Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rez 07-01-05, 02:25 PM	Basically, list the character concepts you think would be really cool (and unique) Some ideas I have for my game are: 1. Human Female Samurai (Possibly Monk) PRC Dragon Disciple (Katana/Wakizashi) 2. Elf Female Druid/Wizard PRC Pale Master or True Necromancer 3. Gnome Male Wizard/Rogue PRC Effigy Master/Maester (Magic Pistols) 4. Female Human Vampire Psion PRC Possibly Mindbender or Shadowmind
Telperion 07-01-05, 02:43 PM	I mourn the day when character concepts became synonymous with listing your character's core and prestige classes. I think I'll go play Vampire: the Requiem for a while... :raincloud EDIT: O' you listed some special weapons too... :banghead:
DragonDeadite 07-01-05, 02:57 PM	LOL Poor Telperion, maybe this will help. Motorious: Elf Sorcerer, decendant of the elf king, hates his father and thus has left the world of elves in search of friends. He's true neutral and spends his time trying to keep the balance between good and evil. The first time I played him he took a lawful good monk into a hore-house. The monk was such a prude that he couldn't stand being there, so the elf purchased a woman for him, it was very funny!!! See, that's a character concept. BTW: I don't really thing this thread should be here. Maybe under the Classes section... or the What's a Player to do... just a thought.
Rez 07-01-05, 03:03 PM	Well..sorry then.....geez...:sighs:
11d7 07-01-05, 03:05 PM	Basically, list the character concepts you think would be really cool (and unique) Some ideas I have for my game are: 1. Human Female Samurai (Possibly Monk) PRC Dragon Disciple (Katana/Wakizashi) 2. Elf Female Druid/Wizard PRC Pale Master or True Necromancer 3. Gnome Male Wizard/Rogue PRC Effigy Master/Maester (Magic Pistols) 4. Female Human Vampire Psion PRC Possibly Mindbender or Shadowmind I'm with Telperion. You are worse than some of the people at my school who seriosuly think role playing is saying what their character does in combat and doesnt think of a name.
Always-Late 07-01-05, 03:07 PM	Touchy, touchy... Ease off. We might as well just move the thread to classes and rename it, and it'll be fine.
Rez 07-01-05, 03:09 PM	Think what you wish. :shrugs: And yes, I actually role play characters out and don't always 'plan things'. I was just curious if anyone thought of any new and unique character combos. Sorry for being 'curious'.
DragonDeadite 07-01-05, 03:14 PM	If you want an interesting CLASS combo, then go Wizard/Barbarian... don't get more bizar than that!!!
Illion the Red 07-01-05, 03:19 PM	A serious case of PCP if you ask me.
Telperion 07-01-05, 03:19 PM	Seriously speaking: I haven't seen anything "original" in a long time. White Wolf had a fairly good idea with the Nature / Demeanor thing, but that had the annoying side-effect of preventing too many people from thinking outside the box, or such has been my experience. Can't find a nature / demeanor that suits your character? Create your own... That being said: I don't think there's anything wrong with a ranger who grew up in a tribal society, ran away to become a servant of a hunter Goddess and now tries to find some kind of a balance between getting along with his parents and serving a Deity who isn't really into the whole "tribal warriors are more than dirty men with sticks and stones" thing. The character is rather entertaining to observe, even though I'm not running it.
Rez 07-01-05, 03:20 PM	Whatever.
Androcus Divinicus 07-01-05, 04:35 PM	I mourn the day when character concepts became synonymous with listing your character's core and prestige classes. I think I'll go play Vampire: the Requiem for a while... :raincloud EDIT: O' you listed some special weapons too... :banghead: :heehee +1. Regards, Justin.
snowlynx 07-01-05, 04:39 PM	Can't find a nature / demeanor that suits your character? Create your own... Sitting there, looking over the natures and demeanors, going, 'this doesn't suit my character...nope....well, this might work, but it's not exactly accurate...maybe this...nah....*grumble grumble grumble* its takes longer for me to pick these then it does to write my character's backhistory, and they're always arbitraily assigned as one of the last steps, because they're too vague to make much of a concept. I am lazy and use once upon a time cards to string some words up to start a concept. Let's see...some fun things to begin developing a character with? I don't think any of them are 'unique' unfortunately. "Nothing is new under the sun," as they say. 1) Character was murdered and found their way back to the material world. 2) Character was a messenger who, on their travels, came across a unfortunate incident; they got involved, and are now deeply mired in politics they didn't intend.
