Post an original character you have created and/or are playing in a game. I haven't participated in this kind of thread in a while, so I'm posting one now.
I just drafted a dnd 5e kenku hermit cleric. Kenku can't speak normally, and can only mimic what the kenku heard other people say, with anything else spoken would become just bird gibberish. Consequentially, my character is called Clarke, after the croak he often makes. "Clarke! Clarke!"
The kenku's desire to fly drove Clarke to the mountains to seek the gods. Clarke spent 20 years in seclusion atop a mountain, where he heard the voices of angels and gods. Sometimes he still hears them. He keeps a journal written in the celestial language, a direct transcription of his revelations.
As punishment for some forgotten transgression committed long ago, the kenku's creative spark (alongside their ability to fly) were taken from them, and as a result, they are incapable of creating new things or new ideas. In a certain way, kenku cannot think on their own, always relying on mimicking others. Because of their inability to articulate on their own terms, they often lead to a chaotic lifestyles, living incoherently and without direction. But Clarke is different. Clarke is Lawful Neutral. The kenku's inherent lack of originality render them natural followers, and Clarke's life is another expression of that fact. Clarke rigidly adheres to religious law dictated by his revelations.
Carson Cox
Was playing in a kinda hack & slash West Marches game in a craptastic gaming collective in a cardshop in my town.
Set out with a Kenku Rogue from somewhere off in the East. Quill Scratch, the family scribe and lorekeeper for a nest of Kenku that taught their hatchlings to speak from a big book of fairy tales. Well, Gargle, an nasty Kenku tentacle Warlock, had stolen the book out of spite, and fled into the Marches, tearing out pages and scattering them as he went. Scratch's objective was to collect those pages, those precious stories, and bring them back home... or at the least, to find new stories to teach to his brothers and sisters.
In mechanical terms I was the best support character the West Marches has ever seen. Everybody came to the table with a DPS (even the war priestess of yahweh (groan), who was the only cleric in full armor, but then refused to get into melee and let me and the others tank for her), so I took Mastermind rogue and the Healer feat, and when the Orc Fighter and Dwarf Death Cleric who were two levels higher than me went down to Drow, I got 'em up. The DM refused to hit me, even when I tried to get into enemies' (like those Fire Giants that attacked us) faces.
I also acquired a Alchemy Jug so sold a lot of honey in the downtime. One time I splashed a bunch of kobolds with honey as a gesture of friendship (there was no hope for those kobolds though).
But honestly I think Scratch's most best development was making a blanket out of lead so we could slip through a magical alarm wall. It let us go on a pretty cool scouting mission.
Noah Diaz
A coupole years ago my main gaming group was playing Out of the Abyss, which is a crap module but the character was pretty fun
I had a Kobold Sorcerer who was the last of her tribe or something and was taken in by a wizard as a slave/apprentice. Her name was Ruby (because I name most of my kobold characters after gems or coinage) and she was Neutral Evil-- but this didn't interfere with the game because the whole point is that you're trapped underground and you work together or die.
Best part of that game was using Friends on the jerkwad orc who was imprisioned with us. I cast it on him and told him to go hold off the drow slavers who were about to put a stop to our jailbreak. So Jerkward Orc walked up to them, and they skewered him immediately, but it gave us plenty of time to leap into the water and to relative safety.
Other highlights include the time I ate the pet spider I had as a starting item (and everybody loved it, got Inspiration for that one), and the time I talked a carrion crawler into being my new pet-- and rode around on its back fucking up everything.
Christopher Anderson
In a Dungeon World game that ended up being about fey fuckery because we all came to the table with characters that were either fey or fey adjacent without even cross referencing each other, I played a half-troll / half-wood nymph geomancer. The rest of the party were a pregnant selkie midwife, an estranged swan maiden, a wood elf blademaster, and a human conjurer wielding illusions and glamour.
The character was based on a much, much older character of mine that was far less developed and only a "half-elf" at the time. But either way, he's definitely one of my favourite characters in recent memory, even if the campaign was relatively short lived.
