Ohdd Character Ideas

Author: Andrew /

Alright guys, in an effort to make things more cohesive, this is where I want character ideas. Once they're there, I'll start giving go's and no-go's on things. One thing I'm looking for are characters that are pretty accurate to how they're portrayed in the books, as far as races go. If you're a dwarf and the book says dwarf societies are a certain way, stick to that. If you don't have the book, try to look it up or as someone who does.

I've gotten this question a lot so I'll say again:

-Starting at level 1
-Using stat arrays from the player's handbook or the point buy system
-Each character starts with 100 gold. You use that gold to buy the gear you need. Whatever gold is left over is the gold you have in your pocket.
-As far as where you start inside the city, we'll discuss that as you show your general back-story.
-Please try to make your back-stories a bit general. Tell me what your character is, and how they are. Make that detailed. As far as where they are and what they're doing, we'll work that out together to make sure it fits into what I've done, so far, cohesively.

Back in previous posts are some more detailed notes on restrictions and whatnot but yeah, shouldn't be a problem. Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!

~Andrew

13 comments:

Adam Power said...

Rho the half elf bard

Rho grew up with former adventurers as parents, an elven rogue and a human sorcerer. His parents quit the adventuring life when they were banished from the city they protected when one of their party members showed his true colors in a betrayal.

Rho spent much of his boyhood in hero worship, reading stories written by bards detailing and romanticizing the exploits of traveling warriors and wizards. His parents discouraged him as he got older, from persuing the lifestyle of an adventurer and put him in a university where he studied law.

Rho persued his studies while trying to link it somehow to the adventuring life he wanted, and found his answer. When Rho graduated he started a practice which specialized in defending adventurers who had broken laws while perhaps doing so for the greater good.

Since the days of his parents however, adventuring became more and more regulated and fewer travelers were appearing. Because of this, Rho's practice is struggling and losing money every day. Now he is determined to take what little he learned from his parents and his education and join an adventuring band, fulfilling his boyood dream of not only recoring the acts of heroes, but of being one himself... and keeping it all legal.

Andrew said...

I totally dig it. =] That allows me to stick you with a group, doesn't force yourself into a location or with other characters and still makes your character very unique and interesting. This allows a lot of room for us to tie things and other characters in. Thanks Adam, a perfect example. Great job!

Lincoln said...

I can't help but laugh, sorry. :p it's awesome XD

Anonymous said...

I'll try and keep this as short as I possibly can... which doesn't actually promise much, but I *am* trying, at least =P

Minli, Deva Paladin

The gods of Telain are far and many, much too many to chronicle under a single pantheon. One such god was Folio, the god of art. In order to inspire faith in the arts, Folio created a scion for his purpose, a Deva named Barocchio, destined to create art for mortals to behold in Folio's name for all eternity. Through an eternal cycle of incarnation, Barocchio reinvented art throughout history, and as Folio's divine herald, Barocchio was revered by mortals as a genius artist and an aesthetic mastermind.

But this story is not about him.

In order to preserve Barocchio's works throughout history, he needed a guardian. For this purpose, Folio created Minli, another Deva, destined to become the vanguard eternal for Barocchio's ageless gallery. That, however, is just an elaborate way to say "gate guard". For generations after generations, Minli has stood at the doorsteps to The Gallery, checking off Barocchio's list of VIPs and making sure the wrong people didn't get in, and chasing away dogs who urinate on the columns; a tiresome, menial job made only worse by her conceited, obnoxious master Barocchio, whose oddities and eccentricities failed to decrease each incarnation.

It wasn't always a thankless job, however. Within the first few generations, Minli actually admired Barocchio's art for being divinely perfected and so finely detailed that a mortal in a single lifetime would fail to achieve Barocchio's artistic touch. Generations of praise and worship from mortals would give Barocchio the impression of a celebrity status; something which Barocchio came quickly to adopt and something which Minli came quickly to loathe. Not only did Barocchio's ego inflate, but he felt little reason to be innovate when anything he produced would be sensational to the mortals, and as a result his art actually got worse. No one seemed to mind, except Minli who grew ever more frustrated not only at Barocchio's new attitude, but also at his diminishing art. This has persisted for a number of generations, and Minli yet remains in front of the doors to Barrochio's gallery, not only because of Folio's fated mandate, but also for the extremely slim hope that Barocchio might one day produce good art again.

