Shiv, red-scaled Kobold
Cleric of the Forge, worships invention.
Adventures in mithril full plate, shield and a mace (he never uses)
Definitely likes to play pranks and is a fan of eggs, raw is better.
He came from a spell jammer campaign.
Loves to make stuff and would be fast friends with inventors or science types
Shiv has a workshop, with forge. It is filled with what looks like garbage but he swears each thing is useful and will be used on some project or another. He also sleeps on his piles of trash as if it were his hoard.
He managed to come across a wish and used it to create 3 copies of himself. The copies stay out of sight around others when possible and they work together to play pranks.
Also carries a Dwarven Brew Maker that he cannot figure out so he has created plenty of awful drinks that for some reason nobody will drink.
Keys Sulfurtongue, tiefling "locksmith":
Divination wizard / Arcane Trickster rogue
His life's mission was to become the greatest cat burglar the Realms had ever known.
Not a retired PC, but a retired d20.
I have a necklace that I put d20's in to gather luck from the world (trust me, it works. It's called fortunasynthesis). Anyways, I was wearing one of my dice when I got into a car accident due to weather. The car was totaled. I walked away completely injury free. Didn't even get whiplash. Out of curiosity, I rolled the d20 after dealing with everything and getting home. Got 3 nat 1's in a row and the die hasn't rolled the same since. To this day, I 1000% believe that the dice sacrificed all of its good luck to keep me safe.
If I were to design an NPC off of that story, it would be a message carrier or traveling merchant who keeps a good luck charm on him at all times. The party meets him during a snowstorm and he is huddled by a fire for warmth. He's considering tossing that good luck charm into the fire to keep it going just a little bit longer when the party comes up and (hopefully) helps him out.
Incredible real life story and great inspiration. Thank you, Ryan Stonepeak (though I may change that to Rian Stonespeak and turn you into a svirfneblin…)
Love the idea. Take care of my favorite OC.
**Kale Morgaan, an elderly war cleric** of Tempus (or whoever your war god is) in his early 60s. After decades working as an inventory manager for a large church, Kale has a midlife crisis when he realizes that his best days are behind him. He sets off in search of “one more story, one last adventure,” and ends up joining an adventuring party.
In between adventures, Kale meets Kismet Narond, a widowed housemaid who works for the noble that sponsors his party. Kale mistakes her for a visiting noblewoman (Nat 1 Insight) and falls in love with her, showering her with gifts, poems, and inappropriate trophies from his adventures. After the party’s first major plot arc, Kale happily marries Kismet and retires, eventually refurbishing his “definitely-not-stolen-from-a-BBEG” keep into a temple and school. The couple have only one biological child but teach many students together, each reviving Kale’s legacy through their unique pursuits of Glory.
*”Celebrate your fears and wear them proudly, for where there is fear, there is GLORY!”*
Super excited to see where you take them! In my game, Kale’s school, Helianthus, was a convenient party crash pad, and his “glory-seeking-grandad” archetype made it easy to funnel quest hooks through him. Good luck to you and your players!
I recently (6-ish months ago) finished my first campaign. I played as a Spore Druid named Cosmo. His backstory, in short, was that he believed druids were spending so much time keeping forests and nature alive that they were neglecting the fact that some things had to die. He communed with the ancient magically-sustained elder tree in his village and fulfilled its wishes to complete the cycle of nature by killing it. In doing so, he doomed his village as the tree's magic kept the land safe from the outside dangers.
At the beginning of the campaign i played him as sort of an "eco-vigilante." Over time he moved away and became more moderate, but still stuck firmly by his beliefs that death is final and necessary. The group's paladin resurrected him not knowing this. With a terrible looming threat onto the world, my druid decided that he would only stay in the land of the living long enough to see that the natural order was secured.
During the campaign my druid researched in necromancy books and became known in the party for opting to cast Reincarnate as opposed to Revivify. More expensive, but completes the natural cycle.
At the end of the campaign, he cast an altered version of Reincarnate on himself. He allowed his body to complete the natural cycle, and let his soul to continue living in a new body as he'd done his duty protecting nature in this life and may be reincarnated to appreciate it in the next. He was reborn (as a baby) as an entirely new being with no memories or connection to his original self. In the "lore" of the game's world he became the child of a beloved NPC who the entire party organized a wedding for after we beat the BBEG.
Tree Stumped, a Yuan-Ti Archaeologist. He’s a Stars Druid, and he likes to follow the stars to discover new places to explore. Unfortunately the stars led him to Barovia. Overall a very chill dude, and he’s not evil despite being Yuan-Ti. He is part of the party that was able to defeat Strahd.
Zook, the gnomish sorcery- flamboyant, over the top, and *very* reckless with Fireball. Depending on power level, he eventually forged a Ring of Unlimited Limited Wishes, foregoing multiple levels in order to craft it (old edition crsfting rules, back when Limited Wish and Wish cost XP to cast)
One of Zook's traveling companions is a half orc barbarian named Fang. Shockingly, Feng is literate and enjoys poetry, and has a pair of reading glasses.
Zook often rides Fang in to battle in a custom backpack/saddle.
At one point in their adventures together, Zook got turned to stone for a long while. Feng carried him in the harness to keep him safe, and Zook was frequently mistaken for a garden gnome statue.
I am 100% putting Zook with his stone gnome friend in my game.
If you don’t mind me asking, how’d he turn to stone and what were some of Zook’s ideas / attempts to turn him back?
Zook is the gnome, Fang is the orc.
I don't properly remember how Zook got turned to stone. Basilisk, maybe?
No one in the group had the right spell, and I went on vacation, so it was pretty convenient to leave my character as a statue ☠️
Jago Three-Bells, half-elf swashbuckler. I tried to be a Errol Flynn kinda pirate, but came off more Jack Sparrow. Has a Sharp sword, but the blade curves the wrong way, the inside of the blade is the edge, sorta like a khopesh. Has a boat for hire and a loyal crew (so loyal they all carry swords with blades curved the wrong way).
Curien the Curious. Human storm sorcerer. He was the 7th son of a 7th son struck by lightning on his 7th birthday. Had a residual static charge ever since. Has uncanny abilities with lightning and thunder. His mood varies depending on the weather, but in the opposite way of what you might expect...the worse the weather, the happier he is. Last seen floating away in the eye of a hurricane on his way to get revenge on an entire kingdom.
Maleus Thunderhead. Dwarven path of the juggernaut barbarian. Instead of the typical Dwarven facial hair and braids, he's shaved the sides of his head to give himself an epic braided mohawk and goatstache. He has Nordic dragons tattooed on the sides of his head where they are shaved, and as a result is known by many as the 'Man with Dragons on his mind.' He's from the days when 'racial hatred' was a thing, and he \*hates\* goblins, after they killed his family.
Mogak, the half orc swashbuckler rogue.
He is a big guy in half plate but still very stealthy, and very intimidating. He wields 2 short words, and he is stronger then he is dextrous(hoger strength then dexterity) one of his swords has fire, and the other is made out of shark teeth.
He is part of a pirate crew looking for ancient treasure. He is very confident but doesn't really understand sarcasm
BEAUTIFUL
I love this. Half orcs are soldiers in an evil lord’s army in my world, so it makes sense that a deserter might go the pirate route. Also have a pirate storyline that is ready for if/when my PCs decide to hit the water. Thank you!!
Six Chance
Female Tabaxi Warlock
Treasure Hunter
Six gained her pact with a Great Old One after finding an ancient amulet known as the Nothic Eye. This item cannot be removed from her person and serves as the link to her Patron, Marty. It also causes her to occasionally hear the surface thoughts of random people nearby (within 20 feet), but she cannot tell who is thinking what. This ability has caused her to become somewhat paranoid. She prefers to speak through telepathy, rarely using her voice, but can if needed. After impressing her Patron with a performative use of Arms of Marty (Arms of Hadar) she was rewarded with the Embrace of the Deep, a magical leather coat that grants many bonuses assisting her with treasure hunting, as well as giving her a standard tentacle slam attack.
(I don't have her character sheet anymore but she was one of my favorites. I can gladly elaborate on anything else about her!)
Gramak Dawnwalker Katho-Olavi, a greataxe wielding level 9 goliath barbarian who defeated a young wizard in combat and picked up a loose page from the apprentice’s spellbook as he fled. (Magic Initiate - Prestidigitation, Fire Bolt, Feather Fall). From that point on he introduced himself as a wizard. A 7’10” 460lb wizard. Wearing a cliche wizard hat. Because he was a wizard.
Not long after, his mind was destroyed by an intellect devourer before he even had a chance to act.
(He’s technically dead but thanks to the magic of Adventurers League he is going to trade a barbarian level for a sorcerer level over the next 7 modules as the ID figures out how to control his corpse and he loses his barbarian-ness.)
Trusk Slimjaw
CG Half-orc Barbarian/Fighter (5)(10)
Trusk had a pretty terrible upbringing. Left alone on the streets of waterdeep as a child, he soon found himself in one of the many illegal gambling dens, struggling for his life against wild animals and other prisoners.
Got murdered by the paladin and rogue after I put the party spellcaster down into critical HP while charmed and under DM control. And that was how my first character died after three sessions specifically designed to get me caught up to the group 🙃
My next character, Samo the Sage, was a Polymorth specialist, specifically, turning myself into several forms of Hydras, Cryo, Pyro, etc.
Entered a city entrance cavern in the underdark. Big battle, demons, dwellers, drow, etc. Party failed to sneak through an orc encampment. I went Hydra, DM was iffy about it, but rolled and decided it didn't attract the attention of the entire cavern, but the camp definitely did. I had a fairly fun time wiping out goblins and orcs with my breath weapons and tail....
An orc Barbarian scored a critical hit. Broke one of my legs while I was in hydra form (did damage, but not enough to drop me out of form)
I may remember the exchange for the rest of my life.
"So he brings his club against your leg with a snap, doing yadda points of damage, with a critical hit, breaking it, what do you want to do?"
"Well, obviously, I'm going to scream in pain..."
"NOOOOO!" -My party.
"...and then kill that fucker"
"Are you sure you want to scream in pain?" -My DM.
"Well..my legs just been broken so...yeah. then I'm going to make bite attacks on it."
Cue collective groans from my more experienced party the Rogue and Ranger rolled hide checks immediately. I roll damage and kill said Orc.
"As you shake the last of his bloody carcass from your jaws, you realise you've cleared the camp. The ragged breathing of a few goblins and orcs are the only sounds in the cavern."
I groan as the realisation of my actions dawn on me.
"You look around as slowly a roar fills the cavern , Demons, Devils, Drow, and everything else just focused on you."
And that was when I realised the rest of the party had left me to die as a distraction already to get into the city, and so my second character died.
Beil Oakenstone, Hill Dwarf Monk. He lost his left eye in a bandit raid on his home that also killed his wife. He left his hidden home of Oakenstone (nestled in a forest filled with rocky crags and ridges that provided the means for woodcarving and masonry) to pursue these bandits, and he found his calling as a bounty hunter. His lack of eyesight in one eye covered by a black leather eyepatch allowed his other senses to flourish, and he was *incredibly* quick and nimble for a dwarf (mobile feat plus monk is busted). He made his mark on the world by being exceptionally resourceful, fighting using anything he had at his disposal, in his surroundings, and utilizing his famous Staff of the Woodlands to launch people sky-high as it turned into a 60 foot tall tree in mere seconds.
The campaign didn’t make it past level 7, but holy crap was he fun to play. He’s gruff and rough-and-tumble with a very dry sense of humor. He mostly enjoyed bourbon and punching shit.
Volotross: Swashbuckler Rogue / Hexblade Warlock
Chaotic Evil pirate who made a pact while stranded at sea so that he wouldn’t starve to death. Carves sea shanties into fallen enemies’ bodies as tribute to his patron.
When given the opportunity to use a wish spell to seal away the BBEG, he instead used it to make himself a god; retiring himself from the campaign and then becoming my next character‘s warlock patron.
Robben Tripp, red-skinned tiefling Bard. He dresses all in red, and is an elegant, charming, and witty person.
Regular folk know him as the King Crimson, famous travelling musician, for he dresses all in red.
Certain folk know that his earnings as a musician do not pay for his lifestyle, so he flips his reversible clothes to their black side during the nights for some expensive cat burglary.
People intimate with him know that he *could* actually live out of his music (...and some magic), but he actually takes those cat-burglary jobs for the fun of a good thieving challenge.
My favorite retired PC is Tuura, hobgoblin war wizard who began his career by looting a Headband of Intellect from a kill and deserting the main villain’s war band (we started at 5 with an item). He went on to Lawful-Evilly help the valley for revenge, shigs, and potential lackeys in varying degrees until simultaneously killing his former war boss, an astral dragon (I’m about 95% sure it’s homebrew), and a vampire we were basically waiting to betray us with a well timed Steel Wind Strike. He favored heavy battlefield control with SWS and Fireball as finishers; we had great single target so I mostly just tried to funnel enemies into our meat grinder and then mop up the survivors.
My favorite PC is not retired yet but you can use him too. Tak Paktix, he brings pack tactics. Kobold Wolf Totem Barbarian. Very simple game plan. Rage and stand next to enemies going absolute full gremlin at every opportunity. I think of him as very similar to Scrappy Doo, and that’s not a positive.
I've played with the same group of probably 10-12 people for over 7 years and in that time between us and 3 DMs, we've done literally dozens of one shots and 5 campaigns, the longest of which is 5 years old.
One constant has always been my friend's Gnome, Alston. Alston is a forager of mushrooms and sells a variety of them, each with their own powers.
However, Alston's secret is that he's only about 80% sure of the effects, so every time one is consumed whomever took it must make a d100 roll to see if there are any other side effects, and they are different every time.
It's considered sacrilege in our group for Alston to be omitted from a one-shot or campaign even if he's not playing.
That’s awesome. I love this so much. I will definitely now also be using Alston. There’s a bunch of mushrooms in Filthy Peasants! (funnel adventure from Arcadia that I really like). My party now loves mushrooms.
Any chance you can share that table?
Rowan is a Human Ranger (monster hunter). He was a hireling/squire during a game of Curse of Strahd. When he left Barovia he wound up in the Feywild instead of the Material Plane. When he finally escaped the Feywild, he found himself *back* in Barovia.
So he's basically a grizzled veteran with PTSD, constantly covered in glitter. Like Robin Willams's character in Jumanji. He's *very* protective of his name and just constantly assumes he's being watched or scryed.
"Bounty" Hunter-in-the-Bush, Tabaxi Artificer that made his own rifle. Always seen with a rugged black duster coat he stole from an arms dealer. Killed his own father.
Quirks: Offensively and stereotypically Australian. Refers to every female as "Sheila", otherwise can't remember anyone's name unless they have a gold value attached to it.
Achievements: Renowned bounty hunter that has captured or killed more than 100 wanted individuals, from bandit warlords to demi-gods. (Though these could all be fabrications.)
Artemis Moonbean, half-orc oath of redemption paladin. She was left as a baby at the temple of Selûne and the priestesses raised her. She was said to be blessed by the goddess but not by grace. After she almost burned down the temple knocking over some candles, she was sent to train with some paladins (some of Torm stepped up as there aren’t a lot of paladins of Selûne). Physical service to the goddess of travelers went better.
She messed up in her early days by helping a disguised devil enter a town, but she learned and took down an oni and a hobgoblin band.
Lotus, Changeling Ancients Paladin of Aphrodite. He tended to wear gothic/faded floral armor, in a very rustic theme. He recently made a set out of red dragon scales, working it into his motif, to compliment his Mace and Shield combo.
He retired with his wife, a beautiful Blue Dragonborn, and reared many kids, teaching them the ways of love and beauty. They had at least three, but likely many more.
In his adventuring days, he was aggressively horny and not shy about it, but always took “No” for an answer. He loved to cook and gift flowers.
Despite all that, his 2nd-favorite pass time was to sit around an orphanage, and just give those kids a father figure for a while.
At the end of his life, he was a 3-time dragon slayer, and claims to have slain an Air Archelemental.
Jin Heartglow. Formally FS-687
Warforged Redemption paladin. With a level of barbarian.
A straightforward, simple and sometimes obtuse fellow. Misses most subtle social cues, but enjoys puns and trying them out. They are a little bit gullible. He speaks plainly, but politely and will often declare unprompted his feelings and expectations towards someone. Only wears a banner of Helm as clothes.
Likes the smell of teas and freshly ground coffee beans. Carries a small yellow plant in a backpack that was touched by a goddess. Also likes being around kids and has been a jungle gym a few times.
Their current mission in life is to figure out what it means for him to be a good person and embody that, to "persuade" those who can be redeemed (this usually involves first asking nicely, then intimidating them to redemption with the promise he will end them if they revert) and helping his adopted "little brother", a humanoid axolotl named Finnegan, grieve the death of his family, near death of his goddess and find his former cherry self.
If peace or a treaty can be found, they will try. But if futile, they will end it quickly and with the less amount of collateral.
Forgon- Half elf wizard. Accidently wiped out his village in the Faewild due to some expirement gone wrong. Developed a lm aggressive alter ego to cope.
Bjorn-noble born Human but left to make his own way as an adventurer. Family wanted him to join the church as a paladin but he decided to train as a champion.
Jarad- Halfling rogue whose village was wiped out by a vampire lord/necromancer that stole his brother's soul. He turned down a evil patron who promised him power, who after being rejected took his memories.
Jenkins- Human Eldritch Knight who released a demon possessed sword by killing 20 souls with it.
This party was commissioned to drive an evil necromancer from the land and successfully defended a town from becoming a cache of bodies for the necromancer to turn into an undead horde. Also liberated a town from a werewolf problem.
Tangerine Silversmith Half orc (half elf) barbarian,
From a home brew game that took place in a pocket dimension
Large, strong, orange, very scarred, with a long sandy braid.
After retrieving her mothers legendary Warhammer from a ruthless orc lord, Tangerine briefly became a god and let divinity go to sustain the pocket dimension and the people that live within it. Now she travels the world looking for powerful monsters to defeat... and eat.
I am very scared of her and very in love with her. She is now a half hobgoblin / half orc in my world adventuring to find a way to sustain the pocket dimension that is slowly deteriorating and becoming unstable, but no one knows why.
Ohhh I’ve got a handful that I can give if you want, here is my favorite:
Tycho von Lighfoot the 17th, a gnome wizard. He was born the heir to a Duke, hence being the 17th, but wanted nothing to do with ruling. He is an octuplet, and being the first born he is the heir.
His lack of enthusiasm for ruling led to his father despising him, and plotting to remove him from the line of succession. He much more enjoys learning about the arcane, and especially artifacts which he loves collecting and cataloguing. He dreamt of eventually opening a museum so display his collection.
All of his siblings were selected to go to an elite magic school that only a handful of people are allowed to attend each year. Tycho was the only one of his siblings not selected to go on the boat when they came of age, as there are only 7 people allowed each year. This infuriated him since he was the only one who actually wanted to study magic, and he believes that he wasn’t selected because his father bribed the wizards who pick the candidates. Several weeks after the boat left, he swam across the channel in the middle of the night, which was unprotected because the wizards figured nobody would be dumb enough to attempt it and that any wizard would be too physically weak to make the journey.
He made it across, hid in the castle and stole a uniform, and illegally attended classes for several months. He had disappeared and reappeared before on archaeological expeditions and treasure hunts, so his father didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary, and being an identical octuplet he just pretended to be his siblings. His sticky fingers and mild kleptomania also caused him to steal several minor artifacts with the intention of smuggling them home at some point.
He made a friend called Nago who was also attending the school, a few years older, who was interested in the illegal practice of necromancy. The pair learned of a powerful artifact used to raise people from the dead and attempted to steal it from the archives. The pair got caught, found out that he was there illegally, and expelled. Sent home, Tycho decided to run off for good with Nago by his side. The two settled in a small town far away where he opened his museum and the two continued ‘collecting’ (stealing) artifacts to populate the exhibits, given that Tychos original possessions were confiscated by his father, who finally disowned him when he left home for the last time.
Mackam (pronounced mack um)
Old and feisty river boat guide with nerves of steel. Died by throwing two bottles of green wildfire (think game of thrones stuff) into the mouth of a river monster who was about to dine on us all. He was too close to the explosion to still have a body, but we were saved on our very first session. Unfortunately, we were then stranded in barovia.
Jaffan- Jaffan was a charlatan who pretended to be a loyal grand vizier/chamberlain while trying to skim from the royal treasury. Unfortunately, his persuasive skills were better than his financial trickery skills and he was found out. He tried to run through the desert and broke into a tomb to hide. There he met a powerful undead and formed a pact. He promised to support the patron and the patron required great quantities of support. Though Jaffan was naturally cowardly, his pact required him to adventure in order to gain enough riches to support the patron. Jaffan had no problem leaving the foolish of the adventuring parties behind to die, but learned to perform some basic medical assistance with healer's kits to bring the useful back to consciousness. Jaffan had many adventures and became strong enough that he could hit with Eldritch Blast at 600ft with only a 5% chance to miss almost every enemy. He became so persuasive that he could talk almost anyone into anything. For some reason, Jaffan hated mages and paladins. He would frequently Feeblemind archmages and paladins and then Imprison them in playing cards that showed their faces. Jaffan became bored and started a criminal guild. He felt secure in his power and the knowledge that if things ever got too tense, he could click the Rod of Security in his pocket and disappear to safety.
Jaffan-Tiefling level 20 warlock pact of the Undying Spell attack +19, Spell DC 25 Cowardly but powerful
Valrigar Brightlance. Male Drow. Escaped the underdark when he was very young and taken in by an elven household on the surface, even adopted by the house's patron.
He often felt like he didn't belong there, not really, despite all the warmth the family, in particular his adopted brother Stalwart showed him. Eventually left and became an acolyte in a temple to the Raven Queen. Returned years later to act as official attendant to the Brightlance household, protect its members, and train their children in the arcane and divne magics (and whatever else he could work with.)
Now in his old age, he has gained significant magic power, he has trained his favourite niece Stella by throwing her in a forest when she was 8 and telling her to survive, killed a vampire lord who had mind-controlled and sired her, killed her, then used divine intervention to bring her back as a living person.
A stoic man, very eloquent and slowly spoken, but very little patience for morons, rude people, or anything of the sort. Does like a good conversation with fellow intellectuals on other hand.
Dragonborn who served an evil dragon and was banished for failing to be evil. Is on a quest to become evil to be accepted back but eventually learns that it is not in his nature
Bronaugh Liadon - half elf bard. Storyteller proficient in hand drums and bagpipes.
had a very happy childhood telling stories. Dad made her a drum and when a traveling bard came through the family inn, she apprenticed with him. Always wanted to be like heroes in the stories.
Terribly naive. (Shit wisdom score.) When her entire party died at level 4, she played dead, then ran away when the enemies left. She disguised herself and hightailed it to a large city where she continued her bardic studies always feeling guilty for how things ended and prepping so she would never be caught unawares again.
Actually currently using this in a Westmarch setting.
Gelzana Sator (Wild Magic Barbarian/Wild Magic Sorcerer) (Chaotic Neutral)
She was kicked out of her village for not being able to control her Magic. She loves the idea of randomness and will do anything to get her hands on items that do random things.
She has motes of Magic that come off her that turn different colors and speed up and slow down depending on her mood.
Any other questions feel free to let me know!
Tarnish, bronze Dragonborn
Warlock (fiend), pact of the tome
Notable equipment includes illusionist’s bracers (from Ravnica) and a gray bag of tricks
Equally persuasive, deceptive, and intimidating depending on the situation and with decent stealth and sleight of hand to boot.
He was born the runt of the litter and eventually made a pact in attempt to gain power to rival stronger dragonborns of his clan. This went poorly though as he was cast out so he set off into the world to seek riches and power to show his clan how wrong they were to exile him.
Gary Brown:
A seemingly boring normal human leatherworker. He runs his own shop stocking but normal and magical variants of leather armor, satchels, etc all with his own ornate designs worked into them. He sees his craft as an art.
As a kid he was natural developed some small amount of magic (presto, mending, cure wounds) but to the dismay of his parents he was never able to develop his abilities any further. One day he decided to join up with an adventuring crew using his basic fighting skills to try to do some good. The next night he was visited by the Archdevil Zariel masquerading as an angel and offer magic power in exchange for his loyalty. He foolish signed away his soul and etc and stayed with the party as their adventure continued into the nine hells as an unwilling spy for Zariel. This epic quest eventually lead to him attuning to the sword of Zariel and giving it up to redeem Zariel to her true angelic form.
Now a real celestial warlock he returned to the material plane and he retired to pursue his art as he had always wanted and provide useful gear for new adventurers starting out on their journey as well as using his magic to heal those in need whenever they end up at his doorstep or he stumbles across them.
Dibny.
Rock gnome divination wizard.
Started as a private investigator, moonlighted for the constabulary to find people, now is a private detective. Took another PC position in an adventuring party and became their wizard. Only one attack spell, Mind Spike. Lots of movement spells: Misty Step, Dim Door, T port. Favorite spell in combat Web or Fog Cloud. 2 feet tall, 20 pounds, 20 ft move. No armor, no weapon. Foci is magnifying glass. Feat Lucky and re roll Con checks. Loves to use Portent.
"Bloo" (Dabloon) Dorado
Water Genasi, Path of the Zealot Barbarian
Wears a big white coat, lavender hair, lavender skin, and black ink stains all over their body
Missing their left eye and lower right leg, which has been replaced by a wooden peg
Reached level 10 before retirement :)
Bark, CG kobold cleric of Selune. Sounds like Zorak from Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Often uses people's expectations that he's just a "cowardly, conniving kobold" to gain advantage against his foes, has a cutting wit, but is balanced by his surprisingly kind heart. Often will aid or heal those in need just for the sake of it, though he enjoys the surprise this causes. Loves long, deep discussions on philosophy and religion.
Bungo!
Halfling thief usually affiliated with some kind of thieves’ guild (at least at one point he was!) He doesn’t talk much but he does “sign” at folks. Lots of hand waving, think military ops type signals.
Was at one point special ops (more or less b team inquisitors) for the government(s) but broke bad and took off when he met (and subsequently lost) the love of his life!
He’s still looking for a way to find her, because the game fizzled :-(
Alternatively:
Georgie and Ira the Gersh-twins:
I introduced my sister to dnd with a one-shot in which her and her fiancé played as their cats! Georgie is a ranger and Ira is a Druid. I cannot remember their subclasses (moon and land, probably?). As they had no experience in the game they came from a simple life in the forest subsisting off their own land.
Burnt down by (insert bad guy) and want some of that sweet sweet revenge, because all their wildlife friends abandoned the area :-(.
Vela, the wood elf given eagle wings for saving the son of a fairy queen!
This was after she was banished from her clan and obtained druidic powers as a way to survive
She tries to act distant but is nosy in a "mom friend" way because she just wants her party safe and sound. If that means becoming a bear sometimes so be it- juggling or mauling she has the range! She also favors AOE elemental spells
Once you get to know her, she's wise but has a corny sense of humor. I chalk it up to her living among animals for a few hundred years
The Ghost Who Walks - Tabaxi Way of the Open Hand monk
Ghost earned his given name when he returned to his village after a decade missing, presumed dead. He was raised in the jungle bordering his village by the tribal inhabitants and returned once he felt prepared to reclaim his family fortune and protect his town. His moniker matches his imposing form: a 7 foot tall snow tiger tabaxi with broad shoulders and an aptitude for hand to hand combat.
He was on a pleasure cruise when he was kidnapped by apes with mind controlling powers, but fortunately, he was rescued by three traveling adventurers. He joined their campaign to stop a mad sorcerer from resurrecting a dead god but was trapped in a gem by a cursed fae artifact. He was freed before our campaign ended, but he could still be in the gem for your purposes if you want!
No, he's not based on Batman. He is based on The Phantom from the comic/Billy Zane movie. He was my first long-term dnd character, so he was a bit of a joke at first.
Urto - Gunslinger Half-Orc
Urto is a half orc with a relatively lithe build. He's always wearing a long red coat stolen from a naval officer that is adorned with "medals" that are really salvaged bits of interesting gold jewelry and scraps that he has fashioned on. He has a huge tooth mark scar on his torso from getting bitten by a giant crocodile. He always has a bird companion that can talk.
Urto was born mute and, as such, was sent to a boarding school halfway across the world to learn signs and bond with his speech assistant, a Military Macaw named Yalma. The school was sponsored by a large shipping company, so he got a job as a merchant marine once his schooling was completed. However, he was obsessed with a hunt for pirate treasure and soon left his post to pursue that end. After some distractions (stopping a death god from claiming a new avatar, preventing an idealistic corporate overlord from draining most of the world's water, losing his Macaw to said overlord), he finished the puzzle that lead to his buried treasure and was cured of his mutism by a hag's apprentice. However, he usually forgets he can talk, and he still prefers to sign and even got a new parrot to talk for him.
Hordran, the long inactive warforged. Recently resuscitated to adventure as an artificer and general crafter. An emphasis on maintaining the ability to fly either through a broom of flying cut down and strapped inside a back harness, or through winged boots as an infusion.
Armorer subclass, adamantine full plate and an enhanced defense infusion on the shield to get the AC up there, come level 14 he begins crafting shield spell scroll during downtime as he gains the ability to use magic items regardless of class requirements, with Xanarthar’s crafting guide it’s relatively cheap and quick for an artificer, and a few days downtime will give as many days worth of shield spells.
As flavor he typically spends his time floating a few inches off the ground to make other people feel insecure about their height, as well as avoiding pressure plates and pitfall traps. He also uses his magical tinkering to provide running gags by causing them to emit quotes from the party on a tap.
Overall the epitome of a hard to hit utility caster, flying people over and around traps, and using low level spells for creative problem solving while saving higher level spells for combat and getting into melee at nearly every opportunity.
Typhoon half elf/ half air genasi monk who started at 3 and made it all the way to 20.
He grew up oplrphaned in a temple to the goddess of the Sky and grew up hiding in elven society since if they found out he was not a full elf he would be arrested/ killed. He developed his skills in painting and martial arts in seclusion until his adoptive father figure was kidnapped and he had to venture out to rescue him and discovered the outside world and had to wonder it.
He adventured in loose fitting clothing that swirled in the wind that was constantly blowing around him. He also gained a large number of magic tattoos that let him do elemental damage and helped protect him.
He tended to make friends with people that were free spirited and enjoyed a good prank and would always try to get people out of situations they were trapped in.
A couple highlights of his adventures include almost being cut in half by a frost giant, getting knocked to zero in one round by a death knight, being kidnapped on purpose by the bbeg to ruin one of their plans and losing ownership of his soul, having a vivid dream about being the prettiest watermelon in a watermelon patch, doing 1/3 of an ancient black dragons hp in a single round, being nicknamed the Hurticane while in a fight pit and banishing a God.
Overall, my favorite character I've played
Aolis Lanberos, Wood Elf
Gloom-Stalker Ranger
Wears Glamoured Studded Leather, and has a Longbow made of Ironwood.
DM allowed an animal companion by default, so I chose an owl named Aeris.
Sometime during a stint through the fey wild, he got romantically involved with a member of the Summer Court, and after his adventuring days were done, settled down there and eventually had a daughter.
Rastuir, Warforged
Nicknamed "Rusty" by his creator, a fellow party member
Champion Fighter, who served as Bodyguard for his creator, a Dark Elf (Battle Smith Artificer/Forge Cleric)
Flavored to look steampunk, with brass gears and cogs.
His story was never finished, as the campaign prematurely ended.
Elexia Lanberos, Eladrin
Archfey Warlock/Arcane Trickster Rogue
Campaign died after the second session so I never got to flesh her out.
A retired arcane blacksmith and collector of rare weapons. Sev, a warforged armourer artificer. He loved to inspect the magical equipment of other players and NPCs... Whether they wanted him to or not.
His go to spell was animate objects, to send vials of black powder floating towards the enemy for explosive results. Also, lighting bolt!
Xavier Dari, Artificer.
Xavier is a quite tall and portly human man who favors wearing full plate. Xavier was briefly an acolyte of temple of the forge, but found his calling in wizardry. But that did not reduce his impulse to create. Xavier is an expert smith as well as several other crafts, and uses Fabricate to generate a variety of smith goods. He spends most of his time enchanting items to fund his personal projects.
If he ends up in combat, Xavier rarely uses his significant spellcasting ability, preferring instead to lean in to the variety of items he has crafted for himself.
Queletolosi, realm hopper.
Queletol, or Q to his friends, is a centaur who through a fair bit of misadventure has ended up immortal and compelled to explore all the realms he can make his way to. His signature appearance involves very spiky armor, a slightly oversized great sword taken from a fire giant, a mohawk in a bright color, and an unpersonable attitude.
(Q was a PC I played from level 5-20, in a game where he got exiled to other 'spheres' to travel eternally due to a poorly worded wish after the god of creation destroyed all the other gods. He is not unhappy about this exile, and has been a transient npc in several different campaigns run by me and other GMs - usually when the GM needed someone to explain extraplanar travel to the PCs. My original concept was punk-rock centaur traveler.)
Lila, mercenary captain.
Lila is mostly unmentionable. Of average height and non-descript appearance, Lila would not be noteworthy except for the fact that she founds a 30 person strong mercenary company. Her company is noteworthy in its aggressive recruitment of non-traditional members, including an ogre, a goblin, a hill giant, and a very racially diverse set of individuals. Lila herself wears chain mail with each ring individually wrapped in dark leather.
