D&D Character Concepts

Been in a pen and paper mood lately, but have nobody to play with, so just cranking out character ideas. Thought it might make for a fun thread for people to share character concepts, maybe even give people some ideas. Does not need to be D&D character, any system will do. And you can go in depth as you want (stats background, etc). My most recent character I threw together was a 5th edition D&D Aasimar Warlock with a fiend pact and hermit background. The basic idea involves a forbidden romance between the character and his fiend patron, and the character is on a journey to do what it takes to be able to be with this patron. This of course means he had to turn against the destiny that was planned for him as an Aasimar, and strike out on his own. All the while he is pulled in different directions by the divinity he descends from, his celestial guide, and his incubus boyfriend.

My first DnD character ended up being pretty meta. We play 5e, and at the time, xanathar's guide just came out. I wanted to roll a magical girl to spite my friend, so i went with a dual spec, Ranger and fighter (for arcane archer). I wrote a generic back story about my village being attacked by orcs and goblins which justifies knowing a lot about those monsters and speaking orcish, etc. I wanted to enslave a goblin but the DM wouldnt let me even tho it was justifiable lol.

Ive never been one for good characters. I played horde in wow years ago. Seems good guys is all people play in dnd because its easier to retcon a story of why you all met up and are going on an adventure. At the very least i'd like to be chaotic neutral but you always have that one paladin or some such class that will get mad if you arent good.

My current pathfinder character is of the Investigator class, which is a hybrid class of Rogue and Alchemist. Basically though, I RP him as a genius underground cryptogropher who had shady connections with the thieve's guild who he commissioned to obtain a copy of the Ramacci Texts (Something my DM and I collaboratively based on the Voinych manuscript). His name is Raphael, and he's kinda a true neutral scoundrel type who has a knack for stringing together sequences and patterns most would never notice. He is one of the only people who has managed to decipher the opening passages so far, and that's what introduced him to the alchemical arts. Though his lack of understanding of the later chapters has driven him to the point of obsession, as many of the plants and images in the illuminated illustrations just get weirder and more bizarre as they go, and the book contains codes within codes, within fictional languages. And each passage he manages to decode just gets weirder and weirder. Like one passage might be talking about the elixer of immortality, and another might be a mundane grocery list. And here we hit where the game began. Translation was basically at a stalemate for over a year, until an unknown enemy started attacking the village. A people from across the seas of an unknown continent arrived in airships, started beating people unconscious and claiming them as captives. (Yeah, they're based on the Aztecs.) And after finally getting captured, the party ended up aboard one of these ships. Though a hill giant that was living on the cusp of town who had a reputation for being a gentle and friendly soul basically watched one of the farmers who was his friend get sacrificed, then went berserk and crashed the ship. We ended up on an island with dodo people, where after taking a while to learn of their ways, and their simplistic language (the trick was learning the hand signals, rather than the words they were saying), we ended up finding a giant red crystal, which was curiously one of the pictures illustrated in the Ramacci Texts. A reagent that when broken down, could be used in an extract for Comprehend Languages. After exploring a nearby cave for a bit, the party learned of a being called "The Perfect Man" who was the leader of an empire that apparently exists elsewhere on the continent we found ourselves being taken to. No friend of the Almec empire, he basically brokered a deal with us, to which we would have to gather and unite various groups of people and push upon the Almecs from the north east, where as his empire would attack from the south. So, the party agreed, even if they found this man to be a rather obnoxious narcissist. A group of "silver elves", which were a clan of elves that drifted across the seas, and presumed to have been swallowed by them, sailed to the island at the behest of this perfect man, and took us aboard, sailing us swiftly to the new continent. And after encountering the native puckwudgies, who sent a group of zombies after us, we had some time to explore the beach. Where some of the native floara and fauna looked curiously similar to that old tome that Rapael had been obsessing over for so long. Unfortunately, that's where we last left off. I'm hoping to expand my character more as the campaign unfolds.

Also, I did have a paladin once in Pathfinder who basically encouraged the chaotic neutral rogue to go off and sneak attack enemies. He was raised as a prince in Taldor (We rolled that randomly), and as such, understood tactics and warfare. Course being a paladin of Shelyn, a neutral good god of art and beauty kinda lends a bit more flexibility to what the character was able to do. Shelyn's Palidin code mostly encourages you to act as a diplomat and a pacifist, until conflict is no longer avoidable. And after that point, how you end the conflict doesn't exactly have as many rules as the more lawful gods may swear their paladins to. In short, it requires a bit more emotional intelligence to be a paladin of Shelyn, and understanding where people came from and what made them the way they are are more important to a goddess of redemption than forcing them to behave in a way that broadcasts your ideals. Here's her code, if you're curious. https://bfran85.obsidianportal.com/wikis/paladin-code-of-shelyn

And THEN there was this one character concept I had, but never had a chance to play yet. Nigel the Barbarian. Once a generic tea slurping snooty guy raised in high society, until after reading the poems of ancient warriors. He felt so inspired to chase the way of life his ancestors had forsaken that something inside him just kinda... broke. So you basically have this well groomed tall, lanky guy with a mustache and a monocle, running around in a wolfskin kilt like a mad man. And when he rages? "I say! Grr! Grr, I say!"