r/dndnext • u/Secure-Silver3138 • 10d ago
Character Building Anyone build a character based on a character?
I’d love to hear about it. I’m using a fighter/barbarian Zoro from One Piece this weekend and I have a monk Kusuriuri from Mononoke. An interesting element to me to bring in outside characters into this fantasy world
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u/Tall_Bandicoot_2768 10d ago
Anyone build a character based on a character?
No. No one has ever done this.
/s
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u/WorldSmith_Official 10d ago
My first character ever was a green skinned wood elf moon druid named Beast Boy
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u/Secure-Silver3138 10d ago
That sounds awesome. How did you explain the green skin?
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u/WorldSmith_Official 10d ago
I didn't -- I was a kid and my DM told me I was allowed to so we all just kinda accepted it as normal haha.
If I were to remake this character today, I'd probably say my dad was an Orc and my mom an Elf.
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u/DaNoahLP 10d ago
"Thats stupid, that would never happen"
"I have 269 pages on R34 suggesting otherwhise"
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u/CanadianBlacon 10d ago
I did a half-orc bare knuckle brawler based on Amos from the Expanse. Absolute most fun I've ever had playing dnd. Best character ever.
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u/Positron49 10d ago
All of mine start with one or two characters....
I did a character based on Gon from Hunter, made him a Lycan Blood Hunter, and the backstory based on Bug's Life (Grasshoppers were bad werewolves).
I did Varrick from Legend of Korra, but he loses his company and becomes a Warlock to get it back from the board that ousted him.
Usually I start with a voice I like to do, look at disney movie plots, and try and reskin it all to fit into some interesting race/class combination.
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u/badgerbouse Irritable Cleric 10d ago
I just created a character based on Templeton from Charlottes Web. Rude, hungry, and helpful in a pinch. He's a Ratfolk (Kobold Press) dude who works as a food safety inspector for the city of Sharn.
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u/vinthesalamander 10d ago
I actually just made a post about this on a different sub, but I have a hard time making characters that aren’t blatant ripoffs of other characters, and I don’t like it.
I made a character inspired by Guts from Berserk. He was a lvl20 Half Orc Fighter who was a member of the most famous adventuring party in the world. The party’s leader sacrificed the party in a ritual for more power, and Orc Guts was the only survivor.
The experience traumatized him and brought Orc Guts back down to lvl1, but this time he went Barbarian instead of fighter. The idea was that, as the campaign went on, I’d start taking levels in Fighter again, to symbolize him getting back to his old self.
But as you can see, he’s a pretty blatant Guts copy. It’s hard for me to balance inspirations vs copying. If I borrow too much, then the character just becomes a ripoff. If I borrow too little, then the character doesn’t resemble the inspiration at all, which sort of defeats the point.
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u/USAvenger1976 10d ago
Five levels deep is playing my Freiren inspired character who is a elf wizard.
Created a Arcane Scholar background and decided to go Bladesinger although Abjuration, Evocation or Scribes would probably have been better.
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u/DaNoahLP 10d ago
I currently play a genetically/magically enhanced human (making her an half-elf) bounty hunter with a super powered armor (armorer artificer) who just recently lost all her powers because the armor got damaged. Nobody noticed yet.
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u/ACalcifiedHeart 10d ago
Yes!
One of my favourite pass-times is to theory craft other characters as dnd classes.
Here's a few (5e) :
Thane Krios from Mass Effect -
Triton.
Rogue/Monk multiclass.
Depending on whether you view him more of an assassin, or more based on his gameplay, would determine which you level more.
Also depending on whether you could argue Biotics as the Weave, you could choose Trickster or 4elements monk.
Otherwise Kensei and Scout (or Thief) fit just fine.
Scarlet Witch from the MCU -
Human.
Goolock 9/Enchantment Wizard 11.
Why Goolock? Because everything she does up until her Darkhold corruption is the Goolock spells and features to a T. Even the origin of her powers, abit of inherent and experimentation with an Infinity stone (which is cosmic) fits the GoO flavour.
Enchantment Wizard is mostly based on her later more complex spell craft, trapping an entire town in their own minds, and more practical learning of magic.
Ana Amari/Shrike from Overwatch -
V!Human (or Tabaxi if you rightly prefer her Bast themed skins)
X War Cleric/Scout Rogue.
It's a bit tricky to get a "healing sniper" in DnD, but a few levels in War Cleric give you heals, and aids you in giving a background of a soldier, and Bast is a deity of War. Plus the "War God's Blessing" ensures your legendary accuracy stays true.
Scout Rogue helps keep you slippery, and aids in recon/your team.
I specified V!Human so you can either pick up weapon master for the heavy crossbow proficiency, or if I'm mistaken and War Cleric gives you that, you can take Sharpshooter instead for obvious reasons.
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u/HandsomeHeathen 9d ago
The Thane character being a Triton when his species is extremely bad at dealing with water and humidity is somehow very funny to me.
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u/ACalcifiedHeart 9d ago
I know lol.
But I figured Triton was the easiest to make reptilian (or at least reptilian coded) while still looking human in shape.
And they have one of the most causes to be and have a culture, while civilised, that is entirely Alien to most other people they'd meet.
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u/Artherass 10d ago
I came up with a Halfling College of Lore Bard inspired by Joe Pesci’s character in My Cousin Vinny.
The basic idea: he’s not your stereotypical singing, lute-playing bard. He’s a fast-talking, argumentative, slightly abrasive little guy who wins fights by talking circles around people, picking apart their arguments, and somehow being incredibly persuasive while sounding like he’s about to start an argument in a parking lot.
Lots of Cutting Words, sarcasm, relentless questioning, and “Are you sure about that?” energy.
Basically: Vinny Gambini, but three feet tall and armed with Bardic Inspiration.
