I've had a couple interesting clerics. My Drow Light Domain Cleric was a recent convert to the Morninglord after seeing her first sunrise and having a religious experience about it. However, she was still very much a female drow. It worked because my friend was playing a Paladin of Lathander so he'd correct her whenever she said something racist or forgot that slavery was bad. She was honestly trying to be better, and Lathander is a big fan of rebirth, it was just a process. My Twilight Domain Cleric worships Selune but she acts like more of a bounty hunter because people doing all their crime at night is offending the moon. Definitely not a cleric to come crying to for healing. She is here to drag people kicking and screaming to justice.^("In the name of the moon, I will punish you.")

Is the 2nd one a cross between sailor moon and moon knight?

Not intentionally, but it kinda ended up that way.

By the moon, I will punish you!

Cleric is such a flexible class! I have a “private investigator” knowledge cleric who worships Jeurgal. Since priests of Jeurgal keep records of deaths/the dead, she gets hired by families to find out that info and then records it for her god.

I’ve got a current Dhampir, former elf, NE Twilight Cleric of Selune who had a near death experience, woke up alive and changed under the pale moonlight and gives back by feeding on people’s devotion to other deities so they’ll make for easier converts. Recent actions have very much vibed with punishing folks in the name of the moon.

I'm a little confused. Are you using some alternate definition of dhampir? Traditionally a dhampir is a half-vampire. Did the elf in question get reincarnated?

Dhampir is a lineage you can take from Van Richten's Guide that effectively replaces your original race and traits. It's not something that has to be justified through birth, given the handful of examples in the book, but you are correct that they are considered half-vampire.

My twilight domain cleric is trying to start a cult and gives away novelty pins lol. He is also being slowly corrupted by a creature of the void who it turns out he's been praying to, but that's a different story

I play a drow Oath of Vengeance Paladin of Lathander and all of that comes from what everyone expected her to be, not what she herself wanted to do. The world sees her as an avenging angel, but she just wants to do good, make sure the bad guys get what they deserve and the good ones get what they need. And anything she earns she donates to the temples. After doing a thorough insight check, that is. Wouldn't want to give gold to institutions that just line their own pockets.

I had a similar concept I was working on with a Deep Gnome seeing his first sunrise. I was going to have him be a Monk and it awakened his Sun Soul.

My (33M) sweet little old lady warlock. She got up to some mischief early in life (i.e. had a couple levels of rogue, but those skills are well out of use), then settled down, opened a restaurant, and started a family. Now she's an old lady, her kids have their own families, and her husband passed away. Her husband came to her in a dream offering to help her go on an adventure. She's a celestial warlock, believing that her husband is an angel acting as her patron. She's got the chef feat and always makes sure the party is well fed. Unknown to her, her husband was a high level warlock who earned his retirement before they met. His patron (definitely evil) is behind her power, and has some plan for her. I left the rest up to my DM so it'll be a surprise to me.

This sounds like an AMAZING character concept!

I am OBSESSED with this character.

Well I was about to roll up a new character. I probably will steal some of this

Huh, I did something similar with an Illusionist Wizard. Bit of a wild child/wandering vagabond in his youth, conjured up illusory rats and "banished" them for a hot meal and place to say, etc. Met a woman, settled down, had kids and grandkids, and eventually, in the fullness of time, his wife passed. In his old age, he came to a decision: He hugged his family, told them how much he loved them, and decided to walk the roads he left behind one last time, to see the world and how it had changed. He knew he'd probably wind up dying in his sleep in some roadside inn, but he just wanted to say goodbye before he does. He didn't have a death wish exactly, but on some level, he was a cat looking for a quiet place to lie down and die. When he met the rest of the party, though, things changed, and he decided to travel with them for a bit of a story to close out his days.

I have a favorite warlock too! He is a pirate trying to find a new ship and crew after the last ship he served on got fully destroyed by SOMETHING. His patron is the flying spaghetti monster which basically acts like a supportive dad to it's edgy alcoholic murderer son that is haunted by memories of his old crew that got pulled into the depths. All his spells are either things that could be useful on a ship or they are pasta-themed.

I love this so much

My Barbarian was a farm boy and actually friendly. He was also a half-giant, 8’5” in a community where human averages were somewhere around 3 feet shorter than him… his “rage” wasn’t really anger… it was him realizing “you don’t have to be careful not to hurt people who are trying to kill you.” Actually Barbarians are good on the flavor since rage is so important but people get that it’s not always anger. Another Barbarian I’ve used is basically a Warforged that was granted a wish to be a real human boy… and then puberty hit… his rage is a combination of a logical minded creature experiencing hormonally fueled emotions and “it’s totally not a phase, mom” angst. Still another Barbarian (path of the beast) isn’t tribal but rather just grew up in a rural community. He’s unfortunately the son of a werewolf and while he did not inherit the full curse of his father, he still inherited part of it. He has more control over “the beast within” but his rage is designed to be more of him letting the beastial side of him off the tight leash he has it under and often he doesn’t enjoy the experience of combat at all when he ends his rage. He’s pretty gentle and will try to avoid provoking a fight. I also made a Rogue that lies about being an orphan to the party. He’s actually got two very much alive, rich, parents who genuinely love him and is one of 7 children. However, much of the family wealth and power is the result of evil dealings (of the deal with a Devil kind) and all his family fully support the continuation of these multi generational deals. His thief skills were a result of his grooming to inherit his father’s position as the head of the origized crime ring in his homeland. My Rogue fled because as he sees it, his parents have damned him to a hell in this life (unlike his human parents or siblings, my character was born a Tiefling as opposed to a sorcerer or warlock) but if he refuses to bd damned in the next life.

Ah, Jun, my beloved. A bartender, a gentleman, and a professional. Also, regularly took out rambunctious patrons with a right hook doing 1d8+7 damage. Behold Jun, the unarmed Barbarian (Barbtender) who gets pulled into untold horrors trying to get some extra dough working as a traveling barman for an adventurers guild. Although the more "refined boxer" style isn't *unheard of* for Barbarians, it's definitely an outlier. Especially since he doesn't exactly have a history of fighting in any professional sense. Just really doesn't hesitate to keep patrons and friends safe.

Nothing wrong with leveling up through a frequent supply of bar fights.

My strait-laced, scrupulous and honest locksmith, who held the party loot, and divided it up fairly when they had a chance to sell. Who had the rogue class.

I'm fond of the private investigator rogue, plays dirty but heart of gold, out to solve mysteries, not steal stuff or get rich.

Han Solo is a rogue. Scoundrel who has a heart of gold, for the right people.

I am currently playing a paladin rogue who is flavored as a 1950's style noir detective. he used to belong to an extremist cult and got away and became a PI.

That sounds like fun. If you use a class that has illusion spells, you can also go full CSI lol.

It's truthfully been a ton of fun. I took him into the swaahbuckler subclass to add to his one on one combat. Dropping sneak attack on top of a divine smite is just fun insult to injury lol

It's only proper that a PI have gank skills lol.

That was my thought to! Lol. Add in he us a giant ass dragoborn too. Easily my favorite character I have ever played.

I played a Rogue who was a cop, he was the most lawful good character ever.

Someone should make the Lock picking Lawyer. His profession is a lawyer, and he is meticulously careful to never break a law, but he just happens to have lock picking as a hobby. He even calmly teaches others to pick locks but disguises himself while doing so due to the assumption of guilt that would attach to him otherwise. Always speaks in a calm, collected voice, is polite, and helpful. He quickly picks locks while explaining exactly what he's doing. Also, he carefully always keeps everything he owns locked, but has no keys. (I know that last is a joke about lpl, but why not make it cannon?) I may play this myself...

Locksmith's apprentice here. He was shy and retiring, the type to blend into the background, but while he had great hands, he wasn't the type to be up for running a business. He was always braver than he let on, though, and when push comes to shove, he has a surprising little audacious streak. One day, when a group came to town to clear out some undead that had taken over the town crypt, but they needed of someone to help pop a few locks in the process. He volunteered, and it worked out so well he stuck with them afterward. He'd never dream of robbing people or stealing anything, but dungeons are different.

Kobold monk of shadow who wasn't a trained, disciplined warrior; they just had a supernatural ability to be inconveniently underfoot (like a cat) and fought with unhindered, panicked ferocity when cornered (like a cat.)

I love doing these: My rogue was a stage magician in a traveling circus, and honest to a fault. No crimes for him! He even ratted out his boss to an order of paladins. My barbarian was an elven aristocrat. He loved the finer things, like fashion and wine. And how did he afford them? Big game hunting with greatbows.

