neutral Warden - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

neutral Warden

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
gedaning
Apr 13, 2009 1:24:00 Im making a warden for a new group, i wanted to create a character who's main concern is money and more money because im not that great at creating and rping good characters, i guess you could call it a neutral character depending on who you ask. Howerver, im not sure if you can justify that kind of warden becaue of that the warden stand for.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how i could justify a warden that mostly cares about money after his own life and perhaps his companion's lives? Or is there no really reasonable justification?
#2
baneofelves
Apr 13, 2009 1:43:44 I honestly can't think of why a guardian of nature would behave in such a way. You say that you aren't a good roleplayer, but if you never give yourself a roleplaying challenge, you'll always be that way. Make this character different from you in so many ways. It's a good exercise (one that I am in the middle of in my game.) Don't worry if you accidentally get out of character, it's a learning experience.
#3
gedaning
Apr 13, 2009 2:00:14 ok that makes sense i do need to get better at playing good characters iv im pretty good at neutral or evil characters but not so much as good characters.
#4
baneofelves
Apr 13, 2009 2:15:17 then make a good character. Some good examples to draw from would be Hank Hill (from King of The Hill.) or maybe a comic book superhero, like Batman or Spider Man. Try to find good examples of true heroes in movies, or books, or videogames or whatever, and try to find things to adapt into your character. Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia is another good example to work with.
#5
gedaning
Apr 13, 2009 3:10:08 I was thinking of making a character that does what he thinks is right and what he thinks protects his companions the best, if that means braking a law that he feels is unjust or puts his companions in undue danger then he does not really have a problem with that. I don't know that that is called but i guess it does not really matter since you start out unaligned.
#6
johnnii
Apr 13, 2009 4:22:22 My honest opinion for you is to not let the alignment get in the way. Remove all notions of chaos, law, good and evil for a moment, while you imagine your character and his personality. Think of how he would react to a couple of situations (such as friends in danger, being insulted etc) and how his personality is (outgoing, silent, impulsive etc).

THEN you compare your character to a fitting alignment.
#7
The_White_Sorcerer
Apr 13, 2009 4:46:58 Sure, be neutral (or unaligned), knock yourself out. However,

a character who's main concern is money and more money

doesn't equal neutral.
#8
Duskweaver
Apr 13, 2009 6:08:43
doesn't equal neutral.

Sure it does. What people seem to forget is that most people in our world would be neutral (or unaligned) in D&D alignment terms. Truly good and evil people (in D&D terms) are the rare extremes.

Just trying to get by and maybe take care of your family or do right by your friends? That's neutral.

A life of petty crime, but you'd never actually physically hurt anybody (but nor would you risk your own skin to save them)? Neutral.

A hard-bitten mercenary, loyal to his comrades-in-arms and merciless to his foes? Neutral.

Being selfish and money-grubbing doesn't mean you're evil.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how i could justify a warden that mostly cares about money after his own life and perhaps his companion's lives?

Sure. Take that hard-bitten mercenary above. Say on his last job, he was hired to protect some woodsmen clearing a patch of supposedly 'haunted' forest. The primal spirit guardians of the forest didn't take kindly to having their sacred grove chopped down. During the fight, some of the spirits tried to possess your character and somehow ended up trapped inside him. He can use some of their primal powers to help him fight better, but he's still basically a guy who fights for money, with no inclination at all to 'protect nature'.

A class is a set of mechanics, not a roleplaying straightjacket.
#9
Nyarlathotep
Apr 13, 2009 14:59:43 Here's a few more.

1) He really is guardian of nature, but figures that the more money he has, the more resources he will have to do his job. ANd if that just happens to benefit him a bit, well.....

2) The whole money thing and the guardian of nature thing are just seperate facets of his personality. He feels strongly about guarding nature but grew up either fantastically wealthy (and is thus used to the good life) or desperately poor (and never wants to go back to that again) and doesn't see a dichotomy between protecting nature and making some coin.

