Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lycanthromancer 03-15-07, 01:30 PM	What are your more interesting character backgrounds like? I'm not talking cliches, either (such as having your family killed by a bunch of goblins and orcs, and so on). My current character (human wizard3/shaper3/cerebremancer4) was actually the head architect for a small city-state, when he underwent a midlife crisis, selling off all of his possessions, buying up a bunch of adventuring equipment, and going out to have some excitement and fun. He uses his building skills as a means of battlefield control (using Walls of Ice/Stone, Fabricate, Psionic Grease, and so on to hamper enemies and protect party members), as well as acting as a support role outside of battle. What better way to get through a dungeon than by using your knowledge of architecture and building structures to guess what's coming next, burrowing through walls, and so forth? So, what're your ideas?
PhaedrusXY 03-15-07, 02:00 PM	Follet Strindberg Warforged Psion (Shaper) 9 As one of the first fully sentient warforged created by Aaren d'Cannith himself, Follet (as he now calls himself) was originally a simplistic "warrior" as most warforged of his generation were, but massive damage that he receieved on the Day of Mourning greatly reduced his strength and prevents his functioning in that capacity now. He was in Cyre (now the Mournland) when it was destroyed. He doesn't remember exactly what happened on that day, or much of the time directly before or after it. He awoke and found himself pinned under a pile of rubble. He was trapped there, alone, for many months. In that time, stuck with only his own thoughts and the sounds of the restless undead shuffling around him, he began to ponder the meaning of his existence. He was rescued and taken in by followers of the Lord of Blades and stayed with them for some time, but found their zealotry wasn't to his liking. So he left them, and set out to travel the world on his own, to seek out answers to the many questions he'd asked himself during his "imprisonment". During his time pinned under the rubble in the Mournland, he found that although parts of his mind and memory were obviously damaged, other parts seemed to function much more sharply than before. He believes the energies from the damaged components were rerouted to the undamaged regions, and that this "overcharging" is what caused the development of his psychic powers. He used these powers to create a companion for himself while he was trapped in the rubble. He embued a fragment of his own mind into a lump of melted, multi-colored glass in the rubble, creating a psicrystal (although he didn't really know that's what it was then). He imbued this psicrystal with all the happiness, vibrance, and energetic thoughts that he could pull from himself at the time, because he wanted a cheerful companion to give him hope in his bleak circumstances. He named this companion "Helium" after a gas that is lighter than air, and which is used to power some floating devices and airships in Khovaire. Helium has been his constant companion since then, and has served as an emotional buoy for the often morose warforged. Although he does not agree with all of the beliefs and methods of the Lord of Blades and his followers, Follet does realize that his race is currently doomed to extinction, as it has no means of procreation. He would like to see the restoration of House Cannith's Creation Forges under the control of a warforged nation, so that they can continue their existence and search for purpose. He has also decided that since the first 30 years of his existence were devoted to destruction, that the rest will be devoted to creation. He has learned a great deal about architecture and sculpting, and has focused his psychic powers towards those ends. After he found his way out of the Mournlands, he made a living selling his services as an architect of fashionable buildings in Sharn, moulding them directly from raw materials with his mind. He aquired quite a bit of wealth from this. However, after reflecting on the squalid living conditions of many of the refugees in the lower parts of the city, and in the refugee camps outside of its borders, he began using his powers to create homes for these refugees, and to defend them from bandits and roaming monsters. He had been at this for several months when he was unexpectedly whisked away from it all... Appearance: Most of Follet's armored plating and alot of his musculature were permanently destroyed on the Day of Mourning. However, he has been able to create a suit of "mental armor" for himself since then. This silvery metal is extruded from holes in his body, and flows over him to form a suit of what appears to be plate mail. However, it remains a bit more flexible than normal armor even after it has "hardened". (Use the stats for an Ectoplasmic Skin of Armor in Complete Psionic, but this is considered to be a unique warforged component.) Otherwise, his appearance is typical of an older model warforged (iron core, with wooden "musculature", some iron plating, and a Ghulra on his forehead). (I don't own any Eberron books, and so made up alot of the stuff that I wasn't sure about, or couldn't glean from online Eberron pages.)
