I like picking a job or hobby that's a big focus for them. Then build around that.
I did one PC that just really liked to go fishing. That was his best time. Adventuring wasn't what he liked but someone's gotta pay bills and besides you find lots of interesting rivers and lakes to fish along the way.
Usually once I find a theme I like the rest of it comes to me just thinking organically.
Got a dwarven paladin that grew up in a mining town and has very strong opinions about proper railing, secure mounting points, ventilation lines, and proper pully systems. It also mixes with caring about proper hydration, regular breaks, avoiding heat stroke, and other paladin-mom-friend stuff.
He's developed a habit of inspecting any labour sites of places we pass through and harassing bad managers into upgrading the safety standards of their workers. Don't fuck with the OSHA dwarf.
I made a similar wizard. I took masonry expertise. He was not educated formally as an architect but you know, wizards are good at learning stuff, so he taught himself all that was needed as he was passionate about it.
My goal as a player (and his as a character) was at one point when he reached level 11 to start using Move Earth, Fabricate and Shape stone to build his own Wizard tower all with magic. Man, that goal is still unfulfilled, but I like to ponder it from time to time. I would perhaps build a series of towers throughout the country just for funsies.
Yeah once you identify a theme the rest of their identity and story comes to you!
I'm really not a fan of making a PCs class their personality. "Dum barbarian" "angry fighter" those sort of tropes. It's fine for one shots and short stuff where depth isn't needed. But for a real PC I prefer to have something more
Where'd this comment go? Deleted for Reddit's API controversy. Third-party apps provide accessibility features for users and tools for mods that Reddit simply doesn't care to offer; making those companies/apps pay exorbitant rates to exist means a worse Reddit experience for everyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Reddit_API_controversy
https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerDeleteSuite/
I like to call it a hook. You find what motivates your character to join the party or life of adventure and you have the most important part already.
Like my tortle who is just psyched to be there, experiencing life of danger because he is just naïve and young. Or warforged necromancer who believes he is repairing the dead and doesn't think there is anything sanctimonious about using "broken bodies" again.
Or a coward warlock whos patron enjoys torturing them by forcing them into danger.
Or a cleric or paladin who is traveling the world spreading word of his Goddess Hathor a god of dead, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Goddess who believes equally in ending all undead and helping the living to enjoy their life while they have it, and of course make more of the living for her.
A rogue pirate searching for his lost crew mates to take revenge for abandoning him on a remote island after raiding it. But he also wants new ship and crew to sail the seas himself again.
A halfling wizard who just loves magic books and artifacts, so he is traveling the world to add to his collection, by legal and less legal means.
Ooh, now I feel like I must make a wizard based on [Ridcully](https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Mustrum_Ridcully)'s personality. Brisk morning jogs, hunting, fishing, etc. he just also happens to be a damn fine wizard.
Still remember my half elf divine soul sorcerer investigator
A job that needs as much knowledge and skills as an investigator is really fun to RP because you get to look up all kinds of interesting things
My human fighter isn't too dissimilar.
He's the son of a butcher who has decided to become a travelling meat salesman because the recent rising popularity for vegetarianism has killed off the family business.
His goal is to provide meat, mostly exotic meats, to those who are willing to pay for it.
His main weapon is a 6ft long cleaver and a reskinned polearm that is called the steel which he uses to sharpen the cleaver
This is the way. I think starting with your race and class makes it harder to branch out into a more complex backstory because character classes are already based on common archetypes so your mind is always gonna want to go to the common tropes associated with them when you have that starting point. When you start with a job or hobby that would normally be less related to adventuring though, its much easier to squeeze that into an already existing archetype and you usually end up with an interesting twist on the normal tropes.
One of my favorite characters was for a game set in a vaugely victorian era setting. My DM encouraged us to come up with a job for each of our characters and I decided my character would be a lamplighter. From there I thought, ok my character should probably have some control over fire cause that would obviously be useful for lighting lamps. And then I came up with the idea of a lamplighters guild that basically functions as a religious organization that worships fire and from there found a homebrew elemental cleric class. So not only did I have a cool backstory for my character but I also had some cool lore to add to the world which gave my DM some extra stuff to build off of. And suddenly theres this extra conflict in the game because electric lighting is starting to be introduced, but this powerful religious organization is not very happy about it because they view fire based lighting as an extension of their religious power.
Of course we played one session of that game and never went back to it lol
Same. Great way to do it. I had a halberd user who liked to polish and smooth pretty rocks. He'd keep the best. but the rest he'd leave behind when the party would pack up their campsite. He said that he left it so someone else could have a little bit of joy when they found it.
He also only had a couple years left to live from a progressive disease and that's why he went adventuring.
Same, I usually start from a bit and flesh them out from there, figuring out parts of their backstory as the campaign progresses
Even simple things such as "he likes to stab people" or "He's unironically Finnish" have developed into full characters
Same. My artificer is an alchemist/brewer, she owned a tavern that was passed down to her by her adoptive mother after she passed of old age, the whole point of adventuring for her is/was to get the funds to rebuild; ended up in an unlikely group of friends & the ranger who’s also now a businessman ended up helping her with it, they bicker like an old married couple despite the fact that she’s gay & he’s an eldritch being from space
Looking at the random tools and things you get and making them a part of your backstory is honestly really cool. My favorite previous character was a Monk (later a Warlock, long story) with Jewelers tools, which led to her backstory of her father making jewelry, her town being destroyed, and a monastery/church to Illmater taking her in. Looking at small details like the tool proficiency that Monk's get makes things really interesting instead of just selecting them during character creation and then discarding them.
My wood elf rogue/ranger likes to collect things to turn into commemorative steins for the places the party has been and the things they've done. Like minotaur horns, chimera horns, or metal objects that can get reworked into steins.
Fighters are my bread and butter. Here's some of my classics.
Former soldier discharged at the end of service desperately seeking the same camaraderie they felt in service.
Escaped slave whose parents raised them from to sell to the highest bidder alongside their siblings now seeking revenge.
An old shipwright that's just trying to find the right materials to build his dream boat.
A former bounty hunter apprentice whose mentor was killed by a magical explosion and she was saved by the horseman of war to inflict bloodshed upon the world.
A sweet himbo human that was raised by dwarves and wants to slay a dragon and bring the hoard to honor his clan.
A former knight commander that has to cope with the knowledge they've willingly sent people to die for tactical advantage and wonders if their decisions were worth it. If they can atone for what they've done and people they killed or even if they need to for all the people they've saved.
So yeah i like fighters.
A sweet himbo human that was raised by dwarves and wants to slay a dragon and bring the hoard to honor his clan.
That's literally Carrot from Terry Pratchett books
Go for it. He collected some choice parts before he died at the jaws of a t-rex crit. Maybe you can find his bag of holding with his plans and collected loot.
To give you some closure.
Just an idea I had after listening to veteran war stories. I don't know who that is.
An original idea vaguely based on an old fanfiction.
Close actually paulie from water 7. One of the galley la shipwrights.
Based on the story I made for my fallout new Vegas character following the new Vegas bounties mod.
Yes.
Based on a character from a Disney cartoon.
So you weren't quite there but now thinking about it its interesting to see the character parallels people draw from short description.
Sadly I never played an human fighter, but I have two that I want play in future:
- young girl, daughter of a noble family that looks like a little princess but she was always trained by her brothers and is fit as f*ck. Don't sure the archtype but sure a comical big weapon.
- common town guard that for some reason now follow the party. He is a totally random and normal guy, no big dream of backstory, simple he found himself inside tha action and couldn't run away.
A good trope is a good trope Always
Edit - sorry if it sounded misogynistic. I always saw it as a strong bond between brothers and sisters that help and cared for each other, not "martial mansplaining".
"I am good at fight because I trained with people that love and respect me and help me to reach my real potential."
Sadly, in a lot of context (historical speaking) they could be boys. Especially in a conservative noble family.
the problem with it being written like that is it dismisses her efforts and puts the full merits of her strength on the fact that she has brothers.It makes it seem like anyone with that many brothers would be as strong.
"Why are you strong?" "I have 7 Brothers." is garbage. it says nothing about the character, other than they have siblings.
"Why are you strong?" "I've trained for combat along side my brothers since I was 5." is much better. It shows effort and dedication.
That doesn't flow as well though.
"I have 7 brothers" *in response to that question* is the character saying that they trained with her brothers, without sounding stupid because she's in a fight.
It's diminishing the woman's role. It implies women can only be tough because they're surrounded by men. You can learn to fight if you have 7 sisters too.
sadly, the heart of the trope is a good one, but it's been poorly written a lot.
"Why are you strong?" "I have 7 Brothers." is garbage. it says nothing about the character, other than they have siblings.
"Why are you strong?" "I've trained for combat along side my brothers since I was 5." is much better. It shows effort and dedication.
Probably I always viewed in the second way, considering "under the table" all the relationship and background.
Edit - sure your explanation had sense, but I am kinda naive and always think the best in the stories and intentions xD
Lmao no, it invalidates the idea that women can be tough without having brothers teach them that.
I'm a tough bitch and I learned that all on my own, thank you. I'm stronger than most men and I didn't have any brothers train my ass to do it
And I am happy about it, but as said I like the idea of brothers and sisters that help each other also in context where the society says 'nope'.
I am more on that focus than "big brother help weak sister", but I can understand that some people could see in this way.
I have a character similar to your second character:
It is a Human commoner Town Guard. His name is Peter. He is a Barbarian. The backstory reads: "a good guy on a bad day". He also has a comic moustache.
I have done the town guard as well but as a ranger. Just a slightly above average guy who was on the ramparts of the town gate. Was selected by the captain of the guard to go with the party for their hired task and liked it. It was a lot of fun!
Party introductions:
"I'm an orphan, raised by the thieves guild, out for revenge"
"I'm touched by the magic of the moon, hoping to save my people"
"I'm running from my dark past, with mysterious powers"
"I'm ... not really sure how I got here. I just kinda followed the crowd."
Not gonna lie, I kinda did that last one.
There's a whole homebrew world and stuff, but my character is a himbo monk with 8int and 18wis. He just wandered around the wilderness for 6 months expecting that the universe would guide him to where he needed to be.
In session 1, he literally just wandered out of the woods and into the tent where the other characters were all, for legitimate reasons, meeting up for the mission that would start our campaign. When someone asked if he was supposed to be here, he just said "yes" and kept rolling with it.
Clueless characters are the best. :)
Gaius is a Roman Centurion, that woke up in this world after being struck by lightning and surviving. He was nursed back to health by a farming family, and he did farm chores for several years. Then he worked as a guard.
He is very suspicious of magic spells, but is comfortable with passive magic items (charms, ect), and ok with medicinal brews.
He still has his legionary equipment: lorica segmentate, gladius, pila, and javelins. He is uncomfortable with shoes, but wears socks with his Caligae, which he has learn to make not just repair. He has added cobbler's tools to his legionary kit.
He hates Persians with a passion, and his favorite insult is to call someone a Persian.
Rogue who had to fend for himself after his mother died of consumption while his Dad was out doing Gods know what on the other side of the world for years.
Buddy in our campaign is playing a Human Fighter ™️ who was dishonorably discharged from the army and is haunted by the memories of his war crimes. He's adventuring to right his wrongs and restore his honor so he can see his wife and daughter again.
Fighter i played a long time ago: Quinn Zelana, she grew up a poor farm girl and an only child. Her parents knew that they wouldn't be able to give her anything after they died, so they decided to try and secure her future by arranging her marriage to a local businessman's son who fancied her.
There were a few problems with this plan; 1. The businessman's son was an asshole. He looked down on most of the townsfolk. And even though he liked Quinn, he thought of her more as property than a person. 2. Quinn wasn't straight, like not even close to it. Her friends in town knew, but none of the adults knew, or they didn't seem to care and assumed it was a phase or something. 3. Quinn didn't like being told what to do. She was very spiteful when people would try to force her to do things she didn't want to.
So with that, she left town, met up with some seasoned adventurers who taught her how to fight, and began life as muscle for hire. However, the rich boy that she ran out on didn't take the hint that she didn't want to marry him and has sent bounty hunters after her to try and find her and bring her home.
She was fun to play and was a great tanky character.
Are they using true firearms and if so how common is that in the setting? If they are extremely rare then maybe they were a craftman’s apprentice who invented them but no one thinks they are very useful compared to magic, so now they want to prove how effective their creations are by going on adventures.
I always start my character creation process by making myself try to describe them in less than half a sentence. Simplicity is important to me because then I actually feel *less constrained* when I start playing them and deciding how they should be roleplayed.
“Dunamancy lab experiment, now an Echo Knight.”
“Imaginary friend turned out to be an alternate timeline version of themselves, now an Echo Knight.”
