Quirky Characters

[Tomcat1066]

Webhead talking about Cev reminded me of a human barbarian I once played who enjoyed reading and fine wine. The thing is, almost all of us have played quirky characters and they're often the most entertaining.

A 15th level paladin who fits the stereotype isn't nearly as fun as a 4th level halfling paladin with an inferiority complex and skill with stilts. So...what's your quirky character?

[Webhead]

I almost always play quirky characters, or at least characters who play "against stereotype" in some fashion. For me, it's just about being more than the sum of my stats.

In 2e, I played an elf Ranger who was claustrophobic/entomophobic/cacophobic (fear of enclosed spaces/insects/ugly things). The party wanted to delve into some underground ruins, which already had the Ranger's nerves strung, and we were ambushed by a Hook Horror! The Ranger took one look at it, screamed like a little girl at the top of his lungs and ran the opposite direction at full speed. He only (reluctantly) came back once the party convinced him that they had killed it.

In a 3e Dark Sun campaign that we started to play, my friend and I made a half-giant/halfing duo in homage to Master Blaster. I was playing the half-giant strong man with incredibly low intelligence and wisdom scores. His general combat tactics consisted of "picking up big sticks and rocks a hitting people with them". When the party was running low and water and decided to spread out to search, the half-giant would look underneath rocks and debris and occasionally dig a little hole in the ground at his feet. Needless to say, he didn't find much water...

My favorite quirky character (even though it was non-D&D) was from an amalgam WoD campaign where I played a duck. Okay, he wasn't actually a duck, he was a deep-umbral vengeance spirit who manifested in the real world as a demonic duck with a desire to terrorize bird-hunters. Under "Concept" on the character sheet, I wrote: "Foul-Tempered Water Fowl" :D The duck could breathe fire, had a mesmerizing gaze, could turn invisible, side-step into the Umbra, walk on walls, had magic resistance and a handful of other neat talents. He almost had to kill the vampire in the party because of a tiff between two PCs, and he could have too, thanks to his sticky napalm breath, but in the end we decided to let him live... :rolleyes:

[Tomcat1066]

Another one I had was a blind mage in 2e (though Sorcerer would have been more appropriate in 3x). It was hysterical at times. Like the time one of the PCs was scared and hid behind me (she was playing a rogue or something), begging for me to protect her. I calmly turned my head and said "I don't see anything to be afraid of". I would make statements like that left and right, just for the heck of it.

Yeah, my dex was about a useless stat, but hey...the character was unique :D

[Kilrex]

Had a Goblin Ranger that used to piss everywhere to mark his territoty. One evening the Hobgoblin Druid turned into a tree for the evening, I didn't know this cause he gave a note to DM for the action. Well, I peed on him and when he turned back to his normal form, the stench remained. DM made him make Concentration checks to cast spells for the first day, until he got used to the smell.

I also made human (fav enemy) shaped leather chew toys for myself, made out of human skin of course. And had a Dire Possum animal companion.

Character's name was Burnt Toe Walnutcrusher, of the Burning Moon Clan. Got name because during my clan naming ceremony, dropped burning oils on my foot and when I put my foot in a bucket to drown the flame, I fell on my ass and crushed a bowl of walnuts. I had to do the ceremony at 3rd level and rolled a 1 for the balance check holding a burning icon of the moon god while atop the tribal totem, causing the spill of oil. Then failed the balance check with my foot in a bucket of water. While the DM was deciding the effect of the second fail, one of the guys in the group suggested I fell and crushed my nuts. DM decided Walnutcrusher was more humiliating than Nutcrusher.

[Ramzei]

Another one I had was a blind mage in 2e (though Sorcerer would have been more appropriate in 3x). It was hysterical at times. Like the time one of the PCs was scared and hid behind me (she was playing a rogue or something), begging for me to protect her. I calmly turned my head and said "I don't see anything to be afraid of". I would make statements like that left and right, just for the heck of it.

Yeah, my dex was about a useless stat, but hey...the character was unique :D

Not being able to cast many spells for a mage is pretty quirky indeed!