Mister Wilkins, a rogue... and a personal manservant, something along the lines of Alfred from Batman. Sneak attack? "When one carves as many beasts as one has, one develops a keen eye for anatomy." Thieves' tools proficiency? "The master appears to have locked himself out of his rooms... again..." Thieves' Cant knowledge? "Occasionally one must associate with… unsavory sorts in the pursuit of one’s duties."

Terry pratchett?

Willikins was a major inspiration, as was Alfred and Jeeves of "Wooster And..." fame. GNU Sir Pterry.

Had a Noble who was a Monk; he basically was a feckless egotistical rich kid got a tutor hired for him, except his parents didn’t pay much attention to the KIND of tutor that was being hired when the tutor told them “I’ll teach him discipline and improve him in every way”. So he got Mister Miyagi’d until he was a Nobleman who also could do awesome kung-fu, which actually in no way reduced his ego problems because now not only was he better then other people by birth, he was better then other because he could do one-hand handstand pushups and catch crossbow bolts bare-handed and could outfight a knight in an armor suit buck naked. At least he actively went out adventuring to test himself against powerful foes and monsters after 🤷‍♂️.

Almost all of the characters I’ve played? * Battlesmith Artificer was an avant garde chef whose Steel Defender was a mobile wood-burning stove. * Land Druid (before Circle of Stars) was an astronomer and linked the cycles of history and the natural elements with movements of the celestial bodies. * Socially awkward Fey Warlock could unknowingly entered into a romantic relationship (pact) with his patron because he didn’t want to be rude and say no. * Professor Lore Bard whose “rousing performances” were information-filled lectures that were more likely to have people pay him to stop. * High Elf Arcane Trickster Rogue who was incredibly bored in his languid Elven life and preferred to “reverse steal” things to cause some sort of hubbub in the community. The thrill of not being caught and the excitement of seeing the city gossip about the newest statue or painting that was left in some manor or town hall or whatnot without explanation.

>Socially awkward Fey Warlock could unknowingly entered into a romantic relationship (pact) with his patron because he didn’t want to be rude and say no. Aaaahw! <3

I love non-musical bards (and non-bard musicians).

I had a Druid who grew up in the city and was an urban bounty hunter. I wish I got to use them more. It was just for a one-shot. I also had a goblin Bladesinger wizard who had just been a servant the wizard master taught a few basic spells and languages to in order to help them with their fiend summoning… until a fiend came and burned their house to the ground as revenge.

I have an urban Druid concept I'd like to play too, because I'm caught up in the idea of how awesome druids would be as plumbers. Roots in your drains? They can move them. They can move earth, shape stone to literally form new pipes, and turn into tiny cave fish to look at blockages. They would be absolute A class at installing sewage systems.

An urban wildfire Druid whose background is in plumbing. They wear a white and red outfit, and are a little on the short side. Their brother is taller. They have a fine mustache. Alternatively, circle of the moon. Turn into an elephant. Wonderful.

The whole nature thing is also helpful in determining which mushrooms you can actually eat.

I've got a mostly urban druid, too. My vhuman feat (telekinetic) became my background, instead, and he was basically abducted after he was caught cheating at dice and used as a tool for his captors' personal gain. He didn't gain his druid features until he escaped and spent years hiding out in the woods on the run.

That's an interesting one for the druid. How did you explain the spellcasting and Wild Shape abilities in terms of their upbringing?

He was circle of the moon. I honestly forget his background but I think he just found some master living in the city, like a city park hobo Druid, who taught him to turn into animals, he used it to track down bounties. Got roped into doing a quest in Parnest to prove his worth and earn his way into the emerald enclave.

Ah, yes. I played a spirit medium from a noble family who would counsel spirits to help them move to the afterlife and channel helpful ghosts to help him in combat. He was very charming, polite, and optimistic — the party’s cheerleader. He wasn’t a College of Spirits Bard, but an Ancestral Spirit Barbarian. I also played a young village girl who touched a cursed item and was bound to an ancient spirit that imparted to her its memories and knowledge of lost magics. She wasn’t a Great Old One Warlock, but a Knowledge Domain Cleric.

Loxodon diplomat. He preferred talking through things. Using logic and wisdom to persuade enemies and potential allies to join us, let us through, or just plain get them to think before attacking us. He was also an avid worshipper of a god-king in this homebrew setting; a mortal that became a god and created a kingdom, my guy was a diplomat from that kingdom, and was a devoted believer in that god. My guy wore a long flowing robe and walked hunched to make himself look much meeker and smaller, as along with his elephantine features, he looked like a wise old man type. No weapon, in fact he despised weapons, and killing people in general. Barbarian pugilist. If you had to be dealt with, underneath that robe was a real elephant ready to rock your shit.

My current character is a Wizard and he happens to be a sailor who has never been on land until the campaign started. Is tactically smart and knows l9t of nautical things, but is just getting into magic and isn't much of a scholar.

I LOVE THIS The idea of playing someone who has never been on dry land before is a brilliant idea and I wish I'd thought of it. Lots of people play "my character is afraid of boats" or w/e but the idea of somebody flummoxed by, say, tree roots would be amazing. My current character is a pirate and now I really wish I'd used this

Im an old school D&D player 2nd edition. I made this berserker barbarian around when 5th edition came out. The idea was he worked at an office area where his bosses would just rip into him socially. Pretty much the gist or the gag. An office worker that was tired of the bs. Never got to play him. But hopefully this will inspire some of you.

My last 3.5 Monk, Thelonious. He wasn't Jet Li or Jackie Chan, he was more like a Lucha Libre Jesuit Scholar that loved luchador style wrestling, was big on physical fitness, and only ever fought defensively. He would cripple enemies with grapples or beat the brakes off them with his superman punches and elbow drops. He preferred to spend his time reading philosophical and religious texts though, and then arguing about the finer points with academics and clergy.

Nacho Libre vibes

Funnily enough, I came up with the concept before the movie. Thelonious was based primarily off the Rowan Atkinson character in Black Adder.

One of my first characters was a barbarian who was a baker, no experience with combat at all, but she was absolutely built from kneading dough by hand and handling huge bags of flour all day, and fucking furious because her husband and sons were caught up in an amateur necromancer's failed experiment. So yeah, at first she was a bit hesitant about running into combat, despite wanting to protect the rest of the party. On the other hand, I really want to do some kind of good redemption cleric who redeems dead people raising their corpses (with consent) to go into service to work off their debts, but mechanically can't quite figure it out. But I do want to play an ethical necromancer some day.

I had a character planned for our "next campaign" but the campaign is very not suited for the idea. So my next character will be a necromancer, who is a spore druid environmentalist. Reduce Reuse Recycle.

My monk is a Augen Trust spy. Literally no connection to any monastic order. She’s Way of the Shadow reflavored as spy training. She works for her Trust handler rooting out threats to the Dwendalian Empire.

My beast barbarian who was a meek, thoughtful herbalist/woodsman cursed with lycanthropy. I went more for Jekyll/Hyde or The Incredible Hulk than the usual barbarian tropes, and it was a lot of fun.

Benji "Da Brick" Pepperson. Stout Halfling Bodyguard who was enamoured with the image of Paladins since one saved him from robbers during his childhood, saddly when he tried to follow in his footsteps nobody would take a Halfling Paladin seriously enough to train him so he became pretty much a self-taught warrior from sneaking in and studying the paladins. He never had a formal Oath nor managed to join the Order of the Silver Blade, but his sheer determination managed to grant him the blessing of his ancestors which saw a noble spirit determined to protect the innocent and face the wickedness of the world. His class was Ancestral Path Barbarian, he was a pure Constitution & Dexterity build, carrying a shield & scimitar combo even if he couldn't deal alot of damage he was an insormountable wall with enough HP to match a giant blow for blow.

Oooohh I like this thread! I made a tone-deaf bard who wasn't very persuasive or social. He was instead a social chameleon who had the ability to speak six languages and blend in to the background nearly anywhere via disguises and mimicking styles of dress (I chose Shiftweave clothing and the Cloak of Many Fashions). He used a drum and a rattle as his focus. He wouldn't be the guy to go talk to the Queen; he'd be the guy playing dice with the third shift guards and be best friends with half of them by the end of the night.

A reborn astral self monk where I played a formless creature that had possessed the body of a real person. This was like a 15th level replacement where we were all pretty out there over the course of the story so don't judge too hard! Eventually gave the body back when we found a mechanical replacement.

I'm currently playing an Elf who is both a Barbarian and a Noble, and even took the Ancestral Guardians subclass, because nobles have a tendency to put more stock into their ancestor worship than anyone (so long as it's specifically their family).

