I had a ranger who was slightly insane. He had the delusion that his rock was a compass. Because he was a ranger he always new North, South, East, and West, but he always looked at his rock when deciding where to go.
I managed to talk a GM into letting my half-ogre Ranger take rabbits as his mortal enemy... On the condition that when he was surprised by one, I had to roll an "even/odds" check to see whether he'd fight or flee... AND he could usually (inner-conflict rolls, Int v Wis) contain himself ONLY when the rabbit was in a cage AND clearly claimed as property under control of its owner... The results were usually HILARIOUS... we failed at a LOT as a party of rangers, rogues, and a wandering monk... but we certainly had GREAT fun trying... :o)
I had a character that I made around the idea of not having a tragic backstory. Every night before going to sleep he would write a letter to his parents in his journal describing his adventures, and would send it when the journal got full. It confused everyone at first when I explained what I was doing because everyone else's parents were dead, because of course they were. Later in the campaign when we visited my home city, everyone wanted to be adopted by my family because I told them stories of the character's childhood. When the campaign ended, the DM said my character's mom had put all the journals together and had them published, thus our party became even bigger celebrities because everyone knew our adventures. It was a really amazing little detail that we still talk about years later.
I had a homebrew Giant who was capable of moving at speed 40, but he always insisted on moving at speed 20 because he wasn't ever in a rush. Whenever someone got angry at him for going so slow he would repeat his name saying, "Bribbog goes at his own pace."
Omg, that's great! IRL I have a tendency to forget to 'move with purpose,' especially if I'm just trying to relax. I might use something like that in the future.
There's a point where a "quirk" is just being an asshole to the party "because that's just how my character is lul". This character is just waiting to meet someone who'd say "Oops, sorry, my character randomly attacks his allies lol".
LOL I actually have an idea for a sorcerer who casts their cantrip attacks using swearwords whether intentionally during combat or accidentally during conversations.
@@Tordek alright, i realize i was unnecessarily rude in my initial comment and response, i'm not sure what made me choose to do that but yeah i'm sorry. i didn't think you thought that tbh i'm just very bad at wording things and i couldn't figure out how to better convey my point, basically what i was trying to say is that as long as everyone had fun with it then there's no reason to say the character shouldn't be allowed to be played or should be discouraged from being played as long as it doesnt bog the game down. and unique character personalities which are clearly fleshed out and not arbitrary isnt a case of "because thats just how my character is lul" thats all i really meant
I know I’m late to the party, but I have a Barbarian with a quirk I hope you find interesting. You see, his people were very rough and hardy, often greeting each other with minor acts of violence. So whenever he meets someone new, he grasps their shoulders (rolling for grappling regardless of whether we are in combat), yells “THIS IS THE GREETING OF MY PEOPLE,” and then smashed his head into that of the person he is greeting. Came in handy when that evil necromancer first greeted us.
I once had this pathological liar alchemist who would NEVER tell his real name to anyone, making it so that I had this massive notes referring to which name I used with whom so I'd always reply and not use the wrong name with said person. The character was also a fallen noble, so once he got a group going, he'd proclaim that he was the leader of the group. Long story short, some VERY powerful people are still looking all over the place for FAKENAME's party.
I’m just trying to imagine what that journal could look like… And then I’m going into stories where the FBI find the journal later and wonders if it’s a hit list
I think a distinction needs to be drawn between quirks/nuances and actual flaws. Both of which have their place. For example, a character might have an utter phobia of getting dirty or some other reason they avoid filth. In certain systems they might suffer penalties to certain checks if they are dirty (Cat Totem Shamans in Shadowrun for example). They will outright reject plans like "Let's sneak in through the sewers." unless inconveniently extreme measures are taken to ensure their persons are not soiled. This is a flaw. On the other hand, a character might just very much prefer not to get dirty. They might head straight for a bathhouse immediately upon getting into town. They might absently use magic to ensure mud is cleaned off their boots. They are quite willing to go through the sewers if that's the best plan, but they make it absolutely clear that they aren't looking forward to it and that the character who proposed the plan will be footing a rather large laundry bill on their behalf. This is a quirk.
Nick Williams Yes… I am new to this and I’m creating my first characters… I wanted to do something like this but I didn’t know whether to put it into flaws… Or personality traits
I love quirks. Several have carried on in history at the table but the one I am most happy with was a mindflayer who didn't approve of slavery, but you can't have a slave-less mindflayer without being a joke among your peers, so he hired impoverished people to act like slaves, but would pay them wages on the side. The memorable part came when I had to ask the first person to volunteer for 'slavery', the line was: Have you ever considered the opportunities of Illithid employment? It was mildly funny and I used it whenever I would recruit a new 'slave'. But what made it memorable however, was when I found myself separated from the rest of the party, exploring a ruined city, and stumbled into an adult red dragon that I knew I could never kill solo. Knowing I had nothing that could even protect me for long enough to be rescued, I looked up at the dragon and asked him if he had ever considered the opportunities of Illithid employment. That's how you go out like a boss.
Had a player in a game I was running. He insisted on rolling his stats/class/race and randomizing the whole character. he ended up with an Elf ninja but with a 7 constitution score. He wanted to run with it. First game in, the party is in these mines working on a murder mystery. They find some bad guys, and the ninja says "I'll stealth ahead and see how many they are". Well they knew there were traps so he made an acrobatics check to avoid them. Prior to the game he and I had talked, whenever he makes an acrobatics check he has to make a constitution check or else he goes into an uncontrollable coughing fit due to his poor health (see low constitution). The party survived and it became a running gag whenever he'd say "i'll sneak ahead to scout be right back" everyone would just draw their weapons and get in formation.
i actually just made a character of con 7 shes a rouge she might spend more time sneaking and shooting than stabbing. also i don’t know if we have a cleric in the party yet cause we haven’t started yet so wish me luck.
I have a paladin who, being a bit eccentric and a little bit of a medieval hippy, was known to mention the fact that she LOVED TREES every time the party entered a forest. The payoff when I used Ensnaring Strike for the first time (and happened to get a really good set of rolls for it), and essentially crushed an enemy to death with vines was perfect, because my character turned to the rest of the party and deadpanned "Have I ever told you I like trees?" Sure, vines aren't exactly trees, but the timing was perfect.
N.M. Dimmick god that sounds epic I also had a tree thing once Playing a Sylvari rogue (sentient plant people if you don't know. my DM insisted I take this homebrew race) I scored a killing blow on a boss. Now, my character was the typical no-nonsence, tad bit cynical assassin. So no one expected it when just before finishing the boss off, I closed in and whispered in a soft voice with a slight celtic accent "you were killed... by a fucking tree"
I have a similar character concept. An enthusiastic birdfolk palidin, who's happy place is a lush forrest. His favorite weapons are spears and pole arms.