[Tomcat1066]

Not being able to cast many spells for a mage is pretty quirky indeed!

Only ones where he needed to specifically see the target. The DM ruled that if I could hear them, or another PC tell me approximately where they were, I could cast a fair amount of stuff.

But yeah, a mage who could miss with magic missile in a fire-and-forget magic system was unique :D

[Law Dog]

We were playing the old Star Trek FASA system and I wanted to play a Vulcan/Human hybrid.

You ever notice that in canon Star Trek that any time you have a mixture of races, the result is the character is more like the culturally "superior" race? Spock was more Vulcan than human, B'Ellana was more human than Klingon.

I made Lt. j.g. Erik McCrea, ship's security chief. Father was human, mother was Vulcan and he definitely considered himself human (albeit with pointed ears and very strong). His temper often got the best of him.

I even made the GM wince at one of his actions. We had an intruder on the ship who revealed that he had a cortex bomb in his head and time was counting down to detonation. Erik had cornered the guy in the Captain's ready room. It was pretty clear that there was no way to stop the bomb in time with surgery and this guy had sabotaged the internal systems so the transporter was offline, the turbolifts were stuck and the phasers wouldn't work inside the ship. The science guys were botching their rolls to get anything working, so I asked the question, is the food replicator still working? The GM said yes, but reminded me that the food replicators wouldn't make anything inherently dangerous. I forced the villains head into the replicator slot, described how I popped the control panel off with a flick of a finger, pulled out a few of the isolinear chips that act as safety devices, gave the computer my security command override and then hit the "recycle" button. Bye, bye head.

This GM was really into the spirit of Trek and if you could technobabble your way through it, you could make it happen.

[Webhead]

...I even made the GM wince at one of his actions...*snip*...

This GM was really into the spirit of Trek and if you could technobabble your way through it, you could make it happen.

Wow! This is so wrong and yet so very, very cool! That would definately be worth some bonus experience points in my game! :D

[Tomcat1066]

Wow! This is so wrong and yet so very, very cool! That would definately be worth some bonus experience points in my game! :D:eek:

That. Is. Beyond. Awesome! :D

[Thoth-Amon]

We were playing the old Star Trek FASA system and I wanted to play a Vulcan/Human hybrid.

You ever notice that in canon Star Trek that any time you have a mixture of races, the result is the character is more like the culturally "superior" race? Spock was more Vulcan than human, B'Ellana was more human than Klingon.

I made Lt. j.g. Erik McCrea, ship's security chief. Father was human, mother was Vulcan and he definitely considered himself human (albeit with pointed ears and very strong). His temper often got the best of him.

I even made the GM wince at one of his actions. We had an intruder on the ship who revealed that he had a cortex bomb in his head and time was counting down to detonation. Erik had cornered the guy in the Captain's ready room. It was pretty clear that there was no way to stop the bomb in time with surgery and this guy had sabotaged the internal systems so the transporter was offline, the turbolifts were stuck and the phasers wouldn't work inside the ship. The science guys were botching their rolls to get anything working, so I asked the question, is the food replicator still working? The GM said yes, but reminded me that the food replicators wouldn't make anything inherently dangerous. I forced the villains head into the replicator slot, described how I popped the control panel off with a flick of a finger, pulled out a few of the isolinear chips that act as safety devices, gave the computer my security command override and then hit the "recycle" button. Bye, bye head.

This GM was really into the spirit of Trek and if you could technobabble your way through it, you could make it happen.
Very clever. I'll have to remember that one.

Thoth-Amon

[Greylond]

See, that's one of the things that I lurve about HackMaster. The Quirks&Flaws system brings alot of personality to characters. I've seen pyromanic, Truthful, anosmic(no sense of smell) albinos and other such fun charcters played...

[Addis Hellfire]

This one isn't mine, but a friend's character in a game I was DM'ing.

He was playing a Sivak Draconian fighter that could kill just about anything in a few hits, hit all the time, take alot of damage . . . but was deathly afraid of Gnomes. I brought characters from various realms (setting was Lankmar, we had a Sivak, Yuan-Ti Abomination, and a "Sand" (Earth) Elemental). This Sivak has witnessed first hand the destruction that Krynnish gnomes can cause, and now fears them and their faulty inventions.

