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Do not try World Anvil, terrible interface and functionality that gets in your way and distracts from writing, and they refused to refund me a yearly subscription they auto-billed without any reminders.
I found that wizards only work well when ignoring most rules about spell components needed, yet: I made a D&D 5e wandering wizard, not totally useless outdoors, and found it more fun to play than expected. 🤔
My high elf wizard, Daramie, spent over 200 years as a librarian and archivist at the temple of Oghma, where she learned magic as part of her librarian training. She was forced out due to office politics and went adventuring out of pure spite while she waits for the human who got the promotion she was due to die of old age.
Yes well elves certainly have the luxury of time on their side. I mean if you use tolkiens elves they're immortal, if you use wotc elves they live for like 500+ years depending on subrace(drow live over 1000). If you use homebrew the limit is people's imagination.
You know, I always thought it was weird how Krumbridge changed the name of the quad to "Appledackle Student Centre" in my sophomore year...and then a couple semesters later it blew up in an unresolved magic experiment gone awry.
@@GinnyDi As someone who also writes fiction, there's a lot of cross over. Totally agree. Here's is what I ask my players to answer: What do you want? Why is this so important for you? What is the consequence of failure? What lengths will you go to to achieve it? What boundaries will you not cross, if any, if it means failure? Are there any secrets you are harboring? And what one thing would make you instantly make you fight someone? This is usually enough to ground anyone into a character.
Same here. This overlap is what makes tabletop RPGs so special, and I think that knowing a thing or two about telling stories affects everything in our lives. All is communication. To be human is to tell stories.
I think it's a good idea to do this same kind of video for Cleric, Paladin, and maybe a few other classes like Barbarian or Fighter. Especially when you have a Lawful Good Cleric it can be kinda hard to think of personality traits that go much further than "is lawful good" and "god comes before everything else" to the point that while my cleric had good stats, he often struggled in the roleplay aspect to be anything more than a generic cleric.
For something like a cleric or other class that has a strong thematic x personality pillar (paladin - oaths, monk - inner will, barbarian - rage), I would say that you can still generalize that aspect as Ginny noted in order to get outside the box. For instance, while the actual word 'cleric' does come from IRL religions, that's just an archetype as far as a game like D&D is concerned. Really, the important aspect is not 'clerics are representatives of their faith' so much as 'clerics are those whose faith is so strong and firm that their faith can have worldly effect'. So a cleric may not actually be a member of their faith's clergy; they could be a folk healer who, in a time of crisis, found literal healing and power in their faith. A monk doesn't have to be a literal robe-wearing zen-like monk; they could be from a 'barbarian' tribe who found strength not through rage but through calm intensity. For more wild takes, you could re-frame a monk's chi as ancestral magic similar to a sorcerer only channeled through martial skill rather than magic effects. In this way too, you can also encourage your DM to break away from a generalization of, say, your cleric's faith and organization. A folk healer and a ordained representative of the same faith may both attentive to laws and desiring to help others, but they may interpret how to approach those tenets in different ways. They may give secondary aspects very different weights - the folk healer may be more focused on outcome and less on following ritual steps (especially as folklore and experience changes and integrates other ideas) exactly whereas an ordained cleric may be far more aware of and less comfortable with that (as they come from a much more structured background). A paladin that's very young may be far more idealistic than an older more experienced one who may see value in gathering more information and listening before making a final judgment call. On small parts, as Ginny noted, take stock of HOW they gained the skills of their class. Using Wisteria as the example, maybe your cleric is indeed a legitimate member of the faith... but gained their spot through nepotism. Maybe coming from a wealth family affects where and how they use their magic; if their family was a heavy donor to the faith and had ready access to faith-magic, well... maybe the idea of injury and sickness just wasn't really a major 'thing' for them... so when they're out adventuring for the first time, there's the slow lessons that wounds and injury aren't trivial matters; that magic can run out; etc.