My character has lived all his life at a temple to Kelemvor in Phlan, a giant graveyard, so he's used to starting conversations saying, "Hello, I am Gaylord Halsing. How do you wish to be buried, or do you prefer cremation?"
Had a character jump into a game mid-session. As a joke the DM said my character was hiding in a barrel all this time. One of the other players blurted out that several days had passed since the party had set out and the only barrels they had with them was a barrel of pickles so my character must have reeked. Sealed in a barrel for several days? Where did I do my "business"? Thus was born my favourite quirk, obsessive cleanliness. Before every fight he'd mutter "Great! I'm gonna hafta go wash after this." After the fight, he'd say "I knew it. I gotta go wash." and promptly wandered off to find a place to wash. Fortunately, the other characters made sure he got his fair share of the loot. At every town, he would immediately search out a place to go wash. Before setting out from a town, he would make sure to buy extra soap. Never mind better gear, armor, weapons or magic stuffs; his first item of must have status was always good quality soap. We had a lotta fun with that guy.
My character (a bard) has a unique quirk, where he refers to the passage of time in units of "sessions" rather than minutes, hours, or days, one session being equal to the night of role-playing (for my group, around 5-6 real-time hours). Then, when a new session would start, my character would recap what had happened in the previous session, which was a great way for everyone to remember what had happened the previous week. He also had difficulty with directions, unless if told in a very specific way. If someone would tell him "Go North", he would respond "My North or your North?" Failure to answer his question would result in getting lost.
I'm not familiar with The Bard's Tale (just that it's a PS2 game). I've never questioned monster loot, but at the same time, the DM always had loot that made sense to whatever we were fighting. However, my party members would always be aware of my recapping, and would find it very bizarre. It also gives me a terrific excuse to burst into a soliloquy in the middle of a session, with everyone else silently judging me (in character).
Ahhhh hahaha sounds like a lot of fun. And yeah, throughout the bards tale game, he breaks the fourth wall quite often, which is why i made the correlation :p
@Royal 97, Speaking of smashing things I met an imperial navy captain once who had this strange quirk whenever he pressed the exterminatus button he always did so by smashing the button with his forehead repeatedly. To this day I have no idea why he did that but I do know that the Adeptus Mechanicus despised him for it as they feared it would hurt the button's machine spirit.
I had a cryomancer who would be doing the cooking and it became a joke around our table that everything she cooked was cold & that she was well known in the town because she made ice cream.
I had an insane sorcerer who was the world's best chef. In any given situation, he would try and eat something (including dirt the time we ran out of rations) so that he could find, "the perfect flavour."
I had a barbarian who worshipped a goddess named Tulis. Her followers are brave and always prepared to give thier life if needed, and also wanted to appear intimidating in the process. So, every time we went into a forest, cave, or dungeon, I would take out a horn and let off a blast of noise, to announce my presence, basically telling the beasts within that I was there and would defeat them if they challenged me.
I had a quirk in Deadlands: Hell on Earth where he constantly was in search of rootbeer. If it was for sale, he bought it all. It was all he drank at the bar. For him, rootbeer was the first normal thing he had after the world ended. A gift from another PC to quench his thirst after a storm. It was his thing. When driving in a car battle, he tossed some rootbeer to pelt his pursuer, and rolled a critical, causing the driver to be distracted enough to crash. The party and GM pounced on the quirk. Eventually, my character founded a religion where the sacramental wine was rootbeer, and it became one of the 3 dominate religions of the game world.
I had a character who developed a fear of statues. We fought so many statues in this one adventure that came to life, that whenever he would see a statue he would either a) strike first, even if it did not later come to life OR b) would lose his perception check because he could not take his eyes off the statue. Fun to play, especially when they are caused by the adventure.
I had a warforged wizard who used to talk slower to anyone that he felt was not as knowledgeable as himself. Tended to piss off a lot of people, including party members at times. It got a bit better once he learned more about them and started talking at normal speed to them.
I once played a Kobold Cleric who would cast healing spells by clonking team mates in the head with a hollow gourd on the back end of his spear because he thought the sound of the hollow thunk helped to heal better
I mean it's better than my team mate who had as a quirk using all her MP to clone the enemies as many times as possible, while my other teammate was destroying all save points and healing stations before anyone could use them. If it wasn't for the second one dying and everyone healing up before reviving him, we would've never beaten the first dungeon.
I have Tourette's Syndrome IRL and one of the things I do the most is howl like a wolf. I told my GM I wanted to find a way to integrate it so that it was less distracting to the other players. So my player's quirk is now a skill that I can only use when I howl as a tic naturally IRL called "Call of the Wild" which grants my party inspiration whenever I howl IRL. (My GM picked the effect and gave me a good one because he likes to reward creativity and he thought it was cool of me to use my disability as a feature to make it easier on others.) I also play a wolf totem barbarian and the skill is tied into my backstory. It's an enjoyable quirk too since it's easy to RP... in that I don't have to RP it at all it just happens. Lol PS: As someone with actual tics it doesn't offend me whatsoever if someone makes their character have one. I think it's realistic and should be considered acceptable as long as it's not blatantly offensive and mocking.
I love this. I have a tic where I tap on things, click pens, or tap my foot. It gets on my gms nerves sometimes, but maybe I can talk him into incorporating it into the game :D
I remember I had a ranger, A ship Captain, who had nerves of steel and was unflappable during combat. However he was deathly afraid of his own mortality, so the moment combat subsided he would vomit and faint, if he didn't sit down.
I had the idea for a rogue who just can't keep his hands still. He's always doing something with his hands whether it's fidgeting with a coin and doing little tricks, or playing with a knife. When he gets really tense and serious though, he'll start grooming his fingernails with his knife. If he gets like that, messing with him could be deadly. That last bit is inspired by the character Raven from The Black Company. For another character, this one a warforged who spent his earliest years fighting in a gladiator area, mentored by a veteran. Since he learned to fight in the arena, he knows that if he isn't putting on a show for the crowd, he ain't doing it right. So whenever there is any NPCs around to watch him fight, he will showboat as much as he possibly can, trying to 'entertain his audience.'
I wanna thank you not just because I like the quirk idea, but because I WAS LOOKING FOR FOREVER for what the book series was called. I loved the Black Company books and lost my only copy so I forgot what the series was called.