Rageheart 03-15-07, 02:08 PM	Short Summery: I had a Warforged who was a seige engineer in one of the early battles of Ebberon who got crushed and pinned under a massive catapult's counterweight for YEARS. The Mourning occured and melted the counterweight like wax, but without heat, allowing me to get free. I found that the liquified counterweight was slowly crystalizing within my body (Deep crystal) and that I could now blast on par with many seige weapons. I began questing to leave the Mournlands and repair myself, with the purpose of becoming the best seige engine I could build. I would use my knowledge of Architecture to identify weak points in castles and fortifications in passing... You never know when you'll need to bring a building down on top of someone.
JulesCARV 03-15-07, 02:48 PM	I had an elan archivist 3/shaper 2 (going for psychic theurge. Never got there) named Siddharth Bhattacharya. He was a kinda nerdy Riedran bureaucrat, basically. He was sent over to Fairhaven, Aundair as an assistant to an Inspired ambassador. While in Fairhaven, he saw the average, everyday magic of Khorvaire. He didn't really associate it with the abominable magic that Riedran authorities kept talking about when they referred to the Day of Mourning, Karrnath's army of the dead, dangerous airships that killed their passengers when their elementals went mad, etc., so he kinda naïvely assumed that this was something else (he had an int of 16, but a wis of around 10). Being away from his home in Riedra, his friends, etc, he felt a bit lonely, so he decided to occupy some of his free time by trying to learn some magic. He didn't know the difference between arcane and divine magic (although he knew it was all rather different from psionics), so he tried to learn what he could from the magewrights and adepts who were willing to teach him. Eventually, he effectively became an archivist. He kept this hidden from the other Riedrans and his Inspired boss at first, but eventually, he decided to tell the ambassador what he was up to, telling him how neat the things he had learned in Fairhaven were, and wondering whether he might be able to teach them to other Riedrans once he got back. With this, Sid was thrown into the embassy's holding cell, his previously hidden magical library was ransacked, and he was sent back to Riedra for trial. Sid was setenced to death, but for some reason, some people (DD agents), apparently overruling Riedran law, took him out of the prison where he was awaiting execution, and did something to him. He still doesn't know exactly what, and he was never told. It involved a shard, and somehow he forgot much of what he previously knew (he had a rogue Quori implanted in him and was turned into an Elan. He didn't know that as of the game's beginning, though). He was dragged into a dungeon, chained to a wall, and left there, without any food or water. He assumed that he was going to die, but he didn't. It seemed that whatever those people had done to him, he no longer really needed to eat. Eventually, after several weeks, he discovered that he could create a bit of grease on his manacles (grease was one of his powers). This wasn't the magic he learned in Aundair -- it was something else, more like what he had seen the Chosen and the Inspired doing, but he didn't know where this new power came from. Eventually, he managed to free himself of his shackles, and escaped from the decrepit dungeon into the sewers. Realizing that staying in Riedra was unwise, he eventually disguised himself and managed to smuggle himself aboard a ship sending grain to Khorvaire. He was confused, though. Why were the Riedrans treating him this way? He had brought back a practical, harmless form of magic that would be no danger. The Inspired would surely recognize it for that, as benevolent and wise leaders. Yet he had been tried, instead, and then, instead of being executed, was somehow changed and put into a dungeon. He concluded that there was some conspiracy against the Inspired and Riedra that had infiltrated the government, which was determined to weaken them. He believed that the loathsome Kalashtar terrorists has somehow managed to put agents into the Riedran state, and that they were responsible for trying to kill him so that Riedra and the Inspired wouldn't be strengthened by learning Khorvaire's practical magical techniques. He arrived in Khorvaire determined to uncover and destroy the conspiracy against the Inspired. Even if corrupted aspects of the Riedran authorities were against him, he was to be a true servant of the Inspired, and would restore them to greatness. He managed to relearn some of the old magic he had learned in Fairhaven, while continuing to learn more about the psionic powers he found within himself after the change.
