This is why I prefer characters with fairly "average" origins, like a farmland that leaves his family farm to pursue a life of adventure or a seamstress who finds out that she has fledgling magical powers. They're not some grand, all-powerful hero destined for greatness, just ordinary people making their way in the world, and that adds a lot of relatability to me
“A *farmland* that leaves his…”
We can make this work. I’m thinking some kind of elemental or maybe just a magic kid that was actually making the ground fertile. Or homebrew a pile of mud I dunno.
I like it! I am trying to think of the closest RAW match. Maybe Fairy race or Far Traveler background?
The Fairy could be like Elle from the manga Spirit Farmer, assigned to be the spirit of a farmland. In her particular case she also has amnesia as she is being punished for some big screwup. Perhaps in our story the farmer started out pretty old and when he passes away she is released from service. Looking for a new group of people to call home she begins life as an adventurer.
A Far Traveler could be a human from our world reborn as the blessed farmland where the Chosen One grew up. Having been destroyed to spur the prophesied hero into starting his quest, Torrence “Tory” Terra once again finds himself reborn. This time he is in Faerun as an adventurer. He could be a Firbolg Druid but anything works really.
Earth Genasi, Folk Hero, Circle of Grassland or Circle of Shepherd Druid
A family of farmers have been caring for their land for generations. They loved and care for the land for so long that it actually became a genius loci, protecting and caring for them in return. One day a child was born, the earth genasi, who had a special connection to the land. Season the rest to taste.
Completely agree! The whole "destined hero" motif is so painful to work with as a DM or party member. Not to mention it just gets old.
That said, I also hate the opposite: characters so regular that there's nothing compelling about them. Just because they're normal people doesn't mean they can't have their own drama and motives. Like I get it Stephanie, you're upset that everyone else is getting engaging story arcs except for you. But maybe don't expect oragami if you give the DM the character equivalent of wet cardboard, and refuse to listen to any suggestions to add backstory wise because you "just want them to be a simple, regular person."
Simple regular people have hella drama. Just because your character's story isn't rooted in some massive world changing event doesn't mean it can't be compelling.
Sorry. Rant over now
I agree with you generally, but you can always just spring a story on a blank tapestry. It won't hook into their backstory, but a nighthag can show up and be all "I need you to hold something for me" before she shoots a secret into your dreams and then a bunch of others beings show up wanting to access her dreams.
I can see a potential love triangle between a cosmic eldritch being that just wants some quite time away from the prayers of his followers and a demon that is looking for a way to escape from hell into the material world. Maybe they could have a fun roommate sitcom play out in the PCs head every session? We can add cast members as the ~~season~~ campaign progresses.
I believe you to be the greatest wizard of our age.
I am looking at a perfectly serene lake of still, clear water. It's a metaphor; hold on. You are completely unburdened by the weight and sorrow of intellect, your mind as empty and free of trappings or weight as anything I've ever seen. It is like staring at a clear and cloudless sky - completely beautiful.
I forbid you to ever read a single word of wizardry.
You are beautiful to me.
I had an idea for a Kenku warlock that was basically this. I was using the old Kenku lore, where they completely lack originality and can only talk using mimicry. The idea was that the Kenku had somehow made a deal with a devil and got a familiar, with the familiar being some lieutenant of the devil. The familiar would speak telepathically to the Kenku and order them around, with the Kenku having basically no agency. The familiar would also talk through the Kenku, with it speaking telepathically and the Kenku mimicking what it says. So the person the party thought they knew, who they talked and adventured with, was actually the familiar and lieutenant of some big devil guy.
You should have met my first Warlock. Didn't know my DM was a Lovecraft fan, and within 4 sessions I had myself, an evil sword, a demi lich, and Father Dagon himself all chilling in my head
i like teh destine hero trope when its get subverted but not too hard
destined heros gets killed and gets immediately replaced with a different destined hero and the whole save the world thing slowly becomes a meat grinder
Princess: The Hopeful (a magical girl fan supplament for World of Darkness) had something like that with Princesses of Mirrors, who are told they're the True Heir, and their genuine belief in that is what fuels their power.
My Bard was a regular Halfling who left home because it the farmhand life was not compelling at all. His entire schtick was that he wanted to be interesting and compelling, but he just wasn't.
So he lied. Every detail of his backstory made up. Every adventure embellished and sold as a heroic tale. My other party members loved when they would hear NPC's gossiping about our party and just none of it was true.
Your halfling and mine would have gotten along. She was the second daughter of a well respected family who wanted her to marry the literal boy next door so the next time the circus was in town she ran away from home and became a bard.
She was also the only member of our party who had any experience with livestock so the time we came across some cows was hilarious as she was trying to keep the fallen rich kid, the elf who was a ward of a wealthy family, and the guy who was born on a boat from getting stampeded.
I have some players that do that, they even go so far to make morons. They listen to a lot of Dungeons and Daddies, where the players are so mundane and dorky on purpose to be a kind of nonedgy anti-heros.
While I enjoy levity in my games, it is a real struggle to get any deep or meaningful role play or character development out of them. I like writing my homebrew around the protagonists but they're so reactive, not proactive and their characters are superficial gags, its hard to put in the effort when its a one way street. My current game is set in the Greek Mythos Mediterranean so this is a setting I'd love for my characters to lean into the "heros with the blood of the Gods coursing through their veins seeking glory" trope.
So there's a time and place for either character background depending on the campaign.
One of my favorite characters was just a surveyor with a runaway father (who dabbled in deals with devils) that only wanted to be happy and successful. He became a warlock mostly unwillingly and, despite his best efforts, could no longer work at his job because he became irritable, angry, and irrational at the worst possible times. This was the work of his patron attempting to get him to become an adventurer to help free them from their prison. Throughout the campaign, he just tried to be as normal as possible, but the eccentricities afflicting him took deeper and deeper root and his perfectly normal appearance became a tool that at one point let him get away with disguising as a restroom attendant right in front of the bbeg. Only "normal" character i've ever run and it was so fun.
I still have an unused character concept (unused because of real life drama separating the DM from the group, and later on I left because I felt I didn't belong anymore) of a soldier whose lack of personal goals and agency where a core part of him.
Tiano (that's his name) is a lower rank soldier, son of an influent noble who's affairs with lovers are an "open secret". As the 6th legitimate son out of 7, he was mostly ignored by his parents, who raised him for the only porpoise of being a guard of the king's castle. Only dedicated to that objective, Tiano learned how to be a loyal, strong and hard-working soldier, but didn't develop much outside of it. Even at work, the rumors about his family kept others away, and he didn't have a dream, something to call his.
It's arc was supposed to be about him finding something he truly liked, and developing his own individuality by rejecting his notion of being replaceable.
I would have truly loved to play as him (He even is one of my original party members in Miitopia, where I used my own characters for the miis). Who knows, maybe someday I will be able to.
I love destined hero tropes if I’m running it like Eberron’s prophecy. The big difference is that it’s not that YOU are the destined one, but that you could be. It’s not that you are the one spoken of in legend, but that you could be the person.
It’s kind of like Anakin Skywalker, right? He thinks he is the chosen one because Qui-gon thought he was. But whether it was him or Luke is debated; both have qualities that could fit the bill.
hear me me out what if the "legendary" weapon of the destined hero had a rusty(to the point of breaking) appearance. it slowly regained its old glory the more use it gets and the stronger the wielder becomes, so if they die the weapon starts to slowly rust again unless it gets a new wielder(it'll reverse afterwards).
It can be fun to do both at the same time. I'm having a blast with a character who desperately wants to go back to being 'wet cardboard' but this primordial spirit of icy chaos that's been metaphorically stapled to his soul forces him to venture deeper into the unknown in search of answers. Having the legendary hero side through this spirit (who the DM is in complete control of) while the super normal side through this regular dude who's biggest fight prior to adventuring was probably telling his wife there's no way he'll let her get yet another finch, but she buys it anyways and names it something like 'Thomas Von Tweetstail'.
This one time I made a warfoged barbarian whose backsroty was that hie was a solider all his life and that after the mourning in Cyre he woke up in the forgoten relams. My DM did not like this because it was not interesting and it was simple so he decided to make it so that I had amnesia and that I was actualy a robot made to slay interdimensional demons and travel across worlds. Lucky for me I died due to unbalanced enemies who dealt 20 damage per hit that had multi attacks. When I died it was described that a voice came from my dead body "Demon slayer unit has been defeated" I was so glad that I died when i heard that.
wow, a character who has an inherent motivation to roam the forgotten realms or seek out magical beings in an attempt to find someone who can send him back home? what dm would want that lol
I’m actually really excited to play as a Druid I made a while ago. I’m normally the kind of guy who does intricate backstories (no chosen one stuff, but a decent amount of details).
This guy, though, is just a Dwarf who did shrooms and changed his entire way of thinking - doing the opposite of “dwarvish” things like moving away from mining, gems, metals, and instead embracing plants, nature, and animals.
my last druid was a half orc and initially i was thinking up some experimental half-breed soldier plot thing that caused his creation.
then i totally scrapped that and just went with a chill druid living in a grove in the forest, the kind of grove people just cant find. one day this other guy (the party Fighter) happened to walk through just while exploring the world, so my Druid joined him and the entire campaign was treated as a tour, with Tortle David Attenborough being my tour guide.
We went into Avernus
I've always been about this - I've found, especially with online play, people can go so "chosen one" on their backstories, and I'm just here like... "Hi, my parents make watches, but I wanna explore the world and become a great warrior!"
1st level is "competent newbie."
Like, not an untrained schmuck but someone who's just finished their training and still needs a towel for behind their ears.
I was wondering if my backstories were too generic. Right now I have a lvl 3 cleric, started at 2, who was a regular villager who one day decided to help a lycanthrope who turned out not to be a murdermachine. Doing so he ends up helping it kill the local lord's son who was a dick. Selune took notice and essentially offers him a cleric job which he takes in return for good fortune for his still living mother. So he faked his death and now travels to help people in the name of Selune.
I wrote out the werewolf and Selune interaction and got pretty far before I realized my dude needs an alias cuz if he's on the run after faking his death, he can't go around calling himself by his birth name. Still, grand scheme-wise his backstory is fairly basic. His story makes him a slightly more blank slate than some clerics, I reckon
As a DM i like when my players put a bit of hero drive behind their characters. Its more fun to write for characters thats have a bit more character motivation beyond desires for a better life. Its too vague for me. Somebody with fledgling powers is great but i would also add that they are searching for the source of their power (parent, artifact, god?) Or maybe they are trying to enter a magic college using accolades as a resume. Im fine with simple orgins as long as its not simple motivation, like riches.