In the current lifetime, Barrochio motioned to move his gallery to the city of Ohdd, for reasons undiscernable even to the gods. As Minli prepares for the Gallery's opening, she notices a pleasing, yet troubling silence; Barocchio has gone missing. Minli knows not whether some brigand has kidnapped the eternal artist, or whether Barocchio's own musings have led him astray, or whether this is all some elaborate jest set up by Folio as revenge for the time Minli accidentally chipped Barocchio's sculpt of Folio with her axe. Nonetheless, she has a reluctant obligation to bring him back. She's done well to protect the obnoxious twit for over a thousand lifetimes, and there's no reason to fail now.

Andrew said...

Chris,

Nicely done. I'll use Folio as the Art God's name, I like that a lot. I also like Minli's back-story. She's got character and some pizazz. I'm good with just about all of it apart from Barrochio going missing. I may use that but I'm not sure yet. I have some other ideas rolling around in my head and it might serve to have a surprise or two as far as that goes; so for the time being, I'm going to play it that Minli is working for Barrochio in the Galleria Eternia.

For now, I want to leave myself some leway as to how to use Barrochio. As for Minli, I like what you've done with her and I think she's got a lot to work with. I'm making broken down notes on her as we speak.

To everyone: I'd like to understand the character's attitudes towards other people. I want to be able to look at the role-play and understand whether things are on track or not. How do they view average people? How do they view people of power? Beggars on the street? How do they view more regular authority such as the local constabulary? Seedier characters, crisp-clean characters, etc? Enlighten me to their inner personality / philosophy about life. What is driving them at "this" point in time?

OHDD UPDATE:
I've decided I'm going to have you guys start having been in the city for at least a month-ish. Minli, you'll probably have been there a bit longer, etc. We'll see when more characters get involved. Some of you will know each other, some of you won't. I plan on beginning this with some character ties already built. We'll discuss that more; just wanted to put that out into the ether.

Also, for character info, just have something like: "Rho - ", "Minli: ", etc. so that I know the following info is about the character.

Thanks all! Hope to see more!

Françoise Díaz said...

I'll post mine as soon as I can!

Françoise Díaz said...

Eliza the human hunter (rogue/ranger)

A free-spirited and fearless girl who would do anything for adventure. She is hard to trust someone, and usually shuns relationships with other humans, but when the bond is there nothing will break it. Also, she is not impressed easily, and when someone manages to do that, she will do anything to prove she's better than that person.

Eliza is the mixture of two worlds. She was born from the union of two adventures: her mother a druid and her father a hunter, heir to a title seeking for freedom.

Her parents separated when she was still young, and Eliza had to go with her father as heir to the title. She always wanted to be with her mother, but she was still an adventurer, and a kid would only be a problem for her. However, Eliza carried her blessing in her blood. Like her mother's kin, she can transform with nothing more than a thought into a black panther. For that reason her father kept her away from society, always keeping her inside his lands. Eliza grew longing for freedom, with the memories of her early days with her mother in the woods always giving her hope.

One day, she got a letter from her mother. Nothing special. But that innocent letter ignited a fire inside of her. She escaped from her house, never to come back. Only aided by her instinct and the few lessons of hunting she received from her father, she managed to survive in the open world for a few months. She would later arrive to a big city named Ohdd, where she joined the thief guild, where she learned many things. Not long passed before she decided to be on her own again, this time in her new world: the city.

Now, Eliza works as a bounty-hunter, hunting down her preys with lethally precision, much like a panther.

Adam Power said...

ranger is a sweet class, I played a ranger/pitfighter and got some sick sick dpr. are you going dw or ranged? Also, how are you getting your panther transform, are you gonna grab a third multiclass for druid? Funny thing I notice, both our characters come from adventuring parents, maybe Andrew could use such a consistency.
I hope more people post ideas, and that someone rolls a defender, lol.