Do a Burning Wheel, and drill down on those base characteristics with "why"s - and then explore and branch off on those whys with "therefore"s: Lawful and upright (why?) Raised by an upright and lawful family (why?) A noble house has to appear respectable (therefore) character turned away from wealth and high society to pursue religion. Probably lives very frugally as a matter of belief, or wants to prove themselves without their family's (wealth's) aid. Character! God comes before everything else (why?) Dedicated their life to the faith (why?) Had a profound religious experience (why?) Was brought to their lowest point through a trial or misadventure (why?) and so on.. If you treat a character trait as something that developed, instead of popping into existence without cause, they can feel far more real.
Wisteria reminds me of a "Wizard" I once played in a game revolving around a Magic School. He was really a Arcane Trickster that had false identify allowing him to attend school.
Don't show augury your miniatures of her, or her dice, or your pin-up calendar images of her... Or better yet do and do a short on her attempting to sue god...
My favorite wizard character I’ve made-and sadly have yet to play-is Visenya. She’s a half-elf who was born to a human courtesan, her father being an Elven adventurer she’s never met, but that her mother still pines for. Visenya, who has the Urchin background, actually got her start when she snatched a wizard’s satchel that happened to contain his spellbook and some notes on basic cantrip reading. With those and a little trial and error, she managed to become something of a hedge wizard.
fun video :) I still think Liam's portrayal of Caleb Widowgast's detailed casting style, using the Material components was one of the things that inspired me to want to try a wizard but personality like this is also golden :) I also made a gnome but having access to a mine and making her own signature line of crystal figurines was how I left my mark on our game, a friend of mine focused on food and using spells to have unseen servant help them make as many as they can to give as gifts like pulling a Pie out from her bag of holding for every NPC we stop and talk to :P
I think Liam's focus on the casting components is very much a character choice, though! Every Wizard uses components, technically, but not everyone uses them as part of the roleplay flavor. Caleb is a precise, meticulous character, and that is reflected so artfully in the specificity that Liam uses in his descriptions. A master class in flavoring mechanical descriptions, honestly!!
Can we have a short interaction, showing *all* the character points you gave Wisteria Ginny : Do you need a note or something to excuse your absence Wisteria : No I'll just give the professor 10 gold, ... by the way can I borrow 10 gold ... That'll do nicely ...
Once again, you are probably the only creator that actually makes me enjoy watching sponsor shout outs! You do them so creatively and I feel I'm missing out if I skip them
OH. MY. GOD. You have no idea how badly I needed this video! Thank you so much! I've been working on a wizard character since I started with DnD, but his backstory always felt so bland, and off-the-shelf! I love your videos!!!
Currently playing a gnome divination wizard in Eberron! She was heir of House Sivis, until she acquired an aberrant dragonmark. She wasn’t “exiled” but was politely told to leave and sent to attend Morgrave academy and told to never speak of her associated to House Sivis. She was accosted to luxury, and has not coped well being a broke college student. She hasn’t spoken to her family since she left, but is convinced that she can use the magic she’s learned to become one of the greatest writers of this generation, and be accepted back into House Sivis to make them proud. One year post grad, she is the head writer of an up and coming newspaper. Our dnd party owns and runs this paper, which we named “The Beholder’s Bulletin,” our tagline is “Behold the truth for a better tomorrow,” and our mascot is a little beholder with a magnifying glass.
This is my favorite video on the subject of backstory I’ve seen! It’s the only one that I feel has the necessary components to push viewers all the way through the process, not just to start.
here's a brief description of my Wizard blade singer: He was in his own realm in a cloud forest being an air genasi, learning his magic from the forest animals he was observing within it. Then one day he stumbled upon an odd ruin within the forest so due to his curiosity he started observing and exploring the ruin then he found an unruined door he opened it and then blacked out, then woke up somewhere unfamiliar surrounded by humanoids speaking an unfamiliar language and couldn't find a way back to his cloud forest.
I’m so appreciative for your channel! Your videos are so well thought out, well shot, and soooo helpful! You’re helping storytellers everywhere in an engaging and comfy way. Thank you!
I've never played a Wizard before, but if I did, I've already got a concept pretty locked in. Halfling just loves reading, loves learning about everything there is to know, and just sorta picked up magic along the way after finding a wizard's spellbook. She's completely self taught and decided to become an adventurer after reading all the books in her local library.
