D&D Players, What's your best creative non-stereotypical character build? #1

[@dovearchambault9229]

For Rime of the Frostmaiden, I played a "failed wizard." When he didn't progress fast enough with his arcane studies, his father dismissed that tutor and forced him to study something useful, leading to him being a fighter. One of his major goals was to learn to cast spells, which he managed to do through feats like magic initiate and ritual caster. His purpose in joining the adventure was to find the ring that had been bitten off of his father's hand in order to gain ownership of an old watchtower he could use as a place of magical study.

[@noman1118]

Was he an eldritch knight?

[@dovearchambault9229]

@noman1118 Nope, champion. His spellcasting was just through feats.

[@Takisan111]

I did something similar. I'm playing a character that wanted to be a wizard growing up but found the study requirements far too stressful. After he ran away from home, he got into some trouble and ended up as a rogue. He did eventually learn magic when I multi-classed him into a bard so he's been very happy with that outcome. He always was more the artistic type.

[@GeebusCrust]

I did something similar, but as an Arcana Cleric. Repeated failures to pop off as a wizard led him to beseech the gods for magical aptitude, only to be answered by Mystra and made a cleric in her name. He then began his adventuring career as a means of proselytizing for his goddess, and anytime someone bemoaned their inability to do something or sought an easier way, he would respond (or interject) with "have you considered converting to wizardry?"

[@sasha1mama]

That's a very believable and grounded setup, with a reasonable and attainable goal. The Laws of Physics approve! 👍

[@blakethegreatone2058]

Super friendly and kind necromancer. He was always willing to lend a hand or 1000 depending on the size of the local cemetery.

[@edxcal84]

I enjoy a Good Necromancer. I made one that was a doctor, which lead him to be curious about necromancy, I played him as a support character, using spells like false life to keep my party alive, was quite fun. :)

[@myoung3411]

I have an old Necromancer boy too! His name was Gutsy, my little halfling boy. Man was terrified of absolutely everything, and he summoned undead for the company more than anything. Got run out of town because he tried to revive his teacher so he could keep learning from him and got caught, so he teamed up with the party for protection. Him and Almond (his pet squirrel) made for awesome damage control!

[@Stookinator]

mfw me bringing my cat back to life is seen as "demonic" and "should be smited"

[@morrigankasa570]

I have a lvl 1 character that is planning being a Necromancer. He is: A Male Chaotic Neutral Mountain Dwarf Runecarver background Wizard planning on School of Necromancy. He isn't evil or anything like that. Part of his backstory is somewhat stereotypical for Dwarves. Long ago in his Great-Grandma's Time his Clan's Ancestral Home was taken over by an Army of Undead lead by a powerful Arch-Lich wearing a strange Bone Crown. My Dwarf seeks to reclaim that home and defeat the Undead. Hence, why he is intent on Mastering Necromancy/Undeath/Necrotic Powers. After he reclaims that home he wants to achieve Apotheosis/Deitification/Immortality to be an Eternal Guardian Guiding & Protecting his peoples and their home forevermore.

[@Sphendrana]

Does he kindly lay the dead to rest after he's finished helping? 😅😂

[@lancebabcock9239]

I played a 63 year old female human necromancer(pathfinder 1e oracle). She used all her free time to find her kidnapped and enslaved grandchildren. When she finally rescued them she spend the rest of her days developing an uninhabited island into a sanctuary for sentient undead that don't wanna hurt anyone. The human population that came in donated blood for the vampires and we purchased criminals on death row from nearby kingdoms to sustain liches and creatures like that. Her title was Granny Winters.

[@morrigankasa570]

That sounds Awesome (except for the tragedy of kidnapped/enslaved Grandchildren)!

[@VoiceNerd]

Wait holy hell!! You showcased my Warforged Bard L-073!!! Thank you so much guys I appreciate it! 😊👍

[@SteveB-nx2uo]

so... a record player?

[@Shrecks_swamp760]

Cool character concept dude

[@hackcubit9663]

Dude I loved hearing it read in this video! That's the kind of creativity I want in my party every day.

[@VoiceNerd]

@@SteveB-nx2uo Haha sure why not

[@VoiceNerd]

Thanks Appreciate it@@Shrecks_swamp760

[@Arkios64]

The recent Anime 'Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World' had an entire party like this. A trustworthy rogue as party face, a horny excommunicated cleric, a wizard adventuring purely to pay for gambling, a dragonborn fighter that abandonded their destiny of fighting the BBEG to become a gourmet instead and a legendary sword that just wants to be friends and see interesting stuff... and that's just the surface level before they get their backstory episodes.

[@JohnnyJohnJohnson]

Gotta remember this one, please like my comment so the notification stays in my feed.

[@FiereTheCatBoy]

Yeah, same here. I don't watch anime much but I'm gonna check this one out when I have time

[@F3N01]

@@JohnnyJohnJohnson Having seen it, it is certainly worth a watch. I'd go in with tempered expectations though, as the main selling point is the atypical MCs.

[@FiereTheCatBoy]

@@F3N01 i looked it up on google, and the only thing that comes up is a book. could you please tell me where i can find it so i know where to search since you've already seen it?

[@creepercommande4171]

For a homebrew campaign, I played Mort the Ballin, a Goliath Wizard with mastery in the school of necromancy. His entire deal was that he was an excellent sportsball player, who after making a deal with a dark force to become the best sportsball player alive, regretted it because other sportsball players started being killed by the dark force. Now, using a loophole, Mort is attempting to gather a team of basketball zombies to challenge the force to a basketball game to break the deal.

[@AzaloonyToons]

Objection! Mort’s f##kin BALLIN!

[@superninja_youtube]

I once had a energetic Tabaxi Rogue specifically designed to be.. unorthodox, to say the least. Subclass was Arcane Trickster, but chosen Feats were Chef, Poisoner, Ritual Caster: Cleric, Metamagic Adept, so on. He did a little of everything and became the face of our party overtime. That isn't to say he took the spotlight often, but nobody really forgot that furball in part he probably had SOMETHING to contribute, whatever was happening. One highlight is when our party was infiltrating a necromancer's crypt, where he nearly died failing to disarm every trap, finding a friendly flesh golem, then flashbanging the necromancer with Blindness/Deafness in the same session. Wild cards can be a lot of fun to play with!

[@ChucktheSpicyChicken]

Furball: THINK FAST CHUCKLENUTS! Necromancer: wha-AAH WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

[@RockR277]

Feats: chef, poisoner 👀

[@AzaloonyToons]

Was he an orange cat.

[@CroobieLetter]

Pathfinder here: I played my barbarian like a monk. She was a Large Tabaxi Tiger Barbarian, but true neutral. The idea was that she had rage-issues when she was young, but learned through meditation to accept and "befriend" her anger. She only lets out her rage at appropriate times, like combat. Out of combat is is completely zen, with a penchant for smoking her pipe, gardening, and doting on the young Tiefling in the party.

[@lewiszhou4056]

Tigress from kung fu panda?

[@RainMakeR_Workshop]

I made the Dave... the "Dadbarian". AKA the party dad. He's a mid 40's muscular but a bit overweight guy, with short salt and pepper hair, glasses and a moustache. Always wearing shorts and sandals. Constantly telling bad dad jokes, making puns, smoking cigars and dealing out life advice. He likes fishing and LOVES a good barbeque (So much so he's always wearing his grilling apron). Basically he's a walking stereotype of a dad, rather than a barbarian... Aside from his Greataxe. He's doesn't usually get angry, just disappointed... Unless you mess with one of his kids (the party). Then you get to see the barbarian from his youth. A once feared bandit leader known as Davarian the destroyer. A name all the players had heard, but didn't put together was Dave. The DM would slip in tales of the destroyer as a cruel, greedy and violent man. Nothing like the fatherly Dave they all knew (Despite the name Davarian LITERALLY just being Dave and Barbarian smashed together, but they only knew him as Dave and the DM usually just said "the destroyer" when talking about his past). They only realised after we took on a quest basically designed to give it away.

[@pcalix17]

The wolf. Yes, a literal wolf using the base stat card but with a high enough intelligence to remember things. The name GG was given to them because they used to eat anything that smelled decent enough to eat, the result being the term of "gobbling guts." Very interesting to try and communicate things without language while trying to stay within the confines of a simple mob.

