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Character creation.

Posted by KR4G3N
KR4G3N
member, 3 posts
Sat 9 Jul 2016
at 17:48
  • msg #1

Character creation.

Would anyone be interested in discussing how the created their characters? I think I have a pretty sound backstory for my main, and I'm currently working on fleshing out my alts.

I know for some this can be a daunting challenge hence this post which might be helpful to inspire others.

This character was created using the D&D 5th edition Players Handbook only...

My Main Character is a Human Ranger named Dorvin Paupersson.

I picked this race/class combo as it makes a good all round character and it most fits the story of my character.

I decided that, as cliché as it might be, my character would resemble me as close as possible.

My first name begins with "D" and I eventually settled on Dorvin for my character. Being the son of unemployed parents helped shaped my character's surname "Paupersson" or son of a Pauper.

My parents were very religious and I became an altar boy for the Church of England at age 8.


Dorvin grew up in a poor but very religious family where he was pressured into being an assistant at the temple of Tymora from an early age. However, Temple life was not for Dorvin, and when he turned 16, he started looking for experience in the world.

When I left school, I studied Horticulture, and my first job out of college was litter picking. I later got a retail job and took up archery and fishing.


Dorvin studied Nature for 2 years but ended up cleaning the streets of his home town just to put food on the table.
Eventually, he found a steady position in a small provisioner's store, where he rose rapidly in confidence. It was around this time that he took up his two main hobbies, Archery and Fishing.


When I could drive, I got a job as multi-drop parcel delivery driver (think UPS) and after a few years of that I became a local bus driver. Finally I got my current job, and moved from the UK to Western Canada, where I now drive tour buses through the Canadian Rockies. This is where my character starts his adventuring career.

Bored with working in shops, at the age of 21, Dorvin became a carter, making deliveries around his home town. After a few years of this, Dorvin took a new job as a local Carriage Driver, before finally moving out west as a Teamster to drive Stagecoaches through the mountains.

Dorvin has become increasingly unhappy with the way that his employer has been treating him and has finally had enough.

Through his Stagecoach career, Dorvin has carried many an adventurer and, excited by their tales, has decided to try his hand at adventuring.


I picked my equipment based on what items I might currently have, so a longbow because I do archery, a whip because I would use one as a stage driver, and a battleaxe because I grew up with (and currently still live in a house with) wood burning fires.

Dorvin, having told his boss to "Shove it where the sun don't shine!" collected his Longbow, and Whip from the coach, gathered a few items from home including his Grandfather's old Pocket Knife and the Old Battle Axe that he used for chopping wood, before spending most of his savings on adventuring equipment at the market and then heading to the Tavern in search of Adventure.

So that's my back story, in addition to the Ranger Class, I picked the Acolyte background due to my stint as an alter boy.

The combination of race, class and background gave me the following benefits...

Race: +1 to all ability scores,
      2 languages - Common + 1 other (I took Dwarvish).

Class: Bonuses against a favoured enemy including 1 extra language spoken by them (Orcish)
       Bonuses in a favoured terrain (mountains)
       3 skills from a small selection I chose Animal Handling and Athletics because I would have been controlling horses for the last 15 years of my character's life, and nature because I studied horticulture at college.

Background: 2 more languages of my choice (I picked Elven so I cover the big 3, and Celestial because I grew up in a religious environment).
            2 more skills Insight, and Religion.

This message was last edited by the user at 18:54, Sat 09 July 2016.
spectre
member, 819 posts
Myriad paths fell
away from that moment....
Sat 9 Jul 2016
at 18:24
  • msg #2

Character creation.

I personally enjoy coming up with a new character for every game I'm involved in. Some are memorable and others are not as memorable. I take various things that I like and try to mash them into a cohesive whole generally. When I start choosing stats and skills, I then work on how the new character works, making them and shaping them through character creation, I think of reasons why they have a higher strength, etc. Then make sure to follow through in-game with them doing things to promote that trait, as most realistic people would do, so they exercise and stretch for the strength example. If they are a soldier, they run drills and train, etc. Takes a lot of strength to swing a broadsword around like it's nobodies business!

This gives the character depth and realism. The more I add, the more they do things which might involve those traits.
RedTeamPyro
member, 35 posts
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 02:57
  • msg #3

Character creation.

