Topical Tuesday: Your Favorite D&D Character

[DeGoon]

Name:Amok
Race:Half-Ogre
Class:Assassin
Backstory:Originally created for a joke campaign to see the absurd layout of our DM. A low intelligence and some Warhammer scatter dice led to some interesting situations to see what he was going to do that day. The only real backstory we could come up with was his mother got around a lot.
Campaign:Quite a few, since our games consisted of people trying different tactics to our ever-changing DM's game types. They liked having a big guy that could survive most everything thrown at him.
Edition: AD&D and an attempted remake in 2nd and 3.5 (Both editions had to change his class to a warrior/barbarian hybrid)
Plot: *roll % dice* He's going fishing in the desert, and he's taking the goat with him in case it rains.

 

[Naheal]

Name: Naheal Malastar (hence the username. I played this character long and well enough that people just started calling me "Naheal" irl)

Race: Human, Bloodline of Fire
Class: Sorcerer/Wizard/Master Arcanist/Archmage
Backstory: Long and complicated. He started as a mercenary within Waterdeep, but moved on from there to further his experience as a Sorcerer. He's currently retired somewhere near lvl 32.

Campaign: Began as Forgotten Realms. Moved from there to Dragonlance, then Eberron.
Edition: 3.5

 

[chantzzzzz]

Name: Toran Firaq

Race: Human

Class: Cleric 7/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3

Backstory: Didn't really have one. Though he replaced a horribly ill-conceived cleric of Kord who was entirely useless and didn't do the party any good in a very plot-convenient way.
Campaign: We were trying to retrieve several books of very powerful arcane secrets for a patron while another rival group was trying to do the same.

Edition: 3.5

Plot: This guy basically served as "super-cleric" and was so far min-maxed towards healing it wasn't funny. Bonuses alone tended to double the healing magic potential of any spell. He also mistakenly converted a small group of lizardfolk to a religion centered around himself rather than Pelor, which was a bit of a problem.

 

[Draksila]

Name: Nimgal Nuuris-Va (He earned his surname through a particularly memorable bluff wherein he pretended to be an intelligent magic item.)

Race: Kobold

Class: Warrior (Granted, he had a level cap... but he stood his ground surprisingly well even once everyone else was half again his level. Magic items and a tight focus on his proficiency build assured that he remained relevant.)

Backstory: Born to a lowly raiding kobold tribe near human lands, Nimgal wasn't the strongest or toughest of his kin. What he was, however, was clever even by kobold standards and quick of both wit and limb. Still, he showed no aptitude as a shaman, no skill for magic, and held disdain for the crude weapons used by his kin. As such he was on the business end of a huge amount of insults and derision. He was given menial tasks below his intelligence and never did rise in station, both due to his lack of 'useful skills' and due to his willingness to point out the mistakes of his 'betters.'

All of that changed when the tribe captured a young human woman one evening. The only survivor of a caravan to the nearby human cities, the woman was kept alive because she dressed well and was attractive by human standards. In a moment of brilliance, the raid leader assumed she must be a noble and a ransom could be had from her. Nimgal got stuck with guard duty for the human and, bored, began to converse with her. He found out she was no noble but a wandering musician with a few tricks up her sleeve, not that they were that useful to her at that moment. Over the course of a few days she told him of her travels and he shared with her some of the ideas and dreams he'd had that his elders found odd and shameful. Honestly alerting her that if noone would ransom her they'd end up eating her, Nimgal offered to release the bard if she agreed to take him with her on her travels.

Campaign: I honestly can't remember if it was Forgotten Realms or homebrew. We only used those two options or Ravenloft (which only I ran), so it had to be one or the other.

Edition: 2nd

Plot: The story revolved around an ancient white dragon that was bringing a new ice age to the planet. Nimgal found himself travelling with a group of heroes that grew more and more embroiled in the plots of the dragon's minions. Due to his quick wit and his constant drive to prove that he was something more than the tribe of brigands he left behind, he eventually came to be seen by the oracles as the Chosen champion of the group who was destined to battle the beast. Unfortunately, as happens so many times in tabletop gaming, life intervened and the game broke up before we got to the end of the campaign story arc.