DragonDeadite 07-01-05, 04:55 PM	Okay... Snow reminded me of one that I saw once. A halfling by the name of Kiblebit Dragonbait... who was a paladin unfortionatly slain by a dragon (get it? hehehehe) and joined the game as a ghost. She was ofcourse an insane ghost, since she didn't think she was a ghost and she had a ghost horse that none of the other players could see, so all we saw was this ghost halfling floating through the air with her legs spread bobbing up and down. It was funny!!! She kept seeing other ghosts thinking they were alive, and eventualy came to the point of thinking the part was all dead and ghosts and she had to dedicate her life to putting us all at rest. Made for some VERY fun RP!!
Ni! 07-01-05, 05:39 PM	Think what you wish. :shrugs: And yes, I actually role play characters out and don't always 'plan things'. I was just curious if anyone thought of any new and unique character combos. Sorry for being 'curious'. You didn't ask for class combos (as it seems that is what you want), you asked for character concepts. Class combo= mechanics Character Concept= backstory+personality+mechanics
striderII 07-01-05, 06:01 PM	I mourn the day when character concepts became synonymous with listing your character's core and prestige classes. I think I'll go play Vampire: the Requiem for a while... :raincloud EDIT: O' you listed some special weapons too... :banghead: *golf clap* By the way - I think that the Virtue/Vice system is better than the Nature/Demeanor thing - although I liked the Nature/Demeanor system as well. But then, I'm a hardcore MET LARPer, so... :) strider
Mirikon 07-01-05, 10:55 PM	A Chaotic Evil Half-Celestial Blackguard. He was good, before his fall from grace. Now he serves the forces of darkness that he at one time fought against. Imp Paladin. A creature of the abyss, who, through his love for a female cleric of Pelor, changed his lifestyle and everything he stood for so he could be by her side. A swordsman, trained by a master at a temple in the distant mountains. The temple was destroyed before he could finish his training, however. Now, he adventures to gain strength, and avenge his fallen master.
Edymnion 07-01-05, 11:40 PM	Eh, shameless plug, but I've got some of my Eberron character backgrounds posted up over here: My PCs
Agent Rasp 07-02-05, 01:32 AM	Don't know about cool or original, but after seeing a plethora of "good monsters" like heroic vampires and demons, here's a character concept I feel is necessary. Caution: backstory may be slightly dark for some readers. Some of you may also recognize the opening. Don't take it as a dig against Angel or Doyle; it just suited my whimsy. Once upon a time, there was a vampire. And he was one of the meanest vampires around; an unstoppable, remorseless beast, killing at will, torturing by choice, and loving every second of it. Even the other vampires were scared of him. And then one day, something happened. The vampire got really ****** off. It went down like this: a group of meddling kids got together and decided they'd had enough of the vampire making everyone's lives miserable (and short). They gathered up their weapons, their holy symbols, and their stakes, tracked the vampire down, and attacked him. That in itself wasn't what got the vampire upset. When you've spent your unlife painting every town you enter red in both the literal and figurative sense, a little interference from the "authorities" and "concerned citizens" and would-be young "heroes" is only to be expected. People of that sort are always in such a rush to die, and the vampire was more than pleased to oblige them. No, what the vampire found offensive about this encounter was that one of his uninvited guests happened to be a vampire not unlike himself, a creature of the night that, by some fluke of chance or cruel joke of the gods, had a spark of goodness festering in his undead shell. Given a chance to atone for his own atrocious misdeeds, this vampire sought redemption by hunting and destroying others of his kind, suffering the endless torments of undeath and the relentless hunger for blood, all the while yearning to return to his mortal life. Upon realizing the nature of his brother-enemy, the main vampire of our story had one thought: in the blasphemous names of all the unholy hell-gods, what kind of pathetic joke was this? Driven to a rage, our vampire defeated his assailants and chained the survivors up in a handy prison he'd been preparing in anticipation of just such company. (Coming up with suitable bonds for the do-gooder vampire took a bit of on-the-spot improvisation, but our villain managed.) Where he'd originally intended to entertain himself on their suffering, the vampire was now a man on a mission, and using every torturous means he could devise, he slowly extracted the sick, sorry details of his brother's fall from dark grace out of the captives. With every word, his disgust and fury only increased. How could a vampire fall so low as to desire mortality? Why would he embrace such pathetic weaknesses as life and love? Long after the mortals had expired, our vampire continued to work on his lost brother, endeavoring to show him the error of his ways. He marched the enslaved bodies of his new minions into the fool's cell, and sent them out to slaughter their families and friends, whose corpses he flung into his foolish brother's cell to illustrate the ultimate futility of his precious humanity. One woman, his lost kinsman's paramour, he kept alive for weeks, breaking her body and mind repeatedly before consigning her alive to the demonic pits, where her torment would endure for decades. The streets of the town where this sorry tragedy had played out ran knee-deep in blood, every living citizen bled and butchered like cattle, and when it was done, our vampire tore apart his minions, just to further emphasize how pathetic mortals truly were, even in undeath! And at the very end, he nailed his brother to a cross and raised him at the center of town, surrounded by the rotting dead, to burn to ash at dawn. It wasn't enough. The vampire had destroyed the abomination, and yet he knew that other pathetic creatures of the same nature were out there. Ensouled vampires. Compassionate demons. Half-bred scum that succumbed to their mortal weaknesses instead of embracing the darkness within them. So he began hunting them. Across nations, across continents, above the earth and below it, the vampire wandered, tracking stories of his prey to their source and then punishing these pathetic wretches for their failure to understand their place, to accept that those of the darkness are meant to kill and conquer, to delight in the death and suffering they parcel out to the living. And so was born Malengel, the Bloody Scourge.
