I am going to join a short series throughout December. There will be one session every day during December (except Christmas day). The game will tell an original story written by my very excellent DM, a wonderful storyteller and writer, and use the 5e rule system, with Baldur”s Gate as the setting. I have asked and getting permission to make a character who is the offspring of Asmodeus and an unknown human native to the third plane of hell, who became a concubine of Asmodeus so that she could escape The City of Minauros and its ruler.
The characters mother is unknown in that she became one of many concubines of Asmodeus. When the character was born, he was taken away from his mother and raised by his father's agents. He was taught the ways of devils, given an exceptional education and trained as a spy before being sent to the City of Dis as an agent of Asmodeus. He was acting as one of many agents who could become the eyes and ears of Asmodeus in the Court of Dispater. However, very little escapes the notice of the Iron Duke, who knew full well about Asmodeus’ spies and had either killed or had his agents kill most of them, using the remaining spies to feed just enough information back to Asmodeus to keep him happy while making sure that he remained in the dark about some things.
Like all the others, Dispater knew that the character had been sent to spy on him but saw an opportunity in the presence of a child of Asmodeus in his city. He allowed the character to get close to him and fed him information about some of his secrets. Information that he was sure would get back to Asmodeus, but nothing that he wouldn't have found out about eventually. After several years, the character had become a trusted servant of Dispater, who had slowly brainwashed him and turned him against his father. Now, sure that he was under his control, Dispater found a better use for him than serving in his court.
Dispater sent the character to the material plane on a mission; he was to corrupt and acquire souls for his new master, the more powerful and influential, the better.
On the material plane, the character sought out those who possessed the mightiest souls with whom he could corrupt and make a deal. Dispater himself fulfilled those deals, trapping the owners of the corrupted souls into inescapable contracts that would bind them to his service for eternity. Eventually, to better fulfil his mission of collecting powerful souls, the character became an adventurer, allowing him to travel and giving him access to places where ordinary people could not go and bringing him into contact with powerful mortals, whose souls he planned to collect.
So, I have a character who is the offspring of a powerful extraplanar being. A character who is native to the nine hells, having been born in hell, raised and educated by devils and their various agents, and sworn into the service of another powerful extraplanar being,
The problem is, I don't know how to make any of that work in terms of character backstory, race, class or even how to roleplay such a character. I have this idea, but beyond that, I don't know. I'm stumped. I would greatly appreciate some input. If you were making this character, what race and class would you choose? How would you write his backstory (not asking for you to write it, just your thoughts on how you would write it)?
Most of all, what are your thoughts on how I can play such a character. A character who is native to nine hells and the literal child and servant of powerful extraplanar beings?
Of course, without making the character into an edgelord.
Looking forward to what you have to say, and thanks in advance for your assistance.
If this were an NPC, it would be a cambion, so I would start there -- what makes them different/special so that they're a PC and not an NPC?
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
One of my favorite characters is the exact opposite: An Aasimar who's father is an angel. In this case, she was left in an orphanage in Sigil (the Gatehouse) the caretakers were given instructions not to let her be adopted. But since then, he has been deliberately incommunicado. It became formative in terms of "why did a powerful agent of heaven abandon me?" and led to all sorts of development based on what his motivations might be.
But back to your questions:
Race: Glaysa Tiefling. The reasoning I have here, is that Glaysa is the closest to Asmodeus bloodline (supposedly) and the abilities align with being a spy that with Disguise Self is ideal for spying anywhere in the mortal realms.
Class: Three thoughts here
Rogue (practically any version) Skill monkey spy, with sneak attack becuase...they are a spy.
Bard: College of Whispers: Sneaky with a lot more magical support than an arcane trickster. The bard class lets them get close and make friends. This one might be ideal for corruption of other people through a bad bargain. High level play with Geas
Monk: Way of Shadows: This is a different take on a spy. While the stats as given (pre Tasha's) doesn't align well, but its more direct to being a living weapon with a lot of subterfuge.
Warlock: Fiend or Genie: the fiend is just...well angry stuff. But genie (fire) with an infernal skinning would be interesting. Eventually limited wishes to help others acheive their desires at a terrible cost
How to play: Well you already wrote the backstory; but I would suggest they aren't aware of it. The brainwashing extends farther; they think they are a 'regular' tiefling on the prime. A false backstory of an untrusted tiefling with a bitter and vengenful mother (a devil in disguise) who gives the character ideas to create opportunites for them to offer contracts for souls. You are allowed to write contracts for a person's soul, for a favor that your character can actually do. Alternatively you encourage bad behavior in others, so their souls go straight to hell. As they discover the truth of being a tool of Dispater, do they dive right in and seek his favor, or dig deeper to find the real betrayal? Perhaps Asmodeus reveals the truth and sets you on a path of causing Dispater to fail. Having a powerful parent/patron doesn't mean they spoon feed the character; they want them to grow strong on their own merits. Because after all...mortals are still a dime of dozen; you need to prove you are worth something. Or perhaps you hate the entire setup and become an instrument of vengance, setting up archdevils to fail and embarras themselves.