[@ianmckinzie3606]

I've got 2. First one was also my first character; He-Who-Eats-Shrooms, a hill dwarf cleric. He made contact with a fungus god while in a mushroom-powered psychedelic haze, and now he wanders around the surface, spreading the word. His way of doing this is by spreading fungus everywhere he goes, using his divine powers to accelerate their growth. He also has access to the Psychedelic Flames (Sacred Flames, but technicolor!), and, because he only eats mushrooms (instead of the usual Dwarven pasttime of guzzling alcohol), his blood was poisonous. Second was Skethen. He was a bard. A Half-Orc Bard. More specifically, a half-Gnome, Half-Orc Bard, with the Sailor background. He was a ship's translator, who had a snuffbox of soot and salt that he would use to cast Comprehend Languages on himself. His goal? To travel the world, and set up a merchant empire. Unfortunately, he never got to do this, as he was killed by the boss of the first dungeon we went in, but, I think he would have made it far.

[@MaytayMaya]

The fucking Fallout New Vegas reference with Mahsofabish is golden.

[@theoverpreparerlamenters3r436]

It's not that different from the norm, but I love playing ranged fighters, because it always catches people off guard when I hang back in mid-range after saying "I'm a fighter". Also, it puts me in a good place to off-tank any flanking enemies that thought the casters would be easy prey.

[@jefthereaper]

The Cook Class - Full Blooded Orc. He travels the world as a Gourmand. Having served as a soldier/cook during wartime, he learned he had more love in creating and eating good food then battle. Flaw: He's a Orc and served as a cook during a long war, where food was scarce. He often forgets other races are more picky to where the meat comes from.

[@MisterDiceGuy]

Mine was very grim, macabre, and somewhat disturbing yet tragic. My Battlesmith Artificer had a twin knight brother who always traveled with him. They were nice, although there was something very very odd about the Artificer and something stranger about the brother. The Artificer was probably a little mad. Both wore matching suits of armor. The brother never talked, always listened to what the Artificer said and was extremely smelly, he straight smelled of death. Artificer was always talked for his brother, leaning his ear over to his helmet in that imaginary friend trope "Oh what was that?" *leans in* "He says _______". If the brother's helmet is ever removed, which will require a bit of strength since it appears bolted down, they'll find a decaying corpse inside the armor. It really is the brother of the Artificer, but when he died in battle the Artificer could not cope with the loss and went a little insane, so he dug him up, shoved him back in the armor and made the armor his Steel Defender.

[@madmalkavian3857]

Haven't made it yet but really want to play a friendly necromancer that pays for the services of his minions by helping the dead solve their unresolved issues, delivering their final words,or just helping them complete their bucket list.

[@thegeneralscall]

An abjuration wizard human with tough-feat and high constitution. Was a frontliner using mage armor, arcane ward, and shocking grasp in a boxing fighting style. Really liked to disrobe his robes to his waist before a fight (or most opportunities by the end) to show off his chiseled body whilst performing muscular poses and loudly promoting anything involving working out or training and as part of casting. Favorite saying was "Train the body. Train the mind." And yes, he did look like Major Armstrong from Full Metal Alchemist.

[@W3tFloorSign]

I got an idea for a character while watching this video A kobold who deserted the BBEG’s army in order to become a hero instead of just being a typical mook. I don’t have any more for this idea but I came up with it in 2 minutes so I’m proud of myself.

[@mvanzijderveld3826]

i once made a dwarf swamp druid, the children from the villages surrounding the waterways all learned off the swamp man who takes away non abiding children, ofcourse he didnt harm a fly but the parents used his presence to make up nursery rhymes for kids that they should eat their dinner and listen to their parents. the druid had a good connection with fishermen and knew the area well, so he could act as a hired guide for the party when we first met. really great homebrew world i would love to explore further.

[@joesgotmore]

I had a few, One was a Minotaur Warlock with a Pact of the Chain Boon. His familiar bat hung from one of his horns and key on the other horn to the chest he had strapped to his back, like a backpack. Another was a Grung Barbarian who ironically looked down on everyone he met as less then him because they were "Dry skins." Last one was kind of normal as a human warlock of the Great old One. However, as a lawful evil character he was secretly trying to recruit members to his self-appointed cult of dreams. He would often try to recruit the bad guys we fought secretly speaking to them via awakened mind to surrender so they would live. His background was a solider who suffered PTSD after watching his best friend get killed and tossed in a pit of bodies that he himself was hiding in. Until the severed head of his dead friend spoke to him which was when he truly lost his mind. That skull became his focus as he sought out others that were crazy like himself promising them salvation in a dream state. He would use his awakened mind to drive this point home. Claiming to be the voice in their head.

[@sasha1mama]

I have a few. - A grey-fox-flavored (for a small bonus to climbing) lupin Thief rogue, who was raised by kindly humans after indiscriminate werewolf hunters murdered his birth pack. CG alignment. Next to valueless in open combat except where applies to sneaking up on outlying sentries, archers, and backliners. Main strength is high Stealth cap, pickpocketing enemy sapients, and an affinity for establishing connections with fences in towns to provide the party with supplies, munitions, tools, and occasionally bits of equipment. Wholesome support thief. - Literally Stolas from Helluva Boss. Owlin Astral Warlock/Wizard multi support mage (he's his own Patron, being an archdemon). LN. Ended up popping up in FR/PF after his bitchy wife Stella decided to be miffed about him bonding with their daughter, Octavia (she's only 7 at this point). So Stella grabbed his grimoire from his study, started messing with it, Stolas tried to stop her, and now he, she, and the book are scattered across the campaign world. Stolas' goal is to find her (so Via doesn't hafta grow up without her mom), find the book (because it's part of his duty as the demon prince of astronomy), and get home to Hell safely, all with the aid of (and while aiding) a random party of adventurers. Very RP-oriented build, very diplomatic and awkward. - Risshiza, a yuan-ti mi'zha (abomination, the snek with a humanoid torso) NE Ranger/Cleric. Basically Torque the Viper from XCOM, but medieval, so crossbow. Cold and ruthless, yet cheerful and optimistic. Out to bank on all the knowledge the pureblood spies have gathered all these years, and casually Iehova Witness about Seth along the way. "Would you like to hear about our lord and master, Seth, the Eldest Serpent?" Ends up being on a quest to discover the truth behind the tortured visions from Seth, and uncover the trickery of the impostor Elder Being Set that's been impersonating Him all this time. (Oh, and if you didn't know, Mean Sonuvabitch is a friendly super mutant in Westside, in Fallout: New Vegas. ^^ So that's where that came from.)

[@Alaharis]

I played a necromancer with no sense of self preservation. He was on an expedition with a few other students from his necromancer college and they decided to play a game of hacky sack with a zombie head. He got bit and had to have his arm amputated, but, being a necromancer, he replaced it with an arm he found, Frankenstein's monster style, but it still had it's soul, so it was a kind, but kind of crazy necromancer, with old alcoholic bar brawler for an arm. The arm would talk and move by itself, but was generally more sensible than the necromancer. It was very fun. Edit: The stereotype is that necromancers, and wizards in general are all geniuses and conniving, but the old grumpy arm was keeping out of trouble and most of the shenanigans he would have got in.

[@sammy_slammy]

One of my favorites was an Artillerist Artificer who learned Find Familiar with Magic Initiate. _Most_ Artificers are bound to be weird, but she was a viking whose spells were ordinary tricks. Grease? She pulled a flask of oil from her hip and tossed it. Firebolt? She threw a torch. Her Eldritch Cannon was always utilized with the Familiar, which was a Raven, and was flavored to be an aspect of Odin granting her power. Her Arcane Firearm was a Wand of Secrets she melded _into her spear,_ which had the Returning Weapon Invocation on it. She didn't get to a very high level, only around level 7 before the campaign died off, but Hild Ozursdottir was one of my favorite characters ever made, and is, to date, the ONLY artificer I've made who wasn't a technological genius.

[@greentiger332]

My second character is a Necromancer who is a Merchant of Death. Literally. He's part of a group that wants to get Necromancy more socially acceptable so they practice more ethical Necromancy by buying corpses from people willing to sell and using those corpses to make non combat Zombies and Skeletons to sell as cheap and efficient labor to businesses. They have most success buying by finding poor people willing to pre-sell their bodies before they die (sometimes for a cash advance), and most success selling by trying to promote undead as a replacement for slave labor (undead don't try to escape, don't need to eat, sleep, or rest). The Necromancer's second highest stat is Charisma and he has proficiency in persuasion, he's played as a friendly door to door salesman trying to convince people to make deals with him. His group's stated goal is to have undead so wide spread and accepted that there's "an undead in every home bought from your friendly neighborhood Necromancer."

