanity and wisdom is much more subtle for you. You try to devise a reason having to do with fate or divine purpose for which you were placed in such a predicament in the first place and what is has to do with your role in the universe. And linking this to your god's purpose for you could make you that much more fanatically or insanely sure that you have an important role for spreading (most likely with force) your beliefs. "What does it mean to lose ones mind? Is madness in it's purest form subjectively defined? and then by whom? by the folks that come before us? Why should I be struck as mad by hearing shakespeare's chorus?" "My drummer hears my thoughts, plays my songs, we bleed the same. It's curious to me why human people say insane. As if it's real, what if it's not? A plane misunderstanding, there's an aircraft in your back yard and it's coming for a landing." unknown
Trydan 10-01-03, 08:54 AM	TinySilverChalice : That's a terrific background story! Well done... I really like it!! I'd reiterate the recommendation about Tombs of Atuan (ToA), although I'd recommend reading the first book in the series A Wizard of Earthsea first, to set the context. ToA is not directly related to your story, but there are a large number of similar concepts, and I think it would help you a lot in visualising the mood surrounding such creepy places. Not that I think you need any help. Again... that's a cool background.
TinySilverChalice 10-01-03, 05:40 PM	Thanks for even more "insight" guys! I only found out reading F&P earlier this week that Sharism is often very attractive to the insane. BTW, if anyone is interested, this character features in a little story I wrote for The Writers' Challange: Mercy? (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106788&perpage=30&pagenumber=2).... And, uh, don't mind all the OT stuff about Labyrinth.