WCH 07-02-05, 02:23 AM	A character concept which arose based solely on the halflings in my campaign hailing from the island where the largest human temple to Heironeous is, combined with the halfling tendancies towards LG. Eldon the Halfling. He was trained as a Paladin from a young age, but no one took him seriously -- after all, he was this small guy with huge shiny full plate and a small longsword. Constantly teased for his pathetically slow movement, his low strength and sword which he was very proud of, but which a local rogue once lifted off of him and dual-weilded as a short sword -- dealing far more damage with it than he normally could, even with his Power Attack! Nevertheless, he persevered, desiring to do good by Heironeous, disregarding the disparaging remarks of many of his partners as merely showing their ignorance and narrowmindedness. Then, after being trounced by a human fighter named Kempe with less than half of Eldon's experience in a duel (Eldon barely even scratched him), he became depressed and left the city out of a desire to be alone with his thoughts, hoping for Heironeous to show him what He desired him to do. Luck was not on the poor halfling's side, however, and he was ambushed by a group of Ravagers (Erythnul worshipping raiders, PrC from Complete Warrior) and nearly killed, before he was saved by none other than Vertrice, the head of the Assassins Guild and titled Chosen of Hextor, who had been hunting this group for days, seeking to avenge an attack they had recently made on a Hextorian cleric, another competitor in the very same tournament in which Eldon had been defeated. She singlehandedly slew all 20 of the Ravagers and their followers, and was about to annihilate the bound halfling, who the Ravagers intended to sacrifice on the morrow, but decided that he was worth more alive. Using her exceptional talents of guile, deceit and seduction, she managed to gradually repair the self esteem of the Paladin who was, outcast and defeated by the evil he had enlisted to destroy, nearly ready to take his own life. She taught him that it was the will of the Blood Lord to grant those willing the ability to overcome what was thought to be physical inadequacy and develop it into unstoppable power. Enamoured with his powerful and beautiful saviour, he nevertheless resisted for a time, but ultimately secumbed, and is now training as a Blackguard, with the singular focus of bringing pain and misery to those who mocked and mistreated him, and to slay the fighter who made a fool of him. [note: Eldon wasn't actually twice the level of Lyndon; they were both lvl 4, just that the Paladin had been training for far longer. Lyndon is a human bastard sword specialist who worships Pelor] [edit: I just totally added like five plot hooks to my campaign through writing this post. I should come up with random things more often -- Vertrice, the Ravagers, Eldon the halfling paladin, and the concept of the halfling blackguard already existed in my campaign notes, and Eldon was defeated by a lvl 4 PC in tonight's session... as of this post I'm now connecting them all :D ]
WCH 07-02-05, 02:39 AM	@Agent Rasp Kudos on a cool story. Would make a fun adventure to interupt that -- like the PCs attack the vamp's manor, and discover the Good vamp in the basement. Would lead to some fun RP. Methinks this should be a Prestige Class... maybe a PrC dedicated to slaying those who leave his alignment; Paladin who ignores the demon, desiring instead to defeat the Blackguard, for instance.
