When my players make characters I feel they tend to think in terms of race and class, or even other small things, like trade or background. And those can all be a good starting point, as long as you don’t stop there.
But I’d like to talk about making a character outside of mechanics altogether, then fitting those mechanics to your ideas. And how you can make a very unique character without needing to give your DM a headache (or without giving yourself one, if you’re a DM).
Each of the classes has a core set of assumptions and rules associated with them. Often times people link the two together. The wizard casts spells with their spell book and are lovers of knowledge (that’s how they learned their spells, after all, right?). The fighter is a tough guy who knows the nitty gritty ins and outs of fighting, and the barbarian is a large strong humanoid with a flaring temper.
But lets say I want to play a character who has the unique ability to call upon the spirits and knowledge of my ancestors to grant me prowess in battle. I reach out to them, draw them into me, and let them take over the minutia of my actions in combat, so that I might reign triumphant! Sounds cool right? So you could tell your DM that this is the character you’d like to play and is there any way this could happen?
As a DM this kind of thing might make you cringe. Because to make up a new class for this one person is a daunting process. But for this character concept, you don’t have to make up a class at all! In fact, you wouldn’t even have to tweak one. This person is a barbarian.
All it takes is reworking the flavor of the class. The barbarian’s rage is no longer a rage but a summoning of ancestral spirits, which provides prowess on the battlefield! It even speaks to why the character may not be able to do things like cast spells. They are already channeling the spirits of their ancestors. As a player, this is something you can readily do without needing to discuss much with the DM.
The key here is that you have simply put a new face to the mechanical effects associated with a class. This ensures that your character is still balanced and yet empowers you to play a lot of different characters.
Want to play someone who’s fighting style relies on very specific moves with somewhat defining animal names (I’m thinking of Rand in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time Series), like Dive of the Swan? You could play a monk, and just add lots of descriptors. But if you want to have mechanical consequences to using different maneuvers, play a Battle Master! No reason you can’t call a sweeping attack the Dive of the Swan. Then simply allow your feats and ability scores (and fighting style) to augment the flavor of your character.
I realize this simple concept isn’t a huge breakthrough or anything. Its essentially just re-skinning. But this simple concept, of viewing each portion of the character creation process as just a set of mechanical details, can really open up the number of interesting characters you can make.
Here’s a character I’ve made that I may play if the setting is right for it, and if I’m actually a player.
I decide that I want to play a man of simple faith, much like Father Forthill in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. My reasons for adventuring are fairly simple, I simply am doing what I can to make the world a better place, and will take whatever path I feel allows me to do the most good. I have a set of simple values and am unwavering in my faith. The Great Dragon (a deity that I have made up) is a benevolent god, and will protect me, for I am his follower.
By now, you probably think its quite obvious that I am playing a cleric. I just described a cleric to you, after all. But I would disagree. I just described a priest. And that’s really where I want the focus to be. A humble man, protected and empowered by his faith, doing his best to better the world as best he can, and aiding those who are willing to work towards the greater good, as defined by his faith.
The mechanics offered by the cleric class provide a lot of support for this. They provide a lot of faith-based spells, and spells that are reflective of things a priest might be able to do. And he would also be fairly protected, due to the armor proficiencies granted by the cleric class.
But I want him to be an older, humbler man. I don’t want him to be wearing armor, I want him to just wear a plain old single-color robe. And I want him to be older. If he’s not wearing armor it won’t really make sense for him to have a high dexterity either. It wouldn’t fit the flavor I’m going for.
I can’t be an easy target. The goal is to be protecting others and myself through my faith alone, right?
Here’s where using mechanical details comes in. The monk gets a feature at first level, Unarmored Defense, that allows them to have a high AC without the need for armor. Better yet, it scales off Wisdom! With a little re-skinning this is perfect. Why do I add my Wisdom to my AC? Mechanically because I’ve got a level of Monk. But as for my reasoning? My faith itself helps keep me from harm.
Of course, level one monk comes with some other benefits. But while none of them are befitting of the character I have made, none of them detract from it either. So all in all I think my character will have a level of monk and then any number of levels in Cleric, whichever path I choose.
So when making a character from now on, don’t let class restrict your ideas. That isn’t to say you can’t work backwards and make an interesting character that is inspired by your class choice, and honestly a character is so much more than the mechanics it embodies. But by owning the character creation rules and bending the mechanics to your will, you can make pretty much any kind of character you’d like, without the added workload of making a bunch of custom content.
D&D and Me 