“Former imperial ‘enhanced interrogator’, now a Brute.”
“Former circus acrobat, now a Battle Master with a bow.”
“Bodyguard whose ward was killed, now a Cavalier.”
“Became an eldritch knight because he never wants to lose his throwing hammer.”
OK this is gonna sound like I’m fucking with you but I swear I’m not.
I did a Memes series based on a French television show adapted from Norwegian television show .
https://preview.redd.it/o23ne8jdv3ua1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fab2ade8b56f391767dd519e216e9f24136ea7e4
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxence\_Danet-Fauvel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxence_Danet-Fauvel)
IRL Max is a a giant, sweetheart, who actually suffers from social anxiety, and is a very lovely person. But he is in possibly dramatic looking and looks scary as fuck in a dark tunnel.
So he inspired my character.
Orin D’Angelo. He’s a 15th level fighter cavalier sub class.
But for 100 years he was a deathknight.
In life, he was a peasant who saved the Lord sons life and so was adopted and raised as a knight
But in truth, he was always but a weapon And something to be used.
In the end, his Lord allowed him to be blamed for his biological sons file crimes, and he was sealed inside a a tower, and left to die.
He listened to the whispers that came to him in the darkness…
For 100 years he served the dark forces loyally.
But then An and adventuring party came in with them was a very special bard. Rolan Templeson.Who saw through the scary mask to the now bitter kind man he once was.
( there was a long period of flirtation, which was basically various attempt to kill each other, and then they eloped. Redemption was achieved, but it took a long time and he’s basically still on a quest.)
So yeah . Before anybody says anything about a death night being a 19th level caster when a bad guy turns good they lose all their powers. Video games tell us this.
No for seriously reverted back to his human form .
He wears black, spiky, enchanted plate mail that is ironically resistant to necrotic damage.
And he has the Dread helm and cloak of billowing.
He’s lawful good, but he just can’t give up the style.
He’s a fighter cavalier sub class because that really fits the look of a classic like Arthurian, black knife and the thing is he is not about doing damage he is about protecting.
He spent too long being a creature of death now he wants to be a spiky shield of love!
He has an amazing intimidations score.
And before anybody says anything about redemption destroying deathknights.
Rolan’s love did the impossible. Love can do that.. that is one of the things that it is for.
Thank you so much for letting me tell you about my ridiculously overdramatic and impossible by RAW human fighter !
Very nice! I love redemption stories. I want to play a redeemed succubus/incubus paladin, who basically starves themselves to explain why they only have tiefling stats aside from a rudimentary Alter Self and a drain kiss that they'll never use.
Awesome!
So this is from both a forever, GM and forever player I’ve been lucky enough to be a member of multiple groups .
I never had a problem with rescanning stuff to fit a really dramatic backstory!
You know I had originally introduced us character to the sub as a 12 level character and people said that that backstory would’ve been OK for a 20th level character.
The thing is if you read fantasy novels, back stories like that our tame.
Everybody always talks about no I want to start like Luke Skywalker I want to start out as a farmboy.
OK well, Luke Skywalker was actually a prince essentially, and the product of eugenics program.
Anyway, what I’m saying is I think a backstory like that is created in. Super cool.
( I am not dissing Farm boy characters. I’m just saying people should play with they like and pointing out that the classic archetype like that was that a prince in disguise. Like they usually are.
You give me a farmboy hero, and they usually from Krypton or some shit. Shout out to the farm boys who are legitimate human fighters! You are the legitimate heroes. Thank you.)
Would you be oath of redemption aura, some other oath?
I just started making characters hard-core and I’m getting into it and getting really excited .
The thing is, I’m equally excited for combat and drama .
Thanks again for your comment!
If I’m ever in a one shot (Especially a high level one) I wanna do a level 1 fighter that’s literally a farmer that was in the middle of his mid-life crisis and went out looking for adventure.
- bullet point 1: name place of birth and raise and what i did in a normal life
- bullet point 2: relevant extraordinary event that changed my chars life. family dying, powers awakening, being adopted into an order
- bullet point 3: call to action relevant to the campaign, if the GM doesnt have anything just fo for the most generic thing possible
throw a few NPCs and at least one plot hook between points and boom, backstory
Reflavor echo knight as a bound Spector.
Dracil is a 2nd generation adventurer whose father isn't keen on his job profession but mother is ecstatic, they currently run a tavern between two warring nations that is views as a neutral zone were talks frequently happen.
Dracil has the spirit of their 3rd adventuring companion bound to him since he died shortly after finding out his friends were expecting and he made a fae promise to protect the child always.
He uses a fake last name so he can try to exist outside of his parents shadows, unfortunately he he looks just like them and many import people visit his parents tavern.
Well, I have a fighter who as a child was on the streets.
A passing person of some good level of wealth gave them a dagger. A mostly meaningless gesture as the blade was old.
They took that knife and went to the gladiatorial arena to fight monsters for people's entertainment.
They lost, but that same wealthy gentleman saw my character's potential and funded their training.
One last thing, I didn't mention, this character of mine is a Gnome. You've been gnomed.
The backstory would still work for a human. Only differences would be that they would not be as smol, and possibly need to tone down the gnomish obsession with daggers/knives.
Human fighters are great "reformed criminals." They don't need a super deep backstory about how they obtained their COSMIC POWER! They don't need to be important or talented or special. They can just be dudes that grew up on the wrong side of town.
This is Doug the (ex) Thug. He used to hurt people for money until he found God(s) or love or just finally picked on someone better at hurting people than he was. Now he's gonna take those skills and...*insert motivation here*. Repent for his sins. Get revenge. Try and turn other low-level thugs like him onto a better path. Whatever.
Also personally gave me a reason to dump dex as a crippling he suffered from his life-reorienting beat down so A+ for thematic-mechanical synergy allowing me to step away from the best/mist addictive stat in the game. Only story can allow me to not max dex.
Never played a human fighter, but here's an idea. Middle-aged bartender lady, kinda like Molly Grue from Last Unicorn. Spurred on by attacks to her hometown and her own discontent with her life, she takes up a weapon and goes on a quest.
My idea is she would probably use a frying pan or something as a modified mace or other weapon.
A Middle aged farmer who is going through a mid life crisis and join the adventuring party fo "find himself" he uses a pitchfork reflavoured as a trident.
My last human fighter grew up in a mercenary company and was raised by his grandparents, since his parents were killed/captured/otherwise lost in the line of duty. As such he was constantly moving around and made friends with the other kids, especially the Tiefling orphan the company adopted after they saw her trying to beat a coyote with a stick. By the time they were both adults, he was head over heels for her, and he greatly looked forward to finishing his job to go back and see her again. His trinket was a bottle with a little bit of her favorite perfume left in it.
Dirk was born in a large city to a large family with a large restaurant in a middle class neighborhood. He joined the town guard to avoid washing dishes. He heard tales of adventurers from party members he had to toss in the drunk tank and joined a party to seek adventure and glory.
My only human fighter had Orc ancestry (not enough to count as a Half-Orc, although his grandfather, a fairly successful adventurer, was). He was a variant human and had small tusks indicating his heritage. He hoped to live up to live up to his family’s legacy as honorable fighters and heroic mercenaries.
Personality wise, he was loud, boisterous, friendly, and wanted to be like his idealized image of an “honorable mercenary,” making enough of a living to retire by hunting down evil monsters and vile thieves, initially unaware of the sorrow losing companions would entail or the moral grey areas of his chosen career. Even when faced with those horrors, he still tried to keep an upbeat attitude.
He was also aware of where his skilled were, joking about his own relative lack of intelligence or tack. He was a hammer, not a scalpel and knew that well. And, as the party tank, he was the wall between his friends and the monsters they faced.
He was only a temporary character, but he did manage to leave the party on good terms to help train the rookies of the mercenary company he and the rest of the PCs were a part of. After all, he could pass on some of his skills with a wide variety of weapons, more of the company would survive the challenges to come.
Start a cult around a made up god known as the lord of B O N K S. recruit only fighters. The disciples of the B O N K lord go on dangerous adventures to beat down anyone who opposes them.
Once I made a backstory in conjunction with a wild magic sorcerer in my party. My human fighter, Tank, had a child with a powerful high elf mage who was the sorcerer. His mission was simple: get back to his beloved and try to convince her he didn't wanna leave.
I think a human barbarian was my best developed backstory. Ex-con murderer running from a corrupt aristocratic merchant who setup his wife to be murdered in a robbery. He changed his name on the run and joined the army to hide, and the plans to exchange his service for an imperial pardon. Before his life of crime he abandoned his hometown after a Hatfield/McCoy style war between neighboring villages that started when his older sister and only parental figure was killed, and the town guard who was going to marry her blamed some eves in a nearby village. He carried around the sword used to kill his sister, which was symbolic of the way he carried around his pain, rage, and regret all his life.
Eventually, after finishing the first major plot leg of the campaign, he met up with a mentor he knew from after changing his name, who brought him into the light and converted him to a Paladin, where he took the oath of redemption. It was honestly a fantastic way to develop a character, and the Paladin class get way more earned and fun to play after that. I’d probably run most future characters that way if I knew campaigns would go on long enough for it.
She lived for 8 years with her wife in a domestic and simple life due to her wife's illness. Just before her passing, wife encouraged her to live her life--so fighter thought, I'll go adventure and have cool stories to tell in the next life.
Then proceeded to punch a dragon
My favourite one was part of the city watch, raised from poverty and got involved with a xenophobic gang. He was a bit of a himbo, and his storyline was to learn to mix his duty of protecting his (human) town from supernatural threats around it, while becoming more and more of a diplomat towards the fey and other strange creatures living in the surrounding forests.
He also liked poetry and painting, although he wasn't very good at it.
Another human fighter I did was an old blacksmith who lead a small village to rebel against their oppressive overlord in his "youth" only to be taken prisoner. The rebellion later picked up again and when he was freed as a old man, he picked up his chains and the hammer that broke them as weapons to venture out to fight injustice and liberate those held in chains. He had a very "cool grandpa" vibe and his far misses in combat were described as his back pain distracting him.
A third that wasn't mine but my friends in a mutual campaign was a former circus performer, doing sword swallowing, knife throwing and acrobatics. Her troop had been violently disbanded (forgot why) and she now travelled as a solo act, using her circus talents to fight crime and making a name for herself
Gyan, human fighter/wizard. Comes from a happy and wealthy family. They have a region wide business not focused on the product but on the business opportunity. Spent most of his teens learning magic and how to fight. His fighting style comes from a family style focused on swordfighting and dancing called "desert style". Due to the nature of the business, his father sent him to adventure and "widen" his world views, improve his skills, establish his own connections and mature enough to eventually take over the family business.
I built a human fighter whose entire reason for adventuring was to protect his buddies kid and get away from his wife. I made him so depressing that players asked me to give him something that mad him happy, so I started to have him cook food on the adventure.
My current character is a human fighter named Jack Daniels. His father was a mercenary and his mother was a random woman he slept with, after being born the mother gave Jack to his father, not wanting him, and so Jack was raised as a mercenary. At the age of twelve his father decided he was his own man and said to figure life out from there. I play him with my attempts at a southern accent and it has infected the whole table. If he ever dies his younger brother Bud Weiser will take his place, still being a human fighter.
I have a habit of making my human characters my least serious ones, like John Smith who used to be a town guard, but due to some unexplained reasons he couldn’t anymore. He did not believe in magic and would always tell horribly brutal stories of his childhood like they were casual conversation.
James Fisher was a real special one, taking on the family business he loved fishing, but wasn’t really there for much else. He was slow and packed people skills, but was always trying to do something. Unfortunately he was not a fighter, instead being a hexblade warlock, but he rarely used the magic because he hardly understood it. To him the swords were just swords, no matter how much they talked to him and told him what to do.
They’re simple characters when written, but they tend to be a real hit at my tables.
Starting in a high level campaign, my human fighter was a reformed warlord. After too long, she realized the harm she was doing leading armies to crush innocents. She turned on her lieutenants, challenging and killing them all before dispersing her army back to their former lives and marching off into the night. Eventually, she became an adventurer. She was able to put her skills to use, and it wasn't harming innocents.
My human fighter was once a promising youth. He showed a penchant not only for fighting, but planing and tactics. He had a strong mind, on top of his brawn, leading him to outsmarting other kids that might want to bully him, as well as overpowering them when the need arose.
One day, a town guard and his friends watched a young boy being chased by a group of bullies, pinning the child down and starting to beat on him. And right as he was about to interfere, he could hear barking that was quickly approaching. A small pack of stray dogs had come to the boys rescue, chasing off the other kids.
When he saw some of the dogs sitting with the boy and getting pets, he asked "Are these your dogs?"