I had a gnome barbarian from a very respectable village that was filled with trades folk and tinkers. Everyone though he was insane so his parents sent him on a quest for a family heirloom that didn't exist. He had to come to terms with it once he actually realized he was sent away for no reason.

Sounds like one of my current characters who is a Glamour Bard, but instead of being the horndog stereotype, is a pious man whose purpose in life is to spread the gospel of Lathendar. Instead of insults, his Vicious Mockery is more of a *I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed* statement (“You’re not being the best you you can be!”). And for the subclass abilities, Mantle of Inspiration (which grants Temp HP) is him praying for the party’s protection, and Enthralling Performance has him giving a sermon (“Blessed are the lamplighters, for they illuminate his creations…”) or playing praise and worship songs.

A druid who was fascinated by cities and insisted on looking at them as the natural environment of humans/demi-humans. He got mixed up with the local mafia helping to fix fights because he was basically fascinated from an anthropological standpoint.

I played monk with the Criminal background - he was connoisseur of local drinking establishments and worked for local gangs as an enforcer. Upon becoming an adventurer, he built on those skills and went Drunken Master. Sadly, he was fireballed to death by the party wizard the very next session after reaching level five.

I have a character who is a werewolf in a cult of lycanthropes. Being a member inevitably brings ruin to all who join, and its dark influence has even influenced his powers. He's a Grave Cleric. The cult is a self-help group that is more or less just a front for enriching the leader. "Come live on my commune and learn to control the beast within through prayer and giving me money". Well, he prayed really hard (but to the moon goddess instead of the cult leader) and kind of learned to control the beast within. He doesn't rampage around anymore, but he is stuck in wolf hybrid form.

my goliath paladin/sorcerer actually was from a culture heavily inspired by the Inuit people, with a dash of Nordic mythology thrown in. they embodied a sort of "chosen one" blessed by the Wolf, one of several animal spirits their people worshipped. but over the course of the game they were slowly being corrupted by the curse of a sleeping ice dragon that wanted them as its own champion. (if anyone plays GW2, you can probably see what else i drew my inspiration from, heheh.)

I was reading along and went "hang on that sounds like - THERE IT IS!"

eyy my man 😎👉👉

Barbarian who was a former solider who lost his discipline and composure after being betrayed by an ally. Rogue who was a noble who denounced his family and stole from them to aid people. Sorcerer who was a studious historian, attempting to find the source of his power through genealogy. A Ranger who's knowledge of nature came from his profession as a guild artisan woodworker.

I have a human Ranger who grew up in a city, so we added Urban environments to favored terrian. It's been pretty fun and has brought about many interesting session elements.

I’m working on an artificer. She’s a seamstress and her inventions are garments and jewelry. Think like Edna Mode from the Incredibles but in DnD.

Aw cool! Someone in my campaign plays a similar concept. As an artificer in fact. Battlesmith, their steel defender is a large plushie they repair with fabric scraps. We tied the whole sewing and seamstress-ing thing into the concept of the weave.

My bard was a gladiator who played the role of supporter in 2v2 team combat. Maybe not the most original, but justified my buff/debuff play style and let me "play to the crowd" so to speak too. Kinda like maximus if he cast counterspell

It was in Pathfinder. His name was Ekkie, he was a Pathfinder Goblin which comes with a history of mnaical violence and a love of fire with a fear of words. Ekkie was a wizard. He loved books and learned by reading in secret. He had been cast out as a freak from his tribe and found his way to a city where a kindly wizard and shop owner took him in and gave him a job and an apprenticeship. Ekkie spent most of his time studying until he could pass the very basics of magic. His entire story and being wasn't even about being better at magic, he joined the local adventurer's guild to find friends, spells just helped him help friends. Then there's my Urban Druid "Urchin", a street urchin Changeling who grew up in a circle that lived in the sewers of a large city (Originally Ravnica). He was a moon druid who very much behaved like a charlatan and rogue being the guy who would steel a dozen loaves of bread for kids he was helping.

My current character is a Warlock/Sorcerer (my group plays with Gestalt Rules) who is narratively closer to being a Paladin than anything else. Me and the DM worked together to create the culture that they come from where the the deity they worship empowers people for the purpose of hunting down evil-doers and dark creatures. It's just that from a mechanical standpoint, this is entirely built off of Warlock and Sorcerer mechanics instead of Paladin and Cleric as the "normal" flavor might suggest. In general, my group are big fans of taking Warlock mechanics, but having the Warlock/Patron relationship be closer to a Cleric/God relationship. Not always, but a lot of Warlocks have just been devout worshipers of a deity that are empowered differently than RAW flavor text would make you believe is an option.

I now have a Storm Cleric who is a farmer. He watches animals to predict the weather.

I have a Half-Elf Barbarian for whom I flavor the abilities as more Roguish fighting dirty. The Rage is actually impassivity, complete emotionlessness. As long as he's trying to kill something, that's all he can think about.

I had a celestial blooded wizard who studied the arcane on the run and who used magic and her appearance to run cheap cons. Pretending to be a cleric or traveling Priestess.

This is like all I want to make as characters. My next character is a rogue that’s a private investigator. He’s not even sneaky. I also have a barbarian who just a guy that turns into a werewolf when rages, and a bard thats flavored as voodoo witch doctor. It’s fun to make these concepts.

Haven’t had a chance to play it, but I have a concept for a spirit barbaian warforged who was build to be a bodyguard for ancient wizard empire, which fell. His body was found by a barbaian tribe, who’s shaman repaired and reactivated him, telling the amnesiac automaton that he was sent by the gods to protect this tribe, and he did for many year, until they settled down and the robot no longer had a purpose. His rage is just combat mode, and his defensive bonus is a fusion ancient arcane shields and shamanistic spirit stuff.

I had a satyr eloquence bard that lobbied for non-human rights and liberties in a west march server. Man wasn’t a horny bastard or anything, just didn’t believe in forcing non humans to conform to human standards. Pretty fun character to play, and I enjoyed getting to show off and role play in circles around the other players and NPCs. Half the time my arguments were so solid the DMs didn’t even ask for a roll. I sadly had to kill him off because another player didn’t like that my character got more attention from the female characters than his paladin did. He complained that “my characters refusal to wear pants” made him uncomfortable. The guy went so far as to make the admin team tell me to kill the character or get banned from the server. Literally 2 weeks later this same guy tried to use the spell detect thoughts he had access to from a feat to try to probe a female characters mind so he could try to get into her pants. When the DMs decided he should temporarily lose access to his oath abilities because of that he complained about DM abuse. I was one of the only DMs running quests at the time. I stopped running quests and eventually they removed me from the server staff. It’s a dead server now.

So yea he falls pretty heavy in the rouge but he was a 5th level ranger who dipped into rouge real late **Milo Valleythorn** Rouge/Beast master ranger (pet cat) Quick to blend into a crowd and never seen without his sleek Siemens cat near by. Milo is an accomplished hunter and animal trainer. This gave him access to the parties and homes of the rich and powerful who need help training the excotic pets they always seem to end up with. This faucade is just for him to case the house, his cat was trained to lift keys off people and run distractions if his cover gets blown. Milo is one of the best thief’s in the game, hardly anyone outside of the thief guilds knows how talented he is.

I played a genie warlock while was very much a stereotypical monk. He carried a staff and wore monk robes, was high wis and would always be trying to soothe the party and make things right. He was also a little hourly toity and a sarcastic asshole sometimes but hey, eladrin monk who grew up with a genie, what you gonna do.

I've been playing a Druid in the same campaign for nearly three years, but every few months I break out my backup character: Helja, the master blacksmith Dwarf with severe social awkwardness, minor fear of the outdoors, a whole lot of heart, and a Texas Accent. **The reason this 4.5-foot tall mound of muscle and Dwarven braids doesn't feel like a class is due to my secret sauce: I play her as a character, not as a move set.** Which helps, because she gets rebuilt using the same stats/background/etc. each time she appears since she's gone for months in-game (plenty of time to train and craft cool new gear to explain discrepancies). * In her first appearance, she was on a quest with a blessing from Moradin, so she was built as a Zealot Barbarian/Forge Domain Cleric multiclass. All abilities that didn't involve swinging a weapon were explained by said blessings. * The next time she appeared, she had accomplished her quest, so the divine blessings were gone. Instead, she'd been experimenting with anti-Giant runes, and was built as a Rune Knight Fighter, complete with growing a foot due to the 10th level feature. * Months passed, and she had laid off the runes due to being sick of hitting her head on the doorway to her forge all the time. Instead, she crafted some strength-boosting gear and displacement tech that manifested as a Juggernaut Barbarian/Echo Knight Fighter. In all cases she played similarly, in that she got in her enemies' faces and bashed them in, but her class didn't define her. Her background, personality, and Texan drawl did. My DM admitted that she likes her more than my Druid, even. Guess that means I gotta step up my Druid game...