Matt Desmond 5 months ago (edited) I had a character that I made around the idea of not having a tragic backstory. Every night before going to sleep he would write a letter to his parents in his journal describing his adventures, and would send it when the journal got full. It confused everyone at first when I explained what I was doing because everyone else's parents were dead, because of course they were. Later in the campaign when we visited my home city, everyone wanted to be adopted by my family because I told them stories of the character's childhood. When the campaign ended, the DM said my character's mom had put all the journals together and had them published, thus our party became even bigger celebrities because everyone knew our adventures. It was a really amazing little detail that we still talk about years later.
I had an elf whose father had single-handedly saved a town from a band of giants. The town then offered to pay him to just live there as insurance against the giants or other bandits coming back. Dad accepted. He married a nice elf lady who ran the town apothecary and my character was born 50 years later. I was largely a disappoint to dad as I was a bit pampered (I was the third child). I refused to grow up and spent most of my time causing mischief. I had to skip town though after casting stinking cloud on the mayor's son because he thought it was a waste of the town's money to still be paying dad a stipend after 100 years of peace. And thus my adventuring career began. Actually, most of my characters have both parents still alive. Robert Taleswapper was the son of tavern owners who had heard the tales of adventure all his life from bards passing through and decided to go live his own. Serrilis Argentum hired himself out to a high level adventurer as an assistant and after a year of setting up camp, cleaning armor, and trimming toenails, the adventurer went missing. My latest character is a gnome whose father is a tutor in Waterdeep and whose mother is an agent for the Harpers. He's completed his apprenticeship as a magic item crafter and has been sent out as a journeyman (the fastest way to grow in abilities is through adventure). He's not very happy about it but he knows if he wants to be as good as his elf mentor he doesn't have 600 years to learn things out of books. He's a bit of a neat freak who spends a few minutes prestidigitating all the corpses clean before he loots anything.
MrGamernova Hah. That's not hard at all. I made a Pathfinder character who is a traveling policeman. Although he spends most of his time traveling and providing his services to improve various guard forces, he is happily married and has a child. He talks to them and sends them letters as often as he can and eagerly anticipates visiting home.
Done. Wasn’t his parents, and he had an okay childhood. (His wife was killed. He’s a warlock, and pretends to be her (a rogue) now. It’s fun because I’ve not told any of my party-mates, and only my GM knows.)
One of my group's player's sayings has been "I'm good at this..." When you're about to attempt something using a skill you have low or negative modifiers in, because the character has so much faith themselves that they refuse to acknowledge their limitations. Another of his characters was a nihilistic old halfling oracle with 9hp at level 5 who would always go out into the town whenever we stopped at one and declare: "Is anyone willing to bet against a single roll of the die...?" At which point he would use his foretelling rolls to win, and it would often get him into trouble away from the rest of the party. It happened so often and became so entrenched as a ritual that it became a bit of an in joke. The best thing was when he proclaimed at the council with the king of the dragons that he would be the one to slay the level 20 archdemon the destroyer and everybody laughed; however, in the big battle, the level 5 frail old halfling did indeed land the finishing blow, because my character just barely failed to do enough damage. It was huge payoff for everyone.
Oh god, I love some of these quirks in the comments. I'll add my own. I once played a gnoll who never bothered to remember any of the party members names and would always just call them whatever name came to his mind, usually Jimmy. "Oi, Jimmy com'ere and look at this inscription." "For the thousandth time, my name is Bernard." "Yeah, yeah. Just come'ere bob."
My group has: A Cleric that refuses to use stealth or guile when dealing with known enemies, preferring to destroy them outright. A Warlock that constantly lies about the situations that led to him becoming a Warlock (a lot of them are "No way. The last time I did that, I woke up the next morning with a pact to serve an entity beyond comprehension.") A Barbarian that doesn't trust people that aren't "reliable" (translation: good in a fight). A Sorcerer with a bad approximation of a Russian accent, complete with the "How you say" tic. And a Paladin that will try to either fast-talk or intimidate enemies in order to avoid or shorten combat, usually failing due to the Cleric's refusal to play along. The most recent attempt to fast-talk enemies was foiled by the Cleric attacking one of the enemies... after I'd already convinced them that the reason we didn't give them the password they asked for was "the boss didn't give us the new password", and that we'd picked the enchanted signet rings we were wearing off the corpses of some invaders we killed.
A fellow player in a superhero game I once played had a character called The Cheese Monger. He had a 3 page document full of cheese-related puns that his character would use at every opportunity. It was great, made him very memorable. (all his super powers were cheese-related, too...)
Edam up, that's what I say! Keep those puns coming for cheddar & cheddar & cheddar. You're a right Brick, you are, just don't be as thick as a Brick. I give you a Port Salut!
Many years ago I played a wemic character, a wemic being a lion-centaur. His particular quirk was an action quirk. Whenever he sensed danger the fur at the end of his tail would poof & I would exaggerate saying "Poof" to indicate whenever it happened. A more recent character was a 21st century man wandering (how he got there is a very long story) about in my Tolkien-esque, homebrew RPG world, and he'd make a comment that made perfect sense...in the 21st century, yet created some hilarious & awkward moments in that world. For example: He had a drinking contest with a barbarian, which he won. His parting words to this barbarian was: "You can't drink dwarven whiskey like it's Kool-Aid." No sooner had he finished saying this, he realized his mistake, did a serious face palm whilst muttering to himself. Then he sheepishly made a correction: "You can't drink dwarven whiskey like it's sweet cider." I soon realized that though this is a fun quirk for this character, it can descend to being annoying real fast...so I'm keeping a check on his awkward comments to when he's genuinely surprised, frustrated, or angry.
I loved the example of the talking leathers and fighting leathers! I always try to use some sort of accent for my characters so it's not just my default voice. My favorite quirk is to have my characters be ignorant about sex. There's nothing more fun than having to give the paladin "a birds and bees" talk from the ranger and no one gets anywhere because he is an innocent cherry boy.
My favorite character is a Tiefling who carries 2 little pouches of ashes that were once his elven wife and child who where butchered and burned by a mysterious cult of which he knew not the god they followed. As such he is immediately suspect (but not antagonistic, he's a gentlemen with a kind soul) to any devout followers of any diety. For all he knows it's a cultist attempting to do him in. A quirk for him is to clutch the pouches when in close/sudden proximity to the devout as a protective reflex to what remains of his family.
My friend has a gunslinger who's quirk is that he mutters "Pickle S---t" whenever anything goes wrong. It's awesome because he normally talks really reserved, and we didn't actually know what he was saying till about halfway through the campeign.
I have a fighter who has given himself the title “greatest fighter in the land”. It really made him stand out and he is referred back to when we make new characters. I like this for characters and can really make the game come to life.
