Secretly playing a magical creature in 5e

Hey Veeky Forums, I am in need of some advice.

I am joining a 5e campaign soon and playing as a paladin for the group. But I wanted to add a little twist to the character: She was originally a unicorn, who seeked redemption for inadvertently causing an old BBEG to rise to power by erasing her memories and permanently polymorphing herself into the form of a human of a kind heart and sense of justice. She later is taken in by a church and raised as a paladin.

The key to this idea is that only the DM will be aware of it. The PC has no memories beyond waking up in a forest when she was twelve with a bloody hole on her forehead, and assumes some evil beast or a band of orcs had hit her head so hard that she got amnesia. And for all she and the other players know, that is what happened.

The only way her true form can be revealed is if dispel magic is used on her (With a very high DC) or if true resurrection is used on her if her current body is destroyed. And as the DM informed me, I am not getting any benefits for her original race unless she is shifted into that race, which I am fine with.

So, what quirks do you think would fit her personality to hint at what she is, but not be obvious? I was thinking that she is compelled to assist pure maidens in need regardless of how minor or pointless the request is, but otherwise I got nothing. Any ideas?

Pic related is the design I am cooking up for her.

She won't allow any nonvirgins to ride her.

Uncomfortable riding horses

>NPC or PC starts hitting on her due to her huge amount of CHA.
>None of them interest her for some unknown reason, yet she seems more attracted to the awkward yet kind-hearted virgins rather than the more experienced patrons.

This sounds like doujin porn. Will this lead to porn?

this is a really fun character idea, op.

Regards life as sacred. Takes careful, gentle steps to avoid crushing plants under foot and doesn't really know why other than that explanation.

Feels lonely all the time. Even when around other people. Can't explain why.

aroused by horses.

Nah, just a romantic comedy.

If anyone is familiar with nethack have a slight fixation with gems and a distain for glass

Why would erasing her own memories be a path to redemption? Why would she even need to be redeemed if she was only a victim of circumstance?

who isn't aroused by horses?

To erase the guilt I guess.

OP here, I like that idea. She'd be more of a 'im good walking' or just chill in the cart kind of gal.

>Regards life as sacred. Takes careful, gentle steps to avoid crushing plants under foot and doesn't really know why other than that explanation.

Yeah, if she has to take a life then she will do so with great remorse, even if they are evil. Hell I'm tempted to make her a Redemption Paladin just to sell that aspect, but that subclass is not officially released yet so I'm unsure.

>Feels lonely all the time. Even when around other people. Can't explain why.

Also gonna use this. I don't intend on her being the brooding sort, but I like the idea that she feels lonely at the end of the day regardless of what she accomplished or who she helped. Helps drive her urge to get her memories back.

>aroused by horses.

maybe.

She blames herself for the situation due to her natural desire to avoid conflict, which is what allowed the BBEG to gain power unopposed. She realized that, if her kind cannot take action, then she must become someone who can.

It's still a WIP bear in mind. I am going to be developing this story as the game goes on since I have plenty of time to.

And yeah what this user said.

Watch "The Last Unicorn", Mia Farrow is your new icon.

>Sleep
Dreams of forests and wind in her hair. In her dreams, she leaps and springs through sylvan glades. Periodically dreams of a shiny silver cyclops.

>Eating
while she enjoys any good meal, she practically devours fruits and dutifully eats greens, but only picks away at meat. She can smell fresh fruit from across a busy market. Thinks she has heavenly nostrils.

>Social Behavior
Loves children, unabashedly. Has a strange aversion to most adults... gets along with wizards quite well, but only if they are above 30.

>Idle Hands are the Devil's Quirkshop
Draws spirals on parchment if not actively writing.
Taps her foot when counting coins.
Learned how to knit as a child because she found the crossing needles fascinating.
Will not cut her hair until it interferes with her armor... always has a great luxurious flowing mane.
Insists on never wearing the foot part of her armor: she wears sensible boots, not iron shoes.

By the way OP I still love this idea

...

>Thinks she has heavenly nostrils
My nigga

that style is cute as fug
mind pointing me to the right direction to find the artist to see some more?

Tolkien Duh

-Has an inexplicable preference for rapiers
-enjoys running or jogging when possible
-possesses otherworldly grace when walking or running but is kind of a butterfingers when handling stuff with her hands (fingers are hard to get used to, okay?)
-other fey creatures are drawn to her or fey creatures leave her trinkets while she sleeps (thimbles, a shiny rock, whatever)
-(if alignments are emphasized) people with evil alignment feel extra uncomfortable around her (for reasons besides being a paladin)
-wild animals tend to trust or like her immediately, domesticated animals tend to be more nervous or distrustful
-is very bothered by the passage of time (like, aging is a concept that is horrifying)


That's all I can think of, but 12/10 character concept OP. The Last Unicorn is one of my favorite books and this brought some good memories (even if you didn't draw inspiration from the story)But you should totally read it if you haven't yet

>while she enjoys any good meal, she practically devours fruits and dutifully eats greens, but only picks away at meat. She can smell fresh fruit from across a busy market. Thinks she has heavenly nostrils.

