Whoa! Quick D&D question!

[bobquasit]

Okay, I have a quick question which anyone can answer (I hope).

As I've mentioned, I'm playing a cleric in one of the Tuesday night D&D games. Unfortunately the character never clicked for me. In fact, he's dull as dishwater.

I considered dumping him and creating a new character, but I'd rather not do that if I can help it; if I end up with the same problem with the new character, it could be a sign of RD, Roleplaying Dysfunction. :D

On the other hand, at this point it would be hard to make a major change in his personality. I mean, I've been playing him as this boring vanilla guy for several months now. Suddenly, out of the blue, a thought struck me:

The character is a young amnesiac half-elf who was found on a battlefield by clerics of Tymora (the goddess of Luck) and raised in their faith.
What if he were to suddenly regain his memory? He could go through a total personality change. Heck, he might even change class and alignment!

But if so, to what? I've already written to the DM, but haven't heard back from him yet. Obviously his input would be key - he'd be determining the newly-remembered background, I assume - but I'd like to work up some sort of really strong characterization concept so I have something good to work with right away.

So...any suggestions?

Comments

[wingedbard.livejournal.com]

I dunno about the quick change... I think it would be more interesting if the character was something radically different before (maybe a warrior in the service of Shar), and slowly ticked back to his previous personality as his memories returned. Lots of good role-playing opportunities there...

Thought about it some more...

[wingedbard.livejournal.com]

And maybe he starts to get his memory and personality back, then realizes he doesn't like that person at all and wants to be someone else yet. He never knew before that he could be anyone else, now he's confronted with the fact that he was not only another person, but a not particularly pleasant one. Now he can choose to do something entirely different, or continue his current life, or return to his old one.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Go for something weird... like he was a thief and got caught stealing from the temple, or maybe his one true love died in his arms and was reincarnated as a bear in front of his eyes by a druid and the shock of events lead to his amnesia... or I don't know enough about the setting world to give you anything too deep to play with really.

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Sorry, don't have much in the way of advice... I don't see how having the character regain his memory is any more likely to work than building a new character...

I think I'd do it pretty slowly... and work something out to explain why he has these memories but no skills (I mean levels)... then you could develope the levels in whatever he is as he gets his memories back.

And I'd do something "connected" to his current role... like the antithesis, or something about being a cleric is something he always wanted but couldn't have, or maybe something he was always afraid of...

Kiralee

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, what is coming to my mind is utter madness. Like, he's actually a full-blood female elf wizard-thief who lost her mind and real form when she tried to steal a powerful artifact. Probably comes to mind 'cause of all the TG web comics I read these days. :)

[charibdis.livejournal.com]

I have a hunch your DM isn't happy with this becaause a really radical change could throw the campaign off. For example, if you're the only cleric in a party full of mages and suddenly you become a mage that could cause a lot of problems for the DM. I suspect, unless you made it very clear, that the DM expects you to try to work up the "real" version of the character and is waiting for that. If you did make it very clear you expected the DM to work up the background he may simply be lazy or busy or uninterested in doing so. I'd say your best bet is for you to work up the background yourself and then try to see if the DM likes it, making it clear that if he has problems you're willing to try something else instead.

In one campaign I'm playing now I play a cleric too that I find a bit boring. Partially my own fault for not developing her much initially, but partially, I suspect, because clerics are one of the few classes I'm just not all that interested in. They're perfectkly effective, but usually...unglamorous?...unexciting?...whatever.

For a potential future campaign I have rolled up a scout/swashbuckler which I am very much looking forward to playing. Not sure what makes the one exciting (even though I haven't started playing it yet) and the other not.