D&D Character concepts – January 2024

One of the goals I set for myself in 2024 was to come up with a new RPG character every week, just a name, race/ancestry, a class, a subclass (if applicable) and a backstory. The twist is that I couldn’t “bank” character ideas, if I came up with more than one in a week, I have to document both for that week and come up with new ones the next week.

So far all of the characters I have come up with are either D&D or Pathfinder examples, and in this post, I’m going to quickly go over a small sample of the D&D ones.

Veche Greasearm

“I don’t give a damn about your “cause”, kid. I give a damn about getting paid, and if you want that Imperial “re-education center” to become a smoldering pile of ash, you’ll put the coin I ask for together, and quickly.

Veche is a goblin rogue with the disposition of a professional mercenary that specializes in alchemical explosives and firestarters. He’s willing to work for whomever pays well, including radical revolutionary movements, terrorist organizations, or even militaries, assuming a new identity each time and ensuring his face is rarely seen.

The truth is that Veche only cares about getting paid inasmuch as he needs to eat and buy the components and chemicals for his concoctions. His professional exterior is a front, a vehicle that allows him the greatest possible chance to enjoy his true love: burning things (or people).

I think Veche would be an extremely fun character to roleplay, hiding his pyromania behind a professional exterior, while balancing the urge to burn things as often as he can. He would definitely be a character that would need the correct setting (trying to play him in Rime of the Frostmaiden probably wouldn’t work terribly well), but I think he’d be extremely enjoyable.

Veche would use the Firestarter rogue subclass, a somanyrobots creation.

Elanelis Queshir

“It’s not about what’s ‘fair’. When a tree in your grove is diseased, sometimes you have to cut the rot out. I have to cut this rot from myself so that I can properly care for my home.”

Elanelis is an elven druid whose grove came under attack by an incursion from a invading force of aberrations that spewed from a portal to the Far Realm (or whatever equivalent exists in the setting I’d play him in). Though they were successful, the presence to such a realm corrupted the land, and him with it. Now his body bears signs of aberrant mutation and his druidic powers take the form of nightmarish tentacles and eye stalks. Though his mind remains his own, his fellow druids exiled him from their home until such time as he can purge himself of this corruption. Elanelis is determined to succeed in this, but cannot idly stand by when others are in need of help, even if the only means he has to do so are his horrific powers.

A character with horrible powers that he seeks to be rid of is hardly a new concept, but I do like this particular take on it, and I think it’d be fun to roleplay with to see where it would go. Can Elanelis stay himself, or does he become more of an aberration over time? Will he succeed in purging the corruption or learn to accept it, maybe founding a new circle of fellow outcasts?

Elanelis is an Elf, but one that would use the Warped template, and his subclass is the Circle of Nightmares. Both of these are creations of KibblesTasty, found in his first book, the Compendium of Craft and Creation

Valtina Ravenglade

“Ya can take the girl off the pirate ship, sure! Can’t so easily take the pirate outta the girl!”

Valtina was born on the high seas, aboard a pirate vessel named the Errant Venture. Her mom was the ship’s bo’sun, and her father in charge of the galley. From a young age, the crew taught her to sail and to fight, and to love the freedom that comes with choosing your own destiny. When she got older, her folks retired from the pirate’s life, wanting to give their daughter a less dangerous upbringing. Val is every bit her parent’s daughter though, and took the skills she learned growing up and channeled them into becoming a thief, a rapscallion, and a general ne’er-do-well. Her most recent exploit was bluffing herself into a magic academy, learning a few spells to augment her skills with a blade, and more importantly, how to keep developing them. Though the school administration discovered her deception and chased her off the grounds, they were too late. Valtina knew magic and as a result, was a more dangerous and daring swashbuckler than ever.

Lately Valtina has taken to the adventurer’s life to dodge the law after her latest exploits and just to see what kind of crazy shenanigans she can get into for the thrill of it. Who knows? Maybe she’ll find she likes helping others. Or maybe she’ll pretend while she filches whatever shinies she can get her hand on.

Valtina is a Halfling, and uses somanyrobots Swashbuckler class, specifically the Code of the Trickster

Xiczik

“Now that I’ve forged a pact with a mighty dragon, my clan will soon bow to me! Right after I help drive those marauders from that farming village. And root out the devil cultists. And recover that temple’s stolen artifact. And…”

I have developed something of a fondness for making kobold characters with draconic class options, and this character is the latest. Xiczik begged a powerful dragon to grant him power, and his Dragon formed a pact with him in order to get it, but on the condition that Xiczik would have to perform a series of tasks for him in return. The Dragon is a wise and goodly sort, and is quietly manipulating the kobold into directing his energies towards helping people instead of dominating them, banking that he will soon learn to enjoy the feeling more than he would dominating his kin.

Xiczik is a warlock using KibblesTasty’s Dragon patron. While any good dragon would conceivably work here, I thought it might be fun to slightly modify the subclass to use one of SpectreCreations Cosmic Dragons, specifically a Planetary Dragon. These Dragons have three distinct forms they shift between, a gas giant form, an Ice giant form, and a terrestrial form, each of which has a different breath weapon. While they don’t match up exactly with the Elemental Blast effects the Dragon Patron subclass offers, there are close enough options that could be used. We could flavor this as Xiczik getting a different breath weapon each day, mirrored by whatever form the dragon currently occupies or just changing as the Dragon believes he’ll require. He’d work just as well with a more standard draconic patron too, however.

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This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the character concepts I’ve come up with, just a few I thought it would be fun to share. We’ll keep coming back to this throughout 2024 and checking in on other ideas that I’ve come up with. Until then, thank you for reading!