I was thinking about making her a vegetarian, yeah. Though I feel she'd muscle down meat when she knows she needs the energy. For her it's like drinking hard whiskey: She eats it for the benefits, not the taste. I could see her eating apples and such quite eagerly though: Noticing changes in flavors of fruit and greens based on region.

>Loves children, unabashedly. Has a strange aversion to most adults... gets along with wizards quite well, but only if they are above 30.

The children part is something I am planning on doing, for sure. She'd be the kind of character that would play kickball with the local children while the others go drinking. She probably is wary of adults she has not met and is slow to trust them. The party IS going to have a wizard in the group, so I'll use that to my advantage roleplay wise.

>All of those idle quirks.

I love all of those, especially the counting one. She'd be keeping track of numbers via foot taps over hand gestures unless she has to convey it to someone else.

I like all of these, though I am going to have to get prof in animal handling if I want it to make sense without arousing suspicion from the party.

And yeah, I totally got inspiration from The Last Unicorn. Childhood movie right there.

I got Battlestar Galactica, old Veeky Forums joke, horse hair pun, and a horseshoe joke. What are the other ones?

Redemption Paladin feels appropriate for this kind of character, and is IMO, pretty balanced so long as you don't try to break it with multiclassing.

Redemption paladins in general seem like a lot of fun, even if you can easily tell that some DM's would add more edge to their world just to make redemption paladins have a bad time.

>Band of Goblins are planning to raid a village.
>By the end of the encounter, the redemption paladin had made friends with half of the band.
>A few months later, and the surviving goblins had reportedly went to get an education and are looking to bring their primitive brethren into the civilized world. All because of a paladin's kindness.

Redemption Paladins always came off as the long game sort of class to play. The kind that take some time to really show the effects of your good deeds and mercy.

Yeah, some DMs would probably be dicks to a player for being merciful.

>You spare the goblins after defeating them.
>Lol they just get some of their friends and burn the village to the ground after you leave.

>You spare a wizard after defeating them, trying to guide them into using their knowledge for good.
>They become a lich and start killing people just to spite you.

>Spare an orc bandit.
>They follow you and kill you in your sleep.

>etc etc etc

Shit like that can make being a redemption paladin hard.

>She was originally a unicorn, who seeked redemption for inadvertently causing an old BBEG to rise to power
>who seeked redemption for inadvertently causing an old BBEG to rise to power
>who seeked redemption
>seeked

you try typing an op with hooves, asshole.

Yea what's your deal

A few questions, if you don't mind, OP.
How well do you know the group? Is it a new group, or your usual group?
If the latter, how well do they pick up on subtle hints?
One of the good ways to do this kind of thing is to drop some subtle hints that SOMETHING isn't normal, without making it obvious WHAT it is. That you can get at least some people to go "OH, so THAT's why " when it's revealed. But if you do TOO much it just becomes 'yeah we knew that from like session two, was that supposed to be a surprise?'
The thing is, as I've found out from doing...somewhat similar things, some people do not do well with subtle hints. Or unsubtle hints.
If the group is able to catch on to things decently well, go with only a few of the odder eccentricities and stick with a bunch of the more explainable ones.
If they can't figure something out without it being giftwrapped, go all out.

>How well do you know the group? Is it a new group, or your usual group?

It's a new group. I couldn't trust myself with keeping this stuff a secret with my usual group since I usually am really eager to share character stuff.

>One of the good ways to do this kind of thing is to drop some subtle hints that SOMETHING isn't normal, without making it obvious WHAT it is. That you can get at least some people to go "OH, so THAT's why " when it's revealed. But if you do TOO much it just becomes 'yeah we knew that from like session two, was that supposed to be a surprise?'

Yeah that's my biggest fear: I don't want to make it too obvious but also drop legit hints. I agree that I will have to gauge their responses to early subtle hints and see where it goes from there.

...

In this case, clearly the true quest is to redeem the DM.

Interesting concept user. Hope it goes well.

Then it's best to assume that the group is a combination.
Some will get it.
Some won't until you outright tell them, no matter how much or how you hint at your inhuman nature.

Seconded. Who's the artist?

Oh, now I'm the bad guy.

>Veeky Forums is just a message board where a bunch of degenerate DnD creatures and PCs roleplay as humans.

Fund it.

Hey now, not all of us are fantasy creatures!
There's a bunch of scifi stuff too, after all. And D&D isn't everything.

>There is a shitposting war between sci fi creatures (Namely 40k) and fantasy creatures (Namely DnD)

FUND IT

It was caused by and is facilitated by the shadowrunners and gurpsfags, obviously

There's a joke I don't understand here

>On /the/, non a deze gitz noz ur a ork