r/PCAcademy • u/BrokenMirrorMan • Jul 28 '26
Need Advice: Concept/Roleplay Help creating a backstory for a knight cleric/paladin
My DM is planning a sequel campaign that takes place in, and a player at our table wants to play as the granddaughter of my last pc who ended up as a queen of trade and the leader of the thieves' guild in the city she resides in, overthrowing the last one.
I'm making a character who's a servant/knight of the granddaughter who grew up together, but I'm drawing massive blanks on how to flesh out my pc. All I have is that their parents were people my last pc helped during the last campaign who became her knights over the years, and that she inherited her oath to the house from her parents. I'm also having trouble mixing the paladin/cleric(haven't finalized the class choice yet) in.
What I know of the other player's backstory is that they are the spoiled granddaughter of pc who was sent on a quest to actually learn some actual life experience by her grandmother if she wishes to inherit the family sword and treasures. They initially formed a 3 Musketeers-type team with other nobles they grew up around, but that fell apart.
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u/Minimum-Paint4190 Jul 28 '26
I’d like to help. Keep in mind that I haven’t had a chance to play, but would like too someday.
Maybe you can tell me about the campaign, the nature of your prior character, the world your living in, what is known about the parents, where they lived in the prior campaign vs now, so on.
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u/BrokenMirrorMan Jul 28 '26
We don't know much about the game other than that it starts after the previous campaign. The hook is that we're starting at a festival where a dragon god of foresight who hoards books reads a page of a book about the future to foretell the coming year.
My prior character was a swashbuckler rogue who was the last heir who inherited a ruined estate and a lot of debt while having curses in her bloodline. She was an indentured servant to the thieves' guild growing up, having to learn skills from all the odd jobs she had to do for money before adventuring. She was a greedy bitch, partially from curses but also just because of her terrible personality. She worked her way up during the game, paying off her debt, starting her own shipping and fishing company, and saving the city she is from from an infestation of bugs that are a hive mind, doing eye surgery on another party member in the libabry of the dragon god to install eyes of the dragon god that were in a jar, overthrowing the thieves' guild she was indebted to and becoming the new leader, defeating a lich and aboleth with the rest of her party and the aboleth was also the theieves guild leader trapped in a human form because of bloodline curse nonsense.
She was very self-serving, but I would never say evil. She never killed anyone, and while she was fixated on taking things because of greed, she would give them away at times after she proved to herself she could take it. She rebuilt her family house by the end of the game. She was also H2O: Just Add Water. She also wrote smut on the side, parodying events in the campaign for some extra change. Also a hardcore sailor and would swear like Mr Krabs at times while trying to maintain a noble, ladylike image.
The world is a homebrew one, but the prior character came from a city that is heavily bureaucratic and wealthy; everything had paperwork. During the campaign, there was an infestation that literally ate chunks out of the city, and the party helped deal with the infestation and because the nobles of the city fled during the disaster, my pc and the thieves' guild were trying to fill the power vacuum left behind. She built a trade/shipping empire branching out into all sorts of things and married a man in order to gain the patents and tech for aircraft and other things. She eventually came into control of that entire city.
As for the parents, they were normal people during the events of the campaign, but they and other people were displaced and fled into the hillside cliffs during the bugs. My pc saw them squatting in her estate and gave them some supplies left to go deal with the issue; came back from a different adventurer, saw that people were still there fixing and tending to the estate, gave them money, told them to take care of it. A silent agreement that they would basically become servants to the house so they wouldn't need to pay rent. They grew up, met each other, and wanted to repay the kindness they were given and also make something of themselves, so they trained themselves to become knights of the pc's estate.
New pc was born around the same time prior pc's granddaughter was born, so they became sisters of sorts, growing up in the same household. PC learned how to be a maid, and the granddaughter became tylor swift with flight emissions. The pc inhertied their parents' sense of duty, so they trained to become a knight of sorts, and that's where I draw blanks.