Hodo 07-02-05, 03:23 AM	One of my characters was once named Lando Calrissian. He was a rogue who inherited a tavern, but because of poor management skills, ended up in debt to a fat elf named Jabba. He started selling illegal goods for him, but one day he was ciught, and sang like a canary for a reduced sentence. He then skipped town and adventures since it allows him to get easiy from place to place. Jabba placed a bounty on his head, and pretty much tries to follow him wherever he goes. Although the character started off as a mysterious figure with a troubled past on the run, I couldn't pull it off, so he became more of a coward who tried to get on everyone's good side. He also maintains the hope that he can get enough treasure pay off Jabba. One character I've always wanted to make was a warrior with a big sword (taken from a slain giant). A Barbarian who came from a tribe where his final test to become the next in line as tribal leader was to lug around this big ceremonial sword and master it to the point where he could lop off a giant's head in one stroke and return with it.
WCH 07-02-05, 03:28 AM	You know, "character concept" typically refers to, you know, original ideas, not blatant ripoffs of pop media so ridiculously famous that ripping it off isn't even remotely possible to get away with... good God man, at least use original names, or in some way adapt the story... reminds me of a friend of mine who wanted to play as a Paladin named Dr. Phil. We stopped telling him when sessions were planned...
Hodo 07-02-05, 03:58 AM	I'm glad I don't play with your group then. My DM didn't like the name Lando either, so we worked it out. I got to remain Lando, but changed my name in every town we went to. We never made Star Wars jokes either. It worked out fine. The story does fall within the "man with a price on his head" group. You'd be hardpressed to find a background story that doesn't involve... Former royalty Outcast at home Home destroyed/Revenge Trained by wise/skilled mentor Searching for fame, riches, ultimate challenge, knowledge Playing the opposite of what you'd think the class or race would Etc etc Many of the more "original" plots do little more than mix a couple of these together and add some exotic race or class. What stands them apart is usually the details, and how the character actually responds to these series of events. My character ended up being nothing like Lando or Han.
Rez 07-02-05, 04:26 AM	Geez....next time I won't bother....
Quenditar 07-02-05, 06:26 AM	Rez - there are two ways to go about starting a character. The first is to take a concept, such as "nobleman whose city is sacked and father killed, sworn to take back what is his", and add classes to fit. The other way is to take classes you want to play and find a concept that fits. Don't confuse the two - a bare concept like the dispossessed, vengeful nobleman can fit quite a variety of builds, from straight barbarian to straight wizard to your necromantic druid - and by the same token one build can be used to represent an even wider variety of concepts. There really are only so many bare concepts, so the originality is mostly in the details. If you really want information about builds, say "builds", and take a peek at the Character Optimization board (builds are what they do, you provide the concept and backstory). P.S. Yes, I stole the concept from a book.
Kalanth 07-02-05, 08:37 AM	I am just gonna post my present character, which I consider rather original. Half-Elf Urban Ranger 2 / Shaper 4 / Elocator 1 (Psionics PrC) Elborn Medani, of the house Medani, was considered to be a shame of the family. The only son of Elysion d' Medani, head of the Medani house in the city of Sharn, Elborn never developed the dragonmarks that both his mother and father have. Elborn was also more than content to run the herbalist shop that he opened with the small pay he recieved on many mundane adventures, wanting nothing more than a simple life at home with his family. Through his companions, two Warforged that Elborn and his Father brought in after rescuing them from a small band of smugglers at the Breland boarder, Elborn begrudginly went out on more adventures, though he would intentionally look only for those that would be considered to be easy and without danger. Thanks to Sledge and Vex, his warforged companions, and the agrement that they made with Elborn's father, they took the young Half-Elf out onto a whirlwind of adventure that would chip away at his regressive nature. Now, an experienced explorer, Elborn has decided to see the world and write a Novel, not about his adventures, but more of a travel guide to the world. An avid historian and cartopgrapher, Elborn naturally took these hobbies and turned them into a new carrier. Still a bit of the apprehensive hero, Elborn has developed into the leader of the group, and the voice of reason with the people.
Minister_for_Moral_Truth 07-02-05, 08:52 AM	Let me see what is folating around in my head... Character concepts, character and build ideas. Shasken. Half-orc monk, devotee of St. Cuthbert, favours twin hand-axes. She lives strictly by the mandates of the Saint, fearing that if she does not exercise total controll over mind and body she will sucumb to the baser instincts of her orcish heritage. She adventures to test herself, in the that if she fails to controll the rage she will be far enough away from civilisation that no inocents will be hurt. Add to the background a schoolyard brawl which resulted in a teasing human child having his/her neck broken, and Shasken running away from the child's vengeful parents. The priests of St. Cuthbert then decided that the apropriate punishment would be a live of hardship and penance, and so had her trained in the Path of Righteous Virtues. A Hobgoblin Bard by the name of Kalyatan (a possible character for a 13th level evil campaign). Wears a mithral breastplate of command bearing the crest of the First Legion and carries twin short swords. With the fall of the Fortress of the Sands and the total victory of the Draken Emperor, the swollen legions are now an unsustainable expense, so many of the Empire's finest warriors and officers have instead decided upon a life as independant adventurers. He delights in his abilities as a teller of the Legion's history, and the history of the Draken goblinoids, and will laungh into a lengthly tale at any opportunity.