My current ranger has this (morbid) quirk of collecting 'fluids' from slain enemies. Blood, snot, goop, you name it. He's got vials of random, (probably) valueless junk...because. He's a follower of Maccha (a campaign specific goddess of scavengers) so he takes the waist not, want not to an extreme. "Just because I can't understand why say, a wizard, might want it, doesn't mean they might not." Everyone was weirded out by the quirk, until he sold some owlbear eggs to an eccentric desert mage. They didn't think the sum of gold he got was so weird then.
I once played a scholar who, due to a massive inferiority complex, would never address anyone directly by name but always "sir" or "ma'm" out of deference. The only time when this would not apply would be when dealing with servants, beggars, peasants and other low status individuals but only if they were close friends. It was just a small little quirk but one that other players have fondly remembered for years.
That would be more like "sir, sir, I'm terribly sorry, sir, but sir, your behaviour, sir, is completely unacceptable and sir, you know I don't often get become forceful, sir, but sir, I'm afraid you've left me no choice sir. "If that's all okay with you, sir." But yes. Such a fun character to play :).
I don't know if you're familiar with the Vampire the Masquerade and Vampire the Requiem games, but this very much reminds of me of the Ventrue Clan (for the former) and the Invictus Covenant (for the latter); in both cases, members of the Clan/Covenant are encouraged (often with "gentle" reminders) to always address someone by a title. In the context of both games/groups, it implies a level of familiarity that one should never presume for reasons of propriety or, in the case of the Invictus, unless one wishes to announce an intimate relationship with someone to the general public. It can be a great roleplaying tool that I think gets overlooked by a lot of people; in any sort of setting with stratified, recognized social stations it should be a lot more common to hear people using some sort of title when speaking to people who may be equal to or above their station, while omitting any such courtesy when speaking to someone who is beneath them. I'd love to see a campaign where anyone not using social conventions like titles is actually viewed as a rogue, an outsider, someone who is willfully breaking the social contract and is therefore treading on dangerous ground, so to speak.
I once had a lawful character who took meticulous logs of the adventure, who we fought, when, where, hoe much food and drink we used, how many times we made camp, every financial transaction, every piece of treasure was recorded in, everything, so that when we czme back to town, she can give it to the guard captain since she was in his employment.
The story about the character with the different leathers reminded me of a session. There was a one-time guest PC who was looking for an "important box", asking the regular PCs to help find it. Whenever anyone said just "a box", he'd say, "not a box, an IMPORTANT box". So I picked up on it, and whenever anyone said just "a box" or "black box" (it was black) or "the holy box", I'd correct them by saying, "no no, an IMPORTANT box!"
My favorite thus far has been an ex-noble who lost a spat and was run out, caught, tortured, and escaped. Three months later he joined an adventure guild in an attempt to get back on his feet and rebuild his house. Now obviously a person like this is going to be VERY quirky and eccentric. But to keep myself on track and from becoming a nut bag in our moderate group- I stuck to two quirk-esc features. One quirk of his was replying "No." to everything. Then he would put some thought into it and give an actual answer if he felt it was necessary. Sometimes he didn't even correct his answer he just acted as if he agreed to it- despite saying no. While not a huge game changing quirk its put my GM off more then once- and I've gotten funny looks from the party members who have not caught on yet. Obviously such a quirk has put my character at odds with the team leader about damn near everything- and has gone so far as for him to request my character be removed from his team- which was denied do to lack of justification. (IE GM ruled it no because it would be funny.) His second quirk would be breaking down into a panic attack, mostly in the middle of anything more then lightly stressful conversation. The random lash outs twist/redirect caught the GM and party off guard numerous times, and has managed to both get us into and out of trouble. IE when the guild started questioning our ethics my character had a break down despite having done nothing wrong- with a high charisma score and social skills like a four year old, he managed to shake the NPC out of their own boots. In what was suppose to be a 60 second interview he turned it into a 5 minute game of survive the blubbering nut bag. By the end of the event the NPC investigating into our party had quite their job and moved on to be a writer. In the worse case my character accidentally "stunned" himself for approximately a minute- just a moment before our team was asked to roll initiative. I don't know if it counts as a quirk, but he always had a dog with him to carry his stuff- either out of laziness, noble heritage or w/e. With moderate animal skill it wasn't much of an issue till the dog started dashing through the dungeon after "something" and triggered half the traps- getting itself nearly killed, and destroying the majority of "My stuff!" Obviously the noble had to attempts to preserve such an expensive creatures life- but also salvage his belongings in the middle of a would-be minefield. From that point on dog has been dubbed "My stuff," with no proper time, though it has been clarified the dog responds to whistles and clapping. In a game with a party who likes rolling dice and killing stuff- bringing such strange twists into the social side and role play parts of the game has been quite fun for me- half of it seeing my team put off- and yet inspired to invest more into their characters. DND has taught me a lot. I grew up being told role playing was for nerds and children. In all honesty I put more heart into characters and the thought of their existence then I see parents put into their own children sometimes. There is nothing wrong with DND, role-play, rolling dice, telling stories. Just rambling but in the end it all boils down to the classic - they're entitled to have their wrong opinions. You have a very mature and powerful video series and I greatly enjoy how thought provoking it is sometimes. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Yeah, I started D&D with friends in school back in the 80's... When my mom found out, it was the kind of reaction you might expect from something more like coming home and saying, "Oh hi, Mom. Franky brought his dad's crack pipe in for show and tell today, and I'm f***ed up off my ass!" Those were dark days, and the 90's didn't make it much easier... Frankly, I kind of love the general attitudes I've seen around YT about it. You seem to relish tormenting the party... lolz. I'd have to find it hilarious, but we might end up in competition at the same table. Between a half-orc who spends his "bored" moments with a middle finger two-knuckles deep in his nose, to the over-sized coffee mug I actually have with a "middle finger" printed clearly on the bottom... We'd either win D&D or get laughed out of the group... lolz... :o)
Nothing like coming out of the closet to your parents about being a DND player of all things. LOL While I would agree abusing our GM is fun- there aint anything in the world like thumbing your nose at god, as he sits in front of you. I would have to disagree with the party part. Never been intentionally- well one time I was to their characters- never been intentionally malicious towards the party- more so just love the reactions and cause and effect of my characters influence. For better or worse even my most boring character has left their mark in the groups of players. IE my necromancer who denied to go on the adventure because he didn't see any gain out of it... The hook the party an GM used were dull. They were set to go visit a harpy tribe for something or other- while I decided there was absolutely nothing I wanted in that general direction, so flat out said no. That was the first character I had made and played with the group- and watching everyone's chin drop at the same time was hysterical. To this day they remember my first character as one of the strangest encounters they have had.