[@mythmakroxymore1670]

I’ve got a great character in the works. Jessica the Stellar is an Aberrant mind drow sorceress who uses her devastating powers to light the dance floor. She has a routine kings would pay gold to behold, summoning 3rd level meteors with dancing lights, she becomes a dancing, fire-eating solar system. Want to add to it? Faerie Fire and, if the campaign goes later, you also get crown of stars. No need for eldritch horrors or tentacles(yet?). Just a fancy dancy galaxy girl exiled from her home with wanderlust. Just… don’t threaten her, her friends, or her audience.

[@evansears711]

I have two from the same campaign, a modified Dungeon of the Mad Mage. One is mine, the other is a buddy’s. Fal’inar Kalindris was my character’s name. He was a half-elf Genie Warlock, and his patron was a Djinn named Nord (first thing I came up with). For backstory, Fal, as he usually went by, was an aspiring artificer that liked the idea of making weapons, his first attempt being a pistol. He was exploring some ruins one day in search of inspiration when he came across a deathlock (which he mistook as a lich) trying to put Nord in a bottle. Thinking he was gonna die anyways and might as well try and do something good before biting the dust, Fal shot the deathlock in the back, but the gun blew up on the second shot. It was all the distraction needed to break the Deathlock’s concentration, and Nord finished the job. Curious about the contraption Fal used to try and free him, Nord offered a warlock pact to Fal, and it’s kinda a mutual teacher situation; Nord teaches Fal about the arcane, and Fal tutors Nord about artifice. He was a fun one to roleplay, too. He was a bit of a loose cannon with an accent that quickly became Scottish, and Nord even came in for a bit of shennanigans with the party Shifter Bard, who is the other one. Basically, Jammie Dodger, as he was called, specialized in children’s parties and would shift into a pseudo-badger to help out, but didn’t like the one-hour limit. He asked Nord for a wish on permanent shifting, which Nord agreed to for… something, can’t remember what, but he did it by tapping Jammie further into his lycanthropy heritage, accidentally causing a distant ancestor named Nargus to sometimes take over Jammie’s body when he shifted.

[@hackcubit9663]

Half-orc warlock, his patron is his future self (3rd-party feature). He started with a 16 in strength and 15 in Charisma and a 10 in dex. Took a level of fighter to get armor and shield proficiency, uses Haste and After Image (also 3rd party) to boost his AC and force a 1-in-2 chance of hitting his decoy instead of him (he can get it back by either moving 10+ feet or taking the dodge action), uses Cloak of Flies to punish enemies for staying in melee with him and Booming Blade and Warcaster to punish them for trying to get away from him, too. Stereotypical half-orc, very atypical warlock. I also made a warforged bard. Their name is Piper in reference to the organ pipes coming out their back. They're their own little mini-band, using their music to enhance their crowd-pleasing storytelling repertoires. Their goal as an adventurer is to witness the greatest adventures first-hand, that they may spend many years afterwards regaling audiences everywhere with the stories of amazing heroes and their daring deeds.

[@Maqar06]

Jeweler turned artificer: A friend of mine has been fine tuning a home brew RPG system since we were sophomores in his school (over 30 years). It's has the feel of a fantasy world but is built on lost tech. My current character is an artificer of 'magik' items but he didn't start out that way. No, he's an elfling (similar to Hobbits but more elf-like in appearance) who was adopted by humans after his family was killed. He grew up and became a jeweler like his adopted father and took over the family business. He literally gto caught up in the course of events and accidently found himself adventuring to save his beloved home town (he left his younger brother in charge). At first he just handled supply procurement and contract negotiations but eventually he set himself up so he could make jewelry on the fly to help fund the groups mission (which kept expanding the deeper into the main story we got). Eventually he and another party member (a Dwarven fighter from a business focused family) started an ale and cheese company. Why? For several reasons. First, by doing so they were able to create a more stable source of income that didn't require as much hands on involvement (managed by family members). Secondly, each ale and cheese location also housed a tavern that sold said products. This allowed them to also gather intelligence for their patrons (the Mages Guild mostly) that could then be used to help fend off the forces of the BBEG. Thirdly, it gave the party places to stay when traveling so as to reduce overall expenses. While this was happening my character (Phineas Harphoot Smythe) began studying the scant few magik items we had found and, thanks to his prowess as a jeweler and the fact that magik items are created mostly through engraving and the laying down of circuitry, managed to recreate his first magik item. This caught the attention of the Mages Guild and his patron in particular and has lead to his training as an artificer for the Guild. Definitely NOT a stereotypical build! 😂😂😂

[@Serperior-Deoxys]

Char Ironwill, a Celestial Warlock who was training to be a soldier in his tribe. After demons and undead destroyed his town, leaving him the sole survivor, the spirits of his village all banded together to support him, giving him his warlock powers. Instead of worshipping a deity, holding to a strict moral code, and living similar to a paladin, he was a boastful man who went out of his way to try and make friends. The only two things he hated, idiots and people who betrayed him or their own family. His str, con, and cha were all rolled at max (DM had us roll d20s instead of 3-4 d6) and his int and wis were also quite high. His low stat was dex, at a 12. After 8 levels, I finally dipped into fighter for a few levels before returning to Celestial Warlock to finish it off. I loved him so much, he's now an NPC in every campaign I make. Sidenote,most of his spells were for healing, AC increase, or support.

[@Exhumed.Consumed]

I currently have a DMPC I’m pretty proud of. She was always sort of the unofficial death docent in her backwater firbolg village and encountered plenty of adventuring parties on their way through. The weight of social expectations and domestic duties always kept her at home, but now that her husband has passed on due to a heart attack and the kids are all grown, she ventures out to see the world as a grave domain cleric. This kind-hearted necro granny is coming to heal and help guide a party of 11-year-old players.

[@j.m.r.7737]

My first-ever DnD character was a pirate-themed Monk that I named Finn. Finn would fight with his fists and legs (obviously), but as I leveled him up he gained access to a rapier, a one-shot flintlock pistol, and even a homebrew water cannon called the Tortuga Cannon (I nicknamed it Hydro Thunder after the old N64 game). So basically my Monk was not optimized for most of the game, as I was just having fun playing a kung fu pirate, but with swords, guns, and a literal water cannon at my disposal, I didn't care. Finn ended up being the MVP at the end of the campaign, so he'll always hold a special place in my heart. Plus my DM gave him Gloves of Soul-Catching at the tail end of the game, so he found his true Monk potential at the end!

[@ReclaimerMkII]

I came up with an Artificer character whose story goes something like this: He was once an adventuring wizard, with a party of friends. One fateful trip saw them over their heads, and most of the party was killed. He, himself, lost both legs and his left arm in the fight to escape, and his remaining allies carried him from the dungeon they were trying to explore. Unable to care for their injured wizard comrade, they left him in a monastery filled with friars, monks, clerics. The wizard survived his wounds, but fell into a deep depression because he could no longer do anything without help. Some years pass, and the now-former-wizard passes all of his time reading all the books in the monastery, and in-so-doing becomes friends with one of the monastery caretakers; a handyman of sorts, who fixes broken things and generally does all the blacksmithing/crafting things within the monastery. Inspired to try and regain the use of his limbs, the former wizard reads books about artifice, and forging, and armor-crafting... and through prayer and determination, and with what remains of his arcane skill, gains some weak day-to-day telekinesis. Effectively, he's a Variant Human with the Telekinetic feat, and his missing physical left hand is replaced by the Mage Hand cantrip. Worked with the DM a bit on that one. Anyway, using Mage Hand and with the help of his handyman friend, he crafts himself some armor and becomes an Armorer Artificer. Since... Armorer Artificers can use their suits of armor to replace missing limbs.

[@wolfpell4634]

I have a bard who’s main gimmick is that he’s just absolutely godawful at playing music, and all of his charm attempts basically resulted in everyone running away because they couldn’t bear to hear him murdering his lute. Very good at intimidation, though he wasn’t entirely aware of it.

[@Godzillawolf1]

A mute Bard Dragonborn named Fremder. While she uses a flute, she only talks via sign language, and uses recordings of her foul mouthed uncle for Vicious Mockery.