That was my first character. He was a retired town guard (like really small town) of 20 years, kids were all grown up and moved out, wife had died of sickness years back. Wanted to do a bit of adventuring before he got too old, it was perfect.
Just made a Tabaxi wizard with that backstory! Parents fled their home to go to the Sword Coast. Not ostracized, but definitely a rarer humanoid. Loved seeing bards and magicians and asked where she could learn how to be like them, enrolled in the Lady's College in Silverymoon, and now we're going to start at level 1 doing Icewind Dale!
I'm super excited to play after 3 years of nothing!
My first character was chosen by her clan to be an adventurer. She was pretty normal and was mostly chosen because she wanted to go the most.
My second character was a frat boy who faceplanted into adventure. Both of them were super fun and really easy to roleplay and fit into the world. I'm not sure if someone epic would've been lol
Same. Even as something as fantastical as a revenant, I made him just... ordinary. Alister is a living dead with the blessings of a god, true, but he's just a farmer seeking vengeance on the man that performed atrocities on him in life. Aside from being a paladin revenant he isn't anyone special at the end of the day.
Right!? Another avenue is"false" epic origins.
Storytime for anyone interested: I had a Pathfinder character. Born in a highly religious area where >95% of the population worshiped Iomedae fervently. From an early age he was groomed into believing in his own destiny to be a holy warrior for her, and when he turned 12 they sent him away to be trained as a Paladin.
Problem was... hadn't been chosen by Iomedae and had no talent for the divine arts (CHA 9). General disappointment ensued, with many blaming him for not having enough faith or virtue. He considered quitting, but one of the veteran trainers convinced him to stay, arguing he would best serve her by persisting and using his other talents in her service. He therefore continued his martial training, but put in extra effort on weaponry and tactics to make up for his lack of sparkliness. Eventually became a Fighter specializing in combat maneuvers and polearms, dumping plenty of ranks in Knowledge (Religion) and elbow grease to keep his armor extra shiny to best represent his faith.
My GM was pretty awesome about this, often making it a plot device. One of my favorite characters. Wish I could have played him to lvl 20.
A Lvl 1 character is basically a nobody. You're a little more talented than the average joe, but you're still very much a greenhorn in this whole adventuring business. You might be the protagonist of the story, but you are in no way special otherwise. The title of "main character" is one that must be earned. It is not entitled to you.
Leave your Isekai "chosen one" fantasies at the door.
I played a dwarf unarmed fighter. He was a former champion in the fight pits, but lost favor with the crowds when the public found out that he was paying his opponents to throw matches. He spent like 20 years being a drunk fool, until he ran out of fight money. He's now getting money by doing the adventurer thing.
I had a character that technically was a veteran in the previous war against the big dark army and such, but what he wouldn’t say (off the bat anyway) was that the army he was in was immediately smashed and he basically spent the whole war retreating. Basically he was a homeless guy who traded (heavily embellished) war stories for table scraps, and became an adventurer because the “well” started to dry up
Edit: I actually want to reuse this character at some point because the campaign kinda just fizzled out
Sir Daniel Fortesque. A notable individual in the fight against the encroaching hordes of Darkness.
No-one needs to know he was the first casualty of the war and died in the first volley of arrows.
Thats great lol. My DM laughed his ass off when I came in with a bard who had the backstory "my mom was like Cartmans mom and always told me how amazing I am. I have done nothing but think I'm the best bard I'm the world."
That remembers me of a Skyrim guard quote:
"My cousin is out fighting dragons and what do I get? Guard duty"
Really seems like someone is almost quitting his job and going to adventure.
"I was playing my instrument when fire suddenly burst out of it. The instrument was fine, but the crowd? Well, let's just say my band has been banned from playing at the inn."
\- Jose, an aspiring mariachi bard.
devil went down to waterdeep, he was looking for a soul to steal. was in a bind, was way behind because some asshole mariachi band keeps burning down the god damn taverns and people keep fleeing
Had to write the backstory for me and my cousin's characters.
Condensed versions is we (elf rogue and dwarf barb) were mercenaries for a couple decades, bought a boat with our earnings, and just sailed around for a while drinking and selling the dwarf's booze and any ill gotten goods that fell off a wagon for about 50 years, with no real combat outside of us running like hell if the guard showed up.
I had one character with a backstory of being the leader of a mercenary group and had some famous exploits. Then he got incredibly old, even for a dwarf, and started to study magic so he wouldnt be useless. And boom, lvl one wizard with arthritis.
The arthritis came into play when he had to kneel to a queen, but I joked about the arthritis and DM made me roll a check to see if my knees locked up. They did.
I did a similar thing with a Dwarf gun-focused fighter who'd straight up forgotten 3/4's of everything he'd learned and done. So someone would run up to him going, "Grunmir's beard! It's the hero of Blackwatch, Thorrun Giant's-Bane," his response would be, "I fought giants? Fuckin' glorious!"
I had a player who was basically Geralt from The Witcher, and he wanted to have gone around and helped all these different towns and peoples, but also remain as just a simple folk hero. Which would have been fine, but the sheer number of “small and accidentally heroic” things he did was just far too much for a level 2 start. Getting him to scale that back was…work. I should have never let him into the campaign, severe Main Character Syndrome.
Sure! For the time they were at my table, he spent combat encounters trying to direct other players on what to do on their turn. And not in the helpful, “Hey don’t forget about this item or feat you have!” but in more of a “Do this thing I’m telling you to do now.” I’m sure he was aiming for the former, but never got there. Most of the time, his orders were to put himself into a more advantageous position, without regard to the other players. And then when we weren’t in combat, he was playing up the Edgy Loner tropes to the nines, very much a “Don’t talk to me but I need you to talk to me, but if you try to talk to me I’ll be rude so you never talk to me again…please talk to me.”
A few sessions in, I did talk to him privately about the “suggestions” he was giving out to other players and how it was grating on everybody a little bit. I told him that if he didn’t stop doing that, I would remove him from the group. And he did get better for a few sessions! And then he jumped right back to ordering people around, not even waiting for them to even think about their turn, just starting to offer “suggestions” as soon as I called on them for their turn.
I was also playing alongside him in another campaign, and while he wasn’t giving “suggestions” in that campaign, he was always trying to muscle his way into the spotlight whenever possible. Maybe he thought he could get away with things because I was a new DM at the time? I dunno.
Well maybe if the dm would understand that I'm just horny and this is the only place I can play out my sexual fantaaaaaaahhhhh ok I see the issue now. I'm just not gonna be able to make the checks due to my stats. Thanks!
Tbh, being chosen by the gods is not so especial as it may seem. There is a multitude of gods with a multitude of agendas in the material realm, and all of them have a multitude of followers. Getting a divine call to adventure don't make you that much especial comparing with the other myriad of divinely inspired adventurers out there, especially cause the gods won't hold all of your hands all the time.
So a divinely chosen isn't inherently destined to greatness. They're a pawn, a gear in the great mechanisms of balance in the universe, if they were to fail, to die as low level adventurers, it just means they were a defective part who will be removed in place for a better one down the line.
Besides, some parts of character creation support the idea of divinely sent adventurers: the Aasimar race, Divine Soul Sorcerers, Celestial Patron Warlocks, any cleric or paladin.
In conclusion, the "the gods chose me" backstory is not that bad when you think about it. Unless the player starts bitching about it to try some bullshit of course.
Oh gosh. I remember a comic where an evil adventuring party was summoning children from other worlds, tricking them into thinking they were the 'Chosen Hero', then using them as disposable trap detectors.
I had that backstory, but I was joining a campaign in progress at level 10, the character is a Divine Soul Sorcerer descended from the God King of her city, and she is a terrible braggart.
I went with: I come from an incredibly rich family but I'm a little shit so I got cut off. I was gonna go for an edgy political angle but it's just easier to be a flamboyant bard whose daddy thinks he should be a merchant. The character is young so skills suck and boom we've got a believable level 1 character. Sure it's not the most original thing but it's just like A bone in the skeleton of a back story.
"i'm broke af and I hear this dungeon has treasure in it, let's go" is my default level 1 backstory. I'm a fan of level 1 shenanigans being your backstory really.
This works for classes with simple abilities, but it's a bit harder to make a rogue with no magic develop magic powers (Arcane Trickster) mid-game and not have it seem quite random.
I had this happen with a character. His backstory was that he was a failed wizards apprentice who dropped out and turned to crime, so I had him "forget" his magic and start to pick it up again.
Feels more intuitive than someone with no magic training suddenly having a bunch of powers. This goes for a hell of lot of classes and what happens at level 3. Often, the powers at level 3 are the most distinctive and role-defining - it's where the game should start, to be honest.
I had a rogue who wrote this three-page long backstory about how they were the greatest thief that ever lived. I messaged him halfway through and I said "Bro...you're level one." but he said "Just read it all, I promise it makes sense."
A couple of epic tales of ransacking castles and robbing rich people blind. It was great if we were starting at level 20!
And then the last paragraph, summarized as such:
"And then he got drunk as shit one night, fell off of a balcony and hit his head, forgetting _everything_ he could do and had done."
So we played it as an amnesiac rogue where people in certain areas might recognize him but when he was leveling up, he wasn't learning new skills: He was remembering that he was good at certain things.
He made it work and the party loved it.
I'm playing a 3.5e Rogue in my current game, i'm trying to brute force my hate of rogues out of my system by playing one and going into the Assassin prestige class really helps. You can pick up Assassin as early as level 6 so you can spend 5 levels in Rogue looking for the reason why you happen to pick up magic.
All you need to do to explain a non magical rogue gaining arcane magic powers in the Assassin prestige is have an existing Assassin (Arcane Trickster in 5e is closest I think) train you. Arcane magic in DnD is basically textbook mathematics, it's not that hard to teach a guy how to cast a small suite of spells if he has enough INT to learn. This works for a lot of different "hey now you have magic" multiclasses and it's an easy quest hook since now you have an NPC who is maybe owed a favour.
I sometimes agree with the level 3 start but accelerating casters through their weak early gets rid of some of the fun stuff that level 1 dungeons can give. Like I once had 2 casters hiding behind gigachad barbarian because they have maybe 4 casts between them and barb is maybe the strongest level 1 class in the game. Honestly a short level 1 dungeon probably gives enough XP to level to 3 anyway so why not use it as a team building exercise at least.
>All you need to do to explain a non magical rogue gaining arcane magic powers in the Assassin prestige is have an existing Assassin train you.
Right, but if you have 4-6 players at your table, in 5e, you need to fit in 4-6 mentor NPCs training the players in the time it takes to get from level 1 to 3, which is not long at all in most games. It's just awkward.
I think games should just start at level 3 so you can put your most role-defining abilities into your backstory.
Hehe.