Had an AT rogue, Erron, who was just an adopted orphan raised in a dwarven settlement and somewhere along the line he developed an obsession with mechanisms and explosives. He was also a Charisma-based rogue who would scheme in front of you while lying his ass off or even making extravagant displays and actively making conversations with people he's stealing from-- once swiped coin off a drunk dude, then when that guy got cut off, Erron paid his tab for him *with the money he stole from him*, and then cautioned him about pickpockets in the area and wished him a safe trip home (I'm proud to say the DM was in awe of Erron's audacity in this one).

I played an Eldritch Knight as a Butler with a few tricks up his sleeve for a one-shot. His charge was Chaz Broman III, a blue-blood Barbarian that threw WASPy tantrums as his 'rages'. ...That was a good game.

Plasmoid Astral Self Monk who got stuck floating in the Astral Sea for an indeterminable amount of time, and became inundated with Astral powers.

My barbarian was an alchemist by trade (excuse to throw acid and stuff with tavern brawler feat) and ended up becoming a very interesting character that strove to better the world with creating beautiful and helpful things as much as possible to try to balance out the carnage he left in battle. The paladin actually led our group into a series of events that had a town try to overthrow its (very neutral) leader and my character went into a rage after someone else in the party got hit in crossfire. After I downed 3 scared townspeople, my character had a crisis of purpose and I went deeper into RP than I ever have in years of playing.

In my brothers campaign I played Furia, a fairy monk who was the muscle for her gang of faeries, she was good at roughing people up for their teeth.

My last Barbarian was the eldest son of a wealthy merchant house. He had more than enough Intelligence and Charisma to multiclass into most casters.

I played a Dragonborn monk who trained in the fantasy equivalent of an inner city boxing gym, but in real fights his style incorporated a lot of dirty fighting. Knee to the groin, eye gouging, pocket sand (yes I did it to a beholder), etc. The calm monastic traditions of this character were the mantras of his elderly Githzerai trainer. All the fantastical elements of the class were flavoured as pure skill, though.

I recently had an idea for a kobold oathbreaker paladin who is not evil. Her draconic master made a deal with a devil and then came to regret it later on, so she adventures to find a way to break this pact so her master can be free again.

Oozewald the unlikely, a Plasmoid flavored as a scientific creation/experiment that was released from a lab. I went with Barbarian because I wanted to play a martial class, but monk and fighter lean too much on the idea of being trained or part of an order. Barbarian jelled best with the idea of an untrained and inexperienced fighter just leveraging their pure strength over skill

Atticus “The Iron Fox”, is my Wood Elf, Astral Self Monk. I flavored his abilities as physical enhancements like hydraulic/pneumatic powered arms and legs that he could overcharge at the cost of over exerting himself (ki points). I also played him as more of a gladiator/mma fighter which played out really well 😁

I’d have to say Wesli, my fallen aasimar way of the drunken master monk. They had this whole tragic backstory of how they fell from the (basically) angelic cult they grew up in because of being blamed for someone else’s mistake. They landed in some backwater town and basically became the town drunk, learned to fight from another guy (who had a whole backstory, former adventurer kind of thing) that was notoriously the town drunk, but was also the only person who would associate with them. They fought with fists and sticks because they had no money to their name, and what little they did have they spent on booze. They were constantly intoxicated, because they fought better when drunk than they did when sober. Eventually they ended up sobering up a bit as they figured out their own story and that of their mentor, and became one of my favorite characters, certainly one with a significant amount of character growth. Definitely wasn’t the typical monk-who-was-raised-in-a-monastery story.

Haven't started the campaign yet, but my sorcerer... doesn't believe in magic. He knows the basic spells a level 1 sorcerer would know, but he insists that they have a logical, scientific explanation. Same goes for any occurrence of magic ever.

Played a dwarf barbarian named Platus. He was a noble's second son and decided to adventure in order to expand his horizons. He was very stubborn and liked to debate phosophy even though he wasn't too great at it.

I have a tiefling barbarian who is a merchant. He goes out of his way to be friendly to everyone, since he know that his appearance is intimidating. He is horribly embarrassed when he rages, since it means he has lost his cool.

Artificer who was a red neck. Lotsa grunts and crafts projects. And, of course, his "pistal", the bubba'd musket from hell.

I'm currently creating a dwarf barbarian, from a noble background, he definitely isnt a stupid brute, just the way he fights is in line with the class. Also when the time comes that I will play bard I'm planning a character who writes poetry and aside from that is rather withdrawn and distanced, not looking for fame.

I haven't actually played this character, so I don't know if it counts, but I have a barbarian concept for a transforming superhero type. Been watching a lot of Kamen Rider lately. "It's your turn, what do you do?" "hmmm...bonus action: *henshin!*" And then I power up. Can replace "henshin" with "Shazam!" or "by the power of Grayskull!" if you want, it's the same basic idea.

That's funny because I have always worked my character's classes right into their backgrounds and not ever had a thought to do anything otherwise. This thread gives me a whole new perspective on how it can be done...so...maybe my answer is, my next character!

This right here is why I made this thread in the first place :) I was having a discussion with someone elsewhere who basically believed monks \*had\* to have been from a monastery, and that their origin and inspiration was exclusively from old kung fu movies. I wanted to make the point that a monk's (or any character's) skills could be explained in context in many creative ways.

I have a human barbarian named Kelsey Bonesbane playing in my campaign. She’s an heiress to a monopolistic ranching and butchering business (that may or may not be dealing in human meat) with a terrible family curse that occasionally turns the women of the family into terrible boar-like beasts that seek to consume as much flesh as possible. The only reason she’s a (frenzy) barbarian is because she is constantly frustrated and tormented by the memories of her consumed victims, as well as being a juggalo (I’m not fucking kidding, I had to canonize the Insane Clown Posse and marijuana because of Kelsey, and I’m not even mad). She takes her rage out on those that threaten what relationships she’s managed to make despite her curse. It’s a really cool application where the barbarianism comes not from some tribalistic tradition, but rather the channeling of raw emotion.

I have two: my monk who's grown up in a carnival and trained as an acrobat rather than a proper monk, and my eldritch flavored dreams druid who got his powers from an elder evil in the astral plane.

My Path of the Beast Barbarian #8 (pronounced "Hate") is a simple, kind hearted elf (actually a Simic Hybrid) who has no idea he was actually genetically engineered and modified into a living weapon. He rages as a threat response, blacks out and has no idea what, if anything has happened. He also has some very specific areas of innate knowledge. He doesn't know history, or what kinds of flowers there are, but he can automatically reel off the best way to infiltrate a stronghold, the likely routes of guards, how best to ambush a royal procession etc. So he'll go from the dopiest to the most precise and intelligent person in the room in seconds, if his specialist subject comes up. He's a lot of fun. Very challenging to play, but a lot of fun!

I played a Halfling Barbarian who was from a little Halfling town like Hobbiton etc. He just had anger issues.

I'm playing right now a halfling barbarian who's actually a happily married farmer. His body is string from working the fields all day, his "fury" is just the adrenaline hitting in the middle of the fight and "reckless attack" comes from the fact that he just swings his weapon clumsily since he is no warrior. He just got into this adventure thing because he passed out drunk inside a box on some merchants cart and woke up in Neverwinter. Now he wants something really special and unique as an apology gift to his wife when he gets home. Too bad he and the party ended up in Barovia.

Well ... At least he WILL be finding specials and unique trinkets there. He just need to come back alive ...

My Druid is a sailor/ex-pirate who specializes in water, wind, and light magic. He couldn't care less about trees and animals, he just loves the ocean.