3) He came from some little village out int eh middle of nowhere and is really more that village's protector than anture in general. And since the village is really impoverished, he wants to make money to improve the lot of his kinsmen. And again, if he happens to benefit as well, he is fine with it.
#10
gedaning
Apr 13, 2009 18:14:51 well I'm going to play a good character, because iv never really played a good character so i need the practice at lest so i can play the good npc's in my campaign. He does what he thinks i right but his main concern is protecting his companions, so he does not have a problem if has to brake a law or two if he thinks it is necessary to protect his companions and these he cares about.
#11
kaius_markades
Apr 13, 2009 18:27:12
well I'm going to play a good character, because iv never really played a good character so i need the practice at lest so i can play the good npc's in my campaign. He does what he thinks i right but his main concern is protecting his companions, so he does not have a problem if has to brake a law or two if he thinks it is necessary to protect his companions and these he cares about.

I think you should make him care about the law, and be hesitant to break it at first but will do it if it is the only way to protect his friends. If he can't find another way to do it, he'll do it because "there was no other way to help them" not because he "didn't care about any other ways to help them". Because the latter still feels Unaligned to me.
#12
gedaning
Apr 13, 2009 18:54:55 o i agree that is what i ment i probably said it wrong he generally respects the law and tries to solve problems within the law whenever possible. However if there really is no other was to protect his friends without braking the law then he will do that but he will try his hardest to find a way within the law.
#13
zesty_chicken
Apr 13, 2009 20:11:34
Im making a warden for a new group, i wanted to create a character who's main concern is money and more money because im not that great at creating and rping good characters, i guess you could call it a neutral character depending on who you ask. Howerver, im not sure if you can justify that kind of warden becaue of that the warden stand for.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how i could justify a warden that mostly cares about money after his own life and perhaps his companion's lives? Or is there no really reasonable justification?

Well, if wardens are gardians of nature, there is more than one way to defend nature. For instance, your character could be obsessed with getting lots of money and using some of that money to buy good items to defend nature with.