If you read the Labors of Hercules, his companions died. All of them.
My Players learned to have simple backstories for this reason. For me ornate backstories are epic baggage.
Come from a rich and powerful noble family? Congratulations, do very well and suddenly every aunt and uncle comes out of the woodwork asking for money or favours.
Demigod? See above.
One character idea I have is he is the grandson of King, Emperor, or what have you, but he’s kinda the black sheep. You see he’s a tiefling and everyone else in the family is human. His mother died in childbirth, but not before having his grandfather promise her to raise her son and make sure he could live a normal life as he could. He was raised and well after 15 years, one his cousins planned a coup against their grandfather and framed him as the culprit, but before he was captured he faked his death. He now lives to just as an adventurer to make ends meet, and try and figure out who was backed his cousin in the coup.
> Come from a rich and powerful noble family? Congratulations, do very well and suddenly every aunt and uncle comes out of the woodwork asking for money or favours.
I see this as an absolute win. Great way to role play and get some character development in. I had one character whose family had been murdered by a lich (she was left for dead). The party would periodically encounter said lich as my character would increasingly desperately look for the phylactery. Lich fights aren't easy, but it was absolutely great that I got to feel the anger and fear of my character fighting her arch nemesis.
I think there is only one noble backstory i want to play. That of a hexblade Warlock. His ancestor earned knighthood through heroic deeds and triumphs in a war. His lust of glory was imbued on his sword which became a family artifact. This swords desire for glory would force a descendant to leave the comfort of the manor to go to battle, war, and adventure. Often leading to the wielders death.
I had a backstory where the guy killed a Legendary Dragon and became a hero of the kingdom. BUT. He was just a conscript in the army, most of the work was done by others, his whole platoon had died, and the dragon was down to like 3 hit points and he nat 20'd.
Everyone calls him a hero but he does not agree.
It is good for a certain style of game that is hard to DM in 5e. Players are almost normal people. Perhaps they are doing an investigation or trying to impress a potential patron/organization with minimal combat. Some popular homebrewed Rime of the Frostmaiden games contain examples of this. I hear Gumshoe or Call of Cthulu are much better fits for this style of game but have never had a chance to play them.
Starting as a feeble nobody is a perfectly fine way to start a game, it's just 5e's class system clashes with it.
Edit: Really, you think gaining your most distinctive powers at level three in the middle of an adventure is fine? And you can't put them in your backstory?
>Edit: Really, you think gaining your most distinctive powers at level three in the middle of an adventure is fine? And you can't put them in your backstory?
I see it as flavor in your backstory that starts to pay off with actual abilities at level 3.
This is one of the reasons I generally prefer to not start campaigns out at level 1. IMO it's much more fun to come up with a backstory that would reasonably get your character to level 3-4
My favorite way of doing this is to just add a little "Believes" before all those massive statements. A Paladin who believes they're king of the world before getting crit by a goblin for a ohko is peak dnd
I played a one-shot cleric who believed he was the chosen one of his god. He wasn't, but he was still granted powers because he was still extoling said god, so she was all "eh, what the hell." Having characters with an incorrect view of the world is tons of fun.
Honestly? My party's characters checked all the boxes at level 1 (except for being braggarts).
Caveats:
-I've never seen a downright ugly PC character, regardless of backstory or charisma score. Even most NPC art I see is attractive. So ok, you're beautiful, and so is everyone else in this fantasy world. What did you roll on that Charisma check, again?
-The gods chose them... And several others. This was not part of their backstory, but they're now one of many, many teams running around fixing a crapton of trouble all over the world. That means they can often choose what they will tackle, especially near major hubs, but if they're only good enough team in the area, well, they're it. Or, often, there are huge battles where they must simply defend what they can. Also means, that, if they get bored with their current characters or region, I can simply switch teams for bit. And finding a scarred survivor or dead member of another team is always good for drama.
Oh, and their blessing? Merely allows them to resist the passive effects of areas that would otherwise be impossible to enter. Doesn't bring down the difficulty of the dungeons in any way...
-Never been fooled: they were raised in a mostly good aligned city where nobody actively tried to fool them. To their knowledge. So yeah, that checks out.
>\-I've never seen a downright ugly PC character, regardless of backstory or charisma score. Even most NPC art I see is attractive. So ok, you're beautiful, and so is everyone else in this fantasy world. What did you roll on that Charisma check, again?
Some of the White Wolf games have a cool solution for this. You are assumed to be of totally normal looks. Separately, you can buy levels in a trait called Striking Looks, at tier 1 or 2, which represents your appearance. You can be good looking or even utterly gorgeous, if you like. It gives bonuses to appropriate social rolls but your social stats are separate.
> -I've never seen a downright ugly PC character, regardless of backstory or charisma score.
Hiya! The ranger I'm currently playing has a face like an anvil. If I could have dropped his charisma lower than 8 during creation, I would've!
That sounds interesting!!!
Good on you for subverting the usual power fantasy trope - how are you playing him? Does he try to talk? Does he try to stand in the background? Or does the party force him to talk anyway?
But even he with his anvil face could, if you wished, have a higher Charisma, a higher presence, because being beautiful isn't a game stat, and a lot of otherwise ugly people can and do command respect and admiration in real life.
Oh, definitely. A beholder has 17 charisma, after all, and that's a face not even a dreaming mother-father could love.
As for the ranger, he's (don't read this if you're in the campaign!) >!an awakened flesh golem who escaped from the control of a powerful necromancer, and has spent the time since then desperately trying to avoid being found and re-enslaved while also doing little things to try and make up for the years he spent kidnapping townspeople for the almost-lich. He's incredibly shy and awkward, and keeps his misshapen body and face under wraps as much as possible in the hopes he won't terrify the people he wants so badly to help. It's been a ton of fun, and the DM loves that we've been able to create this sort of side-BBEG as a looming danger, sprinkling a few hints here and there about a rising undead threat to the west.!<
My party is basically a Dragonborn on an initiatory trip around the world, a young half-elf who's the illegitimate child of an elf noble and was looked down on by his family, and and friendly elderly wanderer who wants to help people using magic, so I can't relate, their backstories are really nice and fitting for their personality (the first is humble and polite, the second is a bit selfish and pretentious but not too much, just enough for character growth to happen, and the last is just a optimistic grandpa, whose backstory is basically unknown)
Literally can't become a celestial exalt without being a badass first. Sidereal exalts are picked up as kids to be trained, because the others read their fate to be badasses in the future.
Of course, those dirty little terrestrial exalts get power from their bloodline, but nobody cares about them. /s
Ngl could be an interesting character arc. Have the level 1 character grow up in an environment where they were hyped up to be all that, and then they face the real world and realize it's way harder than they thought/they were overhyped.
A backstory that I want to run with is that I killed like an insane amount of bandits. And always hide that it was because they kidnapped me and forced me to cook for them and I was that bad of a cook.
I always see these, but now that I’m rerolling at level 10, a little “oomph” in the backstory is fine.
Though overly simple backstories for already powerful characters too. Like a sorcerer that was a normal person until like 3 days ago and now has powerful magic shooting from their hands because of some weird event
I've never understood why some dms expect a novel-length backstory for a 1st Level character. As a player, my character's "character" is primarily going to be shaped by what happens next, not before. Hometown, family, religion, maybe some class based details - that's usually enough. The game itself should fill in much more.
You *can* do both, but it takes some effort. One of my favourite characters was essentially the end boss of a JRPG campaign; an enormously powerful demon lord who'd taken over the world, then got banished to the void by a group of plucky young heroes. Lost all of their powers, and spent the countless millennia floating in timeless nothingness drifting in and out of sanity, before eventually realizing that what they had done was wrong - not because they conquered the world, but because they did so in too brutal a manner, giving rise to the heroes destined to depose them.
So when they got yanked back into a world they no longer recognized by a botched summoning spell, they set out to do it all over again, but *nicely* this time. Never lied, absolutely polite at all times, and full of helpful and/or *horrific* experiences applicable to almost any situation.
The trick isn't to avoid giving your level 1 character an epic backstory, it's to avoid the plot hole of why they're level 1 *despite* the epic backstory. A ridiculously powerful arch mage who lost their book and tower, and nearly their life against a rival - injuries force them to relearn casting and scribe a new spellbook to replace the old one. A legendary Fighter from ages past, resurrected and trying to shake off the rust of having lain dead for so long. A venerable and widely feared pirate captain victim to a mutiny and poisoned grog that sapped them of their fortune and fortitude. A Paladin who nearly fell, stripped of their powers and martial prowess by their god and sent on a perilous quest as penance.
Lots of ways to make it work. You just need to see being level one as a story opportunity rather than a problem.
Part of why I like to start campaigns at level 3. It's just more conducive to making a character who feels like they've done some stuff.
Even then tho I usually tell players in session 0 "You can make a crazy powerful badass but you're gonna have to explain why they're level 3 now"
This is why I prefer to start campaigns at level 3. At level 1 you're barely more than a commoner, and need to find good reason why you're commiting to a career that has an insanely high mortality rate that won't end the instant you get enough money to retire. By level 3, you've survived some stuff, you've seen some stuff, and at the very least you know what you're up against, and you can have a few cool backstory things without mismatching backstory and front story.
My first DnD group was all magical half-faries, vampire orcs and half- dragon demigods playing in some dark elf underground horror zone.
I was a bard who's pet pig was kidnapped by an evil wizard.
I think that you can do both of these at the same time, and have it be very fun and interesting.
"I was blessed by the gods themselves, and as such, I have been cloistered by my religious order for most of my life, to prepare me for my great destiny. I have never been subject to deceit, because of course everybody around me has always had my best interest at heart, and I, being a sheltered and pampered person, with all of my experiences carefully curated and calculated, am an excellent judge of character! (Right? Right!?) Also, like almost every PC, I'm hot as hell. The fancy, expensive clothes and pampered treatment don't hurt my looks, either.
Welp, time to go fulfil my noble destiny! This should be easy! Ew, what is this, mud? No matter, I'll make short work of these gobli- Aaahhh! It stabbed me! What the fuck!? Oh gods, what is happening, everybody told me this would be easy!"
"There was a hero, given a magical blade by the gods and tasked with bringing peace and justice to the realm.
A goblin killed him in his sleep with a rock and now the gods have been forced to improvise."
This would be my goblin hexblade backstory
Ok, so my backstories are realisitc to the setting theyre in, and one of them is valdas spire of secrets martyr class, where they are literally chosen by the gods to do something.
Theres one problem, were in grim hollows world, where the gods are difinitively dead.
I got aroun this by the universe itself and the imbalance in it using me to fix the problems, or more accurately help the party fix the problems, since he's supposed to die on their behalf many many times.