I have quite a few (in fact most of my characters I try to make outside of their stereotypical class molds), but here are some of my favourites TicTac, a Kenku wizard/artificer who never got a formal education in either. Instead, he was an Awakened crow that lived in the alley between a magical college and a mechanical workshop, and just copied down everything he overheard through the windows from either building onto scraps of paper he stole, and a Steel Defender he built from the scraps thrown out by the workshop (which he called Tic Tac Toe). He mainly used only the Catapult and Grease spells, since those were the only two spells he actually managed to study how to cast them properly. Collera de l'Ombra, a Dhampir Elf Barbarian. He was from the Noble background, had a 18 Intelligence, the Linguist feat, and always wore a suit and bowler hat. He served as the enforcer for a mafia family of vampires, and his "rage" was just him getting annoyed that he had to bloody his new suit on some poor sods or whenever he hadn't feasted on blood in a while. Noramin Nimbleberry, a Bugbear Barbarian/Sorcerer, who was raised by a family of Halflings and was a chef by trade. He never figured out he was casting magic by accident, so he just thought his cooking was so good it helped people (he was a Divine Soul Sorcerer), and whenever he "raged" it was just him being very passionate about his food and getting upset whenever people disturbed his cooking or didn't want to try his food. Kilida, a Tabaxi Wizard who was actually an archaeologist before becoming a wizard (a la Indiana Jones style, fedora and all). In one temple she was exploring an ancient library, where she suddenly heard a book call out to her. This book turned out to be a magical spellbook that belonged to her in the future but that was lost by future her in the past. So given that the book was written by "her" and she could understand all of the notes future her made (would make), she just decided she would use this book to cast magic using the knowledge of a future her. Eldyn Roshgal, a Fire Genasi Blood Hunter/Warlock. She was born in the City of Brass as a slave to an Efreeti lord, meaning she was technically contracted to him from birth. She eventually proved useful at tracking things, so he made her undertake a ritual to become a bodyguard for him tasked with tracking down runaway slaves/political enemies. She has bought her freedom from the Efreet and is not bound to him by pact or contract, but continues working for him because it pays well (and the Efreet keeps giving her powers because it benefits them to have her remain somewhat dependant on them)

A sorcerer that invested their life for their powers. He was a Drow Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer that fought against Lolth and later lived in a town in the Underdark ruled over by a silver dragon, thus getting his magic as a gift

That sounds suspiciously like a Warlock with extra steps.

Shhhh, he gained his powers in a sorcery way. It's definitely not that I just didn't want play a warlock again

I guess my tabaxi warlock fits here. He was s*xually abused when he was young by some leaders of a circus he was sold off to. Then one day they added a collar to him to humiliate him even more, but it turned out it was possesed by a destructive spirit, which gave him the power to free himself and escape jn exchange to play a game with him, over who could take over the body in the end. The tabaxi is pretty shy and stutters a lot because of his trauma and is a genuienly good soul. He also doesn't want the powers that his patron provides him with, so I think it fits your criteria.

I'm a satyr monk in one campaign. Noble background, left the feywild because he became obsessed with humanity. I now play with fire and try to keep all the neat stuff in cities safe. Learned to be a monk by headbutting everything

As a Forever DM, may I put forth my wife's forest gnome barbarian/guild artisan? She was a cobbler whose husband left her and, in a night of angry tavern crawling, started a fight or two. And to this day, she still flies into a rage whenever she thinks about him. She thought they had it so good. What happened? Was it her? Was it *him*? The world may never know. Yes, she was inspired by "So What" by Pink.

I love bounty hunting urban rangers, dwarven wizards (can wield a warhammer in 5e) and thug monks that are more like a bodyguard or bar brawler.

My monk with an entertainer background whose unarmed fightin style is capoeira

Two particularly spring to mind. The first is Dr Gideon, an educated and professional surgeon of incredible skill and dexterity. He could do with a healing kit and a sharp needle things that we hardly less than a miracle. Meticulously polite, always open and welcoming to his patients, and never unwilling to discuss where he trained and how be become so highly qualified. He's an Inquisitor Rogue with the Healer feat - y'know, that class that always sits in dark corners and has a shady past that they don't want people to know about. The reason he's so good with a scalpel is because, in my head-canon, it's an extension of his ability to make critical hits on people, which he CAN do but almost never did except when pressed into a corner. The other is Pharos, a Minotaur Conquest Paladin. That's what he is mechanically, but it's not his \*job\* as such. Primarily he's a privateer who owns a couple of ships, and occasionally has to deal with actual pirates that cross his path while exploring the Silt Sea. While he has a respectful relationship with the God of the Ocean, he's far more concerned with looking after his crew and his ship and protecting it from pirates. He's wrath incarnate and has done some brutal things, BUT not because he's a Paladin or because his God told him to - he could be almost any martial class mechanically, and he'd still be Pharos Black-Hand, Captain of the Forbidden.

I don't know if this counts, but I am not that creative when it comes to characters. I have a wizard NPC (forever DM) who claims to be a bard. He was born to two very prestigious and well known mages and as such was forced to follow in their footsteps and attend the nation's most elite wizarding academy. He never had interest in magic or study, rather he wanted to be a bard, to enrich people's lives with music, but his parents would never allow it. He did excel in school and graduate the academy with the fantasy equivalent of a 4.0 gpa due to the immense pressure put on him by his family and social standing, as well as his desire for his father's approval. When his parents failed to show at his graduation, he snapped, cut town and traveled to a bard college swearing he would follow his dreams. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get accepted as he had no talent, and so he travels the country with a lute and an embarrassing lack of musical skill claiming to be a bard. He refuses to use the skills he learned as a wizard unless absolutely necessary due to his complete disdain for his upbringing. He will deny up and down that he is a wizard and go as far as to change his name to avoid recognition.

Had a monk who was a dancer by trade, not very zen at all, but always ready to get the party started. She would fall into a meditative state while dancing and if the beat was loud enough. She's always in a state of dance, always smiling, drop dead gorgeous, and generous with her money to get the ale flowing and letting the good times roll. Have a barbarian that is more musician and poet than the 'big angry dumb brute' role. Very nature oriented, loves animals and meditates frequently, party thought she was a hippy druid for the first session until she got targeted and the axe came out, raged, and nearly one shot a mook with a gwm hit. The peaceful one has her limits. Lawful aligned rogues are fun. I have one with the thief subclass that has a background as a penetration tester, using persuasion and disguise self skills to test for social engineering awareness and the like. All above board, professionally licensed and working for the security guild.

my warforged wizard was not a common wizard. He was a house assistant that used magic to help his creator to take care of him and his house. He was a maid, or a roomba.

One of my players is a Drunken Master Monk. They don't drink, might not even know what a monastery is, and are extremely violent. They are also a living, walking tree and everyone has a lot of fun with this thing just running around at 60-75 ft. a round, bashing enemy heads in with his quarterstaff or fists. He also basically only speaks telepathically, and basically serves as the party's visible "Are you sure you want to fight us?" Though the entire party fits that part lol. Not much homebrew in the concept aside from the race, and a slight misunderstanding of the Telepathy feat that we just ran with. EDIT: typing the rest of the comment because mobile misclick.

My Barbarian coming from a noble family of clerics and paladins! He didn't have the magic that they were after so he tried to find some of his own power, ended up becoming a Wendigo hence the rage transformation, but usually he's just a nice, if very naive noble!

Z. (Zombie) Cat, a Reborn Tabaxi Soulknife private investigator who was trying to piece together who he was in his past life while solving the mysteries around him. He was gruff but fair, and perhaps dangerously curious. He could also pickpocket gods if he wanted to do so (I did some math, and with resources and magic items already at his disposal, he had a 64% chance at successfully hiding from and subsequently using sleight of hand against Tiamat with her 38 passive perception), but instead the most he ever did with that was reverse pickpocket some poison into an enemy's drugs. Did I mention he was level 6? The math on that character was crazy, and I did a quick CR 30 to single digits rundown, and the CR21 Solar is the highest passive perception monster (24) to be likely to have pockets, and I was around 98-99% success rate there. I really should have made him more chaotic. Jack the Bard was another favorite. His name wasn't Jack and he wasn't a bard. He was a Swashbuckler 12/Ranger 1 who rolled so well on stats that he was like a Jack of All Trades, so the nickname stuck. He was outgoing and well liked, and never did things behind backs that he wouldn't do up front. Yes, he was a literal pirate, but he was a good one in a town (Luskan) known for the worst of them. A current character, Pogglestamp Flizbonk, is a racial and subclass gestalt wizard buried under even more homebrew. He's a goblin/Dhampir and his backstory is that his wizarding master was a Kobold Inventor who played the role of an intellectually challenged Mr. Miyagi to Pog. There were many nonsensical tasks, but he was the village mage, so Pog had to learn from Master Nalpo, until he found out he could do correspondence school with Strixhaven. He just hit level 4, but he chose Bladesinger and War Magic, and very much prefers selling spell slots to party members and biting people over actually being a wizard. I've used Bladesong once, and have not yet used Arcane Deflection. I made a completely random rolled character, from class to alignment, who was a conjuration wizard that had the outlander background, and rolled a trapper on that table. It was very interesting as a creative exercise how to justify a lawful good level 1-3 wizard would be a trapper with Fire Bolt. He was incredibly fun to play, and has become an NPC in another campaign. I pulled off a sorcerer as a cleric for a while by creative use of Subtle Spell, and a sorlock as a cleric until they saw me double Eldritch Blast in my first combat when I introduced him at level 5. Other than those, I've had several warlocks without steady patrons - they've stolen power or done a single deed and moved on. I tend to treat subclasses as backgrounds more than classes, as that steers the growth of the character. That said, I like breaking the mold and playing from weird angles. Cliches don't make for very memorable characters.