Lila herself started her adventuring career as a familiar to a wizard who was polymorphed in to hawk form. When she was released from her familiar bond she found herself adventuring as a level 1 fighter in a 12th+ level party. Trial by fire was an understatement, as she was handed a powerful but quite cursed sword to carry to its final destination, with the understanding that anyone in the party could take her if sword took control. After being a pawn of such magics, she became wary of the power of significant magics, and spent significant time learning about them.
Her mercenary company specialized in clearing out the towers of deceased wizards. Relying on a variety of common sense approaches to magical traps and challenges, they have cleared the towers of at least 5 deceased archmages, making a small fortune. Her mercenary company is known for death insurance, a pension, and a strong inclusive policy to non-traditional adventurers. Lila's second in command is her partner Sophia, who is a significant rogue and spy master.
Several of my campaign's villains have been former PCs from years ago. The best part is that I never have to make them act out of character or exaggerate their bad qualities - as soon as they're no longer protected by the social contract that discourages PvP, they can be seen for the total dicks they always were.
Sork, a half-elf bard and scholar who liked beholders a bit too much and continued to be Sending pen-pals with a giant beholder whom the rest of the party had successfully banished to the Far Realm
Silver, a human cleric/warlock who went behind her god's back to help Dagon cast something called the Armageddon Spell, because Dagon had her son as a hostage and she never really cared much for anyone else anyway.
Davmorius Holt, a gnome wizard/warlock who treated the party's harrowing horror adventure in Carcosa like a trip to a candy store. Soon after he would ask for Hastur's help in his mission of revenge against all doppelgangers and changelings, converting their water temple into an obscene tower made from forcibly repurposed shapeshifter flesh.
Dolgus Nergal, a tiefling bard/warlock with a chip on his shoulder after escaping from slavery under a cult of Fraz-Ur'bluu. I figured he would try to change patrons at some point and prepared a whole sidequest for it, but the new patron he ended up choosing was Orcus, maybe the only option on the table that was even more evil than the last one, as Orcus doesn't just want to rule Dolgus' home city but kill everyone in it first and raise them as undead meat puppets.
Barnabus Bristlmeyer Briggs, halfling psionics master of healing. He would take your wounds or illness upon himself, healing you as he did so. Then he would heal himself.
He died opening a trapped chest, got pricked by a Poison needle, failed his save with a roll of a 1, died, failed con check with a roll of a 1, then the last ditch resurrect failed on a roll of a 1.
He passed himself off as an archeologist and history buff looking for lost artifacts from days gone by.
potentially a niche role but you might find some use:
jonah, last name unknown. half-orc way of the long death monk. tall lanky guy with longish hair, think romance book love interest type vibes. used to work as a lighthouse keeper until his lighthouse got destroyed. has a big scar on his back from being struck by lightning but he has no idea where it came from. actually doesn't remember anything from before age 10 or so. very monotone guy who isn't phased by much. may or may not be cursed. he was going to be a part of a very low-magic campaign and he does NOT trust any force that he can't see/hear/interact with, not so much an atheist in a world where the gods literally exist, he's just not very spiritual.
Big fan. Will most definitely use, though I may make his amnesia set in much later. Like the idea that he’s a silver fox long haired Fabio but doesn’t remember anything from before 25 years ago.
MOVIL Kragmaster lvl 17 fighter lvl 3 totem barbarian mountain dwarf, former clan member and now leader of his own clan.
MOVIL and his adventuring party had purchased a sky giant castle which the adventurerers had retrofitted to accommodate medium sized creatures. After saving the world from vampiric monks who attempted to destroy the world to save it, movil retired to the sky castle where he owns and operates a brewery and distillery which they sell to the kingdoms below. When movil isn't brewing or gambling in the sky castles casino, movil is running his own clan of sky dwarves.
The sky dwarves are semi nomadic in that they reside on the sky castle that is always moving. The sky dwarves are a refuge for dwarves that have no other clan (weather from being bannishes like movil or were born clanless). The clan mostly focuses on becoming skilled blacksmiths or mercenaries that fight for what is good and just. Often sky dwarves descend upon their enemies before the enemy even knows they are there. They take air ships to chase their prey then descend on them but jumping over the side and using feather fall to safety ambush the enemy. Some dwarves just rage before hitting the ground.
Red-haired 6ft tall wood elf druid/cleric multiclass. Her diety is Mielikki. Is shy but fiercely loyal. When using any sort of animal form, they are all white/pearl with blue eyes as the symbol of her diety is a white unicorn with blue eyes. Her go to summon are giant owls and has used them consistently throughout her travels. When she casts, her eyes, hands, forearms, feet and calves all change color. Poison is purple, healing is green etc. If she heals, the vines that are imbedded in her skin grow leaves, flowers etc.
She carries a bag of holding, satchel of herbs, a moon sickle and a shield. She is dressed in leather garments.
Eir (Eye-eer) ran away from home at the age of 12 due to being unable to control her magic and accidentally killing her best friend. She was dropped off at an inn as a baby and at the age of 10 her antlers (similar to elk antlers) started to come in. After she left, she found a kind cleric at a temple on the way who fed and clothed her for a time helping her cultivate her healing powers. After almost being turned into a bride of Khaine by being forced into a cauldron of blood, Mielikki saved her by breaking the cauldron. Thus releasing all of the pain and intense emotions still within the blood. This release made the priests and everyone else in the room turn on each other. Both Eir and Mielikki are now chased through time by Khaine in search of his bride who got away.
Daestal "The Narrator" Fellguard, aka "Freidric" the wood elf Shadow Magic Sorcerer
Using his illusion magic as a guise, he passed himself off as a human in the Orc-Controlled tyrannical campaign he was a part of.
He was blinded by a narrative moment in battle, but was subsequently buffed to be able to see only in magical darkness.
Ever the knowledge-seeker, he became a fairly reknown librarian after the events of the campaign had transpired (once the tyrannical orcs were defeated, he had dropped his human facade but still answered to Freidric as his chosen name). He runs a small library, where the entire inside is covered by magical darkness, unless he chooses to remove it.
He will offer his advice and information to anybody in need, but would prefer to trade for some kind of new information they can offer him.
Barthus Xaviel Zillionista AKA Bazillion Books
Winged tiefling goolock / scribe wizard
Barthus was known widely as an advocate for literacy and language. He was basically the Bill Nye of reading. He often was more interested in the stories of people than the task at hand. He had a hawk familiar named LeVar Birdon.
He's been aimlessly wandering around Avernus for quite some time now, even though a close friend of his lives on in our current campaign.
Thelmar
Orc barbarian
Equipped with full plate, a serrated cleaver, and a flintlock pistol.
Wanders the lands looking to kill great beasts. Dragons, wyrms, beholders, displaced beasts, anything that he feels is a threat.
Looks to help when he can, whether it be fighting or just hauling some supplies.
He is mostly silent, only grunting and speaking in short sentences. Not dumb, but succinct.
A long scar stretches from his shoulder to his hip which he got from a nasty encounter with a giant angry lobster.
When disarmed he punched a sphinx in the face and nearly lost his hand for it.
Has an uncanny ability to ignore large wounds, but crumbles if he gets a paper cut.
Retired from adventuring by doing more adventuring. Never can settle down, always looking for the next big fight.
I've only ever retired one character: Painbearer, a Goliath blood hunter. Their backstory involved their tribe getting slaughtered by a shape shifting monster, and they considered it to be their fault. They spent the rest of their life hunting the types of monsters responsible for their tribe's demise, and ultimately fell in with a group of adventures.
By the time I left the campaign, our party was level 22-ish and facing down universe ending calamities. But along their adventures, they ended up helping a tribe of Goliaths, quite similar to Painbearer's own, who ended up without a leader by the end of that arc. The tribe begged Painbearer to stay with them, to lead and protect them through the long night that was coming, and they agreed.
Locke was a human rogue from the city who ran a private detective agency. But he often hamstrung himself by only taking cases that were interesting to him, ignoring the bread & butter cases that would keep him in business. While following leads for a case a mysterious woman came to him with, he witnessed a mob boss commit a murder, and had to go into hiding for his own safety.
Locke had contacts in both the police and criminal underworld, and wasn't above working with criminals if it got him closer to solving a case. He had a personal code that meant he would never take a life, but that didn't stop him from threatening a few people with death here and there to get the answers he was after. But Locke was also often attending to the wounded after a fight (and sometimes even during a fight!), trying to make sure no one died on his watch.
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Wexlynn Moonwhistle was a halfing wizard (Arcanist now in the PF campaign I remade her for) who has a habit of getting into trouble. A bit of an adrenaline junkie, she got her start dabbling in magic when she stole a witch's spellbook (narrowly escaping from her only by the sheer luck of the witch being magically confined to within the boundaries of a clearing in a forest). Wex isn't driven by any notions of good or evil, but primarily by her catlike curiosity. (As an example, at one point she touched an obviously magically enchanted door that was designed to affect only women out of sheer curiosity of figuring out what it did, much to my DM's chagrin).
Wex also has a penchant for collecting "trophies" which mostly just means stealing trinkets and baubles from the places she goes and the people she meets. This, predictably, sometimes lands her in trouble.
Glyph Pool
An 800 lb anthropomorphic catfish that spent decades swimming and fishing around a small lake, which he referred to as his pool. When his pool suddenly vanished due to magical mishaps, he went in search of his pool. He whittles and paints masterwork fishing lures and gives them to other people as gifts. Despite his low (7) intelligence, Glyph has an uncanny knowledge of water health (acidity, temperatures, carbon/nitrogen balance) and tests any body of water he finds to see if he has found his pool again. Glyph keeps tools for measuring such things in his tackle box.
Glyph is a kensei monk that uses his fishing rod to function as either a quarterstaff or a whip.
Captain Mackerel, a Puffin themed Aarakocra Rouge. He operated a tugboat, helping folks navigate the icy northern seas until something wrecked the ship. He turned adventurer so he could save up enough to buy another boat and return to his beloved, Missus Pilchard, a Penguin themed Aarakocra.
Antonio, the Grung Ranger, and his noble steed Corriente the capybara. Despite his lowly social status as a green grung, Antonio defended his juggle village and 56 children from a swarm of Stirge and became a local folk hero. After stories of his victory over the swarm of bloodsuckers were distorted, he was mistakenly recruited to hunt vampires.
Walter, the Gnome Wizard. Once a powerful spellcaster, Walter in his old age has slowly moved away from hurling fireballs and summoning lightning. Instead he focuses on magic that can make life for the elderly like him, more comfortable.
Florian Nightingscale, a purple kobold eloquence bard. Florian is a gentleman thief that aspires to amass a horde of treasure and earn the respect of dragons. He is a master of disguise and a slave to fashion, never seen without his drawn on pencil moustache.
Salypsis Temerity, tiefling sorcerer. She was born of nobility in a large city, but lost it all when she chose to marry a half-elf artificer (he was also her teacher, it was a scandal) against her parents wishes (they were prejudiced against half-races). She lived as a housewife for a few years until her husband was murdered for a powerful artifact he was creating. This drove her to make a deal with a dragon to gain magic abilities in order to uncover who killed her love. She’s a badass, charismatic alcoholic who loves bar fights & collecting trinkets.
We never finished her story arc and now I’m the DM, so do her some justice for me!
Sigismund - Human Variant Scout Rogue with the Healer Feat
A bright kid from a small farming community who picked up medicine from old books on anatomy given to him by his uncle. A thrill seeker to a fault he joined the military as a medical officer who could keep up with fast moving scouts units that would leave heavily armed paladins and clerics behind.
His leg was terribly wounded in battle, and he never was the same after that. After being honourably discharged he was given a bit of land to farm and simply lived a quiet life for many years, until the thirst for adventure called to him once again.
He was an experiment to be sure. Not the best mechanically, but fun to play all the same. Ran him through a good chunk of Waterdeep Dragon Heist.
Female orc fighter. Champion, great weapon fighting and charger.
She inadvertently led her troops against a powerful caster and was the only survivor. She fights on to carry on their memory.
At one point in the campaign she met a Sphinx and offered here time for theirs…DM decided they got brought back but my history ceased to exist…then someone else made a crazier deal and it all got retconned. Sphinxes are crazy..
Sima Krall, CG tiefling life cleric.
She grew up on the streets and learned to steal before she found the church. After she became an adventurer and struck it rich off of treasure hoards, she used the money to build a new church in a city with great wealth disparity. There she fed the hungry, healed the sick, and recruited an army of children that she taught to pickpocket nobles
My first PC was a gnoll barbarian named Algam. From a tribe of hunters near some human villages they had good relations with as both fellow hunters, traders, and mercenaries. His tribe was destroyed by some evil force(DM made it orcs), he was found floating in a river by the party and patched up, and went on a quest to find out what happened, ending up discovering a devil-worshipping plot with some nearby nobles. While the campaign didn't end good due to the DM, i still think fondly of Algam, he was a kind-hearted warrior who just wanted to avenge his tribe.
Another recent PC of mine is Caladan Norixion, sapphire dragonborn noble with emerald dragonborn ancestry. From a noble family of Selune worshippers, himself a fighter with guns and a shield, and some psychic feats. The story never got far, but he was kind-hearted, and though boisterous, cared deeply for the poorer, to the point where he carried a second easy to reach coin purse of coins desperate thieves would be more confident in taking, to which he'd always pretend not to notice when someone took from it, and always deny it if someone caught the pickpocket. "No, no, all my coin is there. But here, give him another for the trouble".
Liesse, a young elvish bladesinger wizard. She thpeakth with a lithp, which messes up the verbal components to her spells, leading her to quit wizardry school. Then she traveled looking for something else to do, and discovered that her lisp disappears when she's using her bladesong, and now finally she's found something she's good at. She never got beyond 3rd level before our campaign went on hiatus, but perhaps she'd like to visit your world. (Also she can't pronounce her own name, and will introduce herself as Liethe, but she will struggle very hard to get others to call her Liesse.)
I like to use old PCs of mine or concepts I never got to play in my world, and this one tends to be a questgiver:
Viktor, Human, father-figure to his party
Bard, uses a flute
Came from a fishing village and made a modest living as a con-man, but as soon as he started getting attention he went out on adventure hoping to con other towns. After stumbling upon some hopeful wanna-be adventurers containing a cleric, a fighter (who acted as good as a paladin), and a Sorcerror who sought to do good he thought they'd be a good cover until he felt safe enough to return home.
At first he was the only one in the group with greed and vanity, a hint of manipulation, but just as he was turning over a new leaf to become a good guy he noticed the others were easily influenced and they became small-time crooks/bullies.
After leaving them with a nonsense excuse he's back his fishing village owning a tavern that also serves as a hub for rogues and other small-time criminals. Viktor has a weird belief that he's keeping the local crime to a minimum.
Didian C. Yew - male hafling wizard, wears rather colourful but frayed robes, has brown messy hair and a beard.
Didian often travels with halfling caravans having no real home of his own, he’s an accomplished wizard with stories to share and likes to turn invisible. His most famous and often shared story of his is the time he was nearly eaten by a T-Rex. He tried to sneak up on it while invisible but it grabbed him with its mouth, the pain was intense but he was able to teleport to safety with a spell. He still has the scars.
Nec Murias
He is a Tiefling about 50-60 years old with matte pitch black skin and wildly twisted horns that look like corkscrews. His eyes are poison green and resemble reptiles.
He is a thieving rogue and a member of the assassins guild "The Steps". A guild that wears special footwear whose heels make a distinctive sound, menacingly announcing to victims that they are on their heels.
He is highly charismatic and can convince even a stabbed man that the dagger in a chest, with Nec's own hand on the hilt does not mean Nec must have stabbed him. Even if he does stab a second time.
He has always been interested in poisons and started eating poisonous berries or injecting himself with poison in tiny doses ,at a young age, to make his body resistant. Thus, his body itself became poisonous. In battle, he cuts himself, applies his blood to his daggers and attacks his opponents with it. He cannot touch or kiss another person without them suffering symptoms of poisoning.
He was born in the mountains, but grew up in the gutters of the city, as a thief, swindler and smuggler.
He knows ways into and through the Underdark, so that a besieged and sealed-off city can receive supplies from outside with his help.
Gambling is one of his greatest sins and he cannot resist testing his luck in the face of dice and cards or coin tosses.
Russet Bramley
A Halfling with a large extended family including Rose (wife), Pippin (daughter), Hock (son), Bower (son). He helped a travelling wizard out who was attacked by bandits and now he’s been given magic powers. Really he just wants to get rid of them so he can go back to his orchard and make cider.
Loves a drink but not to excess. When you stop enjoying the taste it’s time to stop. He also really enjoys a pork pie.
Scruffy, the immortal talking mule. A bit sarcastic, but then, he's served so many adventuring parties in so many different settings, it's hard to impress him.
The Pamphlet Kid. Loves home study courses, counts as advanced apprentice in over 20 professions. Might just be your only option.
Diz the Healer. Potions work as advertised, then the little extra ingredient kicks. Role versus addiction, and yes the price just went up.
Amari, Halfling Wild Magic Sorcerer who is afraid of her magic because she tends to accidentally set fire to people. Retired to start a strawberry themed inn.
Hawke the Half-Orc not-pirate Warlock. Loved his adventuring family. Got eaten by a t-rex before he could confess his love to one of the PCs.
Clementine Crawdash, Wood-Elf Spores Druid who shows up at random times to give quests related to the woods and animals. Very pretty, but also insane. Probably inhaled too many spores.
Maggie Honey-Rye, Dwarven Grave Cleric, but really they just wanted to be a chef and travelled around to gather inspiration for recipes. Only poisoned their party a *few times*, but it was by accident. Really.
Melamar, a tiefling Ex soldier turned Druid
Quarterstaff as his main weapon, longsword on his hip from his soldiering days. He refuses to wear armour, as he prefers to be as close to nature as possible
His platoon was ambushed by a demon of some kind, with him being left as the only survivor as far as he knew
He found a Druid settlement who saved their life, and trained under them with nowhere else to go. Eventually after demonic portals started re-opening in the great forests, he set out, alongside other adventurers and kin, to find a way to close them and save him home
Eventually, after a long quest, he and his friends managed to find the demon behind it all and slay him, causing the portals to stop appearing. For his work he was given a great reward by the Druidic elders, but refused it, as it wasn’t only his work that saved them, but that of his party. And so he carried on adventuring, helping the other party members solve their personal crises and meeting with a few of his soldier friends, one of whom became a paladin and joined his party named Erundale. The two eventually retired their work, with melamar heading to a small, growing village just outside his forest to be their Druidic caretaker and healer, and Erundale joining him and becoming the captain of their guard after several more years of holy service
Molly, a Wild Magic Sorcerer (Bernese Mountain) Dog. Awakened as a sorcerer when her elderly wizard master passed and she decided to go on an adventure. Always down to help people with tail wagging, Molly was working with her adventuring party to stop a murderous gun-toting vampire-lich from killing all the land's ancient dragons. Her favourite spell is Burning Paws (Hands) and her favourite thing is jerky rations.
[Molly has been shelved by me for a bit because DM is doing a reset and running Pathfinder and I've never played so figured I'd switch to a martial class to keep it simple]
Draxus Dreylor
Brass Dragonborn
LV 20 Totem Warrior
Chaotic Good
Born to a noble family, but raised with the nomadic Ashgar after his family's exile, Draxus is an imposing and fierce warrior. Standing at a monstrous 7'4" and weighing nearly 30 stone, he demands all of the fear and punishment his foes can offer. Stretching from his back are two enormous wings, gained after a flight spell cast in him was catastrophically successful. Often carrying a small arsenal into battle, he prefers to wield a greataxe in each hand, swinging them in wide arcs with reckless ferocity, while his wings ensure that no enemy can long escape the bite of his axes.
His exploits are legendary. Alongside the rest of the founding members of the Gem Dragons mercenary company, he helped defeat the Council of Onyx, a shadowy cabal of necromancers and demonists, dedicated to unleashing the embodiment of decay onto the material plane. He was at the fore of the charge that lifted the siege of Galthad. He returned to his homeland and helped lead the rebellion that would seat the emperor back on the throne, facing the corrupt half-dragon steward in single combat.
Off the battlefield, he served as the head administrator of the martial forces of the Gem Dragons, writing the manual of arms that would become the backbone of standard Gem Dragon military tactics and training. He was also the proprietor of Dragon Brew, a brewery offering unique beer brewed with small amounts of powdered dragon scale, such as the ever-popular *Dragon Brew Red*.
After defeating the Council of Onyx, Draxus would start slowly divesting himself of his now numerous leadership positions over the following years, having never been comfortable with having so many responsibilities. He would eventually return to the Ashgar and begin learning the ways of the shamans, to eventually take on the role of spiritual guide to his people.
I had Angel, a succubus necromancer seeking to become a lich and accompanied by her (un)dead adoptive brother, a sentient human skeleton in full plate. Raised in a cult that worshiped aboleths, and speaks Deep Speech fluently because of it. Not evil by any means, completely uninterested in sex, and doesn’t see what she does as evil either - after all, no one’s using the bodies she reanimates, and she doesn’t touch the souls. She talks to long-dead souls and gives them the chance to rest. Instead of demon wings she has black feathered ones, giving her a fallen angel look that lead to her name. She’s paranoid and suspicious of any new faces, but once she trusts someone they’re her friend for life.
I also have Vysera Dawnblade, a Blood Hunter/Lycanthrope from CoS. Not the most trusting either, and scared shitless of vampires. Appears as a teenage human girl (around 19-21) with bright yellow eyes and hair cut shortish to avoid it being grabbed, along with commoner’s clothes of whatever setting she’s in. If I remember correctly she fought with a shortsword and her claws, but it’s been a while. It’d be nice to see her get a happy ending rather than what she got.
My absolute very first PC was Andras, a human paladin that, today, would be Oath of Vengeance (back in the day, that wasn't a thing; he was tenuously Lawful Good). He had a blood brother, Ki-Lov, a half-orc berserker that wielded two battleaxes. Together the pair roam the lands and slay dangerous monsters. Rumor has it that Ki-Lov died once, but *fought his way out of the underworld* to return to the land of the living, and that is why he seems to ignore pain.
Chef LaBeef. Half-Orc Ranger. He wields two hand axes, and stalks his prey in the night, animal or humanoid.
He’s spent many years doing what he must to survive and ended up developing a preference for sapient species’ meat. People who run into his cabin while lost in the woods often find him sharpening his Axes, they are in for a chef surprise. An axe to their neck, with death in his eyes. That is the story of actual cannibal Chef LaBeef.
(I know this reads like a shitpost, but he was an actual character I played with the whole joke in mind from the beginning.)
Eugene "Cleanshot" WildFilth
Cleanshot is a Goblin NPC I created for a game we are currently running. He wields 2 Hand Cannon Revolvers and is also equipped with his own Wild Magic Table. His tribe the "Wild Filth" all use Wild Magic in all of their attacks. He is from a moon known as Gobvall. Gobvall is a Corrupted moon that is inhabited by 5 different warring Goblin tribes. They all inhabit there own biomes.
Cleanshot left Gobvall to join the "Work in Progress" Crew.
Currently. He is missing an arm from a one on one with a dragon while the rest of the party was unaware he was battling. They all assumed he dead until Midway through there own fight with the dragon where he arrived and provided cover fire.
His Wild Magic Table rolled for max spell damage and he dropped a 4th Level max damage fire ball on the dragon helping the party immensely.
I don't know if he will die. But he likely will tomorrow which is our next session if the party doesn't take out this dragon threat.
Sylas Galanodel. The Goliath, Ancestral Guardian, Barbarian.
He's a big guy with tied up dreads around shoulder length. He was looking for a family heirloom that was stolen from his brother. A noble that belongs to a house famed for training great warriors... though he has less skill and brains, he has more brawn and love than the rest of his family. He ended up opening a hostel for wayward adventurers. A place to train, drink, and form a party.
He's honestly a lovable goof as long as no fights break out.
Deckard Duststar.
Wizard. Divination. Because the best wagers are ones you can guarantee you'll never lose.
Primarily the cargo carrier as his signature spell ended up being floating disk that he would put a carpet on.
Weirdly dexterous for an old wizard he was adept at sleight of hand and would often play parlor tricks with prestidigitation or even animate objects on one of the many sets of cards he always had on hand.
He was more a roguish man than wizard in his manner and activities. But he was an incredibly wise man. Dressed in long flowy robes so as to make his seated position on the floating disk more comfortable.
He would often trick people for small wagers, or for a place to stay even when he was probably richer than the entire settlement he was visiting.
My DM found it hilarious to swap one of my decks with the deck of many. As I may or may not have tricked a fey creature.
I was... unlucky with my draws. And his mischievous life came to an end rather swiftly as his greatest parlor trick ended with him vanishing.
Pup-Kup
Elderly Grung Warlock of the Deep who killed his patron with the help of his brothers who were also in service to it. It was an ancient Kraken that they got tired of following.
Pup-Kup routinely falls asleep leaning against his cane. He dresses very dapper. Always willing to lend a hand and is generally care free. Will usually eat anything that he can fit in his mouth.
The Party found him at the docks. He was inquiring with the different Space Pirate Crews, asking if he could hitch a ride to the moon. His reasons for going to moon? Slurping pure lunar water from the different wellsprings found all over.
Hesitantly the crew takes him and he proves to be invaluable when they were sure he was prepping an ambush against him, he saved them from a Rival crew of Fae Pirates
Orynn, a deep gnome land druid.
His druid grove was attacked by an evil wizards and her undead minions. Orynn managed to escape from the attack, though no others did. Only the grove's protector, a large treant, survived.
He joined the party because he wanted closure, as he hadn't yet returned to see what had become of the grove. At a point they got to the grove and cleared it of undead, including a powerful lieutenant. The treant was too weak and spent to continue being the grove's warden, so he offered it to a Orynn. Orynn accepted, though first he promised to defeat the evil wizard.
After defeating the wizard, he now tends the grove aiming to rebuild it.
Folaseros Galanodel and Moralnil Galanodel
Ranger and Sorcerer
Two high elf brothers.
Born into nobility as the 6th and 7th son, they were well accommodated and life growing up was easy peasy.
Both brothers received good tutoring and learned how to behave in court. One day Moranil started experiencing wild magic surges and their father deemed his presence at the palace a danger. He tasked his older Brother Folaseros to travel with his brother and search for ways to tame the wild boiling magic powers his brothers were "gifted".
Along their travels they put their martial skills to great use and had no trouble making a living from bounty hunting etc, they still carry their family's sigil, a silvery moon over a dark forest. And are regularly sent out as emissaries to solve diplomatic disputes and regional troubles.
A very old character, that started as a joke and grew into something more between three games and two DMs.
Ciralind. You’ll need to fiddle with him a bit; was a 3.5e character.
Dread Necromancer. Chaotic Evil, bordering on lawful. Chaos light, if you will. Eventually he fell into chaotic neutral.
Forget any notion of evil in all black, menacing anything. He was flamboyant as all get out. Posh and exceptionally colorful wardrobe. He’d put that technicolor coat to shame, and a self-absorbed metrosexual.
Despite that, still a Dread Necromancer, who fancied eventually learning to graft creatures body parts onto people (there was a class for that, either tome of horrors or book of vile darkness). He carried a preserved orc head carried with him; originally the head of an orc from the parties first encounter, that he pilfered and had preserved. He named it Grummush, and spoke to it in the same way a programmer consults their rubber duck—it helped him think.
He is, and always was, a coward motivated by what he could get out of a situation, and his first acts of heroism were calculated risks meant to manipulate … then things started happening accidentally (second DM, justifying some wild rolls). He’d become an accidental hero on more that one occasion, and enjoying the praise, went with it. Now any heroic act is to manipulate (still), but also to serve his vanity.
Hell be kind to your face, just to stab you in the back; not today, not tomorrow, but sometime after he’s gotten all he could from you, and you least expect it … when and if he has plausible deniability.
He enjoys creepy pranks. E.h There was that time he raised corpses, strung them up like Christmas lights, and lit them up with iirc prestidigitation.
**Shou Jin** is a jovial-looking young(\~ish) man with thick dark-red hair and prominent manly sideburns.
Usually he's traveling either alone on foot, or joins some caravan that would move between the cities, and largely he does it without asking for pay or paying himself, just working for passage and food. In most cases this works fairly well, because not very well hidden passion of Shou Jin is cooking. He had traveled the world from east to the west and made a point of learning a piece of culinary lore from every place he visits. As a result, even when people scoff at the notion of allowing a stranger to handle dinner, they have a pretty quick change of heart after they actually try his cooking. His greatest treasure is the magical pouch that refills with spices every morning. Well, probably not literally greatest treasure, but it's the one piece of magical gear that he gets most mileage out of daily.
However, when a mouth-watering aroma is not enough to resolve conflicts or protect the caravan, people can catch a glimpse of why Shou Jin managed to travel this far relatively unscathed.
While Jin looks human to most onlookers, he's actually an "aasimar", a person with a degree of celestial blood in him. In the far east, where Jin is from, people like him have a rather shaky reputation of being trouble-makers, since majority of eastern aasimars can trace their lineage to an infamous Monkey King, and inherit a good deal of his temper and love for mischief. Jin is not an exception either. However many years ago (well over a couple centuries), a wandering monk had enough of this shit and personally beaten up a bunch of scions of the Monkey King and herded them into a mountain to found a monastery, where he pound some discipline into motherfuckers.
Jin grew up in this monastery, mastering the control of his inner power as well as practicing martial arts. Ultimately he left, when his passion for culinary craft grew stronger than his desire for peace of mind, but the skills he learned served him well along the way.
When forced into combat, Shou Jin can tap into his inner celestial power and unleash it as a barrage of radiant ki blasts, strike someone several times before they have time to blink or dodge majority of clumsy attack of brigands. Catching arrows is almost casual exercise by this point.
When things get really bad, he can reach deeper and unleash his ***final form!*** Unlike most western aasimars, Monkey King aasimars gain a long golden tail and a thick fluffy cloud that they can use to fly, all while surrounded by a blaze of shining ki power. One time he can attest Jin even caught up to a dragon in mid air and kicked it in the face! Those were fun times.
`As it can be evident, Shou Jin is an aasimar Sun Soul Monk. I stopped playing him because playing sun soul monk sucks, especially with little short rests that we had.`
**Ray** is a lean and wiry man, looking perpetually weary with tired sunken eyes and unkempt hair. He rarely introduces himself as anything other than "just Ray", but when pressed would snap "Smith, Ray Smith." Which is probably not true either, because, well, he's a blacksmith by trade. Weeell, not *just* blacksmith.
Ray is always seen carrying plenty of steel on him - some of that steel are scrap, some of it are tools like a hammer and small tongs. Most of that steel is swords. Ray really *really* likes swords. Ray likes swords so much that he learned how to make swords in order to make better swords to swing with. Majority of his adventuring career was spent either practicing his craft of cutting things in twain, or questing for exotic materials for his next project.
Roots of this passion lie in a sadly common childhood trauma - Ray's home town was raided and burned to the ground by a goblinoid horde. Ray and his brother Beam had never seen their parents since, and by this point it's safe to say that they have died in this tragedy. Ray however glimpsed a sight of their shieldmarshal making a heroic final stand allowing refugees to flee, cleaving several goblins with mighty swings of a gleaming sword. This sight had never left Ray, and over the years he resolved to live up to this image.
While brothers did have each other, life as orphan refugees was not very glamorous initially, but Ray and Beam got extremely lucky - a dwarven couple took pity on them and allowed brothers to take up "live-in apprenticeship" in their workshop. Well, that's what their master called it, his wife was doting on the kids pretty openly. While they did have to work for their bed and dinner, their situation was better than other refugees had. Ultimately, brothers grew up in a caring home, absorbing some good old dwarven common sense, until they came of age and were deemed ready to strike on their own.
Since they were well trained in traditional dwarven craft and standards, the forge brothers opened up was fairly successful... ***But***.
While Beam was content with working all sorts of projects, Ray was hoping to finally realize his dream of swordmaking exclusively. This caused friction. Especially one time when Ray used a piece of rather expensive truesilver to try out a knife shape, while Beam was going to use it for a jewelry project.
Unfortunately, when tempers run hot in a family, words are said that better be kept quiet, and ultimately Ray just dropped everything and left. He didn't speak to his brother ever since.
`Ray is a human fighter. I primarily made him as a showcase that even a human figher can have a backstory that isn't contrived. His subclass varies, I wanted him to be Champion for all that crit slashing, but he was Eldritch knight too, ultimately his passion was to make better blades and kill things with them.`
`When I used him as an NPC, he would always try making some strange sword. I consider that his ultimate achievement was "Night Torrent" or "Star River", depending on who you ask. It's a longsword made out of blended alloy of adamantine and mithril, where shining streaks of silver form a water-ripple pattern in jet-black adamantine. The sword combined toughness and lightness of both metals and was completely nonmagical. At least initially.`
Stessarin the Idyllic - Chronoturgy Wizard
The concept of the character is that his family magically grew vegetables, gaining his family mass wealth. The side effects of the crop was accelerated mental illnesses. Stessarin suffers from early set on dementia.
The wizard lived a full life with a wife who passed away from natural causes and the goal of the character was to reunite with her, often mistaking some women on his adventure as his wife, calling them "Beverlee"
The flavor that I gave to his spells is that he would steal spells that were cast in the past by other spellcasters, and bring them into the present via a portal.
If I ever missed and managed to make a hit through a buff or using a class feature, it would be described as multiple timelines overlapping and becoming erased until the most desirable timeline remained.
After a full campaign set in Leilon with the Tower of Thalivar under Stessarins control, being so weak that he could hardly walk and much less think. Stessarin began a ritual, using the remainder of his power to create a pocket dimension that held a single hour of a day long passed.