EvilDuck 07-02-05, 08:55 AM	I mourn the day when character concepts became synonymous with listing your character's core and prestige classes. I tend to completely separate classes from character concept, instead relying on the abilities of those classes to refect the skills and abilities I feel my character should have. Short version: I cherrypick like a fiend. Interesting character concepts: - A barbaric savant with an amazing intellect who learns the arts of wizardry to couple with his martial prowess. - A charming prince of a corrupt empire by day, a daring thief who robs his kingdom's coffers by night to help the poor and downtrodden - A sinister druid who prowls the world, using the forces of nature to ensnare the unsuspecting in choking vines and rend their flesh with the claws and briars of nature - An evoker who uses his destructive powers for good, blowing up evil things and mourning over the innocent who perish due to collateral damage :D
Kalanth 07-02-05, 09:06 AM	I mourn the day when character concepts became synonymous with listing your character's core and prestige classes. I tend to completely separate classes from character concept, instead relying on the abilities of those classes to refect the skills and abilities I feel my character should have. Short version: I cherrypick like a fiend. I look at it this way, in the 20 years I have been playing D&D I have had to make personal changes to adapt to the modern game. One of the more significant changes would be to blur the line between build and concept. In modern D&D, the 3.5 system can easily create a concept for a character out of the classes that you build. Now a days I create my characters concept and reflect that concept in character classes, no matter how abstract or **** pour they go together. Just call me Outliner. :)
Callista 07-02-05, 09:34 AM	I've always liked odd alignments for their races; they practically write their backstories for you: --Aasimar blackguard... your basic fallen hero --LG kobold cleric of Pelor (No kidding! I've thought of a backstory too...) --A Slayer of Domiel (good-aligned Assassin class) --an Evil character with low INT/WIS, who is completely unaware of the barbaric things he does... and goes completely to pieces over baby animals. (Think Thog from OOtS!). ...and halflings: --Halfling exotic weapon master, focusing on a really odd weapon like the net or whip-dagger --Halfling drunken master ...and undead: --Good-aligned Mummy cleric or dervish, especially if I can get the DM to allow the Pharaonic pantheon --Ghoul barbarian (CE, of course). Don't expect it to last long, but it'll be fun while it does... Mmm, decaying flesh. :P ...and, just for fun: --Kender. Definitely Kender. (Don't worry, I'll keep my borrowing to shiny things rather than expensive things... though that doesn't mean that the party bard mightn't lose his silver buttons more than once!) --An illusionist... maybe gnome. Or halfling, just because I like them so much. I want to try psionics, too; but I haven't got the book and haven't studied it, so naturally I don't know anything about them yet.
jukar 07-02-05, 10:37 AM	Interesting characters I have seen/played- -CE gnomish wizard who wants to eliminate all living things in the material plane and convert them to constructs- himself included. -TN Druid whose home was deforested, who travels the streets of the cities where the lumber from his trees was taken to take revenge on the harvesters. -NG Male Elan who was once a female human, and became a male elan after a terrible accident left his/her original body badly disfigured. -CG Celestial satyr bard that travels the planes fathering children and looking for beautiful women to woo. -CG Female human swashbuckler who was once a professional fencer, but after her husband (a controversial socialist author) was assassinated, she becomes a Robin-Hood type hero of the people who punishes the rich and seeks to give control of society back to the working class. -CN Favored soul of Olidammara/Sorcerer who is a notorious gambler and uses his divine and arcane powers to execute complicated cons, scams, and get-rich quick schemes as he travels from town to town. And as a joke- Intelligent, LG annelid monk/enlightened fist who squirms around and punishes random evil-doers- or at least those that would try and cut him in half to "see if each half would grow back into a new worm". That one was just awful, but I keep threatening my players with it- "If you guys can't know it off, I'm going to drop a 20th level earthworm monk on you, and you will rue the day!"
DragonDeadite 07-02-05, 11:13 AM	Okay... I noticed that someone had this and it was something that me and my fiance talked about last night. HOW does a Paladin suddenly start taking levels of Rogue? Honestly... what would cause that to happen? They'd have to stop taking levels of Pal. and start building rogue levels? And a Paladin that Sneak Attacks? I'm just REALLY having a hard time seeing that... "I am the ultimate good of the land! Here, let me slit your throat." Just something I thought was worth asking here...