He was the product of rape to some degree, though his mother loved him all the same. Her grove-sisters, on the other hand, didn't quite feel the same way and would eventually force him out of their forest despite his mother's promise to protect him from the other nymphs.
He wound up meeting with the rest of the party while wandering the roads between settlements, quickly making friends with the selkie, though the others soon followed. His elemental gifts were a great boon in the many skirmishes against the non-terrestrial fey that would soon follow, vowing to use his mother's magic to protect the expecting mother in turn.
A few interesting tidbits about him are that: >his name was effectively a curse in the Giant tongue >he possessed cannibalistic tendencies, even going so far as to eat the selkie's brother-in-law upon her request >he experienced what I called "moon rages", which effectively meant that he lost himself and most of his memories when he was forced to be active during the night, since he kept a rather strict sleep schedule >he liked talking to trees and other, older vegetation, and would often do so for hours at a time >he nearly one-shot a chimera by eviscerating it with its own hedge maze
All in all, a very enjoyable character and game.
Blake White
>Kenku can't speak normally, and can only mimic what the kenku heard other people say >the kenku's creative spark (alongside their ability to fly) were taken from them God I hate 5e lore so fucking much. Removing the creative spark would make them not just perfect followers but automatons and basically no better than animals. They wouldn't have any sense of fashion, no sense to innovate, no ability to create civilization or even be a fucking intelligent race. They would have no sense of self or personality. They couldn't even survive, because the pursuit of food requires a bit of creativity in your ability to figure out what to eat or where to look for food. The race would starve to death almost immediately or very soon after the punishment. Its incoherent and nonsensical when taken to its obvious logical conclusion.
Asher Rodriguez
Yeah, I always thought that was a bit weird, honestly, and I just don't like the idea that they lack their own voice, entirely. I'm sure a lot of people think it's "cool" or original (of all things), but most players don't even read that far to know about it, and even when they do, in terms of role-playing, it's usually just annoying and/or poorly done schlock.
The one time I played a kenku in 5e, I refused to play them that way and asked that the GM change their fluff, if only slightly.
Isaac Gray
Yeah, you're right. I like the idea of a race that revolves around the frustration of the deprivation of autonomy, resorting to becoming mirror-images of those around them, but going to the extent where their members are completely without originality is ridiculous. A certain difficulty to be original is one thing, but being utterly incapable of creating new things is incoherent.
But I thought their deprivation would provide an opportunity for a character who rigidly adheres to principles from outside himself. I can understand how someone incapable of articulation would lead an irrational lifestyle, but complete dependence on others' thought process reminds me of how Nietzsche described Christian morality as those who let others think for them. Abrahamic religions, more so than other religions, rely heavily on commandments binded by covenants shown in revelations. To do good is to follow the Law of God, to sin is to stray away from it. The kenku's cultural impotence easily justifies a religious-oriented Lawful Neutral character.
Lincoln Hill
Taro Kimura, my current sammy/face in Shadowrun. Blue-skinned oni with yakuza connections; fond of snazzy suits, antique katanas, cigarettes, and risky jobs. He's very charismatic, a borderline sociopath, and is a bit of a fop; he spends way too much time fixing his hair, and regularly complains about his suits being ruined. The main thing keeping him in line is that his sister died on a run, so he has to raise his nephew, and he wants to be a good uncle/surrogate father (even if he is a career criminal).
>inb4 weeb; I don't watch/read anime or manga, I just wanted to make a Yak in Shadowrun
Jace Brooks
Merlina Drago, a halfling blacksmith and former squire of a knight at least 3 times her size. Used to carry her knight's oversized comparatively huge weapons around, and was tasked with keeping them on pristine condition with a visit to the smith from time to time. Picked up the craft of weapon and armor smithing on the way, as well as getting combat-trained by her knight so she could do more than carry his equipment around during adventures.
She's currently the owner of one of the most well known weapon and armor workshops in her city, both for the quality of her work and her original designs. Her workshop is set up in a wagon with portable tools that allow her to travel and work wherever her skill is needed, and takes mercenary work from time to time on the side.