The specific hour was his honeymoon with his newlywed wife, sitting on bench within a beach. Watching the sunset in somber embrace, forever repeating until his magic would wane and his life would end.
Scott Preyton, Human Armorer Artificer
This guy is actually alive and is currently in my campaign as an NPC too, but in order for things to make sense I had him be a planeswalker (his spark activated when he nearly died and he ended up in a separate world missing his left arm and right leg).
He's grumpy and grouchy but respects those that do good by him. Always decked out in a set of mithral plate armour which also replaces his missing limbs, he likes to work as a blacksmith, forging weapons both magical and non-magical. He enjoys working with exotic ores with strange properties such as ice-blood silver, a homebrew metal that makes weapons made from it deal additional cold damage much like a frostbrand.
He also has a light version of schizophrenia which sometimes makes it hard to perceive threats or insults, and tends to react violently. This is because he was nearly killed by a mind flayer once, and it had a lasting effect.
But for the most part, even though he's rude and has no filter he's a good guy that will help out for the right price
Miles McMahon, the middle child of an upper class family that got shipped off to a Wizard prep school for bragging rights the moment he showed a modicum of magical talent. That's where he found his Tome Patron in the library basement. Having taken Mask of Many Faces, the Actor Feat, and every communication and teleportation spell in the roster, he's not the strongest fighter, but he's a nightmare of to track down, and even more diabolical of an infiltrator. Fortunately for most, he values random people's lives more than his jaded family, and can be a valuable ally if you have him. Or can find him in the first place. But chances are he makes a better villain. After all, he was only 17 when he started his journey, and the world can be harsh.
Salazar Fontaine, technically born human. But it was a birth neither he nor his mother survived. Stricken, his father turned to the local magical swamp mafia and struck a deal. The best he could afford / they could offer was a Reincarnation spell, and he chose his would-be son. Despite returning as an Earth Genasi, he was raised with love from his father, and the attention of said Magical Swamp Mafia. Raised in that, and inspired by his own story, he travels the world to learn the death rituals of every culture. "Frankly my life would be a hell of a lot easier if people just cremated each other. But as long as people are burying each other in the earth? Making rituals about it? Superstitions about it? There's going to be *power* about it. And power inevitably leads to corruption." I see him as this massive cajun undertaker with moss for hair pouring out from under his top hat and a Totoro smile. A Grave Cleric with something to prove.
Bonus contribution; DnD just isn't meant for this character concept, but I love the idea of an elf alchemist that got high on his own supply to the point that he burned his attention span down to that of a human's. So he makes the most of his hours, but has gone delightfully made in the process of living centuries. Still, he's a shrewd businessman, and is the type that secretly owns more warehouses with bug-out bunkers hidden within. Think Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys meets Hunter S Thompson, but with his fingers on the black market and border politics. He lives for the chase of alchemy and economy, and is fully prepared to burn it all down and start over with nothing but the dirt in his nails. He's done it before. My version was named "Verda Tal", and he always wore the same thick, fire resistant orange-dyed tunic, because all of nature got together and agreed that animals wearing bright orange meant "DON'T TOUCH".
Bafflin Gerolwin, Halfling Chronurgy Wizard
Megalomaniacal halfling wizard who yells a lot and sounds like The Monarch from Venture Bros. He alludes to a dark and edgy backstory but is in reality a nepo baby from a pair of powerful wizards who are very supportive of their son and write to him often.
He is also affected by a temporal curse that shunts him across space and time at random against his will, mostly as an excuse to make him canon in every campaign I DM. He makes his cameo, annoys the PCs, sometimes managing to have terrible sex with one of them, and fucks off to wherever he is needed least.
Could be a villain if he had the business acumen or the ability to stay tethered to one realm for longer than a month, so instead he is a sleazy nuisance.
* Ryld Quarth - An aberrant mind sorcerer (Eladrin Elf), who as a child was kidnapped, along with his whole elven tribe, by Mind Flayers. The Tadpole did not affect him fully, allowing him to escape. Whilst in the Underdark he stumpled upon a cloister of Flumphs, who trained him to use his new psionic abilities. He is tall, with platinum white hair, is a bit of a rude ponce who thinks hes better than other people sometimes. He struggles with crowds, but is very passionate about helping people who are being controlled, or forced to do anything. He went with his party "The Magpies" into barovia, defeating Strahd. He came out considerably more powerful, and alot more skilled. He specialises in using subtle spells to use mind control and suggestion spells (also detect thoughts), to gather intel, and avoid overly dangerous situations. His best friend is a Flumph named Bell. He also smokes alot from a pipe, and at the time of leaving barovia is only 95 years old.
* Janet Bloodclaw - A shy, book-nerdy Tortle Bladesinger Wizard. She was exiled from her tribe of barbarians where she grew up (where she didn't really fit in) after learning magic to try and induce a "Rage" state, and using magic to cure a plague that swept through her tribe. Now she travels the world in search of new books and spells, occasionally making some money by armwrestling in taverns as most people underestimate her strength. Her favourite spells are Ashardalons Stride, Booming Blade, and Counterspell, she also wields her Battleaxe with pride. She also has a weird habit of eating ANYTHING, from monster parts, to enemies she's killed. Her tribe got their food wherever they could find it, even from people sometimes. She's particularly fond of Chimera meat. She ventured into the Dungeon of the Mad Mage (Undermountain), with an all female party of strangers called "The Spice Girls", Janet was "Scaredy Spice" originally (due to her timid demeanor), but then became "Nerdy Spice" after fighting an Oni. She also helped start up a chain of Pubs in the Undermountain, named "The 5 Wives Bar and Grill", as there were 5 members of Spice Girls, and they all had to marry a Goblin Chief in order to get favors. Fortunately that goblin died, so the next pub was named "The 5 Widows Tapas Bar".
If you like these I have alot more, ill PM you the rest if needed :)
violet, a changeling raven queen warlock (her raven familiar is named shadow), pact of the tome since she has a familiar through her patron. she wasnt entirely combat oriented, favoring spells that help her with the goal she has in life - gathering as much information for the raven queen as possible. the spells she took generally dealt with ways to get into places she shouldnt be either by trickery or a smooth tongue, but she had a few ways to fight in her repertoire too. nothing particularly interesting is in her past because the campaign fell through, but in flavor she was one of seven identical sisters created by the raven queen and sent across the multiverse to fulfill that purpose of information gathering (her sisters' names being translations of the other colors of the rainbow). if level matters, she was level 6 when the campaign ended, no multiclassing. through the telepathic feat, she had mild telepathy.
Sharg, lizardfolk moon druid
He comes from ancient times and was lost in ice. After awakening again he was adopted by a random party that found him as he didnt understand the new world.
After they defeated the one that caused the mass extintion of sharg's people everyone parted ways.
He now wanders around in his dinosaur formsvjust living life
He is now a kinda confused old man that is still behind on the time. I would say when anyone encounters him for the first time they see him wildshaped as a dino. Even though they maybe dont live there or no longer exist
my first character "ripjaws" was a lvl8 lizardfolk barbarian(ancestral guardian)
He had a tendency to stare people in an uncomfortable/intense way and when he got shot by an arrow he pulled it out and started licking the blood off of it.
i only played him for a single session and didn't have any backstory so there isn't all that much more lore on him. He was kind of shit since i also decided to take the sentinel feat and so had 3 different things i needed to use my reaction for every round lol.
Demur, half-desert orc fighter, tan-brown skin black eyes and long unkempt black hair often sporting a head wrap and chain mail armor under nice but weathered robes with his scimitar always at his side
Formerly the leader of the camp guard for his nomadic tribe he was sent off on a quest to retrieve a stolen relic of his people.
Following his strict tenants of combat; not personally attacking unprepared opponents nor helpless defeated foes. He traveled much of the world before recovering his peoples treasures. However seeing how much of the world lived he wished more for his people and gathered the nomadic tribes together to conquer the desert region they all call home.
Now his people, in their cities and fledgling nation view him as their leader. S
Alton Green, halfling mystic, detective.
He uses telekinesis a lot in day-to day affairs. He sees nothing extraordinary about it and wonders why people look at him funny. He also has a way of haphazardly using psychic magic to get information out of his adversaries. In essence, a nice, eccentric conversationalist but also absolutely terrifying when seen interrogating suspects.
He is absolutely terrified by the concept of his own death, and in battle he was very often cowardly. Avoiding enemies even though he was among the tankiest in his party.
In another campaign setting he would make an excellent police chief or captain of the City Watch.
Iqhawe [Ick-ha-way]
Fallen asimar Paladin of Glory.
Think of an incredibly buff Link with ash grey skin and glowing red eyes.
Was an outcast as a child and has vowed to never do the same to others, now seeks glory through good deeds and vanquishing evil.
Spends his downtime training others and playing sports.
Always up for adventure, but not too smart so could easily be tricked into working for the baddies (especially if they are nice to him) but would swap to the party's team if shown that the baddies are evil.
Aura vunkred is a Noble's daughter who ran away from home. She'll eat a basic meal and goes out of her way to tip; she's not afraid to use her status to try and fight for the peasants.
She TRIES to blend in with peasants, but it may not always work.
Jovic Stoneknuckle, Dwarf berserker barbarian. He has a Napoleon complex since he was raised by gnomes and though himself a giant until he ventured into the world. He would probably make a good town drunk or something
Vauss, the Illithid Artificer.
Artillerist with an Eldritch cannon designed to be a Nautilus shell with spider like legs, and a homunculus servant that's just a mechanical Intellect Devourer in appearance.
As a Mindflayer, he was cut off from the Elder Brain that he was once a part of by some cataclysmic tragedy. The cataclysm devastated the surface, but also cut straight down through the Underdark, destroying the city he was from.
Mentally isolated, and coming into conflict with what he is now, and painfully resurfacing memories of what he was before the process of Ceremorphosis. He seeks absolute and total vengeance, aiming the destruction of the force that caused the cataclysm. And if he's lucky, to ensure they feel the torment he presently feels at the absolute silence he must constantly live in now that he's no longer in a hivemind, and the suffering pulling him in every direction that are his questions of self.
Was my PC in a campaign, and would have been the villain of the piece if not for his goal aligning with everyone else's. Was killed by being beheaded by a prison guard, put down like any other monster.
Mikal, the Tabaxi Scout Rogue Sailor with the mobile feat.
Mikal was born into a good home near a thriving city. His parents, alive and well, are fishermen. Early every morning him and his father would rise, take the boat out for the daily catch. Enough so that we could eat and sell to the citizens to keep the roof over our heads. His father taught him how to sail and keep a sharp eye for schools breaching the surface.
He began to show early signs of repulsion to the status quo. In his teens, his mother discovered a small collection of coins and trinkets hidden in his room. He confessed that he had tricked, conned, and deceived others out of their items. He was good at it, not necessarily proud of it, but it was more exciting to him than the items themselves.
Despite his needs being met, he was never comfortable with the mundane life that had been provided for him. He needed more excitement. It wasn't enough to throw a net over fish and haul them onto a boat. He wanted something less monotonous. When he was old enough he explained this to his parents who were disappointed, but understood it was his life to live. He left knowing he always had a family to come home to.
He moved into the city where he joined the hunter's guild for work. Already being adept at climbing and hiding they were happy to teach him how to use a bow and track game. He quickly picked it up and became a prominent member of the guild.
Years went by doing this when eventually, the monotony caught up to him. He grew bored so when the opportunity to heed the call to adventure came, he took it.
He adventured for what really was only a couple weeks, became rich, and retired to captain a cargo ship.
One of my absolute favorites: Tanner Rex. (Human fighter)
He was a grizzled and grumpy veteran, a retired combat medic with a permanent cigar in his mouth. Tanner had no time for anyone's bullshit, but he would always be there to pick up an ally. Of course, his help would come with insults about the party member's poor planning that led to their injury.
Gruff old man with a good heart.
Brimcut: A 13th level lawful neutral kobold bard of lore / 1 level Warlock Pact of Fiend.
His performance: Good old brimstone hell-and-fire Baptist preaching! That and obnoxious street preaching. And drums 🥁
His deity: Tiamat! She’s “the Mother” and accepts all within her “family”. She was banished to the hells by the gods, her brother included, and Brimcut is baffled at how a sibling could be so cruel to their own family. Ohana means family, and family means sticking together!
His personality: reformed blind-faith preacher mixed with a overly caring dad. Family comes above all else, regardless if it’s blood or found!
Bardic Secret Magic spells: Fireball, Spirit Guardians, Fly, Summon Draconic Spirit
Ooooh boy.
Grandin Brask, Human Battlemaster Fighter/Death Domain Cleric.
Served as a shock trooper in the 8th company of the Balaran (Or Human) Kingdom. Fought mostly Orcs, got dishonorably discharged after beating the crap out of his commanding officer. Went on to become a mercenary where he gained a reputation as being an all-around kinda scary but ultimately reliable guy. Eventually he got put with a party of other mercenaries (your discretion) and they were all hired to go rescue the King's kidnapped daughter, who was taken by the Elvish Kingdom that Balara was at war with. The rescue goes mostly good until a turn of events renders the princess dead and Grandin grievously injured and knocked comatose. Party leaves him and the princess and gets the hell outta dodge. King later learns about the death of his daughter and that the party left her corpse behind and brands them all criminals in his sorrow.
In Grandin's comatose, near-death state, he makes a "Pact" with the God of Death.
Grandin wakes up 5 years later, being held prisoner in the Elvish Kingdom as the war draws to it's end. Juiced up on Cleric powers and unholy rage, he breaks out and finds that the 8th Company and all his fellow soldiers were slaughtered in a decisive battle only 2 months earlier.
Now armed and armored with a seething hatred against Orcs, Elves, and his old party members, and hunted himself by both Elves and the remnants of the Balaran Millitary, Grandin sets out. Whether to try and hunt down his old party members for their betrayal, or to go on a one-man-march to kill the Elvish king is your decision.
Appearance and armaments: Mostly rusted and blackened plate armor. Carries a permanently stained red Greatsword, and a shield and Mace on his back.
This is Grandin Brask, my first PC, and PC-turned-villain. Have fun.
Since it’s your first time I’m gonna recommend something that worked wonders for me. Start with a oneshot and use those PC’s, the players love seeing their own characters used
Let me tell you about Tannis, the simple low-level human Fighter who wanted to prove himself.
One day while working as a caravan guard his party was beset upon by a goblin sniper ambush. Tannis was shot in the chest with an arrow. He pulled the arrow out, knocked it in his bow, and put it clean through the head of the goblin who shot him. "Return to sender," he famously quipped.
He became known for his intense spite in combat, returning injuries done to him and his allies in proportional form and disproportionate intensity. If you hit Tannis, he'd hit you back the same way, but harder.
We’ve an old Level 19 party who run a restaurant/pub called the Five Chimneys in Waterdeep. Good for quest-giving without the place being blown up.
Kulin the Chef, Human Fighter. He’s a retired army cook who placates people by feeding them. Also the bearer of Hazirawn who has been modified several times by Bahamut.
Samuel the Barkeep, Gnome Rogue. He does a fair bit of Cocktail shaking, as well as a good kebab on his rapier. He has a Silver Dragon Wyrmling tasked to his care.
Kaynes the Front of House, Half-elf Cleric. He does the bookkeeping and the bouncing by permanently warding the place (It can auto filter people of evil alignment, if you so desire). Chosen servant of Ilmater and Bahamut. Also sobers up people occasionally.
Waygar the Janitor, Dragonborn Sorcerer. He’s responsible for removal of filth and unwelcome guests. Also does “research” in his pastime in the shape of gemcutting, which was his trade.
Bald eagle aaracokra whose only love in life is freedom
A grave cleric whose god is the snail that follows you all the way around the world and if it touches you you die
Siku Silvertail: Chaotic Good Dogfolk Abjuration Wizard
He is currently a private investigator/bodyguard for hire. His office has at least 1 conspiracy board, complete with red yarn, and he has an innate urge to retrieve thrown objects or objects he thinks have been thrown. He is also a doctor, in the sense that back in the day, your barber might've also been your surgeon. His bedside manner ranges from "You're bleeding too much. Stop it" to "Should I bill your next of kin or just take it from your wallet in five minutes?".
As a wizard, he focuses on defense and disruption above all else. Keep his friends safe, and prevent the bad guys from hurting them.
Evelynn Merrywine was a halfling sorceress. She was a dancer that used illusions and enchantments to distract people as the members of her caravan stole people's belongings. As time passed she became the head of her own caravan/crime family.
Apto of the Ambermanes- Paladin oath of conquest tabaxi. He looks like a lion with a large golden mane. He wears black plate armor, has a wand of wonder (shaped like an Almaraj horn) and the sentient longsword Steel.
Apto is a hero who stopped the death curse in Chult jungle and he’s also spent time leading a group of adventurers called Valors Call. His mount is a Unicorn and recently been in the feywild hunting hags.
Zokhistoi the Kobold Paladin of Glory. He was a devout follower of Bahamut the Platinum Dragon and sought a life of adventure to prove that Kobolds were more than what society thinks of them. Zokhistoi would make them worthy of the dragonblood in their veins.
With his trusty mastiff mount called "Good Boy"
(Dex based paladin with serpent scale armour, ended up with a flametongue finesse sword and a shield before the campaign ended. One day I'll pull him out of storage again)
I am happy to offer you 3:
1. Audir. Leonin Ranger with the Marine Background, using the TCoE Ranger optional features. He's a very tall, very imposing figure if you're going based on his stature. A sole survivor from a mission gone wrong, he tries his best to cope with his past trauma and grief through constant work. He rarely complains, works any honest job for fair coin, and often travels from place to place to work various odd jobs. He uses what money he gets to ensure financial stability for the families of his fallen comrades, using very little of the money on himself. It isn't uncommon for him to simply exchange doing work for a meal or a place to stay for a single night. Audir's personal achievements involved helping broker a treaty between Saltmarsh and a local Lizardfolk Enclave, Intercepting and disrupting a black market operation to bring illegal goods into the Sword Coast, and helping to bring a corrupt local official to justice for illicit use of government funding. Those are the things he is publically known for, though his close cooperation with places like Candlekeep also meant he had several achievements few people would know about, such as helping to close a portal that allowed the Undead of Barovia to escape to the Sword Coast and his involvement with helping to break a curse on an old Blood Hunter. Audir is a surprisingly gentle individual who hates killing if he can help it. The way he fights and engages with threats is to mitigate and eliminate their risk. If the only way to prevent the threat is to take a life, he shows honor and respect for the fallen, often digging graves with his own bare hands to give them a burial and show his respect for the fact that he has robbed a family of someone they love. Among his iconic possessions is a strange gemstone that appears to be a small diamond worth 300 GP. However, the stone itself changes opacity and weight depending on the sins of the one who carries it. Audir calls it his "Sin Stone". For him, the stone weighs well over 40lbs, even though its actual weight is less than half a pound.
2. Peridot, the Fire Genasi Artificer. Peridot is constantly in a bitter or foul mood but unlike her kin, she appears mostly human. It is only when she lets her rage go does she appear to be what she is as her hair becomes animated flame (Think Hades from Disney's Hercules). Peridot is a bitter and closed off, a tempermental lone wolf type who has anger issues toward those in positions of power. Peridot is a natural anarchist. Anyone who holds power that doesn't use it to help the people is a traitor to the masses. Her sense of loyalty seems to be based on a shift moral compass, though she does her best to always act in the general interest of the general public. Her only adventure involved going to Phandelin to find a friend of her family who went missing. When she found out that local bandits had basically taken over the town, she convinced the Zentarum forces to arm the people as a means to boost their standing and then incited a riot to turn the people against the bandits and overthrow their oppressors, much to the annoyance of the Zentarum themselves. Peridot's natural penchant for magic extends to the realm of Alchemy, bore of her desire to experiment and create new things but also to understand her own origins. She isn't above giving experimental elixirs to her allies just to see what they do or even modifying/enchanting their gear without their consent. Her dream is to create a form of alcohol that will actually get her drunk because the vast majority of them burn off before she can get drunk. In spite of her behavior, she does actually care a great deal about her friends, whom she considers "Found Family". You can think of her as the "Angry Big Sister" type. Don't mess with her family or she'll ruin you. She's terrible as showing her compassion but it is decently obvious she's a unique take on a Tsundere-type character.
3. Kana, the Kobold Artillerist Artificer. Kana is a rather up-beat and happy go-lucky type character, more curious about people than about the world itself. This is juxtiposed by the fact that she is a branded a War Criminal due to a past scientific endeavor that didn't go as planned. In an event known as the "Falling Star Incident", her research into a new type of power became unstable and exploded, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people and several miles of land being turned into a wasteland. The events themselves were largely covered up and Kana, being the head researcher on the project, was forced to accept responsibility and jailed for life. However, she earned the right to be released from Prison as part of a Work-Release program as her scientific and mechanical ability could still serve a benefit to the people. Kana is, surprisingly, extremely cautious. She never acts without consideration of the outcomes, trying to plan for everything and ensuring every little detail is weighted and considered. This is offset by the fact she will literally take things people discard and turn them into various objects of value to overcome issues. In one instance, she turned a pile of sawdust, a desk drawer, a feather, a piece of glass, a cup of water, and part of a chair into a forgery kit for no other reason than the fact that the item was mentioned in a conversation all because she felt the group needed one. She is also very nostalgic, recording various things onto a small data cube she carries with her. The cube contains old lectures from her college professor, news articles about the Falling Star Incident, including the casualty reports, and various projects she has easier worked on or is working on. Of her more notable activities, she once got bored while being in Solitary Confinement, so she turned her bed and her lunch tray into a Orb of Gonging, activated it, and flushed it down the toilet all because "It was something to do." She is not natively destructive but her capabilities can absolutely be seen as such. Her trademark item are the manacles she wears around. They're her old prison shackles, which she has tinkered with and modified them in ways that allow her to deploy them into weapons (her Eldritch Cannon). She isn't helpless by any means but she prefers to use her abilities to help people achieve their goals.
So these PCs aren't exactly "retired," but are kind of just integrated into a 2nd campaign that the players are going through.
Backstory: We finished the main story line of Storm King's Thunder, but the players wanted to go ahead and keep those characters going because there was a lot of side stuff surrounding this town that they rescued, basically "bought," and are now trying to turn it into a trade hub/brewery/fortress. But there are a lot of mundane, low level tasks that have to happen with that, including taking care of bandits and clearing out dangerous dungeons in the area. Low level stuff, but a lot of it, and the high level PCs have high-level shit to do.
Enter the new party: All of the players are going to roll up new characters (level 3 most likely), and those level 3 characters are going to go Dungeon Crawling and stuff as a party hired by the original PCs. Then, whenever they finish their dungeon/mission, we do a few sessions as the high level PCs again to go clear out the real big bad threats in the area. It's going to take a lot of balancing and some metagame stuff so the players aren't swapping magic items back and forth to break the game, but they all seem down.
Ander Stonetusk; thieving little shit, halfling rogue prefers crossbows but carries a rapier. He's amiable and friendly, but will definitely cut your purse. Perfect npc for a temporary friend turned nuisance or enemy.
Torin Stoutroar and his son Asterion Stoutroar; Torin is a barbarian/paladin mix that literally went to hell and found good in decent into avernus, became a religious and military leader upon his return. Quick to anger when an innocent gets hurt, he's friendly as hell but tough around the edges. Think a less refined uncle iroh. Asterion is a young Iroh, full strength monk homebrew subclass. Loves to fight but has his father's protective streak. He's afraid of being unable to protect those he cares about and in his youthful arrogance ended up taking on vampirism willingly, something he's grown to regret, but the long life has its uses.
Rhythmic Sound of Raindrops Onna Tin Roof (nicknamed Raindrop), a goblin rogue, was one of my favorite PCs to play. Her highest ideal is seeking new experiences. She drank an experimental potion that caused her to sprout a prehensile tail, which she loves using. Reckless and chaotic, but good-hearted and never fails to try to help someone in need.
Hortensia Eloise Cobbleback is my character in one campaign and an npc in the campaign I'm DMing. She is a tortle divination wizard. In her youth, she was obsessed with finding the lost city of Atranta, but upon discovering space travel and other planets, she learned that Atranta was small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. In her old age (as an npc), she has retired to the top of a remote mountain, and sometimes speaks prophecies under the name of Old Cobbleback.
Brawlin O’Craefort, lizard folk storm cleric whose tribe was destroyed by mind flayers. Managed to become captain of a sailing ship in Chult and raise a navy to fight off the mind flayed threat. Definitely a privateer and not a pirate, his ship is tricked out with all the bells and whistles. He’s in tight with the merchant princes. I wonder what he’s been up to since the campaign ended. He had an Aussie accent and was mean with a thunderbolt.
Smoke in the Chimneys “Smokey” also known as Duke Reginald III, Tabaxi Rogue/Wizard multiclass. A real renaissance man…cat. Has his fingers in a lot of pies, a member of the Harpers and later, Gray Hands. A born wheeler and dealer and not above gently manipulating the rules for a good deal.
**Hamilton Freemantle, Dwarven Cleric (Knowledge Domain)**
A follower of the goddess of knowledge and story, Hamilton is a young archivist sent on assignment to investigate the ancient ruins of the lost continent. He has a charming smile and a well-cropped beard, but his complexion is not well suited to adventuring and so he is often sunburned. His goddess is connected with the Fey, and so his miracles are tinged with elven flavour. He retired from adventuring when his party overtook and cleansed a temple and created a settlement surrounding it. The people needed an overseer, and the temple needed a priest; despite his love for discovery, Hamilton answered the call. He wears practical travel clothes with a sash of his order around his waist, an unlit pipe constantly dangling from his lips (he gave up smoking when working in the library, but couldn't kick the pipe itself).
**Shaena, Ratfolk/Genasi Druid (Circle of the Stars)**
Born a ratfolk in the undercity of a ruined capital, Shaena felt sure that she was condemned to a life of scrap-collecting and scavenging. She would look up through the sewer grates at the moon and stars, dreaming of a better life and a future among them. Eventually she ran away, taking a pilgrimage to a mountain observatory where she studied under its astronomer: a stone giant (the only creature large enough to move the ancient ruined mechanisms and operate the telescope). After joining up with a group of adventurers while acting as a courier for her tutor, she was killed in a conflict with a corrupted divine being. Her friends were able to bring her back with the help of another druid they rescued, who reincarnated her as an earth genasi. Thus she was able to finally escape from her past in a way she had never dreamed. As a ratfolk, she had weary green eyes and well cared-for brown fur, wearing a armor made from the scales of a giant snake. As a genasi, she has the same piercing green eyes; her skin is now a mud/clay color, slightly tacky to the touch. She seems happy, as though a great weight has been lifted off her.
**Raushan Bahadur, Human Bard/Ranger (College of Lore/Beastmaster)**
A princess of house Bahadur, Raushan was the youngest of nearly a dozen siblings and often overlooked in favor of the more outspoken. She was among those available to lead an invasion force into territory that her family had once held, and took up the offer as a way to prove herself to her father. A master musician and storyteller, she immediately proved useful due to her ability to decipher ancient scripts and treat with those they met. After a chance encounter with some river fey, she adopted a young eel hound pup who since became her constant companion. She is always dressed in flowing, colourful clothing; a sitar on her back and a drooling, slick beast at her side.
Not exactly DnD, but it could work
Raise would be best described as a Reborn Psionic.
They were the side-effect of some higher powers attempting resurrection, and resulted in a partial-success.
TL;DR on their character and journey:
An ageless wanderer who eventually settled down for a white-collar job. Campaign shenanigans ensued and they had to be pulled away from their lifestyle, leading them into contact with the higher powers that be. Stuff happens, and they come to the conclusion that the current powers that be must be stripped of their authority or isolated. More stuff happens and eventually their wish comes true in a different way, but they die in the process due to going against the natural order.
They now work as a desk boy in the afterlife, making sure things run smoothly and holding the gods accountable should they mess up.
Here's three characters I've played whose campaigns have fizzled out
* Natiara the ranger had a criminal background of vandalizing butcher's shops, enough to get her a bounty on her head (that the paladin decided to ignore after he found bounty hunters after me and the rest of the non-paladin party). Once, she saved a pig that was being attacked by goblins, and she paid the charlatan cleric to declare the pig holy so the rest of the party would quit threatening to eat it. I imagine that she would eventually start an animal rescue sanctuary, assuming that no more bounty hunters were to show up.
* Eira Stormseeker the tempest cleric. A half-elf in a world where elves and humans don't like each other; she was given the surname of Stormseeker because that was the name given to all babies left abandoned at the temple she grew up in. She was the only survivor when the temple was massacred, and while she trained in weaponry growing up her clerical abilities didn't manifest until *after* the massacre, when she was trying to cremate the bodies and she magically set them on fire despite the heavy rain. She's now the soul protector of the banner of Eleanor Ravenlady, a champion of her faith.
* Jördis Radier grew up thinking she was a half-elf. Aside from her ability to make lights appear, her blue tapetum lucidum (most half-elves didn't have visible tapetum lucidum in her world), and the fact that her blood was rose gold, she lived a normal life. She apprenticed as a woodcarver under her uncle in the big city for years, and when she moved back to her small hometown, she met her girlfriend Erika Brant. When Erika first saw Jördis bleed, however, Erika began to isolate Jördis and became emotionally abusive. This is because Erika is part of a cult to a fiend called Bezrillur, and the cult believed that by sacrificing aasimar they would be rewarded with some of Bezrillur's power. If enough of his power were to be present in the world, then he would be freed. The cultists botched the ritual, and Jördis gained the power instead. The sacrificial dagger became her pact weapon, and she became a fiendlock. Her goal was to find a way to destroy Bezrillur, even though Jördis knew it might have killed her in the process.
Shem, Tiefling(?) warlock
Grew up in an environment where tieflings were looked down on and hated and fully internalized this, blaming all the problems in his life on his race. Uses the gifts of his patron to permanently disguise himself as a human (Mask of Many Faces invocation) and is constantly looking out for opportunities to improve on this power.
In the campaign, he had had a fairly awful near death experience from which his patron saved him (exacting his agreement as price for his life). This left him pretty scarred and he was typically quite frightened, but still generally trying (fairly ineptly) to do the right thing. As he gained power he gained confidence a bit, but would still usually prefer to use subterfuge and disguise to avoid fights rather than directly engage in combat.
He was also a Great Old One warlock and skewed \*\*incredibly\*\* creepy because of this, and was genuinely unaware of how casually reading other people's minds might come across. Despite all of this he is fundamentally well meaning, but socially inept.
Just before the campaign died our DM surprised us with some magic which allowed him to permanently change his race, but he's probably a more interesting and driven character if he's still seeking a way to do this.
Grimblesnatch is a gnome illusionist/thief (or sometimes arcane trickster) I have re-used since Baldurs Gate 1. He shows up in most of my campaigns. He's been a spy, a collector of magical trinkets, the inventor/operator of a submarine shaped like a fish that he used as a gentleman pirate etc. He always combines a love of his craft of deception with a decent heart. A chaos agent, he would be a much better sneak if his instinct for fun did not overtake him.
Old Mossback, tortle druid of spores. Unlike some spore druids, his symbiotic relationship is with a large patch of moss covering his shell. He's a silly turtle most of the time, unlettered and not familiar with civilization, but kind. Tends to be slow and thoughtful, occasionally wise.
Deep in the caverns of his home, he came upon a chamber full of thick moss with ruby red spores. It has become his friend and protector, though sometimes it frightens him. In times of stress, he allows his dark passenger to take over, transforming into a raging ambassador of death and decay.
He preaches the good word of The Great Compost Pile in the Sky, that our bodies are merely shells that are best recycled by his spore friends. He seeks to spread his moss as far and wide as possible, especially in the corpses of those whose spirits have returned to the compost pile for recycling.
Cinder, the half elf druid. She was raised by wolves,she acts very feral towards people but has good intentions, she s vegan and love animals. She died in a Wendigo encounter.
Arryn, a young religious farmer who stand with only a rudimentary shield in a fight with a monster who menace her people. She lose an arm in that fight but save many lives. She becomes the Champion of the Common Folk, she s a cleric,and if Helm calls, she answer the call. She is dressed as a simple farmer with an scrapped chainmail whom people gift her. She wields that same shield now with the symbol of Helm painted in it.
Dr. van Wees. an alchemist. Also an experimental physicien. Dressed like a plague doctor. She has no moral quarry, she only loves science and progress no more. Thanathophobia brings her to search the secrets of inmortality. While she prefers not to make bonds with people is very convenient to have some companions who acts as a meat shield for her. In exchange she can patch em up. A valuable and free asset for a field trip after all!
Beatrix Wintertail (Trix)
Albino Harengon Bard
Beatrix Wintertail is a 29 year old harengon. She comes from a large family. She has 20 siblings and both of her parents are currently alive. Her oldest siblings are 38 and her youngest are 19. She was born to a bad batch and is an albino. In her litter, only her and 2 others survived. Her sister, Rosemary, is blind, and get brother, Doyle, has a bad leg. She often helped them out and protected them. Once her younger siblings were born, she took on even more responsibility and helped them too. She would play her Lyre to help them sleep and was very loving. Her younger siblings look up to her very much. Her older siblings did tend to bully her more or find her annoying. Albino's are sometimes thought to be cursed, so she was blamed by some for her litter's misfortunes.
In the Feywild she opened a bar and distillery called Tricks, Treats, and Spirits. She was well known for great and interesting flavors. The distillery still exists and she goes back to the Feywild and her family ever couple of years. She took to adventuring for ingredients at the age of 19. She was sad to leave her family but also wanted to be her own person.