Ra-Tiel 03-15-07, 03:10 PM	My last ( :( ) psionic character was in a FR campaign who rather quickly went "legs up" just after a few levels ( :weep: ). Creating a background without any sort of "cliché" is imho impossible. Therefore I think using "some" stereotypes is ok, as long as the character does not transform into an Elminster clone, so please bear with me. :P Name: Nadira. Race: Crinti (half-drow). Gender: Female. Alignment: Chaotic good. Origin: Dambrath. Background: Nadira was born twins with her brother. They shared a deep emotional connection nobody could explain. They almost were one and exactly knew when the other one was worried, afraid, or sick. As they grew up, they were subjected to the harsh training and "selection" within the crinti society. Nadira was to become a leader, while her brother was to train in the military. However, she seemed to be utterly incompetent at any kind of magic, and couldn't even evoke the most simple cantrip or orison, although having clearly understood the theory. As they were about to become adults, they were each passed a "test" they had to master. Nadira was to stop a slave revolt by any means, and her brother was to raid a small military force of a neighboring nation. She passed her test by using her wits and charms to bluff her subordinate soldiers into doing as she wished, ending the revolt without a bloodbath. Her brother, however, failed to see the trap laid by a rival crinti and barely escaped with his life, having lost almost all his men. When they returned home, Nadira was "elevated" into adulthood, while her brother was to be tortured to death for his failure, as Dambrath had no use for such fools and weaklings. She terribly suffered with her brother as the scourge maidens took on him, as she not only saw his pain, but also felt it inside her chest. When the maidens left him to hang in his chains before continuing his misery, Nadira snuck into the torture chamber to help her brother. His body was already battered and broken, and she could see the suffering in his eyes. Even today she doesn't know what happened then, but the last thing she remembers is breaking into tears when he whispered "please release me" before a wave of pure sadness washed over her. She felt something form in her hand and then race away from her. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the thankful expression on her brother's face and his lips forming the words "thank you, little sister", before he died from the crystal shard in his chest. She knew she couldn't stand her homeland anymore, yet alone risk being captured and tortured herself for easying the misery of a scourge maidens' victim. The same hour she packed her few possessions (including an amulet her brother gave to her that later became her psicrystal) and left Dambrath for good, hoping to never again set foot upon this land of misery. And now guess what class Nadira was. ;)
SlanderPanic 03-15-07, 03:32 PM	This is the backstory I wrote for a character I played in a high-level, Lawful Evil Forgotten Realms campaign I played in toward the end of 2005. Elans are not born. They're made. Elans choose humans (and only humans) with exceptional potential and, if they candidates are willing, they're transformed. What if Faerun's elans were slowly becoming extinct? What if, in hundreds of years, they hadn't found a suitable candidate and, timeless as they are, they were dwindling and becoming desperate? What if they, in their desperation, transformed an unwilling -but otherwise perfect- candidate? --- A ranger of some small renown in Neverwinter, Rico Dolza was also a budding psion. When a handful of elans hired him to be their guide as they went to observe some rare beastie or another, they were shocked and surprised to realize that Rico was an ideal candidate for their ranks. They offered the young man a chance to become one of them. He refused. Now, elans are generally a patient lot. Being effectively immortal has that effect. However, only a handful of suitable candidates had been located since the Time of Troubles, and even they only increased the elans' dwindling numbers to a few dozen. The world was a dangerous place, and the elans were dying faster than they were reproducing. Now, the elans are generally a proud lot. Being effectively immortal has that effect. When Rico Dolza declined the honor of becoming a higher being, the elans were deeply insulted. The notion of preferring to live a human life is simply fallacious to those who have been reborn as elans. Still, insult or no insult, the Cullers were unable to deny his perfection as a candidate. Reasoning that he, like themselves, would realize the superiority of elan life after the transformation, they simply kidnapped the ranger and turned him into one of them. Unfortunately for them, the Making Rite drove the young man to the brink of madness, though he eventually drug himself back over the course of a year. He was not the same man anymore. To reflect this, the Newmade left Neverwinter and took on a new name, Bron Konda, before beginning to train