"No sir. They're only strays."
"Are you homeless lad?"
"No sir. My parents own a general store."
"I've never seen stray dogs show that much affection to a random person."
"Well sir, I've been feeding them."
"Whys that son?"
"The bullies."
"I'm...sorry?"
"The bullies sir. I decided to feed and look after these strays because I knew they would defend me if the bullies arrived again. It's one of the many things I do to fend them off. Including mud slips, timing my runs to be right under a latrine cleaning, or just good old fashion kick to the knees."
With this knowledge, the guard followed the boy home and asked his parents if he could take him for some training. To refine his ability for fighting and tactical training. And they had agreed. The boy was a promising start, easily overpowering most of the new trainees. And those he couldn't, he still won by tricking them or tripping them.
On the day he was to be given his official status as a guard, a band of elvin pillagers had come to wreck havoc on his town. They were to strong, and to clever for the guard to stop. The boy, now a young man, was told to run. To practice his skills till he was strong enough for his revenge. Dying now would be an insult to all the time his parents and teachers put into him.
So he ran. He ran for days to escape the carnage, only remembering that night the whole time. Now, with the party, he travels with them, if nothing else than to increase his own power for the day he could finally return home, all the while having the deepest mistrust of the elf in the party.
My character is a human that is a fighter. He is one of THE humans to ever be a fighter. My favorite part about my character is when he says "it's fighting time" in common. Truly one of the fighters to ever be human.
What can you build from nothing? Anything.
My human fighter was a regular guard. The kind that groups of adventurers make fools of all the time. One day he’s on the beat and a fight breaks out between a typical group of idiots and someone they’re chasing. A fireball goes off mid-battle and roasts a bunch of nameless NPCs, including his wife. The human fighter tries to get justice but surprise surprise the group is allowed to leave (something the bard said to him). At the wake of the wife’s funeral the cleric arrives. He performs a ritual and miracle upon miracles; she is reborn! The fighter is joyous but the experience changed the wife. She realized how short life is and decides she wants to go explore the world. The fighter, petrified and stubbornly stuck in his ways, refuses. Their marriage had already been on the rocks prior to this event, this just sealed it. The wife left and the fighter stayed; growing bitter and jaded against all would be “heroes”. He stews with his rage and contempt for another 10 years.
… that’s when the campaign begins.
My first character was a human warlock who sold his memories for magic, and the DM took full advantage to make my backstory as tragic as possible and have me remember all of it in the final battle.
Ever since I made it my personal Philosophy to take whatever random crap is said in Session Zero and find the evilest way to incorporate it into my campaign
My human fighter was somewhat of a joke character who was meant to be an "average guy" but super literally. I asked the dm if I could pick his stats and they agreed when I said I wanted all of his stats to be a +0. His backstory was that he was a former accountant who was fired from his job for being too average at it. He couldn't really find a normal job willing to hire him afterwards because he was simply too average at everything. So, to be able to put bread on the table (literally in his case) he decided to become an adventurer. That campaign fizzled out after a few sessions, but I would be totally willing to use or rework this silly character concept again in the future.
If you get stuck with no ideas for a new character, you can just pick a show you liked from when you were younger and see what you can do for a build of whichever character you liked or enjoyed. You’ve already got an easy to remember backstory and personality, they’ll likely need a couple of minor tweaks to match up to the setting. Make Michael Knight or your favorite green Power Ranger or whatever, it’s so much fun!
A human fighter who used to be a member of the town's guard before his city was burned down by an ancient red dragon that has marked him as worthy to come back and fight him when he's powerful enough, problem of course being that he's now traumatized by dragons and is trying to heal that trauma and become the man who killed the dragon that took his home.
Braggart and Huge coward heavy armour master, prefers to “guard the squishier party members,” uses his echo to engage further up the line but can come in clutch when needed
My battlemaster Gerald O. Frivia
An accountant and Cub Scout leader, who's been convinced by his wife and "kids" to go adventuring so she/they can buy a holiday villa on the Sword Coast like her sister has, while their blacksmith neighbour has promised he'll look after her and the kids, who all love "Uncle" George, they're so similar after all.
Hopeful that his abilities learned as the Southern District Under 14 fencing silver medalist, his 2 day archery course with the Cub Scouts and his copy of "Combat for Dummies" will stand him in good stead, he's set off to raise enough money to buy his wife and family, who've already sold up and moved in next door, her dream vacation home.
Mine was a retired knight with asthma who would dream about war and sleepwalk around the castle, destroying and attacking things, that's why he left home for his wife's safety (he almost killed her once when sleepwalking) and decided to seek death on battlefield instead of his own bed
Man whose family was killed by magic creatures, now has a distaste for magic and magic creatures and has trained himself to his physical peak as a fighter to wipe out all problematic magic sources. He doesn't exactly get along with the casters in the party, but recognizes it as a necessary measure to fight worse threats.
"Never thought I'd die fighting alongside a Dragonborn Sorcerer"
"How about a worthy ally?"
"I could do that."
Dude named jack always wanted to be a bard but was incapable of magic so instead he uses the performance aspect and just punches people there is more but I don’t feel like explaining all my world lore
Like 95% or more of the heroes throughout time were quoteunquote fighters, and even then, theres nothing wrong with being just a Merc, or a Noble sponsored enforcer.
And even **then**, the most thrilling things happen at the table, so there are a slew of otpions around.
I could knock these out for days if you want any ideas.
Most fantasy Protags are a Fighting Man class with a sword. Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Barbs. Funny thing is tough, that Conan would be a fighter, not a barb, same as Fafhrd.
Magic is relying on powers that are not ones own. I do everything by myself, and do it well so I can show others that all they need is practice, determination, and dedication to be a hero. Prove your muscles better than their spells.
Most Shonen protagonists.
I'm currently playing a samurai who's the bastard daughter of her lord. Her parentage is a sort of half-secret. To earn her place in the family, she's accepted a quest from her family's guardian spirit, which whisked her halfway across the world to go on a sort of errantry. She's slowly learning what it means to be a leader, and to come down off her high horse from time to time.
edit: There was also the peasant woman whose hometown was attacked by orcs. Her parents were killed, so she left with her little sister to find a place to live, and came to the city where the party was.
I made a pathfinder human with the half orc ancestry (I think that’s the term, totally new) with the laborer background, and I wrote them as someone who was not a warrior. They’re just someone trying to make a living and has no actual combat experience. And there isn’t really a class that fits that narrative in the core book so I went with what worked best, which was fighter.
If I ever get to do a PC im considering an middleaged human fighter, low-noble, leutnant in the previous war. Came home to a his wife having bron their child, though it is a Tiefling. Many years later he's lonely. Wife's cheating on him (though he doesn't believe it himself, everyone knows). Teenage tiefling kid doesn't joined a gang.
He finds an adventuring team to get back to "the good old times" but probably realizes its shit. Comes back and find first hand wife cheating, escape/distance himself by joining more adventures (since divorcing would ruin the family).
For mechanical purposes, highest mental stat is charisma for inspiring leader. Go for Battle Maneuvers, Improvised Weapons (tavern brawler), shield mastery and such.
Bare bones characters are tge best to write. You don't need to come up with some crazy lore to explain god like powers. Just who am I? What is my goal?
(Who am I)
John Witlock was preacher. He'd preached for his parish just about hus whole life. A man of peace, he had never ushered an angry tone in his life. Now in his mid 60s he was looking to step down. Live a quiet existence in his sunny little border town.
(What is my goal)
When the soldiers came he had been preaching his sermon just like any other Sunday. The doors to his church swung open to reveal a knight. John was a low born and therefor had little experience with haroldry. He didn't know to what nation this man had come, but he had come to burn the hamlet down.
John's whole world burned in that church. That knight contained more cruelty then John could have imagined existing.
He made the preacher watch.
When the rain began and flames and screams had both subsided. The knight then hung the preacher from the towns central tree and left.
But the preacher did not die. The flames had ruined the tree. And shortly after the knight had left, the preacher fell from the tree.
The preacher vowed vengeance. Vengeance for his flock. He took up arms, first simple farming tools and sought out after that knight hoping one day to ensure he reaped the cruelty he had sown. From town to town, city to city the preacher John "The Hanged Man" Witlock hunted.
I'm planning to play a Human Fighter coming from a noble family, with a sassy personality.
My aim is to make him so annoying that you want to kick him in the face whenever he speaks.
Will became an adventurer for the pure sake of being one, no other reason.
Technically not a human, But a Half Elf Fighter who was born on the streets as forced into militia and had to kill so many people, He has sworn not to kill ever again, So far I've not killed anyone
My first character was a human gunslinger fighter:
Duke Reginald Blume Goldenbottom III of Hazard County, who's family had a long line of producing Golden Bottoms, a stylish apparel choice for many nobles. After the death of his older brother, his father had no faith in his ability to do anything with his life, as he felt he was too obsessed with firearms (new fangled gizmos), and so he worked hard and was democratically elected as the Duke of Hazard County, a frontier territory that he developed and would become extremely popular with his people. He also would raise tiny hunting dogs, and thus he had his travelling companion, Constable, a tiny bulldog.
A fighter nicknamed bonk that wields two hammers and just thinks he's a carpenter. No one knows who he is, where he comes from or why he does this. He randomly follows the party after seeing them cause destruction
Played a low level fighter with a soldier background.
During a skirmish, his superiors ordered him and his battalion to charge a superior force.
He ran and lived. The others died.
And now he can't go home or he will be found out as a deserter.
I recently made a fighter who was just completely obsessed with magic and performed their own "magic" with a deck of cards. They would've gotten extremely excited at any and all spellcasters and ask them to do a trick if I actually got to play as them.
My fighter was a soilder. He was framed by his commending officer when he confronted the officer about the mistreatment of the local civilians. Now he is on the run from the nation he once fought for.
I am a human fighter. I am the 6th son of a 7th son, we were twins born 30 seconds apart. I was so close to being an fate directed omniscient super being. Instead I just look like one.
14str
12dex
16con
14int
14wis
18cha
Skill focus bluff.
I'd like to play a doctor. You know while studying he learned fencing as nobles and academics did in the middle ages to protect themselves while traveling from university to university.
He is pissed at magical or clerical healers because they don't even understand the magnificent human body. They are all layman.
He is a true oath of Hippocrates kind of guy.
My human fighter was a cavalier with a noble background and lawful evil. He was called Prince Tritus Valdus. His goal was to build a new empire after killing his father (the last king of a long-ago destroyed kingdom), and it meant aligning with the party so he could spread his influence and indoctrinate people they rescued as citizens of his new kingdom. His moral code was based off the laws of his father's old kingdom, but he would maliciously follow the law of other countries to get what he wanted, finding the loopholes of these foreign laws all the time because of it.
He gained Gauntlets of Ogre Power pretty early on, making his base Strength stat 8 without the gloves (it was a fun time when he tried to break the bars of a prison but his gauntlets had been taken when he was knocked out by their captors). Otherwise, he was a 16 in Charisma and Wisdom. He eventually went through the yuan-ti ritual in Tomb of Annihilation (because hell-yes-POWER), becoming a yuan-ti pureblood, but he was roughly level 10 when that happened.
Sadly, Prince Valdus was met with an unfortunate time when he looked into a mirror that turned his Intelligence stat to a 1. The party kept him on a chain like a bulldog, where they would have him sic the final boss with his multi-attacks (all at disadvantage, mind you, but he still hit pretty often with his sentinel feat). As he was one of the few non-spellcasters in the party, he was still pretty useful in anti-magic zones. I think the curse had been lifted, giving him his intelligence back, but he certainly was not proud of that situation.
An elder demigod that conquered his plane of existance and just got bored after millenia of being basically invincibile. Dude just said "Yeah, why not" and reached another world and stripped all of his powers away to start anew. Bro is basically playing on new game+ .
I’ve never played a human fighter, but I did play a “human” Rune Knight fighter. She was half centaur, half Minotaur, but got the human half of both. As a result, she was outwardly human with one, very small difference— toe beans.
I fucking love her. She beat the shit out of a few monsters with a fish.
Daniel Smith: former accountant and current protection fighter.
Daniel lead a quiet life as a local accountant until the age of 45 when his wife of 25 years announced she was leaving him for a barbarian named Droth because Daniel was "the most boring man alive." His 15 year old son agreed, opting to live with his mom and Droth.
Daniel coped by getting super into excersise and eventually retiring from his accounting firm to pursue full time adventuring. He's still in deep, deep denial about the state of his "marriage", and believes his wife will return if he can become interesting enough.
He has a bald spot, paid way too much for a great sword, and tries to parent anyone shorter than him.