T.turner, I would like to "set the record straight" in regards to tormenting the party... though at least occasionally it is great for laughs... Generally, my whole effort is to attain some level or other as the "On table joke" so while my personal efforts tend more toward some level of unraveling the best laid plans of the GM, the odd chance to shout very loudly down a horribly echo-worthy hall at "our" sneaking rogue "FIND ANYTHING YET!?!" is occasionally just too sweet a venture to miss out. In the GM's best interests to find any way he can separate me from a valued resource (or ally) he has occasionally made the horrible mistake of setting my character(s) loose on the one depravity-laiden and HUGE enemy airship... SO the fact it came racing down in the middle of town was pretty much a foregone conclusion (left to the dice as only a matter of when, rather than if)... In the case that you have authentically never taken honest actions completely against your own party, I might also advise you even consider "conspiratory" efforts in "meta-gaming" as they seem to call it with the GM on the matter, but I'd highly advise you do this part AWAY from prying ears so that you might reap the least disadvantages later on... There's actually NOTHING IN THE WORLD quite like BEING the big reveal when part of the campaign is authentic betrayal... And being a GM, myself relatively often, I rather enjoy encouraging "inter-party frictions" along with the occasional "volunteer" for such lurid duties... I mean, your character probably won't survive the eventual outcome, but it can sure put a "twist" in the plot that even the most seasoned of veteran players RARELY see coming... And once everyone gets over the initial trauma of the immersion-plus-shock (usually a very temporary while VISCERAL effect)... You'll be able to reassure everyone that you're not authentically pissed or anything. It was "just an experiment"... And yes, in fact, I really have had fun doing it... to be honest. Maybe I am a truly twisted bastard... :o)
My group likes to sum that up as under the great meme "It was a social experiment." with a #Mindgames - no matter how good or bad the outcome of such events have been. But I have never been of such a grand act- few suit my taste and my dm is hardly capable of pulling it off well. The two events I can recall were pretty poorly shoehorned in. But I agree- if i t wasn't for the fact half our party is umm.. skeptic of pretty much everything. Proposal- fabricating a betrayal. Would probably be much more effective with my group. The issue is it does require a lot of experience and work on the GMs part.
In regards to fabricating a betrayal... This can be (note the "can be" part as opposed to "would be" even insinuated there)... BUT it CAN be fairly lenient in terms of the GM's mastermindary... Of course, everything is still checked in with him (bottom line in RPG's) but with the two of you "in cahoots" you can manage the arch-nemesis strategy through the underhanded and diabolically mysterious technique of slipping notes under the table in play... Of course, in personal preparations for this, I might suggest (just for the sake of appearances) that you start keeping a carefully constructed obstruction about your position at the table, just a private sort of space where you'll have room for some personal note-making without the hazard(s) of prying eyes, and slowly ease your general table position closer to the GM, even a couple of games or sessions prior to the actual proposal... Then just plant a little seed of "wouldn't this be devilish in a campaign, somewhere?"... careful not to raise suspicions around the table while you build and cover this little conspiracy... The actual construction is fairly simple. You and the GM only really need to agree about what "kind" of evil bastard your character is going to be (other than the obvious "anti-party" answer)... Since you'll be "mostly" playing as a PC, the whole of the plot is going to rely on NPC's anyway, building this grander conspiracy and the "power behind the plots" with various minor villains. SO you can raise and cultivate the PC as normal in-game... Don't forget low-level characters tend to stink at stuff from the onset, so even if you are allowed "bonuses" for the game's "credibility" do your best to underplay them... at least in front of the party. During the campaign, you can swap the notes with the GM in-game, for hooks or tactics that might better suit the orders of your character "behind the scenes" or to settle and agree on developments while the story unfolds. Some but not all the work is still "field decisions" by the GM anyway, so... be flexible. BUT this can give you an excellent chance to "coach" the story development and plotting "sinister" side of the GM to a far greater degree than just the usual "post-session debrief" about what's working and what's not so much. You can even cover this covert operation (in case other players start to act suspicious) with "visions" or "premonitions" in character or even some other weirdness for the in-game "cover" even if it's somewhat delusional, or silly... The bottom line is, that your work with the GM adds up to some "co-GM-ing" capacity that (when well coordinated) can truly deliver remarkable role playing opportunities that the rest of the group might learn to appreciate... and most wouldn't ordinarily have been able to enjoy in the process (like a "big-bad" that lives up HONESTLY to being a "BIG BAD"...) including the right and epic moment of the "grand reveal" as you've put the party in a terribly vulnerable position, revealed your evil scheme of using them to eliminate competition among evil-doers (whatever) and then ride triumphantly away to "leave them to their inextricable fate"... which (of course) they can probably find a way out of... that depends on the GM... Now, granted, it takes a certain level of effort from the GM, but not so much if you're there to work with and help him along. That's the conspiratory side... lolz. If he can manage to try to stick to the plan, your character can truly conspire to "urge" and coax the party into the "right" directions the whole time, too... So the plan might still have to bend and be fluid enough to work with, but should hold together with just a little occasional "campaign duct-tape"... Like I said before, as a GM (granted of some considerable experience) I am delighted to find a player ready to "come to the dark side" for me... It really does take loads off. AND maybe I was lucky in the day (quick study? really great teachers?) but I was coached through the first time I ran this sort of thing... and it still managed to be pretty f***ing epic! :o)
I play an Elven ranger whose arms are covered in tatoos, but since she's afraid of needles, she paints them on, all while insisting they're real. Needless to say that every time water is involved, she freaks out and runs to apply wax, to avoid them getting erased and therefore being exposed before her peers.
My current PC is an overly competitive archery Ranger. If you take a shot with a bow. He will always try to beat it. A rogue hunted a rabbit with a bow and rolled a natural 20. Preserving all of the meat....... the squirrel hunt began. And didn’t end until I rolled a natural 20.
Had a rogue named Roland who couldn't find his way around an empty room even with the help of a map or compass. Lead the party on multiple false adventures because he basically never knew which way was what. However, eternally being lost made him an expert labyrinth navigator.
I'm playing a lizardfolk barbarian in 5e D&D. He has frills that prop up depending on the situation. Most commonly the frills are completely up and rattling when he's raging, and they pop up when he's upset.