When it comes to character creation, I can get excessive. By that I mean I'm constantly making ideas, and then taking stuff I like and using it. Right now I have three kobolds in the works; a Male Gunslinger/Sniper who indulges heavily in a thieving and mercenary lifestyle and gets in trouble with people due to debts, a female Cleric of Bahamut that I admit is just a healer that I want to build on to as I RP, another female Fighter/Rogue/Something that's being set up for an anticipated Al-Qadin (Think Arabic themed) game that Im really hoping pulls through on "Wanted: GMs". Oh, not to forget the dodgiest, slipperiest thief of all time... Butters. A Male Rogue. I'm trying to make him untouchable through agility without being a min-maxing jack apple. I said three in the works because Butters exists, but he's being reworked. Plus, I still suck with numbers for D&D/pahfinder.

Kobolds are seriously my favorite race. They can be cute, or comedic, or downright threatening and/or brutal. Or all in one! Lots of variety and potential.

Back on topic, I have a few character guidelines OOCly when making them;

Be origional
If it's inspired from something else, make inspirations so subtle yet there that people won't know till you tell them. Also, try and follow rule 1
Don't be too edgy, if edgy at all
Don't be a fruiting Mary sue
No self-inserts


You do what you want though
This message was last edited by the user at 02:59, Fri 29 July 2016.
Merevel
member, 1044 posts
Gaming :-)
Very unlucky
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 04:55
  • msg #4

Character creation.

Start with an idea, a premise so to speak. Now, flesh it out a little. Stew on it. Let it build its flavours, add some salt and pepper. Oops, I started talking about soup. Honestly, its kind of the same thing.

Throw the basics in, turn the burner on, come back later and tweak as necessary. Never feel afraid of dumping things out if it does not turn out right. Try again, its ok. Learn from your mistakes. And remember, Just because your friends do not like the soup, does not mean its bad. It just means file it away for later.
facemaker329
member, 6815 posts
Gaming for over 30
years, and counting!
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 06:46
  • msg #5

Character creation.

For me, character creation starts out with a hook...some kind of storyline that will make this an interesting and intriguing character to play.  What that hook is depends on the game, where I am mentally and emotionally at the time, what movies/books/tv shows have made an impression on me...

And it doesn't have to be a big thing.  It can be subtle things, like he was picked on as a kid because nobody knew who his father was (it's a Scion game, his father was a Norse god...but you can't go around telling your kid that, because when he tells people you told him that, they come visiting with medications and funny jackets to take you to visit a nice man who wants to know what event in your life induced this delusion...)  That builds into a kid who got picked on, until he learned to fight back...and, being a Scion, he's stronger than the other kids, so the bullies learned to leave him alone.  So he started making the bullies leave other kids alone, because they didn't deserve it.  That turned into an interest in law enforcement and justice...so he becomes an FBI agent.

Or he's a sniper.  Snipers are notorious for being a little different, emotionally, very comfortable being alone in their own heads and very self-reliant.  Why would he have developed this?  Well, his mom and dad divorced, his dad remarried a Navajo woman, but being a white kid on the reservation put him in a minority position.  He never really clicked with his stepmom, grew distant from his dad...not much to do on the reservation besides camping, hunting, etc (depending on where you are...some places have more to do than that, but there's an awful lot of open land out there, too...)  So, he spent more and more time away from home, out on his own.  Got old enough to join the military, it was a free ticket out of there, and he's already had years of shooting, stalking game, living on his own off the land...he could go Special Forces but that's too social for him, so he goes Sniper.  When he gets picked for a special mission task force, he's got to learn how to socialize with the other task force members...which gives me some 'meat' to roleplay outside of the combat engagements.

I figure out who I want my character to be, and then figure out what made him that way.  I tend to do 'generalist' characters, who may be competent at several things, but are rarely outstanding at any one thing...they're self-reliant, as much as possible, but they also fit in with just about any group.  But if my character has some outstanding skill or trait, I make sure there's a logical reason for it in his background.  I know some people who build their character specifically with fighting in mind, or magic (if it's in the game), or whatever...I generally don't do that.  If I'm going to make a character that's geared strictly to combat, he's going to have been raised as a gladiator all his life, or grew up in Sparta (or whatever the equivalent would be in that particular game setting)...I try to come up with some motivating factor or solid explanation for his abilities...and if I wind up needing to knock some points off his 'great' abilities in order to pick up some lesser abilities that would make sense, I will.  I prefer plausible characters (even if that plausibility gets stretched pretty thin sometimes...*looks at his Troll Martial Artist character from his Palladium Fantasy days*) over spectacular characters.  Part of that is the GMs I played with throughout high school and college...in their games, if you made a character that was inhumanly strong but too dumb to figure out a doorknob, that character either broke down a lot of doors, or spent a lot of time trapped in a room until a smarter character opened the door for him.  Yeah, they'd let you play a combat monster that was too stupid to know how to take his own armor off at night...but whatever attribute you sacrificed in order to get that strong?  They would use that to make you pay, time after time after time.

