Post/Author/DateTime	Post
beowulf00 07-13-04, 05:45 PM	Im creating a new character for a forgotten realms campaign. He is eventually going to have levels of fighter, paladin, templar, divine champion, and bladedancer. He is a drow paladin of Eilistraee foremost. I'm new with the setting (the DM is very experienced in the setting) and not sure about an interesting backstory weaving the setting into it. I also do not want to play the normal paladin personality (I do understand that I still must follow the code of conduct however). I was thinking of something similar to King Arthur from the new movie. Worried more about individual's worth and freedom/equality than that of law. Any interesting personality trait ideas? So far the background I have chosen seems very cliche and cheesey at best. Since he would be a champion against tyranny and slavery (by the way, is there even slavery in FR?) I was going to have him sold off at a young age as a servent and eventually brought into a gladiator ring (if it exists in the setting) which would explain his use of a glaive over his deity's favored weapon (he would have used it in his years of fighting in the gladiator pits). However the backstory goes, he must end up in Cormanthor forest. ANy ideas on personality/backstory? Thanks for help!
The Axeman 07-13-04, 07:44 PM	Well the entire concept will probably be cheesy thanks to the scourge of all roleplayers: Drizzt. But some good could come of this. First thing to do I think is decide what Drow city your character was born in (if he was born in the Underdark). Was he noble? Commoner? There are not many gladitorial rings in FR per se so I would abandon that angle. If you decide that he was not born in the Underdark, you could easily say that he was born on the surface somewhere in the Eastern realms like say Rashemen and he was raised among surface dwelling good drow that worship Eilistraee since there are good or neutral drow living on the surface who worship Eilistraee. That has been documented in numerous books. If you want the "former slave" thing still. You could say he was abducted by another Underdark race while working near his native city and they took him to Skullport (which is under Waterdeep) where he escaped with the help of drow followers of Eilistraee. In which case he would have a motivation for joining the faith. You can read about Skullport and the drow followers of Eilistraee in the stories of Liriel in paperback.