First got introduced to quirks when I was introduced to GURPS, and read about taking them (adding 1-5CP for each) as "disadvantages" in character-builds... I rather appreciate someone offering this kind of advice about it. It's nice to get some different points of view on the matter... As to my favorite? I don't know about any particular favorite... There have been so many, from sticking one's finger a couple knuckles deep in his nose and then flicking the results at someone else to start a fight... to polishing a broad-axe on the seat of his pants after battle (yeah, you're welcome for that visual)... I really don't know which would be a favorite. I've done a few others more and less ridiculous... AND when my office decided to gift-coffee mugs around, mine said, "F*** this sh*t!" so... there is that. :o)
Something I feel may help, especially for anyone who is in long games is that naturally, people tend to pick up quirks and characteristics from roughly the five people closest to you/you are around often. It can be certain hand gestures, phrases, way of typing or speaking, etc. along with our own traits.
I know I've mentioned my goblin priest of light in the comments of another of your videos. I want to mention one more. This character became famous because of two reasons. He was a halfling cleric in 4th edition d&d named Yew Meadowstep. Not just any cleric, but one purely devoted to healing and based around another character's god. A few new spells were invented for him that were pretty awesome. The downside was my character was terrible in terms of any combat prowess (except against undead) XD. His name was the first thing that stuck. "Yew". When someone names a character that sounds like a commonly used other word, the jokes and puns keep rolling. It was fun. Any mention of "you" immediately springs up, "Yew, the halfling cleric". The second thing he became famous was more of something I did. I was absent for sessions so they played ahead of me, which was fine. I don't want to be the one that's holding up a game so making progress without me was completely fine. I didn't even mind being behind in experience. We had one very capable character that was the wall of pain and death, everyone else filling out his weaknesses (Gruff McGruff of the line of Gruff, a very tanky half orc barbarian). Every time I'd be participating in the game again, Yew would mystically just show up where ever the players have trekked to. So this became the famous "Yew, the halfling cleric that is just everywhere". So long after the game had stopped, his name and his uncanny ability to be anywhere at any time is still known and joked about. As his legacy I actually paid to have his name added to Starbound's name generator. There's a chance you'll be able to find an NPC sporting the name " Yew Meadowstep".
Not every character has had them. - Ilero is very impulsive- done things like jumping down a well to explore, forgetting he can't swim; threatening a vampire in his own castle with a non-magical axe; jumping on the back of a wyvern to distract it from the sleeping party members nearby, etc. - Gar, the 5 Int Barbarian, always bought a polearm every time they visited town, even though he didn't know how to use them. And he would use it exclusively until it broke or was dropped, and only then would he pull out his double-specialized bastard sword. I rolled randomly to pick which one he bought, and the rest of the party had to drag him away from the 30' Awl Pike three times (30' polearms don't work in dungeon crawls). - Figgle, elven mage, used his spells creatively in battle and called it 'Figgling the odds'.
I had a character who before doing anything he had to take a swill from a flask he had, no one knew what was in it... it was actually ambrosia to keep him immortal, was very fun to work out with the DM
I recently had a PC in a adventure that was spitting on the ground everytime that he was nervous. That was fitting so well into his role of a cool and charming pirate on the outside who had more things running around his mind in reality. At a certain point of the game we others got what his spitting means and our PC's were helping him by calming him down or by keeping is cool look for the rest of the world....that was awesome!
My 2ed rogue was so bad at opening locks he had taken to knocking on every door they came to hoping someone on the other side would just open it for him.
I created a character dubbed the soldier of misfortune. He was a really skilled fighter but had absolutely no luck. If something could go wrong chances are it did. It got him into funny moments like an elderly woman chewing him out cos he toppled a vase. I miss DnD never get to play anymore.
I started my current campaign with an extremely devout Tiefling Bard. The DM loved my constant little interactions with Pelor and little improvised anecdotes about times Pelor and I had hung out or talked about things. So much so that he’s basically made me a super-ultra-demigod-Bard with a blessed violin. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s what it feels like. I named the violin Sanctus. It’s pretty dope.
i used to play a ex cleric of pelor that carry's a somewhat defaced symbol of pelor and when ever someone asks why this death cleric of the raven queen is helping them she pulls out her old symbol and tells them " Remember to smile! life gets hard! don't give up on being happy because i won't ether!"
In one group i’m kinda making my character a bit of a goof. Druid gave him a goodberry and i rolled a int check to see if he just ate it. Got a 2 on the die with a -1. So he went “ooh berry” and popped it into his mouth.
My Paladin in my friend's campaign is an Archaeologist who worships Ioun. His quirk involves preparing for his spells by putting a monocle to his eye, the trinket without the lense, and using it to study whatever artifacts he comes across. It'll be interesting to see what happens when my character can't find it. He also watches your channel, but is a great storyteller and doesn't need the prompting to get the antics started.
One character i made in a modified game of cyberpunk who was named Markus Vunich, the unique from Munich (German character who repeated that all the time). Also had an excellent taste in butters (This actually saved us from a Cyberpsycho who was obsessed with butter). He never used guns, but used a sword and explosives, saying they were "Exploding long range swords" everytime he was asked. also happened to develop a habit of shining a UV light at everyone he saw cause of one campaign where we had to fight Vampires (the GM liked mythical things).
As a Marine you are constantly taught about the importance of gear accountability (losing track of your rifle, canteens, Kevlar etc. could cost you your life) and manning your post properly (if you fall asleep on watch it could cost your entire squad’s lives). I implemented this into my Tiefling fighter. He touches his sword every 15 mins or so to make sure he’s got it on him at all times, and if he catches you sleeping on watch...
I once created a Tabaxi monk who while willing to help, would occasionally overlook a problem in order to make notes in a little book he kept. Anatomical diagrams of a new monster, or sketches and notes on an interesting object or plant, or lists of unusual observations. Sadly i didn't get to play him for very long, as due to poor positioning on a fortress battlement, he was vaporized by a blue dragon in his second session. Even had i made the saving throw, he still took more than double his health in lightning damage. So i played an aasimar paladin for the rest of the campaign.
My warlock had an imp familiar named Khadgar that's always disguised as a raven, and I make a point every session to have him say the phrase "It's tough being Khadgar!" In short, the familiar is more recognizable than the actual character and it's pretty funny.
I played a character who absolutely hated having a particular PC being behind them... The PC in question was a highly eccentric sorcerer who would do the "hand on the shoulder" thing a lot. Fun campaign with a lot of flavor to it.
When my friends and I played a Star Wars campaign separate from, but along with the movies saga; I played a Lethan Twi'lek girl named Sha'Taah (a pun with "shuttah", as she was very persuasive). She had quite a few quirks; being a rich brat daughter of a spice mine owner, conveying a constant need to tote way more firepower than was needed, and a familial bond with another PC's Togorian character (her "little" brother) to name a few. However, probably her greatest quirk was her refusal to be anywhere other than the front lines in battle, where she was least equipped to be and most vulnerable. This quirk led to Sha'Taah losing one of her legs early on in the campaign during the Battle of Naboo to a droid tank. She later intentionally replaced her missing leg with an obvious, clunky cybernetic replacement to further show her enemies that she had nothing to lose.