[tesral]

Alman the Drunk, a battle mage that couldn't shoot straight sober. It was a curse. That was back in 0e.

Nubaru the Panther A magician with the left side of his face blown away in a magic duel. He wore a mask to hide the nothing that remained and had a emerald eye.

Jason the Knife Fighter that used nothing but knives.

Knuckler Jones A thief with pretensions to the nobility. He spent more time developing anti theft devices than stealing. The nastiest was the "hornet box" a wooden box filled with crossbow bolts and a limited wish that they find their way into the back of anyone that tried to break into the house as if shot at point blank range.

Leta A Human general class. In my game the equivalent to commoner. She was a Mechanic. A Magician that didn't actually cast spells. She carried magic items, lots and lots of magic items and faked her way through adventuring with them.

Kirt had to be the quirkiest of them all. A half dragon that values friendship over all else.

[Engar]

I played a very grumpy human lawful neutral vampire bloodlined true necromancer follower of Wee Jas in 3.5 who traveled with two paladins and a lawful good pacifist monk. He did not share their hatred of undead he simply felt undead existed only to serve the living (and actually considered himself undead). He also had the tomb tainted feat which meant he was like undead with regard to healing and forced to explain after a couple very near death experiences at the hands of well meaning pallies. He loathed inteligent undead as they constantly railed against humanity rather than serving as they ought and he used his abilities to teach them their place or at least humble them before their destruction. He also created undead on rare ocassion when necessary to aid humanoids like when a kraken attacked their ship, damaged it beyond seaworthiness and was forced in zombie undeath to carry it and the entire crew safely to shore (actually improving the travel time and being kept on for later trips).

Not sure if that qualifies as "quirky", but the party was certainly odd. Especially when he gained his desecrating aura, oh boy was that a fun conversation with the paladins trying to explain why suddenly he lit up like a christmas tree everytime they detected evil. Ouch.

[michaeljearley]

Now thats funny.

Paladin 1 "Okay, I guess I'll take first watch"
Monk "We are at an Inn, we don't need a watch"
Paladin 2 *looks at the necromancer* "I'll take 2nd watch.

[Ramzei]

Now thats funny.

Paladin 1 "Okay, I guess I'll take first watch"
Monk "We are at an Inn, we don't need a watch"
Paladin 2 *looks at the necromancer* "I'll take 2nd watch.

Too true :lol:

[Webhead]

I played Captain America in a 3.5 campaign several years back. He wasn't actually Cap, of course, but the character only fought unarmed and with a shield which he had practiced throwing like a weapon. His uniform (he was a former royal guard) was decribed as having a "white, blue and red" (the royal colors) motif and the family crest on his shield was a stylized "C.A." that was obscured just enough not to be obvious.

His name? Kappran "Kap" Aki-remma.

Yeah, I know...I'm terrible...

If you can't put the D&D players in a super hero game, put the super heroes in D&D! ;)

[nijineko]

for this character a bit of background history: the against the giants campaign is historically significant as being the official debut of the drow in d&d. (as far as i know, if any fatbeards know differently, do let me know! )

so i decide to play an albino drow who doesn't know he is one, left in a desert oasis cave as an infant by the survivors of his house, found and raised by a nomadic tribe of thri-kreen, and later taught elvish ways by a tribe of painted elves who lived in a petrified forest hidden deep in the desert. when his drowic abilities started manifesting, they thought he was a natural sorcerer, so they trained him as one. =D he later sought out the secrets of his past, and managed to find out what his house mother was doing at that oasis, following in her footsteps, found her remains, and succeeded where she failed in obtaining the secrets of the magical knowledge she was after. he still doesn't know exactly where he or she is from, as the speak with dead spell failed on his mother's remains... they did get some information out of her body servants remains, but not enough.

you can read more about him and his adventures here (http://www.penandpapergames.com/userpages/showentry.php?e=82&catid=10&entryuserid=1336). =D enjoy!




another amusing bit taken from one of my character's notes files... (note: this character is very unusually strong!!)