in the psionic arts. He hoped to find a way to return elans to human form, both to fix himself and to get even with the Cullers. "Magic is a crutch for the mind," the masters always said. Bron found that not to be the case when he went to Rashemen and realized that his blood sang with an arcane gift as strongly as it did with the psionic gift the elans so coveted. He quickly learned to combine his studies in the two arts, becoming what those in-the-know refer to as a Cerebremancer. Bron, above all else, seeks power. He seeks revenge on the Cullers who ripped away his former life without his permission and, by extension, all other elans who do not swear him fealty. He seeks the secret of the Making, so that he may create elans loyal only to him. Essentially, he wishes to hijack the race. Bron pays lip service to Bane, but his true Mistress is Loviatar. He has a detached fascination with suffering, whether he's causing, witnessing, or receiving it. He greatly enjoys watching his soulknife partner work. Bron prefers to keep his distance from the carnage, aiding with spells and psionics and, when the mood strikes, attacking with his mace, Godcrusher, or his twin returning daggers, Wasp and Hornet. Bron aspires to becoming master of the elan race and, eventually, a god in his own right. Bron worked with an alliance of Banites to confront and destroy Orcus so Bane could take his portfolio. (Our DM was running us through Rappan Athuk III.) After the survivors returned to their fortress in Vassa, rich with treasure, a dispute ensued between Bron and the other spellcasters over who would keep the book of infinite spells found in Orcus' hoard. When the Banite cleric -with whom Bron had locked horns on many prior occasions- decided that Bron shouldn't be allowed to have it, he decerebrated the priest, took the book, and teleported away, secure under the protection of his third eye conceal. While it's nice to play a villain for an occasional change, my favorite player characters are the bold, heroic ones. I mention him a lot on these boards, so here's the backstory for Simon Halidor, my soulknife/illumine soul/war mind. Simon Halidor has walked the face of Parma before. He is one of a pair of twins, reincarnated again and again, forever cursed to clash though centuries. Rinn Halidor, his shadow, his dark twin, is his eternal nemesis, though neither is aware of this fact. The current incarnation of Simon was once a lawless young tough, running with his sister in the Screws, a gang of thugs that ruled the streets of a prosperous coastal town in eastern Greenwood known as Hollins Bluff. As Simon grew up, he eventually left the gang and pursued a career as a sailor, like his father. His travels took him up and down the coast of Parma, opening his eyes to a wider world and a more peaceful way of life. A maenad helped him learn to calm his mind and focus all of his inner turmoil and violence into a gleaming edge, a mind blade. Rinn, however, never grew weary of spreading terror and chaos through the town. Without her brother's conscience to hold her in check, she led the Screws on a campaign of violence and destruction. They got involved in everything from smuggling to prostitution to contract killing and, in the center of this violent whirlwind was Rinn. She came to her abilities through drug-induced visions of herself as a dark knight, wielding a blade of raw hatred in glorious slaughter after slaughter. She found herself chosen by Hextor, doing the bidding of the god of slaughter. Meanwhile, at sea, tragedy struck. Passing through what appeared to be a shark feeding frenzy, Simon's ship was attacked by lacedons -seagoing, cannibalistic undead. In moments, half the crew had perished. Simon and his mentor held the lacedons back, the maenad unleashing a brilliant white mind blade to cleave through the ghouls. They were too many, though, and he eventually fell. His last act was to tell Simon how to link himself to the Positive, to suffuse himself with the white light of life itself and avenge his death. Overcome with rage, Simon found himself flooded with power, mowing down ghoul after ghoul until the remainder fled. When Simon returned to Hollins Bluff, he found the town changed. It was a frightened, whimpering place, its people terrified that anyone might be a Screws enforcer just looking for a reason to cut their fingers off. Simon saw how the weak and the innocent suffered under the reign of an organization he had once led. He realized that, if he had not left the gang, none of their crimes would have happened. He saw it as his responsibility to put things right. Day and night, Simon worked to break the Screws, working his way up through their ranks, dreading his inevitable confrontation with his dark sister. All the while, he learned more and more of the madness she had sunken into. Eventually, he learned that, months before Simon returned from sea, Rinn had gone into a rage, killed most of her lieutenants, and then left Hollins Bluff for parts unknown. He also learned that the current leadership of the gang