I might have said it before. But i never get tired of Ginny's upbeat & "bubbly" portrayals in her videos. It always makes me smile. Also, excellent video overall.
I have several characters within a community that has quite a few dm's and dozens of players who constantly play one shots. But they have developed a system where you can have character leveling/progression within this system. It all revolves around the Metropolis, a giant city floating in Limbo filled with adventurers of all levels/races/classes etc. I just made a lvl 1 wizard character who's basically an anthro pangolin. She was found as a very young child by the son and daughter of a Tabaxi family who first used her as a ball before their parents intervened when they realized she was not a ball but a child. The family adopted her and raised her as one of their own. She loves her adoptive family and has used her limited magic abilities to aid them and the community she lived in, which I imagine to be a bunch of nomads in a savannah like environment. Her best friends are a Loxodon and a Giff. As happy as she has been, there always has been the nagging question where she came from? Why hasn't she ever seen anyone who even remotely looks like her? So as a young adult with her family's blessing she has set out to find answers and hopefully others of her kind. After traveling for a bit she heard about the Metropolis, a giant city filled with strange and bizarre creatures. Surely if there are others like her she can find them there? She just arrived, but coming from a world where the nomadic lifestyle is the norm, she was completely unprepared for the massive city that is the Metropolis. Completely overwhelmed, she is very timid and shy and seeing how powerful some of the other heroes are makes her feel very insignificant. But having just arrived and needing to settle in as well as provide for herself she reluctantly has just accepted and finished her first quest. At least her fellow adventurers seemed somewhat similar to her skillwise... (The DM started with a fire breath from a hellhound that did 30 damage... With 8 HP she barely survived her very first attack since character creation only because she made the dex save :P).
My first wizard character (also my first D&D pc) struggled to be more than angry elf. My second one got to be inspired by my professors in college. I gave him the worst voice for my throat possible to convey his disdain for others slower than he, and the rest fell into place. The party got to crack him open over the course of 20 levels and find someone kinder inside.
This honestly helped me a lot. I'm personally SUPER tired of the Magic School trope and this gave me plenty of ideas for a wizard that doesn't need to include that particular trope. :)
My Half-Elf Wizard has a family heirloom in the form of a mysterious Rubik's sphere-like toy, seemingly hollow with no way how to open it, and lets him prepare and cast spells by aligning the different runes covered throughout the sphere. As such, it serves as both his spellbook and focus. It was owned by a distant relative who was a master elementalist and was an alumnus at the college where my character's currently studying. Wanting to live up to his relative's legend and uncover the secrets of this seemingly mundane toy, he sets out on an adventure as part of his final year thesis project. Honestly, Invoker from DOTA was my main inspiration for this Wizard character of mine.
I just started getting into DnD, and my first character build is a human wizard. Haven't thought of a name for her yet (or figured out her stats and spells), but I have come up with some of her backstory and personality: "She" and her parents were members of a nomadic clan with ancient ties to secret arcane magic, the exact origin of which is completely unknown. "She" was taught both magic and survival tactics by her parents since Age 5 and was told never to reveal her true power to outsiders. However, on the night of "her" 13th birthday, her clan was attacked and killed by a group of mysterious soldiers and assassins. By some sort of miracle, "she" survives the massacre, but is left without the only people she considered family. "She" soon spends the next eight years on the road, learning and adapting to the outside world while on a quest of revenge against her clan's killers. She is very introverted and reserved, rarely talks to others, and never fully trusts those doesn't know, showing no hesitation to leave them (or take them down) if they betray her in any way. She is also observant and analytical of her surroundings and is very cautious when she senses danger. She is willing to move forward and put her goals and priorities ahead of her own feelings and preferences, while occasionally taking joy in moments of quiet and solitude.
My Wizard Yune Mee is the awakened cat of a sorceress who kinda is her mother, she taught magic to herself trough the books of this sorceress and learned divination, she believes everything in life is determined in the stares and ones own bones (which is why she has two levels in stars druid and owns a ton of random bones). She wants to believe everything has a reason because if it doesent, then the wild magic that awakened her was just a coincidence. Like her mom she tries to understand the workings of the gods, the cosmos and wild magic while learning social interaction and the ways of the warrior from the groups fighter.