On a more personal level, Nimgal's own plotline involved a need to make himself more than just a kobold. While he occasionally used his race to his advantage in battle (he had short sword grand mastery, and knew that no sane enemy would expect that of a kobold), he both wanted to prove that he was better than the kin who had shunned him and he wanted to walk the streets of human cities without hiding in the folds of a deep cloak and heavy gloves and pretending he was a halfling (his usual disguise). While he never gained that level of acceptance while the campaign was going, his roleplayed desire to do something with himself coupled with a slow transition from Neutral with Evil tendencies to Neutral Good assured that there were many temples and adventurer's hangouts that gladly took him in by the time our group fell apart.

 

[nubmoo]

Name: Tuck Neverlasting (I was 8 and had just read a buck called Tuck Everlasting)
Race: Elf(I think)
Class: Druid
Backstory: ...he was a druid (I was eight, eight year olds aren't so good at backstory)
Plot: It was a 3.0(I think, sorry, memory is not so good) campaign run by my mother. Due to short attention spans, we never got very far in the campaign. However, it did feature one of the more traumatizing moments from my childhood.
My character had a wolf animal companion, named Speedy. My mother was determined not to go easy on my sister and I despite the fact hat we were both quite young at the time. We did pretty well with our characters both almost dying a couple of times. However, at one point we were in a church that had some tunnels that went underground. We went underground. There were ants, they swarmed all over over our players, and we ran.
Unfortunately, Speedy did not make it. I remember almost crying as in my mind, speedy was *my* pet. Also, due to the fact that my mom had not played D&D sine collage, she was not aware of the druid rules for getting new animal companions, so I was stuck without a pet.

 

[LadyRhian]

Name; Zenobia
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Backstory: This was Basic D&D- my group wasn't concerned with Backstory.
Campaign: The Summer Camp D&D players
Edition: Original D&D, aka Basic set
Plot: Zenobia, she of the flaming red hair, was a Lawful Good fighter in a group which originally included 2 Chaotic Elves. When they sought to kill everyone in the Keep on the Borderlands and sack it, she acted, taking the last watch that night, waiting until the two elves were asleep and riding out for the Keep to warn them. This led to the death of her companions, but she was not sad, and ended up with a new group who proceeded to clean out the Caves of Chaos one by one.

After this, the party took on the Stronghold of Roghan and Zelligar, two adventurers who had disappeared many years previously, and somewhere in the middle of the module, the summer ended and so Zenobia became my character of choice to play in pick-up games. She went on many adventures, and when AD&D was released, I transferred her over to that system, still with her 14 Strength. By now, she had, literally, half a million gold pieces worth of wealth, so when our DM took us on an adventure that had us going to realm of the Gods, she attempted to get rid of it all in a slot machine in the hall of the God of Gambling. By rolling 3 8's in a row, I got 1000x my wealth back, and the experience to boot (hey, we didn't know better at the time), making my character 1102nd level. After that, my character claimed her place as Goddess of Fighters and I retired the character. Once, she showed up as a Goddess in one of my homebrew campaigns and was still kick-ass, having a sword that was +14 to hit and +25 to damage, named Foesmasher.

And yes, she was Lawful Good. When I read the game book, I realized that the alignment chart had two axes- Lawful-Chaotic and Good-Evil. I chose for her to be Lawful and Good.

My second favorite character was Lorianne Areen, from one of my homebrew campaigns.

Name: Lorianne Areen
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Backstory: Lorianne came from a race of humans who had once interbred with Giants. They were completely human, but tended to be much taller than other humans. Women tended to be about 6' tall, while men were about 7' tall. She was 6'4 and a strapping warrior with an 18/99 strength. She came from a small village and was very, very good with Sword and Longbow. Her parents were the mayor and headwoman of a small town, and she was one of 8 siblings, most of whom led non-adventuring lives.
Campaign: Homebrew in a world of my own creation. Her homeland was Deore, and it was near another land named after the land of a friend of mine from his own campaign named Silvercrane. I still have the maps and everything... somewhere in my attic.
Edition: 1st and 2nd.
Plots: Lorianne rose from obscurity to become one of the foremost champions in her kingdom, taking part in the raiding of the Dark Druid's tower, Destroying a temple to Elemental Evil and the uncovering of a long-sunken ship mysteriously preserved by time. Granted a patent of nobility by the King of Deore, Lorianne is still a tireless fighter of evl, donating generously to the city guard to aid in the prevention of crime. Her retainers often volunteer in the city guard, and wear a most recognizable costume- of midnight blue silk tunice embroidered with her crest in silver thread, full length blue wool capes lined in gray and silver-embroidered Blue leather gloves. In the winter, their capes are of silver fox fur lined in deep blue wool. She is still alive, and still adventuring with her all-female adventuring group, including Zenobia-i-Kalo, a Mage of Acis (another country in my world), Ingrid "The Good" Moonsinger, a cleric of Glina, her sworn Henchman, a female Barbarian named Khirsa, Benedicta Jerel, a elf fighter/mage, Theodosia Clydell, a Ranger who is a noblewoman, another Barbarian, Katla "Fair Hair" Thrainsdottar and a Gypsy Bard, Zahrah Haroer.