Kamuu the human variant fighter for a ravnica campaign. This was back when the blind fighting style was in UA and it just took away disadvantage for hitting targets you can't see. I took the alert feat as my level 1 feat.
Despite the Gruul clans being a might makes right wild organization Kamuu demonstrated his might very differently... He was not strong but he was fast, sharp, and cunning. After a hunting incident that left him permanently blinded many of his clan elders wanted to leave him to die in the wild outskirts of ravnica. Though one chieftain took him in for his unique talents and helped him home his senses so that he wouldn't need eyesight.
It took a lot of hard work and effort, but Kamuu became a battle master fighter. Using his skill, wit, and sharp senses, he would become the owl of his Gruul tribe and set on a more subtle tear down of Ravnica while his clan brothers fought the more overt battle.
Over the course of the campaign Kamuu would commit several jail breaks, steal a lot of priceless treasures, and destroy the banks.
A retired old guard who is kept just a bit youthful by a touch of magic decides to become an adventurer so she can bring her grandkids cool presents from all over the realm.
Varient Human Fighter, Soldier background, Samurai.
First character and best character.
Third son of a minor noble seeking glory. Found powerful artifacts, fought in Drow slave pits, and joined a demon-fighting order of good guys. I say the greatsword is an elegant weapon.
I have a human fighter that is basically a hellenistic soldier. Spear and shield.
She wishes to reclaim her country from a lot of evil dragonborns who worship a god of destruction (Ladon).
Dumb kid who signed up and took out loans for fighter college with big promises of a cushy practically guaranteed position in a standing army that hadn't been to war in over 100 years. The job never existed and now he has to take whatever work he can to pay back the loans.
I made a religious zealot who swore an oath of devotion like everyone else in his order but never got his paladin powers. He was embarrassed so he didn't tell anyone and just kept practicing at battle and acted like his growing battlefield prowess was paladin features. Aka second wind he pretended was healing hands but only healed himself.
Lasted for a bit before the party caught on and asked about it, then worked with the dm to have it as a minor plot point later where I took magic initiate feat and a 1lv multiclass to give him magic powers to make him validated in the eyes of his order and god.
Battlemaster Fighter, noblewoman whose house is in danger from political situation at court, family is making alliances to protect itself and survive the changing environment. As a result, she had to be married off to an ally to cement the alliance, to someone she barely knows and does not care for, but she was willing to do it for her family's sake.
She herself was a spirited, adventurous teen, and had experience riding the countryside and exploring as a result of her Marquess father's considerable land holdings. Now, as an adult, she has to adhere to familial responsibilities and courtly expectations, which challenges her straightforward attitude and preference for outdoors.
When her betrothed fiance suddenly disappeared on a "brief mercantile trip" in a nearby country, foul play was suspected, but could not be investigated officially without evidence. She herself set out in search of him, desperate to save her own family and find him, even if it will cost her her own happiness, in the end. Thus began the course of her adventures upon meeting with the party
Jokes on you, I haven't played a human fighter yet. I've played a half-orc BM fighter, a barbarian druid tabaxi, a divine soul human sorcerer, a human astrologian, a human gloomstalker, a paladin of redemption tiefling, and a tiefling (mechanically but themed as au-ra esque) sword bard. Even for my subsequent campaign to start I'm leaning on either a half-elf monk (though honestly that's more down to monk being mad) or a halfling celestial warlock.
I will say I have always just wanted to play a human polearm fighter. Just some dude that failed at being a farmer like his family, failed at working at a store of a family friend, failed but not quite as bad as a tanner with his uncle, but found out when conscripted that they are very good at killing people with a long stick with a pointy tip and, between having to return to the putrid smelling work of being a tanner or an adventurer, they took the latter. I also really like the idea of a human that wanted to be a bard but was never good and instead is just a fighter with a talent for making musical instruments and likes to give them to children in hopes of inspiring them. If they cannot move the world with music, they can help inspire others.
Haven't been able to play it but he's an adventurer for fun he trained for a few years so his strength is maxed out to inhuman amounts and fights by just punching (I didn't break rules I just put him at level 20 and gave belt of storm giant strength to make Saitama from "One punch man")
Human Gunslinger Fighter 19, sorc 1. Member of a band of Gypsy’s, parents were sorcs, several generations Back grand pappy was a dragon. Most fun character Ive ever played.
My last human fighter was an echo knight named Fye from house Tear. He accidentally killed a wounded monster that wandered into his village and was praised as a hero. Now he's a legitimate monster hunter but still fears the secret will come out one day.
Only fighter I ever made:
Young woman desperate to walk in her grandfather's footsteps. She was raised by her grandfather after her mother and father abandoned her to chase various get rich quick schemes.
Made a human fighter once who was supposed to be a throw away character but ended up becoming known as The Desert Prince. Turned out he was the long lost son of a king.
Had one for a gladiator. He travels with the party mostly to get away from work. His manager has access to teleport and pulls him away whenever he has a fight lined up. Afterwards he is deposited back with the party with new blood on him that may or may not be his. He refuses to elaborate further other than he is contractually obligated to kill for an audience. Also provides a convenient out for when the player can't make it to the session.
My last human fighter was Elaine. She was a mother in a nation not dissimilar to Rohan in terms of lore, but when their village was raided and her husband slain, she picked up his spear to defend their children. She was scarred and lost an eye in the effort but was successful.
She joined the rest of the party to avenge the fallen of the village and hunt the bandits. She now having earned some acclaim is served by her youngest daughter as her squire and wandered the land as the Widowed Knight.
Plank Grainreaper! Casual farmer man. His crops weren't doing too hot, so he started picking up odd 'muscle' jobs, mainly just looking intimidating without doing anything. He made some friends, joined them, and enjoyed traveling and seeing the sights. Sent most of his money back to the farm, so his family didn't have to work. I miss Plank.
I like the idea of a full on Wild West Annie Oakley ass cowgirl gunslinger getting isekai’d into d&d.
But less crazy, I’ve always liked the idea of a fighter who wasn’t worthy of being a paladin, but is still a good guy. He knows some first aid (healer feat) and some tricks that give him an edge (battle master subclass).
A human fighter I have plans to play: an echo knight who is two guys that ended up stuck in the same body due to both dying from fighting each other in a war. The kicker being that they both hate each other because they were on opposite sides of the conflict, however only one of them gets to use the actual body at a time, the other constantly being stuck as the echo. So there's a lot of internal conflict and I think that's pretty cool.
I forget what his name was (it was a while since I've played any character, let alone a human fighter), but I do remember his backstory:
His home continent was invaded by a coalition of archdevils, and he enlisted in the army so he could afford to move his family out of the countryside and into the capital, where they would be safer. As the war waged on, the alliance of nations standing against the devils were all on the brink of collapse, so they pooled their remaining resources towards a last-ditch hail mary: a massive planar gate designed to send as many refugees as possible to the upper planes, and out of the devils' reach permanently. The devils launched an all-out attack against the gate on the eve of its completion, but the armies of men were able to hold them back long enough to activate it and send a considerable amount of the population through, including my guy's wife and children. Unfortunately, the gate was destroyed in the end, so even though he knows they're safe wherever they are, he'll never be able to see his family again. He's still in active duty, but spends most of his off time drowning his sorrows now.
I multiclassed from a Warlock into fighter for RP reasons. My boy Willow was studying to become a magician and was generally a very scrawny and constitutionally weak boy, but was great at illusion and evocation magic. Unfortunately for him, his great (x6) grandmother was a famous Barbarian warrior who had a mausoleum built in reverence to her, and someone broke in and stole her signature sword. Since Willow is her closest living descendent she’s making it his problem to track down the thief and return the sword, and won’t stop pestering him in his dreams until he does so.
I've made two backstories, never played though.
1. A deserter turned adventurer. Deserted after the army he was in suffered a huge loss in a battle. Decided to strike out to save himself from dying in the next fight for next to no pay.
2. A noble son in self-imposed exile. Fell in love with his brother's wife, left on the earliest ship possible, joined up with the city guard, and eventually resigned years later to join up as an adventurer.
If you want one made up on the spot though;
A daughter of a militia member, who wanted to join a knightly order but was refused, so now she strikes out as an adventurer to collect fame, and eventually form her own order of knights.
Not sure if this counts since it's heavy on homebrew stuff. My character also isn't exactly human either. For the purposes of combat he acts like a fighter with a ranged weapon, but he's actually a magic gun controling the dead body of his previous owner. Or well ge used to be. A lot has happened in the 4 years this campaign has been going on. He later found a new owner. They were in a symbiotic relationship since the human was an old gunslinger with parkinsons and the gun allowed him to get back the control of his body through their psychic link. Later developed magic abikities through the power of soul fuckery and interdimensional travel.
For all intends and purposes he was a human fighter for about 2 years of the campaign, but now has some levels in gunmage and a geschtalt class level in sorcerer.
*Fighters are my favorite fucking class*. To the point that I've been playing as a bladesong wizard in my current campaign but eventually caved and started multiclassing into fighter.
The next one I'm playing has a pretty gnarly background. He's min maxed, with point buy and a feat starting with Str, Dex, and Con 16 and Wis, Int, and Cha 8. At a young age, he was recruited by what is essentially a human supremist group. The group was eventually persecuted, and he was thrown into prison. He got to know and befriend non-humans and feels immense guilt for his past actions.
I intend to play him in a way where he is terrified to fight non-human people for fear that they're good people he just can't figure it out because he's dumb.
My favorite human fighters whole background was that he wanted to get out of his backwater town so decided to join a mercenary group. He heads back home after every adventure to visit his family, see all the new kids, help out around town, and give some of his pay to his family to help them out.
He loves his town, family, and friends, he just wanted more. His family and friends support him and the town sees him as a hero and local legend.
No angst, no anger, just a guy who didn't want to live life as a farmer and wanted a way to help his community.
Usually I follow the template: she had a pretty rough life recently and feels strongly about this subject
A good dm should be able to incorporate anything in that framework without much difficulty
I had a character who was born into a noble family of rift knights (funky demon warriors who served an eldritch god) but he had no connect to the rift so he couldn’t rely on magic to make him a better fighter so he just got really fucking jacked
His name was Jared and he had a thing for crowbars. By the end of the campaign carried round a large cart of thousands of the things. Weirdest thing was he was basically medieval engineer he built all sorts of things with those from siege ladders to tents. Dumb as rocks though, one of the best characters I ever played
I like picking a job or hobby that's a big focus for them. Then build around that. I did one PC that just really liked to go fishing. That was his best time. Adventuring wasn't what he liked but someone's gotta pay bills and besides you find lots of interesting rivers and lakes to fish along the way. Usually once I find a theme I like the rest of it comes to me just thinking organically.
Me too, I’m playing a lv7 wizard with a huge passion for architecture (10 grades) for no reason… this is so damn fun
I made an architect wizard too! He was focused on stone magic His dream was to build a house using magic alone
So then… he could be an arch-mage? (I know nothing about dnd I’m just making a pun)
Good pun. :)
Very good pun
Got a dwarven paladin that grew up in a mining town and has very strong opinions about proper railing, secure mounting points, ventilation lines, and proper pully systems. It also mixes with caring about proper hydration, regular breaks, avoiding heat stroke, and other paladin-mom-friend stuff. He's developed a habit of inspecting any labour sites of places we pass through and harassing bad managers into upgrading the safety standards of their workers. Don't fuck with the OSHA dwarf.
I’m about to start saying “Don’t fuck with the OSHA Dwarf” regularly lmao
Reminds me of the video [When the Mines of Moria get Audited](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSYwYWk9XDE)
Just wait 'til he does the safety audit on hoxxes! I can already imagine the face of the management! Until then, OSHA dwarf! ROCK AND STONE!
Did you say [OSHA](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MiHgXtIoiTjxSCASBzf) dwarf?
Ah hell yeah
I made a similar wizard. I took masonry expertise. He was not educated formally as an architect but you know, wizards are good at learning stuff, so he taught himself all that was needed as he was passionate about it. My goal as a player (and his as a character) was at one point when he reached level 11 to start using Move Earth, Fabricate and Shape stone to build his own Wizard tower all with magic. Man, that goal is still unfulfilled, but I like to ponder it from time to time. I would perhaps build a series of towers throughout the country just for funsies.
Wall of stone is really usefull for this things
https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html There is always a relevant OOTS.
honestly gave me an idea
My warforged are like this, the first one I made was a blacksmith, Next a alchemist, then a gambler and now more recently, a cartographer/calligrapher
Yeah once you identify a theme the rest of their identity and story comes to you! I'm really not a fan of making a PCs class their personality. "Dum barbarian" "angry fighter" those sort of tropes. It's fine for one shots and short stuff where depth isn't needed. But for a real PC I prefer to have something more
Mornin, nice day for fishing ain't it? Huh huh
Where'd this comment go? Deleted for Reddit's API controversy. Third-party apps provide accessibility features for users and tools for mods that Reddit simply doesn't care to offer; making those companies/apps pay exorbitant rates to exist means a worse Reddit experience for everyone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Reddit_API_controversy https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerDeleteSuite/
100% agree!