[@silvanusasher446]

For curse of strahd campaign, i created a Verdan Kensei Monk with two levels in fighter and the marshall initiate feat to grab a bunch of fighting styles/action surge. He used to travel with his family in a caravan like the gypsies until they were tricked into service to the thieve's guild. He had to grow up as a con artist and got very good at creating false identities for himself and defending himself from his abusive mentor (disguise kit, forgery kit, calligrapher's supplies, weaver's supplies) his best con was using weighted dice. He wants (above everything else) to just find his family and release all of them from the thieves guild's service. Despite this he's more often the comic relief of the party (meatwad voice ftw). With one wild card. He has a set of enchanted dice that create an illusion that i choose when held, but every time he uses them he has to succeed a wisdom saving throw or make only evil decisions for an hour. I play this as a toned down version of Jim Carrey's split personality "Hank" from the movie Me, Myself, and Irene.

[@MrGreensweightHist]

I have a rogue who grew up in a carnival. Parents are still alive, and working as acrobats. He left the carnival after they came on a village that had been raided. Once the carnival workers had assisted rebuilding and put on a free show to raise spirits, he realized that he could use his talents to help people, not just for show. So he applies his stage combat fencing into actual fights, his escape artist skills into picking locks, and so on. He may be a rogue, but he is no thief, and if anyone suggests he steal something, he goes of on them for stereotyping carnies.

[@billcox8870]

With the bird I used to play I had to rhyme my bartik inspiration and come up with insults for vicious mockery.

[@DreamTiger5]

Haven’t played these characters yet and they’re for a different game, but here’s a few of my concepts in DnD terms: -Warforged Artificer that was built to maintain and operate military transports, but after being shut down and left in disrepair for centuries it thinks it’s a proud soldier and fights on the frontline (very politely). Might give it a few levels in Barbarian or Fighter. -Tabaxi Monk specialized in grappling. He’s young and on the small side, resembling a Black-Footed Cat, so mostly he leaps onto enemies from outside of melee range to choke them out. -A young noble that was raised for priesthood so they have some levels in Cleric, but didn’t want such a confining life and became a Bard that uses song to spread the word of their deity. -Ratkin Warlock that wants to use dark magic to cure lactose intolerance.

[@boomkruncher325zzshred5]

I’m playing a Sun Soul Monk who has 14 Intelligence and has expertise in Arcana. Why? She uses Ki and Glassblower’s Tools to make magical lights for homes and streets, using her Ki to power them on. The arcane runes wear off over time and the Ki she pours into them eventually wears out, but it’s an essential service she performs.

[@starhalv2427]

For a future game I'm gonna play: A lycan blood hunter, that doesn't want to transform into a werewolf most of the time. She's very reluctant about using her lycan transformation, as she's afraid of losing control and hurting her friends. Mechanically, she has low wisdom and has intelligence based abilities instead, and fights with a glaive even in werewolf form. In her backstory she almost slaughtered her village after losing control over her transformation, so she won't turn into a werewolf unless it's absolutely necessary to survive or protect her allies- and that means she'll be below half hp most of the time while transformed. My way of going against the stereotype of blood hunter players always choosing this subclass in order to become overpowered, fight without weapons using werewolf claws, boost wisdom through the roof and stay transformed like all the time.

[@fireblast133]

A college of cuisine kobold bard that takes genuine pride in his craft, and is traveling with the party to try to find his tribe, who he got separated from. He knows where they planned to go, but isn’t sure about being able to get there alone. It’ll of course be close to the actual end destination.

[@orgixvi3]

I played an Alchemist who was a Texan gunslinger and college professor who was abducted by aliens in Rosswell in the 40's before ending up in Faerun. He used his expert skills as a former military chef to become an Alchemist and his engineering skills to build firearms.

[@mecisbuvelle4025]

I played a Wizard as a Warlock Homebrew once. Basically the Homebrew from my DMs world was, that there was Merlin, a WIzard so powerful he transended the gods, and the only mortal to ever have cast a level 13 spell, which most gods have not been able to. My warlock had Merlin as his patreon. Merlin was a super nice dude, and just saw the talent in my character, so he wanted me to become stronger in the ways of magic. So they were good friends actually, but my character had to have his own adventures to train. But because Merlin is so powerful, he couldn't just lend me his strength like a normal patreon. He overloaded my character with magical energy, to a point I could barely cast spells. All my warlock spells were replaced by the wizard spell list. But because of the enourmes power I had, my body couldn't hold it, and so whenever I did cast a spell, my body destroyed itself, basically half of the average damage of a spell was dealt to me when I wanted to cast the spell. Or 1d10 radiant damage for each spell level of that spell, if it was not a damage spell. And also because I was still a warlock, I always casted spells at highest level, but didn't had any spell slots, because my HP were my spell slots. In my group my character never told anyone about his power, and was really scared of using it in battle at first. After the group asked me several times, why I was never casting eldritch blast as a warlock, my character told them. From that point on, I started casting spells (Level 6 onwards), and the cleric of our group did nothing but heal me all the time. At the end of the journey, when my character became level 30 (we played with the advanced levels rule book at some point) over the course of 5 years, Merlin gave my character the quest to defeat the "last" adversary in the path of magical perfection for me. Not knowing that I was later standing before my former master. He broke the pact with me, and suddenly I was only a wizard. To roleplay this, I lost 5 levels, because my character only achived most of the spells in this wth Merlin help. Then the two battled it out, twisting the realm they were in. My character thought he would lose, because he lost control over the magic without Merlins help. But over the course of the battle, he learned that Merlin stopped helping him from Level 17 onwards, and my character was basically doing it alone for many years now. So with every turn I got a level back, and with Level 30, I was able to cast the level 13 spell that only Merlin was cappable of. "Creation of all Things", which my DM slightly stole from Naruto. And I used it to fulfill Merlins wish and be absorbed by me. A few sessions later, all the encounters the DM gave us, were finished easily because of me, and for all the characters adventuring and saving the realms became boring (I was not the only one becoming this strong). But after Merlin's death Ao was on us and tried to kill me for removing an important balance factor of the realms. In the fight against Ao, my character said his last goodbyes to the group, right before casting "Creation of all Things" with all my HP and all 3 death saves (because of my spell casting style, my DM let me use death saves as extra fuel) to blow Ao up, dying in the process and having a wonderful "burial" afterwards by my group. Thats the journey of Malzeno, and the most fun character I ever played, lore-wise and for encounters too.

[@angrymike590]

I love hearing when dungeons & dragons players break away from the stereotypical Norm. That was just an amazing listen thank you and it might have given me some ideas. Insert evil laughter here

[@XperimentorEES]

Got several myself, but here's a few of them. There's Trevor, the mundane human ancients paladin, he'd be best described as 'too stupid to live too dumb to die' with his dexterity intelligence and wisdom all having negative modifiers contrasting his 20 constitution. Between his fullplate and shield he can survive things on par to a monk multiclassed cleric, thanks for a specific combination of feats; heavy armor master giving his damage reduction of 3 except against magic, shield master adding his shield's ac bonus to any dexterity saving throw that targets him, shield grand master which gives his advantage on dexterity saves when caught in area of effects, and mending affinity which adds his proficiency bonus to any instance of healing he receives. He rarely knows what's going on, but when he gets righteous about something not a whole lot stops him from attempting to deliver some homemade justice. A slimefolk (homebrewed plasmoid more along the lines of old school oozes instead of a giant space germ) called Percolator, the jolly gelatin has one motivation and that's to share his love of food, sure he'll passively assist his friends whether it's something serious or silly without questioning it too much, but he'll spend most of his money on trying whatever local delicacy there is. Despite his offputting squishy appearance he occasionally ends up being the face of the party when more honest conversation is needed, as he's an eloquence bard, with a harmonica. And lastly a warforged hemomancer (modified necromancer wizard) named Delgrim, this stone faced mechanical blood mage has little care for morality, but is entirely bent on keeping systems orderly regardless of ethical considerations, with the exception of his curiosity driving him to take or copy any magical manuscripts he finds. Though slow to provoke into combat self-aware that his style of 'learn your enemies abilities to wield it against them' unnerves his allies more often than not, couldn't deny he gets results when his questionable talents are involved though, at least cleanup is rarely a hassle anyway.