The Wagon-pack was inspired from watching children play with a wagon. He managed to acquire one and then modified it to his needs. Using some rope, he rigged a harness, some blankets or bedrolls make good padding, and canvas with more rope is used to secure everything inside the wagon so that it won't fall out, no matter how he uses it. some canvas lining the bottom and making flaps on all four sides behind the wheels serves to conceal whatever is underneath the Wagon-pack when it is resting on its wheels... usually himself. Using some more material or his arm for a pillow, he can simply sleep under it while it is still strapped to him. As long as he picks a good spot of ground that won't get wet underneath him, the canvas is even waterproof. In a desperate pinch, it can even be used as an improvised weapon, although this usage tends to break the wheels, which are costly for him to repair. He intends someday to learn carpentry, so as to be able to repair the more difficult parts himself.

(*cheesy announcer voice*: It's an umbrella! It's a bed! It's a backpack! It's an improvised weapon! It's the Wagonpack™! )

this character may show up in one of the play-by-post games here on this site. head over there and keep an eye out. =D




one of the first characters i ever played was a halfling rogue that had a perchance for using 10' poles to pole vault into enemies. it seemed his sad fate that (as the dm ruled that he was midair during the next round) whomever he picked for a target would get killed before he actually hit them, ending up prone beyond them... although once he simply missed and failed his dex check to land. ^^ an amusing point was that he had a pretty high strength and was a pack rat. i was a young player and didn't realize it, but at one point i had managed to collect about 4 10' poles from other members of the party. when it finally came out during an inventory check for anything useful to get past this one obstacle the entire party laughed at the visual idea of this little 3' halfling toting around 4 poles!!! and then the dm made me give up three of them. ^^




one red-headed character of mine was noted for extreme superstitions. she saw omens in everything. it drove my dm to distraction when i started asking questions about tiny incidental details he happened to mention while describing something, and then blowing it up into a full-blown omen and then having my character promptly act on what she thought it meant. it made the dm almost afraid to include any detail in his descriptions... =D and if he didn't supply it, she'd flip her warfans and read something from how they fell, and whether she caught them or not. ^^ the twin fans were beautifully enamelled with depiction of her people's heaven on one side and their hell on the other. among her more notable omen-prompted actions:


having captured an orcish prisoner of a raiding band that had been troubling the kingdom they were currently in, she flipped her warfans and then walked over and killed the prisoner due to the reading. (double hell) the blood on one of the fans formed the rune for secrets in her language, and she knew that the prisoner had had information they needed. she was extremely foul-tempered for the rest of the day for her over-hasty acting upon the omen.
a bigoted individual tried to bias us against lizardfolk in an attempt to ruin relations between them and the kingdom we represented. we didn't know this, but our contact for a guide through the marshes was a lizardfolk, and that individual deliberately left out that information. out in the marshes we became aware that we were being stalked and the other party members were all about attacking the likely lizardfolk ambush and preemting it. this was foiled when my character read the warfans and found out that this would result in lots of blood, and stopped the party from attacking. our resulting meeting was successful, and noted by both peoples.
my character successfully prophesied an ambush raid in the middle of the night even though the dm didn't give away anything. when the dm questioned me about it, i thought for a bit and then claimed feminine intuition on the part of my character! =D that got a great laugh.
of interest about that last is the fact that this was my dm's home-made adventure, no possible way i could have read about it elsewhere. also, the dm would simply make up something in response to my demand for an omen, and i would make up the darndest things that would at times derail the current portion of the adventure, and at others uncannily predict something successfully! it was bizarre how it would turn out the way it did. that or the dm was exceedingly clever! it was a great campaign. ^^ that character is still famous among us to this day for the omens, and for constantly stealing food.... (long story!)