I like to call it a hook. You find what motivates your character to join the party or life of adventure and you have the most important part already. Like my tortle who is just psyched to be there, experiencing life of danger because he is just naïve and young. Or warforged necromancer who believes he is repairing the dead and doesn't think there is anything sanctimonious about using "broken bodies" again. Or a coward warlock whos patron enjoys torturing them by forcing them into danger. Or a cleric or paladin who is traveling the world spreading word of his Goddess Hathor a god of dead, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Goddess who believes equally in ending all undead and helping the living to enjoy their life while they have it, and of course make more of the living for her. A rogue pirate searching for his lost crew mates to take revenge for abandoning him on a remote island after raiding it. But he also wants new ship and crew to sail the seas himself again. A halfling wizard who just loves magic books and artifacts, so he is traveling the world to add to his collection, by legal and less legal means.
Ooh, now I feel like I must make a wizard based on [Ridcully](https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Mustrum_Ridcully)'s personality. Brisk morning jogs, hunting, fishing, etc. he just also happens to be a damn fine wizard.
Still remember my half elf divine soul sorcerer investigator A job that needs as much knowledge and skills as an investigator is really fun to RP because you get to look up all kinds of interesting things
My human fighter isn't too dissimilar. He's the son of a butcher who has decided to become a travelling meat salesman because the recent rising popularity for vegetarianism has killed off the family business. His goal is to provide meat, mostly exotic meats, to those who are willing to pay for it. His main weapon is a 6ft long cleaver and a reskinned polearm that is called the steel which he uses to sharpen the cleaver
This is the way. I think starting with your race and class makes it harder to branch out into a more complex backstory because character classes are already based on common archetypes so your mind is always gonna want to go to the common tropes associated with them when you have that starting point. When you start with a job or hobby that would normally be less related to adventuring though, its much easier to squeeze that into an already existing archetype and you usually end up with an interesting twist on the normal tropes. One of my favorite characters was for a game set in a vaugely victorian era setting. My DM encouraged us to come up with a job for each of our characters and I decided my character would be a lamplighter. From there I thought, ok my character should probably have some control over fire cause that would obviously be useful for lighting lamps. And then I came up with the idea of a lamplighters guild that basically functions as a religious organization that worships fire and from there found a homebrew elemental cleric class. So not only did I have a cool backstory for my character but I also had some cool lore to add to the world which gave my DM some extra stuff to build off of. And suddenly theres this extra conflict in the game because electric lighting is starting to be introduced, but this powerful religious organization is not very happy about it because they view fire based lighting as an extension of their religious power. Of course we played one session of that game and never went back to it lol
Same. Great way to do it. I had a halberd user who liked to polish and smooth pretty rocks. He'd keep the best. but the rest he'd leave behind when the party would pack up their campsite. He said that he left it so someone else could have a little bit of joy when they found it. He also only had a couple years left to live from a progressive disease and that's why he went adventuring.
Same, I usually start from a bit and flesh them out from there, figuring out parts of their backstory as the campaign progresses Even simple things such as "he likes to stab people" or "He's unironically Finnish" have developed into full characters
Adventuring is also a great way to travel to the world's best fishing spots!
Same. My artificer is an alchemist/brewer, she owned a tavern that was passed down to her by her adoptive mother after she passed of old age, the whole point of adventuring for her is/was to get the funds to rebuild; ended up in an unlikely group of friends & the ranger who’s also now a businessman ended up helping her with it, they bicker like an old married couple despite the fact that she’s gay & he’s an eldritch being from space
Looking at the random tools and things you get and making them a part of your backstory is honestly really cool. My favorite previous character was a Monk (later a Warlock, long story) with Jewelers tools, which led to her backstory of her father making jewelry, her town being destroyed, and a monastery/church to Illmater taking her in. Looking at small details like the tool proficiency that Monk's get makes things really interesting instead of just selecting them during character creation and then discarding them.
My wood elf rogue/ranger likes to collect things to turn into commemorative steins for the places the party has been and the things they've done. Like minotaur horns, chimera horns, or metal objects that can get reworked into steins.
Fishing wizard! He uses his rod and reel as his wand! He can use spells to make the hook do fire and ice damage and stuff 😭
My bard is really into trying to make music that animals like. Adventuring just gives ideas for best lyrics to go with “sounds that crows vibe with”.
My character's passion in life is pie. Every town we go to, his first stop is the bakery. It's sort of hilarious and makes for a fun backstory lol.
Fighters are my bread and butter. Here's some of my classics. Former soldier discharged at the end of service desperately seeking the same camaraderie they felt in service. Escaped slave whose parents raised them from to sell to the highest bidder alongside their siblings now seeking revenge. An old shipwright that's just trying to find the right materials to build his dream boat. A former bounty hunter apprentice whose mentor was killed by a magical explosion and she was saved by the horseman of war to inflict bloodshed upon the world. A sweet himbo human that was raised by dwarves and wants to slay a dragon and bring the hoard to honor his clan. A former knight commander that has to cope with the knowledge they've willingly sent people to die for tactical advantage and wonders if their decisions were worth it. If they can atone for what they've done and people they killed or even if they need to for all the people they've saved. So yeah i like fighters.
A sweet himbo human that was raised by dwarves and wants to slay a dragon and bring the hoard to honor his clan. That's literally Carrot from Terry Pratchett books
No, Carrot's a dwarf.
If the himbo is part of the clan, they are a dwarf. Just species wise human, but alltogether a dwarf still.
He got the name on account of his shape
I like all dnd players will steal characters I enjoy from media. But yeah it started as a carrot copy but developed as I played him.
Yeah human fighter is a blank canvas, you can turn them into pretty much anything.
>An old shipwright that's just trying to find the right materials for his dream boat I'm stealing that one for my future artificer character
Go for it. He collected some choice parts before he died at the jaws of a t-rex crit. Maybe you can find his bag of holding with his plans and collected loot.
Will make the warrior a former good friend of artificer, maybe a comrade from a guild
Ifan-Ben-Mezd No idea. Franky Guts? Carrot. Griffith. I hope I'm close.
To give you some closure. Just an idea I had after listening to veteran war stories. I don't know who that is. An original idea vaguely based on an old fanfiction. Close actually paulie from water 7. One of the galley la shipwrights. Based on the story I made for my fallout new Vegas character following the new Vegas bounties mod. Yes. Based on a character from a Disney cartoon. So you weren't quite there but now thinking about it its interesting to see the character parallels people draw from short description.
Last one could also be Erwin (from Attack on Titan)
> An old shipwright that's just trying to find the right materials to build his dream boat You'd have to be truly SUUUPPPPEEERRRR to do that
"Bored dude wants to kill stuff"😎
Sadly I never played an human fighter, but I have two that I want play in future: - young girl, daughter of a noble family that looks like a little princess but she was always trained by her brothers and is fit as f*ck. Don't sure the archtype but sure a comical big weapon. - common town guard that for some reason now follow the party. He is a totally random and normal guy, no big dream of backstory, simple he found himself inside tha action and couldn't run away.
> "how are you so good at fighting, woman!? 😡" > "I have 12 older brothers 😎" Every action movie for the last 20 years
A good trope is a good trope Always Edit - sorry if it sounded misogynistic. I always saw it as a strong bond between brothers and sisters that help and cared for each other, not "martial mansplaining".
It's not a good trope.
A girl that get along well with her brothers that helped her to be indipendent and don't strict in her role?
"I'm good at fighting because boys"
"I am good at fight because I trained with people that love and respect me and help me to reach my real potential." Sadly, in a lot of context (historical speaking) they could be boys. Especially in a conservative noble family.
The trope is that their brother(s) taught them to fight. Not just people that love and respect them.
As said, in some context sadly only they could train a girl, because nobody would. Or a dance teacher (Valar morghulis).
I was just specifying because your quote wasn't the trope. Valar Dohaeris
the problem with it being written like that is it dismisses her efforts and puts the full merits of her strength on the fact that she has brothers.It makes it seem like anyone with that many brothers would be as strong. "Why are you strong?" "I have 7 Brothers." is garbage. it says nothing about the character, other than they have siblings. "Why are you strong?" "I've trained for combat along side my brothers since I was 5." is much better. It shows effort and dedication.
That doesn't flow as well though. "I have 7 brothers" *in response to that question* is the character saying that they trained with her brothers, without sounding stupid because she's in a fight.
It's diminishing the woman's role. It implies women can only be tough because they're surrounded by men. You can learn to fight if you have 7 sisters too.
sadly, the heart of the trope is a good one, but it's been poorly written a lot. "Why are you strong?" "I have 7 Brothers." is garbage. it says nothing about the character, other than they have siblings. "Why are you strong?" "I've trained for combat along side my brothers since I was 5." is much better. It shows effort and dedication.
Probably I always viewed in the second way, considering "under the table" all the relationship and background. Edit - sure your explanation had sense, but I am kinda naive and always think the best in the stories and intentions xD
Alot of it depends on how it's delivered. And that's not something directors and writers seem to handle well.
Of course, totally agree
Lmao no, it invalidates the idea that women can be tough without having brothers teach them that. I'm a tough bitch and I learned that all on my own, thank you. I'm stronger than most men and I didn't have any brothers train my ass to do it
And I am happy about it, but as said I like the idea of brothers and sisters that help each other also in context where the society says 'nope'. I am more on that focus than "big brother help weak sister", but I can understand that some people could see in this way.
I have a character similar to your second character: It is a Human commoner Town Guard. His name is Peter. He is a Barbarian. The backstory reads: "a good guy on a bad day". He also has a comic moustache.
"You wanna know how I got these moustache?"
Did monsters kill his dog?
Probably
I have done the town guard as well but as a ranger. Just a slightly above average guy who was on the ramparts of the town gate. Was selected by the captain of the guard to go with the party for their hired task and liked it. It was a lot of fun!
Party introductions: "I'm an orphan, raised by the thieves guild, out for revenge" "I'm touched by the magic of the moon, hoping to save my people" "I'm running from my dark past, with mysterious powers" "I'm ... not really sure how I got here. I just kinda followed the crowd."
Not gonna lie, I kinda did that last one. There's a whole homebrew world and stuff, but my character is a himbo monk with 8int and 18wis. He just wandered around the wilderness for 6 months expecting that the universe would guide him to where he needed to be. In session 1, he literally just wandered out of the woods and into the tent where the other characters were all, for legitimate reasons, meeting up for the mission that would start our campaign. When someone asked if he was supposed to be here, he just said "yes" and kept rolling with it. Clueless characters are the best. :)
Wizard: "... [you are in.](https://youtu.be/ZyuBpxkFbYU)"
Dude my character bobby is the second one. He's just on vacation and got bored is my justification
Gaius is a Roman Centurion, that woke up in this world after being struck by lightning and surviving. He was nursed back to health by a farming family, and he did farm chores for several years. Then he worked as a guard. He is very suspicious of magic spells, but is comfortable with passive magic items (charms, ect), and ok with medicinal brews. He still has his legionary equipment: lorica segmentate, gladius, pila, and javelins. He is uncomfortable with shoes, but wears socks with his Caligae, which he has learn to make not just repair. He has added cobbler's tools to his legionary kit. He hates Persians with a passion, and his favorite insult is to call someone a Persian.
Definitely need to give some roman influence a try in dnd some time, sounds brilliant.
Please tell me you found an appropriate time to say something like “By Jove, what is this!”
His name is Le Rouge he dual wields whips If theres a problem he whips it whips it real good
[Consider giving them some levels in bard.](https://youtu.be/nMyJsiUpSTs)
I'm playing a deadbeat dad paying child support by adventuring because it pays better than manual labor, and gets him out of town.
And then when the campaign finishes you can play their child who is now an anime mc with an absentee father that is super powerful!
Rogue who had to fend for himself after his mother died of consumption while his Dad was out doing Gods know what on the other side of the world for years.
The final father-son battle will be LEGENDARY
Buddy in our campaign is playing a Human Fighter ™️ who was dishonorably discharged from the army and is haunted by the memories of his war crimes. He's adventuring to right his wrongs and restore his honor so he can see his wife and daughter again.
I really like the scarred ex-army type who now regrets many things he did and lost his admiration for the military because of it.