Vapthorne 07-02-05, 11:28 AM	Okay... I noticed that someone had this and it was something that me and my fiance talked about last night. HOW does a Paladin suddenly start taking levels of Rogue? Honestly... what would cause that to happen? They'd have to stop taking levels of Pal. and start building rogue levels? And a Paladin that Sneak Attacks? I'm just REALLY having a hard time seeing that... "I am the ultimate good of the land! Here, let me slit your throat." Just something I thought was worth asking here... Well, it can work if you don't believe that "rogue = backstabbing killer". They are more than just sneak attacks. Since they are at best, skillful heroes, the concept can work best if you think of an investigator or detectives. A paladin/rogue would use his skills in Sense Motive, Gather Info., etc to rooted out hidden evil and bring them to justice thru smiting them or exposing them. The sneak attack is not cutting a person's throat; it's generally a strike to a person's weak spot. If using it on an evil foe will end the fight quicker and save the day, then it's not wrongful for a paladin to do so (in my eyes) any more than it would be for him to slash it with his greatsword. Also, look towards Complete Adventurers for the Shadowbane Inquistor or Book of Exhalted Deeds for Paladin/Rogue concepts.
Pax 07-02-05, 11:30 AM	I tend to completely separate classes from character concept, instead relying on the abilities of those classes to refect the skills and abilities I feel my character should have. Not always possible, though. Here's a concept I'm about to actuallyplay in an Eberron campaign, set in the city of Sharn: Korben d'Cannith [Human Artificer(6)], during the last years of the War, served in the armies of Cyre as a "warforged repair specialist", and as a maker of magic items of healing and repair. IOW, he was essentially a medic for the warforged, and a pharmacy for everyone. In the heat of war, especialy ... and even now, with the pressures of economics and limitations of high-level divine spellcasting ... many soldiers, otherwise healthy ahd hale in mind and body, are crippled by the loss of one or more limbs. Korben has ideas about that. Ideas involving grafting the parts and pieces of incomplete Warforged onto the bodies of these honorably-maimed veterans. Ideas, in fact, of outright replacing ANY lost body part ... and in the process, perhaps making the whole patient a bit faster, stronger, toughe, or otherwise improved. He hasn't gotten to the point of actual experiments. Yet. He's no fool, and knows he must understand Warforged construction far more than he already does, and probably will need to understand (demi)human physiology better, as well. To that end, after the war, he has emigrated to Sharn, and loosely aligned himself with Merrix d'Cannith, whose fathr and grandfather were so instrumental in creating the first Warforged. And, not incidentally, where thee is a steady flow of adventurers to and from X'endrick ... and a huge store of artifacts, research notes, adventurers' journals, and other accumulated treasures ... all sitting in the storerooms of the University's museum ... just waiting for the right hand, eye, and mind to be set upon them. Now, on the metagame level: yeah, the idea is to create a new feat, "Warforged Graft", and slowly work through the "research the formula for a new item" process over and over, refining the sorts of grafts that are possible until they can compare/compete with (for example) Undead Grafts in terms of utility and cost-effectiveness. Early grafts would be expensive, troublesome, and suffer serious drawbcks of some sort; these flaws would slowly fade and disappear as the base of knowledge and experience in making such things slowly grew. The build? Artificer to 9th level, Cannith Wand Adept to 12th, then back to Artificer through 20th level. If the game runs that long, of course.
Vicki Cadae 07-02-05, 12:09 PM	LN kobold who got in a bitter feud with his father and vowed to do anything possible to bring shame to him... so he started saving the lives of humans. He thinks of himself as a normal kobold who found a way to use humans as pawns to hurt his true enemy, and doesn't understand why humans make a big deal out of his "redemption." Was shocked when he stopped setting off Detect Evil spells. He doesn't care about any of it though, as long as his father keeps cursing the day he was hatched.
jukar 07-02-05, 12:10 PM	LN kobold who got in a bitter feud with his father and vowed to do anything possible to bring shame to him... so he started saving the lives of humans. He thinks of himself as a normal kobold who found a way to use humans as pawns to hurt his true enemy, and doesn't understand why humans make a big deal out of his "redemption." Was shocked when he stopped setting off Detect Evil spells. He doesn't care about any of it though, as long as his father keeps cursing the day he was hatched. *bows* In a world where everyone seems to want to make a good kobold, you have managed to make a good kobold that is still an awful little bugger at heart, and I love it!