Epiphany Silverhaven is a moon elf, a lighthouse-keeper's daughter, an acolyte of Correlon, a decent baker, and … a tourist. That elven isolationism thing was silly, so she ran away from home. Oh, and she can also cast spells. Her most important possession is her ancient copy of Lonely Planet's Guide to Faerun. Her greatest enemy is stairs.
I love making backstories for every class, not just wizards. But since we’re on the topic of wizards I once made a gnome Wizard who really wanted to study animals, but needed a way to protect himself to do so. He wasn’t a good fighter and he didn’t have any sort of faith, so he learned the ways of an abjuration Wizard so he could protect himself while out studying animals.
I have a Bladesinger / Fighter who is a Soldier/ Merc veteran. Brook Learned Magic on the battle field. A servant to the god of war, who worships with both book and blade. He lost an arm, was left for dead, He is a shell of his former self. He fought in wars that didn’t concern him for kings who didn’t care for him, serving out of duty… now he fights for himself, for his team and for those who can fight for themselves. Raised on the battle field, I’ll die on the battle field but atleast this time it will be for a purpose.
My current wizard character grew up poor and apprenticed under the village healer/mortician, who turned out to be a necromancer. Despite necromancy being illegal, she saw learning magic as a way to learn an in-demand skill to improve her financial situation. So, she agreed to train as a necromancer. When the necromancer died after decades of extending her life well-beyond her natural lifespan, my wizard vowed off necromancy and is desperately trying to teach herself non-necromantic magic so she can move past it all.
The wizard I am playing right now is probably my favorite character I ever made (so much so I played her twice, now). I wanted to play an abjuration wizard and while flipping through the backgrounds for ideas I saw sailor and thought "oh, that is such an odd combo. How do I make this work?" Astraea is a human who was found by pirates at a young age and raised by them. She liked to read, they discovered, so they often stole books for her, some of which, it turned out, were about magic. They started looking for more with that fancy writing in it for her as she started to play around with it. Eventually she joined the crew, became a proper pirate, and then, when the boat was sunk, she moved to Waterdeep to work the docks and have access to magical libraries. She likes looking for magic related tomes and objects. She is dex based, and not int based, relying on her relatively high AC and abjuration abilities to keep her alive and her rapier to attack with green flame blade. She is smart, a bit of a drunk at times, and her charisma dump stat is a feature as she is very crude and rude, but in an entertaining way. Also, she doesn't think of herself as a wizard since she never went to a school (despite her keeping a spellbook). Her first spell learned was find familiar, since she was still a kid, and she still has her cat familiar Isabella. Second spell was firebolt, also because she was a kid. I could go on ...
I think she should sell cds, they're already digital, she'd just have to copy them to a cd. Vinyls, well unfortunately not many people still have record players to play the vinyls. But as far as I know studios still record them that way so who knows.
World Anvil totally is a rare flying gopher and I refuse to acknowledge otherwise. Also, this way Wisteria is portrayed, she'd make an amazing Arcane Trickster Rogue, leaning deeper into the "cheat and bribe your way through school" shtick, while STILL being a highly intelligent flunkie.
This is so good! And apt as I was just working on making a wizard turned artificer. She is actually quite bad with spells but she's great at building and she's still smart just not...spell smart. It's my favorite thing. Love thinking about all the different types of wizards there can be! Great video, Ginny!
My one friend is playing a rogue/wizard multi class. He was initially a divination wizard working for the BBEG, where in exchange for his services the BBEG would spare his homeland. Because of this status, he was afforded all the magical items and spell books he could ask for. One day he saw a vision of the BBEG destroying his homeland anyways, and tried to revolt against the BBEG to stop it. It failed, and his character was stripped of all his spells and magical items, and instead was cast out. He relied too heavily on his books and never bothered to memorize any spells, so he has had to start over from scratch by stealing what items and spells he can to gradually relearn his magic. It’s an interesting character considering the dm asked for all of our characters to have a previous interaction or reason to hate the BBEG, so he has had to earn our trust by atoning for what he did while with the BBEG.
