So I was thinking about how generic many characters are. Mostly this is because players want to create a character that fits an archetype (that's why they were drawn to it) but it got me thinking about how interesting it might be to ask my players to create their least favourite character combination and then make them the opposite, following this process:

1. List the character races from your favourite to least favourite, then roll a d4 and count up from the bottom of the list. That's your race. If you played that recently, choose the next nearest least favoured to the one you rolled.
2. List the character classes from favourite to least favourite, then roll a d4 and count up from the bottom of the list. That's your class. If you played that recently, choose the next nearest least favoured to the one you rolled.
3. List the subclasses from most appealing to least appealing. Roll a d4, count up and that's going to be your subclass.
4. Look at the equipment options: take all the ones you wouldn't normally take.
5. Choose your least favourite background.
6. Now imagine what they wear or look like. You can't choose any of that. Choose something completely different.
7. How would this class/subclass/race typically act? Choose all the opposites.

What does the character come out like, and does it turn out that they would actually be really fun and interesting to play?

When I did this I got the following:

Triton Paladin heading towards Oath of Conquest. He has a Blowgun and a Pike, and I randomly rolled to choose fighting style and got Holy Warrior, taking Mending and Thaumaturgy as cantrips. Criminal/Spy background.

Velitos has left his triton people to go adventuring after he grew tired of their pacifistic nature, or at least he claims that: he's actually been a petty criminal most of his life, and has left because nobody liked him. He deludes himself into believing he is leading the way for the triton people to conquer the air-lands, and intends to be a shining example. First he's going to need a lot of gold, so he'll keep it to himself whenever he can. He learned to use a blowgun hunting fish, and uses his whale-pike, but honestly he's not really that sure about how to use either. He's baffled by swords and other air-breather weapons, and may need to learn their value. He tries to dress himself in air-breather clothes, but has no idea how those really go together. As such he wears a kilt over a serving woman's dress over his chainmail, and sometimes wears more than one hat at a time. His journey will be one of learning that actually maybe there are some good things from outside his culture, even as he tries to conquer everyone.

If you fancy playing along then tell me about the misfit you create! 

I'm in a campaign that just started where our characters were completely random, and it had a similar effect. I wound up with an orc rogue with the outlander background (a combo I never would have picked myself) whose first personality trait is "I was, in fact, raised by wolves".

Since INT was his dump stat but he has a good WIS, I'm playing him as not completely stupid, just completely uneducated. The wizard started talking about necromancy and I asked him what that word was.