Mine was a shark person male named Susan (he didn’t understand the idea of gendered names but liked how human names sounded)
Played a halfling abyssal warlock whose patron was “a Sea-girl” and my casting focus was a vial of her bath water. I would always talk about how I loved watching her stream and that one day I’d be able to meet her. One of my most treasured D&D experiences was when I was ranting about how important the bath water was that another player half-whispered “what the fuck is happening right now…”
Oh and also a monk who 🎼 only spoke in Gregorian chant🎵 🎶 which got old like halfway through the one shot lol
Stéphanos Eoforwine, a one-shot character for a campaign a few years back. He was essentially just fantasy Steve Irwin, with a +20 animal handling thanks to a custom magic item, “the Shorts of the Crocodile Hunter.”
I wanted him to be searching for something ridiculous, so he was on the hunt for “the mighty tree elk.” It’s a species of elk he heard about. Rumor says they’re a a ompletely ordinary elk in terms of size and appearance, but they live in the boughs of trees, somehow.
Well, at one point I took an animal handling roll to see if he could find any tree elk. And I got a nat 20. It turns out, Stéphanos’s animal handling was so high, that he could literally will entire species into being if he rolled high enough. Tree elk weren’t a thing before that day, but they were after!
Through the rest of the campaign, the DM would occasionally make a call back by mentioning you looking up and seeing an elk leap from tree branch to tree branch.
Warforged Bard, Unit #69420, Designation: JAMB0T
JAMB0T comes pre-equipped with seven different musical instruments, an ale dispenser (ale not included), a confetti cannon, a heater core, and a subwoofer big enough to rattle Pelor’s china cabinet.
JAMB0T was primarily built as a way to get his creator free drinks at parties, but since the death of his creator some time ago, JAMB0T has been set loose to wander the world of his own accord. He doesn’t understand the difference between an adventuring ‘party’ and a party party.
“KEYWORD: ‘PARTY’ RECOGNIZED. THIS UNIT WAS BORN TO PARTY. ACCEPT?”
A Dude Bro Paladin who was seeking the Glory of the Gains.
A butt-ugly gnome druid named Binky the Blemished. (Very low CHA)
He had to keep a mask on all the time because if he didn’t, anyone in a particular radius would have to save against Fear.
so I have played a lot of table top rpgs and my most unusual were not in dNd campaigns. I played a female magic user type way before mmo’s and that being common in the old warhammer game. It was after I had done some drama and was kinda fun. I played a pacifist magic user type in a friends fantasy game using the champions system. It was useful as he had a pretty open ended magic system using the variable power pool rules so could create spells to learn and know they are balance. played a yoda type jedi and liked to have all these things around cultural and language translation that did not go well. Like a popular form of dancing where you moved when the beat was not happening roughly translated to beat off.
I liked my first character I ever played. Wasn’t really good and was very new to role playing dialog and didn’t like to come up with in-character dialog, so I built a barbarian around that.
His back story was being wrongfully accused of a crime and thus had his tongue cut out and was exiled from his home.
All he could do was gesture and mumble and make noise. Low Int, no sign language or reading, etc.
It made a bunch of interactions with party members and npc’s quite interesting. Had to pantamime and gesture and grunt actions, not only in character, but as a player which was great fun :)
My favorite concept was a kenku warlock named Uhjeddye the Fourth. He was previously an actor whose traveling troupe performed “The Great Wars of the Astral Planes”, and only spoke in lines from the play.
I programmed a soundboard with Star Wars quotes and used it the entire one shot. I thought it was hilarious.