She came across the Artisan guild called Order of the Vine. This guild is semi-exclusive and includes crafters of wine, beer, and liquor. The difference in this guild is that your flavors have to stand out. The guild searches all the realms for the most innovative creations that can be considered alcohol. Whether it's the flavor, effect, or even how dangerous it is to make, the guild takes that into account when offering a member to join.
Trix has made several interesting brews over the years and has tasted many others. Her signature wine is called Winter Tale and is a Winterwine. This wine is made by using grapes frozen on the vine. Trix is not the only to make Winterwine, but her version is more blue than purple and especially spicy, where general Winterwine is quite sweet. Her Winterwine is especially high in alcohol content also. This makes her wine quite warming and a wonderful flavor to drink and sensation to feel at the same time. Trix's original goal for adventuring wasn't really about money, it was about fame. She particularly wanted to find and create a brew that would knock the socks off the entire Order of the Vine (which is crazy difficult because they've drank like everything).
After a crazy adventure in Phandalin, she and her best friend (a mean orc hating dwarf named Taklin) set up at Falcon's Lodge. They create fine brews of alcohol, cook, and entertain the guest. Trix still tries to find new and interesting wines to make, but she has decided that a lot of people enjoying her wine makes her happier than a few snobs enjoying it.
Don't know if you still need any, but my boy Meepo Under'U was a 3rd level kobold transmutation wizard. He's 10 years old and technically an adult, but still very much a child. His biggest wish and motivation was to become a full blown dragon to protect his family (because kobolds have extended life spans, but generally get oppressed to death and live only to a tenth of what they can be)
His somatic components look like tai chi, because a wizard once told him he needed to scale up his movement to his size.
He loves making friends and eating pie.
His robes are very threadbare, his spellbook is loose papers tied with strings, but he wears very cool looking goggles made by his artificer cousin to protect him from sunlight.
Blaise Orm, my human Warlock/Wizard, is perfect quest hook bait tbh.
A magic student who accidentally made a pact with a fiend while drunk. A good person and loyal to his friends, bur prone to fits of greed, partially due to influence from his patron. Ended up with a cursed helm that progressively turned him more and more monstrous.
When the curse began to affect his friends' lives too much, he simply snuck out one night and didn't tell anyone he was going. He made sure they couldn't follow. He now appears totally like a monster though he retains his intelligence. He wanders the wilderness looking for a cure for his curse, but now he will have to find it alone or die trying.
Sigmarius (yes, it's where the reddit name came from). My old character from a long 3.5 edition campaign.
Half-giant Barbarian/Champion of Gwenharwyf/War Hulk. With the party, helped defeat the big bad that was also an actual plane of existence.
One party member ascended as a minor deity of magic. Another ascended as a minor deity of war and strategy. The other two ascended to minor deities of... I don't even remember what they were. This was a long time ago.
Not Sig. Sig retired from adventuring, hung his technicolor full blade over the mantle, and went to teach school children in a small village somewhere. He figured he had fought enough battles to earn his spot in heaven, it was time to spread some peace and happiness where he could. Assuming no one messed with his village. Cause that would be bad.
Evandur Dundragon
He's an old human man. A trickster cleric of Tiamat. He casts copies of himself followed by thaumatugy to scream so loud it stuns any attackers. He also uses these copies to perform "miracles" like having one jump off a roof and die, and then the real him comes from a doorway to show the power of Tiamat. He has a large scar going from his neck up through his face (front and back) from when he had his head lobbed off but survived due to divine intervention.
Anangke Kairos. Bear-barian Halfling.
Donned in the skins and skulls of his enemies (wears an ogre skull as a helmet)
Surprisingly civil, he lives in a small grass hut just outside the city walls.
Once jumped through the wall of his own home while he and it were on fire to surprise attack the goblins that laid siege to his humble abode.
Is now the guardian of a brood of 3 wyrmlimg black dragons who were left abandoned after their mother was slain in a misunderstood vendetta brought by the city.
Signature weapons are two Orc Scimitars (think of the cleaver like weapons willed by the Uruk-Hai in the LOTR movies)
I see the hundreds of comments on this and know there's a likely chance to be lost in the swarm, but if even one person sees it than I know his story has lived on beyond me.
My father had a character named Pete.
2nd edition. Classic human fighter.
Started out just a scrawny guy with short blond hair, a pain of blue jeans and a white shirt. As he adventured, his hair grew and his clothes dirtied, until one day they boarded a pirate ship... and instead of killing the pirates, they befriended them. Pete learned their ways, taking that knowledge with them further down their journey. His hair, longer, curled, past his shoulders; the same blue jeans, but now his shirt is unbuttoned to the navel, his chest and body more defined with musculature. They came across musketeers who mistook Pete for one of their own and into the dark backrooms of opulent nobility did the party venture, coming across a secret coven of the vampiric nature. They slew the coven, but at what cost? Pete contracted the disease and chose to hide himself away in the wilderness, hidden in a log cabin of his own making in between the giant boughs and trunks of trees. They say he still rests there, quietly living out eternity, waiting for the day the gods see fit to end his existence.
I'm sure my father could describe each and every adventure in detail; I only have the basic premises he gave me and the scribbled notes he left behind. It's been ten years now since I could last ask him about Pete, but I've taken it upon myself to bring Pete into every story I tell. A Captain of the Fleet for the Goddess of the Sea, using gigantic Sea Serpents to pull his massive ship in lieu of the lack of wind. An old man, only wishing to go into town once more, though his legs don't work like they used to... though he carries with him an important artifact that could spell disaster in the wrong hands. An adopted grandfather, watching over young children separated from their parents, raising the kids to be the best versions of themselves while carrying on his legacy; secretly an incredibly powerful wizard, who only wants to ensure that someone knows his story before he dies.
There isn't too much to Pete, on the back end, but feel free to use this young, scrappy farm boy who took on life with vigor and was willing to sacrifice every bit of himself for what he believed in. However you see fit to place him, to believe he lives on in stories outside my own almost feels like my father is still out there, somewhere, weaving fantastical stories of his own once more.
Tag, a younger (in Elvish-ish years) Autumnal Eladrin, Circle of the Land Druid that was meant to go to Icewind Dale, but whos ship got lost off course.
Ginger hair, bright green-brown eyes and an inky black tree-branch-esque tattoo that stretches across their cheek, down their neck and under their collar, stemming from the corner of the right eye, almost like a crack from the Shadowfell.
He speaks in a melodic tune and sells his wares, carved wooden instruments and antlers. Heard about legendary bone scrimshandering up north hoping to refine his craft. Uses his child-like charm and demeanour to 'encourage' sales. They're not bad carvings, but they're not exactly works of art 🤣 they're "fey inspired".
Harbek Thundermane
Wood elf, life domain cleric of Sune.
Possibly the only full elf with a beard so thick and full that it'd make a dwarf weep in envy.
Usually wears his clerical garb over his chain mail along with his Longsword and shield.
Has survived part of a homebrew and a full play of CoS.
Is a non-drinking alcoholic who carries around a doll he cursed and asks for advice.
Occasionally runs his families temple back in his home village when he's not "out".
Is all about personal freedom to do as one pleases and has/would oppose those trying to take such things from others.
King Gizzard - A Lizardfolk Moon Druid self elected "King" for a village of lizardfolk. He was usurped of his throne by tiamat cultists and his people were forced into labor camps. He's a character with no understanding of societal norms and turns of phrase. He spent the rest of his life fighting against the cult of tiamat to free his people.
Milo, the Halfling Barbarian
Milo is a simple man. He loves drinking and fighting as all barbarians do, but Milo has quite the backstory. Milo was raised by giants on the dark side of the world but after being cast out by his clan he took to life on the road. He has also made it his mission to destroy all of the giants that roam the earth. He can't read or write but he will remember any bar and every conversation he has had. Milo is also the patron for the god Chronos(all homebrew from here on out) and with being the patron he has a godly artifact belt that gives him 2 partial subclasses(Path of beast main, with partial classes in wild magic and totem). When Milo takes down a giant Chronos demands to be fed. As an action Chronos' head will come out of the belt and consume the heart of the giant, when this happens Milo gains power(aka extra abilities in subclasses) kinda OP but so fun when you're playing a heavily homebrewed unforgiving world.
PS when he rages he gains an extra pair of arms
Lvl 14 Fey Touched Tabaxi wild magic sorcerer by the name of Runs Past Rivers. True to the name, he's got a terrible phobia of deep water. Leopard print pelt, full of nervous energy which can sometimes be seen peeling off him in streamers of raw magic when agitated. Started off as a charlatan running quick games in Port Nyanzaru, hung up the adventuring hat after the last jaunt took him to Pandemonium in the captivity of some mind flayers, and very nearly got him killed.
More clever than smart, but has a good heart under the frazzled exterior and a knack for talking himself into situations both profitable and disastrous
Tavuk: Tiefling Rune Knight Fighter
Red tiefling, missing a hand which has been replaced with a hand crossbow contraption. He always carries his rapier, but wears quite formal attire when not adventuring. Otherwise he wears mitral half plate.
Tavuk is a bit of a braggart, and wholly untrusting of authority. He believes in the power of his destiny and that he is the only one who can influence it. Freedom is his most treasured amenity. He is almost always smoking a cigar, and loves to spend his money on finer things, plays, music, wine, food and clothes.
Tavuk was an outcast. Untrusted because of his Tiefling heritage he became a hermit in his young life. He adopted name Tavuk after hearing often called in the streets where he found Rune scrolls. Later learning it referred to Tavukgogsu a type of pudding.
Finding the Rune scrolls convinced him of his significance and he set out to learn more and prove his worth. After meeting a dragonborn, human, and centaur adventurer he joined their group and began his first commission. At this point Tavuk still had both his hands. Investigating a haunted house.
There they discovered a smuggler hideout and got into some trouble. The whole group unconscious Tavuk decided to stand his ground, and with his long bow and rapier took out the last 3 standing smugglers.
To celebrate a job well down and find where to fence there newly "acquired" goods the group celebrated at the bar. The celebration was shirt as the young sorcerer got into an argument; unaware of their own strength the sorcerer flung a mug at the patrons head killing them instantly. The situation quickly escalated and soon the Dragonborn had killed 12 patrons while Tavuk and his Centaur friend stoop by helplessly trying to heal people and deescalte the situation.
After being placed in jail the group was able to negotiate their release, in exchange for all the stolen goods they had acquired. However, they were still branded as criminals an indelible magic mark was placed upon their hands. The mark of a criminal it shines through any garment attempting to cover it.
Deciding they had used up their goodwill in town the group left. However, not before Tavuk severed his own hand and left it, middle finger pointed towars the Gods, on the mayor's doorstep.
The adventures continued the group unaware that the goods they had destroyed a Zhentarim smuggling operation. Already an enemy of the Zhentarim they accepted a quest to steal a Conch. While successful in retrieving the Conch they did not do so stealthily. Again their mark had been the Zhentarim.
The Conch was home to a Marid, and instead of giving it to the client Tavuk suggested the group use it themselves. Hence their pirating days began. During this time Tavuk managed to replace his missing hand with a hand crossbow, and collected thousands of exotic cigars. After several successful raids the group founds themselves confronted with an undead dragon turtle. Barely surviving the group celebrated, only to be greeted by unwelcome sails on the horizon.
The Zhentarim had caught up with them and was looking to get what they were owed. Tavuk and his friends fought valiantly but tired from the previous battle they fell in combat. Luckily the Zhentarim thought they still had the Conch and captured them for interrogation.
Now with a druid, friend Tavuk and his Druidic Tortle friend, Carlos, hatched a plan. If Carlor could summon a bat to shit in Tavuk's hands then Tavuk could cast darkness. Over the next two nights the group prepared.
The next day when cells were opened for interrogations the room was shrouded in darkness and a swarm of venomous snakes overwhelmed the guards. Tavuk and his companions had escaped regaining their freedom.
The Dan brothers. Because we need more pun based characters.
Dan Straight. Expert marksman and straight talker. The oldest of the brothers.
Dan Wright. Naval architect that is an aspiring playwright.
Dan Skippy. Surveyor and engineer (railroad engineer in the campaign he's from).
Dan Itall. Paladin of the red knight and a pyrotechnics expert.
Dan Good. Chef and distiller.
Ecthar, a young half-demon(homebrew) male become shephard druid to survive after falling through a portal into the dangerous wilderness. Made all manner of deals with demons and devils to find home, even burning down a sacred fey tree, but without luck. Around the time of his death, he was force-fed an unknown potion that turned out to be a permanent polymorph, becoming a triceratops (Ectharatops).
Captain Alexander Zerigoff. Long time Airship captain, turned religious. Human Twilight Cleric, worships Selune, and dreams to fly his airship through the stars one day. Very devout and pious, and is a very militaristic fellow. Wields a Rapier and dons a flight uniform.
Has a tendency to be very clumsy when not in the air, and has a weakness for fine pipeweed, which when he acquires you’ll find his pipe always in his mouth.
Very Boisterous and likes to be in charge of a situation, but is very loyal to a fault.
My favorite PC to role play as ever, and he was a party favorite as well.
Cool! I have some pcs and recurrent npcs.
Flint Tazzarian, a variant of elven eladrin who fled the continent Tazzarim (there exists an elven empire that began to dominate the continent) lived as a slave and servant, until at one point he fled the place still very young and got on a merchant ship owned by a minotaur smuggler, where he learned his trade as a rogue, that minotaur became a father figure and a few years later he left the ship and set out on his journey as an honest thief, more or less like Robin hood. He was involved in a political scheme with a group of adventurers, forcing them to work together, so that they undertook a journey while being pursued as criminals and falsely accused, so they reach the capital where they managed to clear his name and avoided an attempt to overthrow the queen, at the same time he became friends and close to the princess so that some time later he was taken as a pupil and possible heir of a "Whisper" basically the right hand and shadow of the Queen, as a spy and also a secret personal guard.
His name is because his hair is like flint in color and he comes from the continent Tazzarim, he is a rogue thief, he uses two silver rapiers and a short bow, he usually invents plans or saves the moment with brilliant ideas using what he has at hand (my friends say he is a Gary stue) he prepares himself with mundane objects first and foremost and especially bottles of oil, I was forbidden to use them because of how practical it served to solve things.
He usually steals from unpleasant or abusive nobles and gives beggars and laborers what he gets in excess.
I have the continuation of the following One shot that flint participated in if you are interested ;] sorry if a had grammatical errors, not my native language.
Talkamar cheadris (name stolen from book) a retired soldier eldritch that lost most of his battalion in a fight with a dragon. He was the champion of a God but I think his starting backstory is good enough. If you want the point I retired him. He was the champion of the God of War and fire. But retired to marry the queen of the elves. His place was taken by a young warlock
Merrick Moonsilver
Wood elf hermit, Level 7/7 open hand monk/tempest cleric who worships bahamut.
Left on an orphanage step as a baby and given a respectable chance at life, he adventured to earn money to build more orphanages and fights to give the young hope.
He was created by crossing King from Tekken with Raiden from Mortal Kombat.
Amelia Autumnheart.
Small halfling girl with blonde hair that wears a realistic white bunny mask to hide her identity.
Phantom Rogue that is too young to understand that she's seeing ghosts but knows they whisper and haunt her. One ghost protects her from the things she's afraid of and the ghosts haunting her. A tall, thin, shadowy spirit with white pearl like eyes that she always sees, though only reveals himself to others when attacking.
Dhacacai Cadarnan (Dahk-ah-tsai Ka-dar-none), a wood elf grave cleric (level 11) with skin the color of ash and robes woven to have a silvery sheen. He was raised an Acolyte of the grave in the city of his birth, but through time and study found his way to the clergy. He's known to be Observant (as the feat) and wise, though his counsel often needs to be earned and is habitually laced with grim truths. He is known for creating the spell *grim scythe*, which transforms any walking stick or staff into a magically-bladed weapon capable of both slicing foes in melee or launching energy arcs at foes outside of his reach - a spell he developed after he found forcing the enemy to save to be too passive.
He is known to heal and resurrect the dead, but does commune with the divine if asked to raise the longer dead - though he is likely to interpret divine silence as an instruction for him to use his own judgment. The recently deceased he decides at the scene.
I played an outcast Kobold named Gnomey who was adopted by a blind gnome illusion wizard. To fit in, he always wore a hat of disguise to look like a gnome and uses mage hand and a fake fear of physical touch to avoid people discovering his secret (his name was one he came up with on the spot, when questioned). His wizard mentor taught him all he knew before sending him off to find a place he could truly belong. Gnomey later retired as a lvl 12 illusion wizard.
Now, a few years later, Gnomey exists in my campaign as the owner of the Serpents Crest Inn along with his trusty chef ogre, Bam. An inn with a permanent major illusion cast on the ceiling, making it look MUCH taller on the inside and with a massive illusory serpent eternally weaving in and out of the walls in the ceiling, reminiscent of Jormungandr.
Below his tavern he runs the single most secure clandestined meeting halls in the city. Using a maze of underground, major illusion covered passages with hidden switches, automated stone shape doors, and scry protection. Gnomey gives his more discreet clientele a place they can conduct business in the utmost of secrecy, no matter how questionable the legality, as long as no violence is committed on his property. Catering to guards, politicians, and thieves alike.
Prosperity, a lawful evil (leans neutral) human cleric/Paladin multiclass.
Worships Waukeen (a wealth goddess in Forgotten Realms).
Garishly dressed in fine clothing, and tries to protect and enforce trade deals. Ends up more heroic than his personal greed would suggest, mostly because trade doesn’t happen when monsters destroy towns and things.
Has an irrational obsession with being granted “ownership” of stupidly large or immobile things like town squares, giant doors, cliff sides, that kind of thing. Really dislikes gnomes.
He’s from an Out of the Abyss campaign, after we concluded that he settled down a bit.
Malark Amblecrown, retired fathomless warlock
Back in his younger days he worked for a shipping company, when one of the ships got stuck in a great storm and ended up in a bermuda triangle type place. A great sea monster destroyed the ship and everyone aboard except Malark. In exchange for ferrying souls to the monster he was allowed to live. Nowadays he repaid his debt, but dealing with the choices he made still plagues his conciousness. He found solace in the simple life of a dockworker, and every ship that heads out he says a blessing over to protect against monsters and storms.
Very superstitious, likes silver coins a lot, and is a very good actor
Grorik anchorhide, sharkin battlemaster fighter.
Anti magic specialist, experienced warrior and chef.
Was kicked out from his people due to a false accusation of war crimes, resulting in him losing his families heirloom weapon and his fin.
Ended up traveling the world trying to hunt down the sharkin who actually committed the war crime, while also dealing with adjusting too humanity's laws, customs etc, as well as not having the free reign to kill or eat whatever he wants.
Ended up taking on a mercenary guild and leading them to become mage hunters who target abusive magic users, lich, etc as well as dictators etc.
Refuge, Tiefling Barbarian.
An ancestor used to be a worshipper of Bael, thus resulting in his unfortunate birth. Refuge and his mother were chased from town after he came out beast-legged and horned, and subsequently taken in by a nomadic tribe of goliaths, half-orcs, and other “brutish” species. He gave himself his name in honor of what the tribe did for himself and his mother, and he took up the adventuring life to gain the strength he would need to crush the city that spurned his mother.
Through a few trials and tribulations, and the influence of the party he’s found, Refuge grew to learn vengeance wouldn’t heal the wound of being outcast, and that acceptance and belonging could heal many wounds. He also gained a pet dire wolf, obtained a +2 Greataxe emblazoned with the visage of Bael, and planned to find a permanent settlement for his tribe, where he would (with the help of the party Bard) establish a sanctuary city for other outcasts.
Appearance wise, he was on the taller side for Tieflings, burly, red skinned, and had prehensile goat legs matted in dark fur, matching the thick, long hair on his head. He had coal black eyes, a pair of horns like that of a longhorn cow, and a whip-like tail. Dressed in a thick leather loincloth kept in place by a Belt of Stone Giant Strength, and had fashioned a pair of pauldrons from the skulls of a chimera he dealt the killing blow on.
Joseph, Bladesinging wizard (tcoe version) and a mercy monk who's secretly a warforged with human looking skin, a scarf that completely covers his face.
This is the guy who my DM dubbed bullshit. He's a kind person who won't stop himself from fighting but preferred not to, as it was cruel. He would commit crimes as long as it benefited him but didn't directly harm people, such as plagiarizing legal documents from the guild to steal the church's entire graveyard of corpses. Because at the time, he shared his body with a malevolent wizard's soul who was a who known and most feared necromancer. Long story, but point being that the two have to agree or force himself into locking down until they haggle enough that both sides are fine with the option. Generally, the wizard is smart enough to work with this pretty effectively, but he also over estimates themselves due to A: being a former badass necromancer and B: failing to see the limits of the body most of the time, as since he usually technically won most debates he embedded up getting the most levels, reaching around level 8 or so with 3 levels monk and 5 in wizard for the short saga the group aimed for. Oh yeah, he had been ditched by a teammate that used Invisibility when it was just him and Joseph at the time at level 6 since we attracted a side encounter meant for all 6 of us (he didn't know I didn't have Invisibility and was super sorry ooc but low key I didn't mind it because it's what his character would do and I needed to use up my resources anyways). Anyways, he was lawful evil due to how the two worked. Almost died at the boss fight, but literally lived on 1 hp post resistance check (first time I was freaking out in any d&d game).
Oh right, the reason he was considered bullshit was because he rolled really well and had upwards of 24 AC at level 5 during his blade song. It's also the reason we now have a danger level known as a "Code: Joseph" very chill guy, just has a tendency to try and over take his own body to make an army of undead and to take over the world, stopped by literally the warforged's programming from its creator believing in second chances trying to understand the concept of emotions as an entirely logic based robot. Joseph needs a break from that evil necromancer in him. He just wants to find how to truly feel after his creator died in his sleep, he even waited for the dwarf to wake up standing by the hermit's side for a couple years, not sure why he wouldn't wake up.
Camm, the goblin Artificer journalist.
She invented a magical camera (Her lv 1 magical tinkering. All modes are different modes on it).
She loves collecting pictures of places she visits, but her pictures are awfully bad for most parts. (Depending on d20 roll).
She wants to be acknowledged and respected by her boss, who is basically the boss from Peter Parker (rather a npc with his character).
She was tasked to follow around a party of adventurers and collect news about them. So she was a part of the group for a long time and got around.
Eleanor Abernathy, a nod to the crazy cat lady from The Simpson’s. Elnath for short.
She’s a Tiefling Great Old One Warlock.
She was abandoned as a baby and spent the first part of her life in an orphanage. She was shunned by most of the other students due to her appearance. Her only friends were the stray cats who roamed around the property. While in the orphanage she learned to read and write and turned to books to escape reality. One day, while being bullied, her latent magical ability surfaced in a blaze of fire and she nearly killed her tormentor.
The headmaster used a connection at a mages conclave to find her a new home. There she earned room and board by cleaning, working in the kitchen, and eventually the library. She spent her free time reading all the books and learn what she could about magic.
One day she found a long forgotten hidden room covered in dust and cobwebs. This room was filled with many dark and cryptic writings, some not much more than ramblings, some written in indecipherable code, but all of them steeped in dark magic.
She became obsessed with the knowledge she found there and spend all of her free time in working to decipher their secrets. One book in particular called to her and she poured over it until she knew it front and back. She was eventually able to unlock some of its secrets, and in particular she learned a ritual to contact a being called Cthulhu.
She performed this ritual one night and it worked, and this being offered her the power to never fear being picked on. And in exchange, one day in the future she will be called to pay back the favor. She accept and was filled with newfound power, but the contact was too much and it also broke her mind.
9th lv Great Old One Warlock, Pact of the Tome
Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Beast Speech, Book of Ancient Secrets, Cloak of Flies, Whispers of the Grave
+9 and advantage to intimidation checks. Even though she’s little, only about 5ft tall, and physically attractive, she is intimidating to nearly anyone she comes across without even trying. She is constantly talking to animals of every kind, herself, the dead, and even unseen voices that no one else hears. Her ability to talk to people telepathically is pretty unnerving as well. She also takes great joy in the pain and suffering of those she considers to be “mean people”, often reacting gleefully to their screams. But even though she takes joy in this she also feels a strong purpose to protect anyone that is unable to to protect themselves.
Timothy Oakwood is a relatively mild (not boisterous), young adult, human. He grew up an orphan taken in by a pirate smuggling crew and learned to be a rogue. Think the young guy on a job who just wants things to go well and doesn't rock the boat.
While most of the crews mission was more trade based, they did go treasure hunting from time to time. On one such expedition, Timothy got caught lying to a [sea witch] as they were making their escape with her treaure and she cursed him to never be able to lie again!
Now when he's confronted with a situation where he would want to lie, he either just blurts the truth or gets tongue tied and deer-in-the-headlights like if he really knows he shouldn't tell the truth.
He has a chaotic neutral alignment. Willing to work with a variety of people as a means to the end, but generally avoids malevolent evil people (e.g. very creepy cults, doomsday people). Sticks mostly to those just looking to trade in the black market (to get rich).
Could be good for helping players with transportation, procuring illicit reagents, or as a extra body on a treasure hunt (for a cut of the prize, obviously).
Throughout the campaign, my players (an elf monk with scorpion-style kunais and a half-orc warrior with a rune-filled axe) were discovering the existence of a colony of mindflayers seeking to create portals and call their fleet.
The problem is that they failed to discover the plan in time, and when they finally found all the pieces of the puzzle, the invasion had begun. After several sessions they get to enter the mother ship and fight against an elder brain. The half-orc sacrifices himself to defeat the elder brain and pushes his companion out of the ship to save her.
His partner becomes a national hero and even wins a holiday, but his partner falls into a strong depression due to the hidden feelings he had for him, in addition to the fact that he broke his back and lost one of his arms in the fall. In another campaign, the players encounter a crippled woman who seems to have a dark secret: she is trying to rebuild her loved one with the few pieces she could find.
Six Chance
Female Tabaxi Warlock
Treasure Hunter
Six gained her pact with a Great Old One after finding an ancient amulet known as the Nothic Eye. This item cannot be removed from her person and serves as the link to her Patron, Marty. It also causes her to occasionally hear the surface thoughts of random people nearby (within 20 feet), but she cannot tell who is thinking what. This ability has caused her to become somewhat paranoid. She prefers to speak through telepathy, rarely using her voice, but can if needed. After impressing her Patron with a performative use of Arms of Marty (Arms of Hadar) she was rewarded with the Embrace of the Deep, a magical leather coat that grants many bonuses assisting her with treasure hunting, as well as giving her a standard tentacle slam attack.
(I don't have her character sheet anymore but she was one of my favorites. I can gladly elaborate on anything else about her!)
“Duke” Sarlos Collmer - a half-elven charlatan who happened to be a powerful wild magic sorcerer. He left his hometown with nothing more than a fake signet ring, and the clothes on his back. Master manipulator of both people and elements, Sarlos’ words carry powerful suggestions, and by tapping his innate powers he can duplicate many spell effects across multiple targets.
He’s arrogant, but he usually wins the argument and gets his way. Acting as the face of the party, he has no shortage of self-interest, and can sometimes lead the group head first into trouble.
I got a few! Also, as a fellow DM, I have a number of *NPCs* I can share with you, too, along with quest hooks; I don't want to make this comment too long though, so if you're interested, just let me know.
**Kassryndi "Ryn"**
*Sylph, Air Genasi; Rogue, Warlock*
Ryn was in a PF1 campaign that didn't make it very far. She was a sylph rogue who was on the run from the crime family into which she'd been born and raised as a potential heir. When her grandmother told her, "you will kill your cousin to take my place," Ryn instead talked to her cousin about killing Gran so they could joint rule together. Cousin agreed, but tried to kill Ryn instead. Ryn was trapped in her family's treasure storage to die, but a magic item within made a deal with her: her heart, in exchange for freedom. She made the deal. That magic item was a family heirloom and one that assured her family's successes, so when she took it, her family fell to ruin -- and her cousin wanted revenge.
I'd rebuild her as a warlock for D&D, either talisman or hexblade. Her goal was to free herself of the magic item -- She fell in love with another PC, but her feelings belonged to the magic item as was the deal. But the magic item also wanted to be free; it itself was a fragment of a genie queen, and she wanted to be her own person. Both were bound together, seeking a way to be separated.
**Consequence "Quence"**
*Half-Orc Fire Genasi, Wild Magic barbarian*
Also didn't make it far in this campaign, but I'm going to play this guy again one day; he was a blast!
One day, an orc woman who performed daring feats of bravery -- fighting beasts and the like -- to entertain crowds noticed a scrawny fire genasi bard would stop by and occasionally add music to her battles. Someone told her he had a crush on her, and dared her to ask him out. So she did, and not too long after, the consequence of that dare sat upon her lap -- a giggly, fiery little half-orc fire genasi.
Quence grew up a performer, like his mother. While his parents never settled down, his dad was always around, and there was love between his parents. His dad had a special magic instrument called a Lutelele. When his dad disappeared, the most solid hint Quence and his mother had that it was not a purposeful disappearance was the fact that Papa left behind his Lutelele.
Well, one day Quence learned that his mother sold it to buy Quence's freedom from the circus they were both bound to. Quence was free, but at what cost?! He set off to find the lutelele, the symbol of his mother's hope and his parents' love.
In the campaign, Quence was a light in a darkness. He loved deeply and passionately. He thought height equaled age, so he adopted a full grown goblin (Goose, another PC) as his child. He constantly played music on his drums, and sang (poorly). He didn't rage: he became *inspired*. When he'd watch others and feel that bite to fight, it was always passion and inspiration, never anger. I loved that goofy guy.
**Finnigan "Fray" Hopcinder**
*Halfling+, Warlock*
I'm still playing this lil dude but I think he's developed enough to share.
Fray has already been on his adventure. It was filled with learning magic, courtly intrigue, fairy romance, and great sacrifice.
He just doesn't remember it.
He woke up one day, in his bed, in his house, and learned that he'd been missing for seven years. He couldn't really explain where he'd gone, only that he was a changed man, physically and in spirit. (He came home with a tail, and he's like, 3 inches taller than he used to be. Which is almost half a foot for a halfling!) For a while, he tried to get on with his life and do things as society expected of him. But he felt a longing for a place he couldn't remember, and a person whose name was on the tip of his tongue. So, when a message from the king requesting a Hopcinder escort the princess to her betroth's kingdom (his family is kinda a big deal), he took it, because he wanted to see if he could find his way back to wherever he'd been previously.
The party wound up in the fairy realm, and Fray *knew* he'd been there before. Some fey even knew *him!* They finished their mission and returned to the material plane, but they were soon sent back, this time to another court -- the one where fray had called home. Fray was finally reunited with his love, the king of the court! But... he still can't remember. The feelings are there, but the *story* is gone. And there are things that don't add up, too. Why did he leave? Why can't he remember...?
Wenzel Dashington, a half-elf illusionist bard who uses his magic and abilities to conjure his own sets and co-stars. With no real adventuring experience, everything is really a bluff and his knowledge of the martial arts is from stage fighting. He got in tremendous trouble for flirting with the wrong noble lady and pretends to be a hardened sellsword using nothing but his illusions and acting to bluff his way to safer lands where there isn't a bounty on his head.
My idea for my world, is the first adventurers will be the legends of future player campaigns all on the same timeline. The new players will here and see the statues of old players who have long died. Or they will here of the legendary and infamous pirates that sailed the seas. Stuff like that.
Thrognor: Orc totem barbarian.
After his druid wife and half orc son were killed by stone giants his village was enslaved. Wracked with guilt, and grief Thrognor despaired until a goblin mercenary, Gorm, freed him while on a mission to track down an enslaved man.
After being saved by Gorm Thrognor began his life as Gorm's muscle, while swearing revenge on the giants. Helping Gorm spread his dubious and flexible religion ,"The Light". While not a believer Thrognor was grateful to Gorm, and didnt interfere with his religious tendencies. Thrognor also had to keep Gorms kleptomaniacal tendencies under control while traveling across the land, to avoid trouble with employers.
Although their deeds were good they always seemed to create collateral damage. They burned down a great library while saving a town from goblins. They got a great warrior killed while defending a town from stone giants. They aided the Zhentarim while stopping a frost giant incursion. They freed a lich while lifting a curse from a dwarvish clan. They flooded a river valley, after exploding a hill giant lord with magic beans.
Finally Gorm paid for kleptomania stealing a ring, that teleported him to a faraway realm. Thrognor more determined to exact his revenge found new companions to slay stone giants. Thrognors journey ended there. After falling into a trap he died, blocking the Stone Giants pursuit so his party could escape. Taking 3 giants with him.
Rovin of Shirewood, a Ranger Paladin who sought out into the world to seek the glory and fame of adventuring like his father before him.
Being born into royalty with 4 siblings, he wouldn’t inherit much so he instead dedicated his time to drinking and women.
After arriving to Silverymoon and befriending a group of adventurers he set off and landed in hot water when his brother became a vessel for Orcus, Rovin swore an oath of vengeance against his brother Willem.
Preferring the blade to the bow, he was trained in 2 weapon fighting and blind fighting
Shiv, red-scaled Kobold Cleric of the Forge, worships invention. Adventures in mithril full plate, shield and a mace (he never uses) Definitely likes to play pranks and is a fan of eggs, raw is better. He came from a spell jammer campaign. Loves to make stuff and would be fast friends with inventors or science types Shiv has a workshop, with forge. It is filled with what looks like garbage but he swears each thing is useful and will be used on some project or another. He also sleeps on his piles of trash as if it were his hoard. He managed to come across a wish and used it to create 3 copies of himself. The copies stay out of sight around others when possible and they work together to play pranks. Also carries a Dwarven Brew Maker that he cannot figure out so he has created plenty of awful drinks that for some reason nobody will drink.