[Tony Misfeldt]

I once played a blind ronin who fought with a zatoichi sword (a katana swordstick). This was back in 2nd Ed. His backstory was similar to that of Ogami Itto of the Lone Wolf & Cub comics, which I was collecting at the time, combined with elements of Rutger Hauer's character from Blind Fury, which I had just seen. He was pretty cool. The DM would keep describing things that we see, and when he spoke directly to me I'd say something like, "I see this, do I?" The DM found it frustrating to DM my ronin and kept suggesting ways he could get his eyesight back. I turned them all down. His name was Lo Chung (I know, it's a Chinese name for a Japanese character, but I was in a rush to get the character finished).

I had another character who was a female half elven fighter/thief who hired herself out as an assassin. She was a sadomasachist dominatrix who grew up in a brothel. She would use the skills she learned growing up in her former profession to aide in killing her targets. She once killed a mage by felating him and then biting off his... well, you get the idea. She was also 2nd Ed. Her name was Samantha Nicole Moore, which I chose because of the initials S.N.M., which if you say it fast sounds like S&M.

I had made another half elven fighter thief, this one a male. I named him Elip Gnud (I was stuck for a name, so I named him Dung Pile spelled backwards). While not of the Bounty Hunter kit from The Complete Thief's Handbook (yes, this is another 2nd Ed character), he did fancy himself a bountyhunter. He had a ritual of pulling a tooth from each bounty he killed, turning it into a bead, braiding his hair, and wearing the tooth-bead on the end of the braid. He wound up with quite a few braids before I stopped playing him.

The character I'll be playing as a DMPC in my hybrid D&D game is an Amazonian Beast Rider named Talia. She has some pretty high stats, but some pretty significant quirks/disadvantages too. She's a moderate alcoholic, a moderate adrenaline junkie, a bisexula, is fanatic about the barbarian code of honour and the Amazon belief that women are superior to men, she has a severe case of nymphomania, and has an extremely high metabolism. In fact, her metabolism is so high that with her current constitution she could literally starve to death in about two and a half days.

[gdmcbride]

Quirky Characters I've played and seen played:

Skit the Windling (think pixie) Illusionist who every 33 days thanks to a magical curse forgot everything (except skills, magic and motor functions) and awakened with a slightly different personality. The source of the curse? A wizard who was tired of his apprentice complaining about how there was never anything new going on in the tower. He meant it as a temporary object lesson. Alas, the wizard was killed before the curse could be removed...

I can't remember his name but I was in a campaign with a fighter who had once been 18th level but had been permanently drained down to first and hit with a magical disjunction that destroyed all his gear. He had barely escaped the lich who did this with his life and a sword he claimed that though now non-magical was once the only blade that could slay the lich-king. Though he has sworn vengeance much of his memory was gone (think massive skill loss!), he is barely sane and no one believes this 1st level wretch was once a great hero.

Seventeen (hi Frank!) a halfling slave turned defender (Midnight's equivalent to a monk) who had only ever been referred to by a number and was looking for his name. His preferred weapon -- a shovel!

Fearless Faergus -- a mad celtic barbarian who had been told by the world's greatest and most powerful oracle (or so he claimed) exactly how he was going to die (a matter of which he'd never speak). Since it hadn't happened yet, Faergus was sure he'd be fine no matter how bad things got. That he was insanely tough, didn't hurt.

Dr. Grey Mortand -- sole survivor of the Starkweather-Moore Expedition of 1933. A once respectable doctor of botany who now was dedicated to killing anyone who wanted to explore the antarctic regions too thoroughly. Why? Somethings man was not meant to know...

Kessler (aka Johanne Kessler VonHowitzer) -- Eisen pirate and master gunner aboard the Il Malle Volante and the greatest shot alive. Kessler was a mad german who talked to his guns (from pistols up to cannons), insisted he understood the language of penguins, and proposed the theory that there was level of earth in which valuable things naturally congregated (i.e. 'The Treasure Strata'). Kessler's cheerful gun-crazed insanity did not stop him from saving the world, getting the girl and retiring to his home city of Frieberg to establish the world's most well known cannon foundry (The Howitzer Foundry).