[@capitanmexico4422]

I play a necromancer tiefling, he has the typical " I was almost killed as a baby for being a demon" backstory, but instead of seaking revenge, he became a necromancer and studied archeology, then proceeded to become a mass grave robber, but not for the corpses, but just to piss-off the church every other Thursday, the zombies don't harm anyone, the just flip off everything, not everyone, EVERYTHING.

[@kcrad1527]

A dhampir of the Reincarnated Tyrant origin, that comes back as a sobered and wizened fighter after seeing the fall of his empire thousands of years ago. He now wants to start anew, with a new kingdom, with the lessons he learned with his own death and the suffering of his subjects.

[@tokamara8795]

The healer that got fed up and developed a drinking problem. PF orcale/barbarian into rage prophet. Stats and spell build had healing spells and skills, but instead of the usual healing, she used them on herself as she took to the front line with a barshank or broken table leg.

[@sarahdale9968]

I have a fun one for Pathfinder 1e. Her name was Vixen "The Iron Fox" Vis'Arkhana. A short backstory. The Vis'Arkhana family are a duke family of kitsune that are part of a certain kingdom in my group's homebrewed world, and they always produce the kingdom's archmage or otherwise top tier spellcasters. Vixen had zero spellcaster levels. She was a Fighter/Brawler multiclass. She still ended up with her generation's title of Archmage. Here's the trick to her build: Brawlers have an ability to gain a feat for a minute at a time quite a few times a day. And there are a serie of feats called "Item Mastery" feats which lets the user cast a spell a certain amount of times per day as a Spell-like ability. So she could just get whichever feat she wanted as a brawler to cast said spells. Add on top of that the Kitsune's Magical Tail feat which give a kitsune up to 9 tails and more spell-like abilities. Yeah, add wands and scrolls to the mix and she could easily pass off for Sorcerer. Which was extremely funny considering her combat style was to wear spikes full plate, and fight with her claws, bite, and a blade attached to each of her nine tails (there was a few more feats involved to make that last part work). So imagine if you would, a kitsune in spiky full plate armor throwing over ten attacks per round in her fox form, receiving the title of "The Iron Fox Archmage". That character was a blast to play (and fully legal by the rules if anyonr wants the build, just hit me up)

[@Keqinamu]

Saw this title, wanted to share my own idea I had a while back. I had an idea for a Conjuration Wizard, of whom would create metal structures to restrain, block or attack enemies. Say they want to dodge the next attack, they could make a folding Tower Shield to fit in the size requirements. Say you want to restrain someone, you could create a metal shackle around their hands, forming almost makeshift handcuffs, as they would be destroyed rather quickly. Hell, I thought it'd be awesome if you could make weapons out of this! Can you imagine you're about to duel another knight, and he pulls out his weapon from his hand! That's absolutely terrifying to see; what else could he do to his enemy, you in that scenario! Even without basic weapons, just making metal poles to attack still sounds pretty cool, sort of like a makeshift quarterstaff. Being able to create a makeshift quarterstaff out of your palm and into the enemy feels like it has some power to it, maybe even pushing the enemy backwards? I've had this idea for a while now, how bad is it? Ik it's not quite as the PHB describes Conjuration Wizards, but I'll be damned if this doesn't sound awesome

[@ethanfrench9111]

Wizards are frail spellcasters who attack from afar, right? Aarackokra starting with a single level of warlock and all others into abjuration Wizard and first chance taking tough feat. Point-buy maxing Constitution, Intelligence, and Strength purposely dropping dex as dump to better trigger Armor of Agy. With Abjuration ward and a bunch of melee options with big spells saved for armor and buff/debuff spells and support casting (like counterspell and at later levels force cage for the “I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me.”) you can make a frontline wizard.

[@JoeThePotato23]

Incredibly charismatic Goblin bard that can’t play his recorder for the life of him, whenever he succeeds it’s just people trying to get him to stop playing the recorder

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Snowberry, a fairy barbarian on the quest to eat the meat of every beast. So far very stereotypical, but without planning, Snowberry ended up being the voice of reason and the authority no magic. The other characters where a constantly drunk monk and a cannibalistic reborn rogue. Only getting drunk when the work is done and not eating sapient creatures, Snowberry was the most responsible one. With the magic sense of a wild magic barbarian and the innate spellcasting of a fairy, Snowberry was, by far, the most magical member of the party.

[@autumn_falls_for_me]

This one is still in the works and I'm helping my friend make it but the concept is to be a druid fairy but they aren't good at wild shape, which means that their wings don't transform with them, this makes all animals they wild shape into have wings, but there is a catch, the wings stay the same size as her fairy form so they do nothing to large animals but small animals can easily fly using the wings, this makes it so that they want to wild shape into smaller creatures. They will most likely be the scout of the team and due to the wings they'll most likely be our main caster because they can go to any vantage point and pretty much just go, I'm now in range time to use a spell. This character will be very fun to play. Then there is also my character who is a chaotic neutral ranger who doesn't use attack spells because they ruin the fun of the fight so all of his spells are utility, then there is also his personality which is just that he will go to where the most adventure is, though the best part about him is how he doesn't care about death at all because he believes that when he dies he'll go to a land of endless adventure. Also in our campaign, everyone has to have a God to worship and due to his loyalty to adventure he accidentally found Aaxom, god of travel and so he follows his own version of the teachings causing him to do things in the name of religion when all he actually wants is an adventure

[@billcox8870]

I'm just a Dragonborn warlock who is seeking out letters, diaries, books on biology and history. A lover of knowledge so I can bring information to my Arch fae Patron. Sort of like Johnny 5 from the short circuit movies seeking input.

[@alexkuhn5188]

The moment I heard the brother of the Bard compared to Brock I burst out laughing because I pictured him getting jabbed in the back with a dagger coated with something that knocks him out like how Brock would get shut down by his Crogunk.

[@sonicroze]

This is hands down one of the most wonderful threads I've seen on this channel. Definitely giving this one a like. :D

[@bassmikemikepugh8971]

My aarakocra peacock bard, Quwintin Bryn Renaldo Rhalakesh, or Quwi for short. Is a 17yo runaway noble who is using his musical education and some stuff he stole from his father to keep himself afloat. Playing a little bit of a flirty bard who is very flamboyant, but if it ever comes to possible seduction rolls, he's a total paper tiger, quickly falling into stumbling, mumbling and running off to what ever room he had in the inn for the evening. In the end, he's either going to realize he was better off at home being a noble or will probably die from mouthing off to someone he shouldn't.

[@AviaBomber]

I once played an Aven Wizard (College of Scribes) named Medjed. He was a very intelligent, curious, yet very goofy guy that marveled in even the simplest of things. Most of his spells were necromantic in nature, but were never used for nefarious purposes, and in his back story, he was basically going to mortuary school, the ambient magic of death and undeath whispered to him, and his notes became his spellbook. Also, he would frequently pick through the garbage for not only valuables, but food as well. His bird features were all based on the Australian white ibis, colloquially known as the bin chicken, and I wanted his behaviors to reflect his appearance. My current character is a Wildhunt Shifter Warlock with a pact to the Moon (it's a homebrew patron). Well... sort of. See, his patron in the campaign he's in is actually the first lycanthrope, a being sealed away in a demiplane created by Selune at the behest of the rest of the pantheon. This lycanthrope has been bathed in so much lunar magic over the course of countless ages that it makes him almost a font of that magic, and my character's first encounter with him was because of the cult of Shar, who made him forget his family and life among other Shifters and more civilized beastfolk. As thus, my character views his patron as his father, and the patron views my character like a son, keeping a constant eye on my character through the eyes of his shadow wolf familiar, Logos.

[@DeltaJumperTrey]

I made a happy-go-lucky, friendly, rogue character that wasn’t an orphan and didn’t want revenge on anything. He just wanted to develop a name for himself because he was born to a wealthy family. After studying the history of fighters before him, he realized that more dexterity type fighters tend to last longer and do better.

[@ignacioperez5479]

a low cost edgy rogue. what i mean with low cost? he tries to be dark and edgy, but he just cant be bad. when he presented the party, he slided metal against metal under his coat, only to show a metal box filled with cookies he made for his sister and the childs she plays with

[@imrgrimmi1659]

I've got a human "revenant" fighter based super-loosely on Sir Daniel Fortesque from MediEvil and generic protag from Fable. Died in a large scale battle against dragon cultists long ago, resurrected years later to find a similar threat rising once again. He has a massive martyr complex, dedicating himself as the party meatshield. When he does die, he doesn't stay dead long and any death leaves a new scar from the final blow.