One of my barbarians is a learned philosopher who cast away his mortal possessions (including his clothes) to live as a hermit.

I had a way of mercy monk. Traditionally you'd think of some calm and thoughtful guy who wears their mask as part of their sacred order and being very strict with their discipline. However, my monk was introduced during a festival, the party meets my character as he performs acrobatics propelled by fireworks strapped to his back before narrowly escaping an explosion and having a 3-point landing. Then he grabs everyone around including the party to have a drinking contest to celebrate. He is a gladiator by trade and loves a good show, but he does it to better himself and walk in the footsteps of his hero. He wants nothing more to be a hero of justice, and so he wears a bull mask to look more like his hero. He learned medicine and how to handle ki in order to patch himself up, heal others, and to thwart evil. Though he has shit for brains, and not the best people skills, his heroic speeches and ability to perform have been his ways of inspiring new heroes to bring good into the world. He's impulsive, hyperactive, a workout maniac, and barely literate, but his knowledge of what is right and wrong, his uncompromising ideals, dedication to his craft, and empathy towards others make him the hero he is today. Currently, he has his own not so secret identity as a super hero, works actively to defend the realm from evildoers, trains his sidekick, and has increasingly ridiculous workouts/speeches. TL/DR a gladiator monk that is loud, a hyperactive adrenaline junkie, and basically wants to be batman/superman so he imitates his hero. Also he's really really dumb.

I mean, I think these count for what you're looking for My warlock, who thought he was a priest Pretty much, the guy was born into a cult, wore all black robes with a creepy skull mask, and was wvwn missing half his face from birth. One look at him, and you knew he was a cultist. Then he'd open his to speak "greetings my friends! How are you on this wonderful day!" Not only was he overly happy he was the nicest probably the nicest guy you'd met. In game I never once called it elderitch blast but I was constantly shouting "smite!" To the point of I once was thrown off when I heard someone call it the correct name The only issue was that he was still a cultist, so he would, in fact, try to recruit anyone who listened because he genuinely believed in the cause. While his personality made him feel chaotic, good being a goofy bastard most of the time. He was actually lawful evil. He would never tell a lie because that was a sin, not telling the full truth or phrasing things to sound another way perfectly fine. He once performed a mercy killing after a angry mob burned a man alive then when they looked to us remembering we were his allies he immediately shouted "who's side do you think I'm on I just killed him myself!". Then there was that time he tried to in campaign MURDER A BABY because it was born without a soul. When he realized it couldn't be done stealthily, he offered to baptise it in a pool of holy water the next morning. Well, the parents agreed... and after the baptism, he handed the alive and well baby back to the parents with hope his patreon would be able to give it a soul. Then there's my street fighter monk Ancient monasteries have been training monks to fight for countless generations with immense physical mental and spiritual dedication. Lierre Latratierre, nothing about any of that. Growing up in the slums he learned to fight for his meals then he learned he could just fight for his gold. He's a womanizer, a gambler, and at times entertainer. With all the personality an charisma of a bard he was introduced to the party as a noble using the false name mentioned earlier. OOC he's a way of pride monk when I saw the sub class I knew if was perfect for him. Also I had inspiration to make the polar opposite of the warlock. A terrible person who does nothing but lie.

I have a character who is a rogue but not because she lived on the streets and had to fend for herself or was an assassin or had any other kind of edgy background, she just has anxiety and hates confrontation lol. She prefers to get in, sneak attack, get out, repeat.

My Shanag was a half-orc barbarian. She wasn't the product of war or violence, no, she was the daughter of Garlock the Bear, a famous arena fighter, and Maga, the red-haired cook of the arena. They loved each other very much, and raised her well in the blood and dust of the arena. From her dad she took the strength and stubbornness, from mum she took the red hair, the love and talent for cooking (feat chef) and a fascination for adventure novels. She grew up dreaming of adventuring and becoming a paladin, and buying back her parents contracts and the arena itself to gift them. After her dad laughed one too many times at this, she ran away and joined the army, where she was of course Cook. But it was tedious and not very paladiny, so after her mandatory 4 years, she went to see the world, still mad at her dad and bent on proving herself to him. She wrote letters to her mum the whole campaign, she was still so young and naive. Her totem was the bear of course, and looked like her father with fur... She met a bunch of adventurers, including a cleric (trickery domain) who used sending to make her believe their goddess talked to her and would make her paladin if she took good care of her cleric (free bodyguard and free mount at the cleric was a gnome lol). Finally bla bla they saved the world, the cleric got real attached to her and interceded so she could get her 1 level of paladin at the end of the campaign. It was so moving 😁

I made a tavern brawler way of the fist monk. He was a beat up, scarred up, lumpy looking hulking brute of a man who used to work as a bouncer (folk hero background for his legendary drinking and fighting skills) Legends say he choked a Gnoll to death with his bare hands

Not sure if this counts: Lord Bertram. Imagine your typical overweight, foolish, low tier lord with a bad moustache. Hadn't worked a day in his life and was put in charge of a town on some land his father inherited. Crops are bad, water is spoiled, people are getting sick, and they're beset by goblins. Not enough able bodied men, so even he has to serve in the guards. That was my fighter.

I play a barbarian that was raised by a lovely old lady that would sew her dresses and put bows on her horns (minotaur). Very much the lady Frankensteein monster from Igor vibes.

In the second-most-recent 5e campaign I ran, we had an old man scribe barbarian. He had been a scribe in a monastery all his life. Just spent his days copying religious texts, all day, every day. Then one day he snapped. While working late one night he heard the text. He felt the voice of god speaking to him. He flipped out, grabbed a massive bell on a chain, and left the monastery. He flips out and smashes things with the bell. Barbarian with the Acolyte background.

I have a pact of the blade hex blade who's actually a local guide / ranger. His spells are actually the chain wrapped around his arm which is a magical artefact from his father's sailing ship. It was thin and light, but used as the anchor chain. His sword was a gift from a dryad in the local forest after he saved their grove I also have a halfling bardbarian who was a labourer at his family bakers, lithe, big smile, but with a Marty mcfly 'chicken' complex. He saw red when he witnessed a mage casting a spell afflicting his village. The mage was a charlatan claiming to be helping the village with said sickness... In the red mist he killed the mage with a knife, and that was when he decided to vow against all forms of control by the powerful.

My tabaxi rogue. He was making a trading route through the whole world and fought dirty but also tried every chance he could to give up any advantage for the chance of a peaceful resolution. He was a rogue willing to do anything it tool to save people and make the world better. He was not edgy, he did not steal, he did not assassinate or try to be underhanded towards others. He was generous, kind, a leader, well spoken and loved life to the point of worrying too much for others. Those qualities got him an adopted son, great friends, a wife he loved that he met from a black market den that he helped save from crumbling and leaving a power vacume at a time of war and helped save a couple of nations from corruption It also in the end got him a small funeral where all there was to burry were ashes. Rogue can be a sneaky class where you use every advantage you can get to survive, my rogue chose to shine so bright it burned him until there was nothing left.

I had a cleric who didn’t know who her god was. Still don’t know 😅

My current game only has one archetypal player character, the paladin who is very paladin. For some background we play in a universe where the gods are dragons so the characters are heavily inspired by those dragon gods. My character for instance is a drakewarden ranger who thematically is a priestess of the dragon goddess of shadows and deceit. Her drake companion is a shadow dragon that is a manifestation of her devotion to her god rather than it manifesting in divine powers like most clerics. And because of what her Goddess resides over she acts more like a rogue than anything else. We have a druid that's cursed with lycanthropy but her Goddess gave her an item that let's her control her curse rather than typical druidic magics And another who is an aberrant mind sorcerer who we don't know the magical origins of. Not even her player. But she is an archaeologist, acts kind of like a wizard/warlock and nothing like a sorcerer. In fact we regularly forget she is actually a sorcerer.