Gary

[Tony Misfeldt]

I created an insane half-elf rogue/sorcerer with Multiple Personality Disorder that I have yet to play (actually I made him for other players to play if they joined the game late, but I'd play him in someone elses campaign). His primary personality is a NG rogue who makes a living as a bounty hunter/investigator, but isn't actually of either of those kits. As the product of a rape, he has a severe hatred of sexual predators and hunts them down at any given opportunity (prefferably dead rather than alive). He's completely unaware of his magical powers or of his dual personality. His other personality is a NE sorcerer, and a serial rapist. He uses his spells to disguise himself and gain an advantage over his intended prey. He's fully aware of his other personality's obsession with hunting down rapists and leaves taunting messages and clues for his "Dr. Jekyl" persona. Every night when the character goes to sleep (especially if he's met a potensial victim), he must make a successful WIS check (or in 3.X terms a successful WILL check) to keep the "Mr. Hyde" persona dormant. If the check fails, he awakens as his NE personality sneaks out and assaults a victim. He then returns to his bed, undoes his magical disguise and goes back to sleep. When he awakes the next morning, he's once again his primary personality and goes on the hunt for this elusive predator. Thus the character is his own nemessis, his own white whale, his own unicorn.

Kinda twisted, I know, but an interesting story hook. Every time the DM wants the party to go somewhere, all he has to do is have "Mr. Hyde" attack a girl and leave a message saying "I'll see you in (enter city name here)." Then "Dr. Jekyl" will head off to try and aprehend the fiend, and the rest of the party should want to tag along (especially if there's a paladin and/or a priest of Tyr, Torm, or Hoar in the group).

[Ramzei]

I created an insane half-elf rogue/sorcerer with Multiple Personality Disorder that I have yet to play (actually I made him for other players to play if they joined the game late, but I'd play him in someone elses campaign). His primary personality is a NG rogue who makes a living as a bounty hunter/investigator, but isn't actually of either of those kits. As the product of a rape, he has a severe hatred of sexual predators and hunts them down at any given opportunity (prefferably dead rather than alive). He's completely unaware of his magical powers or of his dual personality. His other personality is a NE sorcerer, and a serial rapist. He uses his spells to disguise himself and gain an advantage over his intended prey. He's fully aware of his other personality's obsession with hunting down rapists and leaves taunting messages and clues for his "Dr. Jekyl" persona. Every night when the character goes to sleep (especially if he's met a potensial victim), he must make a successful WIS check (or in 3.X terms a successful WILL check) to keep the "Mr. Hyde" persona dormant. If the check fails, he awakens as his NE personality sneaks out and assaults a victim. He then returns to his bed, undoes his magical disguise and goes back to sleep. When he awakes the next morning, he's once again his primary personality and goes on the hunt for this elusive predator. Thus the character is his own nemessis, his own white whale, his own unicorn.

Kinda twisted, I know, but an interesting story hook. Every time the DM wants the party to go somewhere, all he has to do is have "Mr. Hyde" attack a girl and leave a message saying "I'll see you in (enter city name here)." Then "Dr. Jekyl" will head off to try and aprehend the fiend, and the rest of the party should want to tag along (especially if there's a paladin and/or a priest of Tyr, Torm, or Hoar in the group).

That is a very creative concept! Very interesting indeed!

[mrken]

Over the years I have had a few characters with character quirks that made them fun to play.

My first was a cleric back in 2.0 that could not hit the ground if he dropped his mace. Wasn't a problem until one of the other characters died and the party decided to not bring him back (player's choice). The character had magic armor that only worked on good characters (last owner was evil). Put the armor and it activated. Whoa, can't hit anything but only takes half damage. Would stand in the door with the fighter and block half the damage. The party would cheer if he ever hit anything.

Second quirky character was a commoner. Was meant to make items for the game but the other players would train him and equip him even though her never progressed beyond first level. Was always hurting himself and anyone standing next to him.

The last one was a halfling who had never seen anyone but halflings. Came to the big city to experience the bright lights. First thing he saw in the city was a vampire, a half dragon and a werewolf. Was always afraid, of everyone. Would run from most encounters. He really sucked as a combat character, but ruled in role playing. He was the one who from a time travel to San Fran acquired a skate board and a flashlight.