I once played a goblin assistant to another player’s dark elf necromancer. Since we were starting the game at 5th level, backstory was easier to build, but it was also essential. With a really high dexterity and a reasonably high intelligence (to benefit skills), I went with three levels of Rogue. Since all manner of nasty things inhabit graveyards at night, I took one level of Fighter, which also helped fulfill the role as bodyguard to the necromancer. And with my last level, I took one level of necromancer wizard, so that I could control the dark elf’s animated skeletons, transcribe notes and know enough minor magics to be useful. And thus was born Gravedigger, the necromancer’s assistant. The name was somewhat ironic, since he was as likely to make a new corpse as he was to go dig up an old corpse. The meat is fresher on a new corpse, after all. That was a particularly dark game. It was full of intrigue and double-dealing, since we were all playing villains in a world chock full of villains. I ended up playing that character to rogue 11/Fighter 4/Necromancer 5 over several years of game sessions.
My wizard (who I swear I'll play one day once I've played this character...and maybe this other one...) is Wendell the Wonderous. After a spellbook bonked him on the head in his local library, he set about translating it into a language he could understand, which was made slightly easier thanks to the library's community languages section. Now, he's adventuring to learn more magic and someday open a magic school in his hometown. The only problem? He's never actually met another wizard, so he dresses and acts the way he thinks wizards are supposed to act. Blue robes with stars, fake bushy beard, the whole shebang. He's such a silly little goblin (or halfling, depending on where I eventually play him).
This is honestly one of my favorite videos of yours! I often spend so so much time coming up with a bunch of details about a character but have a hard time either making it be cohesive or I miss something obvious I should have decided on. Or I just don't know where to start because everything seems to rely on something else. This guide is amazing and I'd love to see this as a series for every class!
I wrote my wizard character as coming across another wizard in his travels and being his personal student for several years and then essentially graduated and came across the current party soon after
My favourite character ever has been an enchantment Wizard called Adriana. She was the 6th child of a royal family in a matriarchal System and exclusively had older brothers. She quickly became the princess of the family. Getting very spoilt in the process. In this setting every heir to the family home learns some basic magic because of how practical it is to have an unseen servant and a mage hand. But nothing too elaborate. (Un-)fortunately she and her private teacher found out that she has a knack for enchantment magic and, while practicing in secret, they fell in love. Skip a few years of practice and secret dates and a pregnancy happened. Adriana's parents were furious and lied to her that the private teacher would raise the child at their summer house and she would get to see them occasionally. Despite this, the father of her child ran away right after the baby had been born - taking it with him. Her parents, however, had actually forced this on him and afterwards tried to gaslight Adriana into obedience. The first time Adriana publicly defied her parents was when she ran away, trying to find her ex and their child. Thus, the campaign began.
Don't forget: your stats can also help guide your character's personality as well, even potentially including it into why the character is out adventuring. Are they a weakling who often struggles to carry their heavy tomes because you dumped strength? Well, when they dropped it, the fighter was passing by, and offered to help them. They began talking and ended up becoming friends. Low strength tied into the backstory and helps give a reason to stick with an adventure. Perhaps they are more of a "Bumbling professor" or simply unaware, and have low wisdom. This may help inform what type of backstory you may want. A scholar who's been inside for most of their life studying the arcane, and having low wisdom for it? Sure. Or, perhaps you have decently high wisdom, being more of a field-researcher. Maybe they have low charisma because they're cooped up indoors and haven't talked much with people, or perhaps even are constantly unkempt and not caring much about their appearance. Or perhaps their being inside made them overly social as they want to talk and meet with people, for better or worse. Stats don't define a character, but certainly can play a part, so don't be afraid to lean into your worse or better stats to help create the character.