Oni in shadowrun are pretty chill. Japan in general in the shadowrun universe is pretty interesting to run a campaign in, as well as making japanese characters, don't beat yourself up over it. Plus, shadowrun's inherent weebness is a given.
James Cook
How the heck does she fit a forge in a wagon, let alone any of the other tools and instruments she'd need to be a proper smithy? Also, I'm going to assume you mean a carriage wagon; like the old medicine carriages, but even then, that wouldn't really work. And, of course, there's also the issue of the fact that the whole thing would almost certainly burn down in an instant.
Jace Morris
It's kinda like a caravan wagon. She doesn't do any fire work inside the wagon, everything that isn't fit for work inside the wagon is foldable and mobile, or straight up magical for ease of carry and safety. Only thing she does actually inside of the wagon is design, polish, carving and enchanting, the rest is all done with equipment she can set outside the wagon in a safe environment, including a settled location in her city house/workshop.
Jeremiah Parker
Although admittedly a lot more light hearted than I generally tend towards, my current character is Christian McEwan AKA Deadbeat (It's capeshit).
His day job is pretty much a 30 something office drone job and his cape identity is that of an over the top white trash caricature, complete with a wife beater, sweatpants, work boots and pic related for a mask.
The true fun comes in with his power and combat specs. His power sounds pretty weenie on paper, superspeed in one extremity at a time, HOWEVER, when you couple that with points in finesse and an exotic weapons perk, what you get is a man who fights with a leather belt that can break bones and can hurl beer bottles hard enough to do more damage than a sniper rifle and land them consistently.
Hunter Campbell
Don't have an image for him but I've been playing a Warforged Charger in an epic D&D 3.5 campaign. My DM basically told us : take my books, play whatever you want in it, I'll make it work. Surprisingly, we didn't get any dragons. (wer'e used to silly campaigns like those)
So yeah I play X-23-42 a charger warfoged. He (it ?) is shaped like a huge bull and can shoot fire out of his nostrils. He is almost undestructible because of his stamina and warforged condition... But he is very, very stupid. Also NE. In my GM's world which I heard is different from Eberon or Forgotten Realms, the magic industries which automatically made warforged as soldiers in a war between great mages a long time are still somehow running in the equivalent of magic Tchernobyl, since the war destroyed everything. From time to time, a warforged gets out of the machines and wanders out. Sometimes, one of them find a way to get passed the huge mountains that sit between the Chaos Land and the Empire of Men.
Most of them are smart, even sage beings infused with magic and knowledge from ancient times. X-23-42 was not. It is a charger. It was made to kill. It's journey has been interesting, meeting new races, trying to understand things like currency, lies, speech. It met countless mages of varying power and once he lerned the history of its race and that it had no master anymore, it started to look for someone powerful enough to be worthy of the title, mostly because it still struggles with free will and often doesn't know what to do without orders (except kill things. That it know.).
When it met one of the most powerful mages of the universe, the one that create the magic used to open gateways between universes, it asked her if it could be at her service. Being an incredibly strong and useful creature, it got a new position as "the weird metal thing that kills stuff" in her name. X-23-42 is pretty "happy".
Owen Stewart
My current character isn't really an original since I based them on Darkest Dungeon's highwayman and was named Gestas. Mainly because DD was one of my GM's inspirations for his somewhat darker toned game (Berserk, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and a few others also contributing). Wound up playing a human swashbuckler rogue (mainly so I could do the shortsword/flintlock pistol combo) with the guild artisan background. My character was originally a part of a guild that worked on developing technology for the betterment of all, though devolved into mainly weapons such as the very early development of gunpowder and primitive guns. However, the guild was wiped out by a greedy ex-guild member (whom I refer to as the Fat Official) and his hired goons so they could steal its secrets for their own benefit, most of the slaughter being done by one goon in particular whom was the Fat Official's bodyguard: a half-ogre with a giant butcher sword called Lorn the Kingslayer (the title being his trigger word for reasons unknown to my character).