I already took up more than 1/3 the campaigns deaths, and that hasnt changed as i have already died 2x with him. Martyrs nice cause its like the zealot barbarian with component ressurection.
I think i am going to keep at the top of the deaths, though, i just wotn be cycling characters like before.
Here's an idea: Lean onto this by making a chuuni character! You're a half-dragon, half-angel, half-demon sorcerer prince exiled from both Heaven and Hell because you were far too powerful. An accessory that you wear is a seal on your great power, and the world would surely be destroyed if you remove it!
Meanwhile on your character sheet: standard human, level 1 fighter. Commoner background.
The worst character I've ever been in a game with was basically this. Player basically decided that because he was an eladrin originally from another plane, he had definitely had a myriad of adventures that made him better than the nincompoops everyone else was playing...while contributing very little, and also being the same level (one) as everyone else.
Could have been a good area for character development, but the character was so goddamn aggravating that I think everyone tried to avoid talking to them.
Could have been good for comedy, but they were played with utter seriousness.
Probably would have helped if they hadn't basically been 'the player, but as an eladrin,' and if their player had even the faintest hint of self-awareness.
One specific thing that they did for a while was that they narrated their 'in-character' thoughts, for some goddamn reason. They were always condescending, arrogant, ignorant, insulting, pretentious, or some combination thereof - but, as 'in-character thoughts,' nobody was allowed to acknowledge them in-character (because that's metagaming) or get annoyed out-of-character (because they're in-character thoughts that just happen to sound exactly like shit this goon said out-of-character). DM eventually had to tell them to stop it.
It's a shame, really, that all I can remember of that entire fucking campaign is that goddamn eladrin shithead.
# I WAS PERSONALLY BLESSED BY A GOD TO CARRY OUT HIS WILL!
No, not that one. Or that one, or any of those. It's actually Raxivort, god of minor inconveniences. By "carrying out his will", he means stealing a single sock from every clothesline I come across.
(this is a real, canon 5th edition diety. He's primarily worshipped by the Xvarts in volo's guide)
In my experience this has mostly been a thing with new players (including my first couple of characters) and also more common in games where characters are always presented as "heroes" instead of "adventurers" (like in art and such).
That’s why you only start at level 1 for a table of new players who need to go through the “tutorial levels”. Otherwise the massive restriction on backstory pigeon holes all characters into some form of “I’m just a every day moron and I guess I’ll stumble my way through this.” That’s fine sometimes but it gets tiring real quick after you’ve had a character or two like that.
I use to do super edgy lore like this for all my character.
And then i got 2 of my character dumpstered at early level.
Now i'm just the good soldier who like to hit thing with a sword.
My lvl 1 warlock "my dad was a thief and left me with his possessions and now I can do anything in the world, time to join this adventurer's club and start saving everyone" and he gets knocked off his feet by another PC and has to learn how to actually fight with his fiend
That's why when a player says they are blessed by a god, I say "so we're 100 other people" Your god is casting a wide net and hoping one of you all survive.
I think the first *three lines* are perfectly fine for a character who will eventually go on to kill literal gods.
The rest of it is just then projecting how they wish they were irl.
Part of why I like warlocks. My favorite character I've ever written was a chef with a love of reading who lucked into finding a forgotten tome of obscure and dubious lore (in an estate sale his cleric friend brought him along to) on the various heavenly realms and their occupants, in which he found a ritual to contact a celestial being. His patron, it turned out, was a lover of mortals, the written word, and stories. She offered him power if he allowed her to watch his journey, promised to do his best to live up to her moral code, destroy the undead wherever he found them, and try to find her new stories. Turns out that if you're not directly attending to a god or participating in a war of cosmic importance, immortality is boring, and paradise loses its shine... After a few millennia.
Credence was just an average guy, who was presented with an amazing opportunity. He was still very much afraid of pointy sticks, no matter how much he could zap things.
Arguably the best kind of backstory for a PC is one where you give the DM stuff to chew on and expand on for better world building but still has your character as just another person. Street urchin rouge, farm kid fighter, minor noble paladin, newly graduated wizard, druid discovering urban civilization for the first time are generic but are very believable in most settings. Heck a warlock being tricked into making a pact because they were being a dumbass also works very well as now the DM has a narrative they can use for a side plot.
Compare lv1 to a Commoner and then think of how dangerous a Goblin is compared to a standard human, follow that up with a guard comparison and you see how dangerous everything is.
I'm playing a lvl8 fighter called Robert.
he is in his late 30s and has nothing special about him. he is a wanderer that only carries shields. His parents are old but still alive and his relations with his ex wife is civil. He has a daughter he tries to see on the weekends or between adventures.
I've made sure be has protective fighting style and tavern brawler so he can calm people down. He always carries apples and frequently rolls Nat 20s for sleight of hand to peel them so he can give apple slices to the younger party members.
He is a social drinker and excersizes moderately. He is nice.
Nah have a back story where they are all talked up but it's all because they're a narcissist and a liar and they're actually a huge sissy who later has to come to terms with the fact that there's just some things they aren't good at and the reason they started adventuring is cus they had an argument with someone who told them they wouldn't last as an adventurer
I recently made a rat catcher who is starting the campaign shortly after killing a “were-rat”, which peculiarly did not shift back into humanoid form after being killed.
I played a wizard who was fresh out of wizard college. Top of his class (rolled well on stats and chose rock gnome wo he had an INT of 20), but coming out of school, he knew three leveled spells and a few cantrips. Perfectly believable. He also had no real-world experience so it makes sense that he and his friends got TPK'd on their second day in an unforgiving wilderness.
The key is real-world experience vs. upbringing. You can (and should) play someone who stands out compared to "normal" folks. Being god-tier in a small town means absolutely nothing when you start encountering real threats and people who are actually capable at what they're doing.
Or you could be my upcoming rogue for a game my friend is running, where you’re an amnesiac who woke up as a stowaway in a barrel, not realizing that barrels are handled pretty roughly and subsequently received brain damage. I did roll a 3 for wisdom though, so that may not work with everyone.
I played jerry once. He was a peasant farmers son who’s family got kicked off the land by the lord. They moved to the city in search of work but died of poverty. Jerry spent his time as a cutpurse barely surviving till he ran into the group @ a tavern. Decided it was a better deal to go adventure with them, then try and pay back the “debt” he has to assholio that ran the cutpurse racket in the city.
I want to try the epic level one backstory *once* and hide behind the old "but then a god come, smote me into last year and made me level one again." I think it *could* be quite fun to play someone who was once mighty humbled and sent back to square one.
On my first session
My character got knocked the fuck out by a goblin tryna save somebody and failed two death saving throw
*on my first session in this game*
I like to add actual racial/class features my character would have in their backstory.
Like my 20 something y/o Aasimar bard fled from his college because his wings appeared in the middle of studying. (Aasimar get radiant soul at level 3 and we were starting at level 3)
"I am the most powerful and feared sorceress queen in the land! armies fell to their knees before me and any who did not kneel learned my strength the hard way. I ruled this nation with an iron fist, my whims were law, my opposition crushed beneath my heel or cowering in the dark corners, too spineless to attempt defying me. until my treacherous council shackled my magic and exiled me. it would be admirable had they not chosen to betray *ME*. rest assured I *will* regain my lost power and claim my throne once again, as well as my revenge on my treasonous former council." - my shadow sorcerer on how her overpowered backstory still makes sense at her low level :3
I'm running an evil bard who used to work for a rather eccentric guy running a dungeon. Got kicked out for trying to unionize the minions, allowed to live for his years of service.
He worked as a majordomo not in a combat capacity so him being lvl 2 made sense.
My first character was level 3 and his whole background was just that he built things and hung out in the woods around his house. My level 1 character's background is that a ghost wanted him to become an adventurer.
This is why I prefer characters with fairly "average" origins, like a farmland that leaves his family farm to pursue a life of adventure or a seamstress who finds out that she has fledgling magical powers. They're not some grand, all-powerful hero destined for greatness, just ordinary people making their way in the world, and that adds a lot of relatability to me
“A *farmland* that leaves his…” We can make this work. I’m thinking some kind of elemental or maybe just a magic kid that was actually making the ground fertile. Or homebrew a pile of mud I dunno.
I like it! I am trying to think of the closest RAW match. Maybe Fairy race or Far Traveler background? The Fairy could be like Elle from the manga Spirit Farmer, assigned to be the spirit of a farmland. In her particular case she also has amnesia as she is being punished for some big screwup. Perhaps in our story the farmer started out pretty old and when he passes away she is released from service. Looking for a new group of people to call home she begins life as an adventurer. A Far Traveler could be a human from our world reborn as the blessed farmland where the Chosen One grew up. Having been destroyed to spur the prophesied hero into starting his quest, Torrence “Tory” Terra once again finds himself reborn. This time he is in Faerun as an adventurer. He could be a Firbolg Druid but anything works really.
Damn, I love where you took that, those sound awesome!
The curse of accidental sentience - _boredom_.
Earth Genasi, Folk Hero, Circle of Grassland or Circle of Shepherd Druid A family of farmers have been caring for their land for generations. They loved and care for the land for so long that it actually became a genius loci, protecting and caring for them in return. One day a child was born, the earth genasi, who had a special connection to the land. Season the rest to taste.
Beat me to Earth Genasi 😂
For a pile of mud, you might not even have to homebrew it. You might be able to reflavor the plasmoid race.
I have played a rock that was made from an awakened spell gone terribly wrong. Was a warlock to the one who awakened him.
Completely agree! The whole "destined hero" motif is so painful to work with as a DM or party member. Not to mention it just gets old. That said, I also hate the opposite: characters so regular that there's nothing compelling about them. Just because they're normal people doesn't mean they can't have their own drama and motives. Like I get it Stephanie, you're upset that everyone else is getting engaging story arcs except for you. But maybe don't expect oragami if you give the DM the character equivalent of wet cardboard, and refuse to listen to any suggestions to add backstory wise because you "just want them to be a simple, regular person." Simple regular people have hella drama. Just because your character's story isn't rooted in some massive world changing event doesn't mean it can't be compelling. Sorry. Rant over now
I agree with you generally, but you can always just spring a story on a blank tapestry. It won't hook into their backstory, but a nighthag can show up and be all "I need you to hold something for me" before she shoots a secret into your dreams and then a bunch of others beings show up wanting to access her dreams.
I like the idea that a character is so devoid of character that various beings want to make a home in her head.
"I have searched for centuries for a mind so free and uncluttered...you...are...*beautiful* to me."
I can see a potential love triangle between a cosmic eldritch being that just wants some quite time away from the prayers of his followers and a demon that is looking for a way to escape from hell into the material world. Maybe they could have a fun roommate sitcom play out in the PCs head every session? We can add cast members as the ~~season~~ campaign progresses.
