Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sir_Chivalry 04-29-08, 07:09 PM	I have a character for an upcoming campaign, a CN human barbarian in his early 50's, he has a 28 year old daughter, and I was wondering what class I should male her, or more generally, what direction I should take with the NPC character (my DM wants some backstory and crunch on all the characters, I've got the backstory). A few notes about the daughter: -Her mother died when she was six -Her father raised her as best he could -The DM has banned the classes of Knight, Favoured Soul, Spirit Shaman, Samurai, Wu jen, and Shugenja I know this might note be the best suited board for it, but I don't want an optimized character, I just want to know what a logical class would be.
Sir_Chivalry 04-29-08, 10:22 PM	11 views and no one posts, no even to tell me to post on another board?
Master_Vega 04-30-08, 12:37 AM	Well... is she going to be tailing you around everywhere? If you raised her, then wouldn't she take after you, at least slightly? Once you give us some more info on what sort of character you're looking for, we'll be much happier to help. :)
Sir_Chivalry 04-30-08, 07:18 AM	I hope she's not going to be following my character around. My DM just wants to know IN CASE he wants to use the character to help our party out. In response to your other question, I'd say that yes, logically she would take after the character, but I'm asking should it just be another straight-forward barbarian, or what other classes could she be in multi-class terms or or as her single class that fit well with a barbarian raising her?
Mad_Jack 04-30-08, 12:14 PM	If she's been raised within a barbarian tribe, she's either going to be a barbarian herself or possibly a druid or shaman. If she was raised around an adventuring party, or was dropped off with a guardian in town for months or years at a time while daddy was off killing things, she could be anything... Who exactly raised her, her father? A family Friend? The father's tribe? What sort of life did she have, and what were the major events in it? What's her personality like? That's going to determine her class(es), if she has any.... If her father had a CN alignment, it's entirely possible he may have been either a neglectful or simply disinterested parent, and being a barbarian probably got hurt alot, so it's possible she may have developed a need to take care of people (or perhaps just gotten into the habit of it - maybe the daughter raised the father) so she might be a cleric or some other sort of healer/caregiver. On a side note, this is the right board for discussing character ideas and backstories, but you should expect to wait at least 24 hours before seeing *any* replies to your posts, as this is an international forum and not everyone checks it every day. And about 90% of the people reading any given post are probably not going to have anything useful to contribute to whatever topic you may have posted about, so they won't necessarily reply.
Master_Vega 04-30-08, 12:22 PM	If she has some magic spark, she could be a sorceress who channels her rage into spells... and if she levels up enough she could become a rage mage. Just a thought. You could do a very similar thing with Wilder, though I don't think there's a psionic raging prestige class. :P
Sir_Chivalry 04-30-08, 07:23 PM	Mad Jack I really like your idea for the healing component to her class. Oh and thanks for the advice on the waiting period, I should have known better, I’m sorry. That being said, I suppose her history would be helpful too. (Fear the longness) Delilah Lancaster, daughter of Lady Miranda Lancaster and her consort Dorian, lived her first six years on the material plane in relative peace and prosperity. Though at times she was neglected due to either her mother doting upon her baby brother Simon or her father’s obsessive pride in teaching her elder brother Jericho to fight, Delilah was happy to simply play in the gardens of the Lancaster Estate, and her father did buy her a doll from the market from time to time. When she was still very young, her mother would tell her stories of a great warrior from the north, who had slain all manner of men and orcs and demons with his sword, who had been banished for his crimes of rage against his people, who had wrestled with demons both within and without. Delilah was not sure why, but every time her father heard these stories, he would weep silently. A few weeks before Delilah was to celebrate her seventh birthday, her father woke her up in the middle of the night. He told her the king needed him, and that he would be gone for a very long time. Delilah asked if he was going to find the strong man from her mother’s stories, her father nodded gravely, and gave her a small locket that he had always kept with him. Inside was a portrait of her mother and father, painted on their wedding day. Soon after Dorian left to go to war, a rival nobleman by the name of Amadeus York began to encroach upon his marriage bed. Though Miranda never gave into the advances of this man, he would always be coming back, visiting the estate, forcing his way in through the door when he was barred entry. None of Dorian’s children wanted anything to do with this man, but young Delilah noted something especially unusual about this man. Unlike her father, who was a rather unattractive and uncouth, this man was the very picture of elegance and suave speech, like the demon princes in Delilah’s storybooks. He all around looked fair, and felt foul. Five years of unwanted woo from York passed, five years of censored letters from the war front, her father’s words slowly becoming more and more disjoined and rambling. A now eleven year old Delilah saw her mother become consumed with despair, and her brothers’ attempts to raise her spirits proved useless. When Miranda was away at the local