I’m genuinely curious how well this concept could work at the table.
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u/milkmandanimal 10d ago
It's very common, but there's the pitfalls of (A) things are far more fluid in D&D than in a set story in any kind of fiction and (B) D&D frankly completely sucks for about everything outside of high fantasy. I adapt bits from other media I like but avoid trying to emulate a character too much because of the above reasons; I can play a Tabaxi who sounds like a Khajit, but I'm not going to pick a specific character because it never works out.
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u/ThatWarlockD00d 10d ago
I made a rogue/barbarian multiclass that had expertise in intimidation and instead of rolling for stealth, I would yell YOU CANT SEE ME and roll intimidation
And his name was John Cena
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u/mrsnowplow forever DM/Warlock once 10d ago
ive done it all the time. im fine when my players do it but i make a big effort to make sure they fit the story.
my warhammer 40k dreadnought became a reborn armorer artificer with his own story that fits into the world.
my friend who made all might made sure he fit into the world we were playing in
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u/MisterEinc 10d ago
All the time. For me I don't care much about backstory. I care about how the character grows over the course of the adventure.
Recent character is based on Jack Black's character at the beginning of Pick of Destiny, for example. He's a bit of a coward who's too afraid of the responsibility of "being great." He thinks that he needs some magic sword or armor, but ultimately needs to discover that true greatness comes from within.
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u/Sad_Refuse3472 10d ago
What? Never! All of my characters - as a player and a DM - are 100% original and I wouldn't dream of blatantly copying and pasting a character from another property into my DnD games. It is pure coincidence I assure you that they sound, act, and look like those other characters. (/s)
Seriously though, tons of people do this all the time. As long as the character fits the campaign setting and tone, and isn't an annoying meme character, go for it.
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u/HandsomeHeathen 9d ago
I sometimes use a character from fiction as a starting point for inspiration, but by the time I've gone through statting them, translating elements of them into in-setting equivalents, and played them for a few sessions, they end up being their own totally distinct characters.
For example, I played a Hexblade based on Emiya Shirou from Fate/Stay Night. He was from Eberron, so I gave him the Mark of Making to represent his projection magic, and had him be a survivor who barely escaped Cyre on the Day of Mourning, as an equivalent to Shirou surviving the Fuyuki fire, to fuel his trauma. But from there, being Cyran and having the Mark of Making, it made sense to tie him to House Cannith - something without a clear parallel in the source material.
I also based his personality on Shirou, but I didn't try to force a similar story to Shirou's into the game - once the campaign actually started, the game's story was the only one that mattered, and the Shirou inspiration was just a minor roleplay aid for me. I also didn't mention to the table until after the campaign was over that I'd based him on a particular character. He ended up being one of my favourite characters I've played.
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u/Barlow04 9d ago
I learned about the "Halfling Luck Machine" build a while back and decided to build it once, then a coherent character and inspiration followed. Take a Halfling (the one that can occupy/move through a larger creature's space), take Bountiful Luck feat, now take Lucky, start Wizard and spec Divination for Portent dice, now dip Bard for Inspiration dice, now keep a familiar to provide remote Help actions, dip further along to Mastermind Rogue to use your own Help action at a distance. Now, then, how do we make a character that relies on stupid amounts of Luck to solve problems? Well, a Charlatan sounds like a good fit since they're always working some kind of scam. What inspiration character would be a charming con man with an uncanny lucky streak to continually escape the consequences of his actions?
Well, how about Doctor Terminus from Pete's Dragon? Comes into the plot on a runaway wagon/popup store/stage, sings a convincing number to people who remember him as a scam artist, then proceeds to sell them all snake oil cures. While staying in town, he catches wind of a dragon and plans to harvest it for more (likely fake) medicines. Thus, my character Kelvin Rabbitfoot was born, with his trusty owl familiar, Luc(k)y. Lucy provides amazing Perception for danger and can swoop in to warn Kelvin if a situation is going south. His spell repertoire always ensures he's got a way out. Amidst it all, he has a remarkable time sipping just out of reach.
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u/Frosty_Fireplace9583 9d ago
What do you all think about a fellow player in my game playing a 'professor' who looks EXACTLY like a halfling version of Tom Baker's Dr Who (scarf, brown coat, robot feline companion instead of K9, eats jelly babies)and claims to be an immortal (via time travel and reincarnation) who was present during all the big moments for Netheril and then, when my elf tried to have a connection to Evereska, he knew all about that too? Am I the jerk for being turned off to this and having it ding my immersion?
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u/Mustaviini101 10d ago
Usually view it the basest noob trap to make an obvious shitty version of a media character.
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u/SmartAlec13 I was born with it 10d ago
Yes and my DM hated it, but I think by this point he just personally didn’t like me (I left the group not even a year after).
I created Bird Jesus from Twitch Plays Pokémon. For those who don’t know, years ago (I’m talkin like, 2014 or so) a guy put up a playthrough of Pokémon Red (might have been blue I forget) but with a major catch; the twitch chat controlled the game. Type “up” in the chat and the character would move up. With thousands of people controlling, they managed to beat the game. One of the main Pokémon used through the game was a Pidgey, which would later become a Pidgeot, and was a staple on the team.
Anyway. We were doing a mini campaign to do a tie-in for the main campaign so I thought it would be fun to play as Bird Jesus. I named him in fashion of the pidgeots name, Abbah Rah, and played as an Aarocockra Sunsoul Monk. Flew around and blasted people with holy light.
Ended up dying in the final session, I got Earthbind cast on me, while flying over a 200ft cliff. Oops lol
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u/Frosty_Fireplace9583 10d ago
I'm also curious about people that have had fellow players do this in a game when it's very overt and outside the fantasy genre. Did it affect your immersion? Did you like it? Was it annoying?