was a cabal of vampire thrallherds who took over in the power vacuum left by Rinn's departure. It didn't take Simon long to find and destroy the vampires. He then took command of the Screws once again. Their membership dwindled to a mere handful once the vampires' various mind-controls were broken. He molded what few members remained loyal to the Halidor twins into a community organization that helps the people they once oppressed. Satisfied, Simon left Hollins Bluff to find his sister and bring her to justice. Simon and Rinn have clashed -verbally and physically- several times since then, a clear winner never emerging. Currently, Rinn's whereabouts are unknown to Simon, and so he wanders, helping people when he can and destroying the undead wherever he finds them. He has been a member of a handful of adventuring parties, but his personal goals tend to pull him away from those groups' goals. One day, he hopes to find a group as dedicated to protecting the weak as he is, but he knows that day may never come. Simon lives in mediocre times, where true heroes are few and true villains are many. Right now, he'll take whatever help he can get. After writing this, Simon fought undead pirates, trained to become a war mind (he was originally just a soulknife/illumine soul,) rode in a gnomish airship, destroyed vampires and liches, went toe-to-toe with a pit fiend (and made it run away!), and was trapped in a dream realm for a millenium, only to awaken in another world and find that his eternal nemesis had ascended to divinity. Speaking of Rinn, here's a quicky bio I wrote for her: Wherever she goes, Rinn Halidor's reputation precedes her. That reputation is one of a mad warrior goddess, a slaughter-queen devoted to murdering all in her path and leaving behind a wake of death and destruction. This reputation has led to the evacuation of many villages and the mobilization of militias and police forces. This reputation is well-deserved. Rinn Halidor, along with the handful of villains she allows to remain in her company, travels from town to town, village to village, sometimes staying for a month or two before moving on again, leaving the settlements in smoking ruins. She sometimes lives in peace with the villagers for weeks before growing bored with them and beginning the slaughter anew. Indeed, the desire that drives Rinn the most is that of an overwhelming fear of ennui. When she grows bored with peace, she rampages. When she grows bored of slaughter, she relaxes. Those who accompany her respect her moods, knowing that they exist in a precarious balance and that any trigger could send their princess into a rage with them as the targets. She has killed companions before, on many occasions, after all. Occasionally, Rinn clashes with her twin brother. Those battles are vicious and brutal, always ending in a stalemate. Rinn does not hate her brother, but she despises the fact that he clings to an old-fashioned morality and sense of responsibility. She wishes to teach him the truth that madness has brought her, to cut loose and simply have fun, no matter the cost to others. Rinn is the only Halidor aware of their state as reincarnating spirits, but she doesn't particularly care. To be born again and again is to keep having fun, to have another chance to redeem her brother from his own convictions. She loves her brother and she feels that she must save him from himself. *Anyone who gets this reference receives a cookie.
BalthazarDArgent 03-15-07, 05:14 PM	My first Psion was a shaper that used his constructs for mining. He was thrust into the adventure when the other PCs who were tearing up the underdark (spirder queen) killed off my contacts within the Drow. All outsiders became hunted and I found that traveling with the destroyers of my income to be a better alternative to death. My current Psion is a cliche. Dead parents with political implications. I thought I was clever.:weep:
jbsaff 03-15-07, 05:56 PM	My first psionic character was an Assimar Wilder that went by the name Umarth Neithan. In our homebrew setting, he had been a mighty Paladin of his Lawful Good diety. Such was his devotion that he had been granted a personal audience with his god, a rare event for a mere mortal. However, in the middle of a great war, he and his men were charged with defending an important fort maintained on one of the less savory planes. The position was attacked in force, and most were slain. Mortally wounded, Umarth was knocked unconcious and captured, only to be taken to a plane of continous torment (think Prometheus (http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/scaffold/GG/titan.html#Prometheus) of Greek mythology). This plane was also the dumping ground of the gods, with numerous artifacts of great power lying about, just out of reach of the prisoners. Finally, after many hundred years, the powers that prevented passage to this tortuous plane were overthrown in another war, and scavangers began traveling to the plane in hopes of finding powerful and costly items. One such traveller was less then fortunate, and