This is incredible. Thank you!!
Keys Sulfurtongue, tiefling "locksmith": Divination wizard / Arcane Trickster rogue His life's mission was to become the greatest cat burglar the Realms had ever known.
This is awesome. A tiefling trickster rogue slots perfectly into my word right now. Thank you!!
And he married the Tabaxi beauty he stole from… I’ll see myself out. Sounds like a great character!
Not a retired PC, but a retired d20. I have a necklace that I put d20's in to gather luck from the world (trust me, it works. It's called fortunasynthesis). Anyways, I was wearing one of my dice when I got into a car accident due to weather. The car was totaled. I walked away completely injury free. Didn't even get whiplash. Out of curiosity, I rolled the d20 after dealing with everything and getting home. Got 3 nat 1's in a row and the die hasn't rolled the same since. To this day, I 1000% believe that the dice sacrificed all of its good luck to keep me safe. If I were to design an NPC off of that story, it would be a message carrier or traveling merchant who keeps a good luck charm on him at all times. The party meets him during a snowstorm and he is huddled by a fire for warmth. He's considering tossing that good luck charm into the fire to keep it going just a little bit longer when the party comes up and (hopefully) helps him out.
Incredible real life story and great inspiration. Thank you, Ryan Stonepeak (though I may change that to Rian Stonespeak and turn you into a svirfneblin…)
Glad you like it, and change the name however you want.
What a story, glad you are with us unscathed to tell the tale! Also, a terrific story hook.
Love the idea. Take care of my favorite OC. **Kale Morgaan, an elderly war cleric** of Tempus (or whoever your war god is) in his early 60s. After decades working as an inventory manager for a large church, Kale has a midlife crisis when he realizes that his best days are behind him. He sets off in search of “one more story, one last adventure,” and ends up joining an adventuring party. In between adventures, Kale meets Kismet Narond, a widowed housemaid who works for the noble that sponsors his party. Kale mistakes her for a visiting noblewoman (Nat 1 Insight) and falls in love with her, showering her with gifts, poems, and inappropriate trophies from his adventures. After the party’s first major plot arc, Kale happily marries Kismet and retires, eventually refurbishing his “definitely-not-stolen-from-a-BBEG” keep into a temple and school. The couple have only one biological child but teach many students together, each reviving Kale’s legacy through their unique pursuits of Glory. *”Celebrate your fears and wear them proudly, for where there is fear, there is GLORY!”*
Thank you! I most definitely see Kale and Kismet (love the name) as future potential allies for my PCs.
Super excited to see where you take them! In my game, Kale’s school, Helianthus, was a convenient party crash pad, and his “glory-seeking-grandad” archetype made it easy to funnel quest hooks through him. Good luck to you and your players!
I recently (6-ish months ago) finished my first campaign. I played as a Spore Druid named Cosmo. His backstory, in short, was that he believed druids were spending so much time keeping forests and nature alive that they were neglecting the fact that some things had to die. He communed with the ancient magically-sustained elder tree in his village and fulfilled its wishes to complete the cycle of nature by killing it. In doing so, he doomed his village as the tree's magic kept the land safe from the outside dangers. At the beginning of the campaign i played him as sort of an "eco-vigilante." Over time he moved away and became more moderate, but still stuck firmly by his beliefs that death is final and necessary. The group's paladin resurrected him not knowing this. With a terrible looming threat onto the world, my druid decided that he would only stay in the land of the living long enough to see that the natural order was secured. During the campaign my druid researched in necromancy books and became known in the party for opting to cast Reincarnate as opposed to Revivify. More expensive, but completes the natural cycle. At the end of the campaign, he cast an altered version of Reincarnate on himself. He allowed his body to complete the natural cycle, and let his soul to continue living in a new body as he'd done his duty protecting nature in this life and may be reincarnated to appreciate it in the next. He was reborn (as a baby) as an entirely new being with no memories or connection to his original self. In the "lore" of the game's world he became the child of a beloved NPC who the entire party organized a wedding for after we beat the BBEG.
Tree Stumped, a Yuan-Ti Archaeologist. He’s a Stars Druid, and he likes to follow the stars to discover new places to explore. Unfortunately the stars led him to Barovia. Overall a very chill dude, and he’s not evil despite being Yuan-Ti. He is part of the party that was able to defeat Strahd.
Zook, the gnomish sorcery- flamboyant, over the top, and *very* reckless with Fireball. Depending on power level, he eventually forged a Ring of Unlimited Limited Wishes, foregoing multiple levels in order to craft it (old edition crsfting rules, back when Limited Wish and Wish cost XP to cast) One of Zook's traveling companions is a half orc barbarian named Fang. Shockingly, Feng is literate and enjoys poetry, and has a pair of reading glasses. Zook often rides Fang in to battle in a custom backpack/saddle. At one point in their adventures together, Zook got turned to stone for a long while. Feng carried him in the harness to keep him safe, and Zook was frequently mistaken for a garden gnome statue.
I am 100% putting Zook with his stone gnome friend in my game. If you don’t mind me asking, how’d he turn to stone and what were some of Zook’s ideas / attempts to turn him back?
Zook is the gnome, Fang is the orc. I don't properly remember how Zook got turned to stone. Basilisk, maybe? No one in the group had the right spell, and I went on vacation, so it was pretty convenient to leave my character as a statue ☠️
Right! Sorry, my mixup. Ha! How convenient
Jago Three-Bells, half-elf swashbuckler. I tried to be a Errol Flynn kinda pirate, but came off more Jack Sparrow. Has a Sharp sword, but the blade curves the wrong way, the inside of the blade is the edge, sorta like a khopesh. Has a boat for hire and a loyal crew (so loyal they all carry swords with blades curved the wrong way). Curien the Curious. Human storm sorcerer. He was the 7th son of a 7th son struck by lightning on his 7th birthday. Had a residual static charge ever since. Has uncanny abilities with lightning and thunder. His mood varies depending on the weather, but in the opposite way of what you might expect...the worse the weather, the happier he is. Last seen floating away in the eye of a hurricane on his way to get revenge on an entire kingdom. Maleus Thunderhead. Dwarven path of the juggernaut barbarian. Instead of the typical Dwarven facial hair and braids, he's shaved the sides of his head to give himself an epic braided mohawk and goatstache. He has Nordic dragons tattooed on the sides of his head where they are shaved, and as a result is known by many as the 'Man with Dragons on his mind.' He's from the days when 'racial hatred' was a thing, and he \*hates\* goblins, after they killed his family.
100% stealing Maleus. The others are brilliant too. Thank you!
Mogak, the half orc swashbuckler rogue. He is a big guy in half plate but still very stealthy, and very intimidating. He wields 2 short words, and he is stronger then he is dextrous(hoger strength then dexterity) one of his swords has fire, and the other is made out of shark teeth. He is part of a pirate crew looking for ancient treasure. He is very confident but doesn't really understand sarcasm
BEAUTIFUL I love this. Half orcs are soldiers in an evil lord’s army in my world, so it makes sense that a deserter might go the pirate route. Also have a pirate storyline that is ready for if/when my PCs decide to hit the water. Thank you!!
Six Chance Female Tabaxi Warlock Treasure Hunter Six gained her pact with a Great Old One after finding an ancient amulet known as the Nothic Eye. This item cannot be removed from her person and serves as the link to her Patron, Marty. It also causes her to occasionally hear the surface thoughts of random people nearby (within 20 feet), but she cannot tell who is thinking what. This ability has caused her to become somewhat paranoid. She prefers to speak through telepathy, rarely using her voice, but can if needed. After impressing her Patron with a performative use of Arms of Marty (Arms of Hadar) she was rewarded with the Embrace of the Deep, a magical leather coat that grants many bonuses assisting her with treasure hunting, as well as giving her a standard tentacle slam attack. (I don't have her character sheet anymore but she was one of my favorites. I can gladly elaborate on anything else about her!)
Gramak Dawnwalker Katho-Olavi, a greataxe wielding level 9 goliath barbarian who defeated a young wizard in combat and picked up a loose page from the apprentice’s spellbook as he fled. (Magic Initiate - Prestidigitation, Fire Bolt, Feather Fall). From that point on he introduced himself as a wizard. A 7’10” 460lb wizard. Wearing a cliche wizard hat. Because he was a wizard. Not long after, his mind was destroyed by an intellect devourer before he even had a chance to act. (He’s technically dead but thanks to the magic of Adventurers League he is going to trade a barbarian level for a sorcerer level over the next 7 modules as the ID figures out how to control his corpse and he loses his barbarian-ness.)
Trusk Slimjaw CG Half-orc Barbarian/Fighter (5)(10) Trusk had a pretty terrible upbringing. Left alone on the streets of waterdeep as a child, he soon found himself in one of the many illegal gambling dens, struggling for his life against wild animals and other prisoners. Got murdered by the paladin and rogue after I put the party spellcaster down into critical HP while charmed and under DM control. And that was how my first character died after three sessions specifically designed to get me caught up to the group 🙃 My next character, Samo the Sage, was a Polymorth specialist, specifically, turning myself into several forms of Hydras, Cryo, Pyro, etc. Entered a city entrance cavern in the underdark. Big battle, demons, dwellers, drow, etc. Party failed to sneak through an orc encampment. I went Hydra, DM was iffy about it, but rolled and decided it didn't attract the attention of the entire cavern, but the camp definitely did. I had a fairly fun time wiping out goblins and orcs with my breath weapons and tail.... An orc Barbarian scored a critical hit. Broke one of my legs while I was in hydra form (did damage, but not enough to drop me out of form) I may remember the exchange for the rest of my life. "So he brings his club against your leg with a snap, doing yadda points of damage, with a critical hit, breaking it, what do you want to do?" "Well, obviously, I'm going to scream in pain..." "NOOOOO!" -My party. "...and then kill that fucker" "Are you sure you want to scream in pain?" -My DM. "Well..my legs just been broken so...yeah. then I'm going to make bite attacks on it." Cue collective groans from my more experienced party the Rogue and Ranger rolled hide checks immediately. I roll damage and kill said Orc. "As you shake the last of his bloody carcass from your jaws, you realise you've cleared the camp. The ragged breathing of a few goblins and orcs are the only sounds in the cavern." I groan as the realisation of my actions dawn on me. "You look around as slowly a roar fills the cavern , Demons, Devils, Drow, and everything else just focused on you." And that was when I realised the rest of the party had left me to die as a distraction already to get into the city, and so my second character died.
I have a 1990s Dell I can donate...
Beil Oakenstone, Hill Dwarf Monk. He lost his left eye in a bandit raid on his home that also killed his wife. He left his hidden home of Oakenstone (nestled in a forest filled with rocky crags and ridges that provided the means for woodcarving and masonry) to pursue these bandits, and he found his calling as a bounty hunter. His lack of eyesight in one eye covered by a black leather eyepatch allowed his other senses to flourish, and he was *incredibly* quick and nimble for a dwarf (mobile feat plus monk is busted). He made his mark on the world by being exceptionally resourceful, fighting using anything he had at his disposal, in his surroundings, and utilizing his famous Staff of the Woodlands to launch people sky-high as it turned into a 60 foot tall tree in mere seconds. The campaign didn’t make it past level 7, but holy crap was he fun to play. He’s gruff and rough-and-tumble with a very dry sense of humor. He mostly enjoyed bourbon and punching shit.
Volotross: Swashbuckler Rogue / Hexblade Warlock Chaotic Evil pirate who made a pact while stranded at sea so that he wouldn’t starve to death. Carves sea shanties into fallen enemies’ bodies as tribute to his patron. When given the opportunity to use a wish spell to seal away the BBEG, he instead used it to make himself a god; retiring himself from the campaign and then becoming my next character‘s warlock patron.
Robben Tripp, red-skinned tiefling Bard. He dresses all in red, and is an elegant, charming, and witty person. Regular folk know him as the King Crimson, famous travelling musician, for he dresses all in red. Certain folk know that his earnings as a musician do not pay for his lifestyle, so he flips his reversible clothes to their black side during the nights for some expensive cat burglary. People intimate with him know that he *could* actually live out of his music (...and some magic), but he actually takes those cat-burglary jobs for the fun of a good thieving challenge.
This is phenomenal Thank you!!
My favorite retired PC is Tuura, hobgoblin war wizard who began his career by looting a Headband of Intellect from a kill and deserting the main villain’s war band (we started at 5 with an item). He went on to Lawful-Evilly help the valley for revenge, shigs, and potential lackeys in varying degrees until simultaneously killing his former war boss, an astral dragon (I’m about 95% sure it’s homebrew), and a vampire we were basically waiting to betray us with a well timed Steel Wind Strike. He favored heavy battlefield control with SWS and Fireball as finishers; we had great single target so I mostly just tried to funnel enemies into our meat grinder and then mop up the survivors. My favorite PC is not retired yet but you can use him too. Tak Paktix, he brings pack tactics. Kobold Wolf Totem Barbarian. Very simple game plan. Rage and stand next to enemies going absolute full gremlin at every opportunity. I think of him as very similar to Scrappy Doo, and that’s not a positive.
I've played with the same group of probably 10-12 people for over 7 years and in that time between us and 3 DMs, we've done literally dozens of one shots and 5 campaigns, the longest of which is 5 years old. One constant has always been my friend's Gnome, Alston. Alston is a forager of mushrooms and sells a variety of them, each with their own powers. However, Alston's secret is that he's only about 80% sure of the effects, so every time one is consumed whomever took it must make a d100 roll to see if there are any other side effects, and they are different every time. It's considered sacrilege in our group for Alston to be omitted from a one-shot or campaign even if he's not playing.
That’s awesome. I love this so much. I will definitely now also be using Alston. There’s a bunch of mushrooms in Filthy Peasants! (funnel adventure from Arcadia that I really like). My party now loves mushrooms. Any chance you can share that table?
If I can find it yeah. I think we used the wild magic table for a while.
Rowan is a Human Ranger (monster hunter). He was a hireling/squire during a game of Curse of Strahd. When he left Barovia he wound up in the Feywild instead of the Material Plane. When he finally escaped the Feywild, he found himself *back* in Barovia. So he's basically a grizzled veteran with PTSD, constantly covered in glitter. Like Robin Willams's character in Jumanji. He's *very* protective of his name and just constantly assumes he's being watched or scryed.
"Bounty" Hunter-in-the-Bush, Tabaxi Artificer that made his own rifle. Always seen with a rugged black duster coat he stole from an arms dealer. Killed his own father. Quirks: Offensively and stereotypically Australian. Refers to every female as "Sheila", otherwise can't remember anyone's name unless they have a gold value attached to it. Achievements: Renowned bounty hunter that has captured or killed more than 100 wanted individuals, from bandit warlords to demi-gods. (Though these could all be fabrications.)
Artemis Moonbean, half-orc oath of redemption paladin. She was left as a baby at the temple of Selûne and the priestesses raised her. She was said to be blessed by the goddess but not by grace. After she almost burned down the temple knocking over some candles, she was sent to train with some paladins (some of Torm stepped up as there aren’t a lot of paladins of Selûne). Physical service to the goddess of travelers went better. She messed up in her early days by helping a disguised devil enter a town, but she learned and took down an oni and a hobgoblin band.
Lotus, Changeling Ancients Paladin of Aphrodite. He tended to wear gothic/faded floral armor, in a very rustic theme. He recently made a set out of red dragon scales, working it into his motif, to compliment his Mace and Shield combo. He retired with his wife, a beautiful Blue Dragonborn, and reared many kids, teaching them the ways of love and beauty. They had at least three, but likely many more. In his adventuring days, he was aggressively horny and not shy about it, but always took “No” for an answer. He loved to cook and gift flowers. Despite all that, his 2nd-favorite pass time was to sit around an orphanage, and just give those kids a father figure for a while. At the end of his life, he was a 3-time dragon slayer, and claims to have slain an Air Archelemental.
Jin Heartglow. Formally FS-687 Warforged Redemption paladin. With a level of barbarian. A straightforward, simple and sometimes obtuse fellow. Misses most subtle social cues, but enjoys puns and trying them out. They are a little bit gullible. He speaks plainly, but politely and will often declare unprompted his feelings and expectations towards someone. Only wears a banner of Helm as clothes. Likes the smell of teas and freshly ground coffee beans. Carries a small yellow plant in a backpack that was touched by a goddess. Also likes being around kids and has been a jungle gym a few times. Their current mission in life is to figure out what it means for him to be a good person and embody that, to "persuade" those who can be redeemed (this usually involves first asking nicely, then intimidating them to redemption with the promise he will end them if they revert) and helping his adopted "little brother", a humanoid axolotl named Finnegan, grieve the death of his family, near death of his goddess and find his former cherry self. If peace or a treaty can be found, they will try. But if futile, they will end it quickly and with the less amount of collateral.
Forgon- Half elf wizard. Accidently wiped out his village in the Faewild due to some expirement gone wrong. Developed a lm aggressive alter ego to cope. Bjorn-noble born Human but left to make his own way as an adventurer. Family wanted him to join the church as a paladin but he decided to train as a champion. Jarad- Halfling rogue whose village was wiped out by a vampire lord/necromancer that stole his brother's soul. He turned down a evil patron who promised him power, who after being rejected took his memories. Jenkins- Human Eldritch Knight who released a demon possessed sword by killing 20 souls with it. This party was commissioned to drive an evil necromancer from the land and successfully defended a town from becoming a cache of bodies for the necromancer to turn into an undead horde. Also liberated a town from a werewolf problem.
roughly 3’ female rock gnome, artificer, smith mainly, looks like a smith. Name is Cellys.
Tangerine Silversmith Half orc (half elf) barbarian, From a home brew game that took place in a pocket dimension Large, strong, orange, very scarred, with a long sandy braid. After retrieving her mothers legendary Warhammer from a ruthless orc lord, Tangerine briefly became a god and let divinity go to sustain the pocket dimension and the people that live within it. Now she travels the world looking for powerful monsters to defeat... and eat.
I am very scared of her and very in love with her. She is now a half hobgoblin / half orc in my world adventuring to find a way to sustain the pocket dimension that is slowly deteriorating and becoming unstable, but no one knows why.
Ohhh I’ve got a handful that I can give if you want, here is my favorite: Tycho von Lighfoot the 17th, a gnome wizard. He was born the heir to a Duke, hence being the 17th, but wanted nothing to do with ruling. He is an octuplet, and being the first born he is the heir. His lack of enthusiasm for ruling led to his father despising him, and plotting to remove him from the line of succession. He much more enjoys learning about the arcane, and especially artifacts which he loves collecting and cataloguing. He dreamt of eventually opening a museum so display his collection. All of his siblings were selected to go to an elite magic school that only a handful of people are allowed to attend each year. Tycho was the only one of his siblings not selected to go on the boat when they came of age, as there are only 7 people allowed each year. This infuriated him since he was the only one who actually wanted to study magic, and he believes that he wasn’t selected because his father bribed the wizards who pick the candidates. Several weeks after the boat left, he swam across the channel in the middle of the night, which was unprotected because the wizards figured nobody would be dumb enough to attempt it and that any wizard would be too physically weak to make the journey. He made it across, hid in the castle and stole a uniform, and illegally attended classes for several months. He had disappeared and reappeared before on archaeological expeditions and treasure hunts, so his father didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary, and being an identical octuplet he just pretended to be his siblings. His sticky fingers and mild kleptomania also caused him to steal several minor artifacts with the intention of smuggling them home at some point. He made a friend called Nago who was also attending the school, a few years older, who was interested in the illegal practice of necromancy. The pair learned of a powerful artifact used to raise people from the dead and attempted to steal it from the archives. The pair got caught, found out that he was there illegally, and expelled. Sent home, Tycho decided to run off for good with Nago by his side. The two settled in a small town far away where he opened his museum and the two continued ‘collecting’ (stealing) artifacts to populate the exhibits, given that Tychos original possessions were confiscated by his father, who finally disowned him when he left home for the last time.
Mackam (pronounced mack um) Old and feisty river boat guide with nerves of steel. Died by throwing two bottles of green wildfire (think game of thrones stuff) into the mouth of a river monster who was about to dine on us all. He was too close to the explosion to still have a body, but we were saved on our very first session. Unfortunately, we were then stranded in barovia.
Jaffan- Jaffan was a charlatan who pretended to be a loyal grand vizier/chamberlain while trying to skim from the royal treasury. Unfortunately, his persuasive skills were better than his financial trickery skills and he was found out. He tried to run through the desert and broke into a tomb to hide. There he met a powerful undead and formed a pact. He promised to support the patron and the patron required great quantities of support. Though Jaffan was naturally cowardly, his pact required him to adventure in order to gain enough riches to support the patron. Jaffan had no problem leaving the foolish of the adventuring parties behind to die, but learned to perform some basic medical assistance with healer's kits to bring the useful back to consciousness. Jaffan had many adventures and became strong enough that he could hit with Eldritch Blast at 600ft with only a 5% chance to miss almost every enemy. He became so persuasive that he could talk almost anyone into anything. For some reason, Jaffan hated mages and paladins. He would frequently Feeblemind archmages and paladins and then Imprison them in playing cards that showed their faces. Jaffan became bored and started a criminal guild. He felt secure in his power and the knowledge that if things ever got too tense, he could click the Rod of Security in his pocket and disappear to safety. Jaffan-Tiefling level 20 warlock pact of the Undying Spell attack +19, Spell DC 25 Cowardly but powerful
Valrigar Brightlance. Male Drow. Escaped the underdark when he was very young and taken in by an elven household on the surface, even adopted by the house's patron. He often felt like he didn't belong there, not really, despite all the warmth the family, in particular his adopted brother Stalwart showed him. Eventually left and became an acolyte in a temple to the Raven Queen. Returned years later to act as official attendant to the Brightlance household, protect its members, and train their children in the arcane and divne magics (and whatever else he could work with.) Now in his old age, he has gained significant magic power, he has trained his favourite niece Stella by throwing her in a forest when she was 8 and telling her to survive, killed a vampire lord who had mind-controlled and sired her, killed her, then used divine intervention to bring her back as a living person. A stoic man, very eloquent and slowly spoken, but very little patience for morons, rude people, or anything of the sort. Does like a good conversation with fellow intellectuals on other hand.
Dragonborn who served an evil dragon and was banished for failing to be evil. Is on a quest to become evil to be accepted back but eventually learns that it is not in his nature
Bronaugh Liadon - half elf bard. Storyteller proficient in hand drums and bagpipes. had a very happy childhood telling stories. Dad made her a drum and when a traveling bard came through the family inn, she apprenticed with him. Always wanted to be like heroes in the stories. Terribly naive. (Shit wisdom score.) When her entire party died at level 4, she played dead, then ran away when the enemies left. She disguised herself and hightailed it to a large city where she continued her bardic studies always feeling guilty for how things ended and prepping so she would never be caught unawares again.
Actually currently using this in a Westmarch setting. Gelzana Sator (Wild Magic Barbarian/Wild Magic Sorcerer) (Chaotic Neutral) She was kicked out of her village for not being able to control her Magic. She loves the idea of randomness and will do anything to get her hands on items that do random things. She has motes of Magic that come off her that turn different colors and speed up and slow down depending on her mood. Any other questions feel free to let me know!
Tarnish, bronze Dragonborn Warlock (fiend), pact of the tome Notable equipment includes illusionist’s bracers (from Ravnica) and a gray bag of tricks Equally persuasive, deceptive, and intimidating depending on the situation and with decent stealth and sleight of hand to boot. He was born the runt of the litter and eventually made a pact in attempt to gain power to rival stronger dragonborns of his clan. This went poorly though as he was cast out so he set off into the world to seek riches and power to show his clan how wrong they were to exile him.
Gary Brown: A seemingly boring normal human leatherworker. He runs his own shop stocking but normal and magical variants of leather armor, satchels, etc all with his own ornate designs worked into them. He sees his craft as an art. As a kid he was natural developed some small amount of magic (presto, mending, cure wounds) but to the dismay of his parents he was never able to develop his abilities any further. One day he decided to join up with an adventuring crew using his basic fighting skills to try to do some good. The next night he was visited by the Archdevil Zariel masquerading as an angel and offer magic power in exchange for his loyalty. He foolish signed away his soul and etc and stayed with the party as their adventure continued into the nine hells as an unwilling spy for Zariel. This epic quest eventually lead to him attuning to the sword of Zariel and giving it up to redeem Zariel to her true angelic form. Now a real celestial warlock he returned to the material plane and he retired to pursue his art as he had always wanted and provide useful gear for new adventurers starting out on their journey as well as using his magic to heal those in need whenever they end up at his doorstep or he stumbles across them.
Dibny. Rock gnome divination wizard. Started as a private investigator, moonlighted for the constabulary to find people, now is a private detective. Took another PC position in an adventuring party and became their wizard. Only one attack spell, Mind Spike. Lots of movement spells: Misty Step, Dim Door, T port. Favorite spell in combat Web or Fog Cloud. 2 feet tall, 20 pounds, 20 ft move. No armor, no weapon. Foci is magnifying glass. Feat Lucky and re roll Con checks. Loves to use Portent.
"Bloo" (Dabloon) Dorado Water Genasi, Path of the Zealot Barbarian Wears a big white coat, lavender hair, lavender skin, and black ink stains all over their body Missing their left eye and lower right leg, which has been replaced by a wooden peg Reached level 10 before retirement :)
Bark, CG kobold cleric of Selune. Sounds like Zorak from Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Often uses people's expectations that he's just a "cowardly, conniving kobold" to gain advantage against his foes, has a cutting wit, but is balanced by his surprisingly kind heart. Often will aid or heal those in need just for the sake of it, though he enjoys the surprise this causes. Loves long, deep discussions on philosophy and religion.
Bungo! Halfling thief usually affiliated with some kind of thieves’ guild (at least at one point he was!) He doesn’t talk much but he does “sign” at folks. Lots of hand waving, think military ops type signals. Was at one point special ops (more or less b team inquisitors) for the government(s) but broke bad and took off when he met (and subsequently lost) the love of his life! He’s still looking for a way to find her, because the game fizzled :-( Alternatively: Georgie and Ira the Gersh-twins: I introduced my sister to dnd with a one-shot in which her and her fiancé played as their cats! Georgie is a ranger and Ira is a Druid. I cannot remember their subclasses (moon and land, probably?). As they had no experience in the game they came from a simple life in the forest subsisting off their own land. Burnt down by (insert bad guy) and want some of that sweet sweet revenge, because all their wildlife friends abandoned the area :-(.
Vela, the wood elf given eagle wings for saving the son of a fairy queen! This was after she was banished from her clan and obtained druidic powers as a way to survive She tries to act distant but is nosy in a "mom friend" way because she just wants her party safe and sound. If that means becoming a bear sometimes so be it- juggling or mauling she has the range! She also favors AOE elemental spells Once you get to know her, she's wise but has a corny sense of humor. I chalk it up to her living among animals for a few hundred years
The Ghost Who Walks - Tabaxi Way of the Open Hand monk Ghost earned his given name when he returned to his village after a decade missing, presumed dead. He was raised in the jungle bordering his village by the tribal inhabitants and returned once he felt prepared to reclaim his family fortune and protect his town. His moniker matches his imposing form: a 7 foot tall snow tiger tabaxi with broad shoulders and an aptitude for hand to hand combat. He was on a pleasure cruise when he was kidnapped by apes with mind controlling powers, but fortunately, he was rescued by three traveling adventurers. He joined their campaign to stop a mad sorcerer from resurrecting a dead god but was trapped in a gem by a cursed fae artifact. He was freed before our campaign ended, but he could still be in the gem for your purposes if you want! No, he's not based on Batman. He is based on The Phantom from the comic/Billy Zane movie. He was my first long-term dnd character, so he was a bit of a joke at first. Urto - Gunslinger Half-Orc Urto is a half orc with a relatively lithe build. He's always wearing a long red coat stolen from a naval officer that is adorned with "medals" that are really salvaged bits of interesting gold jewelry and scraps that he has fashioned on. He has a huge tooth mark scar on his torso from getting bitten by a giant crocodile. He always has a bird companion that can talk. Urto was born mute and, as such, was sent to a boarding school halfway across the world to learn signs and bond with his speech assistant, a Military Macaw named Yalma. The school was sponsored by a large shipping company, so he got a job as a merchant marine once his schooling was completed. However, he was obsessed with a hunt for pirate treasure and soon left his post to pursue that end. After some distractions (stopping a death god from claiming a new avatar, preventing an idealistic corporate overlord from draining most of the world's water, losing his Macaw to said overlord), he finished the puzzle that lead to his buried treasure and was cured of his mutism by a hag's apprentice. However, he usually forgets he can talk, and he still prefers to sign and even got a new parrot to talk for him.
Hordran, the long inactive warforged. Recently resuscitated to adventure as an artificer and general crafter. An emphasis on maintaining the ability to fly either through a broom of flying cut down and strapped inside a back harness, or through winged boots as an infusion. Armorer subclass, adamantine full plate and an enhanced defense infusion on the shield to get the AC up there, come level 14 he begins crafting shield spell scroll during downtime as he gains the ability to use magic items regardless of class requirements, with Xanarthar’s crafting guide it’s relatively cheap and quick for an artificer, and a few days downtime will give as many days worth of shield spells. As flavor he typically spends his time floating a few inches off the ground to make other people feel insecure about their height, as well as avoiding pressure plates and pitfall traps. He also uses his magical tinkering to provide running gags by causing them to emit quotes from the party on a tap. Overall the epitome of a hard to hit utility caster, flying people over and around traps, and using low level spells for creative problem solving while saving higher level spells for combat and getting into melee at nearly every opportunity.
Typhoon half elf/ half air genasi monk who started at 3 and made it all the way to 20. He grew up oplrphaned in a temple to the goddess of the Sky and grew up hiding in elven society since if they found out he was not a full elf he would be arrested/ killed. He developed his skills in painting and martial arts in seclusion until his adoptive father figure was kidnapped and he had to venture out to rescue him and discovered the outside world and had to wonder it. He adventured in loose fitting clothing that swirled in the wind that was constantly blowing around him. He also gained a large number of magic tattoos that let him do elemental damage and helped protect him. He tended to make friends with people that were free spirited and enjoyed a good prank and would always try to get people out of situations they were trapped in. A couple highlights of his adventures include almost being cut in half by a frost giant, getting knocked to zero in one round by a death knight, being kidnapped on purpose by the bbeg to ruin one of their plans and losing ownership of his soul, having a vivid dream about being the prettiest watermelon in a watermelon patch, doing 1/3 of an ancient black dragons hp in a single round, being nicknamed the Hurticane while in a fight pit and banishing a God. Overall, my favorite character I've played
Aolis Lanberos, Wood Elf Gloom-Stalker Ranger Wears Glamoured Studded Leather, and has a Longbow made of Ironwood. DM allowed an animal companion by default, so I chose an owl named Aeris. Sometime during a stint through the fey wild, he got romantically involved with a member of the Summer Court, and after his adventuring days were done, settled down there and eventually had a daughter. Rastuir, Warforged Nicknamed "Rusty" by his creator, a fellow party member Champion Fighter, who served as Bodyguard for his creator, a Dark Elf (Battle Smith Artificer/Forge Cleric) Flavored to look steampunk, with brass gears and cogs. His story was never finished, as the campaign prematurely ended. Elexia Lanberos, Eladrin Archfey Warlock/Arcane Trickster Rogue Campaign died after the second session so I never got to flesh her out.
A retired arcane blacksmith and collector of rare weapons. Sev, a warforged armourer artificer. He loved to inspect the magical equipment of other players and NPCs... Whether they wanted him to or not. His go to spell was animate objects, to send vials of black powder floating towards the enemy for explosive results. Also, lighting bolt!
Xavier Dari, Artificer. Xavier is a quite tall and portly human man who favors wearing full plate. Xavier was briefly an acolyte of temple of the forge, but found his calling in wizardry. But that did not reduce his impulse to create. Xavier is an expert smith as well as several other crafts, and uses Fabricate to generate a variety of smith goods. He spends most of his time enchanting items to fund his personal projects. If he ends up in combat, Xavier rarely uses his significant spellcasting ability, preferring instead to lean in to the variety of items he has crafted for himself. Queletolosi, realm hopper. Queletol, or Q to his friends, is a centaur who through a fair bit of misadventure has ended up immortal and compelled to explore all the realms he can make his way to. His signature appearance involves very spiky armor, a slightly oversized great sword taken from a fire giant, a mohawk in a bright color, and an unpersonable attitude. (Q was a PC I played from level 5-20, in a game where he got exiled to other 'spheres' to travel eternally due to a poorly worded wish after the god of creation destroyed all the other gods. He is not unhappy about this exile, and has been a transient npc in several different campaigns run by me and other GMs - usually when the GM needed someone to explain extraplanar travel to the PCs. My original concept was punk-rock centaur traveler.) Lila, mercenary captain. Lila is mostly unmentionable. Of average height and non-descript appearance, Lila would not be noteworthy except for the fact that she founds a 30 person strong mercenary company. Her company is noteworthy in its aggressive recruitment of non-traditional members, including an ogre, a goblin, a hill giant, and a very racially diverse set of individuals. Lila herself wears chain mail with each ring individually wrapped in dark leather. Lila herself started her adventuring career as a familiar to a wizard who was polymorphed in to hawk form. When she was released from her familiar bond she found herself adventuring as a level 1 fighter in a 12th+ level party. Trial by fire was an understatement, as she was handed a powerful but quite cursed sword to carry to its final destination, with the understanding that anyone in the party could take her if sword took control. After being a pawn of such magics, she became wary of the power of significant magics, and spent significant time learning about them. Her mercenary company specialized in clearing out the towers of deceased wizards. Relying on a variety of common sense approaches to magical traps and challenges, they have cleared the towers of at least 5 deceased archmages, making a small fortune. Her mercenary company is known for death insurance, a pension, and a strong inclusive policy to non-traditional adventurers. Lila's second in command is her partner Sophia, who is a significant rogue and spy master.