[@donnietidwell965]

I hope the people that were laid off from bungie are doin well

[@cwarby5417]

I played a tiefling named Morá, he had a loving home life (yeah that makes me unique already) but Mora developed an obsession with bringing back the dead since a sibling died of disease. He left home and went to train with the red wizards of Thay. Unfortunatly, instead of them taking him in, he was used as a sort of test subject for their dark magic. Resulting in an additional soul being bound to his body. For roleplay reasons, every long rest results in the other soul taking over until the next long rest. For this i multiclassed Necromancer (for Morá) along with the class of this other soul (cleric) making a pretty interesting, unique and plot filled mix

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned in.

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

Jimmy Two-Squeaks the wild mage. A normal human was randomly abducted one day by magic from Limbo, and dragged to it. He went batshit insane, but because your mind can control Limbo a little, survived there for years. He then was randomly deposited back on the material plane. He trusts NOTHING to be solid for the next 3 seconds, much less useful or loyal to him, he casts ONLY wild magic, and constantly mutters randomly. He's so far off his rocker that his rocker left home to go gamble for a living and spend its earnings on crypto.

[@jerrymajors8132]

I've a halfling warlock who is a scholar and the very definition of a doormat (high intelligence, low-middling charisma). She is a very bright student, but just can't bring herself to refuse helping a fellow scholar in their studies (doing their homework, gathering herbs for them from the school garden, etc.), even to the detriment of her own studies. Her patron is just an archfey taking advantage of her kindness, giving her a magical locket to help in a quest to get the patron magical artifacts for "study" (using them for their own gain, like, absorbing their magical power or something). Never played her, but I imagine her arc being a nice and simple "she learns to be her own person, and eventually stands up to her patron.”

[@moonpanzor]

I dunno if this'll get seen but I had to tell people about my goblin. He had huge ears, (taken a few goblin perks to give better perception for hearing) and he was the opposite of a typical goblin. I can't remember his name right now, though I think his first name was Ragthar. He was a cleric of some pure, lawful good, Goddess in the campaign of a friend. His back story was that he was once the stereotypical goblin that raided some poor village along with his clan. He specifically broke through the doors of the church and saw many pretty shines to take. One being a pure gold talisman to the Goddess and the other being a leatherbound, and intricately locked time of her scriptures. The lock was gold and he liked it. That night he was visited in his dreams by the goddess, who essentially uplifted him. He became aware of the awful ways of her myself and his people. And through many speeches he even convinced his clan the same. Soon they became close allies to that very town when they returned all they stole and helped repair it. He tried to return the talisman and scriptures but the priest refused as he took had a dream and was told he, Ragthar, would be a champion one day. A few days later the rest of the PC party rolled in thinking the town was overrun with goblins, and we're there to slay them till the townsmen protected us, as we refused to fight back. Loved him, he had to wear special robes to hide what he was as no other place would allow a goblin to live, let alone enter.

[@jamestaylor3805]

Homebrew race and background... Alcedinidin (Kingfisher inspired bird race, flight and an increased hold breath before con rolls) Background - Pearl Diver, comfortable lifestyle for Prof people in coastal regions, water vehicles or navigation tools) Started as a rogue to match the laid back lifestyle and have expertise in nature and survival. Campaign took a turn I didnt expect and we ended up in a Ravenloft like setting where I became a bloodhunter to seek revenge after my family was murdered.

[@grandphenocianphoenix1796]

Hey, I have the exact same identity thief changeling except chaotic evil with no keen mind

[@alpheausfeltham9532]

for a friend's D&D 5e campaign set in a homebrew setting probably heavily inspired by shadowrun, I played a Warforged healer named Doktor. Doktor was a hulking 7-foot tall utilitarian construct designed for frontline triage and healing in a war between a heavily soviet-inspired nation of dwarves and gnomes and a haughty elven kingdom (Aesthetically, think something like one of the chunkier robots from atomic heart, or some of the communist robots from fallout). He was somehow taken from his duties on the frontline and sold as a non-sapient medical automaton to a blackmarket surgeon in the city where the campaign took place (far from either the dwarven or elven countries he knew), and had most of his memories taken as to how he'd gotten there. He was released when his owner realized he was sapient, and figured that while he was ok running a black-market chop-shop, owning a sapient construct was probably more heat than he'd be willing to take. He was sold to the party, who basically took him on as a heal-bot for their adventures. Did I play a cleric, bard, paladin or some other healing magic user? No. I played a homebrew fighter subclass based entirely around protecting my allies, using the healer feat and a LOT of healers kits, administering potions, and having a few abilities that allowed him to suture wounds and such using the targets own hit dice in combat. Doctor used a greatshield, and had a built-in buzz-saw in one of his arms as his main weapon. He primarily ran around face-tanking all damage, dealing next to none in return, but keeping everyone up and alive with a mix of healing kits, potions and his own medical ability. It was a blast. Personality-wise he was very literal-minded, taking everything at face value and completely misunderstanding any metaphor or play on words. He spoke in THIK RUSSIAN AKSENT, and made a lot of unintentional puns (unintentional in his eyes, my friends suffer my presence). Unfortunately I never got to finish that campaign, as it's currently on hiatus, and likely a permanent one, but he was a fun character to play.

[@craebe]

I'm currently playing an Eberron campaign as a minotaur fighter with high strength and constitution. Sounds basic, until you read his description and realize he's blind. His dex is only 6 and he uses the blind-fighting fighting style, so he can decimate anything in his 10-foot range but is basically a glorified meat shield when against ranged enemies.

[@silvanusasher446]

I wanted to create a blind hobgoblin samurai fighter with the rune carver and lucky feats. Might just do that now, thank you

[@nyxorsomething6945]

One of my favorites I've played is Harlowe. Harlowe was a human! The "was" is very intentional. They were a sous chef at a nice restaurant, sustaining their three younger siblings, then bang, an exiled aberrant deity merges with their mind Suddenly they're a Kalashtar, and a sorcerer, as while the deity does not remember much, a shred of its cosmic power lives on through Harlowe Backstory TL;DR, Harlowe got reverse-isekai'd by a God and now they're an aberrant mind sorcerer They were a very fun character to play, because they had a vibrant and bubbly- though honest- personality. The telekinetic feat mixed with mostly psychic/telekinetic spells lead to one of my most flavorful characters in terms of abilities; it all just matched perfectly with my vision! I focused this character on battlefield control, debuffs, and single-target damage, meaning instead of getting the typical stuff for the typical chaotic explosive sorcerer I got to read minds and send people flying with my brain! All in all, one of my favorite characters I've ever played. A fun campaign with some very memorable moments!

[@AidanWR]

I have a rogue, multiclass into monk (for unarmored defense), that comes from a noble background, lawful good, and a pervert. She has a rapier that is very expensive that was given to her from her parents. She is a really good fencer, as was typical for nobility, and has a lot of feats that allow her to see pretty much everything is an area (passive perception of 24), sleight of hand for grabbing things (butts mostly), high stealth, and is a mastermind rogue, so she is very good at talking with people or hiding if needed. She also takes very good care of her rapier and cleans it after every fight with a handkerchief with her initials embossed in them. She is always careful around law enforcement, because her race was a minority in the world (shapeshifter), her father spent a lot of his life getting to the power that he was at, and she didn't want to ruin his reputation, or hers, by making a dumb mistake. She was also very non-greedy, when a town that was being rebuilt offered her money for saving the town, she declined it and told them that they needed it more

[@bleachbleachBLEACHER]

One I'm absolutely dying to have a good opportunity to play as is a Kalashtar Forge Cleric whose backstory is that she was part of a pirate crew most of her life until her ship was raided by a group of holy warriors that arrested her, but offered her a chance to escape execution if she agreed to pledge herself as a Cleric as a form of parole with the intent of rehabilitating her into a proper member of society. I love the concept I've created of someone being blessed by a god she actively doesn't worship in an attempt to convince her that she can still become a better person instead of the typical virtuous faithful angle. As a side note, the entire character idea spawned from a conversation with a friend in which he said "I can't imagine any class other than the Rogue using a dagger as their main weapon" - and my brain immediately responded with "Challenge Accepted!"

