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A big part of the fun for me in role-playing is creating great characters. As a ROLL-player I live for creating characters that are good from a statistical standpoint, since it's a lot easier to perform great feats of heroism when you don't get your face pushed in on a regular basis. But the ROLE-player in me also likes getting into the concept of a character.
So here I will introduce some concepts for characters that I think would be interesting and fun to play. I will build them up to show their progression. Like concept cars for auto shows, they will be top of the line and have all the options. These are not characters I have actively played with, they are more like dream cars.
The characters included here are all created using PCGen, which I highly recommend as a tool for all role-players. Their stats are determined using the point buy system, which is covered in the DM's guide. Each character started with 32 points. I also used the baseline rules for the character's total assets and paid market price for all their magic items. There is probably no way to acquire all the magic items these guys have in a legitimate game, but it can help to illustrate the role a magic item can play in character's development.
In my efforts to get content up quickly, the data here is lacking in organization and is totally incomplete, but I will fix that in the very near future. For now, here are some short bios for the first two concept characters.
Bulzei - the ultimate in ranged combat
"I love it when they run!"
Bulzei grew up as an orphan among gypsy caravans, traveling from city to city. He earned his way as a performer, dazzling audiences with displays of acrobatics and knife throwing. As he grew, it became harder to earn his way. He was no longer a cute little boy and his audiences steadily became less interested… and less generous.
With his performances earning less and less, his life as a gypsy acrobat became a cover for his other career as a cat burglar. He found that breaking into the homes of merchants to be far more lucrative than any fickle audience. Like all thieves, it was only a matter of time before he was discovered. In a desperate escape, he evaded city guards and gypsies alike only to find himself cast out of the city at the age of 13.
Life as a street performer is a meager one among small farming villages. Small communities fear and mistrust outsiders, which makes it hard to earn money the honest way, and almost impossible to steal. Young Bulzei would certainly have faced starvation were it not for the kindness of Heimar, an elderly ranger and hunter.
Heimar took Bulzei in and taught him about hunting, tracking, the bow, and the sword. Bulzei was an apt pupil and was soon able to hunt well enough to support himself and his new foster father.
Selling meat and pelts to the nearby villages wasn't exactly the kind of life that appealed to Bulzei's entrepreneurial spirit, but the enterprising young man couldn't leave his father. When Heimar passed away, Bulzei left the small village to seek his fortune as a guide and adventurer.
Burne- the rage mage.
"I only know one thing about Mother Nature: she is extremely displeased at her inability to kill me."
Burne's mother was a leatherworker in a remote village in the far north. His birth was a shocking surprise to the people of the village since there were no eligible bachelors and the village saw few, if any, visitors. At an early age, he displayed a remarkable talent for magic, which added to his mystery in the eyes of the villagers.
The simple farmers were suspicious of Burne as he grew up, though no one would ever confront such an imposing lad. Rumor abounded in the village of his mysterious gift, especially when he began studying magic with an old hermit who lived on the outskirts of the village. The villagers' growing mistrust of Burne and his hermit friend boiled over, and Burne was forced to choose between his magic and his life among the villagers. Burne soon left the village in an effort to spare his mother the scorn of the ignorant villagers.
Burne wandered thru the frozen wild alone. He made his way thru the harsh winter, traveling south in search of another village or a city. Life in the wilderness made him strong and tough and his anger at being forced out of his village made him seethe with rage. In time he adjusted to everything about life in the wild except for the loneliness.
Burne found solace in a small town in the south. He earned a decent living as a caravan guard and mercenary and soon he built a reputation among the townspeople as a powerful and intimidating warrior. His sheer size and force of personality had quelled many would be challenges. His new life would be forever changed the day he was hired to help rescue a group of adventurers trapped in a tomb.
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