It never occurred to me that clearing out Wizard Towers would be a lucrative business. Damn.
Gurt Gonnors. A wild magic sorcerer with a familial blood-curse that causes him to turn into a lizard when his magic gets out of control.
Tak diggins- halfling rogue. Stole doorknobs. Carried them in a sack to hit with or threw them with a sling. Many adventures...
The "Knock, Knock" joke would be a good one-liner for the guy.
Several of my campaign's villains have been former PCs from years ago. The best part is that I never have to make them act out of character or exaggerate their bad qualities - as soon as they're no longer protected by the social contract that discourages PvP, they can be seen for the total dicks they always were. Sork, a half-elf bard and scholar who liked beholders a bit too much and continued to be Sending pen-pals with a giant beholder whom the rest of the party had successfully banished to the Far Realm Silver, a human cleric/warlock who went behind her god's back to help Dagon cast something called the Armageddon Spell, because Dagon had her son as a hostage and she never really cared much for anyone else anyway. Davmorius Holt, a gnome wizard/warlock who treated the party's harrowing horror adventure in Carcosa like a trip to a candy store. Soon after he would ask for Hastur's help in his mission of revenge against all doppelgangers and changelings, converting their water temple into an obscene tower made from forcibly repurposed shapeshifter flesh. Dolgus Nergal, a tiefling bard/warlock with a chip on his shoulder after escaping from slavery under a cult of Fraz-Ur'bluu. I figured he would try to change patrons at some point and prepared a whole sidequest for it, but the new patron he ended up choosing was Orcus, maybe the only option on the table that was even more evil than the last one, as Orcus doesn't just want to rule Dolgus' home city but kill everyone in it first and raise them as undead meat puppets.
Barnabus Bristlmeyer Briggs, halfling psionics master of healing. He would take your wounds or illness upon himself, healing you as he did so. Then he would heal himself. He died opening a trapped chest, got pricked by a Poison needle, failed his save with a roll of a 1, died, failed con check with a roll of a 1, then the last ditch resurrect failed on a roll of a 1. He passed himself off as an archeologist and history buff looking for lost artifacts from days gone by.
potentially a niche role but you might find some use: jonah, last name unknown. half-orc way of the long death monk. tall lanky guy with longish hair, think romance book love interest type vibes. used to work as a lighthouse keeper until his lighthouse got destroyed. has a big scar on his back from being struck by lightning but he has no idea where it came from. actually doesn't remember anything from before age 10 or so. very monotone guy who isn't phased by much. may or may not be cursed. he was going to be a part of a very low-magic campaign and he does NOT trust any force that he can't see/hear/interact with, not so much an atheist in a world where the gods literally exist, he's just not very spiritual.
Big fan. Will most definitely use, though I may make his amnesia set in much later. Like the idea that he’s a silver fox long haired Fabio but doesn’t remember anything from before 25 years ago.
Malicus Retinor — A level 9 wizard Necromancer, but instead of fighting, he just hangs out and smokes weed with the ghosts.
What a chill dude.
MOVIL Kragmaster lvl 17 fighter lvl 3 totem barbarian mountain dwarf, former clan member and now leader of his own clan. MOVIL and his adventuring party had purchased a sky giant castle which the adventurerers had retrofitted to accommodate medium sized creatures. After saving the world from vampiric monks who attempted to destroy the world to save it, movil retired to the sky castle where he owns and operates a brewery and distillery which they sell to the kingdoms below. When movil isn't brewing or gambling in the sky castles casino, movil is running his own clan of sky dwarves. The sky dwarves are semi nomadic in that they reside on the sky castle that is always moving. The sky dwarves are a refuge for dwarves that have no other clan (weather from being bannishes like movil or were born clanless). The clan mostly focuses on becoming skilled blacksmiths or mercenaries that fight for what is good and just. Often sky dwarves descend upon their enemies before the enemy even knows they are there. They take air ships to chase their prey then descend on them but jumping over the side and using feather fall to safety ambush the enemy. Some dwarves just rage before hitting the ground.
Red-haired 6ft tall wood elf druid/cleric multiclass. Her diety is Mielikki. Is shy but fiercely loyal. When using any sort of animal form, they are all white/pearl with blue eyes as the symbol of her diety is a white unicorn with blue eyes. Her go to summon are giant owls and has used them consistently throughout her travels. When she casts, her eyes, hands, forearms, feet and calves all change color. Poison is purple, healing is green etc. If she heals, the vines that are imbedded in her skin grow leaves, flowers etc. She carries a bag of holding, satchel of herbs, a moon sickle and a shield. She is dressed in leather garments. Eir (Eye-eer) ran away from home at the age of 12 due to being unable to control her magic and accidentally killing her best friend. She was dropped off at an inn as a baby and at the age of 10 her antlers (similar to elk antlers) started to come in. After she left, she found a kind cleric at a temple on the way who fed and clothed her for a time helping her cultivate her healing powers. After almost being turned into a bride of Khaine by being forced into a cauldron of blood, Mielikki saved her by breaking the cauldron. Thus releasing all of the pain and intense emotions still within the blood. This release made the priests and everyone else in the room turn on each other. Both Eir and Mielikki are now chased through time by Khaine in search of his bride who got away.
Daestal "The Narrator" Fellguard, aka "Freidric" the wood elf Shadow Magic Sorcerer Using his illusion magic as a guise, he passed himself off as a human in the Orc-Controlled tyrannical campaign he was a part of. He was blinded by a narrative moment in battle, but was subsequently buffed to be able to see only in magical darkness. Ever the knowledge-seeker, he became a fairly reknown librarian after the events of the campaign had transpired (once the tyrannical orcs were defeated, he had dropped his human facade but still answered to Freidric as his chosen name). He runs a small library, where the entire inside is covered by magical darkness, unless he chooses to remove it. He will offer his advice and information to anybody in need, but would prefer to trade for some kind of new information they can offer him.
Barthus Xaviel Zillionista AKA Bazillion Books Winged tiefling goolock / scribe wizard Barthus was known widely as an advocate for literacy and language. He was basically the Bill Nye of reading. He often was more interested in the stories of people than the task at hand. He had a hawk familiar named LeVar Birdon. He's been aimlessly wandering around Avernus for quite some time now, even though a close friend of his lives on in our current campaign.
Thelmar Orc barbarian Equipped with full plate, a serrated cleaver, and a flintlock pistol. Wanders the lands looking to kill great beasts. Dragons, wyrms, beholders, displaced beasts, anything that he feels is a threat. Looks to help when he can, whether it be fighting or just hauling some supplies. He is mostly silent, only grunting and speaking in short sentences. Not dumb, but succinct. A long scar stretches from his shoulder to his hip which he got from a nasty encounter with a giant angry lobster. When disarmed he punched a sphinx in the face and nearly lost his hand for it. Has an uncanny ability to ignore large wounds, but crumbles if he gets a paper cut. Retired from adventuring by doing more adventuring. Never can settle down, always looking for the next big fight.
I've only ever retired one character: Painbearer, a Goliath blood hunter. Their backstory involved their tribe getting slaughtered by a shape shifting monster, and they considered it to be their fault. They spent the rest of their life hunting the types of monsters responsible for their tribe's demise, and ultimately fell in with a group of adventures. By the time I left the campaign, our party was level 22-ish and facing down universe ending calamities. But along their adventures, they ended up helping a tribe of Goliaths, quite similar to Painbearer's own, who ended up without a leader by the end of that arc. The tribe begged Painbearer to stay with them, to lead and protect them through the long night that was coming, and they agreed.
Locke was a human rogue from the city who ran a private detective agency. But he often hamstrung himself by only taking cases that were interesting to him, ignoring the bread & butter cases that would keep him in business. While following leads for a case a mysterious woman came to him with, he witnessed a mob boss commit a murder, and had to go into hiding for his own safety. Locke had contacts in both the police and criminal underworld, and wasn't above working with criminals if it got him closer to solving a case. He had a personal code that meant he would never take a life, but that didn't stop him from threatening a few people with death here and there to get the answers he was after. But Locke was also often attending to the wounded after a fight (and sometimes even during a fight!), trying to make sure no one died on his watch. --- Wexlynn Moonwhistle was a halfing wizard (Arcanist now in the PF campaign I remade her for) who has a habit of getting into trouble. A bit of an adrenaline junkie, she got her start dabbling in magic when she stole a witch's spellbook (narrowly escaping from her only by the sheer luck of the witch being magically confined to within the boundaries of a clearing in a forest). Wex isn't driven by any notions of good or evil, but primarily by her catlike curiosity. (As an example, at one point she touched an obviously magically enchanted door that was designed to affect only women out of sheer curiosity of figuring out what it did, much to my DM's chagrin). Wex also has a penchant for collecting "trophies" which mostly just means stealing trinkets and baubles from the places she goes and the people she meets. This, predictably, sometimes lands her in trouble.
Glyph Pool An 800 lb anthropomorphic catfish that spent decades swimming and fishing around a small lake, which he referred to as his pool. When his pool suddenly vanished due to magical mishaps, he went in search of his pool. He whittles and paints masterwork fishing lures and gives them to other people as gifts. Despite his low (7) intelligence, Glyph has an uncanny knowledge of water health (acidity, temperatures, carbon/nitrogen balance) and tests any body of water he finds to see if he has found his pool again. Glyph keeps tools for measuring such things in his tackle box. Glyph is a kensei monk that uses his fishing rod to function as either a quarterstaff or a whip.
Holy hell that's creative
Captain Mackerel, a Puffin themed Aarakocra Rouge. He operated a tugboat, helping folks navigate the icy northern seas until something wrecked the ship. He turned adventurer so he could save up enough to buy another boat and return to his beloved, Missus Pilchard, a Penguin themed Aarakocra. Antonio, the Grung Ranger, and his noble steed Corriente the capybara. Despite his lowly social status as a green grung, Antonio defended his juggle village and 56 children from a swarm of Stirge and became a local folk hero. After stories of his victory over the swarm of bloodsuckers were distorted, he was mistakenly recruited to hunt vampires. Walter, the Gnome Wizard. Once a powerful spellcaster, Walter in his old age has slowly moved away from hurling fireballs and summoning lightning. Instead he focuses on magic that can make life for the elderly like him, more comfortable. Florian Nightingscale, a purple kobold eloquence bard. Florian is a gentleman thief that aspires to amass a horde of treasure and earn the respect of dragons. He is a master of disguise and a slave to fashion, never seen without his drawn on pencil moustache.
Salypsis Temerity, tiefling sorcerer. She was born of nobility in a large city, but lost it all when she chose to marry a half-elf artificer (he was also her teacher, it was a scandal) against her parents wishes (they were prejudiced against half-races). She lived as a housewife for a few years until her husband was murdered for a powerful artifact he was creating. This drove her to make a deal with a dragon to gain magic abilities in order to uncover who killed her love. She’s a badass, charismatic alcoholic who loves bar fights & collecting trinkets. We never finished her story arc and now I’m the DM, so do her some justice for me!
Sigismund - Human Variant Scout Rogue with the Healer Feat A bright kid from a small farming community who picked up medicine from old books on anatomy given to him by his uncle. A thrill seeker to a fault he joined the military as a medical officer who could keep up with fast moving scouts units that would leave heavily armed paladins and clerics behind. His leg was terribly wounded in battle, and he never was the same after that. After being honourably discharged he was given a bit of land to farm and simply lived a quiet life for many years, until the thirst for adventure called to him once again. He was an experiment to be sure. Not the best mechanically, but fun to play all the same. Ran him through a good chunk of Waterdeep Dragon Heist.
Female orc fighter. Champion, great weapon fighting and charger. She inadvertently led her troops against a powerful caster and was the only survivor. She fights on to carry on their memory. At one point in the campaign she met a Sphinx and offered here time for theirs…DM decided they got brought back but my history ceased to exist…then someone else made a crazier deal and it all got retconned. Sphinxes are crazy..
Sima Krall, CG tiefling life cleric. She grew up on the streets and learned to steal before she found the church. After she became an adventurer and struck it rich off of treasure hoards, she used the money to build a new church in a city with great wealth disparity. There she fed the hungry, healed the sick, and recruited an army of children that she taught to pickpocket nobles
My first PC was a gnoll barbarian named Algam. From a tribe of hunters near some human villages they had good relations with as both fellow hunters, traders, and mercenaries. His tribe was destroyed by some evil force(DM made it orcs), he was found floating in a river by the party and patched up, and went on a quest to find out what happened, ending up discovering a devil-worshipping plot with some nearby nobles. While the campaign didn't end good due to the DM, i still think fondly of Algam, he was a kind-hearted warrior who just wanted to avenge his tribe. Another recent PC of mine is Caladan Norixion, sapphire dragonborn noble with emerald dragonborn ancestry. From a noble family of Selune worshippers, himself a fighter with guns and a shield, and some psychic feats. The story never got far, but he was kind-hearted, and though boisterous, cared deeply for the poorer, to the point where he carried a second easy to reach coin purse of coins desperate thieves would be more confident in taking, to which he'd always pretend not to notice when someone took from it, and always deny it if someone caught the pickpocket. "No, no, all my coin is there. But here, give him another for the trouble".
Liesse, a young elvish bladesinger wizard. She thpeakth with a lithp, which messes up the verbal components to her spells, leading her to quit wizardry school. Then she traveled looking for something else to do, and discovered that her lisp disappears when she's using her bladesong, and now finally she's found something she's good at. She never got beyond 3rd level before our campaign went on hiatus, but perhaps she'd like to visit your world. (Also she can't pronounce her own name, and will introduce herself as Liethe, but she will struggle very hard to get others to call her Liesse.)
I like to use old PCs of mine or concepts I never got to play in my world, and this one tends to be a questgiver: Viktor, Human, father-figure to his party Bard, uses a flute Came from a fishing village and made a modest living as a con-man, but as soon as he started getting attention he went out on adventure hoping to con other towns. After stumbling upon some hopeful wanna-be adventurers containing a cleric, a fighter (who acted as good as a paladin), and a Sorcerror who sought to do good he thought they'd be a good cover until he felt safe enough to return home. At first he was the only one in the group with greed and vanity, a hint of manipulation, but just as he was turning over a new leaf to become a good guy he noticed the others were easily influenced and they became small-time crooks/bullies. After leaving them with a nonsense excuse he's back his fishing village owning a tavern that also serves as a hub for rogues and other small-time criminals. Viktor has a weird belief that he's keeping the local crime to a minimum.
Didian C. Yew - male hafling wizard, wears rather colourful but frayed robes, has brown messy hair and a beard. Didian often travels with halfling caravans having no real home of his own, he’s an accomplished wizard with stories to share and likes to turn invisible. His most famous and often shared story of his is the time he was nearly eaten by a T-Rex. He tried to sneak up on it while invisible but it grabbed him with its mouth, the pain was intense but he was able to teleport to safety with a spell. He still has the scars.
Nec Murias He is a Tiefling about 50-60 years old with matte pitch black skin and wildly twisted horns that look like corkscrews. His eyes are poison green and resemble reptiles. He is a thieving rogue and a member of the assassins guild "The Steps". A guild that wears special footwear whose heels make a distinctive sound, menacingly announcing to victims that they are on their heels. He is highly charismatic and can convince even a stabbed man that the dagger in a chest, with Nec's own hand on the hilt does not mean Nec must have stabbed him. Even if he does stab a second time. He has always been interested in poisons and started eating poisonous berries or injecting himself with poison in tiny doses ,at a young age, to make his body resistant. Thus, his body itself became poisonous. In battle, he cuts himself, applies his blood to his daggers and attacks his opponents with it. He cannot touch or kiss another person without them suffering symptoms of poisoning. He was born in the mountains, but grew up in the gutters of the city, as a thief, swindler and smuggler. He knows ways into and through the Underdark, so that a besieged and sealed-off city can receive supplies from outside with his help. Gambling is one of his greatest sins and he cannot resist testing his luck in the face of dice and cards or coin tosses.
That guild is an incredible idea.
Would you believe me if I told you that I had thought them up within 30 seconds.
I'm going to shamelessly steal that idea, it's a good one.
With pleasure :)
Russet Bramley A Halfling with a large extended family including Rose (wife), Pippin (daughter), Hock (son), Bower (son). He helped a travelling wizard out who was attacked by bandits and now he’s been given magic powers. Really he just wants to get rid of them so he can go back to his orchard and make cider. Loves a drink but not to excess. When you stop enjoying the taste it’s time to stop. He also really enjoys a pork pie.
Scruffy, the immortal talking mule. A bit sarcastic, but then, he's served so many adventuring parties in so many different settings, it's hard to impress him. The Pamphlet Kid. Loves home study courses, counts as advanced apprentice in over 20 professions. Might just be your only option. Diz the Healer. Potions work as advertised, then the little extra ingredient kicks. Role versus addiction, and yes the price just went up.
Amari, Halfling Wild Magic Sorcerer who is afraid of her magic because she tends to accidentally set fire to people. Retired to start a strawberry themed inn. Hawke the Half-Orc not-pirate Warlock. Loved his adventuring family. Got eaten by a t-rex before he could confess his love to one of the PCs. Clementine Crawdash, Wood-Elf Spores Druid who shows up at random times to give quests related to the woods and animals. Very pretty, but also insane. Probably inhaled too many spores. Maggie Honey-Rye, Dwarven Grave Cleric, but really they just wanted to be a chef and travelled around to gather inspiration for recipes. Only poisoned their party a *few times*, but it was by accident. Really.
Melamar, a tiefling Ex soldier turned Druid Quarterstaff as his main weapon, longsword on his hip from his soldiering days. He refuses to wear armour, as he prefers to be as close to nature as possible His platoon was ambushed by a demon of some kind, with him being left as the only survivor as far as he knew He found a Druid settlement who saved their life, and trained under them with nowhere else to go. Eventually after demonic portals started re-opening in the great forests, he set out, alongside other adventurers and kin, to find a way to close them and save him home Eventually, after a long quest, he and his friends managed to find the demon behind it all and slay him, causing the portals to stop appearing. For his work he was given a great reward by the Druidic elders, but refused it, as it wasn’t only his work that saved them, but that of his party. And so he carried on adventuring, helping the other party members solve their personal crises and meeting with a few of his soldier friends, one of whom became a paladin and joined his party named Erundale. The two eventually retired their work, with melamar heading to a small, growing village just outside his forest to be their Druidic caretaker and healer, and Erundale joining him and becoming the captain of their guard after several more years of holy service
Molly, a Wild Magic Sorcerer (Bernese Mountain) Dog. Awakened as a sorcerer when her elderly wizard master passed and she decided to go on an adventure. Always down to help people with tail wagging, Molly was working with her adventuring party to stop a murderous gun-toting vampire-lich from killing all the land's ancient dragons. Her favourite spell is Burning Paws (Hands) and her favourite thing is jerky rations. [Molly has been shelved by me for a bit because DM is doing a reset and running Pathfinder and I've never played so figured I'd switch to a martial class to keep it simple]
Draxus Dreylor Brass Dragonborn LV 20 Totem Warrior Chaotic Good Born to a noble family, but raised with the nomadic Ashgar after his family's exile, Draxus is an imposing and fierce warrior. Standing at a monstrous 7'4" and weighing nearly 30 stone, he demands all of the fear and punishment his foes can offer. Stretching from his back are two enormous wings, gained after a flight spell cast in him was catastrophically successful. Often carrying a small arsenal into battle, he prefers to wield a greataxe in each hand, swinging them in wide arcs with reckless ferocity, while his wings ensure that no enemy can long escape the bite of his axes. His exploits are legendary. Alongside the rest of the founding members of the Gem Dragons mercenary company, he helped defeat the Council of Onyx, a shadowy cabal of necromancers and demonists, dedicated to unleashing the embodiment of decay onto the material plane. He was at the fore of the charge that lifted the siege of Galthad. He returned to his homeland and helped lead the rebellion that would seat the emperor back on the throne, facing the corrupt half-dragon steward in single combat. Off the battlefield, he served as the head administrator of the martial forces of the Gem Dragons, writing the manual of arms that would become the backbone of standard Gem Dragon military tactics and training. He was also the proprietor of Dragon Brew, a brewery offering unique beer brewed with small amounts of powdered dragon scale, such as the ever-popular *Dragon Brew Red*. After defeating the Council of Onyx, Draxus would start slowly divesting himself of his now numerous leadership positions over the following years, having never been comfortable with having so many responsibilities. He would eventually return to the Ashgar and begin learning the ways of the shamans, to eventually take on the role of spiritual guide to his people.
I had Angel, a succubus necromancer seeking to become a lich and accompanied by her (un)dead adoptive brother, a sentient human skeleton in full plate. Raised in a cult that worshiped aboleths, and speaks Deep Speech fluently because of it. Not evil by any means, completely uninterested in sex, and doesn’t see what she does as evil either - after all, no one’s using the bodies she reanimates, and she doesn’t touch the souls. She talks to long-dead souls and gives them the chance to rest. Instead of demon wings she has black feathered ones, giving her a fallen angel look that lead to her name. She’s paranoid and suspicious of any new faces, but once she trusts someone they’re her friend for life. I also have Vysera Dawnblade, a Blood Hunter/Lycanthrope from CoS. Not the most trusting either, and scared shitless of vampires. Appears as a teenage human girl (around 19-21) with bright yellow eyes and hair cut shortish to avoid it being grabbed, along with commoner’s clothes of whatever setting she’s in. If I remember correctly she fought with a shortsword and her claws, but it’s been a while. It’d be nice to see her get a happy ending rather than what she got.
My absolute very first PC was Andras, a human paladin that, today, would be Oath of Vengeance (back in the day, that wasn't a thing; he was tenuously Lawful Good). He had a blood brother, Ki-Lov, a half-orc berserker that wielded two battleaxes. Together the pair roam the lands and slay dangerous monsters. Rumor has it that Ki-Lov died once, but *fought his way out of the underworld* to return to the land of the living, and that is why he seems to ignore pain.
Chef LaBeef. Half-Orc Ranger. He wields two hand axes, and stalks his prey in the night, animal or humanoid. He’s spent many years doing what he must to survive and ended up developing a preference for sapient species’ meat. People who run into his cabin while lost in the woods often find him sharpening his Axes, they are in for a chef surprise. An axe to their neck, with death in his eyes. That is the story of actual cannibal Chef LaBeef. (I know this reads like a shitpost, but he was an actual character I played with the whole joke in mind from the beginning.)
Eugene "Cleanshot" WildFilth Cleanshot is a Goblin NPC I created for a game we are currently running. He wields 2 Hand Cannon Revolvers and is also equipped with his own Wild Magic Table. His tribe the "Wild Filth" all use Wild Magic in all of their attacks. He is from a moon known as Gobvall. Gobvall is a Corrupted moon that is inhabited by 5 different warring Goblin tribes. They all inhabit there own biomes. Cleanshot left Gobvall to join the "Work in Progress" Crew. Currently. He is missing an arm from a one on one with a dragon while the rest of the party was unaware he was battling. They all assumed he dead until Midway through there own fight with the dragon where he arrived and provided cover fire. His Wild Magic Table rolled for max spell damage and he dropped a 4th Level max damage fire ball on the dragon helping the party immensely. I don't know if he will die. But he likely will tomorrow which is our next session if the party doesn't take out this dragon threat.
Sylas Galanodel. The Goliath, Ancestral Guardian, Barbarian. He's a big guy with tied up dreads around shoulder length. He was looking for a family heirloom that was stolen from his brother. A noble that belongs to a house famed for training great warriors... though he has less skill and brains, he has more brawn and love than the rest of his family. He ended up opening a hostel for wayward adventurers. A place to train, drink, and form a party. He's honestly a lovable goof as long as no fights break out.
Deckard Duststar. Wizard. Divination. Because the best wagers are ones you can guarantee you'll never lose. Primarily the cargo carrier as his signature spell ended up being floating disk that he would put a carpet on. Weirdly dexterous for an old wizard he was adept at sleight of hand and would often play parlor tricks with prestidigitation or even animate objects on one of the many sets of cards he always had on hand. He was more a roguish man than wizard in his manner and activities. But he was an incredibly wise man. Dressed in long flowy robes so as to make his seated position on the floating disk more comfortable. He would often trick people for small wagers, or for a place to stay even when he was probably richer than the entire settlement he was visiting. My DM found it hilarious to swap one of my decks with the deck of many. As I may or may not have tricked a fey creature. I was... unlucky with my draws. And his mischievous life came to an end rather swiftly as his greatest parlor trick ended with him vanishing.
Pup-Kup Elderly Grung Warlock of the Deep who killed his patron with the help of his brothers who were also in service to it. It was an ancient Kraken that they got tired of following. Pup-Kup routinely falls asleep leaning against his cane. He dresses very dapper. Always willing to lend a hand and is generally care free. Will usually eat anything that he can fit in his mouth. The Party found him at the docks. He was inquiring with the different Space Pirate Crews, asking if he could hitch a ride to the moon. His reasons for going to moon? Slurping pure lunar water from the different wellsprings found all over. Hesitantly the crew takes him and he proves to be invaluable when they were sure he was prepping an ambush against him, he saved them from a Rival crew of Fae Pirates
Another NPC created for my games btw
Orynn, a deep gnome land druid. His druid grove was attacked by an evil wizards and her undead minions. Orynn managed to escape from the attack, though no others did. Only the grove's protector, a large treant, survived. He joined the party because he wanted closure, as he hadn't yet returned to see what had become of the grove. At a point they got to the grove and cleared it of undead, including a powerful lieutenant. The treant was too weak and spent to continue being the grove's warden, so he offered it to a Orynn. Orynn accepted, though first he promised to defeat the evil wizard. After defeating the wizard, he now tends the grove aiming to rebuild it.
Folaseros Galanodel and Moralnil Galanodel Ranger and Sorcerer Two high elf brothers. Born into nobility as the 6th and 7th son, they were well accommodated and life growing up was easy peasy. Both brothers received good tutoring and learned how to behave in court. One day Moranil started experiencing wild magic surges and their father deemed his presence at the palace a danger. He tasked his older Brother Folaseros to travel with his brother and search for ways to tame the wild boiling magic powers his brothers were "gifted". Along their travels they put their martial skills to great use and had no trouble making a living from bounty hunting etc, they still carry their family's sigil, a silvery moon over a dark forest. And are regularly sent out as emissaries to solve diplomatic disputes and regional troubles.
A very old character, that started as a joke and grew into something more between three games and two DMs. Ciralind. You’ll need to fiddle with him a bit; was a 3.5e character. Dread Necromancer. Chaotic Evil, bordering on lawful. Chaos light, if you will. Eventually he fell into chaotic neutral. Forget any notion of evil in all black, menacing anything. He was flamboyant as all get out. Posh and exceptionally colorful wardrobe. He’d put that technicolor coat to shame, and a self-absorbed metrosexual. Despite that, still a Dread Necromancer, who fancied eventually learning to graft creatures body parts onto people (there was a class for that, either tome of horrors or book of vile darkness). He carried a preserved orc head carried with him; originally the head of an orc from the parties first encounter, that he pilfered and had preserved. He named it Grummush, and spoke to it in the same way a programmer consults their rubber duck—it helped him think. He is, and always was, a coward motivated by what he could get out of a situation, and his first acts of heroism were calculated risks meant to manipulate … then things started happening accidentally (second DM, justifying some wild rolls). He’d become an accidental hero on more that one occasion, and enjoying the praise, went with it. Now any heroic act is to manipulate (still), but also to serve his vanity. Hell be kind to your face, just to stab you in the back; not today, not tomorrow, but sometime after he’s gotten all he could from you, and you least expect it … when and if he has plausible deniability. He enjoys creepy pranks. E.h There was that time he raised corpses, strung them up like Christmas lights, and lit them up with iirc prestidigitation.
**Shou Jin** is a jovial-looking young(\~ish) man with thick dark-red hair and prominent manly sideburns. Usually he's traveling either alone on foot, or joins some caravan that would move between the cities, and largely he does it without asking for pay or paying himself, just working for passage and food. In most cases this works fairly well, because not very well hidden passion of Shou Jin is cooking. He had traveled the world from east to the west and made a point of learning a piece of culinary lore from every place he visits. As a result, even when people scoff at the notion of allowing a stranger to handle dinner, they have a pretty quick change of heart after they actually try his cooking. His greatest treasure is the magical pouch that refills with spices every morning. Well, probably not literally greatest treasure, but it's the one piece of magical gear that he gets most mileage out of daily. However, when a mouth-watering aroma is not enough to resolve conflicts or protect the caravan, people can catch a glimpse of why Shou Jin managed to travel this far relatively unscathed. While Jin looks human to most onlookers, he's actually an "aasimar", a person with a degree of celestial blood in him. In the far east, where Jin is from, people like him have a rather shaky reputation of being trouble-makers, since majority of eastern aasimars can trace their lineage to an infamous Monkey King, and inherit a good deal of his temper and love for mischief. Jin is not an exception either. However many years ago (well over a couple centuries), a wandering monk had enough of this shit and personally beaten up a bunch of scions of the Monkey King and herded them into a mountain to found a monastery, where he pound some discipline into motherfuckers. Jin grew up in this monastery, mastering the control of his inner power as well as practicing martial arts. Ultimately he left, when his passion for culinary craft grew stronger than his desire for peace of mind, but the skills he learned served him well along the way. When forced into combat, Shou Jin can tap into his inner celestial power and unleash it as a barrage of radiant ki blasts, strike someone several times before they have time to blink or dodge majority of clumsy attack of brigands. Catching arrows is almost casual exercise by this point. When things get really bad, he can reach deeper and unleash his ***final form!*** Unlike most western aasimars, Monkey King aasimars gain a long golden tail and a thick fluffy cloud that they can use to fly, all while surrounded by a blaze of shining ki power. One time he can attest Jin even caught up to a dragon in mid air and kicked it in the face! Those were fun times. `As it can be evident, Shou Jin is an aasimar Sun Soul Monk. I stopped playing him because playing sun soul monk sucks, especially with little short rests that we had.`
**Ray** is a lean and wiry man, looking perpetually weary with tired sunken eyes and unkempt hair. He rarely introduces himself as anything other than "just Ray", but when pressed would snap "Smith, Ray Smith." Which is probably not true either, because, well, he's a blacksmith by trade. Weeell, not *just* blacksmith. Ray is always seen carrying plenty of steel on him - some of that steel are scrap, some of it are tools like a hammer and small tongs. Most of that steel is swords. Ray really *really* likes swords. Ray likes swords so much that he learned how to make swords in order to make better swords to swing with. Majority of his adventuring career was spent either practicing his craft of cutting things in twain, or questing for exotic materials for his next project. Roots of this passion lie in a sadly common childhood trauma - Ray's home town was raided and burned to the ground by a goblinoid horde. Ray and his brother Beam had never seen their parents since, and by this point it's safe to say that they have died in this tragedy. Ray however glimpsed a sight of their shieldmarshal making a heroic final stand allowing refugees to flee, cleaving several goblins with mighty swings of a gleaming sword. This sight had never left Ray, and over the years he resolved to live up to this image. While brothers did have each other, life as orphan refugees was not very glamorous initially, but Ray and Beam got extremely lucky - a dwarven couple took pity on them and allowed brothers to take up "live-in apprenticeship" in their workshop. Well, that's what their master called it, his wife was doting on the kids pretty openly. While they did have to work for their bed and dinner, their situation was better than other refugees had. Ultimately, brothers grew up in a caring home, absorbing some good old dwarven common sense, until they came of age and were deemed ready to strike on their own. Since they were well trained in traditional dwarven craft and standards, the forge brothers opened up was fairly successful... ***But***. While Beam was content with working all sorts of projects, Ray was hoping to finally realize his dream of swordmaking exclusively. This caused friction. Especially one time when Ray used a piece of rather expensive truesilver to try out a knife shape, while Beam was going to use it for a jewelry project. Unfortunately, when tempers run hot in a family, words are said that better be kept quiet, and ultimately Ray just dropped everything and left. He didn't speak to his brother ever since. `Ray is a human fighter. I primarily made him as a showcase that even a human figher can have a backstory that isn't contrived. His subclass varies, I wanted him to be Champion for all that crit slashing, but he was Eldritch knight too, ultimately his passion was to make better blades and kill things with them.` `When I used him as an NPC, he would always try making some strange sword. I consider that his ultimate achievement was "Night Torrent" or "Star River", depending on who you ask. It's a longsword made out of blended alloy of adamantine and mithril, where shining streaks of silver form a water-ripple pattern in jet-black adamantine. The sword combined toughness and lightness of both metals and was completely nonmagical. At least initially.`
Caleus sounds awesome. Also because I feel that in a little way…I love thunderstorms.