This made me think of Red Mage from 8-bit theater. He actually has some good ideas that I use for some of my PCs/NPCs.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 gedaning Apr 13, 2009 1:24:00	Im making a warden for a new group, i wanted to create a character who's main concern is money and more money because im not that great at creating and rping good characters, i guess you could call it a neutral character depending on who you ask. Howerver, im not sure if you can justify that kind of warden becaue of that the warden stand for. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how i could justify a warden that mostly cares about money after his own life and perhaps his companion's lives? Or is there no really reasonable justification?
#2 baneofelves Apr 13, 2009 1:43:44	I honestly can't think of why a guardian of nature would behave in such a way. You say that you aren't a good roleplayer, but if you never give yourself a roleplaying challenge, you'll always be that way. Make this character different from you in so many ways. It's a good exercise (one that I am in the middle of in my game.) Don't worry if you accidentally get out of character, it's a learning experience.
#3 gedaning Apr 13, 2009 2:00:14	ok that makes sense i do need to get better at playing good characters iv im pretty good at neutral or evil characters but not so much as good characters.
#4 baneofelves Apr 13, 2009 2:15:17	then make a good character. Some good examples to draw from would be Hank Hill (from King of The Hill.) or maybe a comic book superhero, like Batman or Spider Man. Try to find good examples of true heroes in movies, or books, or videogames or whatever, and try to find things to adapt into your character. Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia is another good example to work with.
#5 gedaning Apr 13, 2009 3:10:08	I was thinking of making a character that does what he thinks is right and what he thinks protects his companions the best, if that means braking a law that he feels is unjust or puts his companions in undue danger then he does not really have a problem with that. I don't know that that is called but i guess it does not really matter since you start out unaligned.
#6 johnnii Apr 13, 2009 4:22:22	My honest opinion for you is to not let the alignment get in the way. Remove all notions of chaos, law, good and evil for a moment, while you imagine your character and his personality. Think of how he would react to a couple of situations (such as friends in danger, being insulted etc) and how his personality is (outgoing, silent, impulsive etc). THEN you compare your character to a fitting alignment.
#7 The_White_Sorcerer Apr 13, 2009 4:46:58	Sure, be neutral (or unaligned), knock yourself out. However, a character who's main concern is money and more money doesn't equal neutral.
#8 Duskweaver Apr 13, 2009 6:08:43	doesn't equal neutral. Sure it does. What people seem to forget is that most people in our world would be neutral (or unaligned) in D&D alignment terms. Truly good and evil people (in D&D terms) are the rare extremes. Just trying to get by and maybe take care of your family or do right by your friends? That's neutral. A life of petty crime, but you'd never actually physically hurt anybody (but nor would you risk your own skin to save them)? Neutral. A hard-bitten mercenary, loyal to his comrades-in-arms and merciless to his foes? Neutral. Being selfish and money-grubbing doesn't mean you're evil. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how i could justify a warden that mostly cares about money after his own life and perhaps his companion's lives? Sure. Take that hard-bitten mercenary above. Say on his last job, he was hired to protect some woodsmen clearing a patch of supposedly 'haunted' forest. The primal spirit guardians of the forest didn't take kindly to having their sacred grove chopped down. During the fight, some of the spirits tried to possess your character and somehow ended up trapped inside him. He can use some of their primal powers to help him fight better, but he's still basically a guy who fights for money, with no inclination at all to 'protect nature'. A class is a set of mechanics, not a roleplaying straightjacket.
#9 Nyarlathotep Apr 13, 2009 14:59:43	Here's a few more. 1) He really is guardian of nature, but figures that the more money he has, the more resources he will have to do his job. ANd if that just happens to benefit him a bit, well..... 2) The whole money thing and the guardian of nature thing are just seperate facets of his personality. He feels strongly about guarding nature but grew up either fantastically wealthy (and is thus used to the good life) or desperately poor (and never wants to go back to that again) and doesn't see a dichotomy between protecting nature and making some coin. 3) He came from some little village out int eh middle of nowhere and is really more that village's protector than anture in general. And since the village is really impoverished, he wants to make money to improve the lot of his kinsmen. And again, if he happens to benefit as well, he is fine with it.
#10 gedaning Apr 13, 2009 18:14:51	well I'm going to play a good character, because iv never really played a good character so i need the practice at lest so i can play the good npc's in my campaign. He does what he thinks i right but his main concern is protecting his companions, so he does not have a problem if has to brake a law or two if he thinks it is necessary to protect his companions and these he cares about.
#11 kaius_markades Apr 13, 2009 18:27:12	well I'm going to play a good character, because iv never really played a good character so i need the practice at lest so i can play the good npc's in my campaign. He does what he thinks i right but his main concern is protecting his companions, so he does not have a problem if has to brake a law or two if he thinks it is necessary to protect his companions and these he cares about. I think you should make him care about the law, and be hesitant to break it at first but will do it if it is the only way to protect his friends. If he can't find another way to do it, he'll do it because "there was no other way to help them" not because he "didn't care about any other ways to help them". Because the latter still feels Unaligned to me.
#12 gedaning Apr 13, 2009 18:54:55	o i agree that is what i ment i probably said it wrong he generally respects the law and tries to solve problems within the law whenever possible. However if there really is no other was to protect his friends without braking the law then he will do that but he will try his hardest to find a way within the law.
#13 zesty_chicken Apr 13, 2009 20:11:34	Im making a warden for a new group, i wanted to create a character who's main concern is money and more money because im not that great at creating and rping good characters, i guess you could call it a neutral character depending on who you ask. Howerver, im not sure if you can justify that kind of warden becaue of that the warden stand for. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how i could justify a warden that mostly cares about money after his own life and perhaps his companion's lives? Or is there no really reasonable justification? Well, if wardens are gardians of nature, there is more than one way to defend nature. For instance, your character could be obsessed with getting lots of money and using some of that money to buy good items to defend nature with. This made me think of Red Mage from 8-bit theater. He actually has some good ideas that I use for some of my PCs/NPCs.