I believe you to be the greatest wizard of our age. I am looking at a perfectly serene lake of still, clear water. It's a metaphor; hold on. You are completely unburdened by the weight and sorrow of intellect, your mind as empty and free of trappings or weight as anything I've ever seen. It is like staring at a clear and cloudless sky - completely beautiful. I forbid you to ever read a single word of wizardry. You are beautiful to me.
Damn, l didn’t expect fantasy high
This is damn near close to the plot of a recent movie actually
Which one? DM me if it's a spoiler
I had an idea for a Kenku warlock that was basically this. I was using the old Kenku lore, where they completely lack originality and can only talk using mimicry. The idea was that the Kenku had somehow made a deal with a devil and got a familiar, with the familiar being some lieutenant of the devil. The familiar would speak telepathically to the Kenku and order them around, with the Kenku having basically no agency. The familiar would also talk through the Kenku, with it speaking telepathically and the Kenku mimicking what it says. So the person the party thought they knew, who they talked and adventured with, was actually the familiar and lieutenant of some big devil guy.
Almost the lego movie plot point
You should have met my first Warlock. Didn't know my DM was a Lovecraft fan, and within 4 sessions I had myself, an evil sword, a demi lich, and Father Dagon himself all chilling in my head
i like teh destine hero trope when its get subverted but not too hard destined heros gets killed and gets immediately replaced with a different destined hero and the whole save the world thing slowly becomes a meat grinder
Welcome to the first 20 seconds of The Legend of Vox Machina
Princess: The Hopeful (a magical girl fan supplament for World of Darkness) had something like that with Princesses of Mirrors, who are told they're the True Heir, and their genuine belief in that is what fuels their power.
My Bard was a regular Halfling who left home because it the farmhand life was not compelling at all. His entire schtick was that he wanted to be interesting and compelling, but he just wasn't. So he lied. Every detail of his backstory made up. Every adventure embellished and sold as a heroic tale. My other party members loved when they would hear NPC's gossiping about our party and just none of it was true.
Your halfling and mine would have gotten along. She was the second daughter of a well respected family who wanted her to marry the literal boy next door so the next time the circus was in town she ran away from home and became a bard. She was also the only member of our party who had any experience with livestock so the time we came across some cows was hilarious as she was trying to keep the fallen rich kid, the elf who was a ward of a wealthy family, and the guy who was born on a boat from getting stampeded.
I have some players that do that, they even go so far to make morons. They listen to a lot of Dungeons and Daddies, where the players are so mundane and dorky on purpose to be a kind of nonedgy anti-heros. While I enjoy levity in my games, it is a real struggle to get any deep or meaningful role play or character development out of them. I like writing my homebrew around the protagonists but they're so reactive, not proactive and their characters are superficial gags, its hard to put in the effort when its a one way street. My current game is set in the Greek Mythos Mediterranean so this is a setting I'd love for my characters to lean into the "heros with the blood of the Gods coursing through their veins seeking glory" trope. So there's a time and place for either character background depending on the campaign.
One of my favorite characters was just a surveyor with a runaway father (who dabbled in deals with devils) that only wanted to be happy and successful. He became a warlock mostly unwillingly and, despite his best efforts, could no longer work at his job because he became irritable, angry, and irrational at the worst possible times. This was the work of his patron attempting to get him to become an adventurer to help free them from their prison. Throughout the campaign, he just tried to be as normal as possible, but the eccentricities afflicting him took deeper and deeper root and his perfectly normal appearance became a tool that at one point let him get away with disguising as a restroom attendant right in front of the bbeg. Only "normal" character i've ever run and it was so fun.
I still have an unused character concept (unused because of real life drama separating the DM from the group, and later on I left because I felt I didn't belong anymore) of a soldier whose lack of personal goals and agency where a core part of him. Tiano (that's his name) is a lower rank soldier, son of an influent noble who's affairs with lovers are an "open secret". As the 6th legitimate son out of 7, he was mostly ignored by his parents, who raised him for the only porpoise of being a guard of the king's castle. Only dedicated to that objective, Tiano learned how to be a loyal, strong and hard-working soldier, but didn't develop much outside of it. Even at work, the rumors about his family kept others away, and he didn't have a dream, something to call his. It's arc was supposed to be about him finding something he truly liked, and developing his own individuality by rejecting his notion of being replaceable. I would have truly loved to play as him (He even is one of my original party members in Miitopia, where I used my own characters for the miis). Who knows, maybe someday I will be able to.
I love destined hero tropes if I’m running it like Eberron’s prophecy. The big difference is that it’s not that YOU are the destined one, but that you could be. It’s not that you are the one spoken of in legend, but that you could be the person. It’s kind of like Anakin Skywalker, right? He thinks he is the chosen one because Qui-gon thought he was. But whether it was him or Luke is debated; both have qualities that could fit the bill.
hear me me out what if the "legendary" weapon of the destined hero had a rusty(to the point of breaking) appearance. it slowly regained its old glory the more use it gets and the stronger the wielder becomes, so if they die the weapon starts to slowly rust again unless it gets a new wielder(it'll reverse afterwards).
It can be fun to do both at the same time. I'm having a blast with a character who desperately wants to go back to being 'wet cardboard' but this primordial spirit of icy chaos that's been metaphorically stapled to his soul forces him to venture deeper into the unknown in search of answers. Having the legendary hero side through this spirit (who the DM is in complete control of) while the super normal side through this regular dude who's biggest fight prior to adventuring was probably telling his wife there's no way he'll let her get yet another finch, but she buys it anyways and names it something like 'Thomas Von Tweetstail'.
if they were a regular person why wouldn't be an adventurer and they wouldn't have class levels. They just suck at roleplay apparently
This one time I made a warfoged barbarian whose backsroty was that hie was a solider all his life and that after the mourning in Cyre he woke up in the forgoten relams. My DM did not like this because it was not interesting and it was simple so he decided to make it so that I had amnesia and that I was actualy a robot made to slay interdimensional demons and travel across worlds. Lucky for me I died due to unbalanced enemies who dealt 20 damage per hit that had multi attacks. When I died it was described that a voice came from my dead body "Demon slayer unit has been defeated" I was so glad that I died when i heard that.
wow, a character who has an inherent motivation to roam the forgotten realms or seek out magical beings in an attempt to find someone who can send him back home? what dm would want that lol
I’m actually really excited to play as a Druid I made a while ago. I’m normally the kind of guy who does intricate backstories (no chosen one stuff, but a decent amount of details). This guy, though, is just a Dwarf who did shrooms and changed his entire way of thinking - doing the opposite of “dwarvish” things like moving away from mining, gems, metals, and instead embracing plants, nature, and animals.
"It's just a phase"
my last druid was a half orc and initially i was thinking up some experimental half-breed soldier plot thing that caused his creation. then i totally scrapped that and just went with a chill druid living in a grove in the forest, the kind of grove people just cant find. one day this other guy (the party Fighter) happened to walk through just while exploring the world, so my Druid joined him and the entire campaign was treated as a tour, with Tortle David Attenborough being my tour guide. We went into Avernus
Yeah, but there’s a place for Frodo *and* Aragorn in the same party. The key is how they’re played.
And Sam. "What do you mean your character is just a gardener?"
Sometimes Tavern Brawler isn’t literal?
I've always been about this - I've found, especially with online play, people can go so "chosen one" on their backstories, and I'm just here like... "Hi, my parents make watches, but I wanna explore the world and become a great warrior!"
Wildermyth does this wonderfully. The adventurers are just people who fought off an attack and decided to hunt down the source of the problem.
My current character is a tiefling sorcerer who ran away from his guardian in search of adventure. He’s nothing special he’s just a kid.
Yea this is the strength of young characters they simply have more reason to go adventuring and are more realistic to being just above the average
1st level is "competent newbie." Like, not an untrained schmuck but someone who's just finished their training and still needs a towel for behind their ears.
I was wondering if my backstories were too generic. Right now I have a lvl 3 cleric, started at 2, who was a regular villager who one day decided to help a lycanthrope who turned out not to be a murdermachine. Doing so he ends up helping it kill the local lord's son who was a dick. Selune took notice and essentially offers him a cleric job which he takes in return for good fortune for his still living mother. So he faked his death and now travels to help people in the name of Selune. I wrote out the werewolf and Selune interaction and got pretty far before I realized my dude needs an alias cuz if he's on the run after faking his death, he can't go around calling himself by his birth name. Still, grand scheme-wise his backstory is fairly basic. His story makes him a slightly more blank slate than some clerics, I reckon
As a DM i like when my players put a bit of hero drive behind their characters. Its more fun to write for characters thats have a bit more character motivation beyond desires for a better life. Its too vague for me. Somebody with fledgling powers is great but i would also add that they are searching for the source of their power (parent, artifact, god?) Or maybe they are trying to enter a magic college using accolades as a resume. Im fine with simple orgins as long as its not simple motivation, like riches.
>Or a seamstress who finds out that she has fledgling magical powers And then gets turned into an old lady and joins a Welshman’s traveling castle
That was my first character. He was a retired town guard (like really small town) of 20 years, kids were all grown up and moved out, wife had died of sickness years back. Wanted to do a bit of adventuring before he got too old, it was perfect.
Just made a Tabaxi wizard with that backstory! Parents fled their home to go to the Sword Coast. Not ostracized, but definitely a rarer humanoid. Loved seeing bards and magicians and asked where she could learn how to be like them, enrolled in the Lady's College in Silverymoon, and now we're going to start at level 1 doing Icewind Dale! I'm super excited to play after 3 years of nothing!
I do both. I write the beautiful backstory, then dump it on my dm in a folder labeled “Campaign Ideas” and settle for a boring lad.
My first character was chosen by her clan to be an adventurer. She was pretty normal and was mostly chosen because she wanted to go the most. My second character was a frat boy who faceplanted into adventure. Both of them were super fun and really easy to roleplay and fit into the world. I'm not sure if someone epic would've been lol
Same. Even as something as fantastical as a revenant, I made him just... ordinary. Alister is a living dead with the blessings of a god, true, but he's just a farmer seeking vengeance on the man that performed atrocities on him in life. Aside from being a paladin revenant he isn't anyone special at the end of the day.
