D&D Discussion: What do YOU base your character concepts on?

[Rain Yupa]

When you make a character, is there one or two aspects about it that you center your concept on? Does the rest of your character's advancement revolve around a single aspect? Or do you just pick a race/class combination, and wing it as you go?

In 3.5, I either based most of my characters around a feat (or set of feats), or a Prestige Class to gun for. The former was easier to manage, as it allowed some flexibility. The latter, I would try to think of as creative of a way to earn that prestige class, to make my character more unique.

In 4e, I've been finding there's less motivation to base a whole character around, since there's so much flexibility, and your choices aren't as static and set-in-stone as they were in the previous edition. But in the past... about two weeks, I've been eyeing some Paragon Paths which I think probably don't get much love, and my intrigue to gun for those has piqued.

What about the rest of you folks?  

[Mongooseh]

I don't look at the things there are. I look at the things I can roleplay as, played a paladin(Didn't like it due to being worse than a cleric and fighter), played a cleric(Got my arse handed to me by a bear, second time playing mind you). Then I looked for things which would be fun to play as. Incomes Nikolov the begrudging druid, seems to be very unattuned to nature despite being a druid. Blasts lightning and fire everywhere like a sorcerer and when all his spells are spent and he's buffed(companion too) goes on a wild spree. Found him extremely fun to play sadly now I'm running the game so I cannot play him.
So I will tell his funniest story. After arriving at a town before they were to go to the orc fortress the party had arrived at the town picked up some assigned dwarven mercenaries and started to gamble away the night. Nikolov decided (Mostly because I had a 6th level feat to spend and was considering leadership) to go give gold to the general public in hope of gathering a hobo army. So after a little while of throwing gold about the crowd starts to turn nasty and Nikolov finds himself surrounded and people punching him, so he orders his panther to help him fight back but without claws. After rolling a critical with the panther the panther took off a peasants head and surprisingly enough there was no more crowd but the sound of.
"Oi! You there! Sheriff! Stop!"
After a little discussion and a proclamation of the death being self defence Nikolov was surpisingly asked to come with them to court. Knowing that they had to leave tomorrow and couldn't afford the time needed to go through the justice system Nikolov turned into a panther and fled. The sheriff later turned up at the inn the party was staying at to tell the party Nikolov was banned from the town for "Throwing money malicously at civillians". But yeah kind of upset I can't play him anymore.  

[SporkMaster5000]

A lot of times I start with a cool or interesting mechanical hook and then let the fluff guide the character. For instance Jack started out because I wanted to make a dex/wis rogue with minimal strength and charisma to prove a point. That gave me an idea for his ability spread, but then I wanted to think of a real character so the idea would actually be playable and not just a thought experiment that amounts to nothing. I came up with the idea that since a wisdom-heavy rogue would be more perceptive than the average rogue (my only real boon for him, as it stands) he'd be very wary and keep an eye out for traps and ambushes. That gave me the idea for a tombraider kinda like Indiana Jones, he's done this for a while, he's seen how things work, and he's not stupid enough to just grab the statue without swapping the bag of sand to keep the pressure plate down (though sometimes even Indie rolls a nat 1). Of course if he's been at this, why would he be a low level character still? Because he's not that great at it, and he runs from dangers more often than overcome them once he's seen them, so most of his powers would be about mobility and letting him keep his enemies on their back foot while he gets to safety. Whole character, spawned from thinking of a story to wrap around the idea of a dex/wis rogue.  

[Anatarei Crimsonthrone]

It depends. Sometimes, it's a concept (like an "archer" concept) that I explore the best way to accomplish it. Other times, I just want to try out something, and I figure out the best character to work with, say, a prestige class or feat or something to accomplish what I want. I also try to build characters that don't fit in like they're supposed to - like building a cleric who operates in a way that might be unexpected for the cleric, just so that I can still fill the party balance needs.  

[JinKazamaru]

I macro-min first of all... usually finding a few class/race combos... that work well than find a Paragon I like and build towards it... once you have the middle to beginning cleared epic is a breeze to manage

Than I try to build a story around that... sort of plain but there are other ways to make people interesting than making him or her odd...

or like say my Logan character... I take something and build a character to best image that guy in the D&D world

more or less he is a guy who is good at getting hp.. or temp hp and rages... plus being a shifter helps... only thing I couldn't quite work out was duel wielding... it just didn't work out well enough  

[Arc Vembris]

Most of my ideas come from listening to music. Typically an energetic song or something with a strong beat will get me in the mood of a type of character, how they move, how they fight, and from there I can build what they look like. The lyrics can then sometimes be clues to their backstory(which is why so many of my characters have lost loved ones). Zifke was created exactly this way. I like reading new rulebooks to work how a character can function the way I see him or her in my head.

I don't always use the ideas I get this way. Sometimes I just grab a class that the party needs and build something on that, and sometimes I just wanna try out a new class. Riswynn and Aurora come from this approach.

Kradh and Kraelin are reissues of the first two D&D characters I played back in 2E, respectively. I said "I wanna be an elf, who uses a sword, and like, magic." Without dropping a multiclass on a green player, they made him a cleric. Now Kradh can rock his sword/magic/elfy ways.  

[Ariel Yardena Davidson]

Workable ideas, really. Characters i'd love to write about.