fair, forced outside by her sons as an attempt to raise her spirits, Delilah snuck into her mother’s chambers. Going through her cabinets and closets, Delilah stumbled upon the warrior’s armour from the stories her mother told her. In a flash, the realization came to her. Her father was the warrior who had slain countless orcs and men. His blade had hewn heads from necks countless times, and the madness her father had spoken about in his letters home had been the all consuming rage of his birthright. News came of the war ending in the eastern front. Delilah intended to talk to her father about this realization of hers when he got back from battle, she did not see her father for many months afterwards. One day, Amadeus York knocked on the front door of the home, demanding entrance. When the servants gathered their courage and told him that the lady of the house was not taking visitors, he drew two scimitars and ran them through. His rampage of anger, fuelled by jealousy and rage, led him to kill the two sons in cold blood, and against his own lord’s code, butcher Lady Miranda in cold blood. York was about to strangle the life from young Delilah when her father appeared at the door, brandished his sword and charged York at full tilt. The sight of his dear family being brutally murdered was too much for the fragile psyche of Dorian, and all his anger, all his demonic fury came to the surface of his being. His was no longer a rage, it was a bestial frenzy, a fury like the rending of the earth. He and York battled long and furiously, neither side tiring, either side knowing death would await him if he relented his stalemate against the other. They crashed into the gardens, tearing the shrubbery and fruit trees of Delilah’s youth into particles. They fought, and disappeared from sight. Delilah recovered slowly from her near death experience. Nightfall came, and daybreak, and nightfall again, before Dorian returned, his body haggard and drawn, his left arm gashed horribly. Delilah looked into his eyes and knew the cold sorrow that he felt. He had not killed York. That night they had burned what remained of the house, and buried the bodies in an unmarked grave by a pond in the forest. Dorian knew none of the funeral rites of Miranda’s people, so as he and Delilah stood over the freshly buried bodies, he sang a lament. Year later, Delilah and Dorian had found a new life in a small village in the south of the country. By day Delilah worked as a baker and Dorian as a cook, and by night Dorian lost his money again drinking his sorrows away. Times were hard and food was scarce in the country, as foreign wars and border riots had drained the country of money, men and food in a vicious cycle. The times ahead were looking hard, but Delilah knew she and her father would survive. For her father was her hero, and heroes never died.
Jacob_Crowe 05-01-08, 02:51 PM	Three thing stood out to me about this tragic backstory. Three elements: 1) the stories of the mother, and the song of lament of th father 2) the daughter's worldview, how the surface frequently hid the truth, her father being roughhewn and coarse, but pure and the infringing noble being perfumed and pretty, with a rotten core 3) her idolization of her father, how he's a hero that should and will never die. these three things have come together and spit out two distinct possibilities, depending on her training. 1) Scout (Complete Adventurer): depending upon just how much time her father spent with her after her mother's death, she could be quite well trained in the woodsman's arts, tracking and stealth, using skirmish's hit-and-run tactics as a method of avoiding harm while taking out threats to her father, preferably from hiding to avoid ambushes. 2) Skald [Savage Bard](Unearthed Arcana): Never one much for books and subtly, Delilah took a more direct route to the stories and tales of her youth: participation. Finding that back-row viewership was unsatisfying and downright pointless with a Rampaging Berserker of a father as her companion, Delilah takes a direct approach. Besides, stepping into the fray allows her to get well within range to land those frequently needed cure spells she's picked up. Either of these works, depending upon what your DM allows and what books your group has.
Sir_Chivalry 05-02-08, 12:03 AM	Sounds really good Jacob Crowe, does anyone else have some other ideas. Other classes, or specific feats or skills to invest in?
Mystrich 05-02-08, 02:20 AM	Given her long days spent in the garden, and the fact that I enjoyed Mad_Jack's healer idea, I think you could make her a druid and have it work. Alternatively, I think a bard might have been possible, between loving her father as a hero both in reality, and in her favorite stories of him. Going from the last line, it can be interpreted as her stories and memories of him are what will keep him alive as a hero.
Sir_Chivalry 05-02-08, 11:23 PM	What alignment does she strike you as? Should I invest in the exalted feats from the BoXD, or is she more of a neutral person?
Sir_Chivalry 05-03-08, 09:29 PM	Well, thank you for the advice about the npc everyone. I appreciate it.
LadyLindis 05-04-08, 04:19 AM	I think her alignment would be a good one, or at least a netural...so...NG or CG. I would take CG Personally.
Mad_Jack 05-04-08, 04:30 AM	Yeah, CG sounds about right - her priorities are her father and herself, and she's probably not real fond of all the crap that came about as a result of her father being called off by the king and the asshat noble guy that killed her mother, so she's not big on government and authority. CG would fit.
Sir_Chivalry 05-04-08, 09:48 AM	Thanks again all of you for giving your time to help me with this.
kelvinaw273 05-06-08, 09:33 AM	I'd make her a ranger, self sufficiency and all that ...
Sir_Chivalry 05-07-08, 06:39 PM	thanks, I'll keep that in mind