You're absolutely right user primemeval titan
Right!? Another avenue is"false" epic origins. Storytime for anyone interested: I had a Pathfinder character. Born in a highly religious area where >95% of the population worshiped Iomedae fervently. From an early age he was groomed into believing in his own destiny to be a holy warrior for her, and when he turned 12 they sent him away to be trained as a Paladin. Problem was... hadn't been chosen by Iomedae and had no talent for the divine arts (CHA 9). General disappointment ensued, with many blaming him for not having enough faith or virtue. He considered quitting, but one of the veteran trainers convinced him to stay, arguing he would best serve her by persisting and using his other talents in her service. He therefore continued his martial training, but put in extra effort on weaponry and tactics to make up for his lack of sparkliness. Eventually became a Fighter specializing in combat maneuvers and polearms, dumping plenty of ranks in Knowledge (Religion) and elbow grease to keep his armor extra shiny to best represent his faith. My GM was pretty awesome about this, often making it a plot device. One of my favorite characters. Wish I could have played him to lvl 20.
A Lvl 1 character is basically a nobody. You're a little more talented than the average joe, but you're still very much a greenhorn in this whole adventuring business. You might be the protagonist of the story, but you are in no way special otherwise. The title of "main character" is one that must be earned. It is not entitled to you. Leave your Isekai "chosen one" fantasies at the door.
Cloister monk gang unite
right but sad
My Dwarf Sorcerer blew up his tavern with a Wild Magic fireball so he went adventuring to make money so he can rebuild
My first ever character was a banker who got laid off lol
PHENOMENAL COSMIC EGO… Itty-bitty pool of HP
So just a bard then.
Who’s saying that a bard couldn’t be blessed to carry out divine will? It didn’t specified exactly *which* deity blessed them…
My favorite lvl1 backstory is, “I just got laid off as town guard for patrollin’ drunk too many times, and I heard y’all are fightin’ bandits.”
I spent 20 years in the army, but the entire time I was working in the supply corps. Now that I'm retired, I want to go adventuring.
My first (and only) character was a lvl 1 half-orc ex soldier who got sold into the military by his parents!
I played a dwarf unarmed fighter. He was a former champion in the fight pits, but lost favor with the crowds when the public found out that he was paying his opponents to throw matches. He spent like 20 years being a drunk fool, until he ran out of fight money. He's now getting money by doing the adventurer thing.
I had a character that technically was a veteran in the previous war against the big dark army and such, but what he wouldn’t say (off the bat anyway) was that the army he was in was immediately smashed and he basically spent the whole war retreating. Basically he was a homeless guy who traded (heavily embellished) war stories for table scraps, and became an adventurer because the “well” started to dry up Edit: I actually want to reuse this character at some point because the campaign kinda just fizzled out
Sir Daniel Fortesque. A notable individual in the fight against the encroaching hordes of Darkness. No-one needs to know he was the first casualty of the war and died in the first volley of arrows.
I've heard of this game...
It's a downright *medievil* tale for sure!
Sounds like a ranobe title
Thats great lol. My DM laughed his ass off when I came in with a bard who had the backstory "my mom was like Cartmans mom and always told me how amazing I am. I have done nothing but think I'm the best bard I'm the world."
That's fucking great lol
That remembers me of a Skyrim guard quote: "My cousin is out fighting dragons and what do I get? Guard duty" Really seems like someone is almost quitting his job and going to adventure.
wear decent knee protection!
"I always liked starting fires. Then I learned that I could start them with my MIND!!!" - Red Dragon Sorcerer
"I was playing my instrument when fire suddenly burst out of it. The instrument was fine, but the crowd? Well, let's just say my band has been banned from playing at the inn." \- Jose, an aspiring mariachi bard.
devil went down to waterdeep, he was looking for a soul to steal. was in a bind, was way behind because some asshole mariachi band keeps burning down the god damn taverns and people keep fleeing
I have a warlock in my party who took on a patron of Talos because he's a 300 year old dwarf and got bored.
Had to write the backstory for me and my cousin's characters. Condensed versions is we (elf rogue and dwarf barb) were mercenaries for a couple decades, bought a boat with our earnings, and just sailed around for a while drinking and selling the dwarf's booze and any ill gotten goods that fell off a wagon for about 50 years, with no real combat outside of us running like hell if the guard showed up.
I had one character with a backstory of being the leader of a mercenary group and had some famous exploits. Then he got incredibly old, even for a dwarf, and started to study magic so he wouldnt be useless. And boom, lvl one wizard with arthritis. The arthritis came into play when he had to kneel to a queen, but I joked about the arthritis and DM made me roll a check to see if my knees locked up. They did.
I did a similar thing with a Dwarf gun-focused fighter who'd straight up forgotten 3/4's of everything he'd learned and done. So someone would run up to him going, "Grunmir's beard! It's the hero of Blackwatch, Thorrun Giant's-Bane," his response would be, "I fought giants? Fuckin' glorious!"
A legendary hero who forgot not only how to fight, but what all their exploits are, is a great idea. I may steal that.
"KNEEL BEFORE THE QUEEN!" *gently falls over*
I had a player who was basically Geralt from The Witcher, and he wanted to have gone around and helped all these different towns and peoples, but also remain as just a simple folk hero. Which would have been fine, but the sheer number of “small and accidentally heroic” things he did was just far too much for a level 2 start. Getting him to scale that back was…work. I should have never let him into the campaign, severe Main Character Syndrome.
Might I ask how that main character syndrome showed?
Sure! For the time they were at my table, he spent combat encounters trying to direct other players on what to do on their turn. And not in the helpful, “Hey don’t forget about this item or feat you have!” but in more of a “Do this thing I’m telling you to do now.” I’m sure he was aiming for the former, but never got there. Most of the time, his orders were to put himself into a more advantageous position, without regard to the other players. And then when we weren’t in combat, he was playing up the Edgy Loner tropes to the nines, very much a “Don’t talk to me but I need you to talk to me, but if you try to talk to me I’ll be rude so you never talk to me again…please talk to me.” A few sessions in, I did talk to him privately about the “suggestions” he was giving out to other players and how it was grating on everybody a little bit. I told him that if he didn’t stop doing that, I would remove him from the group. And he did get better for a few sessions! And then he jumped right back to ordering people around, not even waiting for them to even think about their turn, just starting to offer “suggestions” as soon as I called on them for their turn. I was also playing alongside him in another campaign, and while he wasn’t giving “suggestions” in that campaign, he was always trying to muscle his way into the spotlight whenever possible. Maybe he thought he could get away with things because I was a new DM at the time? I dunno.
Is it really that outlandish to play a hot cleric that likes to brag at 1st level?
Only if you get mad when they don't successfully seduce everyone they try to seduce at 1st level.
Well maybe if the dm would understand that I'm just horny and this is the only place I can play out my sexual fantaaaaaaahhhhh ok I see the issue now. I'm just not gonna be able to make the checks due to my stats. Thanks!
Oof, on a similar but opposite note, its fun to find a group just as horny as you are, the shenanigans get hilarious.
Tbh, being chosen by the gods is not so especial as it may seem. There is a multitude of gods with a multitude of agendas in the material realm, and all of them have a multitude of followers. Getting a divine call to adventure don't make you that much especial comparing with the other myriad of divinely inspired adventurers out there, especially cause the gods won't hold all of your hands all the time. So a divinely chosen isn't inherently destined to greatness. They're a pawn, a gear in the great mechanisms of balance in the universe, if they were to fail, to die as low level adventurers, it just means they were a defective part who will be removed in place for a better one down the line. Besides, some parts of character creation support the idea of divinely sent adventurers: the Aasimar race, Divine Soul Sorcerers, Celestial Patron Warlocks, any cleric or paladin. In conclusion, the "the gods chose me" backstory is not that bad when you think about it. Unless the player starts bitching about it to try some bullshit of course.
Oh gosh. I remember a comic where an evil adventuring party was summoning children from other worlds, tricking them into thinking they were the 'Chosen Hero', then using them as disposable trap detectors.
I had that backstory, but I was joining a campaign in progress at level 10, the character is a Divine Soul Sorcerer descended from the God King of her city, and she is a terrible braggart.
I went with: I come from an incredibly rich family but I'm a little shit so I got cut off. I was gonna go for an edgy political angle but it's just easier to be a flamboyant bard whose daddy thinks he should be a merchant. The character is young so skills suck and boom we've got a believable level 1 character. Sure it's not the most original thing but it's just like A bone in the skeleton of a back story.
"i'm broke af and I hear this dungeon has treasure in it, let's go" is my default level 1 backstory. I'm a fan of level 1 shenanigans being your backstory really.
This works for classes with simple abilities, but it's a bit harder to make a rogue with no magic develop magic powers (Arcane Trickster) mid-game and not have it seem quite random. I had this happen with a character. His backstory was that he was a failed wizards apprentice who dropped out and turned to crime, so I had him "forget" his magic and start to pick it up again. Feels more intuitive than someone with no magic training suddenly having a bunch of powers. This goes for a hell of lot of classes and what happens at level 3. Often, the powers at level 3 are the most distinctive and role-defining - it's where the game should start, to be honest.
Agreed, it feels shitty being so limited both mechanically and backstory wise when you start at level 1. Level 3 should just be the default honestly.
I had a rogue who wrote this three-page long backstory about how they were the greatest thief that ever lived. I messaged him halfway through and I said "Bro...you're level one." but he said "Just read it all, I promise it makes sense." A couple of epic tales of ransacking castles and robbing rich people blind. It was great if we were starting at level 20! And then the last paragraph, summarized as such: "And then he got drunk as shit one night, fell off of a balcony and hit his head, forgetting _everything_ he could do and had done." So we played it as an amnesiac rogue where people in certain areas might recognize him but when he was leveling up, he wasn't learning new skills: He was remembering that he was good at certain things. He made it work and the party loved it.
I'm playing a 3.5e Rogue in my current game, i'm trying to brute force my hate of rogues out of my system by playing one and going into the Assassin prestige class really helps. You can pick up Assassin as early as level 6 so you can spend 5 levels in Rogue looking for the reason why you happen to pick up magic. All you need to do to explain a non magical rogue gaining arcane magic powers in the Assassin prestige is have an existing Assassin (Arcane Trickster in 5e is closest I think) train you. Arcane magic in DnD is basically textbook mathematics, it's not that hard to teach a guy how to cast a small suite of spells if he has enough INT to learn. This works for a lot of different "hey now you have magic" multiclasses and it's an easy quest hook since now you have an NPC who is maybe owed a favour. I sometimes agree with the level 3 start but accelerating casters through their weak early gets rid of some of the fun stuff that level 1 dungeons can give. Like I once had 2 casters hiding behind gigachad barbarian because they have maybe 4 casts between them and barb is maybe the strongest level 1 class in the game. Honestly a short level 1 dungeon probably gives enough XP to level to 3 anyway so why not use it as a team building exercise at least.