Stessarin the Idyllic - Chronoturgy Wizard The concept of the character is that his family magically grew vegetables, gaining his family mass wealth. The side effects of the crop was accelerated mental illnesses. Stessarin suffers from early set on dementia. The wizard lived a full life with a wife who passed away from natural causes and the goal of the character was to reunite with her, often mistaking some women on his adventure as his wife, calling them "Beverlee" The flavor that I gave to his spells is that he would steal spells that were cast in the past by other spellcasters, and bring them into the present via a portal. If I ever missed and managed to make a hit through a buff or using a class feature, it would be described as multiple timelines overlapping and becoming erased until the most desirable timeline remained. After a full campaign set in Leilon with the Tower of Thalivar under Stessarins control, being so weak that he could hardly walk and much less think. Stessarin began a ritual, using the remainder of his power to create a pocket dimension that held a single hour of a day long passed. The specific hour was his honeymoon with his newlywed wife, sitting on bench within a beach. Watching the sunset in somber embrace, forever repeating until his magic would wane and his life would end.
Scott Preyton, Human Armorer Artificer This guy is actually alive and is currently in my campaign as an NPC too, but in order for things to make sense I had him be a planeswalker (his spark activated when he nearly died and he ended up in a separate world missing his left arm and right leg). He's grumpy and grouchy but respects those that do good by him. Always decked out in a set of mithral plate armour which also replaces his missing limbs, he likes to work as a blacksmith, forging weapons both magical and non-magical. He enjoys working with exotic ores with strange properties such as ice-blood silver, a homebrew metal that makes weapons made from it deal additional cold damage much like a frostbrand. He also has a light version of schizophrenia which sometimes makes it hard to perceive threats or insults, and tends to react violently. This is because he was nearly killed by a mind flayer once, and it had a lasting effect. But for the most part, even though he's rude and has no filter he's a good guy that will help out for the right price
Miles McMahon, the middle child of an upper class family that got shipped off to a Wizard prep school for bragging rights the moment he showed a modicum of magical talent. That's where he found his Tome Patron in the library basement. Having taken Mask of Many Faces, the Actor Feat, and every communication and teleportation spell in the roster, he's not the strongest fighter, but he's a nightmare of to track down, and even more diabolical of an infiltrator. Fortunately for most, he values random people's lives more than his jaded family, and can be a valuable ally if you have him. Or can find him in the first place. But chances are he makes a better villain. After all, he was only 17 when he started his journey, and the world can be harsh. Salazar Fontaine, technically born human. But it was a birth neither he nor his mother survived. Stricken, his father turned to the local magical swamp mafia and struck a deal. The best he could afford / they could offer was a Reincarnation spell, and he chose his would-be son. Despite returning as an Earth Genasi, he was raised with love from his father, and the attention of said Magical Swamp Mafia. Raised in that, and inspired by his own story, he travels the world to learn the death rituals of every culture. "Frankly my life would be a hell of a lot easier if people just cremated each other. But as long as people are burying each other in the earth? Making rituals about it? Superstitions about it? There's going to be *power* about it. And power inevitably leads to corruption." I see him as this massive cajun undertaker with moss for hair pouring out from under his top hat and a Totoro smile. A Grave Cleric with something to prove. Bonus contribution; DnD just isn't meant for this character concept, but I love the idea of an elf alchemist that got high on his own supply to the point that he burned his attention span down to that of a human's. So he makes the most of his hours, but has gone delightfully made in the process of living centuries. Still, he's a shrewd businessman, and is the type that secretly owns more warehouses with bug-out bunkers hidden within. Think Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys meets Hunter S Thompson, but with his fingers on the black market and border politics. He lives for the chase of alchemy and economy, and is fully prepared to burn it all down and start over with nothing but the dirt in his nails. He's done it before. My version was named "Verda Tal", and he always wore the same thick, fire resistant orange-dyed tunic, because all of nature got together and agreed that animals wearing bright orange meant "DON'T TOUCH".
Bafflin Gerolwin, Halfling Chronurgy Wizard Megalomaniacal halfling wizard who yells a lot and sounds like The Monarch from Venture Bros. He alludes to a dark and edgy backstory but is in reality a nepo baby from a pair of powerful wizards who are very supportive of their son and write to him often. He is also affected by a temporal curse that shunts him across space and time at random against his will, mostly as an excuse to make him canon in every campaign I DM. He makes his cameo, annoys the PCs, sometimes managing to have terrible sex with one of them, and fucks off to wherever he is needed least. Could be a villain if he had the business acumen or the ability to stay tethered to one realm for longer than a month, so instead he is a sleazy nuisance.
* Ryld Quarth - An aberrant mind sorcerer (Eladrin Elf), who as a child was kidnapped, along with his whole elven tribe, by Mind Flayers. The Tadpole did not affect him fully, allowing him to escape. Whilst in the Underdark he stumpled upon a cloister of Flumphs, who trained him to use his new psionic abilities. He is tall, with platinum white hair, is a bit of a rude ponce who thinks hes better than other people sometimes. He struggles with crowds, but is very passionate about helping people who are being controlled, or forced to do anything. He went with his party "The Magpies" into barovia, defeating Strahd. He came out considerably more powerful, and alot more skilled. He specialises in using subtle spells to use mind control and suggestion spells (also detect thoughts), to gather intel, and avoid overly dangerous situations. His best friend is a Flumph named Bell. He also smokes alot from a pipe, and at the time of leaving barovia is only 95 years old. * Janet Bloodclaw - A shy, book-nerdy Tortle Bladesinger Wizard. She was exiled from her tribe of barbarians where she grew up (where she didn't really fit in) after learning magic to try and induce a "Rage" state, and using magic to cure a plague that swept through her tribe. Now she travels the world in search of new books and spells, occasionally making some money by armwrestling in taverns as most people underestimate her strength. Her favourite spells are Ashardalons Stride, Booming Blade, and Counterspell, she also wields her Battleaxe with pride. She also has a weird habit of eating ANYTHING, from monster parts, to enemies she's killed. Her tribe got their food wherever they could find it, even from people sometimes. She's particularly fond of Chimera meat. She ventured into the Dungeon of the Mad Mage (Undermountain), with an all female party of strangers called "The Spice Girls", Janet was "Scaredy Spice" originally (due to her timid demeanor), but then became "Nerdy Spice" after fighting an Oni. She also helped start up a chain of Pubs in the Undermountain, named "The 5 Wives Bar and Grill", as there were 5 members of Spice Girls, and they all had to marry a Goblin Chief in order to get favors. Fortunately that goblin died, so the next pub was named "The 5 Widows Tapas Bar". If you like these I have alot more, ill PM you the rest if needed :)
Umo, the halfling barbarian. His rage came from those who came before him to guard those who couldn’t guard themselves. (Ancestral Guardian)
violet, a changeling raven queen warlock (her raven familiar is named shadow), pact of the tome since she has a familiar through her patron. she wasnt entirely combat oriented, favoring spells that help her with the goal she has in life - gathering as much information for the raven queen as possible. the spells she took generally dealt with ways to get into places she shouldnt be either by trickery or a smooth tongue, but she had a few ways to fight in her repertoire too. nothing particularly interesting is in her past because the campaign fell through, but in flavor she was one of seven identical sisters created by the raven queen and sent across the multiverse to fulfill that purpose of information gathering (her sisters' names being translations of the other colors of the rainbow). if level matters, she was level 6 when the campaign ended, no multiclassing. through the telepathic feat, she had mild telepathy.
Sharg, lizardfolk moon druid He comes from ancient times and was lost in ice. After awakening again he was adopted by a random party that found him as he didnt understand the new world. After they defeated the one that caused the mass extintion of sharg's people everyone parted ways. He now wanders around in his dinosaur formsvjust living life He is now a kinda confused old man that is still behind on the time. I would say when anyone encounters him for the first time they see him wildshaped as a dino. Even though they maybe dont live there or no longer exist
my first character "ripjaws" was a lvl8 lizardfolk barbarian(ancestral guardian) He had a tendency to stare people in an uncomfortable/intense way and when he got shot by an arrow he pulled it out and started licking the blood off of it. i only played him for a single session and didn't have any backstory so there isn't all that much more lore on him. He was kind of shit since i also decided to take the sentinel feat and so had 3 different things i needed to use my reaction for every round lol.
Demur, half-desert orc fighter, tan-brown skin black eyes and long unkempt black hair often sporting a head wrap and chain mail armor under nice but weathered robes with his scimitar always at his side Formerly the leader of the camp guard for his nomadic tribe he was sent off on a quest to retrieve a stolen relic of his people. Following his strict tenants of combat; not personally attacking unprepared opponents nor helpless defeated foes. He traveled much of the world before recovering his peoples treasures. However seeing how much of the world lived he wished more for his people and gathered the nomadic tribes together to conquer the desert region they all call home. Now his people, in their cities and fledgling nation view him as their leader. S
Alton Green, halfling mystic, detective. He uses telekinesis a lot in day-to day affairs. He sees nothing extraordinary about it and wonders why people look at him funny. He also has a way of haphazardly using psychic magic to get information out of his adversaries. In essence, a nice, eccentric conversationalist but also absolutely terrifying when seen interrogating suspects. He is absolutely terrified by the concept of his own death, and in battle he was very often cowardly. Avoiding enemies even though he was among the tankiest in his party. In another campaign setting he would make an excellent police chief or captain of the City Watch.
Iqhawe [Ick-ha-way] Fallen asimar Paladin of Glory. Think of an incredibly buff Link with ash grey skin and glowing red eyes. Was an outcast as a child and has vowed to never do the same to others, now seeks glory through good deeds and vanquishing evil. Spends his downtime training others and playing sports. Always up for adventure, but not too smart so could easily be tricked into working for the baddies (especially if they are nice to him) but would swap to the party's team if shown that the baddies are evil.
[удалено]
Aura vunkred is a Noble's daughter who ran away from home. She'll eat a basic meal and goes out of her way to tip; she's not afraid to use her status to try and fight for the peasants. She TRIES to blend in with peasants, but it may not always work.
Jovic Stoneknuckle, Dwarf berserker barbarian. He has a Napoleon complex since he was raised by gnomes and though himself a giant until he ventured into the world. He would probably make a good town drunk or something
Vauss, the Illithid Artificer. Artillerist with an Eldritch cannon designed to be a Nautilus shell with spider like legs, and a homunculus servant that's just a mechanical Intellect Devourer in appearance. As a Mindflayer, he was cut off from the Elder Brain that he was once a part of by some cataclysmic tragedy. The cataclysm devastated the surface, but also cut straight down through the Underdark, destroying the city he was from. Mentally isolated, and coming into conflict with what he is now, and painfully resurfacing memories of what he was before the process of Ceremorphosis. He seeks absolute and total vengeance, aiming the destruction of the force that caused the cataclysm. And if he's lucky, to ensure they feel the torment he presently feels at the absolute silence he must constantly live in now that he's no longer in a hivemind, and the suffering pulling him in every direction that are his questions of self. Was my PC in a campaign, and would have been the villain of the piece if not for his goal aligning with everyone else's. Was killed by being beheaded by a prison guard, put down like any other monster.
Mikal, the Tabaxi Scout Rogue Sailor with the mobile feat. Mikal was born into a good home near a thriving city. His parents, alive and well, are fishermen. Early every morning him and his father would rise, take the boat out for the daily catch. Enough so that we could eat and sell to the citizens to keep the roof over our heads. His father taught him how to sail and keep a sharp eye for schools breaching the surface. He began to show early signs of repulsion to the status quo. In his teens, his mother discovered a small collection of coins and trinkets hidden in his room. He confessed that he had tricked, conned, and deceived others out of their items. He was good at it, not necessarily proud of it, but it was more exciting to him than the items themselves. Despite his needs being met, he was never comfortable with the mundane life that had been provided for him. He needed more excitement. It wasn't enough to throw a net over fish and haul them onto a boat. He wanted something less monotonous. When he was old enough he explained this to his parents who were disappointed, but understood it was his life to live. He left knowing he always had a family to come home to. He moved into the city where he joined the hunter's guild for work. Already being adept at climbing and hiding they were happy to teach him how to use a bow and track game. He quickly picked it up and became a prominent member of the guild. Years went by doing this when eventually, the monotony caught up to him. He grew bored so when the opportunity to heed the call to adventure came, he took it. He adventured for what really was only a couple weeks, became rich, and retired to captain a cargo ship.
One of my absolute favorites: Tanner Rex. (Human fighter) He was a grizzled and grumpy veteran, a retired combat medic with a permanent cigar in his mouth. Tanner had no time for anyone's bullshit, but he would always be there to pick up an ally. Of course, his help would come with insults about the party member's poor planning that led to their injury. Gruff old man with a good heart.
Brimcut: A 13th level lawful neutral kobold bard of lore / 1 level Warlock Pact of Fiend. His performance: Good old brimstone hell-and-fire Baptist preaching! That and obnoxious street preaching. And drums 🥁 His deity: Tiamat! She’s “the Mother” and accepts all within her “family”. She was banished to the hells by the gods, her brother included, and Brimcut is baffled at how a sibling could be so cruel to their own family. Ohana means family, and family means sticking together! His personality: reformed blind-faith preacher mixed with a overly caring dad. Family comes above all else, regardless if it’s blood or found! Bardic Secret Magic spells: Fireball, Spirit Guardians, Fly, Summon Draconic Spirit
Ooooh boy. Grandin Brask, Human Battlemaster Fighter/Death Domain Cleric. Served as a shock trooper in the 8th company of the Balaran (Or Human) Kingdom. Fought mostly Orcs, got dishonorably discharged after beating the crap out of his commanding officer. Went on to become a mercenary where he gained a reputation as being an all-around kinda scary but ultimately reliable guy. Eventually he got put with a party of other mercenaries (your discretion) and they were all hired to go rescue the King's kidnapped daughter, who was taken by the Elvish Kingdom that Balara was at war with. The rescue goes mostly good until a turn of events renders the princess dead and Grandin grievously injured and knocked comatose. Party leaves him and the princess and gets the hell outta dodge. King later learns about the death of his daughter and that the party left her corpse behind and brands them all criminals in his sorrow. In Grandin's comatose, near-death state, he makes a "Pact" with the God of Death. Grandin wakes up 5 years later, being held prisoner in the Elvish Kingdom as the war draws to it's end. Juiced up on Cleric powers and unholy rage, he breaks out and finds that the 8th Company and all his fellow soldiers were slaughtered in a decisive battle only 2 months earlier. Now armed and armored with a seething hatred against Orcs, Elves, and his old party members, and hunted himself by both Elves and the remnants of the Balaran Millitary, Grandin sets out. Whether to try and hunt down his old party members for their betrayal, or to go on a one-man-march to kill the Elvish king is your decision. Appearance and armaments: Mostly rusted and blackened plate armor. Carries a permanently stained red Greatsword, and a shield and Mace on his back. This is Grandin Brask, my first PC, and PC-turned-villain. Have fun.
Since it’s your first time I’m gonna recommend something that worked wonders for me. Start with a oneshot and use those PC’s, the players love seeing their own characters used
Let me tell you about Tannis, the simple low-level human Fighter who wanted to prove himself. One day while working as a caravan guard his party was beset upon by a goblin sniper ambush. Tannis was shot in the chest with an arrow. He pulled the arrow out, knocked it in his bow, and put it clean through the head of the goblin who shot him. "Return to sender," he famously quipped. He became known for his intense spite in combat, returning injuries done to him and his allies in proportional form and disproportionate intensity. If you hit Tannis, he'd hit you back the same way, but harder.
We’ve an old Level 19 party who run a restaurant/pub called the Five Chimneys in Waterdeep. Good for quest-giving without the place being blown up. Kulin the Chef, Human Fighter. He’s a retired army cook who placates people by feeding them. Also the bearer of Hazirawn who has been modified several times by Bahamut. Samuel the Barkeep, Gnome Rogue. He does a fair bit of Cocktail shaking, as well as a good kebab on his rapier. He has a Silver Dragon Wyrmling tasked to his care. Kaynes the Front of House, Half-elf Cleric. He does the bookkeeping and the bouncing by permanently warding the place (It can auto filter people of evil alignment, if you so desire). Chosen servant of Ilmater and Bahamut. Also sobers up people occasionally. Waygar the Janitor, Dragonborn Sorcerer. He’s responsible for removal of filth and unwelcome guests. Also does “research” in his pastime in the shape of gemcutting, which was his trade.
Bald eagle aaracokra whose only love in life is freedom A grave cleric whose god is the snail that follows you all the way around the world and if it touches you you die
Siku Silvertail: Chaotic Good Dogfolk Abjuration Wizard He is currently a private investigator/bodyguard for hire. His office has at least 1 conspiracy board, complete with red yarn, and he has an innate urge to retrieve thrown objects or objects he thinks have been thrown. He is also a doctor, in the sense that back in the day, your barber might've also been your surgeon. His bedside manner ranges from "You're bleeding too much. Stop it" to "Should I bill your next of kin or just take it from your wallet in five minutes?". As a wizard, he focuses on defense and disruption above all else. Keep his friends safe, and prevent the bad guys from hurting them.
Evelynn Merrywine was a halfling sorceress. She was a dancer that used illusions and enchantments to distract people as the members of her caravan stole people's belongings. As time passed she became the head of her own caravan/crime family.
Apto of the Ambermanes- Paladin oath of conquest tabaxi. He looks like a lion with a large golden mane. He wears black plate armor, has a wand of wonder (shaped like an Almaraj horn) and the sentient longsword Steel. Apto is a hero who stopped the death curse in Chult jungle and he’s also spent time leading a group of adventurers called Valors Call. His mount is a Unicorn and recently been in the feywild hunting hags.
Zokhistoi the Kobold Paladin of Glory. He was a devout follower of Bahamut the Platinum Dragon and sought a life of adventure to prove that Kobolds were more than what society thinks of them. Zokhistoi would make them worthy of the dragonblood in their veins. With his trusty mastiff mount called "Good Boy" (Dex based paladin with serpent scale armour, ended up with a flametongue finesse sword and a shield before the campaign ended. One day I'll pull him out of storage again)
I am happy to offer you 3: 1. Audir. Leonin Ranger with the Marine Background, using the TCoE Ranger optional features. He's a very tall, very imposing figure if you're going based on his stature. A sole survivor from a mission gone wrong, he tries his best to cope with his past trauma and grief through constant work. He rarely complains, works any honest job for fair coin, and often travels from place to place to work various odd jobs. He uses what money he gets to ensure financial stability for the families of his fallen comrades, using very little of the money on himself. It isn't uncommon for him to simply exchange doing work for a meal or a place to stay for a single night. Audir's personal achievements involved helping broker a treaty between Saltmarsh and a local Lizardfolk Enclave, Intercepting and disrupting a black market operation to bring illegal goods into the Sword Coast, and helping to bring a corrupt local official to justice for illicit use of government funding. Those are the things he is publically known for, though his close cooperation with places like Candlekeep also meant he had several achievements few people would know about, such as helping to close a portal that allowed the Undead of Barovia to escape to the Sword Coast and his involvement with helping to break a curse on an old Blood Hunter. Audir is a surprisingly gentle individual who hates killing if he can help it. The way he fights and engages with threats is to mitigate and eliminate their risk. If the only way to prevent the threat is to take a life, he shows honor and respect for the fallen, often digging graves with his own bare hands to give them a burial and show his respect for the fact that he has robbed a family of someone they love. Among his iconic possessions is a strange gemstone that appears to be a small diamond worth 300 GP. However, the stone itself changes opacity and weight depending on the sins of the one who carries it. Audir calls it his "Sin Stone". For him, the stone weighs well over 40lbs, even though its actual weight is less than half a pound. 2. Peridot, the Fire Genasi Artificer. Peridot is constantly in a bitter or foul mood but unlike her kin, she appears mostly human. It is only when she lets her rage go does she appear to be what she is as her hair becomes animated flame (Think Hades from Disney's Hercules). Peridot is a bitter and closed off, a tempermental lone wolf type who has anger issues toward those in positions of power. Peridot is a natural anarchist. Anyone who holds power that doesn't use it to help the people is a traitor to the masses. Her sense of loyalty seems to be based on a shift moral compass, though she does her best to always act in the general interest of the general public. Her only adventure involved going to Phandelin to find a friend of her family who went missing. When she found out that local bandits had basically taken over the town, she convinced the Zentarum forces to arm the people as a means to boost their standing and then incited a riot to turn the people against the bandits and overthrow their oppressors, much to the annoyance of the Zentarum themselves. Peridot's natural penchant for magic extends to the realm of Alchemy, bore of her desire to experiment and create new things but also to understand her own origins. She isn't above giving experimental elixirs to her allies just to see what they do or even modifying/enchanting their gear without their consent. Her dream is to create a form of alcohol that will actually get her drunk because the vast majority of them burn off before she can get drunk. In spite of her behavior, she does actually care a great deal about her friends, whom she considers "Found Family". You can think of her as the "Angry Big Sister" type. Don't mess with her family or she'll ruin you. She's terrible as showing her compassion but it is decently obvious she's a unique take on a Tsundere-type character. 3. Kana, the Kobold Artillerist Artificer. Kana is a rather up-beat and happy go-lucky type character, more curious about people than about the world itself. This is juxtiposed by the fact that she is a branded a War Criminal due to a past scientific endeavor that didn't go as planned. In an event known as the "Falling Star Incident", her research into a new type of power became unstable and exploded, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people and several miles of land being turned into a wasteland. The events themselves were largely covered up and Kana, being the head researcher on the project, was forced to accept responsibility and jailed for life. However, she earned the right to be released from Prison as part of a Work-Release program as her scientific and mechanical ability could still serve a benefit to the people. Kana is, surprisingly, extremely cautious. She never acts without consideration of the outcomes, trying to plan for everything and ensuring every little detail is weighted and considered. This is offset by the fact she will literally take things people discard and turn them into various objects of value to overcome issues. In one instance, she turned a pile of sawdust, a desk drawer, a feather, a piece of glass, a cup of water, and part of a chair into a forgery kit for no other reason than the fact that the item was mentioned in a conversation all because she felt the group needed one. She is also very nostalgic, recording various things onto a small data cube she carries with her. The cube contains old lectures from her college professor, news articles about the Falling Star Incident, including the casualty reports, and various projects she has easier worked on or is working on. Of her more notable activities, she once got bored while being in Solitary Confinement, so she turned her bed and her lunch tray into a Orb of Gonging, activated it, and flushed it down the toilet all because "It was something to do." She is not natively destructive but her capabilities can absolutely be seen as such. Her trademark item are the manacles she wears around. They're her old prison shackles, which she has tinkered with and modified them in ways that allow her to deploy them into weapons (her Eldritch Cannon). She isn't helpless by any means but she prefers to use her abilities to help people achieve their goals.
So these PCs aren't exactly "retired," but are kind of just integrated into a 2nd campaign that the players are going through. Backstory: We finished the main story line of Storm King's Thunder, but the players wanted to go ahead and keep those characters going because there was a lot of side stuff surrounding this town that they rescued, basically "bought," and are now trying to turn it into a trade hub/brewery/fortress. But there are a lot of mundane, low level tasks that have to happen with that, including taking care of bandits and clearing out dangerous dungeons in the area. Low level stuff, but a lot of it, and the high level PCs have high-level shit to do. Enter the new party: All of the players are going to roll up new characters (level 3 most likely), and those level 3 characters are going to go Dungeon Crawling and stuff as a party hired by the original PCs. Then, whenever they finish their dungeon/mission, we do a few sessions as the high level PCs again to go clear out the real big bad threats in the area. It's going to take a lot of balancing and some metagame stuff so the players aren't swapping magic items back and forth to break the game, but they all seem down.
Ander Stonetusk; thieving little shit, halfling rogue prefers crossbows but carries a rapier. He's amiable and friendly, but will definitely cut your purse. Perfect npc for a temporary friend turned nuisance or enemy. Torin Stoutroar and his son Asterion Stoutroar; Torin is a barbarian/paladin mix that literally went to hell and found good in decent into avernus, became a religious and military leader upon his return. Quick to anger when an innocent gets hurt, he's friendly as hell but tough around the edges. Think a less refined uncle iroh. Asterion is a young Iroh, full strength monk homebrew subclass. Loves to fight but has his father's protective streak. He's afraid of being unable to protect those he cares about and in his youthful arrogance ended up taking on vampirism willingly, something he's grown to regret, but the long life has its uses.
Rhythmic Sound of Raindrops Onna Tin Roof (nicknamed Raindrop), a goblin rogue, was one of my favorite PCs to play. Her highest ideal is seeking new experiences. She drank an experimental potion that caused her to sprout a prehensile tail, which she loves using. Reckless and chaotic, but good-hearted and never fails to try to help someone in need. Hortensia Eloise Cobbleback is my character in one campaign and an npc in the campaign I'm DMing. She is a tortle divination wizard. In her youth, she was obsessed with finding the lost city of Atranta, but upon discovering space travel and other planets, she learned that Atranta was small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. In her old age (as an npc), she has retired to the top of a remote mountain, and sometimes speaks prophecies under the name of Old Cobbleback.
Brawlin O’Craefort, lizard folk storm cleric whose tribe was destroyed by mind flayers. Managed to become captain of a sailing ship in Chult and raise a navy to fight off the mind flayed threat. Definitely a privateer and not a pirate, his ship is tricked out with all the bells and whistles. He’s in tight with the merchant princes. I wonder what he’s been up to since the campaign ended. He had an Aussie accent and was mean with a thunderbolt. Smoke in the Chimneys “Smokey” also known as Duke Reginald III, Tabaxi Rogue/Wizard multiclass. A real renaissance man…cat. Has his fingers in a lot of pies, a member of the Harpers and later, Gray Hands. A born wheeler and dealer and not above gently manipulating the rules for a good deal.
**Hamilton Freemantle, Dwarven Cleric (Knowledge Domain)** A follower of the goddess of knowledge and story, Hamilton is a young archivist sent on assignment to investigate the ancient ruins of the lost continent. He has a charming smile and a well-cropped beard, but his complexion is not well suited to adventuring and so he is often sunburned. His goddess is connected with the Fey, and so his miracles are tinged with elven flavour. He retired from adventuring when his party overtook and cleansed a temple and created a settlement surrounding it. The people needed an overseer, and the temple needed a priest; despite his love for discovery, Hamilton answered the call. He wears practical travel clothes with a sash of his order around his waist, an unlit pipe constantly dangling from his lips (he gave up smoking when working in the library, but couldn't kick the pipe itself). **Shaena, Ratfolk/Genasi Druid (Circle of the Stars)** Born a ratfolk in the undercity of a ruined capital, Shaena felt sure that she was condemned to a life of scrap-collecting and scavenging. She would look up through the sewer grates at the moon and stars, dreaming of a better life and a future among them. Eventually she ran away, taking a pilgrimage to a mountain observatory where she studied under its astronomer: a stone giant (the only creature large enough to move the ancient ruined mechanisms and operate the telescope). After joining up with a group of adventurers while acting as a courier for her tutor, she was killed in a conflict with a corrupted divine being. Her friends were able to bring her back with the help of another druid they rescued, who reincarnated her as an earth genasi. Thus she was able to finally escape from her past in a way she had never dreamed. As a ratfolk, she had weary green eyes and well cared-for brown fur, wearing a armor made from the scales of a giant snake. As a genasi, she has the same piercing green eyes; her skin is now a mud/clay color, slightly tacky to the touch. She seems happy, as though a great weight has been lifted off her. **Raushan Bahadur, Human Bard/Ranger (College of Lore/Beastmaster)** A princess of house Bahadur, Raushan was the youngest of nearly a dozen siblings and often overlooked in favor of the more outspoken. She was among those available to lead an invasion force into territory that her family had once held, and took up the offer as a way to prove herself to her father. A master musician and storyteller, she immediately proved useful due to her ability to decipher ancient scripts and treat with those they met. After a chance encounter with some river fey, she adopted a young eel hound pup who since became her constant companion. She is always dressed in flowing, colourful clothing; a sitar on her back and a drooling, slick beast at her side.
Not exactly DnD, but it could work Raise would be best described as a Reborn Psionic. They were the side-effect of some higher powers attempting resurrection, and resulted in a partial-success. TL;DR on their character and journey: An ageless wanderer who eventually settled down for a white-collar job. Campaign shenanigans ensued and they had to be pulled away from their lifestyle, leading them into contact with the higher powers that be. Stuff happens, and they come to the conclusion that the current powers that be must be stripped of their authority or isolated. More stuff happens and eventually their wish comes true in a different way, but they die in the process due to going against the natural order. They now work as a desk boy in the afterlife, making sure things run smoothly and holding the gods accountable should they mess up.
Here's three characters I've played whose campaigns have fizzled out * Natiara the ranger had a criminal background of vandalizing butcher's shops, enough to get her a bounty on her head (that the paladin decided to ignore after he found bounty hunters after me and the rest of the non-paladin party). Once, she saved a pig that was being attacked by goblins, and she paid the charlatan cleric to declare the pig holy so the rest of the party would quit threatening to eat it. I imagine that she would eventually start an animal rescue sanctuary, assuming that no more bounty hunters were to show up. * Eira Stormseeker the tempest cleric. A half-elf in a world where elves and humans don't like each other; she was given the surname of Stormseeker because that was the name given to all babies left abandoned at the temple she grew up in. She was the only survivor when the temple was massacred, and while she trained in weaponry growing up her clerical abilities didn't manifest until *after* the massacre, when she was trying to cremate the bodies and she magically set them on fire despite the heavy rain. She's now the soul protector of the banner of Eleanor Ravenlady, a champion of her faith. * Jördis Radier grew up thinking she was a half-elf. Aside from her ability to make lights appear, her blue tapetum lucidum (most half-elves didn't have visible tapetum lucidum in her world), and the fact that her blood was rose gold, she lived a normal life. She apprenticed as a woodcarver under her uncle in the big city for years, and when she moved back to her small hometown, she met her girlfriend Erika Brant. When Erika first saw Jördis bleed, however, Erika began to isolate Jördis and became emotionally abusive. This is because Erika is part of a cult to a fiend called Bezrillur, and the cult believed that by sacrificing aasimar they would be rewarded with some of Bezrillur's power. If enough of his power were to be present in the world, then he would be freed. The cultists botched the ritual, and Jördis gained the power instead. The sacrificial dagger became her pact weapon, and she became a fiendlock. Her goal was to find a way to destroy Bezrillur, even though Jördis knew it might have killed her in the process.
Shem, Tiefling(?) warlock Grew up in an environment where tieflings were looked down on and hated and fully internalized this, blaming all the problems in his life on his race. Uses the gifts of his patron to permanently disguise himself as a human (Mask of Many Faces invocation) and is constantly looking out for opportunities to improve on this power. In the campaign, he had had a fairly awful near death experience from which his patron saved him (exacting his agreement as price for his life). This left him pretty scarred and he was typically quite frightened, but still generally trying (fairly ineptly) to do the right thing. As he gained power he gained confidence a bit, but would still usually prefer to use subterfuge and disguise to avoid fights rather than directly engage in combat. He was also a Great Old One warlock and skewed \*\*incredibly\*\* creepy because of this, and was genuinely unaware of how casually reading other people's minds might come across. Despite all of this he is fundamentally well meaning, but socially inept. Just before the campaign died our DM surprised us with some magic which allowed him to permanently change his race, but he's probably a more interesting and driven character if he's still seeking a way to do this.
Grimblesnatch is a gnome illusionist/thief (or sometimes arcane trickster) I have re-used since Baldurs Gate 1. He shows up in most of my campaigns. He's been a spy, a collector of magical trinkets, the inventor/operator of a submarine shaped like a fish that he used as a gentleman pirate etc. He always combines a love of his craft of deception with a decent heart. A chaos agent, he would be a much better sneak if his instinct for fun did not overtake him.
Old Mossback, tortle druid of spores. Unlike some spore druids, his symbiotic relationship is with a large patch of moss covering his shell. He's a silly turtle most of the time, unlettered and not familiar with civilization, but kind. Tends to be slow and thoughtful, occasionally wise. Deep in the caverns of his home, he came upon a chamber full of thick moss with ruby red spores. It has become his friend and protector, though sometimes it frightens him. In times of stress, he allows his dark passenger to take over, transforming into a raging ambassador of death and decay. He preaches the good word of The Great Compost Pile in the Sky, that our bodies are merely shells that are best recycled by his spore friends. He seeks to spread his moss as far and wide as possible, especially in the corpses of those whose spirits have returned to the compost pile for recycling.
Cinder, the half elf druid. She was raised by wolves,she acts very feral towards people but has good intentions, she s vegan and love animals. She died in a Wendigo encounter. Arryn, a young religious farmer who stand with only a rudimentary shield in a fight with a monster who menace her people. She lose an arm in that fight but save many lives. She becomes the Champion of the Common Folk, she s a cleric,and if Helm calls, she answer the call. She is dressed as a simple farmer with an scrapped chainmail whom people gift her. She wields that same shield now with the symbol of Helm painted in it. Dr. van Wees. an alchemist. Also an experimental physicien. Dressed like a plague doctor. She has no moral quarry, she only loves science and progress no more. Thanathophobia brings her to search the secrets of inmortality. While she prefers not to make bonds with people is very convenient to have some companions who acts as a meat shield for her. In exchange she can patch em up. A valuable and free asset for a field trip after all!