Introducing yourself to someone new? “I am a Jedi (Uhjeddye), like my father before me” Score a crit with Eldritch Blast, dealing extra force damage? “The Force is where Uhjeddye gets his power”
An Orc Bard with performance in slapstick comedy and plays the spoons as an instrument. Cantrip for “ba-dum tish”
ʜɪ, ɪ’ᴍ ʙɪʟʟ sᴛɪᴛᴢᴍᴀɴ. ɪ’ᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴀ ʀᴇᴀʟ ᴇsᴛᴀᴛᴇ ᴀɢᴇɴᴛ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ-ғɪᴠᴇ ʏᴇᴀʀs, ᴜɴᴛɪʟ ʟᴀsᴛ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪ sɪɢɴᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡʀᴏɴɢ ᴘᴀɢᴇ ᴏғ ᴀɴ ɪɴғᴇʀɴᴀʟ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ. ɪ ᴀᴄᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛᴀʟʟʏ sᴏʟᴅ ᴍʏ sᴏᴜʟ, ᴀʟᴏɴɢ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍʏ ᴇɴᴛɪʀᴇ ʟɪғᴇ sᴀᴠɪɴɢs, ᴍʏ ʙᴜsɪɴᴇss, ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀʟғ ᴍʏ ᴠᴏɪᴄᴇ, ᴛᴏ ɢʟᴀssᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴛᴇʀɴᴀʟʟʏ ᴍᴜᴛᴇ. ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪᴛ sᴏᴜɴᴅs ʟɪᴋᴇ ɪ’ᴍ sᴘᴇᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴘᴇʀғᴇᴄᴛʟʏ ɴᴏʀᴍᴀʟ ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪ’ᴍ ᴀᴄᴛᴜᴀʟʟʏ sᴄʀᴇᴀᴍɪɴɢ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏᴘ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ʟᴜɴɢs ʀɪɢʜᴛ ɴᴏᴡ.
There was also my gnome divination wizard. He’s 230 years old, and his last assignment before graduating wizard school with a Master’s in Divination is to find a valid use for True Strike. His best bet is to make it to level 17, and simply Wish for True Strike to do something different.
Fun fact: he has received degrees in Evocation, Conjuration, Enchantment, Illusion, Abjuration, and Transmutation before. It’s just that spending decades sitting in a school strips away a lot of experience (and levels). His secret goal that even the DM doesn’t know about is to go back and learn necromancy last. It’s not that he wants to become a lich, but if he ever does, he’ll want to have a well-rounded magical education
Bonus: Nanfoodle's True Strike
Upon reaching level 17, Nanfoodle will cast Wish, and beseech Mystra to turn True Strike into the following:
Nanfoodle’s True Strike
Casting time: 1 bonus action (requires concentration)
Range: 30 feet
Components: S
Duration: up to 1 round
You extend your hand and point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target’s defenses. While you are concentrating on this spell, you may use a reaction to gain advantage on one attack roll against the target. You may choose to use this reaction after rolling to attack, but only before the result is determined. After gaining advantage in this way once, the spell ends.
Most people attempt to fix true strike by turning it into a bonus action, but that takes it too far. It makes it too good. So now it also costs a reaction, which I think fixes it. Instead of being flatly better than other bonus action options, it’s now competing with Uncanny Dodge and Shield and pportunity attacks and so on.
Loxodon rogue. Worked better than it sounded like it should. And yes, I did get to make jokes about the elephant in the room.
Female teenage tiefling urchin wild magic sorcerer who was loosely based on the Scarlet Witch. I joined midway through the campaign and the party already had a male adult tiefling warlock. I decided that the urchin background had led her to be a bit of a grifter (if I could have given her two backgrounds the second would have been charlatan) so she acted really cutesy and innocent and hit him with the whole “are you my dad?” routine, secretly trying to con money or favors out of him. Obviously the other player knew his character wasn’t her dad (especially because I explained out of character what was going on), but he couldn’t PROVE it because she was careful to avoid talking specifics and kept the “cutesy and innocent” act up 24/7. It was all played for laughs.
BearBear the Bugbear Bear Totem Barbearian
Y’all get to play characters?
More seriously, I only recall two PCs I ever played. One was a former city guard and is quite blurry in my memory, but I recall that a poor vocabulary choice (not native speaker) turned what was supposed to be sizing up patrons in a portside tavern to figure out who might and might not be a threat into “checking out the sailors” and promptly got him canonised as gay, which I believe was later leveraged as distraction.
The other is even more distant in my memory. I believe it was an artifiicer with a paranoid streak in a one-shot. What I remember was trying not to metagame while fighting a shambling mound. I think the DM knew that I knew the creature, but for those that don’t: it’s the only creature I know off the top of my head that gets healed by lightning damage. Guess what the party mage used and I couldn’t comment on…
I don’t know if I’m capable of playing a serious character, so there’s a rich tapestry to pull from here:
For a Christmas one-shot I played a Santa Claus impersonator with a warhammer. He was my Maul Santa.
The most whimsical was a gnome alchemist (I think he was a wizard, but we like styling up our spells). He owned a soda pop empire and was adventuring for rare ingredients. Basically he was a Willy Wonka type and I called him Dr Pibb
Silliest was probably my short, swarthy, greased-up masked wrestler. Glorious indeed were the bouts of El Cabron the Luchadwarf