Hey Ginny, you asked recently what a lot of your viewers are really here for and I think this kinda nailed it. For me at least. I enjoy your content because I admire and adore your creativity. So everything from the artistic endeavors of your character sheet/notebook for Aisling, to pinup FCG, to your role play as character growth uhhh… questioneers…? Anyways, great content and I look forward to you expanding on this concept. :)
Ian McVeigh was my last wizard character. He ended on the wrong side of a wizard's duel. The other guy turned me into a duck. I could talk, and I used an orb as my magic tool. My unseen servant ended up being my mount for the most part.
I wish I could describe my wizard in detail, but there's some major spoilers about her story that I don't want any of my fellow players to run across just yet. Suffice to say, she's a neutral evil school of enchantment subclass, which alone is terrifying. Then add to that the fact that most of the party jumped to conclusions about her species and motives, so they really have no clue what they're dealing with at all. xD She's currently playing along with them because they're useful as far as she's concerned, but who knows how long that will last? The DM is fully onboard and enabling all of my scheming, and it's so much fun to see how long I can keep up the whole smoke and mirrors thing. There's even an unexpected romance subplot with her and the rogue (we discussed it OOC when they seemed to hit it off, and both me and the rogue player find it very funny, so we decided to play it up), even though the rogue is also the one most suspicious of her.
This is perfect because I just played a Homebrew Astral genasi Chronurgy wizard. They definitely have a cloistered scholar vibe living far to the north with their adopted dads. They definitely enjoy reading and learning more than interacting with other people. Their dads and their research on a different dimension went missing so my character, Aliter, left to go try and find them. They are an extreme introvert, but I’ve already had a ton of fun playing them.
I have actually never played a Wizard but I have a concept for a Scribes Wizard in mind that I really want to try based on reality. Everyone has heard about these incredibly gifted genius (but imo often sad) kids that finish high school in their teens and then go to college and finish even sooner than most adults? The character is like that and even self-thought or home-schooled. Why adventuring you say? There was nothing else to learn at the academies, but even a teen genius doesn't know most of the things in life and still has a LOT of learning and exploring to do. I could definitely see him/her having a mentor or protector as a party member though. They are usually socially inept or have bad social skills due to autism, jealousy, conflicting ego's or simply the age gap in the environment they study in. This makes the character quite lonely and vulnerable as a teen in an adult world, but wielding powerful arcane magic at the same time. Insane intellect aside, they would still retain the same insecurities and mindset of his/her age group. Compared to the other kids, the character is far ahead in terms of academic skills and career, but wields a god complex as a façade to the outside world but is quite insecure deep inside. I'm not sure if I want the character to be a boy or girl, because the boy genius is almost a trope in itself and making her a girl genius would really drive home the point of not being accepted or looked down upon by a male dominated academic world. In a fantasy setting things could be different of course. A child genius Scribes Wizard that is out there collecting all the spells like Pokémon for his/her Pokédex (maybe Ash would be a fitting name?). The world is a literal giant playground ;D
One of my characters was a pretentious path of the storm barbarian from a noble family of storm sorcerers. The came up with the character as a pun since her name is Barbara Ann. She would probably enjoy Westeria. She was sent to do mercenary work far from home to hide her as a disappointment since her lightning isn’t controlled and she can’t do spells but they do send her servants and help. She also doesn’t rage, it’s unlady like she perturbs.
I get the feeling Ms. Wisteria Appledackle isn't a very good student. She's still fun to watch, though. For a game I'm in, I'm playing a Swamp Rat Goblin (basically a homebrew subrace) Abjuration Wizard named Nalzi. She has the Scholar background because she's been apprentice to her Nana an old Goblin lady of 90+ years and the sort of badass granny you hear about. Her going out into the world serves two purposes; a) Nana believes in hands-on experience, and b) a friend of hers was murdered, so she sent her apprentice to investigate (which is where she is tied to the start of the campaign). Nalzi's not a very tough girl, so she often teams up with others while on her Nana's errands, which is how she met all her fellow party members.
my current player character opted to not stop his magical studies even while adventuring! Instead, the university allowed him to go on a directed independent study. He isn't a wizard tho... or any sort of spell caster. He's a swashbuckler and a member of a powerful noble house from taldor. All of the lords in this house are gifted mages so his lack of magical abilities combined with various social blunders is why he's been sent away to Absalom. Although the school seemed to favor his tuition payment over his antics, so they have him off campus till they can find a way to gracefully get him out of their hair. The fun part is I recap things we encounter in this adventure as his "academic journal" for the big thesis he's working on.