 

[ultrachicken]

Name: Kittens XVI
Race: Dwarf
Class: Didn't have one yet

Backstory: Born in a mining city, but left to search for fame and glory. He met up with a sissy elf, a hobbit and a human.

Edition: Original

Kittens XVI was the ugliest man you ever saw. He was practically medusa. But he could also slice through both your kneecaps before you even noticed him draw his axe.

Yeah, he's not that exciting, but that was the only D&D character I've made.

 

[Lawyer105]

Name : al'Hakeem
Race : Human
Class : Technically Bard - Practically, merchant and general all around nuisance
Campaign : GM's homebrew world
Edition : 3.5

Backstory : Will sell anything to anyone. To minimise party disruptions, I persuaded the DM to let me have a "Bag of Stuff TM". I received half gold/loot rewards, and in return, I have a 5%-75% chance (dependant on the rarity of the item) of pulling something useful out of the Bag to use/sell as appropriate.

Favourite moments :
1. Selling jars of 'monster repellent' ointment (really just some goop I'd picked up somewhere) to a party member for a huge pile of gold... right before we encountered golems that only attacked you if you attacked them! The GM had planned 'em from way back (knowing our party tendency to simply mash enemies into the ground), and was busy while I was conducting this trade! Imagine his confusion when the player (who was hiding in a corner) pipes up about how well the 'monster repellent' is working!

2. Selling a 'flying carpet' to a stupid barbarian (through good use of a levitation scroll). And then persuading him (when he came back to complain it didn't work) that, because he hadn't signed up for the lessons and licencing fees, he was not a qualified 'Carpet Pilot' so the carpet wouldn't respond to him. Rolled out the carpet and took him for a spin (ala Levitation spell) and managed to con him into buying the 'lessons and licencing' it took to make the carpet go.

 

[Samwise137]

Oh god, this takes me back to pimply, peanut-butter soaked, lunchroom afternoons in High School...
Name: Burlok Dammodson
Race: Dwarf
Class: Fighter
Backstory: A magic-hating Dwarf modeled after the Warhammer traditions (though, dwarf runic magic is acceptable). On one of his adventures, he found a runesword which when swung in a rapid circle would turn him into a living fireball. Despite his distrust of magic and all things magic related, he has been known to trust bardic magic insomuch as he will reluctantly adventure with purveyors of such arts and even assist bards by supplying them with stories on which to base their songs. He still "lives" and occasionally makes appearances as an NPC in games run by my friends (I got out of the game when I went off to college).
Edition: 3

 

[The Code]

Sue the Bleached
male half-orc rogue, 7' 3" tall, true albino
Weapon of choice: Dwarven Urgosh
Owns a canteloupe sized rust monster, "Rusty"
Rusty has no antennae as regular rust monsters do, saliva acts as rusting agent, can spit up to 20 feet distance. Able to glow oxidized copper blue at will, equal light as a standard torch.

Favorite moment: watching a friend's high-elf rogue fall from a tree on a critical fail, other friend greasing the trunk of said tree so friend 1 couldn't get his longbow that got stuck in the branches.