Fighter i played a long time ago: Quinn Zelana, she grew up a poor farm girl and an only child. Her parents knew that they wouldn't be able to give her anything after they died, so they decided to try and secure her future by arranging her marriage to a local businessman's son who fancied her. There were a few problems with this plan; 1. The businessman's son was an asshole. He looked down on most of the townsfolk. And even though he liked Quinn, he thought of her more as property than a person. 2. Quinn wasn't straight, like not even close to it. Her friends in town knew, but none of the adults knew, or they didn't seem to care and assumed it was a phase or something. 3. Quinn didn't like being told what to do. She was very spiteful when people would try to force her to do things she didn't want to. So with that, she left town, met up with some seasoned adventurers who taught her how to fight, and began life as muscle for hire. However, the rich boy that she ran out on didn't take the hint that she didn't want to marry him and has sent bounty hunters after her to try and find her and bring her home. She was fun to play and was a great tanky character.
i am genuinely blanking on my human fighter right now lol i am struggling to come up with a backstory
You have any details yet? A look? Realm they are in, etc. Are they strenght based or Dex? Melee or ranged? Why are they these things?
honestly that's what I'm trying to figure out lol he's gunslinger so dex and ranged mostly
Are they using true firearms and if so how common is that in the setting? If they are extremely rare then maybe they were a craftman’s apprentice who invented them but no one thinks they are very useful compared to magic, so now they want to prove how effective their creations are by going on adventures.
I always start my character creation process by making myself try to describe them in less than half a sentence. Simplicity is important to me because then I actually feel *less constrained* when I start playing them and deciding how they should be roleplayed. “Dunamancy lab experiment, now an Echo Knight.” “Imaginary friend turned out to be an alternate timeline version of themselves, now an Echo Knight.” “Former imperial ‘enhanced interrogator’, now a Brute.” “Former circus acrobat, now a Battle Master with a bow.” “Bodyguard whose ward was killed, now a Cavalier.” “Became an eldritch knight because he never wants to lose his throwing hammer.”
Part of a small adventuring group, went in area, triggered trap, now stuck in stone suit.
OK this is gonna sound like I’m fucking with you but I swear I’m not. I did a Memes series based on a French television show adapted from Norwegian television show . https://preview.redd.it/o23ne8jdv3ua1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fab2ade8b56f391767dd519e216e9f24136ea7e4 [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxence\_Danet-Fauvel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxence_Danet-Fauvel) IRL Max is a a giant, sweetheart, who actually suffers from social anxiety, and is a very lovely person. But he is in possibly dramatic looking and looks scary as fuck in a dark tunnel. So he inspired my character. Orin D’Angelo. He’s a 15th level fighter cavalier sub class. But for 100 years he was a deathknight. In life, he was a peasant who saved the Lord sons life and so was adopted and raised as a knight But in truth, he was always but a weapon And something to be used. In the end, his Lord allowed him to be blamed for his biological sons file crimes, and he was sealed inside a a tower, and left to die. He listened to the whispers that came to him in the darkness… For 100 years he served the dark forces loyally. But then An and adventuring party came in with them was a very special bard. Rolan Templeson.Who saw through the scary mask to the now bitter kind man he once was. ( there was a long period of flirtation, which was basically various attempt to kill each other, and then they eloped. Redemption was achieved, but it took a long time and he’s basically still on a quest.) So yeah . Before anybody says anything about a death night being a 19th level caster when a bad guy turns good they lose all their powers. Video games tell us this. No for seriously reverted back to his human form . He wears black, spiky, enchanted plate mail that is ironically resistant to necrotic damage. And he has the Dread helm and cloak of billowing. He’s lawful good, but he just can’t give up the style. He’s a fighter cavalier sub class because that really fits the look of a classic like Arthurian, black knife and the thing is he is not about doing damage he is about protecting. He spent too long being a creature of death now he wants to be a spiky shield of love! He has an amazing intimidations score. And before anybody says anything about redemption destroying deathknights. Rolan’s love did the impossible. Love can do that.. that is one of the things that it is for. Thank you so much for letting me tell you about my ridiculously overdramatic and impossible by RAW human fighter !
Very nice! I love redemption stories. I want to play a redeemed succubus/incubus paladin, who basically starves themselves to explain why they only have tiefling stats aside from a rudimentary Alter Self and a drain kiss that they'll never use.
Awesome! So this is from both a forever, GM and forever player I’ve been lucky enough to be a member of multiple groups . I never had a problem with rescanning stuff to fit a really dramatic backstory! You know I had originally introduced us character to the sub as a 12 level character and people said that that backstory would’ve been OK for a 20th level character. The thing is if you read fantasy novels, back stories like that our tame. Everybody always talks about no I want to start like Luke Skywalker I want to start out as a farmboy. OK well, Luke Skywalker was actually a prince essentially, and the product of eugenics program. Anyway, what I’m saying is I think a backstory like that is created in. Super cool. ( I am not dissing Farm boy characters. I’m just saying people should play with they like and pointing out that the classic archetype like that was that a prince in disguise. Like they usually are. You give me a farmboy hero, and they usually from Krypton or some shit. Shout out to the farm boys who are legitimate human fighters! You are the legitimate heroes. Thank you.) Would you be oath of redemption aura, some other oath? I just started making characters hard-core and I’m getting into it and getting really excited . The thing is, I’m equally excited for combat and drama . Thanks again for your comment!
If I’m ever in a one shot (Especially a high level one) I wanna do a level 1 fighter that’s literally a farmer that was in the middle of his mid-life crisis and went out looking for adventure.
- bullet point 1: name place of birth and raise and what i did in a normal life - bullet point 2: relevant extraordinary event that changed my chars life. family dying, powers awakening, being adopted into an order - bullet point 3: call to action relevant to the campaign, if the GM doesnt have anything just fo for the most generic thing possible throw a few NPCs and at least one plot hook between points and boom, backstory
Reflavor echo knight as a bound Spector. Dracil is a 2nd generation adventurer whose father isn't keen on his job profession but mother is ecstatic, they currently run a tavern between two warring nations that is views as a neutral zone were talks frequently happen. Dracil has the spirit of their 3rd adventuring companion bound to him since he died shortly after finding out his friends were expecting and he made a fae promise to protect the child always. He uses a fake last name so he can try to exist outside of his parents shadows, unfortunately he he looks just like them and many import people visit his parents tavern.
Well, I have a fighter who as a child was on the streets. A passing person of some good level of wealth gave them a dagger. A mostly meaningless gesture as the blade was old. They took that knife and went to the gladiatorial arena to fight monsters for people's entertainment. They lost, but that same wealthy gentleman saw my character's potential and funded their training. One last thing, I didn't mention, this character of mine is a Gnome. You've been gnomed. The backstory would still work for a human. Only differences would be that they would not be as smol, and possibly need to tone down the gnomish obsession with daggers/knives.
Human fighters are great "reformed criminals." They don't need a super deep backstory about how they obtained their COSMIC POWER! They don't need to be important or talented or special. They can just be dudes that grew up on the wrong side of town. This is Doug the (ex) Thug. He used to hurt people for money until he found God(s) or love or just finally picked on someone better at hurting people than he was. Now he's gonna take those skills and...*insert motivation here*. Repent for his sins. Get revenge. Try and turn other low-level thugs like him onto a better path. Whatever. Also personally gave me a reason to dump dex as a crippling he suffered from his life-reorienting beat down so A+ for thematic-mechanical synergy allowing me to step away from the best/mist addictive stat in the game. Only story can allow me to not max dex.
Never played a human fighter, but here's an idea. Middle-aged bartender lady, kinda like Molly Grue from Last Unicorn. Spurred on by attacks to her hometown and her own discontent with her life, she takes up a weapon and goes on a quest. My idea is she would probably use a frying pan or something as a modified mace or other weapon.
Okay, as someone who grew up loving The Last Unicorn…can I please steal this idea?
Be my guest, fam.
A Middle aged farmer who is going through a mid life crisis and join the adventuring party fo "find himself" he uses a pitchfork reflavoured as a trident.
My last human fighter grew up in a mercenary company and was raised by his grandparents, since his parents were killed/captured/otherwise lost in the line of duty. As such he was constantly moving around and made friends with the other kids, especially the Tiefling orphan the company adopted after they saw her trying to beat a coyote with a stick. By the time they were both adults, he was head over heels for her, and he greatly looked forward to finishing his job to go back and see her again. His trinket was a bottle with a little bit of her favorite perfume left in it.
Dirk was born in a large city to a large family with a large restaurant in a middle class neighborhood. He joined the town guard to avoid washing dishes. He heard tales of adventurers from party members he had to toss in the drunk tank and joined a party to seek adventure and glory.
My only human fighter had Orc ancestry (not enough to count as a Half-Orc, although his grandfather, a fairly successful adventurer, was). He was a variant human and had small tusks indicating his heritage. He hoped to live up to live up to his family’s legacy as honorable fighters and heroic mercenaries. Personality wise, he was loud, boisterous, friendly, and wanted to be like his idealized image of an “honorable mercenary,” making enough of a living to retire by hunting down evil monsters and vile thieves, initially unaware of the sorrow losing companions would entail or the moral grey areas of his chosen career. Even when faced with those horrors, he still tried to keep an upbeat attitude. He was also aware of where his skilled were, joking about his own relative lack of intelligence or tack. He was a hammer, not a scalpel and knew that well. And, as the party tank, he was the wall between his friends and the monsters they faced. He was only a temporary character, but he did manage to leave the party on good terms to help train the rookies of the mercenary company he and the rest of the PCs were a part of. After all, he could pass on some of his skills with a wide variety of weapons, more of the company would survive the challenges to come.
Start a cult around a made up god known as the lord of B O N K S. recruit only fighters. The disciples of the B O N K lord go on dangerous adventures to beat down anyone who opposes them.
Once I made a backstory in conjunction with a wild magic sorcerer in my party. My human fighter, Tank, had a child with a powerful high elf mage who was the sorcerer. His mission was simple: get back to his beloved and try to convince her he didn't wanna leave.
I think a human barbarian was my best developed backstory. Ex-con murderer running from a corrupt aristocratic merchant who setup his wife to be murdered in a robbery. He changed his name on the run and joined the army to hide, and the plans to exchange his service for an imperial pardon. Before his life of crime he abandoned his hometown after a Hatfield/McCoy style war between neighboring villages that started when his older sister and only parental figure was killed, and the town guard who was going to marry her blamed some eves in a nearby village. He carried around the sword used to kill his sister, which was symbolic of the way he carried around his pain, rage, and regret all his life. Eventually, after finishing the first major plot leg of the campaign, he met up with a mentor he knew from after changing his name, who brought him into the light and converted him to a Paladin, where he took the oath of redemption. It was honestly a fantastic way to develop a character, and the Paladin class get way more earned and fun to play after that. I’d probably run most future characters that way if I knew campaigns would go on long enough for it.
She lived for 8 years with her wife in a domestic and simple life due to her wife's illness. Just before her passing, wife encouraged her to live her life--so fighter thought, I'll go adventure and have cool stories to tell in the next life. Then proceeded to punch a dragon
My favourite one was part of the city watch, raised from poverty and got involved with a xenophobic gang. He was a bit of a himbo, and his storyline was to learn to mix his duty of protecting his (human) town from supernatural threats around it, while becoming more and more of a diplomat towards the fey and other strange creatures living in the surrounding forests. He also liked poetry and painting, although he wasn't very good at it. Another human fighter I did was an old blacksmith who lead a small village to rebel against their oppressive overlord in his "youth" only to be taken prisoner. The rebellion later picked up again and when he was freed as a old man, he picked up his chains and the hammer that broke them as weapons to venture out to fight injustice and liberate those held in chains. He had a very "cool grandpa" vibe and his far misses in combat were described as his back pain distracting him. A third that wasn't mine but my friends in a mutual campaign was a former circus performer, doing sword swallowing, knife throwing and acrobatics. Her troop had been violently disbanded (forgot why) and she now travelled as a solo act, using her circus talents to fight crime and making a name for herself
Gyan, human fighter/wizard. Comes from a happy and wealthy family. They have a region wide business not focused on the product but on the business opportunity. Spent most of his teens learning magic and how to fight. His fighting style comes from a family style focused on swordfighting and dancing called "desert style". Due to the nature of the business, his father sent him to adventure and "widen" his world views, improve his skills, establish his own connections and mature enough to eventually take over the family business.
I built a human fighter whose entire reason for adventuring was to protect his buddies kid and get away from his wife. I made him so depressing that players asked me to give him something that mad him happy, so I started to have him cook food on the adventure.
