Character Creation

How do you make your characters, Veeky Forums? What's your process? Who are your favorite characters that you've made, and how did they change over the course of play and why? Do you use random tables, and do you consciously use an already created character as inspiration ever?

I tend to start with an aesthetic in mind and then I dig through the various stats and such to see what fits it. It's kinda roundabout and bass-ackwards but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of other people here do the same

Ah, I was just thinking on Minsc and was wondering how these memorable characters are created.

I usually latch on to some single thing I want to do or be able to do, and then I make a character around that.

That's how I do it. Find out what the DM wants to do with the setting/campaign, find a theme or idea that I like that fits within that, and then start trying to find out how to make that work within game rules.

>Find out what the DM wants to do with the setting/campaign,
This.
I ask the dm what he would like to see in the game. You do this and often dms have already thought about what character they wanted and then you get handed a character that fits well in the game.

If the dm says whatever or the idea is shit. I talk with them about how it would be both fun for me and fit in the setting.

Playing something random is ever a good idea.

>Minsc "if its a nigger dont expect me to protect it either" and Boo

What?

>nu/tg/

What's wrong with Minsc, user?

minsc is the guardian of a nigress wizard (for some reason despite the fact that they both come from fantasy nord land and minsc is white) who fails to protect her and shes killed before the events of baldurs gate ii

everyone is now aware that new Veeky Forums never even played any of the baldurs gate games

I've played Baldur's Gate II user, you still haven't proved why that's wrong :^)

>everyone is now aware that new Veeky Forums never even played any of the baldurs gate games

I think it's more the fact that 's ryme was stupid and didn't make sense

more like fantasy Russia.
fantasy Nord land in the setting is Icewind Dale and maybe Luskan.

I unironically listen to music for inspiration and jot down whatever idea comes to mind

I like elements and element users. Personalities, backgrounds etc are based on the image attached to the idea as it forms

I check what the game is about; setting/tone/whatever
I see what the others want to play
then I think "what would be strong, but not overpowering, that fits all this?"
then I find whatever that is, and make it so that I'm happy with it
it will almost certainly have something unique, mechanically, that makes it personal to me

I do stats first, of course, then skills and feats and spells, then items

Any genre do it best?

I usually randomly generate until I get a trait I absolutely do not want to roleplay, then go back and flesh out the details into a character that interests me.

metal that a lot of people would call cringey

folk metal and melodic metal etc

I base my characters around simple lines and grow their personalities around that. It's not always the best way to go about it, but I spend a lot of time thinking about what would lead a person to be saying that sort of thing and what they would do after saying it. At least it's been better more often than not.
Notable quotes are:
"Nobody dies before I do."
"Curse this damnable sun!"
"Everything's gonna be alright once I find her."
"Now that he's dead, do I seek revenge, or do I forgive?"
"Everything is going to be alright. No matter what, I'll make it so."

I have a few different processes I guess. A lot of the time I've made characters by saying, "all right [party], what class do we need?" And then I try to build a character around that class.
These days, though, I typically make them with an end in mind, like, "I want a not-human character who would be fun to play alongside in a party," or "I want a caster character I'd actually enjoy playing as with an interesting aesthetic," or "hey, that thing I read about recently gave me a neat idea for an adventure hook, what kind of character could come from something like this?"

I don't get to play very often these days, so a lot of the times I just take their personalities and apply them to NPCs or write small stories about their adventures. Perhaps one of these days they're all going to form a party and do something interesting together.

>How do you make your characters, Veeky Forums? What's your process?
If it's the typical point buy type of game I just think of something that makes sense for the setting and go with it, hoping it'll be fun. But If I'm playing a game that will let me roll up a character then I do that and see what I can do with it. I typically GM, so the randomization is a nice mix up.

>Who are your favorite characters that you've made, and how did they change over the course of play and why?
The first Paladin I played. He completely broke down as the game went on, and he got more violent and angry as the party was forced to do fucked up shit for the "greater good." He survived until the end of the campaign (about 8 levels) and never fell. This was 4e so he killed a fucking LOT of people and creatures.

I try to make a general concept and use some of the random tables as possible inspiration. With Xanathar's coming out and allowing more options to work with, this becomes much easier. Usually my characters wind up as the sort of least imposing character that isn't the party face or highest damage dealer, but acts as the sort of normal guy amidst abnormal party members like tieflings, aasimar, lizardfolk, etc. Usually I wind up either being a form of support and/or sort of party leader since my group tends to be sort of fickle in terms of pursing a direction they want to go with the narrative. An example being in my last campaign I was a human beastmaster ranger (revised) and was in charge of leading the party through the various mountain ranges and forests to get to where we needed to go. Sure I'm not the strongest, smartest, fastest and so on, but it still feels nice to be helpful and help steer the party somewhere that seems interesting.

I love this approach user :)

Nice work on that DM for putting you guys in a situation where your skillset was relevant.