So, that's always in the back of my mind as I build characters...well-rounded, unless I want him to suffer constant humiliation over whatever I designated as his 'dump stat'.  Plausible explanations for special abilities, or for normal abilities developed to an unusual level.  And I usually put together at least a basic life history...a lot of details evolve and become more clear as I play the character, and I don't like to try and sew up all the loose ends in a nice, tidy bundle.  I leave a lot of material unclear or dangling for the GM to turn into story hooks if they so desire.

The last thing I try to figure out?  The character's motivation for being there, in the first place.  Sometimes it's easy.  Sometimes, the GM looks at what I've given him and says, "Okay, you are here, and this is why," and I don't have to worry about it.  But I try to make sure my character has SOME reason to be willing to run around with all these other guys...
Ameena
member, 140 posts
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 11:28
  • msg #6

Character creation.

RedTeamPyro - You're not the only one who thinks kobolds are cool and has played a load of them ;). In the DnD game I'm running on here, the group is currently in some kobold caves, as it happens - friendly kobolds who are actually helpful :D.

When I'm creating a character, I suppose the first thing I do is glance through the list(s) of available races/classes and see if anything jumps out at me (unless it's something like DnD where I already know what's available so I can just start with a concept I want to expand upon). Then, I dunno, I suppose the character puts herself (I tend to always play female) together in my head, just the basic outline of what she is and what she does, where she comes from, stuff like that. Also she gets a basic outline of her personality, which tends to be a variant on either friendly and chatty, or anti-social and more of a loner depending on what seems to fit the character/setting, as well as how much knowledge I have of said setting - if it's one I'm unfamiliar with, I don't tend to play talkative characters who may be asked about (and thus expected to know) things to do with that setting :D. But mostly I start with a fairly rough build and then develop her as I go, once I get into playing her and developing her speech patterns and mannerisms and that sort of thing.
RedTeamPyro
member, 40 posts
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 15:39
  • msg #7

Character creation.

About half of the characters I conceptualize don't even fit well in a D&D setting, (but I'm more of a roleplay person anyways.) Or atleast, not at first. I also like to delve outside the box or norms when it comes to making characters, ESPECIALLY a race wise. I barely play the core races, like humans and elves. Once or twice, a dragonborn. I prefer to play stuff like Birdfolk, and other avians 'cause I love birds, Kobolds, Hydrafolk, and I also have a Nerubian character that I'm hoping to enter another campaign with.

How does this relate to the topic? Well, when I mentioned my "RP Guidelines" earlier, it helps the origionality bit. Think outside the box. Do something unexpected. Sure, it can be difficult, but trust me; the reward is great. Rak'Thir, my Birdfolk healer/pyromaniac, for example, is not only fun to play and roleplay his struggle to adapt to new, more tolerant societies (his character is inspired by World of Warcraft Arakkoa. The high Arakkoa. Meaning he struggles with things like racial tolerance, although at a much smaller scale), but was extremely fun to play in battles. Fly into the air and heal. Make melee-rooted enemies hate existence.

Of course, I'm not saying pick the most monstrous species you can find and test the DM's tolerance; you can have fun with the core races too. On a more comedic campaign, I played a dwarf with a prehensile beard that was also tied to his soul. The beard was weaponized, of course; and I fought through grappling. With his beard. In speaking of comedy, don't be afraid to play funny or light hearted characters. Parties enjoy comedic relief, and stuff to dull the edginess projected in some campaigns of players; although be careful with this. Sometimes, it can go too far and ruin the tones of some things.