I should start revising my Tabaxi Sorcerer's backstory. She has the personality of a literal cat, and she had a recurring prophetic dream of slaying a malevolent tyrant. That tyrant went on to hypnotize her and keep her as a pet after she broke into his highly guarded castle, and his wife even taught her the Abyssal language so she could aid in their plans. I like the idea that her fatal mistake was going alone, and maybe she could learn that lesson from traveling with a party that aids her in future battles. When the party first frees her, she's still in love with the villains who kept her as their pet. But she's initially too afraid to tell anyone that because she's convinced if she does, they'll all turn on her. Maybe she's fine as she is, she just needs a party to make her less alone.
My half elf wizard name Nora Wintle is my absolute favorite character to roleplay as they are such a socially awkward dork but she is also so powerful and passionate deep down I love her
I make a background first but I always try to make sure, when making the backstory, that I have an idea of where I’m taking it and why this background most suits this character. For instance, let’s take my samurai fighter character. I made them with the Sage background in mind. I went on to explain this as they were part of a faction of archivists/researchers/librarians/etc. The sage background allows a decent amount of languages so I decide to make this character a scholar of linguistics. It explains why they are rather able bodied but still nerdy enough to be a researcher, as their studies would take them many different places to study the people who speak the languages they study. Of course I didn’t stop there. I then added the linguistics feat and tacked on more languages. The character is a wood elf so elvish is also added. And so on. I just keep piling on languages they know. But that isn’t the entire back story. It just explains their mechanics. How did they join the faction? Why? What has happened since they joined? What have they learned? How do they feel about their faction now? Are they still in good standing with their faction or were they ever? And the list goes on. I end up writing this character as a parentified eldest child of a wealthy merchant family who is taken for granted a great deal by their family (it’s toxic, but like, in the manner of the madrigal family is in Encanto). The fact that all the cousins and siblings are grown up and accomplished now, and they are taken for granted, adding on some tensions and some false rumors about my character around, finally pushes them to follow a friend’s advice and join up with the faction they are part of. So this then explains why they feel grateful for the faction. Because the faction gave them room to breath, provided them resources for their interests, provided them a mentor, and just let them grow into whoever they wished to be. Obviously they are nothing but grateful for the safe haven they found themselves in. Then we have further stuff going on which was some tragedy later on and the faction again comes in to the rescue by allowing my character a space to grieve and focus on their research in the mean time, providing what resources they needed in that time. They aren’t sent on any missions and the few provided to them are requests they can turn down with no hard feelings. Also, if my character stirs up trouble, which they have, due to all the reports my character sends back, the information is more than enough compensation for the faction to protect my character. Did this mean my character could also have been a spy? Sure! However that feature means having a criminal contact and I didn’t feel like that fit as my character, for all that they seem to do spy work, is still a researcher….just a very VERY fit one who is really good with weapons..and negotiations. But they are upstanding for the most part. The shady part of their personality more comes from the merchant part of their backstory where they are used to providing a customer service smile and attitude which is further reinforced by their treatment by their family. So yeah, good but also a bit…too knowledgeable lol. Let’s just say the party needed more smart people, someone who could be The Face, and be “The Frontliner” (the monk needed back up). My build met those needs while providing a side benefit of a LOT of languages. I can take a backseat to our main int characters but also bolster them as needed. I can support and tank for the monk whenever they needed, and I can speak for the party when they need a social interaction to really go their way for whatever reason, even if that language isn’t known by anyone else. Also suits the friendly nature of my character who likes collecting languages like our artificer loves collecting magic items lol. It allows the nerds to nerd out but the martials to pull them into training sessions, and then, the eldest sibling energy allows the others to latch on with their younger sib energy (which we have for those who are neither of the other two). Anyway, yeah i just made this character with the part in mind is all. They are a fully fleshed out character however, with hopes, and dreams, and flaws.