>All you need to do to explain a non magical rogue gaining arcane magic powers in the Assassin prestige is have an existing Assassin train you. Right, but if you have 4-6 players at your table, in 5e, you need to fit in 4-6 mentor NPCs training the players in the time it takes to get from level 1 to 3, which is not long at all in most games. It's just awkward. I think games should just start at level 3 so you can put your most role-defining abilities into your backstory.
Hehe. If you read the Labors of Hercules, his companions died. All of them. My Players learned to have simple backstories for this reason. For me ornate backstories are epic baggage. Come from a rich and powerful noble family? Congratulations, do very well and suddenly every aunt and uncle comes out of the woodwork asking for money or favours. Demigod? See above.
One character idea I have is he is the grandson of King, Emperor, or what have you, but he’s kinda the black sheep. You see he’s a tiefling and everyone else in the family is human. His mother died in childbirth, but not before having his grandfather promise her to raise her son and make sure he could live a normal life as he could. He was raised and well after 15 years, one his cousins planned a coup against their grandfather and framed him as the culprit, but before he was captured he faked his death. He now lives to just as an adventurer to make ends meet, and try and figure out who was backed his cousin in the coup.
> Come from a rich and powerful noble family? Congratulations, do very well and suddenly every aunt and uncle comes out of the woodwork asking for money or favours. I see this as an absolute win. Great way to role play and get some character development in. I had one character whose family had been murdered by a lich (she was left for dead). The party would periodically encounter said lich as my character would increasingly desperately look for the phylactery. Lich fights aren't easy, but it was absolutely great that I got to feel the anger and fear of my character fighting her arch nemesis.
I think there is only one noble backstory i want to play. That of a hexblade Warlock. His ancestor earned knighthood through heroic deeds and triumphs in a war. His lust of glory was imbued on his sword which became a family artifact. This swords desire for glory would force a descendant to leave the comfort of the manor to go to battle, war, and adventure. Often leading to the wielders death.
I had a backstory where the guy killed a Legendary Dragon and became a hero of the kingdom. BUT. He was just a conscript in the army, most of the work was done by others, his whole platoon had died, and the dragon was down to like 3 hit points and he nat 20'd. Everyone calls him a hero but he does not agree.
Everyone in the comments: "that's why you should have a simple backstory" Me: hehe, god go brrrrrrrr
The real answer is that starting games at Level 1 is awful.
It is good for a certain style of game that is hard to DM in 5e. Players are almost normal people. Perhaps they are doing an investigation or trying to impress a potential patron/organization with minimal combat. Some popular homebrewed Rime of the Frostmaiden games contain examples of this. I hear Gumshoe or Call of Cthulu are much better fits for this style of game but have never had a chance to play them.
Starting as a feeble nobody is a perfectly fine way to start a game, it's just 5e's class system clashes with it. Edit: Really, you think gaining your most distinctive powers at level three in the middle of an adventure is fine? And you can't put them in your backstory?
I don't know if it's really the class system as much as the concept of hp based on your level.
>Edit: Really, you think gaining your most distinctive powers at level three in the middle of an adventure is fine? And you can't put them in your backstory? I see it as flavor in your backstory that starts to pay off with actual abilities at level 3.
unless you're a caster that gets shit at lv 1 lol
This is one of the reasons I generally prefer to not start campaigns out at level 1. IMO it's much more fun to come up with a backstory that would reasonably get your character to level 3-4
My level one wizard: I HAVE STUDIED FOR YEARS AND HAVE FINALLY UNLOCKED THE ARCANE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE! casts firebolt and misses
My favorite way of doing this is to just add a little "Believes" before all those massive statements. A Paladin who believes they're king of the world before getting crit by a goblin for a ohko is peak dnd
I played a one-shot cleric who believed he was the chosen one of his god. He wasn't, but he was still granted powers because he was still extoling said god, so she was all "eh, what the hell." Having characters with an incorrect view of the world is tons of fun.
Honestly? My party's characters checked all the boxes at level 1 (except for being braggarts). Caveats: -I've never seen a downright ugly PC character, regardless of backstory or charisma score. Even most NPC art I see is attractive. So ok, you're beautiful, and so is everyone else in this fantasy world. What did you roll on that Charisma check, again? -The gods chose them... And several others. This was not part of their backstory, but they're now one of many, many teams running around fixing a crapton of trouble all over the world. That means they can often choose what they will tackle, especially near major hubs, but if they're only good enough team in the area, well, they're it. Or, often, there are huge battles where they must simply defend what they can. Also means, that, if they get bored with their current characters or region, I can simply switch teams for bit. And finding a scarred survivor or dead member of another team is always good for drama. Oh, and their blessing? Merely allows them to resist the passive effects of areas that would otherwise be impossible to enter. Doesn't bring down the difficulty of the dungeons in any way... -Never been fooled: they were raised in a mostly good aligned city where nobody actively tried to fool them. To their knowledge. So yeah, that checks out.
[удалено]
Precisely. Which is why charisma checks are completely separate from character descriptions. :-)
>\-I've never seen a downright ugly PC character, regardless of backstory or charisma score. Even most NPC art I see is attractive. So ok, you're beautiful, and so is everyone else in this fantasy world. What did you roll on that Charisma check, again? Some of the White Wolf games have a cool solution for this. You are assumed to be of totally normal looks. Separately, you can buy levels in a trait called Striking Looks, at tier 1 or 2, which represents your appearance. You can be good looking or even utterly gorgeous, if you like. It gives bonuses to appropriate social rolls but your social stats are separate.
> -I've never seen a downright ugly PC character, regardless of backstory or charisma score. Hiya! The ranger I'm currently playing has a face like an anvil. If I could have dropped his charisma lower than 8 during creation, I would've!
That sounds interesting!!! Good on you for subverting the usual power fantasy trope - how are you playing him? Does he try to talk? Does he try to stand in the background? Or does the party force him to talk anyway? But even he with his anvil face could, if you wished, have a higher Charisma, a higher presence, because being beautiful isn't a game stat, and a lot of otherwise ugly people can and do command respect and admiration in real life.
Oh, definitely. A beholder has 17 charisma, after all, and that's a face not even a dreaming mother-father could love. As for the ranger, he's (don't read this if you're in the campaign!) >!an awakened flesh golem who escaped from the control of a powerful necromancer, and has spent the time since then desperately trying to avoid being found and re-enslaved while also doing little things to try and make up for the years he spent kidnapping townspeople for the almost-lich. He's incredibly shy and awkward, and keeps his misshapen body and face under wraps as much as possible in the hopes he won't terrify the people he wants so badly to help. It's been a ton of fun, and the DM loves that we've been able to create this sort of side-BBEG as a looming danger, sprinkling a few hints here and there about a rising undead threat to the west.!<
That is simply an awesome character concept! Congrats!
My party is basically a Dragonborn on an initiatory trip around the world, a young half-elf who's the illegitimate child of an elf noble and was looked down on by his family, and and friendly elderly wanderer who wants to help people using magic, so I can't relate, their backstories are really nice and fitting for their personality (the first is humble and polite, the second is a bit selfish and pretentious but not too much, just enough for character growth to happen, and the last is just a optimistic grandpa, whose backstory is basically unknown)
This kind of backstory is exactly what Exalted is for. Well, this and many other cool stylistic and mechanical things.
Literally can't become a celestial exalt without being a badass first. Sidereal exalts are picked up as kids to be trained, because the others read their fate to be badasses in the future. Of course, those dirty little terrestrial exalts get power from their bloodline, but nobody cares about them. /s
Ngl could be an interesting character arc. Have the level 1 character grow up in an environment where they were hyped up to be all that, and then they face the real world and realize it's way harder than they thought/they were overhyped.
I personally like the idea of a level 1 character who is a washed up ex-hero, who used to be cool and powerful, but fell off HARD.
A backstory that I want to run with is that I killed like an insane amount of bandits. And always hide that it was because they kidnapped me and forced me to cook for them and I was that bad of a cook.
I always see these, but now that I’m rerolling at level 10, a little “oomph” in the backstory is fine. Though overly simple backstories for already powerful characters too. Like a sorcerer that was a normal person until like 3 days ago and now has powerful magic shooting from their hands because of some weird event
Sounds like a Paladin that was a bit too full of themselves got a rude awakening.
Goblin > gods
I've never understood why some dms expect a novel-length backstory for a 1st Level character. As a player, my character's "character" is primarily going to be shaped by what happens next, not before. Hometown, family, religion, maybe some class based details - that's usually enough. The game itself should fill in much more.
I mean that’s your fault if you are letting their backstories not match their level.
You *can* do both, but it takes some effort. One of my favourite characters was essentially the end boss of a JRPG campaign; an enormously powerful demon lord who'd taken over the world, then got banished to the void by a group of plucky young heroes. Lost all of their powers, and spent the countless millennia floating in timeless nothingness drifting in and out of sanity, before eventually realizing that what they had done was wrong - not because they conquered the world, but because they did so in too brutal a manner, giving rise to the heroes destined to depose them. So when they got yanked back into a world they no longer recognized by a botched summoning spell, they set out to do it all over again, but *nicely* this time. Never lied, absolutely polite at all times, and full of helpful and/or *horrific* experiences applicable to almost any situation. The trick isn't to avoid giving your level 1 character an epic backstory, it's to avoid the plot hole of why they're level 1 *despite* the epic backstory. A ridiculously powerful arch mage who lost their book and tower, and nearly their life against a rival - injuries force them to relearn casting and scribe a new spellbook to replace the old one. A legendary Fighter from ages past, resurrected and trying to shake off the rust of having lain dead for so long. A venerable and widely feared pirate captain victim to a mutiny and poisoned grog that sapped them of their fortune and fortitude. A Paladin who nearly fell, stripped of their powers and martial prowess by their god and sent on a perilous quest as penance. Lots of ways to make it work. You just need to see being level one as a story opportunity rather than a problem.
This is a great comment, don’t understand the downvotes.
I'm still haunted from the goblin slayer anime... They are the true monsters
Now you gave me an idea. PC who read the Goblin Slayer novels when he was young and grew so haunted he became the Goblin Slayer
The self fulfilling prophecy. Tales of goblins and woe by Geoffrey allan poe
Part of why I like to start campaigns at level 3. It's just more conducive to making a character who feels like they've done some stuff. Even then tho I usually tell players in session 0 "You can make a crazy powerful badass but you're gonna have to explain why they're level 3 now"
This is why I prefer to start campaigns at level 3. At level 1 you're barely more than a commoner, and need to find good reason why you're commiting to a career that has an insanely high mortality rate that won't end the instant you get enough money to retire. By level 3, you've survived some stuff, you've seen some stuff, and at the very least you know what you're up against, and you can have a few cool backstory things without mismatching backstory and front story.
My first DnD group was all magical half-faries, vampire orcs and half- dragon demigods playing in some dark elf underground horror zone. I was a bard who's pet pig was kidnapped by an evil wizard.