My aasimar fighter shouts out "For the light!" Whenever he attacks an enemy. It very quickly became a memorable line that helped to define the character. Just a small phrase that seemed to catch on and make him standout a little.
I play a druid that worships Kossuth. One of his quirks is that whenever he slays anything considered an undead with fire, he prays for them to find rest now that they've been cleansed. Not a bad ass or extremely original quirk, but I like it. :)
I’ve been binge watching your “how to be a great player” videos for the better part of my day, and I must say that they are really well put together, and you articulate yourself very well. I’ve been trying to flesh out my new character for an upcoming campaign, and thanks to this particular video, my character simply will NOT sleep somewhere unless he lights an aromatic candle that matches the atmosphere of the location. e.g.: (at a cozy, new inn), “this place seems like a raspberry tart... or perhaps, a peach blossom?”
My wood elf ranger is from a clan that practices ritualistic cannibalism, and she believes that she can inherit some of the memories and abilities of any creature she consumes, but she will only do it for family or those foes who she truly respects. All others deserve "true death".
A long time ago, I had a character who always introduced himself with his full name and where he was from. Think of something like "Domingo Montoya de Colinas del Campo", only less pronounceable, and with a few glottal stops. Of course, no one actually called him that, ever. Everyone always used his nickname, which was just the first syllable of his full name. But he insisted upon introducing himself properly. (He would have preferred someone else introduce him, but since no one else could do it properly...)
My first time DM decided to "punish" my bard for talking to bartenders and trying to simply ask around for any rumours (with good rolls), so my character's thing slowly became that she just ignored diplomacy and she started literally collecting heads that hung from her belt, and she intimidated npcs instead. She got pretty far with it too, and the other players would ask her "Oh, do you want this baddie's head as a trophy?" Not entirely sure if that's a quirk or a bad pattern. XD
I had a character with two quirks, and both actually weirdly worked out well together! This character was from a desert city where the religion was around the Goddess of the Sun. My character was a wannabe priest for this Goddess, and because of the desert and his status he had to wear thick clothing to protect himself from the sun and sand. The result of this was that his mouth was also covered, so every time he spoke he ended up sounding like Kenny from South Park. And on his travels he HAD to stop for a moment every evening as the sun set to pray to his Goddess, and would get very upset when his party would insist on not stopping for it. But because the poor fellow had his mouth covered, his cries of protest ended up being completely muffled. That soon became a little ritual we had going on.
For one of my favorite characters that I wish I could play again. So he kind of had two quirks in a way. He was a Half-Elf Cleric of Pelor, his holy symbol being an amulet of a Sun. For those of you that are familiar with Pelor, his symbol is that of a Sun. He was generally a well mannered man with a devious sister who was another PC, mind you he was the protective older brother type. His sister was well aware of her brothers issues and problems. Of which the holy symbol helped with and made him stable. If he lost it he then would begin to spiral. At first he would just look for it calmly, he would steadily become more and more frantic. The only thing that could calm him at that point would be his sister. However that would only help for a time as my character had a curse on him. The curse was place on him be the followers of The Chained God Tharizdun. On his skin underneath where the amulet would normally hang was a tattoo of a dark spiral, Tharizdun's symbol. If he were to reclaim his amulet and put it back on, he would quickly stabilize. If didn't find it or it was destroyed, he would eventually lose himself. Now all of this would happen in less than a day. Another trigger would be if his sister was hurt, one instance of which was cause by a friendly wild mage. While on the surface my Cleric was a fairly normal Cleric, one thing stuck out like a sore thumb making anyone who saw him know. He's anything but a normal Cleric because of the fact that his weapon of choice was a scythe((Yes I know how edgy this character is)). When the battle was over and we were about to head to the next room, my character stopped and raised the scythe to the Dragonborn Wild Mages throat. He proceeded to threaten his life if he ever brought harm to my characters sister ever again. I did have to role an intimidation check for that, nat 20, and needless to say the character was unable to cast wild magic from that point forward. Now for those of you that have made it this far, what fully happens if my character had lost it. He would become a Warlock and virtually a different person entirely. He would have wanted nothing less than to kill everything around him, how he would have gone about it would have varied wildly. Also this end result would have also happened if his sister were to die in front of him, regardless of whether he had the amulet on or not. In fact if he were to witness his sisters death the amulet would have probably been destroyed in the cascading emotions of grief and probably hatred for what ever caused it. Lastly this character was not a cross class. I had two character sheets with the same stats and everything. Only differences were the classes, Cleric and Warlock. Both personalities wanted to stay in control and had their ways of doing so, the Warlock having the strongest way as if it took control it could keep it unless he was somehow subdued and the amulet put back on him. The Cleric only having the amulet to seal it and the sister to slow his spiral. To anyone that may have taken the time to read all of this, thank you for your time and have a wonderful day.
My character was a lich that after many ages revived himself and went on a redemption arc. One of the things he did was Wright the names of all his friends, enemies,and colleges in a series of books with notes and fun storys about each of them and he always had at least one volume on him at a time during his redemption
I didn’t think about it this way before, but my past two characters have had quirks. My paladin would often say “By Ragathiel’s burning feathers!” when something weird or shocking happened. My current barbarian takes little ‘trophies’ after a battle that might be totally worthless and writes his name on them in the hopes that when he dies they’ll be put in a museum or something and his great deeds will be immortalised, even if he’s dead. It also extends to party loot; if he’s taken his trophy he’ll offer the ‘good’ loot to other characters first because in his mind he’s already taken his.
I cut ears of my enemies and make a collar with them. I also tend to throw my axe instead of running and hiting. I often lost it during fights because of this. Last week, we found two stones that can be used to upgrade a weapon making it "magnetic" (able to repulse/attract each others). ... When we found it the GM gave me a wink
I have a ranger who is an insomniac. She always insists on keeping watch for the party and has trouble getting a long rest, even if she manages to catch a little sleep, because every noise and creak will immediately make her alert for danger, also due to her high perception skill. This is even more extreme in cities and urban environments, because she is very unfamiliar with them and sees danger in every corner. The only place where she can really get a good, long rest is in a forest, in a campsite she chose and prepared, because she knows the forest like the back of her hand.
I'm not sure this counts as a quirk, but my 4e D&D Goliath Warden would shout "ROCK" at random times or whenever someone asked for his opinion/thoughts on something. Needless to say, fewer and fewer questions were directed towards him as the campaign went on.
Wonder what you think of these: I have a Rogue who plays with her hair everytime she lies My halforc cleric covers her mouth when she laughs because she's self conscious about her teeth.