I'm all for thorough backstories, but the way to move from that to a character is figuring out how it translates to being whatever level the campaign starts at, member of a party that works together, and out adventuring. Take a shot at those three questions and you'll probably have a pretty good idea about what the character will be like and how to play it. If you can't find a good answer, you might have to change the backstory to accommodate the character better. The backstory's there to flesh out the character, the character doesn't exist to justify the backstory.
If your character "eventually became an adventurer to get into contact with powerful mortals", how are they going to work with others? What will they bring to the party and what will they expect in return? What's their reason to cooperate with others and why would those others cooperate with them? If they've been well trained and educated and have been doing this for a while, what sort of class abilities and skill proficiencies would that entail?
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The backstory sounds pretty fleshed out. Powerful mortals often can read minds so the idea of selective amnesia is worth considering, coupled with the noble background so you can get close to lords and ladies. She will have an underlying compulsion built into her nature that draws her to wealth and influence, when she is well inserted and has made her connections (gets mind shielding) certain memories will be returned.
I got to multiclass, it is an OCD affliction for me. Strength to the rp classes because she is intended to manipulate others, if I liked mastermind rogue better that would be initial class, instead I would start inquisitive rogue and add eloquence bard or vice versa. After you get the more influential abilities in both classes it is worth considering the combat classes for her eventual future in the lower planes, Paladin for 7 levels to cap her off keeps the character from getting to MAD and would really flavor her as a influential leadership role in any of the Dukes courts. Fighter for 6 levels somewhere in progression could make her deadly and gets you 2 more feats. Leaning toward BM for the maneuvers. 2 levels of paly would let her smite her bard slots away, that could be neat when added to sneak attack dice….
Race tiefling or changeling
roleplay notes LE, friendly and flirty to anyone with wealth, power, or potential. Expertise in insight to assess motivation and understand emotions, her performance skill might be tied to seduction. She portrays herself as sympathetic to her mark, a loyalist around men of honor or a capitalist amongst greedy merchants or nobility. She can be snide and high class or humble and common, personality traits would be changes like the weather, ideal: to command the heart and devotion of he who wields the power is to command more power than the wielder. (People will do stuff in the name of love they would never do otherwise) Bond: influence and secrets are greater than wealth, she is motivated only to gain more of both. Flaw: keeping track of who she is around different people gets complicated with more than one mark in the same room, accidentally flirting while in the company of a mark.
On the backstory- she had modify memory done on her to make her believe she is from a noble house elsewhere, moved to Baldur’s Gate to stay with relatives (loyal servants of Dispater) but she is bored and eager to get out of the mansion and have some fun and make new friends. Or she is planted in the local thieves guild as a courtesan to spy on the wealthy lords of the land. Your DM being a great storyteller should be able to easily suggest how she could best make herself available to the rest of the party. Remember lawful evil does not necessarily mean she is cruel or mean, you catch more flies with honey. The inherent evil in her nature is she serves a corrupt being or she serves herself but doesn't want everyone to know so she may act selfless and kind to influence others perception of her.
Of course, without making the character into an edgelord.
I think it's a bit too late for that. ;)
Other than that and the excellent advice pangurjan gave I think the most important question you need to ask, how does this character improve the story that your fellowplayers and your DM is trying to tell? Besides the rather unfortunate implications of the character's mother being an unnamed woman just briefly mentiond and then tossed aside, if you don't know how to roleplay the character, what is it that you are hoping to bring to the table? Now we don't know what leel you'll be starting as but this character already has at least five levels of backstory which will be weird if you start at level 1 and as always, the coolest things happening to a PC should never be in their background story.
What I would do to make this a playable character would basically be to scale everything down a it. Now, you mentioned having your GM's approval for this type of character but it never hurts to check in to see what kind of restrictions (if any) they might have or if they have any thoughts and ideas. But still, if you really want to go for the "child of Asmodues" angle, instead of the mother just being a trope, how about making her a powerful wizard who struck a deal with Asmodeus for her nextborn child, seduced ol' Asmo and basically tricked him since all he got was a kid that was already his. The mom then left since she had all she wanted. Not caring about his Tiefling kid he just dumped him on one of his lieuetenants who brought him up as a spy and an agent.