GilaMonster 07-02-05, 12:45 PM	A rather strange one that I've been contemplating for a while... A bard who seldom, if ever speaks. (might be mute, might be a vow, might be just a personality quirk) Plays a flute and plays so well that she can use a tune as verbal components for spells. Part of me would love top try that, but I don't think I'm a good enough roleplayer to pull it off.
Edymnion 07-02-05, 12:56 PM	I've always liked odd alignments for their races; they practically write their backstories for youAh, but you see, when you do something like this, when the "odd combination" almost "writes the background for you", it doesn't mean its original, or even that good. What it means is that you're taking the stereotypes for those race/class combos and just writing them down. An Aasimar Blackguard? There's nothing really original with taking "Shining paladin of virtue, bad stuff happened, and now he's an evil SOB", all that does is take the stereotype of the Aasimar, then the stereotype of the Blackguard, and squishing them together. Race/Class combinations do not make for characters, characters make for race/class combinations. :)
astute1 07-02-05, 01:00 PM	Wow, there's a lot of people on here who are just way too uptight about "roleplaying" - Get a life, D&D is a wargame first, and an RPG second. If people's character concepts include working with class/race combos, then so be it. Anyway, here's some of my character concepts. We've been doing Eberron lately, and some of these might show up as NPCs in my campaign, if I don't get to run them as characters myself: 1. The Hellforged - A warforged hexblade/warlock, forged by the Lord of Blades using infernal power, but was too independent and broke away from the Lord's command. I'm fairly certain he's going to be a recurring villian in my current campaign. 2. Joris d'Jorasco - a halfling swashbuckler/rogue/dragonmark heir - a halfling swashbuckler is cool - especially one with magical powers. I know it's ripping off RA Salvatore a little bit, but, still cool. 3. Stiff Ricky Chen - a human monk - Using his "Thousand Dragon Fists Technique" and "Son of Dragons Kicks", Stiff Ricky fights the hoards of the Hobgoblins from the Shogunate of the Fallen Sun. Basically, a chop-socky martial arts character. 4. I have a few others I'd like to try out. I've still yet to play a real dwarven tank in 3rd edition, that seems like fun. I'd also like to try a con-artist half-elven bard.
jukar 07-02-05, 02:11 PM	Get a life, D&D is a wargame first, and an RPG second. Actually, no it's not. It's not at all. It's an RPG- no, it's the PREMIER RPG. If it were a war game above all, they would have marketed it as a war game, and wouldn't have insisted on calling it a roleplaying game and emphasizing the roleplaying aspects for 30 some years. All in all, thought, neat concepts. I like the Hellforged myself. I agree, sometimes a class/race combo is an integral part of the concept, but not always. A half celestial warlock, while a bit cliche, would serve as a concept for a character and have am impact on that character's story (but wouldn't have to be the center of the character's concept), whereas a halfling rogue is trivial and unimaginative. It's kind of like the Ms. Swan sketches on Mad TV where she only describes people by saying they "look like a man". At that point it isn't really a character and is just a status block.
JonnyBoy 07-02-05, 04:43 PM	The purpose of DnD is to have fun. Play it the way you think it's fun. Be it a wargame or a roleplaying game. What I don't like, is people getting mad at others because of what they think or believe or....whatever...geez
EvilDuck 07-02-05, 07:02 PM	Okay... I noticed that someone had this and it was something that me and my fiance talked about last night. HOW does a Paladin suddenly start taking levels of Rogue? Honestly... what would cause that to happen? They'd have to stop taking levels of Pal. and start building rogue levels? And a Paladin that Sneak Attacks? I'm just REALLY having a hard time seeing that... "I am the ultimate good of the land! Here, let me slit your throat." Just something I thought was worth asking here... Sneak Attack doesn't equal slitting a throat. It means either catching your opponent off guard due to suprise, folly, or tactical position. I'm hoping a paladin isn't dumb enough to say "I can't hit you until you're not flat-footed, Demon Prince Orcus"
WCH 07-03-05, 12:58 AM	One thing I've been noticing lately is that many Prestige Classes essentially are character concepts -- certainly now that there are so freaking many of them, when you combine all the Complete books (my gaming group just aquired the three we didn't have before) and everything else. The PrC description typically includes some elements of backstory, generally at least *feels* unique, and is largely flavour based. Take almost any PrC from the Complete Cycle and you've basically got at least one character who writes himself, and will be very interesting -- at least the first time the PCs meet one, that is. Once the PCs are familiar with the PrC, either through reading it over more than once or through encountering several, it becomes old news. In a way, it isn't really anything about the "stereotypical Blackguard." Rather, it's the other way around: the blackguard is the adaptation to the rules of the stereotypical fallen hero. That's just how PrCs work, and most of the time that leads to good roleplaying. @Hodo I feel I should clarify: we didn't kick him out because he wanted to play a character named Dr. Phil. Rather, he routinely demonstrated that he didn't really care for the game and didn't intend to take it seriously (the Dr. Phil thing being an example... other characters of his that I can think of were an Oprah and a Nemo). In general he was just a bad roleplayer, so that was it. Also, I don't even mind that you'd use a name like Lando -- it's a pretty sweet name. What ticked me off about your "concept" was the idea of an obese elven crimelord named Jabba. If you took the exact same backstory, changed your name, removed him being obese and changed his name, and then replaced "shots were fired" with "blows were exchanged" or something more setting appropriate, it'd be a perfectly good backstory. It just seems like you aren't even trying.