died when he handled a particularly powerful, and altogether evil, artifact. His death was fortunate for Umarth, however, as he died and fell with his pack near enough to reach. Taking hold of the pack, Umarth Neithan found within a Deck of Many Things. He drew five cards, one of which provided a Wish. Umarth wished himself back to the Material Plane, ending his imprisonment. However, the long years of torment and solitude had taken their toll, leaving our hero with a broken and chaotic mind. As he recovered his strength, he began to manfest strange powers and abilities. While he would eventually regain much of his control over his mental faculties, he was unable to return to the Lawful ways that he had previously known. Thus, he now serves his diety with the abilities he has, hoping one day to atone for the dishonor of his capture. Rather long-winded, but my DM and I had a lot of fun coming up with it. He ruled that the torture removed a few hit points a day and there was no way to get a full night of sleep. We then calculated the amount of time required to reduce a Level 20 Paladin of my stats to -10 hit points. Each time the character died, he was Resurrected with the spell of that name, only to face the same pain for the other 19 levels. The hp totals for levels 19-1 were counted as having hit points equal to the max on the Hit Die; this was to maximize the time and pain that would accumulate. He was at level 1 when he escaped. So I get to play the slighty crazy guy... ;)
TheAngryFish 03-15-07, 06:06 PM	Drow psion/14 (Telepath) It's only a cliche in Faerun. :P
awaken_D_M_golem 03-15-07, 07:11 PM	:D Divine Mind ... really !! If you're extremely restrictive on TO board material , but allow it in to "save" the DivM , then ... take the Aura Power take undoes Fatigue and Wand Surge works with Dorjes and Unfettered Heroism cheese and buy Dorjes with only ONE charge left you basically get : The Worst Character Ever + At will cheap power list it's kinda a weird Warlock , susceptible to sunder :rolleyes: Playable !! just don't allow multi-classing into stuff that's better ;)
InkBlot 03-15-07, 08:13 PM	Of the two psions I've played so far, one has a very cliche backstory and the other has next to none. The cliche guy was a police officer, until he got caught in an explosion in a mad psionicist's lab. The psychic vibrations unlocked his latent psionic powers, and afterwards he went and studied with foreign mystics to further hone his mind. Since his reputation as a loose cannon has prevented him from going back to working in legitimate law enforcement, he's become an adventurer to make ends meet and maybe make the world a better place while he's at it. The no-backstory guy is a monk. He was orphaned at a young age, raised by monks, and became a wandering monk himself. His psionics are an extension of the enlightenment that all high-level monks attain.
Tralan 03-15-07, 09:45 PM	My psion was actully autistic for the better part of his life. He lost his parents, not to raiding orcs or the like, but to hatred. At first they thought him stupid, then they were convinced he was bewitched, unti he manifested powers (subconsciously) and believed him to be in league with evil spirits. Not able to bring themselves to kill him outright, his parents left him alone in the woods- a child of nine- to give him a "sporting" chance at life. He was found a day later by a young wizard, who cared for him until he was well into his teens. When she (the wizard) had raised enough money, she took him to the college, where a team of spellcasters (mostly wizards, but a few sorcerers) delved into the boy's mind. There, they found the Thread of Life leading off into the voids of time and space. The Headmaster of the college follwed it and discovered the boy's "mind" was traped in a type of "otherworld" he had created through his power. The Headmaster brought to boy back, who was still partially traped in the "otherworld" (why his full power never manifested: eg 1st level character).
Nibbler 03-15-07, 10:56 PM	Seroquel Nimodipine is an albino lesser tiefling rogue2/egoist2/warblade2/shadowdancer1/elocator2. He once served a devil who came to earth a thousand years ago to build an army so the devil could overthrow his masters. He was betrayed though and imprisoned with his forces deep beneath the earth. The devil used his powers to maintain his army through many generations, hoping to escape his captors and resume his mission. One day Seroquel, who was a servant in the devil's personal service, found the devil casting a spell from a dusty tome. The result was a rift in space through sunlight shone brightly. The devil escaped through the rift. Sensing that the sustaining force of his world was leaving, Seroquel snuck after his master before the portal to the outer world closed. Once on the surface, Seroquel realized he did not have to power to save his people and there were none who wanted to aid those who had been in the devil's service. And so he set out to obtain the wealth and power he would need to accomplish this mighty task.