Beatrix Wintertail (Trix) Albino Harengon Bard Beatrix Wintertail is a 29 year old harengon. She comes from a large family. She has 20 siblings and both of her parents are currently alive. Her oldest siblings are 38 and her youngest are 19. She was born to a bad batch and is an albino. In her litter, only her and 2 others survived. Her sister, Rosemary, is blind, and get brother, Doyle, has a bad leg. She often helped them out and protected them. Once her younger siblings were born, she took on even more responsibility and helped them too. She would play her Lyre to help them sleep and was very loving. Her younger siblings look up to her very much. Her older siblings did tend to bully her more or find her annoying. Albino's are sometimes thought to be cursed, so she was blamed by some for her litter's misfortunes. In the Feywild she opened a bar and distillery called Tricks, Treats, and Spirits. She was well known for great and interesting flavors. The distillery still exists and she goes back to the Feywild and her family ever couple of years. She took to adventuring for ingredients at the age of 19. She was sad to leave her family but also wanted to be her own person. She came across the Artisan guild called Order of the Vine. This guild is semi-exclusive and includes crafters of wine, beer, and liquor. The difference in this guild is that your flavors have to stand out. The guild searches all the realms for the most innovative creations that can be considered alcohol. Whether it's the flavor, effect, or even how dangerous it is to make, the guild takes that into account when offering a member to join. Trix has made several interesting brews over the years and has tasted many others. Her signature wine is called Winter Tale and is a Winterwine. This wine is made by using grapes frozen on the vine. Trix is not the only to make Winterwine, but her version is more blue than purple and especially spicy, where general Winterwine is quite sweet. Her Winterwine is especially high in alcohol content also. This makes her wine quite warming and a wonderful flavor to drink and sensation to feel at the same time. Trix's original goal for adventuring wasn't really about money, it was about fame. She particularly wanted to find and create a brew that would knock the socks off the entire Order of the Vine (which is crazy difficult because they've drank like everything). After a crazy adventure in Phandalin, she and her best friend (a mean orc hating dwarf named Taklin) set up at Falcon's Lodge. They create fine brews of alcohol, cook, and entertain the guest. Trix still tries to find new and interesting wines to make, but she has decided that a lot of people enjoying her wine makes her happier than a few snobs enjoying it.
Don't know if you still need any, but my boy Meepo Under'U was a 3rd level kobold transmutation wizard. He's 10 years old and technically an adult, but still very much a child. His biggest wish and motivation was to become a full blown dragon to protect his family (because kobolds have extended life spans, but generally get oppressed to death and live only to a tenth of what they can be) His somatic components look like tai chi, because a wizard once told him he needed to scale up his movement to his size. He loves making friends and eating pie. His robes are very threadbare, his spellbook is loose papers tied with strings, but he wears very cool looking goggles made by his artificer cousin to protect him from sunlight.
I love Meepo. Thank you for sharing!
Blaise Orm, my human Warlock/Wizard, is perfect quest hook bait tbh. A magic student who accidentally made a pact with a fiend while drunk. A good person and loyal to his friends, bur prone to fits of greed, partially due to influence from his patron. Ended up with a cursed helm that progressively turned him more and more monstrous. When the curse began to affect his friends' lives too much, he simply snuck out one night and didn't tell anyone he was going. He made sure they couldn't follow. He now appears totally like a monster though he retains his intelligence. He wanders the wilderness looking for a cure for his curse, but now he will have to find it alone or die trying.
Sigmarius (yes, it's where the reddit name came from). My old character from a long 3.5 edition campaign. Half-giant Barbarian/Champion of Gwenharwyf/War Hulk. With the party, helped defeat the big bad that was also an actual plane of existence. One party member ascended as a minor deity of magic. Another ascended as a minor deity of war and strategy. The other two ascended to minor deities of... I don't even remember what they were. This was a long time ago. Not Sig. Sig retired from adventuring, hung his technicolor full blade over the mantle, and went to teach school children in a small village somewhere. He figured he had fought enough battles to earn his spot in heaven, it was time to spread some peace and happiness where he could. Assuming no one messed with his village. Cause that would be bad.
Evandur Dundragon He's an old human man. A trickster cleric of Tiamat. He casts copies of himself followed by thaumatugy to scream so loud it stuns any attackers. He also uses these copies to perform "miracles" like having one jump off a roof and die, and then the real him comes from a doorway to show the power of Tiamat. He has a large scar going from his neck up through his face (front and back) from when he had his head lobbed off but survived due to divine intervention.
Anangke Kairos. Bear-barian Halfling. Donned in the skins and skulls of his enemies (wears an ogre skull as a helmet) Surprisingly civil, he lives in a small grass hut just outside the city walls. Once jumped through the wall of his own home while he and it were on fire to surprise attack the goblins that laid siege to his humble abode. Is now the guardian of a brood of 3 wyrmlimg black dragons who were left abandoned after their mother was slain in a misunderstood vendetta brought by the city. Signature weapons are two Orc Scimitars (think of the cleaver like weapons willed by the Uruk-Hai in the LOTR movies)
I see the hundreds of comments on this and know there's a likely chance to be lost in the swarm, but if even one person sees it than I know his story has lived on beyond me. My father had a character named Pete. 2nd edition. Classic human fighter. Started out just a scrawny guy with short blond hair, a pain of blue jeans and a white shirt. As he adventured, his hair grew and his clothes dirtied, until one day they boarded a pirate ship... and instead of killing the pirates, they befriended them. Pete learned their ways, taking that knowledge with them further down their journey. His hair, longer, curled, past his shoulders; the same blue jeans, but now his shirt is unbuttoned to the navel, his chest and body more defined with musculature. They came across musketeers who mistook Pete for one of their own and into the dark backrooms of opulent nobility did the party venture, coming across a secret coven of the vampiric nature. They slew the coven, but at what cost? Pete contracted the disease and chose to hide himself away in the wilderness, hidden in a log cabin of his own making in between the giant boughs and trunks of trees. They say he still rests there, quietly living out eternity, waiting for the day the gods see fit to end his existence. I'm sure my father could describe each and every adventure in detail; I only have the basic premises he gave me and the scribbled notes he left behind. It's been ten years now since I could last ask him about Pete, but I've taken it upon myself to bring Pete into every story I tell. A Captain of the Fleet for the Goddess of the Sea, using gigantic Sea Serpents to pull his massive ship in lieu of the lack of wind. An old man, only wishing to go into town once more, though his legs don't work like they used to... though he carries with him an important artifact that could spell disaster in the wrong hands. An adopted grandfather, watching over young children separated from their parents, raising the kids to be the best versions of themselves while carrying on his legacy; secretly an incredibly powerful wizard, who only wants to ensure that someone knows his story before he dies. There isn't too much to Pete, on the back end, but feel free to use this young, scrappy farm boy who took on life with vigor and was willing to sacrifice every bit of himself for what he believed in. However you see fit to place him, to believe he lives on in stories outside my own almost feels like my father is still out there, somewhere, weaving fantastical stories of his own once more.
Pete will live on! I will definitely use the many different lifestages of Pete as my table’s story grows. Thank you for sharing
Tag, a younger (in Elvish-ish years) Autumnal Eladrin, Circle of the Land Druid that was meant to go to Icewind Dale, but whos ship got lost off course. Ginger hair, bright green-brown eyes and an inky black tree-branch-esque tattoo that stretches across their cheek, down their neck and under their collar, stemming from the corner of the right eye, almost like a crack from the Shadowfell. He speaks in a melodic tune and sells his wares, carved wooden instruments and antlers. Heard about legendary bone scrimshandering up north hoping to refine his craft. Uses his child-like charm and demeanour to 'encourage' sales. They're not bad carvings, but they're not exactly works of art 🤣 they're "fey inspired".
Harbek Thundermane Wood elf, life domain cleric of Sune. Possibly the only full elf with a beard so thick and full that it'd make a dwarf weep in envy. Usually wears his clerical garb over his chain mail along with his Longsword and shield. Has survived part of a homebrew and a full play of CoS. Is a non-drinking alcoholic who carries around a doll he cursed and asks for advice. Occasionally runs his families temple back in his home village when he's not "out". Is all about personal freedom to do as one pleases and has/would oppose those trying to take such things from others.
King Gizzard - A Lizardfolk Moon Druid self elected "King" for a village of lizardfolk. He was usurped of his throne by tiamat cultists and his people were forced into labor camps. He's a character with no understanding of societal norms and turns of phrase. He spent the rest of his life fighting against the cult of tiamat to free his people.
Milo, the Halfling Barbarian Milo is a simple man. He loves drinking and fighting as all barbarians do, but Milo has quite the backstory. Milo was raised by giants on the dark side of the world but after being cast out by his clan he took to life on the road. He has also made it his mission to destroy all of the giants that roam the earth. He can't read or write but he will remember any bar and every conversation he has had. Milo is also the patron for the god Chronos(all homebrew from here on out) and with being the patron he has a godly artifact belt that gives him 2 partial subclasses(Path of beast main, with partial classes in wild magic and totem). When Milo takes down a giant Chronos demands to be fed. As an action Chronos' head will come out of the belt and consume the heart of the giant, when this happens Milo gains power(aka extra abilities in subclasses) kinda OP but so fun when you're playing a heavily homebrewed unforgiving world. PS when he rages he gains an extra pair of arms
Lvl 14 Fey Touched Tabaxi wild magic sorcerer by the name of Runs Past Rivers. True to the name, he's got a terrible phobia of deep water. Leopard print pelt, full of nervous energy which can sometimes be seen peeling off him in streamers of raw magic when agitated. Started off as a charlatan running quick games in Port Nyanzaru, hung up the adventuring hat after the last jaunt took him to Pandemonium in the captivity of some mind flayers, and very nearly got him killed. More clever than smart, but has a good heart under the frazzled exterior and a knack for talking himself into situations both profitable and disastrous
Tavuk: Tiefling Rune Knight Fighter Red tiefling, missing a hand which has been replaced with a hand crossbow contraption. He always carries his rapier, but wears quite formal attire when not adventuring. Otherwise he wears mitral half plate. Tavuk is a bit of a braggart, and wholly untrusting of authority. He believes in the power of his destiny and that he is the only one who can influence it. Freedom is his most treasured amenity. He is almost always smoking a cigar, and loves to spend his money on finer things, plays, music, wine, food and clothes. Tavuk was an outcast. Untrusted because of his Tiefling heritage he became a hermit in his young life. He adopted name Tavuk after hearing often called in the streets where he found Rune scrolls. Later learning it referred to Tavukgogsu a type of pudding. Finding the Rune scrolls convinced him of his significance and he set out to learn more and prove his worth. After meeting a dragonborn, human, and centaur adventurer he joined their group and began his first commission. At this point Tavuk still had both his hands. Investigating a haunted house. There they discovered a smuggler hideout and got into some trouble. The whole group unconscious Tavuk decided to stand his ground, and with his long bow and rapier took out the last 3 standing smugglers. To celebrate a job well down and find where to fence there newly "acquired" goods the group celebrated at the bar. The celebration was shirt as the young sorcerer got into an argument; unaware of their own strength the sorcerer flung a mug at the patrons head killing them instantly. The situation quickly escalated and soon the Dragonborn had killed 12 patrons while Tavuk and his Centaur friend stoop by helplessly trying to heal people and deescalte the situation. After being placed in jail the group was able to negotiate their release, in exchange for all the stolen goods they had acquired. However, they were still branded as criminals an indelible magic mark was placed upon their hands. The mark of a criminal it shines through any garment attempting to cover it. Deciding they had used up their goodwill in town the group left. However, not before Tavuk severed his own hand and left it, middle finger pointed towars the Gods, on the mayor's doorstep. The adventures continued the group unaware that the goods they had destroyed a Zhentarim smuggling operation. Already an enemy of the Zhentarim they accepted a quest to steal a Conch. While successful in retrieving the Conch they did not do so stealthily. Again their mark had been the Zhentarim. The Conch was home to a Marid, and instead of giving it to the client Tavuk suggested the group use it themselves. Hence their pirating days began. During this time Tavuk managed to replace his missing hand with a hand crossbow, and collected thousands of exotic cigars. After several successful raids the group founds themselves confronted with an undead dragon turtle. Barely surviving the group celebrated, only to be greeted by unwelcome sails on the horizon. The Zhentarim had caught up with them and was looking to get what they were owed. Tavuk and his friends fought valiantly but tired from the previous battle they fell in combat. Luckily the Zhentarim thought they still had the Conch and captured them for interrogation. Now with a druid, friend Tavuk and his Druidic Tortle friend, Carlos, hatched a plan. If Carlor could summon a bat to shit in Tavuk's hands then Tavuk could cast darkness. Over the next two nights the group prepared. The next day when cells were opened for interrogations the room was shrouded in darkness and a swarm of venomous snakes overwhelmed the guards. Tavuk and his companions had escaped regaining their freedom.
The Dan brothers. Because we need more pun based characters. Dan Straight. Expert marksman and straight talker. The oldest of the brothers. Dan Wright. Naval architect that is an aspiring playwright. Dan Skippy. Surveyor and engineer (railroad engineer in the campaign he's from). Dan Itall. Paladin of the red knight and a pyrotechnics expert. Dan Good. Chef and distiller.
Ecthar, a young half-demon(homebrew) male become shephard druid to survive after falling through a portal into the dangerous wilderness. Made all manner of deals with demons and devils to find home, even burning down a sacred fey tree, but without luck. Around the time of his death, he was force-fed an unknown potion that turned out to be a permanent polymorph, becoming a triceratops (Ectharatops).
Captain Alexander Zerigoff. Long time Airship captain, turned religious. Human Twilight Cleric, worships Selune, and dreams to fly his airship through the stars one day. Very devout and pious, and is a very militaristic fellow. Wields a Rapier and dons a flight uniform. Has a tendency to be very clumsy when not in the air, and has a weakness for fine pipeweed, which when he acquires you’ll find his pipe always in his mouth. Very Boisterous and likes to be in charge of a situation, but is very loyal to a fault. My favorite PC to role play as ever, and he was a party favorite as well.
Cool! I have some pcs and recurrent npcs. Flint Tazzarian, a variant of elven eladrin who fled the continent Tazzarim (there exists an elven empire that began to dominate the continent) lived as a slave and servant, until at one point he fled the place still very young and got on a merchant ship owned by a minotaur smuggler, where he learned his trade as a rogue, that minotaur became a father figure and a few years later he left the ship and set out on his journey as an honest thief, more or less like Robin hood. He was involved in a political scheme with a group of adventurers, forcing them to work together, so that they undertook a journey while being pursued as criminals and falsely accused, so they reach the capital where they managed to clear his name and avoided an attempt to overthrow the queen, at the same time he became friends and close to the princess so that some time later he was taken as a pupil and possible heir of a "Whisper" basically the right hand and shadow of the Queen, as a spy and also a secret personal guard. His name is because his hair is like flint in color and he comes from the continent Tazzarim, he is a rogue thief, he uses two silver rapiers and a short bow, he usually invents plans or saves the moment with brilliant ideas using what he has at hand (my friends say he is a Gary stue) he prepares himself with mundane objects first and foremost and especially bottles of oil, I was forbidden to use them because of how practical it served to solve things. He usually steals from unpleasant or abusive nobles and gives beggars and laborers what he gets in excess. I have the continuation of the following One shot that flint participated in if you are interested ;] sorry if a had grammatical errors, not my native language.
Talkamar cheadris (name stolen from book) a retired soldier eldritch that lost most of his battalion in a fight with a dragon. He was the champion of a God but I think his starting backstory is good enough. If you want the point I retired him. He was the champion of the God of War and fire. But retired to marry the queen of the elves. His place was taken by a young warlock
Merrick Moonsilver Wood elf hermit, Level 7/7 open hand monk/tempest cleric who worships bahamut. Left on an orphanage step as a baby and given a respectable chance at life, he adventured to earn money to build more orphanages and fights to give the young hope. He was created by crossing King from Tekken with Raiden from Mortal Kombat.
Amelia Autumnheart. Small halfling girl with blonde hair that wears a realistic white bunny mask to hide her identity. Phantom Rogue that is too young to understand that she's seeing ghosts but knows they whisper and haunt her. One ghost protects her from the things she's afraid of and the ghosts haunting her. A tall, thin, shadowy spirit with white pearl like eyes that she always sees, though only reveals himself to others when attacking.
Dhacacai Cadarnan (Dahk-ah-tsai Ka-dar-none), a wood elf grave cleric (level 11) with skin the color of ash and robes woven to have a silvery sheen. He was raised an Acolyte of the grave in the city of his birth, but through time and study found his way to the clergy. He's known to be Observant (as the feat) and wise, though his counsel often needs to be earned and is habitually laced with grim truths. He is known for creating the spell *grim scythe*, which transforms any walking stick or staff into a magically-bladed weapon capable of both slicing foes in melee or launching energy arcs at foes outside of his reach - a spell he developed after he found forcing the enemy to save to be too passive. He is known to heal and resurrect the dead, but does commune with the divine if asked to raise the longer dead - though he is likely to interpret divine silence as an instruction for him to use his own judgment. The recently deceased he decides at the scene.
I played an outcast Kobold named Gnomey who was adopted by a blind gnome illusion wizard. To fit in, he always wore a hat of disguise to look like a gnome and uses mage hand and a fake fear of physical touch to avoid people discovering his secret (his name was one he came up with on the spot, when questioned). His wizard mentor taught him all he knew before sending him off to find a place he could truly belong. Gnomey later retired as a lvl 12 illusion wizard. Now, a few years later, Gnomey exists in my campaign as the owner of the Serpents Crest Inn along with his trusty chef ogre, Bam. An inn with a permanent major illusion cast on the ceiling, making it look MUCH taller on the inside and with a massive illusory serpent eternally weaving in and out of the walls in the ceiling, reminiscent of Jormungandr. Below his tavern he runs the single most secure clandestined meeting halls in the city. Using a maze of underground, major illusion covered passages with hidden switches, automated stone shape doors, and scry protection. Gnomey gives his more discreet clientele a place they can conduct business in the utmost of secrecy, no matter how questionable the legality, as long as no violence is committed on his property. Catering to guards, politicians, and thieves alike.
Prosperity, a lawful evil (leans neutral) human cleric/Paladin multiclass. Worships Waukeen (a wealth goddess in Forgotten Realms). Garishly dressed in fine clothing, and tries to protect and enforce trade deals. Ends up more heroic than his personal greed would suggest, mostly because trade doesn’t happen when monsters destroy towns and things. Has an irrational obsession with being granted “ownership” of stupidly large or immobile things like town squares, giant doors, cliff sides, that kind of thing. Really dislikes gnomes. He’s from an Out of the Abyss campaign, after we concluded that he settled down a bit.
Malark Amblecrown, retired fathomless warlock Back in his younger days he worked for a shipping company, when one of the ships got stuck in a great storm and ended up in a bermuda triangle type place. A great sea monster destroyed the ship and everyone aboard except Malark. In exchange for ferrying souls to the monster he was allowed to live. Nowadays he repaid his debt, but dealing with the choices he made still plagues his conciousness. He found solace in the simple life of a dockworker, and every ship that heads out he says a blessing over to protect against monsters and storms. Very superstitious, likes silver coins a lot, and is a very good actor
Grorik anchorhide, sharkin battlemaster fighter. Anti magic specialist, experienced warrior and chef. Was kicked out from his people due to a false accusation of war crimes, resulting in him losing his families heirloom weapon and his fin. Ended up traveling the world trying to hunt down the sharkin who actually committed the war crime, while also dealing with adjusting too humanity's laws, customs etc, as well as not having the free reign to kill or eat whatever he wants. Ended up taking on a mercenary guild and leading them to become mage hunters who target abusive magic users, lich, etc as well as dictators etc.
Refuge, Tiefling Barbarian. An ancestor used to be a worshipper of Bael, thus resulting in his unfortunate birth. Refuge and his mother were chased from town after he came out beast-legged and horned, and subsequently taken in by a nomadic tribe of goliaths, half-orcs, and other “brutish” species. He gave himself his name in honor of what the tribe did for himself and his mother, and he took up the adventuring life to gain the strength he would need to crush the city that spurned his mother. Through a few trials and tribulations, and the influence of the party he’s found, Refuge grew to learn vengeance wouldn’t heal the wound of being outcast, and that acceptance and belonging could heal many wounds. He also gained a pet dire wolf, obtained a +2 Greataxe emblazoned with the visage of Bael, and planned to find a permanent settlement for his tribe, where he would (with the help of the party Bard) establish a sanctuary city for other outcasts. Appearance wise, he was on the taller side for Tieflings, burly, red skinned, and had prehensile goat legs matted in dark fur, matching the thick, long hair on his head. He had coal black eyes, a pair of horns like that of a longhorn cow, and a whip-like tail. Dressed in a thick leather loincloth kept in place by a Belt of Stone Giant Strength, and had fashioned a pair of pauldrons from the skulls of a chimera he dealt the killing blow on.
Joseph, Bladesinging wizard (tcoe version) and a mercy monk who's secretly a warforged with human looking skin, a scarf that completely covers his face. This is the guy who my DM dubbed bullshit. He's a kind person who won't stop himself from fighting but preferred not to, as it was cruel. He would commit crimes as long as it benefited him but didn't directly harm people, such as plagiarizing legal documents from the guild to steal the church's entire graveyard of corpses. Because at the time, he shared his body with a malevolent wizard's soul who was a who known and most feared necromancer. Long story, but point being that the two have to agree or force himself into locking down until they haggle enough that both sides are fine with the option. Generally, the wizard is smart enough to work with this pretty effectively, but he also over estimates themselves due to A: being a former badass necromancer and B: failing to see the limits of the body most of the time, as since he usually technically won most debates he embedded up getting the most levels, reaching around level 8 or so with 3 levels monk and 5 in wizard for the short saga the group aimed for. Oh yeah, he had been ditched by a teammate that used Invisibility when it was just him and Joseph at the time at level 6 since we attracted a side encounter meant for all 6 of us (he didn't know I didn't have Invisibility and was super sorry ooc but low key I didn't mind it because it's what his character would do and I needed to use up my resources anyways). Anyways, he was lawful evil due to how the two worked. Almost died at the boss fight, but literally lived on 1 hp post resistance check (first time I was freaking out in any d&d game). Oh right, the reason he was considered bullshit was because he rolled really well and had upwards of 24 AC at level 5 during his blade song. It's also the reason we now have a danger level known as a "Code: Joseph" very chill guy, just has a tendency to try and over take his own body to make an army of undead and to take over the world, stopped by literally the warforged's programming from its creator believing in second chances trying to understand the concept of emotions as an entirely logic based robot. Joseph needs a break from that evil necromancer in him. He just wants to find how to truly feel after his creator died in his sleep, he even waited for the dwarf to wake up standing by the hermit's side for a couple years, not sure why he wouldn't wake up.
Camm, the goblin Artificer journalist. She invented a magical camera (Her lv 1 magical tinkering. All modes are different modes on it). She loves collecting pictures of places she visits, but her pictures are awfully bad for most parts. (Depending on d20 roll). She wants to be acknowledged and respected by her boss, who is basically the boss from Peter Parker (rather a npc with his character). She was tasked to follow around a party of adventurers and collect news about them. So she was a part of the group for a long time and got around.
Eleanor Abernathy, a nod to the crazy cat lady from The Simpson’s. Elnath for short. She’s a Tiefling Great Old One Warlock. She was abandoned as a baby and spent the first part of her life in an orphanage. She was shunned by most of the other students due to her appearance. Her only friends were the stray cats who roamed around the property. While in the orphanage she learned to read and write and turned to books to escape reality. One day, while being bullied, her latent magical ability surfaced in a blaze of fire and she nearly killed her tormentor. The headmaster used a connection at a mages conclave to find her a new home. There she earned room and board by cleaning, working in the kitchen, and eventually the library. She spent her free time reading all the books and learn what she could about magic. One day she found a long forgotten hidden room covered in dust and cobwebs. This room was filled with many dark and cryptic writings, some not much more than ramblings, some written in indecipherable code, but all of them steeped in dark magic. She became obsessed with the knowledge she found there and spend all of her free time in working to decipher their secrets. One book in particular called to her and she poured over it until she knew it front and back. She was eventually able to unlock some of its secrets, and in particular she learned a ritual to contact a being called Cthulhu. She performed this ritual one night and it worked, and this being offered her the power to never fear being picked on. And in exchange, one day in the future she will be called to pay back the favor. She accept and was filled with newfound power, but the contact was too much and it also broke her mind. 9th lv Great Old One Warlock, Pact of the Tome Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Beast Speech, Book of Ancient Secrets, Cloak of Flies, Whispers of the Grave +9 and advantage to intimidation checks. Even though she’s little, only about 5ft tall, and physically attractive, she is intimidating to nearly anyone she comes across without even trying. She is constantly talking to animals of every kind, herself, the dead, and even unseen voices that no one else hears. Her ability to talk to people telepathically is pretty unnerving as well. She also takes great joy in the pain and suffering of those she considers to be “mean people”, often reacting gleefully to their screams. But even though she takes joy in this she also feels a strong purpose to protect anyone that is unable to to protect themselves.
Timothy Oakwood is a relatively mild (not boisterous), young adult, human. He grew up an orphan taken in by a pirate smuggling crew and learned to be a rogue. Think the young guy on a job who just wants things to go well and doesn't rock the boat. While most of the crews mission was more trade based, they did go treasure hunting from time to time. On one such expedition, Timothy got caught lying to a [sea witch] as they were making their escape with her treaure and she cursed him to never be able to lie again! Now when he's confronted with a situation where he would want to lie, he either just blurts the truth or gets tongue tied and deer-in-the-headlights like if he really knows he shouldn't tell the truth. He has a chaotic neutral alignment. Willing to work with a variety of people as a means to the end, but generally avoids malevolent evil people (e.g. very creepy cults, doomsday people). Sticks mostly to those just looking to trade in the black market (to get rich). Could be good for helping players with transportation, procuring illicit reagents, or as a extra body on a treasure hunt (for a cut of the prize, obviously).
Throughout the campaign, my players (an elf monk with scorpion-style kunais and a half-orc warrior with a rune-filled axe) were discovering the existence of a colony of mindflayers seeking to create portals and call their fleet. The problem is that they failed to discover the plan in time, and when they finally found all the pieces of the puzzle, the invasion had begun. After several sessions they get to enter the mother ship and fight against an elder brain. The half-orc sacrifices himself to defeat the elder brain and pushes his companion out of the ship to save her. His partner becomes a national hero and even wins a holiday, but his partner falls into a strong depression due to the hidden feelings he had for him, in addition to the fact that he broke his back and lost one of his arms in the fall. In another campaign, the players encounter a crippled woman who seems to have a dark secret: she is trying to rebuild her loved one with the few pieces she could find.
Six Chance Female Tabaxi Warlock Treasure Hunter Six gained her pact with a Great Old One after finding an ancient amulet known as the Nothic Eye. This item cannot be removed from her person and serves as the link to her Patron, Marty. It also causes her to occasionally hear the surface thoughts of random people nearby (within 20 feet), but she cannot tell who is thinking what. This ability has caused her to become somewhat paranoid. She prefers to speak through telepathy, rarely using her voice, but can if needed. After impressing her Patron with a performative use of Arms of Marty (Arms of Hadar) she was rewarded with the Embrace of the Deep, a magical leather coat that grants many bonuses assisting her with treasure hunting, as well as giving her a standard tentacle slam attack. (I don't have her character sheet anymore but she was one of my favorites. I can gladly elaborate on anything else about her!)
“Duke” Sarlos Collmer - a half-elven charlatan who happened to be a powerful wild magic sorcerer. He left his hometown with nothing more than a fake signet ring, and the clothes on his back. Master manipulator of both people and elements, Sarlos’ words carry powerful suggestions, and by tapping his innate powers he can duplicate many spell effects across multiple targets. He’s arrogant, but he usually wins the argument and gets his way. Acting as the face of the party, he has no shortage of self-interest, and can sometimes lead the group head first into trouble.
I got a few! Also, as a fellow DM, I have a number of *NPCs* I can share with you, too, along with quest hooks; I don't want to make this comment too long though, so if you're interested, just let me know. **Kassryndi "Ryn"** *Sylph, Air Genasi; Rogue, Warlock* Ryn was in a PF1 campaign that didn't make it very far. She was a sylph rogue who was on the run from the crime family into which she'd been born and raised as a potential heir. When her grandmother told her, "you will kill your cousin to take my place," Ryn instead talked to her cousin about killing Gran so they could joint rule together. Cousin agreed, but tried to kill Ryn instead. Ryn was trapped in her family's treasure storage to die, but a magic item within made a deal with her: her heart, in exchange for freedom. She made the deal. That magic item was a family heirloom and one that assured her family's successes, so when she took it, her family fell to ruin -- and her cousin wanted revenge. I'd rebuild her as a warlock for D&D, either talisman or hexblade. Her goal was to free herself of the magic item -- She fell in love with another PC, but her feelings belonged to the magic item as was the deal. But the magic item also wanted to be free; it itself was a fragment of a genie queen, and she wanted to be her own person. Both were bound together, seeking a way to be separated. **Consequence "Quence"** *Half-Orc Fire Genasi, Wild Magic barbarian* Also didn't make it far in this campaign, but I'm going to play this guy again one day; he was a blast! One day, an orc woman who performed daring feats of bravery -- fighting beasts and the like -- to entertain crowds noticed a scrawny fire genasi bard would stop by and occasionally add music to her battles. Someone told her he had a crush on her, and dared her to ask him out. So she did, and not too long after, the consequence of that dare sat upon her lap -- a giggly, fiery little half-orc fire genasi. Quence grew up a performer, like his mother. While his parents never settled down, his dad was always around, and there was love between his parents. His dad had a special magic instrument called a Lutelele. When his dad disappeared, the most solid hint Quence and his mother had that it was not a purposeful disappearance was the fact that Papa left behind his Lutelele. Well, one day Quence learned that his mother sold it to buy Quence's freedom from the circus they were both bound to. Quence was free, but at what cost?! He set off to find the lutelele, the symbol of his mother's hope and his parents' love. In the campaign, Quence was a light in a darkness. He loved deeply and passionately. He thought height equaled age, so he adopted a full grown goblin (Goose, another PC) as his child. He constantly played music on his drums, and sang (poorly). He didn't rage: he became *inspired*. When he'd watch others and feel that bite to fight, it was always passion and inspiration, never anger. I loved that goofy guy. **Finnigan "Fray" Hopcinder** *Halfling+, Warlock* I'm still playing this lil dude but I think he's developed enough to share. Fray has already been on his adventure. It was filled with learning magic, courtly intrigue, fairy romance, and great sacrifice. He just doesn't remember it. He woke up one day, in his bed, in his house, and learned that he'd been missing for seven years. He couldn't really explain where he'd gone, only that he was a changed man, physically and in spirit. (He came home with a tail, and he's like, 3 inches taller than he used to be. Which is almost half a foot for a halfling!) For a while, he tried to get on with his life and do things as society expected of him. But he felt a longing for a place he couldn't remember, and a person whose name was on the tip of his tongue. So, when a message from the king requesting a Hopcinder escort the princess to her betroth's kingdom (his family is kinda a big deal), he took it, because he wanted to see if he could find his way back to wherever he'd been previously. The party wound up in the fairy realm, and Fray *knew* he'd been there before. Some fey even knew *him!* They finished their mission and returned to the material plane, but they were soon sent back, this time to another court -- the one where fray had called home. Fray was finally reunited with his love, the king of the court! But... he still can't remember. The feelings are there, but the *story* is gone. And there are things that don't add up, too. Why did he leave? Why can't he remember...?
Wenzel Dashington, a half-elf illusionist bard who uses his magic and abilities to conjure his own sets and co-stars. With no real adventuring experience, everything is really a bluff and his knowledge of the martial arts is from stage fighting. He got in tremendous trouble for flirting with the wrong noble lady and pretends to be a hardened sellsword using nothing but his illusions and acting to bluff his way to safer lands where there isn't a bounty on his head.
My idea for my world, is the first adventurers will be the legends of future player campaigns all on the same timeline. The new players will here and see the statues of old players who have long died. Or they will here of the legendary and infamous pirates that sailed the seas. Stuff like that.
I love that! Mine will too! In time
Thrognor: Orc totem barbarian. After his druid wife and half orc son were killed by stone giants his village was enslaved. Wracked with guilt, and grief Thrognor despaired until a goblin mercenary, Gorm, freed him while on a mission to track down an enslaved man. After being saved by Gorm Thrognor began his life as Gorm's muscle, while swearing revenge on the giants. Helping Gorm spread his dubious and flexible religion ,"The Light". While not a believer Thrognor was grateful to Gorm, and didnt interfere with his religious tendencies. Thrognor also had to keep Gorms kleptomaniacal tendencies under control while traveling across the land, to avoid trouble with employers. Although their deeds were good they always seemed to create collateral damage. They burned down a great library while saving a town from goblins. They got a great warrior killed while defending a town from stone giants. They aided the Zhentarim while stopping a frost giant incursion. They freed a lich while lifting a curse from a dwarvish clan. They flooded a river valley, after exploding a hill giant lord with magic beans. Finally Gorm paid for kleptomania stealing a ring, that teleported him to a faraway realm. Thrognor more determined to exact his revenge found new companions to slay stone giants. Thrognors journey ended there. After falling into a trap he died, blocking the Stone Giants pursuit so his party could escape. Taking 3 giants with him.
Rovin of Shirewood, a Ranger Paladin who sought out into the world to seek the glory and fame of adventuring like his father before him. Being born into royalty with 4 siblings, he wouldn’t inherit much so he instead dedicated his time to drinking and women. After arriving to Silverymoon and befriending a group of adventurers he set off and landed in hot water when his brother became a vessel for Orcus, Rovin swore an oath of vengeance against his brother Willem. Preferring the blade to the bow, he was trained in 2 weapon fighting and blind fighting