I love D&D 3.5 so much... XD

 

[Stublore]

Name:Ron the Ranger
Race:Human
Class:Ranger
Backstory: Too long to remember, find some evil ppl, make them dead.
Campaign:Homebrew
Edition:AD+D 2nd Edition
Plot:One of my first forays into RPGs.
I forget the reasons exactly, but the party were looking in some ruins(as you do), for some bad dudes. On entering a room Ron fails a saving throw and gets killed by a trap. In the next room are some bad ass, vicious, evil, bad tempered dogs. My fellow adventurers come up with a cunning plan!
Ron the Ranger is butchered and thrown to the dogs!
Party continues on while poor old Ron is devoured by the dogs.
(Shortly after this I became the resident DM, and some time later showed my player why it's always a BAD idea to force a DM to play when he doesn't want to, but that's another story )

 

[Jakeli]

I'm tied between my guy and an npc

my guy
Name: Azrael Mordicai
Race: Human
Class: Monk
Backstory: orphan raised by an elven con artist with his cousin, Altair. While running from a group of justicars he broke into a temple of "Dr. Hax." Upon being found by the head monk and trained to be their disciple after saving them from reavers. Twelve years later he embarks on a quest to find his cousin and his own destiny.
Campaign: Save the world (what else?)
Edition: 3.5
Plot: find the people responsible for the invasion of Behemoth followers (subplot: Azrael loses his sanity after saving an tainted half demon)

npc
Name: Finnegan (Finny) Flanderstone
Race: Gnome
Class: sorceror/fighter/diety
Backstory: He wants the shiny, and he'll kill you if you judge him
Campaign: all of them
Edition: 3.5
Plot: don't judge him.

 

[Hertzey]

Name: Nothing (Path)
Race: Tiefling
Class: Rouge
Backstory: Nothing is a twin, whose father attempted to send his two daughters to a neighboring dimension. The twin was stuck in the portal for 6 years until rescued, she is my other character named Something. Arriving no where near where she should have been Nothing has been ridiculed for most of her life. She started stealing at a young age and at the age of 10 was adopted by a halfling thief. She learned how to disguise herself and how best to pick locks and pockets. When she was 20 her master was killed by the town gang. Unlike most heroes, the masters death had no effect on Nothing. She understood her masters mistakes, grieved and moved on. Five years later she joined a group of adventures, she is still with that group.

Nothing's last name of path is a joke between my brother and I. Our father played D&D a long time ago. His favorite character was a were-bear named Julune Pathfinder. We decided to be decedents of Julune. My brothers character carries the last name Finder.
Campaign: Custom build
Edition: 4E
Plot: After traveling to a neighbor dimension, we have set out to free the land from a massive group of Tiefling Warlocks.

 

[David Farnell]

I honestly can barely remember any D&D character before the one I'm running now (a human CN rogue who, after a tragedy, joined a monastery, become a monk, and reformed to LG).

But I can remember some awesome Call of Cthulhu characters. They might not have lived long, but something about that game promoted creation of much more interesting characters than D&D ever has for me.

 

[h0wdyth3r3]

Namearigno

Race:Human
Class:Wizard

Back story:A psychotic pyromaniac had a tortured childhood. Quickly discovered the secrets to fire. Started burning things.

Campaign:Improvised setting based on Ravnica from Magic: the Gathering

Edition:3.5 (with house rules)

Plot: Parigno was a brilliant individual, but horribly twisted. As a former rules lawyer I played this character quite effectively within rules of the game, Taking every possible bonus I could eke out. I remember taunting (with good sportsmanship) the other players at the table by intentionally selecting a sub-standard feat choice called Color Spell. It changes the color of your spells. Nothing more than that. No gameplay benefit. Nothing. But it was EPIC. I started hurling green fireballs instead of red ones and shouting at the top of my lungs "GREEN FIRE BURNS THROUGH ANYTHING" with an insane maniacal laugh; or pink ones screaming "WANNA BECOME A PINK FLAMER?!" Really good times at the D&D table. Dungeon master hated me, but really good times.