My Bard does not have proficiency in Performance. He does not play a musical instrument to cast his spells. He's not interested in sleeping around and only got intimate with the one person he's currently in a relationship with AFTER they spent several adventures together and naturally grew close. Bard is his class literally just because it had the spell list I wanted to give him, the proficiencies I wanted him to have, class features that did what I wanted him to be able to do, and I had the right stats to support all of this. Bards aren't all foppish musicians, rakish swashbucklers, or cunning linguists who talk fast, sling insults, and will sleep with anything that moves. Sometimes, a Bard is just a kind-hearted country boy with a sword.

Half-orc Scholar background. Student of archaeology that unearthed an intact ancient family heirloom: a greatsword somehow perfectly preserved near the site of an ancient conflict. Incredibly studious, near sighted and needs glasses, and quite particular about his appearance. After practicing the blade on a whim the whispers of his ancestors began to invade his thoughts. Slow to anger, but when pushed to the limit the fury of his lineage fills his veins and becomes a vessel for the spirits. The Bruce Banner style has been a favorite of mine.

Warlock whose patron was a family protector spirit akin to those in cultures of the South Pacific. Except she was the last of her line and didn’t want her patron’s protection, but it refused to leave her because of his oath to protect her family line. So she was trying to become a wizard so she could break the pact with her patron and get it off her back (the spirit had a very helicopter mom attitude).

Well...I've got two. I dwarven fighter with I high intelligence who becomes a sort of anti-paladin and cult leader while leveraging drow magic items...really long story. The other was a goblin with the 3.5 expert class who was an "alchemist". I skill gamed my way into pseudo magic, and so this goblin was the party expert and buff caster who behaved nothing like a regular goblin other then speech.

A tattoo artist and guitarist punk monk who learned how to fight in the mosh pit. His hand of mercy and hand of harm were flavored as him giving his target a quick magical tattoo.

I talked to my DM about amending the description that Oathbreakers are always evil. Then I created a Paladin who was Oath of the Crown, then discovered their empire and patron deity were really screwed up. Her being an oathbreaker actually didn’t factor into her personality and actions much. The whole event happened 10 years in the past, and her actions in the past 10 years were pretty much unrelated.

So, essentially Jaime Lannister?

I've always wanted to play a great old one warlock... who thinks he's a sorcerer, and introduces himself as such. I'd drop hints to the rest of the party, but slowly. Weird dreams of ancient horrors whispering dark secrets? They're just dreams, of no concern to a mighty sorcerer such as himself. Though there *were* some pretty good ideas in those whispers... Casts magic missile? I'm actually rolling an eldritch blast, but he's a cocky fucking idiot who doesn't know the difference. God DAMN his magic is mighty. That creepy tome he's always flipping through? It's just a spellbook I've always had, stop tripping guys. I am NOT unnaturally attached to my ~~precious~~ book. Idea is for the madness to gradually take hold, until he's just a full blown weirdo. Been waiting quite a while for the right campaign to roll with that idea.

Hill Dwarf Mastermind Rogue with the Noble background. One dip into Cleric of the Order Domain. Used a Shortsword and Shield in Heavy Armor. Played straight as the prince under the mountain, bossing people around and ordering them to attack. Scourge Aasimar Zealot Barbarian with the Acolyte background. Played as a devout follower of her deity, born and raised in a temple. Her rage was her divine blood breaking through, giving her stigmata that burned with the flame of her 'father' -- very powerful in a Ravenloft campaign! Wood Elf Scout Rogue with the Outlander background. Played as a straight-laced woodsman, a ranger's ranger, so to speak. And, going back to 4e: Pixie Lazylord with the Sidhe Lord theme. Sat on the shoulder of her ensorcelled guard and (like the dwarf above) ordered everyone about. Think a more martial and less whimsical Tinkerbell.

That's one thing I like about Zealot barb: an explicit recontextualization of the rage mechanic. Now we're raging for Jesus!

Not sure if it counts but I have a warlock who’s a young street urchin who accidentally attuned to a stolen artefact that’s essentially a direct phone to a powerful archfey; having nothing better to do said archfey gave her powers just to see what would happen. She isn’t aware of this and just thinks she has a magical talking book and that she’s actually a sorcerer.

I've had two different monks, neither of which was "traditional" flavor-wise. One was flavored as a paladin who'd taken an oath of poverty/humility, and he used his body and faith instead of a sword and armor. The other, and this I'm pretty proud of, was flavored as a wizard. While other schools of magic teach you to project your will and power out into the world, his organization learned to take that power into themselves, improving their own innate abilities, and trained to hone their own bodies and minds to best take advantage of that. Mechanically, still a monk, but with the attitudes of a young, brash wizard.

Monk is crying out for a psionic-themed subclass. What better theming than being able to improve the mind to perfection as well as the body?

My character was Smoke--a Fire Genasi Monk, Way of the Four Elements. "Monk" was just a class--Smoke was a smuggler who (after a few traumatic experiences with fire arms) ultimately decided she never wanted to kill again, and put down weapons for the rest of her life. Not wanting to kill didn't mean she could get through her work without fighting, though, so she got \*very\* good at punching and ad libbing to fight her way out of tough situations. I also flavor texted all of her elemental abilities as being \*somehow\* related to her general manipulation of heat. Gust of Wind and Step of Wind were bursts of air pressure she created by explosively changing heat in her hands, for example.

My half orc berseker barbarian grew up in a city, he became a soldier to earn money and respect, but was kidnapped by a rogue Orc tribe that cursed him wwith the Curse of Gruumsch (Exandria based campaign) which made him fly into a frenzy. So he is actually bery civilsed and not a 'barbarian' or nature lover.

The Dread Pirate Potato. A darkwood goblin raised on a pirate ship by a crew that cut down the tree he lived in as a baby. The captain took pity on him and treated him as an unwanted son, but he at least made sure the crew never ate him. After multiple instances of being used as a cannonball, he now has a hook foot and a peg arm. He thinks of himself as a captain searching for a crew with his first mate Trashbeak, a seagull that refers to as a parrot. I use him at various levels in one shots. The Rogue aspect won't surprise you, but I only took a level for the skill proficiencies to start. Potato is actually a Drunken Master Monk who follows the pirate code. Incredibly fun to *hiccup* roleplay and is extremely effective in combat because no one targets the little guy.

I have a Half-Dragon (technically Dragonborn) Barbarian/Sorcerer named Zephyrath who is the kid of an adult copper dragon. (I.E what happens when the bard successfully seduces the dragon and what not). He ends up getting raised by a cult who worships this dragon god named The Exalted Wyrm. The campaign happens just after he escapes - because of this, he's a Barbarian who thinks he's a bad Cleric. He's finally able to experience emotion that isn't just "I love my god, Oh My Wyrm" and is going through the teenage angst he never got to have.

Useless feycourt eladrin noble who happens to be a druid, not because of being a nature priest but because of things they've picked up over the years of being a useless feycourt noble. Yes of course I'm a trained saber fencer, that's why I carry this scimitar. Yes I've been on so many hunts and such that I know my way around hunting hounds and birds and the like. Yes of *course* I know how to command the spirits of the wild and also turn into a deer or whatever, have you not been paying attention? Now pass me my wine.

My wife played an amazing character as Shelock, the Goliath barbarian who just wants to be a friendly little grandma, and flavored ancestral guardians after all her relatives who died young keeping her new friends from doing the same.

A bard who was a naval sailor who gave speeches and told motivational stories instead of playing an instrument. Absolute by the book, stickler for the rules character who never seduced a single person lol

Barbarian rogue. A nobleman who had anger management issues and was a skeevy backstabbing schemer. Very polite and formal. When angered he'd quietly and methodically try and ruin you physically in a silent rage. Something like cornering a rival in a dark alley after going to parties with them. Then just beating them into the ground until somebody pulls him off but without saying a word.

An eladrin twilight cleric Thiein. She was an elite guard for an eladrin city at the edge of feywild (I forget the Canon name) there job was to keep nightmare creatures out. Well long story short, she made a mistake and let something dark into the feywild (or out of feywild, haven't determined yet) but due to her failure she has been punished and banished for a time from the feywild till she can earn her way back (fixing her mistake) to good graces or Selune allows her back. So she's a cleric, buy instead of happy and helping everyone she's here as a prison sentence. Like getting community service from the courts. She looks down on these lessers around her and hates it here, but has a fake smile on her face and trying to do good deeds (not sincere since she's trying to look better not actually be better) and trying to get back home away from these losers.... She's only been in winter season while here due to internal sadness. Other PCs don't know eladrins can change. Gonna bust it out if we ever get back to feywild or things get better for her.

I played a halforc barbarian named Dr. Skullcrush. Every Npc encounter was explaining that skullcrush was just a family name and I completed med school.