I have a character who always tries out the region specific food of any place we visit. It was so cool, the GM picked up on this and started preparing one and would give some lore through it. One town had a potato crop with a specific mutation that they kept very secret, but it was unfortunately killed off by disease, so now they put a variety of seasonings into their potato to try to recreate it.
My current characters “item” besides her grandfathers monk staff, is her mother’s duct flute. The mother went on a trading trip when my character was 4yo, and never came back - the villagers just assumed she died during the trip. My character has head ticks (muscle spasms, not bugs) bc I do, and uses the flute to calm the ticks as well as herself down when she’s upset. She also likes to play it when she feels lonely or tired to remember her grandfather. She painted little decorations on it, while her grandfather did smaller carving designs that meant something to him. She keeps it on her person everywhere she goes and doesn’t like other people touching it, or really doing anything regarding the flute besides listen to it. She likes to say she has no attachment to her mother, and that she doesn’t really care much to know who she was, but inside she really wishes she could’ve gotten to know the woman her grandfather talked so much about. The father isn’t in the picture bc she’s an earth Genasi, and her father’s a Dao, a creature who doesn’t really care for their children. Also, “calming the ticks” is bc she ticks more when she’s stressed or upset, and a lot of the time irl, ticking is worse when you’re not focused on something. So, focusing on playing the instrument would “calm” the ticks.
Good stuff. What do you think of Coup counting? a practice of Native American Plains Indians, where the Brave would touch an enemy/opponent with their hand during combat, placing themselves in dangerous situation. But all to show their skill and bravery. Often a coup stick was used to denotes these acts of bravery, and sometimes using the coup stick to do the touch. This could be a quirk of a Barbarian or Ranger character, where he attempts to coup count against impressive foes. makes it a signature move, such that they only count the combat as successful with a successful coup attempt.
I'm currently playing an Aasimar paladin who is a devotee of Torm God of Justice. "Torm be with you." has quickly evolved into his catch phrase of choice. It can mean anything from literally may you be blessed by my god to "Fuck You!"
I have a Dragonborn Palidan, and she calls out her attacks. Like an uppercut with the mace is "BAHAMAT'S FLIGHT!" and when she strikes from above "BAHAMAT'S WRATH!". Things like that
I had a 5e Warlock who constantly tried to manipulate events in-game through the use of his many cantrips. He eventually became a saint of the god of justice after the umpteenth trial he had intervened in by using thaumaturgy & prestidigitation to convince weak links in various legal cases that they were hallucinating said justice god's icon in various places, and needed to confess their guilt NOW. That was more than a little ironic. Did I mention he could disguise himself and speak to animals at will?
I had a Dwarf rouge who would use a bubble pipe every time he had to do a knowledge check. I also have a character have their hair color change with their mood.
there is a german rpg session on youtube with a guy who played a hunter in a zombie apocalypse setting called Geronimo Röder and his quirk was to always introduce himself to everyone by offering a handshake and saying his catchphrase "Good day, my name is Geronimo Röder" no matter the situation. makes for some gripping dialogue when the group meets a new npc while fleeing from a zombie horde.
One of my favorite thing about quirks is if a character does something and suddenly stop it can be a subtle sign to the other players something is wrong.
Three little Quirks I've apparently come up with are a verbal one and two physical ones. The first physical is whenever my Barbarian wakes up in the morning she *always* checks her hair- It's dyed red at the front so it occasionally needs a little touching up. The second is whenever they pass the Shrine of Tymora in the village, she leaves a gold on it for luck (So much so that even the GM noticed and used it to give her a vision.) The verbal one is her saying 'O'roit then' whenever she's making a big decision or trying to get the others to make their minds up about something, along with a clap of her hands. It's surprisingly fun to think of these little habits and quirks the characters can do. ^_^ I didn't even realise I had so many before this vid got my attention!
I play a Half-Giant, Half-Orc that's going through puberty. Whenever I do my deep, orcish voice, I make sure to include forced voice cracks every so often.
I had a character who was a dragon born bard named 16 (being the 16th child and running out of names) But he loved sausages and selling them and just thought they where great and could solve all problems Ended up with grease oil from cooking them was just like holy water and started a small cult following in a few smaller villages It’s a slight shame that he had the same voice as the old guy from family guy. And when your offering a slaver a sausages to sail in there boat it can lead to a broken GM because they are laughing so hard
I had a character who developed her own quirks- She started out as a troll-kin Shadow monk assasin type, a real nihilistic fuck- then after numerous rough-and-tumble adventures she had a real soul-jerking one involving trials in the temple of a God. Well, we just so happened to level up after that one, so she became a monk-cleric who had sworn her meaningless life to the tempest God Vehemon. She then had a few other religious experiences involving being drugged and tripping balls, and I really think a few screws got knocked loose. After that, any time our Dm made it rain she would strip off all of her clothes and go stand naked in the storm, to get closer to her God. What a great character. She sort of got away from me, took on a life of her own.
I once shared a party with a very particular hobbit as leader. Alvin Millbrook, bard and magician extraordinaire. That's how he introduced himself to each and every character. Also, he wanted to start his own restaurant, so he'd always try to find new ways to cook food, new kinds of food to cook, etc etc. He had profession cook and had it pretty high... So the party's had quite some unusual meals, sometimes made of the very monsters they'd slain.
I have a half-orc ranger who is afraid of fey creatures. So now I have this ruthless bandit hunting wild woman who shakes at the sight of pixies and flees for her life at the sight of dryads.
My first character was an Aarakokra that was terrified or being touched (specifically hands), or directly touching others. As things turned out, he ended up as the only healer with cure wounds - a touch spell. It turned into an interesting development of getting close enough with the group to get over his fear and save dying party members, but still a bit of fun when the GM purposefully had a friendly NPC clap him on the back and scare a thunder wave out of him The second was animated armor that gained sentience and basically imprinted on the first few people he met, forming the party. He knew very little about actual civilization, and was extremely gullible with social things. The rest of the group had a lot of fun getting him in trouble. Both turned out to be a lot of fun.
I am playing a chaotic evil green and black dragonborn character who doesn't really understand the value of material goods, he is so used to just taking what he wants when he needs it and discarding it afterwards. When people try to convince him to rob something, his default response is: "But The Viper needs no [gold][armour][steel]" etc. He just seeks to grow stronger, and his magic is his power. His acid spells have left the other criminals in my group wailing due to the extreme collateral damage that The Viper causes, often dissolving loot along with the enemies. They haven't learned yet that Viper truly has no interest in baubles and needs to be instructed to not just destroy everything when the signal is given to attack.