Fast forward a few decades and you have a young tiefling who is desperate to find their palce in the world but who doesn't really know what they want. Sure, they have been taught all about this lying and stealing and backstabbing (and they might have even done a bit of it for themselves) but is that really what they want? Maybe this "Prime" planethat you've heard so much about (and might even have visited) might be a fun place to explore?
Et voila! You now have a character with an infernal background but who has actual motivations to hang around with a bunch of mortal explorers on the Prime plane. You have the option to play up the evil aspects of the character ("what do you mean we don't kill our wounded enemies? We always do that where I came from!"), you can be the outsider and you can contribute to the party (If nothing else because you see them as useful and fun to be with.
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Hi Beyonders,
I want to get your thoughts, opinions and ideas.
I am going to join a short series throughout December. There will be one session every day during December (except Christmas day). The game will tell an original story written by my very excellent DM, a wonderful storyteller and writer, and use the 5e rule system, with Baldur”s Gate as the setting. I have asked and getting permission to make a character who is the offspring of Asmodeus and an unknown human native to the third plane of hell, who became a concubine of Asmodeus so that she could escape The City of Minauros and its ruler.
The characters mother is unknown in that she became one of many concubines of Asmodeus. When the character was born, he was taken away from his mother and raised by his father's agents. He was taught the ways of devils, given an exceptional education and trained as a spy before being sent to the City of Dis as an agent of Asmodeus. He was acting as one of many agents who could become the eyes and ears of Asmodeus in the Court of Dispater. However, very little escapes the notice of the Iron Duke, who knew full well about Asmodeus’ spies and had either killed or had his agents kill most of them, using the remaining spies to feed just enough information back to Asmodeus to keep him happy while making sure that he remained in the dark about some things.
Like all the others, Dispater knew that the character had been sent to spy on him but saw an opportunity in the presence of a child of Asmodeus in his city. He allowed the character to get close to him and fed him information about some of his secrets. Information that he was sure would get back to Asmodeus, but nothing that he wouldn't have found out about eventually. After several years, the character had become a trusted servant of Dispater, who had slowly brainwashed him and turned him against his father. Now, sure that he was under his control, Dispater found a better use for him than serving in his court.
Dispater sent the character to the material plane on a mission; he was to corrupt and acquire souls for his new master, the more powerful and influential, the better.
On the material plane, the character sought out those who possessed the mightiest souls with whom he could corrupt and make a deal. Dispater himself fulfilled those deals, trapping the owners of the corrupted souls into inescapable contracts that would bind them to his service for eternity. Eventually, to better fulfil his mission of collecting powerful souls, the character became an adventurer, allowing him to travel and giving him access to places where ordinary people could not go and bringing him into contact with powerful mortals, whose souls he planned to collect.
So, I have a character who is the offspring of a powerful extraplanar being. A character who is native to the nine hells, having been born in hell, raised and educated by devils and their various agents, and sworn into the service of another powerful extraplanar being,
The problem is, I don't know how to make any of that work in terms of character backstory, race, class or even how to roleplay such a character. I have this idea, but beyond that, I don't know. I'm stumped. I would greatly appreciate some input. If you were making this character, what race and class would you choose? How would you write his backstory (not asking for you to write it, just your thoughts on how you would write it)?
Most of all, what are your thoughts on how I can play such a character. A character who is native to nine hells and the literal child and servant of powerful extraplanar beings?
Of course, without making the character into an edgelord.
Looking forward to what you have to say, and thanks in advance for your assistance.
XD Forge.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
If this were an NPC, it would be a cambion, so I would start there -- what makes them different/special so that they're a PC and not an NPC?
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
One of my favorite characters is the exact opposite: An Aasimar who's father is an angel. In this case, she was left in an orphanage in Sigil (the Gatehouse) the caretakers were given instructions not to let her be adopted. But since then, he has been deliberately incommunicado. It became formative in terms of "why did a powerful agent of heaven abandon me?" and led to all sorts of development based on what his motivations might be.
But back to your questions:
Some thought; enjoy!
Better hope no one casts banishment on you.
I'm not saying don't do it. It seems fun. Just that was the first thing that came to mind for me.
Thanks for all your help, guys and gals. It is greatly appreciated.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I'm all for thorough backstories, but the way to move from that to a character is figuring out how it translates to being whatever level the campaign starts at, member of a party that works together, and out adventuring. Take a shot at those three questions and you'll probably have a pretty good idea about what the character will be like and how to play it. If you can't find a good answer, you might have to change the backstory to accommodate the character better. The backstory's there to flesh out the character, the character doesn't exist to justify the backstory.