Adam Power said...

unless of course Chris' deva is a prot pally, then we are gtg! would still be nice to have another striker/controller, maybe a lock or sorc?

Andrew said...

I like it, Magus. Well done. I too, would like to know what the panther transformation is, though. I have to confess I haven't read through all the classes in detail and may be unaware of some of their abilities. If it's not in the class, I'm going to no-go it. I think a druid may have that ability. Also, I think another way to work it might be going with the hybrid class option, there may be something there as well.

Also, guys, I'm going to start a new post soon, so check back soon and I'll have character notes for you and some homework for you as well.

My project now is going to be designing the layout of Ohdd. I have key buildings and whatnot and I'm designing the pantheon of Gods as well and it's about half finished. I'm going to go over your back stories and let you know what I'm good with, what I'm not so good with, and where we'll go next. Great progress, guys. Lovin' it!

Françoise Díaz said...

I took the Initiate of the Old Faith feat, which gives the Wild Shape at-will power. Instead of saying it was earned through training, I'm fluffing it as a blessing from a parent. Works, doesn't it?

Andrew said...

Works just fine. Just so long as it's legit. Good one =]

Lincoln said...

Dirzjra Dax'elvmur'ss -- Drow Rogue

(for convenience, keeping it just Dirzjra)

Dirzjra Dax'elvmur'ss grew up in the drow city of Valshrii. He went through life, being trained as an assassin since he was a small child, completing his daily routine of completing any assignments that may have been given to him by his family. The problem was, he didn't like it, he always felt "strange" about the reasons, and the fact that he was doing it at all.

One night, he was sent to assassinate a man who had cheated his family out of money through gambling.

Dirzjra arrived in the mans bedchamber, ready to kill him, but as he hesitated, the man woke up, and... well... he panicked a bit.

Dirzjra, not being able to decide what to do, out of curiosity, simply asks. "Why did you cheat the Dax'elvmur'ss family?"

The man explained that he was, in a fassion, stuck between a rock and a hard place. He was in debt to another family for a large sum of money, and if he wasn't able to pay them, he knew they would find him, torture, and then kill him. His only choice was to either die by their hands, or risk cheating the Dax'elvmur'ss family and hope he got away with it, knowing that if he didn't, he would most likely be killed.

Dirzjra didn't feel this situation was fair, or right, in any way. The whole situation made him realize that the reason he was so uncomfortable doing what he was doing was because he hated all the conspiracy, murder, back-stabbing, and the general manner that the drow society worked in.

Dirzjra then decided that he would leave Valshrii, and find a better place, away from the place he regretfully had been calling his home.

As a precaution for the man, Dirzjra decided to take the nice Bone Dice the man had in his chambers, as a way to discourage the man from doing any more gambling, as it seemed to get him into trouble.

Dirzjra then abruptly left the city, with much haste.

Dirzjra then found his way to the city of Ohdd, where he set about making himself familiar with the goings on and the places inside the city.

Dirzjra one night found himself in a tavern, where he overheard some men wanting to gamble a couple rounds, but could not, as they had no dice.

Deciding that it couldn't hurt, he stood up, and offered them his dice.

The men, deciding it only right, being they were his dice, asked him to join them.

Dirzjra, after the whole fiasco in Valshrii, knew that he shouldn't, so he declined, but after much coaxing, ended up sitting with them around the table rolling the dice.

Surprisingly to him and the rest, being that it was his first time gambling, he was a natural. He won the first few rounds and got a surprising kick out of it, as well as leaving him more exhilarated than he had felt in a long time. this exhilaration would later become somewhat of an addiction.

Dirzjra learned through his gambling a few things about himself that he never really knew, maybe they were caused by the gambling. Firstly, he had a strange drawing to the numbers 7 and 13. Secondly, he loved to take part in a gamble, when the chance arose, if the gamble happened to be too tempting.

Upon being in the city for roughly half of a year, he managed to acquire a membership to the Grunge Hole, which he frequents, to play his favorite games Voyage, and Ship, Captain, and Crew. When he is not in the Grunge Hole, he spends his time in his temporary home in Stilt row, or wandering the streets & alleyways.

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