 

[Your once and future Fanboy]

Name: "Oni" (not real name, real name unknown)
race: half-orc
class: barbarian
backstory: waking up in a torched, body-littered city, a half-orc finds himself wit5h no recollection of events past. With only his broken armor, a bloodstained katana and a oriental demon-mask, he travels to search for any clue to his own identity, what happened in this city littered with over a thousand corpses and to be rid off this feeling of shame by being a vigilante.

campaign: standard D&D 3.5 with some influences from oriental adventures
Edition: D&D 3.5 with some elements from the Green Ronin 3.0 books (the quintessential books)

 

[unclediddles]

Ard Rhys (Ardie)
Lizardfolk
Druid
Different philosophical beliefs resulted in exile from tribe. Went on to meet other party memebers.
Age of Worms
3.5
TPK in a sunken warehouse. However, thanks to his ability to hold his breath for 46 rounds he swam away avoiding the death of the party members.

 

[Whitewillow]

my favourite character is the first one I made when I was about ten. We had a very patient and imaginative teenager as a DM.

Name: Starshine
Race: Fairy (but a four foot tall fairy)
Backstory: Got bored, went adventuring
Class: ranger
Campaign: I don't think we ever got that far
Edition: A mish-mash of 1st and 2nd

Plot: It was pretty much a bunch of short storylines that Shannon strung together to keep us entertained. I was 10 and my brother was eight, so it wasn't easy to keep us interested in long convoluted story lines for very long. But I remember having an absolute blast during the time we played.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Name: Agren
Race: Catfolk
Class: Monk
Backstory: a robin hood of sorts, took a Vow of Poverty so he gives all items and money to the needy. Was on a quest to put a stop to the bandits attacking a town and return the stolen items when he met the rest of the party with a similar goal in mind.
Campaign: made up
Edition: 3.5

Plot: Fighting a group of bandits who had strong political ties when it was discovered that the cities emperor was trying to open a demon tower to hell and whoever sat in the throne controlled the minions of hell at the cost of their soul. The emperor's assistant, a monk named LaMonte (who we played out as being an old rival of my monk), back stabbed the Emperor and took the tower for himself (yes, his campaign was influenced by FF3 a bit). Our group fought LaMonte, but before he died he jumped from the top of the tower and the tower collapsed. We awoke in the depths of hell but made it to the surface to find the world, 60 years later, ravaged by rampant demons led by the LaMonte (Now a demon god).

Unfortunately our group has been on a temporary hiatus for about a month now. Agren was the 2nd character I made (1st being an elven ranger who died during the second session). I love Agren because he is a bad ass, cat-person combination of chuck norris and robin hood.

 

[Kelethor]

Name: Ezekiel "Zeke" Rockson
Race: Human
Class: Swashbuckler
Backstory: Zeke had been born to poor parents in the slums of Port Wistfulness (yes, really). When he was five his parents - unable to support him and his three siblings (two brothers, one sister, he was the second child) his parents offloaded them onto the local church. Two years later, Zeke ran away from his new 'home' and stowed away on a merchant vessel bound for southern lands of exotic spice and more exotic women; though at age seven the latter didn't interest him all that much.

Sadly, he was caught by the Captain and put to work as a deckhand. Eventually he became a part of the crew and came to know them as his family, Captain "Scruffles" Menan almost becoming his second father. He was taught swordplay and the tricks of the trade for sailors, along with more generalised skills such as how to broker deals and fixing games of chance. During one particular voyage bound for those same southern lands as his first journey the ship was boarded by pirates and slavers, intent on plundering their booty. Captain Scruffles died in the ensuing fight and only a handful of crewmembers were left alive - including Zeke. Within two weeks of making port again, Zeke and his fellow crewmembers had broken out, stolen weapons and fought their way to freedom.

However, while they were free, squabbles soon broke out amongst the crew about what they should do next and eventually they decided it would be best if they went their separate ways as amicably as possible. Zeke, now a strapping young lad of 22, decided to try his hand at adventuring.

Campaign: The Merchants of Saladin (Our DM wasn't the most original with his names >.>)

Edition: Dungeons and Dragons 3.5th Edition, supplimented with the Complete Warriors Handbook for the Swashbuckler class.

Plot: Piracy and banditry has been on the rise as of late across the world, more and more traders and merchants are finding their goods seized and their people - men, women and children - sold off as slaves. The ruler of the Kingdom of Karasan, Saladin, issued a call to all adventurers and warriors far and wide promising vast rewards to any who could uncover what he believed was a deeper purpose beneath the surface.

What came out was a vast tale of political double cross, urban dungeon crawling and so many bluff checks our dice got worn out.

And it was awesome.

Great Success.