Think that bringing something unpredictable or crazy to the table isn't for you? That's fine. There's value in simplicity; you could end up starting off as a generic Drizzt clone and end up becoming something astonishing to your party. Remember; D&D, pathfinder, etc. Is a place where the most creative people strive. Use your head. Even if it can be tough at times, I seriously think D&D is healthy
This message was last edited by the user at 15:43, Fri 29 July 2016.
Utsukushi
member, 1376 posts
I should really stay out
of this, I know...but...
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 17:05
  • msg #8

Character creation.

quote:
you could end up starting off as a generic Drizzt clone and end up becoming something astonishing to your party

Heh.  Remember when the good-hearted Drow was the twist?  ... Probably not.  Young'uns.  Sit down around the fire, and let me tell you about a time when Fighters were just Fighters, Dwarves were just Dwarves, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri belonged in Star Frontiers*.

...I do have a point here, which is that thinking `outside the box' isn't as easy as it sounds.  There are boxes within boxes that, after thirty or so years of millions of gamers thinking outside the box and wanting to do something different, are all cliche now.  Everybody wants to be different.  I have a game where each character has to be tied to one of the canon gods - I spent literally hours.. OK, literally an hour.. digging through the internet to find a really good, obscure one, and was the second character in the game with that choice.

I don't know.  I generally start with my Discipline (I like Earthdawn.  Class, in D&D), and then kind of... let it hang out in my head until I find a character for it, I guess?  The best ones always do feel more like I found them than made them.

But mostly, I wanted to say that I found the OP's post really fascinating.  I've sort of built `myself' in a few systems, usually for one of those games where you actually start out as yourself.  But I'd never actually thought of making an... alternate universe translation of my life for a character's history like that.  I love some of the translations you did.  It's a cool idea.  I.. doubt I'll use that, actually, I don't think it's "for me", but it's cool.


*-They were called Yazirians, and they would rip your face off.
   ...Unless you were playing the rare Yazirian-with-an-even-temper, which a surprising number of people did

This message was last edited by the user at 17:06, Fri 29 July 2016.
swordchucks
member, 1235 posts
Fri 29 Jul 2016
at 17:29
  • msg #9

Character creation.

As I've gotten older, the amount of background I put into a character has plummeted.  Any more than a paragraph of background before you finish the character sheet is overkill.  A good character, for me, gets two or three answers to questions like these: What do they do?  What is the first thing others notice about them?  What is their primary defining characteristic?

For instance, I need to have a D&D character ready for a home game.  I've decided that she's a social skill-based character and she speaks with a Russian accent (I blame Welcome to Night Vale).  From there, I end up with 1-3 more facts while making the character, and that's really it.  Anything else will get made up in play as it's needed.

There was a time when I put a whole lot more into backstories, and it ended up either being unused, or by the time it showed up in play, I'd totally forgotten I wrote about it.




Also, friends don't let friends play Drizzt clones.  Despite your nostalgia filters, those books weren't particularly well written, and Drizzt was only interesting because he was a unique take on the race (which was barely defined at the time).  Once he stops being unique, he's not very interesting.

That's not to say that you can't make an interesting good-aligned drow.  Just leave that as the only common points and work from there.  (In other words, stealing themes is perfectly fine, just don't go stealing details.)
Tyr Hawk
member, 199 posts
You know that one guy?
Yeah, that's me.
Sat 30 Jul 2016
at 04:36
  • msg #10

Character creation.

Once upon a time, when I was very young, someone foolishly told me I could be anything I wanted to be. They said, in that silly way some adults do, that I only had to follow my dreams and work hard and I could be anything. Anything. I suppose that was the day I made my first character, and since then I've been too many things to count. Now, why "foolishly?" Why "silly?" I'll tell you, but only after I tell you this: I don't really have control over my characters after a certain point.

What I mean to say is that I begin character creation with an idea. Any idea will work. "I want to have the highest Agility score possible" or "I think he was raised by bears" or even "I like this picture." That's how it always starts. It doesn't matter if it's original, or clever, or even good. I find an idea just laying around and the voice in my head from ages past tells me "You can be that. You can be anything."

From there, I move into development. I begin fitting mechanics to the idea, building and rebuilding until I think I have something that fits that core idea, fleshing it out in little ways. I throw a few points into Dance or Architecture. I give him a set of bladed fans instead of a sword. I erase the name and write in Jamba the Juicer instead (as a placeholder). It's all still under my control at this point. I'm still me, though the voice is growing louder. More insistent.