Hell, my OC, Jude Codeyn II, COULD pass as a human, if one were not to notice the scars on his ears. He is really an elf, but there was a severe persecution of his kind ...

Self-mutilation, as it were.  

[Keith Valken Lionheart]

I like my characters rough, tough and badass. They should have a way of life, and their stats reflect that. I usually make the fluff first, then the character.  

[Deadusernamelol]

I base my characters on what sort of personality styles I wish to play. I don't bother with trying to gimick my character based on certain classes, abilities or anything. That's stupid in my opinion. I enjoy the game for it's role playing instead of it's stats.

 

[Durgress]

I usually take one single idea that is mostly unique for a character, such as Milof, a character so alienated by the discovery of the Far Realm that he no longer sees himself as human and his only goal is to gain enough power to enter the Far Realm. I then look at an appropirate class/race/feat set up, in this case a human binder who takes abberant feats. Also becuase I always wanted to use abberant feats. I then play them with a single personality... fragment I guess you could say. All my characters are part of me, but none of them ARE me I guess I would describe it. I usually try to fit in a character progression, and not just as in leveling up, I mean as in my character advances and changes as time goes on. In the example of Milof, he would slowly become more and more eccentric and bat-s**t insane, to the point where near the completion of his goal all he understands is to kill, and everything else would just be a manifestation of whatever he currently has bound.  

[KamikaziFreak]

Arc Vembris

Most of my ideas come from listening to music. Typically an energetic song or something with a strong beat

Reading this brought to mind the song that I woke up to today, which was a power metal version of Ra Ra Rasputin, and now I suddenly feel compelled to make a character based on that.

I usually make characters based on an interesting idea that I feel I can translate into game mechanics well. Some favorites are the Hand-to-Hand Combat Cleric, which was admittedly inspired by Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist - the image of a suit of full plate ready to punch you seemed like a fun concept to start with. Another is the "Wrathful Bookkeeper", an illitterate dwarven barbarian with a large size greataxe who was head librarian on account of his not trusting books, and operating under the principle of, "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." He was inspired by "Conan the Librarian" in the movie UHF.  

[Seiryna]

[EC2] Carthinator

I base my characters on what sort of personality styles I wish to play. I don't bother with trying to gimick my character based on certain classes, abilities or anything. That's stupid in my opinion. I enjoy the game for it's role playing instead of it's stats.

Ditto on this to a point, as I usually base my char. around my personality. My char is a half-fey felid rogue with the curiosity flaw, she has high cha, and dex but low str and con, because that's how I like to play. I prefer using my wits, quick thinking, and silver tongue to get in to and out of situations, rather then just brute strength. I was gonna write more but for some reason I can't seem to wrap my mind around what I want to say lol >=/ I like to call my char. a char. for an advanced DM only XD as most DMs I've found have no idea what to do with her, and most players just don't get her lol =x maybe my bar of expectation is set to high? or everyone else's is just to low? plus shes one of those lone wolf chars. I just don't get why you have to stay with the party 24/7 in a game XD that's hardly believable XD I mean sure in a dungeon crawl I'm best friends with the cleric and/or fighter <.<' but in town? you all are on your own XD I have my own goals and agenda to follow...I think I put to much thought, and life in to my chars lol....  

[Ariel Yardena Davidson]

Arc Vembris

Most of my ideas come from listening to music. Typically an energetic song or something with a strong beat will get me in the mood of a type of character, how they move, how they fight, and from there I can build what they look like. The lyrics can then sometimes be clues to their backstory(which is why so many of my characters have lost loved ones). Zifke was created exactly this way. I like reading new rulebooks to work how a character can function the way I see him or her in my head.

I don't always use the ideas I get this way. Sometimes I just grab a class that the party needs and build something on that, and sometimes I just wanna try out a new class. Riswynn and Aurora come from this approach.

Kradh and Kraelin are reissues of the first two D&D characters I played back in 2E, respectively. I said "I wanna be an elf, who uses a sword, and like, magic." Without dropping a multiclass on a green player, they made him a cleric. Now Kradh can rock his sword/magic/elfy ways.

If that's the case, i have a 12-track challenge for ya, if you want. PM if interested.  

[Arc Vembris]

I'm gonna have to listen to these tracks, won't I? Or are these common enough songs that I'd have heard them?  

[Seiryna]

Wolfram Asher Davidson

Arc Vembris

Most of my ideas come from listening to music. Typically an energetic song or something with a strong beat will get me in the mood of a type of character, how they move, how they fight, and from there I can build what they look like. The lyrics can then sometimes be clues to their backstory(which is why so many of my characters have lost loved ones). Zifke was created exactly this way. I like reading new rulebooks to work how a character can function the way I see him or her in my head.

I don't always use the ideas I get this way. Sometimes I just grab a class that the party needs and build something on that, and sometimes I just wanna try out a new class. Riswynn and Aurora come from this approach.

Kradh and Kraelin are reissues of the first two D&D characters I played back in 2E, respectively. I said "I wanna be an elf, who uses a sword, and like, magic." Without dropping a multiclass on a green player, they made him a cleric. Now Kradh can rock his sword/magic/elfy ways.

If that's the case, i have a 12-track challenge for ya, if you want. PM if interested.

be interesting to have different people do this and see how different people interrupt the song(s) in to chars lol XD