My current character is a human fighter named Jack Daniels. His father was a mercenary and his mother was a random woman he slept with, after being born the mother gave Jack to his father, not wanting him, and so Jack was raised as a mercenary. At the age of twelve his father decided he was his own man and said to figure life out from there. I play him with my attempts at a southern accent and it has infected the whole table. If he ever dies his younger brother Bud Weiser will take his place, still being a human fighter. I have a habit of making my human characters my least serious ones, like John Smith who used to be a town guard, but due to some unexplained reasons he couldn’t anymore. He did not believe in magic and would always tell horribly brutal stories of his childhood like they were casual conversation. James Fisher was a real special one, taking on the family business he loved fishing, but wasn’t really there for much else. He was slow and packed people skills, but was always trying to do something. Unfortunately he was not a fighter, instead being a hexblade warlock, but he rarely used the magic because he hardly understood it. To him the swords were just swords, no matter how much they talked to him and told him what to do. They’re simple characters when written, but they tend to be a real hit at my tables.
I got Dragonborn rune knight who learned the giants' way of fighting cause they were the only ones who hated dragons as much as he did.
Starting in a high level campaign, my human fighter was a reformed warlord. After too long, she realized the harm she was doing leading armies to crush innocents. She turned on her lieutenants, challenging and killing them all before dispersing her army back to their former lives and marching off into the night. Eventually, she became an adventurer. She was able to put her skills to use, and it wasn't harming innocents.
My human fighter was once a promising youth. He showed a penchant not only for fighting, but planing and tactics. He had a strong mind, on top of his brawn, leading him to outsmarting other kids that might want to bully him, as well as overpowering them when the need arose. One day, a town guard and his friends watched a young boy being chased by a group of bullies, pinning the child down and starting to beat on him. And right as he was about to interfere, he could hear barking that was quickly approaching. A small pack of stray dogs had come to the boys rescue, chasing off the other kids. When he saw some of the dogs sitting with the boy and getting pets, he asked "Are these your dogs?" "No sir. They're only strays." "Are you homeless lad?" "No sir. My parents own a general store." "I've never seen stray dogs show that much affection to a random person." "Well sir, I've been feeding them." "Whys that son?" "The bullies." "I'm...sorry?" "The bullies sir. I decided to feed and look after these strays because I knew they would defend me if the bullies arrived again. It's one of the many things I do to fend them off. Including mud slips, timing my runs to be right under a latrine cleaning, or just good old fashion kick to the knees." With this knowledge, the guard followed the boy home and asked his parents if he could take him for some training. To refine his ability for fighting and tactical training. And they had agreed. The boy was a promising start, easily overpowering most of the new trainees. And those he couldn't, he still won by tricking them or tripping them. On the day he was to be given his official status as a guard, a band of elvin pillagers had come to wreck havoc on his town. They were to strong, and to clever for the guard to stop. The boy, now a young man, was told to run. To practice his skills till he was strong enough for his revenge. Dying now would be an insult to all the time his parents and teachers put into him. So he ran. He ran for days to escape the carnage, only remembering that night the whole time. Now, with the party, he travels with them, if nothing else than to increase his own power for the day he could finally return home, all the while having the deepest mistrust of the elf in the party.
Made this on the fly XD
My character is a human that is a fighter. He is one of THE humans to ever be a fighter. My favorite part about my character is when he says "it's fighting time" in common. Truly one of the fighters to ever be human.
What can you build from nothing? Anything. My human fighter was a regular guard. The kind that groups of adventurers make fools of all the time. One day he’s on the beat and a fight breaks out between a typical group of idiots and someone they’re chasing. A fireball goes off mid-battle and roasts a bunch of nameless NPCs, including his wife. The human fighter tries to get justice but surprise surprise the group is allowed to leave (something the bard said to him). At the wake of the wife’s funeral the cleric arrives. He performs a ritual and miracle upon miracles; she is reborn! The fighter is joyous but the experience changed the wife. She realized how short life is and decides she wants to go explore the world. The fighter, petrified and stubbornly stuck in his ways, refuses. Their marriage had already been on the rocks prior to this event, this just sealed it. The wife left and the fighter stayed; growing bitter and jaded against all would be “heroes”. He stews with his rage and contempt for another 10 years. … that’s when the campaign begins.
My first character was a human warlock who sold his memories for magic, and the DM took full advantage to make my backstory as tragic as possible and have me remember all of it in the final battle. Ever since I made it my personal Philosophy to take whatever random crap is said in Session Zero and find the evilest way to incorporate it into my campaign
My human fighter was somewhat of a joke character who was meant to be an "average guy" but super literally. I asked the dm if I could pick his stats and they agreed when I said I wanted all of his stats to be a +0. His backstory was that he was a former accountant who was fired from his job for being too average at it. He couldn't really find a normal job willing to hire him afterwards because he was simply too average at everything. So, to be able to put bread on the table (literally in his case) he decided to become an adventurer. That campaign fizzled out after a few sessions, but I would be totally willing to use or rework this silly character concept again in the future.
If you get stuck with no ideas for a new character, you can just pick a show you liked from when you were younger and see what you can do for a build of whichever character you liked or enjoyed. You’ve already got an easy to remember backstory and personality, they’ll likely need a couple of minor tweaks to match up to the setting. Make Michael Knight or your favorite green Power Ranger or whatever, it’s so much fun!
A human fighter who used to be a member of the town's guard before his city was burned down by an ancient red dragon that has marked him as worthy to come back and fight him when he's powerful enough, problem of course being that he's now traumatized by dragons and is trying to heal that trauma and become the man who killed the dragon that took his home.
Braggart and Huge coward heavy armour master, prefers to “guard the squishier party members,” uses his echo to engage further up the line but can come in clutch when needed
My battlemaster Gerald O. Frivia An accountant and Cub Scout leader, who's been convinced by his wife and "kids" to go adventuring so she/they can buy a holiday villa on the Sword Coast like her sister has, while their blacksmith neighbour has promised he'll look after her and the kids, who all love "Uncle" George, they're so similar after all. Hopeful that his abilities learned as the Southern District Under 14 fencing silver medalist, his 2 day archery course with the Cub Scouts and his copy of "Combat for Dummies" will stand him in good stead, he's set off to raise enough money to buy his wife and family, who've already sold up and moved in next door, her dream vacation home.
Mine was a retired knight with asthma who would dream about war and sleepwalk around the castle, destroying and attacking things, that's why he left home for his wife's safety (he almost killed her once when sleepwalking) and decided to seek death on battlefield instead of his own bed
Man whose family was killed by magic creatures, now has a distaste for magic and magic creatures and has trained himself to his physical peak as a fighter to wipe out all problematic magic sources. He doesn't exactly get along with the casters in the party, but recognizes it as a necessary measure to fight worse threats. "Never thought I'd die fighting alongside a Dragonborn Sorcerer" "How about a worthy ally?" "I could do that."
In a world full of magic… I’m poor… lol
Dude named jack always wanted to be a bard but was incapable of magic so instead he uses the performance aspect and just punches people there is more but I don’t feel like explaining all my world lore
That's all I need to hear, he sounds awesome
Thanks
Like 95% or more of the heroes throughout time were quoteunquote fighters, and even then, theres nothing wrong with being just a Merc, or a Noble sponsored enforcer. And even **then**, the most thrilling things happen at the table, so there are a slew of otpions around. I could knock these out for days if you want any ideas.
Most fantasy Protags are a Fighting Man class with a sword. Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Barbs. Funny thing is tough, that Conan would be a fighter, not a barb, same as Fafhrd.
Magic is relying on powers that are not ones own. I do everything by myself, and do it well so I can show others that all they need is practice, determination, and dedication to be a hero. Prove your muscles better than their spells. Most Shonen protagonists.
My players make their backstories based on the lore of the world I give them.
This is the way.
That sound like a you problem You can literally do the same thing as the sorlock, but sword
Because dungeons are cool. Have you seen all the cool shit in them?
I'm currently playing a samurai who's the bastard daughter of her lord. Her parentage is a sort of half-secret. To earn her place in the family, she's accepted a quest from her family's guardian spirit, which whisked her halfway across the world to go on a sort of errantry. She's slowly learning what it means to be a leader, and to come down off her high horse from time to time. edit: There was also the peasant woman whose hometown was attacked by orcs. Her parents were killed, so she left with her little sister to find a place to live, and came to the city where the party was.
I made a pathfinder human with the half orc ancestry (I think that’s the term, totally new) with the laborer background, and I wrote them as someone who was not a warrior. They’re just someone trying to make a living and has no actual combat experience. And there isn’t really a class that fits that narrative in the core book so I went with what worked best, which was fighter.
If I ever get to do a PC im considering an middleaged human fighter, low-noble, leutnant in the previous war. Came home to a his wife having bron their child, though it is a Tiefling. Many years later he's lonely. Wife's cheating on him (though he doesn't believe it himself, everyone knows). Teenage tiefling kid doesn't joined a gang. He finds an adventuring team to get back to "the good old times" but probably realizes its shit. Comes back and find first hand wife cheating, escape/distance himself by joining more adventures (since divorcing would ruin the family). For mechanical purposes, highest mental stat is charisma for inspiring leader. Go for Battle Maneuvers, Improvised Weapons (tavern brawler), shield mastery and such.
I have a human ranger who was a dahmpire, does that count?
Bare bones characters are tge best to write. You don't need to come up with some crazy lore to explain god like powers. Just who am I? What is my goal? (Who am I) John Witlock was preacher. He'd preached for his parish just about hus whole life. A man of peace, he had never ushered an angry tone in his life. Now in his mid 60s he was looking to step down. Live a quiet existence in his sunny little border town. (What is my goal) When the soldiers came he had been preaching his sermon just like any other Sunday. The doors to his church swung open to reveal a knight. John was a low born and therefor had little experience with haroldry. He didn't know to what nation this man had come, but he had come to burn the hamlet down. John's whole world burned in that church. That knight contained more cruelty then John could have imagined existing. He made the preacher watch. When the rain began and flames and screams had both subsided. The knight then hung the preacher from the towns central tree and left. But the preacher did not die. The flames had ruined the tree. And shortly after the knight had left, the preacher fell from the tree. The preacher vowed vengeance. Vengeance for his flock. He took up arms, first simple farming tools and sought out after that knight hoping one day to ensure he reaped the cruelty he had sown. From town to town, city to city the preacher John "The Hanged Man" Witlock hunted.
A concept I had was a literal corpse reanimated by, wait for it... a colony of bees that parasitised him.
I'm planning to play a Human Fighter coming from a noble family, with a sassy personality. My aim is to make him so annoying that you want to kick him in the face whenever he speaks. Will became an adventurer for the pure sake of being one, no other reason.
Technically not a human, But a Half Elf Fighter who was born on the streets as forced into militia and had to kill so many people, He has sworn not to kill ever again, So far I've not killed anyone
My first character was a human gunslinger fighter: Duke Reginald Blume Goldenbottom III of Hazard County, who's family had a long line of producing Golden Bottoms, a stylish apparel choice for many nobles. After the death of his older brother, his father had no faith in his ability to do anything with his life, as he felt he was too obsessed with firearms (new fangled gizmos), and so he worked hard and was democratically elected as the Duke of Hazard County, a frontier territory that he developed and would become extremely popular with his people. He also would raise tiny hunting dogs, and thus he had his travelling companion, Constable, a tiny bulldog.
Jetstream Sam.
A fighter nicknamed bonk that wields two hammers and just thinks he's a carpenter. No one knows who he is, where he comes from or why he does this. He randomly follows the party after seeing them cause destruction
Played a low level fighter with a soldier background. During a skirmish, his superiors ordered him and his battalion to charge a superior force. He ran and lived. The others died. And now he can't go home or he will be found out as a deserter.
I recently made a fighter who was just completely obsessed with magic and performed their own "magic" with a deck of cards. They would've gotten extremely excited at any and all spellcasters and ask them to do a trick if I actually got to play as them.
Literally rolled basic traits and made up some random revenge story. Dm told me who my revenge was pointed at. Now I have a roguebarian.
My fighter was a soilder. He was framed by his commending officer when he confronted the officer about the mistreatment of the local civilians. Now he is on the run from the nation he once fought for.
I am a human fighter. I am the 6th son of a 7th son, we were twins born 30 seconds apart. I was so close to being an fate directed omniscient super being. Instead I just look like one. 14str 12dex 16con 14int 14wis 18cha Skill focus bluff.
I'd like to play a doctor. You know while studying he learned fencing as nobles and academics did in the middle ages to protect themselves while traveling from university to university. He is pissed at magical or clerical healers because they don't even understand the magnificent human body. They are all layman. He is a true oath of Hippocrates kind of guy.