Then I begin the backstory. Unlike swordchucks, my backstories are long. The backstory is where I begin to breathe in the scent of this new being. This new me. I write in their voice, or about them, and as I do I discover that things in the numbers are wrong. Their Agility is crazy high, but they need more Constitution for this scene to make sense. The fans were a brilliant idea, but he stole them! I need points in thievery. Little by little as I write, the character takes hold. They begin taking the story in new directions, in ways I couldn't have thought of - wouldn't have even considered - and yet they're right because they are real. I am them. I, who can be anything, lose myself to the will of what I become.

That probably sounds crazy. It is, a little bit, but it's true. After a certain point in the process my characters have more control over what they do than I do. I can't choose how I want the story to go, where I want it to end. I can try, but they take me wherever they want to go and do it the way they want to. If I'm lucky they'll go where I planned, but it's never how I planned it to go. I can't remember the author who said it first, but the idea is that characters have life, not stories, so I don't write stories, I write characters and see where they take me.

I suppose all this is to say that I have a process for creating characters, and I only really know it's done when I'm writing for them and they do something I didn't expect. That's when I exercise the power that foolish person gave me so long ago. The power to create what I want to become, because I can be anything. Anything.
icosahedron152
member, 590 posts
Sat 30 Jul 2016
at 05:29
  • msg #11

Character creation.

When I create a character it depends on the game, and whether I’m a player or a GM creating a NPC.

If the game allows me to create a character freely, or point-buy to build something like what I want, I’ll look at the game premise and the descriptions the GM has given of the world, the situation and the mission, and something will pop into my head. Chances are it will be a unique character unlike any other I’ve played - transposing characters from one game to another doesn’t work for me, there’s no way I’d ever create a character and then try to find a game to drop it into.

Then I’ll run the concept past the GM to see how well it fits into the game universe. A player who introduces 'comic relief' without warning into a GM's carefully constructed 'simmering tension' is likely to be looking for a new game pretty soon...

If it’s a random generation game, I’ll look at the numbers for the stats and skills and they will suggest a character to me. In both cases, the character usually pops into my head almost fully formed. I often find that the more I labour over the character and background, the more trite and wooden it tends to become - especially if I try to transfer it from another setting. It needs to flow naturally. Anything beyond a few paragraphs will come out during play rather than being on the character sheet from the outset.

If I’m a GM creating a NPC, the process is often similar: the situation that created a need for the NPC will determine the nature of that NPC, including its gender and/or race, and something will pop into my head. It’s almost like I don’t create the characters, they introduce themselves to me when the need arises.

When creating NPCs, though, I don’t ‘ask them’ much about their background. There’s no point in creating five pages of backstory for a shopkeeper when a PC wants to buy an oil lamp. Nevertheless, I will ‘see’ the NPC in my mind’s eye and their mannerisms will show through.

For example, just in writing the last three lines, I can see an old, balding man who’s a bit short-tempered and sharp with his customers depending how he feels that day, and how much hassle they give him. I don’t need to know why he’s short-tempered or when he lost his hair, or whether his mother is still alive, all I need is what is essential for player interaction - however, in the event that the shopkeeper becomes more important later, those details can be filled in as needed. Nevertheless, I will purposefully avoid cliches - that shopkeeper will never be Norman Bates or Victor Meldrew.

Major NPCs will be created like PCs, though. They will have a rich history that ties in with the setting and the plot. Talking to them will draw the plot forward and perhaps give the PCs new direction...

Sorry I can’t give you a formula for generation, I really don’t have one, but it gives you another take on how people go about it.
Ameena
member, 141 posts
Sat 30 Jul 2016
at 08:47
  • msg #12

Character creation.

I seem to have a similar "technique" to the previous two posters about building my charactes - I start with a vague concept, but then they kind of build themselves, especially once I start playing them. I can remember one game (it was on another forum, not RPOL) where I came up with my own race and had intended for my character to be a sneaky, stabby thief of the kind that I often play in these kinds of games. But as the game went on, she ended up being basically a super-friendly pacifist who would only fight as a last resort if cornered, or if the thing she was fighting wasn't properly "alive" (ie if it was some kind of golem or other magically-created/reanimated entity) and therefore wouldn't feel any pain or distressed at being backstabbed for a load of damage :D. I decided I really liked the race I'd created and came up with a bunch of background details for them which never came up in the game. And they're still around, in my head, and will show up again some day :D.