[@garethvila5108]

I love to ignore class tropes and choose the class after I know what's the character's idea. For example, there's this changeling arlequin that just likes to mess around. He uses ilusions and his agility to infiltrate and fight, since those are the tricks he learnt when he was traveling with a troupe of artists. So I made him a Bard-Rogue. Funny thing is, since he isn't either the stereotypical bard or rogue, he's never been referred to by his class, which happened with most other PCs. There's also that knight that relies on his heavy armour while fighting with a greatsword. A Barbarian. With feats to get the Heavy Armor proficiency, Reckless Attack just being him trusting his good armor while committing fully to offensive actions and Rage being him focusing on the fight. Or, another example, is the witch-hunter like inquisitor that fights with a flintlock gun while helping on the fight with her future-seeing abilities. This one is a Kalashtar Divine Soul Sorcerer mixed with Divination Wizard with the Gunner feat. She's mostly a support character, with basically no offensive magic (the most offensive thing she has is Silence), but pulling out a gun for 1d10 damage is quite nice. Specially when her spells focus on modifying rolls. I don't mean to say class stereotypes are bad, I really enjoyed playing as a full-stereotype Wizard that isn't good at any physical activity and considers mages to be the only wise people around, and if I didn't enjoy my 80s trope kung-fu xiaolin Monk it's because I ended up disilusioned with the class itself. Playing the trope is fun, but I prefer making a character that nobody will just call "our group's **Insert class here**".

[@marcussherlock6318]

I played a Pact of the Blade warlock with a Celestial patron. First level in fighter to get that heavy armour proficiency. Made the absurd decision to take the Spell Sniper feat to double the ranges on my spells specifically to increase the range of the SCAG melee fighting spells for use with my glaive. I love glaives and will do whatever is necessary to make them shine, no matter how use-impaired such decisions may be. Anyway, this warlock's backstory is that in his early childhood his family's caravan was attacked by raiders in the desert and was (to his knowledge) the only survivor, thanks to the intervention of his future patron, an angel. This angel then took him to a little pocket dimension in the same desert where he was raised alone and trained as a warrior of justice (and so on) by this angel to represent her on the material plane. The angel in question is a bit of a militant who chose her own exile because her god did not take a sufficiently hard line against undeath in the world. This angel pursues her hatred of undeath and undead beings to the extent that she might even put living people in harm's way to prosecute her vendetta war. As a result, she teeters on the edge of truly falling. Her ward, my warlock, is not fully aware of how precarious his patron's condition is, and within the context of his raising received more straightforward "goodness and justice" values, of course with instructions to slay the undead wherever they are found. His sheltered upbringing makes him quite naïve and has left him unprepared for the true complexities of the world, which is far from the black and white perspective his patron holds to. Most significantly, encountering technically undead beings that are neither evil nor mindless. And when finally he was sent out into the world, it was under strict instructions to portray himself not as the celestial-pact warlock that he is, but as the true paladin his patron wishes she could have raised him to be. He does this by introducing himself as a paladin, sporting his far-from-shining armour, and attempting to pass off his very-much-arcane warlock spells and celestial powers as though they were actually part of the paladin kit. Unfortunately his deception ability is not great, so few people with any magical experience believe him for long, and his insight is not very inspiring either so he doesn't notice that his insistent assertions of paladinhood are at this point only being humoured by his party and recurring NPCs. Though that doesn't mean everyone correctly concludes he is a warlock, specifically. And the constant shadow that follows him through his adventures is the question of whether his beloved patron and mentor will be driven by her solitude and growing extremism to become a true fiend. The only question that remains is whether he can pull her back from that brink, and if not, how he will choose to resolve such a horrific development and personal loss.

[@vincentstuart9562]

Had a custom lineage Hexblade Warlock but due to her build and equipment, and her demeanor, she was often mistaken for a Paladin to such a degree where an NPC was genuinely surprised when she called upon her patron directly during a major battle and got possessed. During the possession she was a vengeance fueled terror to the enemy lines because she though the druid (her best friend and future husband) had been killed by a dragon, a lot of people still thought she was a Paladin, but a Vengeance Paladin. In reality she was just kind of the party's mom friend and cared for their whole group despite how large it got at one point, and even got dropped to near unconscious multiple times protecting another player or even an NPC. She later ascended (there was a whole mess and several side sessions for that) and became a patron deity of vengeance and oathkeepers,

[@lordodin92]

So the one I wanna play is an assimar bard who used to be an angel who inspired artists, he wanted some recognition for his work as a muse but was refusing and was exiled as a mortal to learn humility, instead he decided to start a new religion (more of a cult ) based around himself as the principal god. His name . . . .will power and he acts like a cheesy 80s motivational coach complete with singing 80s montage songs and ballads, he uses quotes like "what gets you up in the morning to tend the fields ? Will power" He doesn't care at all for sex and drugs ect and I know a cleric would be better suited but my idea was for him to use suggestion (and other charm magics) and general showman ship like a televangelist which fits a bard just as well

[@wanderbolt9498]

In a homebrew campaign, my character was originally part of a wildspace based batfolk merchant fleet as a gunner and occasional transport pilot, her species is pretty religious so they often make pilgrimages to important sites or their holy city-ship the Astera. She got lost and crash landed on the material plane, being stranded in the process. One would think someone from space would make a great artificer to the likes of some stinky non spacers, but nope, they already have kickass artificers because magic has been kinda dying for the last few centuries so machines are all the rage. to take out her anger from being stranded without much prospect for work or rescue she decided to train up into a fighter/pact of beast barbarian and punch the crap out of things as a form of catharsis. Now she travels with a band of equally colorful characters and is the proud owner of a pair of ballistic-assisted punching gauntlets that use shotgun blanks to make her punches stronger.

[@Giganotus]

Most of mine break stereotypes in some way. High Elf paladin who is a dumbass himbo and extremely humble instead of snooty Githzerai spore druid who's never met another Gith in her life and lives in the woods like a feral beast Aasimar fighter who drinks paint, mouths off to deities he doesn't like, swears constantly, and is gay for a Tiefling. And isn't fallen, somehow. Warforged barbarian who is quite intelligent and is extremely full of emotions (she loves her friends very much). Also the fact that she's feminine, I don't see as many feminine Warforged

[@coreenforcer6404]

One of my most unique characters was for a campaign where we were a group of detectives trying to track down a serial killer. The thing is, none of us were actually competent detectives. We were a suicide squad that was trying to earn our freedom. I was playing a pacifist bard that got arrested for protecting a pregnant teifling from guards harassing her by using sleep. He was a peaceful guy who uses painting and art to cast his spells. His art skills proved useful for making police sketches. In the end rather than arresting the criminal, he sacrificed the party's freedom to let the criminal go after persuading him to change his ways.

[@brunosilva5652]

I have two nice ones to add. The first one is an assassin-hexblade and I play her as a seductress, whenever we need to infiltrate somewhere she just enters through the front dor. My second one is a Lore Bard changeling, he is fascinated with ancient history and his magic comes from dead cultures prayers and poems. He sees war as the destruction of history and beauty so he became a diplomat and uses his magic and shape change to influence the two sides of the negotiations

[@aciefiedspade3510]

One of my favorite things to do with characters is create them with stereotypes of a different class. A couple of my favorites that I've held onto are a half elf archer who lived in nature and spoke to a unicorn. He was a Celestial Warlock. And a lizardfolk pirate wanted for smuggling, his favorite thing to do was throw people around and kick them when they're down. Champion Fighter.

[@WarChallenger]

4:30 Now that's what I'm talkin about! I love aircraft, and I once played as a former Irish air force pilot from WW2, who crashed after being shot apart in the air. On his way to the afterlife, he collided with the oncoming demon hordes, and got dragged to hell. There, he was forced to become his greatest fear. His own, ruined P-39 Airacobra. Became a warforged druid who was afraid to look in his own reflection, but who was determined to fight off the demon hordes like he once did the onslaughts of BF-109s.

[@garyboyles5762]

I have a character, Bastion Gladstone, he is a divine soul sorcerer/lore bard/dao warlock and he focuses on healing and being a happy go lucky supportive guy, with a stern raven familiar. If someone wants to do something that makes him mad, he will blow them up with a combination of things: quickening bane, twin cast Mind sliver. The enemy saves? Cutting words. Enemy flees out of melee? Raven was actually an Imp. Spend the next few turns blasting the enemy with subtle synaptic static, Tasha's mind whips, and draining them with enervation. But if one is a friend or ally? He will set up Aid, Hero's Feast, and give plenty of inspiring speeches and inspiration.