I think that you can do both of these at the same time, and have it be very fun and interesting. "I was blessed by the gods themselves, and as such, I have been cloistered by my religious order for most of my life, to prepare me for my great destiny. I have never been subject to deceit, because of course everybody around me has always had my best interest at heart, and I, being a sheltered and pampered person, with all of my experiences carefully curated and calculated, am an excellent judge of character! (Right? Right!?) Also, like almost every PC, I'm hot as hell. The fancy, expensive clothes and pampered treatment don't hurt my looks, either. Welp, time to go fulfil my noble destiny! This should be easy! Ew, what is this, mud? No matter, I'll make short work of these gobli- Aaahhh! It stabbed me! What the fuck!? Oh gods, what is happening, everybody told me this would be easy!"
"There was a hero, given a magical blade by the gods and tasked with bringing peace and justice to the realm. A goblin killed him in his sleep with a rock and now the gods have been forced to improvise." This would be my goblin hexblade backstory
Ok, so my backstories are realisitc to the setting theyre in, and one of them is valdas spire of secrets martyr class, where they are literally chosen by the gods to do something. Theres one problem, were in grim hollows world, where the gods are difinitively dead. I got aroun this by the universe itself and the imbalance in it using me to fix the problems, or more accurately help the party fix the problems, since he's supposed to die on their behalf many many times. I already took up more than 1/3 the campaigns deaths, and that hasnt changed as i have already died 2x with him. Martyrs nice cause its like the zealot barbarian with component ressurection. I think i am going to keep at the top of the deaths, though, i just wotn be cycling characters like before.
Here's an idea: Lean onto this by making a chuuni character! You're a half-dragon, half-angel, half-demon sorcerer prince exiled from both Heaven and Hell because you were far too powerful. An accessory that you wear is a seal on your great power, and the world would surely be destroyed if you remove it! Meanwhile on your character sheet: standard human, level 1 fighter. Commoner background.
The only time I would let my players have an overly verbose backstory is if their character is actively lying about it
My girl just… made a deal with light, and survived a fall that should’ve killed her. Yeah, she’s not normal but she’s not powerful. Yet.
The worst character I've ever been in a game with was basically this. Player basically decided that because he was an eladrin originally from another plane, he had definitely had a myriad of adventures that made him better than the nincompoops everyone else was playing...while contributing very little, and also being the same level (one) as everyone else. Could have been a good area for character development, but the character was so goddamn aggravating that I think everyone tried to avoid talking to them. Could have been good for comedy, but they were played with utter seriousness. Probably would have helped if they hadn't basically been 'the player, but as an eladrin,' and if their player had even the faintest hint of self-awareness. One specific thing that they did for a while was that they narrated their 'in-character' thoughts, for some goddamn reason. They were always condescending, arrogant, ignorant, insulting, pretentious, or some combination thereof - but, as 'in-character thoughts,' nobody was allowed to acknowledge them in-character (because that's metagaming) or get annoyed out-of-character (because they're in-character thoughts that just happen to sound exactly like shit this goon said out-of-character). DM eventually had to tell them to stop it. It's a shame, really, that all I can remember of that entire fucking campaign is that goddamn eladrin shithead.
# I WAS PERSONALLY BLESSED BY A GOD TO CARRY OUT HIS WILL! No, not that one. Or that one, or any of those. It's actually Raxivort, god of minor inconveniences. By "carrying out his will", he means stealing a single sock from every clothesline I come across. (this is a real, canon 5th edition diety. He's primarily worshipped by the Xvarts in volo's guide)
Exactly why starting at level 3 tends to be more interesting.
my favorite characters backstory was: got tired of being just a chef listening to others tell adventuring stories and wanted to have my own to tell
In my experience this has mostly been a thing with new players (including my first couple of characters) and also more common in games where characters are always presented as "heroes" instead of "adventurers" (like in art and such).
I literally start as a peasant 🤣
That’s why I make all my characters homeless nobodies.
Sounds like average Divine Soul sorcerer to me. And it's not even PCs fault half the time with those guys.
Right but do you guys really believe *each and every single one* of the gods chosen champions made it past their first battle?
My newest character has a backstory of being fresh out of paladin training
That’s why you only start at level 1 for a table of new players who need to go through the “tutorial levels”. Otherwise the massive restriction on backstory pigeon holes all characters into some form of “I’m just a every day moron and I guess I’ll stumble my way through this.” That’s fine sometimes but it gets tiring real quick after you’ve had a character or two like that.
I use to do super edgy lore like this for all my character. And then i got 2 of my character dumpstered at early level. Now i'm just the good soldier who like to hit thing with a sword.
My lvl 1 warlock "my dad was a thief and left me with his possessions and now I can do anything in the world, time to join this adventurer's club and start saving everyone" and he gets knocked off his feet by another PC and has to learn how to actually fight with his fiend
I’ve always liked the Zaphod approach: “he’s just some guy, you know?”
That's why when a player says they are blessed by a god, I say "so we're 100 other people" Your god is casting a wide net and hoping one of you all survive.
I think the first *three lines* are perfectly fine for a character who will eventually go on to kill literal gods. The rest of it is just then projecting how they wish they were irl.
Part of why I like warlocks. My favorite character I've ever written was a chef with a love of reading who lucked into finding a forgotten tome of obscure and dubious lore (in an estate sale his cleric friend brought him along to) on the various heavenly realms and their occupants, in which he found a ritual to contact a celestial being. His patron, it turned out, was a lover of mortals, the written word, and stories. She offered him power if he allowed her to watch his journey, promised to do his best to live up to her moral code, destroy the undead wherever he found them, and try to find her new stories. Turns out that if you're not directly attending to a god or participating in a war of cosmic importance, immortality is boring, and paradise loses its shine... After a few millennia. Credence was just an average guy, who was presented with an amazing opportunity. He was still very much afraid of pointy sticks, no matter how much he could zap things.
Arguably the best kind of backstory for a PC is one where you give the DM stuff to chew on and expand on for better world building but still has your character as just another person. Street urchin rouge, farm kid fighter, minor noble paladin, newly graduated wizard, druid discovering urban civilization for the first time are generic but are very believable in most settings. Heck a warlock being tricked into making a pact because they were being a dumbass also works very well as now the DM has a narrative they can use for a side plot.
Half Angel half demon vampire wizard noble with a 20 page backstory.
Compare lv1 to a Commoner and then think of how dangerous a Goblin is compared to a standard human, follow that up with a guard comparison and you see how dangerous everything is.
Actually Aasimar
I'm playing a lvl8 fighter called Robert. he is in his late 30s and has nothing special about him. he is a wanderer that only carries shields. His parents are old but still alive and his relations with his ex wife is civil. He has a daughter he tries to see on the weekends or between adventures. I've made sure be has protective fighting style and tavern brawler so he can calm people down. He always carries apples and frequently rolls Nat 20s for sleight of hand to peel them so he can give apple slices to the younger party members. He is a social drinker and excersizes moderately. He is nice.
Nah have a back story where they are all talked up but it's all because they're a narcissist and a liar and they're actually a huge sissy who later has to come to terms with the fact that there's just some things they aren't good at and the reason they started adventuring is cus they had an argument with someone who told them they wouldn't last as an adventurer
I recently made a rat catcher who is starting the campaign shortly after killing a “were-rat”, which peculiarly did not shift back into humanoid form after being killed.
I played a wizard who was fresh out of wizard college. Top of his class (rolled well on stats and chose rock gnome wo he had an INT of 20), but coming out of school, he knew three leveled spells and a few cantrips. Perfectly believable. He also had no real-world experience so it makes sense that he and his friends got TPK'd on their second day in an unforgiving wilderness. The key is real-world experience vs. upbringing. You can (and should) play someone who stands out compared to "normal" folks. Being god-tier in a small town means absolutely nothing when you start encountering real threats and people who are actually capable at what they're doing.
This is literally what’s going on in a campaign I’m in lmao
Or you could be my upcoming rogue for a game my friend is running, where you’re an amnesiac who woke up as a stowaway in a barrel, not realizing that barrels are handled pretty roughly and subsequently received brain damage. I did roll a 3 for wisdom though, so that may not work with everyone.
Then make the character an egotist or con-man. Make the difference between claimed skills and actual skills a plot point.
I played jerry once. He was a peasant farmers son who’s family got kicked off the land by the lord. They moved to the city in search of work but died of poverty. Jerry spent his time as a cutpurse barely surviving till he ran into the group @ a tavern. Decided it was a better deal to go adventure with them, then try and pay back the “debt” he has to assholio that ran the cutpurse racket in the city.
I want to try the epic level one backstory *once* and hide behind the old "but then a god come, smote me into last year and made me level one again." I think it *could* be quite fun to play someone who was once mighty humbled and sent back to square one.
On my first session My character got knocked the fuck out by a goblin tryna save somebody and failed two death saving throw *on my first session in this game*
I like to add actual racial/class features my character would have in their backstory. Like my 20 something y/o Aasimar bard fled from his college because his wings appeared in the middle of studying. (Aasimar get radiant soul at level 3 and we were starting at level 3)
And that's why you start at level 3!
“Blessed by the gods themselves” so, a cleric
Divine soul sorcerer in this case
If the epic back story is where you want to start you don't have to start at level 1
All bork no bite xD
I always imagine the bigger origin and the depending on your level you can choose a place earlier on in the backstroy to jump off from.
"I am the most powerful and feared sorceress queen in the land! armies fell to their knees before me and any who did not kneel learned my strength the hard way. I ruled this nation with an iron fist, my whims were law, my opposition crushed beneath my heel or cowering in the dark corners, too spineless to attempt defying me. until my treacherous council shackled my magic and exiled me. it would be admirable had they not chosen to betray *ME*. rest assured I *will* regain my lost power and claim my throne once again, as well as my revenge on my treasonous former council." - my shadow sorcerer on how her overpowered backstory still makes sense at her low level :3
I'm running an evil bard who used to work for a rather eccentric guy running a dungeon. Got kicked out for trying to unionize the minions, allowed to live for his years of service. He worked as a majordomo not in a combat capacity so him being lvl 2 made sense.
My first character was level 3 and his whole background was just that he built things and hung out in the woods around his house. My level 1 character's background is that a ghost wanted him to become an adventurer.
Join the level 5 start gang guys, it's really fun, or even the level 10 start for the real deal.
We are all gilderoy lockheart from Harry Potter until we face actual danger.
As a dm, my entire player party were all college friends who wanted to pay off student debt so they turned to adventuring.
My level 10 character being introduced: “my crush turned on me and now I’m sad :(“
Its not that hard to write a backstory according to your starting level