Agent Rasp 07-03-05, 08:48 PM	Paladin/Rogue: As Vapthorne and EvilDuck have already pointed out, this class combo can work pretty well. Skills Many of a rogue's skills have potential combat applications, and the Charisma-based ones only benefit from the typical paladin's above-average ability score. Most of the Charisma skills are also useful for avoiding unnecessary bloodshed (be it through Bluffing, Diplomacy, Disguise, or Intimidation), which is in keeping with a paladin's oath to act with honor and respect authority. Admittedly, Bluffing and Disguises would have to be carefully used: lying is dishonorable, but a wise paladin would know to be discrete in situations where speaking the entire truth is unadviseable; similarly, Disguising himself to pose as another individual would be dishonest, but simply altering his appearance to be difficult to recognize could be very wise, especially if keeping a low profile prevents harm coming to the innocent people around him. The abundance of skill points also helps to fight the "lawful stupid" stereotype, presenting a paladin who can live by his wits just as well as his sword and his faith. Sneak Attack In mechanical terms, a paladin's higher BAB means he's more likely to strike with sneak attacks than a straightforward rogue of the same character level. Access to martial weapons lets him dish out more damage than a rogue's knives or shortsword (even more so if he's got decent Strength, which most pallies do), which makes up a bit for the loss of extra sneak attack damage. Now add smite evil on top of that. Flavorwise, sneak attacks can work for several reasons. There's nothing chaotic or evil about fighting smart and striking at your enemy's weak points; if anything, such precise and planned attacks seem more inherently lawful than randomly flailing your sword around trying to land a blow, and just because a paladin has such an ability doesn't mean he has to use it in every fight. Also, sneak attacks can be made nonlethal with a sap or an unarmed strike. A paladin who wears his foe down by the blade, knocks him cold with a well-placed punch, and then hands him over to the authorities for trial is behaving more lawfully and goodly than another paladin who simply cuts the evildoer to pieces. And who knows? While the lost soul is in his custody, the paladin may be able to convince him of the error of his ways -or at least get him to own up to his latest nefarious deed. Other Rogue Abilities Trapfinding can be helpful if the paladin's Search and Disable Device skills are high enough. Trap sense and uncanny dodge are pluses for any character, and the paladin can even use them in heavy armor. Evasion suffers in that respect, but it's sweet for a lightly armored, reasonably dextrous and charismatic individual with Divine Grace. _______________ All of that having been said, if you still don't believe that a paladin can sneak attack, there's a simple answer: use the UA rogue variant that swaps out its sneak attack ability to gain figher bonus feats at every other level. Skillful fighting machine. I may just have to sit down and concoct a paladin/rogue after all this...
20goingon1232 07-03-05, 09:06 PM	I'm glad I don't play with your group then. My DM didn't like the name Lando either, so we worked it out. I got to remain Lando, but changed my name in every town we went to. We never made Star Wars jokes either. It worked out fine. The story does fall within the "man with a price on his head" group. You'd be hardpressed to find a background story that doesn't involve... Former royalty Outcast at home Home destroyed/Revenge Trained by wise/skilled mentor Searching for fame, riches, ultimate challenge, knowledge Playing the opposite of what you'd think the class or race would Etc etc Many of the more "original" plots do little more than mix a couple of these together and add some exotic race or class. What stands them apart is usually the details, and how the character actually responds to these series of events. My character ended up being nothing like Lando or Han. Well, I guess sending the party to try to stop the Evil guys from getting some artifacts first by getting it themselves is a bit blase, too, huh?