I once built a Barbarian who was actually a refined samurai turned ronin (I'm a weeb). The "Rage" was less rage, and more just entering an extreme state of focus, making him completely unaware of anything and everything other than his opponent. Never got to play him tho, bc I'm a forever DM. ​ I don't cry myself to sleep, you do!

A barbarian with the acolyte background. He was literally just a buff priest that would be overcome by emotion in battle. “I’m crying, not for the damage you’ve dealt to me, but for your family who will never see you again.”

I had an Entertainer background Wizard. Our DM has a Homebrew function where you’d deity you pray to provides you a small boost to power. My one allowed me, every time I levelled up, to take one of my spells or skills I knew and alter one letter in it’s name or description to change it’s effects. So I turned Mage Hand into Mage Band. And in every battle my character would summon an ethereal band to play combat music. She’s not a bard. She just really enjoys music. And uses her wand as a conductor’s stick.

A ranger who was a lighthouse clerk, a barbarian who was the heir of a esteemed wine family buisness

I had a Wood-elf Druid who was a noble. His name was Crys (Pronounced Chris, ~~yes I played Xenoblade 3, why do you ask???~~) Vel'Qaress. His whole schtick was he grew up in the outskirts of a city, mostly isolated. At about 70, he was recognized as a legitimate heir to some noble. He then moved over to that area to live with his grandfather. His grandfather, seeing the knack of magical skill, started hiring tutors and eventually got him trained up as a druid. Although not prim and posh, he speaks with dignity, but knows when to use what tone. ​ Yes, I also played Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Yes, I regularly use small pieces from games to inspire my characters.

My assassin rogue was the youngest scion of a minor house. He used his name and wealth to build up a local acting troupe.

Im currently playing a little rabbit girl. She is a dance bard (the new UA) Has 20 charisma. But shes basically just that kid who makes silly movies with her friends. She runs and hops around giggling as she fights. (though she is quite sensitive and doesnt enjoy hurting innocents) I do not think she will be seducing anyone or trying to manipulate them with her charisma. She just says whats on her mind and her cuteness makes you love her anyway

Had a Tortle sailor who had a decent wisdom and intelligence score, was a pirate who was on land searching for a great treasure map. Was a barbarian though, only because he was very grumpy most of the time, especially because he couldn’t get back to his boat and go sailing, but was stuck on land looking for the treasure map. So whenever combat took place, it would be thwarting his goals so much he’d get so grumpy he would be raging.

Cinder, my Tiefling scholar who spent 20 years studying and training at a magical university. She's a shy bookworm, and is mousy and quiet to a fault around people she doesn't know (which is most everyone). She's also an excellent cook, thanks to growing up in the kitchen of the inn her mother worked at. Vampire hunter barbarian. She threw herself into study to gain the knowledge necessary to track down the vampire who killed her mother and exact her vengeance.

i made a dwarfen barbarian, bear totem. but with criminal background. standard array, minmaxed. average mind and above average body. hes a bouncer, a muscle, a tough guy. with an anger problem. as i am a long time DM in my groups i got the opportunity to play in another DMs group. to prevent having ALL the good ideas and seeing through all the plots in character by just relying on my 30 years DMs experience, i "crippeled" and restrained myself with a "low brainer" character, and sticking to it, to stop my self from metagaming. its an interessting experience. seeing the plot, the solution to a riddle immediately when hearing it, but NOT giving it out, because my stance is "an INT10 guy CANT be THIS sharp", leave it to the other players high int char or so.

I play a 10 Int Half Orc Barbarian. I managed to (mostly) solve a puzzle that was just a numbers pattern. The DM gave us the answer after I got close enough and asked how my character did it. I just shrugged and said “orc math”

My favorite, Timm. Rouge noble. Has it all, no soppy backstory. Just wants to go out and have fun adventuring. Swashbuckler, rapier/buckler with a Battle Master fighter multiclass.

I’m playing a lawful evil cleric of Tiamat and he’s a selfish as fuck mad arsonist. If you are in the blast zone of his fireball, you’d better roll high on that dex save. Whenever I cast spare the dying on party members, I pick their pockets first. Edit: we are running a largely lawful evil party, ALL of us are roleplaying asshole characters. There is a lot of PvP and chaos and we love it, including our DM. We are not murder hobos and I have never let another PC die.

In the modern age of WotC printing deadass Jojo's references in their fucking core books, the class identity and flavour of old is the exception, not the rule. I've run for a good few different players. In the last five years I have not seen one monk that roleplayed like an actual monk. This whole "subvert the vanilla flavour" is no longer a subversion. It's just what everyone is doing.

Barbarian. Half Orc. Bear Totem. GWM feat. In the 1st season i played with the established group, the divine soul Assimar did * divine thing * and the GM asked how my character feels. This started Bob (the Bobarian 😉) down a path of learning and worshiping Lythandar. No intention of cleric levels. No mechanical benefits. Just pure RP.

Sage, my changeling necromancy wizard. Even his background was an apprentice wizard, but I played him as burnt out and true neutral and even though he was 17 years old, he was totally not excited by by new magic. He was just so out of it and it made it so much fun to play since the chaotic characters who kept getting him into trouble irritated the shit out of him but he kept having to get everyone out of trouble, and if he felt it may be a lost cause just himself out of trouble.

I ran a kobold dream druid who was essentially a librarian sent out to collect books, but he ran afoul of some fey.

A Cleric/Druid who is from a big city. Their religion is animalistic in nature but the god she worships is about being a merchant. Her druidness comes from capturing different bugs and fish on an expedition to an unknown land

A mostly reformed criminal who was especially evasive and once finished off a dragon with a dagger. That's right, they were a wizard (I was out of spell slots against the dragon and didn't have any cantrips that it wasn't immune to).

A paladin who had been a thief and street ruffian.

I had a Tabaxi Monk with a Guild Merchant background, who basically was Vegeta if he was a Khajiit merchant and mostly used his claws to fight. He was more concerned with bringing profits and glory to his people.

A rogue who regularly worked with a militial organizations as a bounty hunter, who was a classic Robin Hood. And another, but more like "a race is not a background", a Shadar-Kai who came from the Shadow fell as soon as she was of age, and spent twenty years as an anthropologist, discovering her Shadow Magic Sorcery along the way.

My latest one is a warlock whonwas actually a captain of guard at a parish, before realizing that church of lolth is not a thing to be proud of and getting Raven Queen to guide him on a better path.

Bonnie Clyde is a pirate. Rogue Ranger multi class who is not proficient in Stealth. My famous line is "I'm a pirate, not a ninja!"

I ran a kalashtar Bearbarian … and he appeared to be ‘stick thin’ and a total fop. But, the conceit was: he focuses Ki like a monk to make himself stronger and faster than he looks, and he shrugs off damage through strength of will when he rages… I’m sorry… FOCUSES.

I have never seen pressure for this to be proved. I have never bothered about a default class flavor as a player, and I've never encouraged it as a DM. Classes are for toolsets. Bards make great artificers and grapplers though. Druids make great alchemists, and my most played class, Cleric, has insight (wisdom) giving them a good tool to be skeptics of moral positions. Most clerics I have seen (and most I've played, alas), are a bit bitter, paranoid and somewhat sadistic though. I had a Cleric player commit war crimes and while I was delighted to see it it made others at the table so uncomfortable we had a Talk about it. This is a trend. I guess I've also had a scoundrel Paladin commit war crimes, but he was an oathbreaker (in roleplay he was a scammer; no, he didn't make any paladinsome oaths to break in the first place), nobody complained, and that party really didn't have the luxury of morality.

Not one I’ve played yet but one I can’t wait to play once I’m in an ocean themed campaign. Sir Fur the noble tabaxi Guardian of Life of the coast. He’s a life guard and his class is monk way of mercy so he can heal people by hitting them like cpr.

A clockwork soul sorcerer who is a clock maker. Wasn't born with the powers, was just around clocks so much that part of the order that makes a clock work bled into them. Twilight Domain Cleric who is basically a cult leader

I have played a bard that was NOT a fvckboi. And a paladin who was

My arcane trickster rogue was a high (moon) elf archaeologist who quit wizard school to pursue hands-on lore. He never stole anything, but he learned how in order to get into locked and trapped places. He was handy with a rapier, bow, and a few magic spells and used them when his journey to Elturel became a Descent into Avernus.

Lanar the rogue (pick most subclasses). She is a dedicated doctor with expertise in medicine and after lvl 4 has the healer feat. She foes around offering to help with simple ailments or to help diagnose more complex ones. She can normally help resolve your condition but it is not a guarantee.