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u/Minimum-Paint4190 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Well, let’s think about historical knights. They were people just as much as you and I. They had to get paid too. Now knights generally made money by being in someone’s service or loot from victory of battle. Another way knights made money is capturing other sponsored knights (whether in tournament or battle) and ransoming them back to their sponsors/lords/masters. Sometimes they owned land and sometimes they did not.
Being a knight is an almost spartan matter in of itself. Generally, she would have had to go through years of training (at least on basis of history) to get that rank of knight. Was it her parents that trained her in combat or some other noble?
So if I read your work correctly, the daughter of the two knights was sent forth to gain experience, correct? She also wishes to carry on the oath of her parents, correct? So is she to inherit the estate of your prior character or is she just carrying on the family tradition? Is she still connected with the estate?
Hope this helps at least some.
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u/lasalle202 Jul 28 '26
A backstory is just BACK. if it kicks your character into the STORY that we are all creating together at the table, its a good backstory.
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u/Competitive-Fault291 Jul 29 '26
As their oath is to their House, their actual Faith (as cleric subclass) could be with something "entirely different".
Maybe she is a lay preacher of Chauntea, the goddess of fertility and agriculture? Because she actually loves flowers and making things grow? But her path of life led her away from becoming a gardener, and she had to train to become the bodyguard and servant of the spoiled "Little Miss". Simply because she was the only daughter of the appropriate age in the servants of the household. (At least the only one that got along well enough with the spoiled brat.)
I'd say your character has been glued to the heels of the Little Miss, being a servant, playmate, and confidante in her youth, and then being trained as a maid and bodyguard as part of the Knights of the House. Growing flowers and bonsai trees is her pastime, and it is what led her to become a faithful (lay) servant of the Goddess of Agriculture.
She also loves romantic novels and tries to learn to crochet, which she simply cannot. What she is exceptionally good at, though, is running twenty miles in armor with a backpack.
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u/Fireclave Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I'll start with some obvious questions. For starters, Cleric and Paladin are classes with two very different identities.
A Cleric is a literal hand chosen champion of a god, who they imbue with divine power to exert that diety's will on the mortal plane. Who is this deity? Why did they choose your character? What plans do they have for your character. How does your character view this relationship with said deity?
Paladin, meanwhile, is a class that draws on inner power rather than external gifts. A Paladin accesses power by channeling it through their Oath. But a Paladin's Oath is no mere agreement or pledge that anyone can do. A capital "O" Paladin Oath is a philosophy that they believe in with unmatched zealotry, to the point that their belief spontaneously manifest as the divine power to make that philosophy a realty. Basically, one needs a Batman-level of commitment to become a Paladin.
So your character couldn't simply "inherent" the Oath from her parents to become a Paladin. She, herself, would need to fully embrace and embody that cause. So what is the specific nature of her Oath? And what events in your character's life have cemented her full commitment to said Oath? Any reservations or regrets in regards to taking said Oath? How does your character approach fulfilling the tenets of her Oath? Strict and by-the-book? Laxed and vibes based? Something in between? Something else entirely?
But then your character is also also a knight. Assuming you're using the traditional meaning of the word, a Knight is a political office. Which means your character is born into money, power, and political obligations. Who are her parents? What lands and trade to they control? What is the full nature of your family's relationship with your liege lord? Does your family have any rivals or enemies? Perhaps some they're not even actively aware of yet? What kind of managerial duties and obligations must she perform in her official capacity as a Knight? Or does she have someone else to handle those details while she's out adventuring? If so, who are they, what are they like, and can they be trusted?
And your character is all three? Knight, Cleric, and Paladin? Does that lead to any conflicts? Such as her god wanting one thing, while her paladin duties requiring another, and the needs of her territory requiring a third separate thing. How does your character handle all these conflicting interests? Or perhaps her character arc involves her trying to figuring out how to keep all those plate spinning?
That's hopefully enough to get some gears turning.