u/L1terallyUrDad

I hope I'm not violating any rules. I'm new here, and I didn't see any rules.

I'm going to be playing in a 5.5e (2024) Dragonheist / Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign starting soon. This is my fourth attempt to create a character.

Disclosure: I've been playing D&D off and on since 1979 and have played every hardback version of the game. I've had quite a few characters, and in the 5e/5.5e world, I seem to be creating many more characters.

For this game, I started out with a boring human fighter Purple Knight wanna-be. We did a 3rd-level one-shot with the group to test playing with each, where I played an Asimar Wizard. I didn't have a lot of emotional attachment. Then a gif/meme of Roger the Shrubber from Monty Python and the Holy Grail got posted to our Discord, so I made a Human Druid named Ro'dgher the Shrubber, which is just clearly a meme character, and since it's mostly a city/dungeon adventure, a Druid just doesn't fit that well.

Another joke post was made to our group that was actually a Reddit post, where someone wanted to include some drag queens and was asking for names. I read over the names and got inspired.

I wanted to play Silver Barbara. He isn't truly a drag queen, but more like a Greek actor where men played many of the female roles. In this case, Silver Barbara is a fairly famous Waterdeepian actor known for playing famous heroines on stage.

The premise here is that he's been playing this role for so long, the audience believes the stories are real, and he sometimes wonders about what it would be like to be a hero.

He has a real, silvered rapier that he insisted on for authenticity in the role. Woven into the outfit for this character is functional studded leather, even though he believes it is just a stage prop. He also has a +1 Cloak of Protection, which he also believes that it's just wardrobe that he's had for a long time. He doesn't know it's magical. Perhaps it was when he got it, or perhaps it became magical because his audience has believed it to be for so long.

He fully believes that it's worthy to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

As the story starts, he will be putting on a monologue performance at the Yawning Portal. He will only have his stage gear, including a satchel with his makeup kit (Disguise Kit), some writing equipment (calligrapher's kit), some extra parchment (the script for the play), and a coin purse. They also have a fancy letter opener (dagger) and ZERO adventuring gear.

As the story starts, he won't see himself as a Paladin, but over time, and perhaps by the time he gets to third level and subclasses (Oath of Devotion planned), then perhaps he realizes he's the adventurer he has somewhat dreamed of being.

Silver Barbara is a 52-year-old human who's in great shape due to all of the work on stage and is an excellent dualist due to all the swordplay training. But to him, he's just an actor in a sword thrust into a real adventure.

This is perhaps the first time where I made the narrative the main part of character creation and worked the mechanics around the character. No, starting out with "I'll play a human Paladin" and fitting the narrative to the species/class.

This feels like a really cool way to build a character.

STR: 8, DEX: 18, CON: 14, INT: 10, WIS: 12, CHA: 16, AC: 17 until I pick up a shield, 14 HP to start.

More disclosure: The artwork was created with ChatGPT. I also used ChatGPT to help with the character creation. Questions like: What character class would fit this build the best? Ironically, Paladin was like the 3rd or 4th choice. The ideas are mine; some of the details are AI. But more importantly, the idea of how to build this character narrative first was mine, as well as playing a stage actor who plays female heroines. AI just helped me get there and think about some consequences of my choices.

What are your thoughts on the idea of creating the narrative first? The concept for the character? etc. No discussion on the use of AI. That is what it is.

I feel I'm going to really like this character. I feel it's sufficiently different than anything I've played before (and I've played quite a few Paladins). I just hope I don't fall back into the trope of I'm playing a DND class, not a personality.