I'm making a wizard for an upcoming game, decided to look up if ginnyDi has any videos about them and what so you know, this one uploaded a few hours ago! Amazing timing!
I started with the story and origin of my wizard who is actually a wizard/sorcerer (for rp reasons) and ended up rolling decent for int and cha, and basically average everything else. He's probably Mt favorite character so far.
I’m building a wizard who learned all her spells thru trade school/real estate classes. She went to school to become a famous house flipper/real estate agent. All her spells are useful for remodeling, staging, selling houses/castles
One thing I really look for in RPG design is the ability to have players express their character with their stats. I encourage good role playing and good writing too, but it sucks if there isn't enough to work with to really make the thing you want. I really like Pathfinder 1.0 for this.
that's an interesting thing to bring up on this particular video, because this entire guide around making character and personality choices was built on the stats - I happen to like D&D's system for that. to each their own, of course!
My first wizard I ever made was a rock gnome who flunked out of wizard school. He went to magic school because of 1). He wanted to make his middle-low class family proud by passing college. And 2). He was told he was great at magic growing up and upon meeting people of greater talent and greater drive kinda depressed him. Why go adventuring? He’s ashamed of failing out of wizard college and wants to make money in a fantastical way to both support and make his family proud. Why go to wizard school? 1). His curiosity got him into magic. His favorite is dancing lights and fire bolt because it reminds him of fireworks
Sounds like Wisteria has a hands on learning style and that's why she doesn't do well in the classroom possibly some test/performance anxiety mixed in there. I wonder if the school and her parents collaborated the "Send her out to make money to repay us" plan as a way of giving her hands on experience and testing her without the confines of a classroom.
I'm building a rock star. Swashbuckler, bladesinger for two more levels, and then glamour bard. I'm starting to design a personal magical instrument for him, one that enhances his performances and may do elaborate illusion or summoning magic.
I had a rogue that "left" med school under suspicious circumstances and as a mastermind rogue, he forged his diploma. It fools most people, but he is nervous around nobles and professionals. He decided he needed a change of venue, so he became a ship's physician and set sail. (Sailor background) yep, I loved Doc as a character.
you just made me recreate my third substitute character for my campaign^^ thanks for all the ideas and input! also i really enjoyed the video, it was fun to watch, easy to follow and extremely helpful, keep on with that!
I had to help a friend who didnt make a character just a stat sheet, he was a new player, so when he asked if i could help with his character he literally just gave me his stats and background, so his character (a v gay far walker or whatever, i.e. im a 3.5 main, point is very gay and stands out, he also likes to read people... so helped him realize he should be playing a dwarver bianca del rio
9:06 HOLY FUCKING SHIT this actually had my rolling in my chair with my hands over my mouth I had to rewind and replay it to process what happened LMFAO that was fucking vile I love it omfg asdnjanschjfsdixds this video is really really good, and very helpful things to consiter. I'd love to see this for other classes!!!
Amusingly I find the opposite problem to be true at most of my tables for my players. People are totally fine at coming up with ideas for a character outline or for their backstory, but they are either a turbo min-maxer (which can honestly be very okay, because usually these people have a thorough understanding of the rules) or someone who has close to no idea how their character works nor how to make their character mechanically make sense with any of their backstory. They will tell this awesome tale about how "their apprentice wizard character was forced to learn card tricks and street magic because they were an urchin who needed to use parlor tricks and low level magic to be able to steal bread" and yada yada yada, only to cast one or two illusion spells in actual gameplay by the time they are level 5.
Classic. Build A Character vs. A Character Build. Both are important in their own right, and different groups (and individual Players) will gravitate towards different emphases on them. Finding that sweet spot is important, as it will help bond the group together on that common ground. Some might say "role-play" and other's might say "roll-play". Mix them together, blend as appropriate to the needs of the group so as to get the best play environment. That's the nature of *playing the game*.
I love seeing someone build a wizard that isn't the stereotypical, mightier-than-thou-and-too-arrogant-to-care attitude that everyone in my campaigns create.