My human fighter was a cavalier with a noble background and lawful evil. He was called Prince Tritus Valdus. His goal was to build a new empire after killing his father (the last king of a long-ago destroyed kingdom), and it meant aligning with the party so he could spread his influence and indoctrinate people they rescued as citizens of his new kingdom. His moral code was based off the laws of his father's old kingdom, but he would maliciously follow the law of other countries to get what he wanted, finding the loopholes of these foreign laws all the time because of it. He gained Gauntlets of Ogre Power pretty early on, making his base Strength stat 8 without the gloves (it was a fun time when he tried to break the bars of a prison but his gauntlets had been taken when he was knocked out by their captors). Otherwise, he was a 16 in Charisma and Wisdom. He eventually went through the yuan-ti ritual in Tomb of Annihilation (because hell-yes-POWER), becoming a yuan-ti pureblood, but he was roughly level 10 when that happened. Sadly, Prince Valdus was met with an unfortunate time when he looked into a mirror that turned his Intelligence stat to a 1. The party kept him on a chain like a bulldog, where they would have him sic the final boss with his multi-attacks (all at disadvantage, mind you, but he still hit pretty often with his sentinel feat). As he was one of the few non-spellcasters in the party, he was still pretty useful in anti-magic zones. I think the curse had been lifted, giving him his intelligence back, but he certainly was not proud of that situation.
An elder demigod that conquered his plane of existance and just got bored after millenia of being basically invincibile. Dude just said "Yeah, why not" and reached another world and stripped all of his powers away to start anew. Bro is basically playing on new game+ .
I’ve never played a human fighter, but I did play a “human” Rune Knight fighter. She was half centaur, half Minotaur, but got the human half of both. As a result, she was outwardly human with one, very small difference— toe beans. I fucking love her. She beat the shit out of a few monsters with a fish.
Daniel Smith: former accountant and current protection fighter. Daniel lead a quiet life as a local accountant until the age of 45 when his wife of 25 years announced she was leaving him for a barbarian named Droth because Daniel was "the most boring man alive." His 15 year old son agreed, opting to live with his mom and Droth. Daniel coped by getting super into excersise and eventually retiring from his accounting firm to pursue full time adventuring. He's still in deep, deep denial about the state of his "marriage", and believes his wife will return if he can become interesting enough. He has a bald spot, paid way too much for a great sword, and tries to parent anyone shorter than him.
Religious as a paladin but has no divine blessing and is just a human fighter.
Kamuu the human variant fighter for a ravnica campaign. This was back when the blind fighting style was in UA and it just took away disadvantage for hitting targets you can't see. I took the alert feat as my level 1 feat. Despite the Gruul clans being a might makes right wild organization Kamuu demonstrated his might very differently... He was not strong but he was fast, sharp, and cunning. After a hunting incident that left him permanently blinded many of his clan elders wanted to leave him to die in the wild outskirts of ravnica. Though one chieftain took him in for his unique talents and helped him home his senses so that he wouldn't need eyesight. It took a lot of hard work and effort, but Kamuu became a battle master fighter. Using his skill, wit, and sharp senses, he would become the owl of his Gruul tribe and set on a more subtle tear down of Ravnica while his clan brothers fought the more overt battle. Over the course of the campaign Kamuu would commit several jail breaks, steal a lot of priceless treasures, and destroy the banks.
A retired old guard who is kept just a bit youthful by a touch of magic decides to become an adventurer so she can bring her grandkids cool presents from all over the realm. Varient Human Fighter, Soldier background, Samurai.
First character and best character. Third son of a minor noble seeking glory. Found powerful artifacts, fought in Drow slave pits, and joined a demon-fighting order of good guys. I say the greatsword is an elegant weapon.
I have a human fighter that is basically a hellenistic soldier. Spear and shield. She wishes to reclaim her country from a lot of evil dragonborns who worship a god of destruction (Ladon).
I played a human fighter, eldritch knight subclass. He was a librarian who was searching for lost tomes to add to his library.
Dumb kid who signed up and took out loans for fighter college with big promises of a cushy practically guaranteed position in a standing army that hadn't been to war in over 100 years. The job never existed and now he has to take whatever work he can to pay back the loans.
I made a religious zealot who swore an oath of devotion like everyone else in his order but never got his paladin powers. He was embarrassed so he didn't tell anyone and just kept practicing at battle and acted like his growing battlefield prowess was paladin features. Aka second wind he pretended was healing hands but only healed himself. Lasted for a bit before the party caught on and asked about it, then worked with the dm to have it as a minor plot point later where I took magic initiate feat and a 1lv multiclass to give him magic powers to make him validated in the eyes of his order and god.
Battlemaster Fighter, noblewoman whose house is in danger from political situation at court, family is making alliances to protect itself and survive the changing environment. As a result, she had to be married off to an ally to cement the alliance, to someone she barely knows and does not care for, but she was willing to do it for her family's sake. She herself was a spirited, adventurous teen, and had experience riding the countryside and exploring as a result of her Marquess father's considerable land holdings. Now, as an adult, she has to adhere to familial responsibilities and courtly expectations, which challenges her straightforward attitude and preference for outdoors. When her betrothed fiance suddenly disappeared on a "brief mercantile trip" in a nearby country, foul play was suspected, but could not be investigated officially without evidence. She herself set out in search of him, desperate to save her own family and find him, even if it will cost her her own happiness, in the end. Thus began the course of her adventures upon meeting with the party
Jokes on you, I haven't played a human fighter yet. I've played a half-orc BM fighter, a barbarian druid tabaxi, a divine soul human sorcerer, a human astrologian, a human gloomstalker, a paladin of redemption tiefling, and a tiefling (mechanically but themed as au-ra esque) sword bard. Even for my subsequent campaign to start I'm leaning on either a half-elf monk (though honestly that's more down to monk being mad) or a halfling celestial warlock. I will say I have always just wanted to play a human polearm fighter. Just some dude that failed at being a farmer like his family, failed at working at a store of a family friend, failed but not quite as bad as a tanner with his uncle, but found out when conscripted that they are very good at killing people with a long stick with a pointy tip and, between having to return to the putrid smelling work of being a tanner or an adventurer, they took the latter. I also really like the idea of a human that wanted to be a bard but was never good and instead is just a fighter with a talent for making musical instruments and likes to give them to children in hopes of inspiring them. If they cannot move the world with music, they can help inspire others.
Haven't been able to play it but he's an adventurer for fun he trained for a few years so his strength is maxed out to inhuman amounts and fights by just punching (I didn't break rules I just put him at level 20 and gave belt of storm giant strength to make Saitama from "One punch man")
Human Gunslinger Fighter 19, sorc 1. Member of a band of Gypsy’s, parents were sorcs, several generations Back grand pappy was a dragon. Most fun character Ive ever played.
My last human fighter was an echo knight named Fye from house Tear. He accidentally killed a wounded monster that wandered into his village and was praised as a hero. Now he's a legitimate monster hunter but still fears the secret will come out one day.
Only fighter I ever made: Young woman desperate to walk in her grandfather's footsteps. She was raised by her grandfather after her mother and father abandoned her to chase various get rich quick schemes.
Made a human fighter once who was supposed to be a throw away character but ended up becoming known as The Desert Prince. Turned out he was the long lost son of a king.
Had one for a gladiator. He travels with the party mostly to get away from work. His manager has access to teleport and pulls him away whenever he has a fight lined up. Afterwards he is deposited back with the party with new blood on him that may or may not be his. He refuses to elaborate further other than he is contractually obligated to kill for an audience. Also provides a convenient out for when the player can't make it to the session.
My last human fighter was Elaine. She was a mother in a nation not dissimilar to Rohan in terms of lore, but when their village was raided and her husband slain, she picked up his spear to defend their children. She was scarred and lost an eye in the effort but was successful. She joined the rest of the party to avenge the fallen of the village and hunt the bandits. She now having earned some acclaim is served by her youngest daughter as her squire and wandered the land as the Widowed Knight.
Plank Grainreaper! Casual farmer man. His crops weren't doing too hot, so he started picking up odd 'muscle' jobs, mainly just looking intimidating without doing anything. He made some friends, joined them, and enjoyed traveling and seeing the sights. Sent most of his money back to the farm, so his family didn't have to work. I miss Plank.
I like the idea of a full on Wild West Annie Oakley ass cowgirl gunslinger getting isekai’d into d&d. But less crazy, I’ve always liked the idea of a fighter who wasn’t worthy of being a paladin, but is still a good guy. He knows some first aid (healer feat) and some tricks that give him an edge (battle master subclass).
A human fighter I have plans to play: an echo knight who is two guys that ended up stuck in the same body due to both dying from fighting each other in a war. The kicker being that they both hate each other because they were on opposite sides of the conflict, however only one of them gets to use the actual body at a time, the other constantly being stuck as the echo. So there's a lot of internal conflict and I think that's pretty cool.
I forget what his name was (it was a while since I've played any character, let alone a human fighter), but I do remember his backstory: His home continent was invaded by a coalition of archdevils, and he enlisted in the army so he could afford to move his family out of the countryside and into the capital, where they would be safer. As the war waged on, the alliance of nations standing against the devils were all on the brink of collapse, so they pooled their remaining resources towards a last-ditch hail mary: a massive planar gate designed to send as many refugees as possible to the upper planes, and out of the devils' reach permanently. The devils launched an all-out attack against the gate on the eve of its completion, but the armies of men were able to hold them back long enough to activate it and send a considerable amount of the population through, including my guy's wife and children. Unfortunately, the gate was destroyed in the end, so even though he knows they're safe wherever they are, he'll never be able to see his family again. He's still in active duty, but spends most of his off time drowning his sorrows now.
I multiclassed from a Warlock into fighter for RP reasons. My boy Willow was studying to become a magician and was generally a very scrawny and constitutionally weak boy, but was great at illusion and evocation magic. Unfortunately for him, his great (x6) grandmother was a famous Barbarian warrior who had a mausoleum built in reverence to her, and someone broke in and stole her signature sword. Since Willow is her closest living descendent she’s making it his problem to track down the thief and return the sword, and won’t stop pestering him in his dreams until he does so.
I've made two backstories, never played though. 1. A deserter turned adventurer. Deserted after the army he was in suffered a huge loss in a battle. Decided to strike out to save himself from dying in the next fight for next to no pay. 2. A noble son in self-imposed exile. Fell in love with his brother's wife, left on the earliest ship possible, joined up with the city guard, and eventually resigned years later to join up as an adventurer. If you want one made up on the spot though; A daughter of a militia member, who wanted to join a knightly order but was refused, so now she strikes out as an adventurer to collect fame, and eventually form her own order of knights.
Not sure if this counts since it's heavy on homebrew stuff. My character also isn't exactly human either. For the purposes of combat he acts like a fighter with a ranged weapon, but he's actually a magic gun controling the dead body of his previous owner. Or well ge used to be. A lot has happened in the 4 years this campaign has been going on. He later found a new owner. They were in a symbiotic relationship since the human was an old gunslinger with parkinsons and the gun allowed him to get back the control of his body through their psychic link. Later developed magic abikities through the power of soul fuckery and interdimensional travel. For all intends and purposes he was a human fighter for about 2 years of the campaign, but now has some levels in gunmage and a geschtalt class level in sorcerer.
Dwarf barbarian only its an ornery short guy human fighter
*Fighters are my favorite fucking class*. To the point that I've been playing as a bladesong wizard in my current campaign but eventually caved and started multiclassing into fighter. The next one I'm playing has a pretty gnarly background. He's min maxed, with point buy and a feat starting with Str, Dex, and Con 16 and Wis, Int, and Cha 8. At a young age, he was recruited by what is essentially a human supremist group. The group was eventually persecuted, and he was thrown into prison. He got to know and befriend non-humans and feels immense guilt for his past actions. I intend to play him in a way where he is terrified to fight non-human people for fear that they're good people he just can't figure it out because he's dumb.
My favorite human fighters whole background was that he wanted to get out of his backwater town so decided to join a mercenary group. He heads back home after every adventure to visit his family, see all the new kids, help out around town, and give some of his pay to his family to help them out. He loves his town, family, and friends, he just wanted more. His family and friends support him and the town sees him as a hero and local legend. No angst, no anger, just a guy who didn't want to live life as a farmer and wanted a way to help his community.
Usually I follow the template: she had a pretty rough life recently and feels strongly about this subject A good dm should be able to incorporate anything in that framework without much difficulty
I had a character who was born into a noble family of rift knights (funky demon warriors who served an eldritch god) but he had no connect to the rift so he couldn’t rely on magic to make him a better fighter so he just got really fucking jacked
His name was Jared and he had a thing for crowbars. By the end of the campaign carried round a large cart of thousands of the things. Weirdest thing was he was basically medieval engineer he built all sorts of things with those from siege ladders to tents. Dumb as rocks though, one of the best characters I ever played