If your character "eventually became an adventurer to get into contact with powerful mortals", how are they going to work with others? What will they bring to the party and what will they expect in return? What's their reason to cooperate with others and why would those others cooperate with them? If they've been well trained and educated and have been doing this for a while, what sort of class abilities and skill proficiencies would that entail?
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The backstory sounds pretty fleshed out. Powerful mortals often can read minds so the idea of selective amnesia is worth considering, coupled with the noble background so you can get close to lords and ladies. She will have an underlying compulsion built into her nature that draws her to wealth and influence, when she is well inserted and has made her connections (gets mind shielding) certain memories will be returned.
I got to multiclass, it is an OCD affliction for me. Strength to the rp classes because she is intended to manipulate others, if I liked mastermind rogue better that would be initial class, instead I would start inquisitive rogue and add eloquence bard or vice versa. After you get the more influential abilities in both classes it is worth considering the combat classes for her eventual future in the lower planes, Paladin for 7 levels to cap her off keeps the character from getting to MAD and would really flavor her as a influential leadership role in any of the Dukes courts. Fighter for 6 levels somewhere in progression could make her deadly and gets you 2 more feats. Leaning toward BM for the maneuvers. 2 levels of paly would let her smite her bard slots away, that could be neat when added to sneak attack dice….
Race tiefling or changeling
roleplay notes LE, friendly and flirty to anyone with wealth, power, or potential. Expertise in insight to assess motivation and understand emotions, her performance skill might be tied to seduction. She portrays herself as sympathetic to her mark, a loyalist around men of honor or a capitalist amongst greedy merchants or nobility. She can be snide and high class or humble and common, personality traits would be changes like the weather, ideal: to command the heart and devotion of he who wields the power is to command more power than the wielder. (People will do stuff in the name of love they would never do otherwise) Bond: influence and secrets are greater than wealth, she is motivated only to gain more of both. Flaw: keeping track of who she is around different people gets complicated with more than one mark in the same room, accidentally flirting while in the company of a mark.
On the backstory- she had modify memory done on her to make her believe she is from a noble house elsewhere, moved to Baldur’s Gate to stay with relatives (loyal servants of Dispater) but she is bored and eager to get out of the mansion and have some fun and make new friends. Or she is planted in the local thieves guild as a courtesan to spy on the wealthy lords of the land.
Your DM being a great storyteller should be able to easily suggest how she could best make herself available to the rest of the party. Remember lawful evil does not necessarily mean she is cruel or mean, you catch more flies with honey. The inherent evil in her nature is she serves a corrupt being or she serves herself but doesn't want everyone to know so she may act selfless and kind to influence others perception of her.
I think it's a bit too late for that. ;)
Other than that and the excellent advice pangurjan gave I think the most important question you need to ask, how does this character improve the story that your fellowplayers and your DM is trying to tell? Besides the rather unfortunate implications of the character's mother being an unnamed woman just briefly mentiond and then tossed aside, if you don't know how to roleplay the character, what is it that you are hoping to bring to the table? Now we don't know what leel you'll be starting as but this character already has at least five levels of backstory which will be weird if you start at level 1 and as always, the coolest things happening to a PC should never be in their background story.
What I would do to make this a playable character would basically be to scale everything down a it. Now, you mentioned having your GM's approval for this type of character but it never hurts to check in to see what kind of restrictions (if any) they might have or if they have any thoughts and ideas. But still, if you really want to go for the "child of Asmodues" angle, instead of the mother just being a trope, how about making her a powerful wizard who struck a deal with Asmodeus for her nextborn child, seduced ol' Asmo and basically tricked him since all he got was a kid that was already his. The mom then left since she had all she wanted. Not caring about his Tiefling kid he just dumped him on one of his lieuetenants who brought him up as a spy and an agent.
Fast forward a few decades and you have a young tiefling who is desperate to find their palce in the world but who doesn't really know what they want. Sure, they have been taught all about this lying and stealing and backstabbing (and they might have even done a bit of it for themselves) but is that really what they want? Maybe this "Prime" planethat you've heard so much about (and might even have visited) might be a fun place to explore?
Et voila! You now have a character with an infernal background but who has actual motivations to hang around with a bunch of mortal explorers on the Prime plane. You have the option to play up the evil aspects of the character ("what do you mean we don't kill our wounded enemies? We always do that where I came from!"), you can be the outsider and you can contribute to the party (If nothing else because you see them as useful and fun to be with.