I will always try to play a race who is outside of the "normal, boring" ones - I don't like any of the "humanish-looking" races, like elves and dwarves and especially humans themselves. I'm already a human - why would I want to RP as one? I'd much rather play as something with claws or scales, or wings or a tail, or something like that so that they feel more, I dunno, different? They can do things a human (or human-like) character couldn't do, because those more "standard" races don't have fur or a beak or whatever :D.

In the game I'm currently running, I'm developing the backstory of my gameworld in the background, thinking up more details ready to be used when the PCs actually get there (which looks like it's going to be ages yet :D). One NPC in particular has a fair bit of detail already in place about who they are and how they got into the position they currently occupy. Maybe the PCs will actually meet them one day :D.
OceanLake
member, 968 posts
Sat 30 Jul 2016
at 18:47
  • msg #13

Character creation.

If I'm an early applicant, I start with a class that I think will be interesting in the GMs world. Then I do enough personality and background to give the GM an idea what the character is about. If the GM is interested, it's stats time with character modification to suit.

If I'm a later applicant, I focus on what sort of character the party needs and seek to work with the GM to create a character who will help fill those needs.

P.S. I seldom, if ever, create an exotic character...just some salt and pepper on the steak, less makeup is better makeup, etc. for one of my limited imagination.
Bornite
member, 9 posts
Sat 30 Jul 2016
at 19:08
  • msg #14

Character creation.

I'm one of those who usually goes too far in creating a character.  Now all of this is of course dependent on the game world and system.  If the world allows (a modern setting for instance) I'll be looking over towns and cities for where the character might be from, even down to looking at different neighborhoods.  I'll look at different schools and colleges for where they were educated.  If they have a spouse (and possibly offspring), I'll do the same for them.  I'll spend plenty of time on the web looking up information on all of that to help me with not just a listing of things for their background, but information on those items to give me just a bit of help with getting in the characters head.  Of course, the vast majority of GMs could care less about such information and sometimes have told me that it's too much for them to look over, but it helps me.
engine
member, 153 posts
Sat 30 Jul 2016
at 19:13
  • msg #15

Character creation.

I don't put a lot into backstories. I never put in extreme amounts, but as I learned that even the best games will often peter out quickly, I never saw much reason to put in a lot of effort. Not every part of a backstory is "effort," but there comes a point where I don't need an answer for a particular detail.

I also like to improvise, so I like a character that lets me add stuff in as necessary. I feel this follows the model of how characters in TV shows are created: they have some basic backstory, but a lot of it is left open so that the character can be more easily slotted into as-yet-unwritten stories. That's what I feel a good RPG character has going for it: leeway.

As for ideas, they can come either from what I think would be mechanically interesting to play, or what I think would be an interesting sort of character for the scenario. For D&D, I usually avoid the "obvious" concepts like a half-orc barbarian or a halfling rogue, unless I have a really cool concept for the character. I sometimes take inspiration directly from TV or movie characters, but that can easily get annoying for me when others do it, so I tread lightly.
Flint_A
member, 509 posts
Sun 31 Jul 2016
at 16:51
  • msg #16

Character creation.

If you're playing within a rigid system (like D&D) it's important to know how far you can push the rules without breaking them. For example, I once needed to create a character for a GM who was quite strict with the rules and the biggest railroader I've ever seen. I decided to make a character that would annoy him, but would be within acceptable levels of cheesiness.

So I made a Paladin. (I rarely play lawful OR good.)

Now, according to the book the only restriction is that Paladins have to be Lawful Good. It doesn't say anything about which gods they can belong to. In fact, it specifically says a paladin doesn't even need a god.

Clerics do have a rule though, which is that you can only be one step away from your god. If the same logic applies to Paladins; then LG, LN and NG gods could have paladins. This is supported by example characters who are Paladins of Heironeous(LG), St. Cuthbert (LN) and Pelor (NG).

But see, those are all human gods. Logically speaking, there could (and should) certainly be dwarven paladins of Moradin or, say, dragonborn paladins of Bahamut. This isn't 1E, after all.

Or, in my case, a gnome paladin of Garl Glittergold (NG), god of gnomes...and also god of luck and trickery. I wasn't even a rock gnome, I was a forest gnome. So imagine a 2 feet tall paladin in full plate, riding a big dog.

My code included protecting civilized folk from "monsters" (especially kobolds), respecting legitimate authority but subverting tyrants through mockery and bringing happiness to the downtrodden through humor.

This was all completely legal, and not TOO cheesy, but it was SO MUCH MORE fun than a regular old paladin.
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