[@MalWave]

My kobold artificer Skrapp. Having suffered a serious accident as a child, they lost both their legs. They learned to build things to fix their legs (giving themselves two artificial leggies) and realised they could help others with this technology...so set off to try and do so. Currently a multiclassed cleric of the Changebringer, who they seem to have become pretty good friends with.

[@SirSlenderSpawn]

I had a Shifter Ancestral Guardian barbarian / rune knight fighter nicknamed Badger. I played him in a more “realistic” campaign (keep track of food, more illnesses, specific body injuries, etc) and wanted to play as a support that didn’t use spells and could do many survival tasks. I themed him around nomadic Vikings and Norse mythology but put a twist on it that the race of Shifters were a group of Vikings who sought out the power of the Giants / Jötunn and were punished to live as animals by the Norse deities. The flavor of rune knight and his ties to his people fit the two classes amazingly and I had a blast for the brief time I had playing him.

[@ElijahForLong]

Orc Abjuration Wizard. His tribe often squatted in whatever abandoned place they came across, and one day that happened to be a monk monastery. There, he found charts and diagrams on how ki/magic flowed through the body, and used them to invent his own form of "Orcish Wizardry" which focuses on keeping a strong, healthy body and using strength empowered by magic to create spell effects. A muscle mage who is actually smart and unironic.

[@marshalmarshall2109]

one time i pitched an idea to a friend who was in a dnd campaign of "The Apple Wizard". a wizard who carried around apple seeds and used spells to instantly or quickly grow apple trees as a form of offensive magic. he would throw seeds at enemies, hit them with a grow spell, and suddenly whoever he was fighting would either be smacked with a full grown apple tree going 50mph or become encased in them. he first displayed this magic by waiting until the PCs fell asleep at camp, dropped an apple seed in their ears, and instantly crushed their skulls as a meta form of revenge for killing his previous character. currently in a DnD group and planning to make a realistic serial killer in the vain of Ted Bundy minus the struggle snuggles.

[@delmattia96]

I am still playing 3.5 and have a pretty stereotipical Summoner Druid. I guess the only weird part about him is that he abandoned adventure for a decade and just got back into the world this year (reason why he fell down to level 3 from 5). Playing him with a balance between "Wild" and "Rural" is kinda fun. The reason why he stopped adventuring? Because in Real Life I stopped playing. He is literally the last character I played before I left and the first I played once back to playing. Still, he is not even close to weird. My first campaign, that was another story. We were a party of four: 2 Warriors (one of which was me), 1 Ranger/Thief and a Mage. We were part of a unit of squires and rejected knights that got turned into a messenger unit in a world that was becoming more dangerous. Both us Warriors and the Ranger had "Endurance" and "Run", Feats that allow your character to run for extremely long and really fast. Our common tactic was just running from enemies using the Wizard Crowd Control as an obstacle for the enemy, while one of us Warriors carried the Wizard and the other kept the "letter/object" leaving the Ranger to open the way. It was pretty fun to play a game where the focus was not killing monsters, but completing a mission. We decided to have level ups tied to the missions we completed and to treat the monsters we ran from as if they were defeated by the party. It was such a weird concept. ---- In the last few weeks my druid had to work together with a warrior to carry blessed oil, holy water and similar objects to a Rest Station during a War against Evil Outsiders (Both Devils and Demons). I got some flashbacks to that campaign, lmao

[@zerotheassassin239]

my warforged paladin named ragnar. his flaw? instead of the tank hes supposed to be, he rushes in to any enemy INCLUDING the BBEG when they have their encounter.... and just decimates everything. every time he does that? he almost destroys himself in the process but he for whatever magical reason, survives with a single hitpoint.

[@AppletreeChild]

Might be a bit late, but still kinda wanted to share. Presenting Gauvac Thunderheart Inukhtalvi, my wonderful and dork-ish Goliath Bard-barian. Trained in the art of fighting and smithing (barbarian), he one day became enthralled by the stories a wandering bard told and sung, while visiting his humble village. He taught himself to play the guitar and at the tender age of 16 wandered off into the wilderness and by chance stumbled into the feywilds. There he met his best friend, Lilia the Pixie, and went on to learn the art of the Bard and furthermore everything the "Collage of Glamour" could teach. Later he met the love of his life, a elven beauty and paladin, who got lost after a battle. They spend much time together, became an item and were just happy. Seeing himself as not good enough for her, Gauvac in a cloak-and-dagger operation smuggled her out of the feywilds, without her knowledge or consent. Some time later he himself set out to return to the material plane, where he vowed to stand by his belief to have let her go into a better life, kept himself from looking for her and never to touch or lay with another person as he did with her. She remains his one and only.

[@zichithefox4781]

One of my favorite characters I made was sort of based on a power build. She was a Goliath monk/cleric. Way of the Long Death and Grave Domain respectively. The point of the build was to use death to avoid death, as the character was once confronted by a lich and remains almost cripplingly afraid of death since. But rather than wallow in fear, she uses it to bolster herself to protect herself and those she cares about. One could also make the joke she's just too stubborn to die.

[@barubary436]

In a spelljammer game that didn't last very long, I played a plasmoid armorer artificer. His arcane armor was the guttd shell of a warforged, and the armor was installed into that frame. My character was small size out of the armor but medium while inside it. And thanks to the dm ruling in my favor that my extruded pseudopod could wrap around my mechanical suit arm and a rifle barrel to stabilize it, I could use a rifle and a shield at the same time.

[@SweetStoneArts]

My character is the Dancing Rogue, "Maiko Ami!" She was a changeling who was more of a bard than rogue, dancing on the stage of taverns and using her changeling abilities for jokes. Her goal was to become a star like her mother (Also a changeling rogue but leaned into Rogue more) and find clues about her mother. The only clue she has is the dress she left behind. From that day forth, she uses her charm to make people's day. One day, I'll get enough levels to multiclass to bard. For my other character, they were the previous Dancing Rogue, " Ami " The mother of Maiko (And my previous character before playing Maiko) , she would also dance and preform. However, she specialized in Deception rather than Persuasion. Alluring people to do her work, she would preform tasks of any kind. Assassination, Camp wipeouts, just dancing at a tavern. Her reason for doing so was to raise money for her daughter, Maiko. The campaign she was in never finished, and she was seemingly stranded at a city with no way to return. (My head-cannon was that she made a name for herself as a dancer, and Maiko wished to follow her footsteps.)

[@timeless9534]

I have a Warforged Armorer Artificer who used to be a mindless construct making weapons and armor for adventurers and village guards, but gained sentience when they witnessed a tiefling sorcerer’s cruelty towards people of his village. They refused to make the sorcerer anything, resulting in said sorcerer destroying their village. The artificer was the only survivor, and modified their own body not dissimilarly to self-mutilation in order to exact revenge on that sorcerer. I’m not currently playing this character. It’s just one of my 27 character sheets that I’ve made over the years because I like creating D&D characters.

[@mitchellhasto3003]

Currently playing an interesting kind of barbarian. Campaign is set in the post apocalypse of a city that is currently under a magical prison field to contain a tear in reality to The realm of the far gods. Bob was a cultist who fought in the rebellion at the time and accidentally helped propagate the apocalypse. He was altered by the things that came through the portal. He has been alive for well over 100 years and his rage is essentially him giving into his insanity, he’s made a deal with a witch to help retain his original form so when he goes into rage, he puts on the mask that he had as a cultist and changes forms into a tiefling

[@BillyKatze]

thought of a Bard, warforged, the gimmick is that he does not play an instrument - he himself is a boombox (he has a speaker in his belly).

[@Jaelesh]

Back during 3.5 I ran an artificer who focused their skills on making alchemical/alcohol/drug items and social skills/feat to run a business. Had a pocket dimension anchored inside of his wagon (which he enchanted to be a damn near indestructible machine of death that looked like a rather well made Vardo) that was built up to be a workshop, distillery, inn, tavern and brothel with multiple doors that could be used to travel to many of the major cities on many planes and constructs to act as various servers and servants. Fought using mostly alchemical items and improvised weapons and was only adventuring in order to have fun pretending to be a shady drug dealer and try to find new ingredients and recipes in order to improve his actual primary business as a bartender... who is also a shady drug dealer.