My character was one of the few survivors and followed your typical scenario of exacting revenge, but slowly weaned off it after choosing to follow a lead on the Fat Official rather than helping a woman and her child being chased down by bandits, resulting in their deaths and leaving a lasting impression on my character. I planned for him to be a sort of low-key cartographer, mainly scouting out areas ahead or mapping out areas for the group, but wound up being sort of the party leader after the party had to recover the town's mayor from a group of bandits. What happened was we got into a fight with the bandits, earned the respect of and convinced the werewolf bandit leader to join us since he had nowhere else to go (also I convinced him to part with his magical blood saber surprisingly), steered a ship with all the bandits as well as the party members and mayor back to the town we were protecting, and tasked them with helping protect a town.
Landon Garcia
5e game, Kenku Kensei Monk. He was really fun, but died too early.
Brody Sullivan
So I've been wanting to play a character pretty much entirely based on this picture in Pathfinder.
A Gnome Oracle with the Bones Revelation and Haunted Curse, as well as the Fell Magic Gnome alt racial trait.
So full-on spooky gardning Gnome Necromancer. I'm planning to flavor all his magic as him invoking the spirits that haunt him in some way.
I could use some help brainstorming on the source of this haunting though, so throw me some cool ideas on where his spooks could be coming from, if you have any.
Connor Bailey
Made a Dragonblood Tabaxi sorceress named Wasitora because mtg nerd. She was originally just a reference but rolled on the new tables in Xanathar's to give her a proper backstory Mom fucked off, dad raised her and her five siblings in a rundown little house. She was often on the streets, taking on a mentor roll to another PC she was childhood friends with. When she grew up, she joined the townguard while honing her gifts and eventually married one of her other friends from childhood. She ran afoul of an adventurer by arresting him for drunk and disorderly conduct, he took his revenge by murdering her husband so she grabbed the arrow and set out to find that cunt.
Eli Morales
The first time I played DnD, I created a half-orc barbarian named Kagronak.
Because the game was only a one-off with a bunch of newbies, I decided to give my character some flaire to make the game more interesting and more enjoyable for me and the other players.
Kagronak (inspired by Zevran and Oghren from Dragon Age) is a flamboyant homosexual with a massive ego who constantly hits on the other players in small (and stupid) but nonetheless noticable ways. For example, while saving the party rogue by slaying a monster in front of him, Kagronak winked at him right before swinging his axe. Or, for instance, to encourage the party forward, he slapped the ass of the party fighter. This culminated into after intimidating a goblin, I asked the DM what sex the goblin was. The DM was desperately trying to convince me not to try to hit on the goblin, and my rolls ended up with me not finding out what sex the goblin was. Everyone was laughing when that happened.
Kagronak looks like Swarzhenegger Conan the Barbarian, wearing nothing but a loincloth and weapon straps. Kagronak always basks in his own masculature, posing his bulging muscles to anyone with a pare of eyes. At one point, when the party cleric cantriped light to a pebble, and the party was talking about who would carry the stone, one of the players joked that it was unnecessary because Kag could just stride in flexing his muscles, beaming the room with the light of his massive ego. Or the time when people chuckled when my character yelled his name into a chasm and smiled when he heard the echo of his name.
Jonathan Hernandez
My newest character is a half-elf hexblade warlock named Carric Istor. He comes from a family of very minor nobility who had their lands and title stripped from them after a particularly crafty rival claimed to have found the true heir of their line and managed to turn the courts and citizens against them, driving them from their home. His family was mostly involved in trading and mercantile, so Carric took those skills and became a part-time con artist, part-time travelling merchant. He eventually scammed a particularly dumb mark out of an immensely powerful sentient weapon in a rigged dice game, and forged a pact with it soon after during his travels, thus granting him his magical abilities.
He and the rest of the party are currently working to establish a network of adventurer's guilds. Carric's also come up with the idea of partnering with a particularly accommodating and skilled but down-on-his-luck shopkeep to sell loot we and other members of the guild come across in our travels.
He's been fun to play so far; I haven't really done a face in the normal sense so far (one was borne out of a lack of sufficient alternatives, but that's another story) so it's been a good challenge as far as RP goes. Having a bard along to tag-team with doesn't hurt, either.
