I've started playing a divination wizard and am struggling a bit on fleshing out his personality. He's from a line of advisors to the throne and was brought up in a sheltered academic environment. At heart he's a good person (LG) but knows nothing of the real world and the struggles people go through. Just prior to the campaign starting he lost everything and through some magic his family is gone and the world no longer recognizes him or his name.
So I'm thinking of playing him as someone who doesn't understand the advantages he's had in life. Maybe thinking things like he's earned his position solely because he's put in a lot of time and effort to learn and develop his knowledge and skills, but oblivious to the fact that he was born on third base. Maybe out in the world he'd think something like why doesn't someone struggling just get a loan from their parents to start a business, or being unable to ask for help because "he's never had anything handed to him". Also being lawful he believes in the importance of an ordered society in promoting a good world. His arc would be, as a result of being brought low and going through real struggle his eyes are opened to the suffering of the world, how fortunate his position in it was, and some of the injustices the system he worked for and believes in causes.
My struggle is in how to play him without coming across as a total ******. Like I said he's a good person but just doesn't understand how most of this world lives. I also don't want to annoy the hell out of my fellow players.
The most important part is to listen to your fellow players, and adapt how you play depending on that.
The character is presumably smart and capable of learning; this justifies mellowing out the portrayal quickly if you need to. Even if he takes a while to really "get it", he can learn that people react poorly pretty quickly if need be.
There are multiple ways to play it, and they can be situational. Adjust the obnoxiousness, humor, and patheticness to fit the scene..
Agree with everything jl8e said above for “above the table”. Make sure you, the player, reads the room and adjusts your role playing accordingly. Even if you view your character as obnoxious or clueless, your fellow player will get tired of that real quick. Play it up when you feel appropriate but mellow it out when necessary.
Question. The magical erasing of your PC’s family and deeds, that something that you implemented in the backstory or your DM?
Question. The magical erasing of your PC’s family and deeds, that something that you implemented in the backstory or your DM?
Part of the campaign. Its Odyssey of the Dragonlords, it has this epic path feature that's sort of a background and sort of a personal quest with rewards. So I chose that one but the DM knows stuff about it that I don't.
Gotcha. Thought that maybe coming back to the family about being sheltered and “protected” from the world might’ve been a cool story beat to explore. Still, the path you chose sounds fun!
Maybe its not so much his family has been erased, but for some reason he wasn't.
Something like that should be alarming if his perceived background is that his family ancestry were people of some importance so he's ventured outside to discover that not only does noone know anything about his family, but all those achievements have been apparently claimed by another family of whom he has either little or no knowledge about?
Going by your description it sounds like he's an academic, but from part of the world the rest of the group are unfamiliar with.
Perhaps the first adventure requires his help and he asks for help in return as he's as much in the dark with whats going as they are with him!
Another possibility is that the place he was locked inside studying was either moved to another prime material world or was frozen in stasis so its a thousand years later and the world has collapsed and rebuilt during that time with him completely unaware whats happened.
So he might talk funny as his accent could be very antiquated and things that were normal every day conveniences no longer exist for one reason or another.
There's lots of possiblities with this have you asked what they know about Merlin the Wizard for example?
I've started playing a divination wizard and am struggling a bit on fleshing out his personality. He's from a line of advisors to the throne and was brought up in a sheltered academic environment. At heart he's a good person (LG) but knows nothing of the real world and the struggles people go through. Just prior to the campaign starting he lost everything and through some magic his family is gone and the world no longer recognizes him or his name.
So I'm thinking of playing him as someone who doesn't understand the advantages he's had in life. Maybe thinking things like he's earned his position solely because he's put in a lot of time and effort to learn and develop his knowledge and skills, but oblivious to the fact that he was born on third base. Maybe out in the world he'd think something like why doesn't someone struggling just get a loan from their parents to start a business, or being unable to ask for help because "he's never had anything handed to him". Also being lawful he believes in the importance of an ordered society in promoting a good world. His arc would be, as a result of being brought low and going through real struggle his eyes are opened to the suffering of the world, how fortunate his position in it was, and some of the injustices the system he worked for and believes in causes.
My struggle is in how to play him without coming across as a total ******. Like I said he's a good person but just doesn't understand how most of this world lives. I also don't want to annoy the hell out of my fellow players.
The most important part is to listen to your fellow players, and adapt how you play depending on that.
The character is presumably smart and capable of learning; this justifies mellowing out the portrayal quickly if you need to. Even if he takes a while to really "get it", he can learn that people react poorly pretty quickly if need be.
There are multiple ways to play it, and they can be situational. Adjust the obnoxiousness, humor, and patheticness to fit the scene..
Agree with everything jl8e said above for “above the table”. Make sure you, the player, reads the room and adjusts your role playing accordingly. Even if you view your character as obnoxious or clueless, your fellow player will get tired of that real quick. Play it up when you feel appropriate but mellow it out when necessary.
Question. The magical erasing of your PC’s family and deeds, that something that you implemented in the backstory or your DM?
Profile pic - credit to artist unknown
Part of the campaign. Its Odyssey of the Dragonlords, it has this epic path feature that's sort of a background and sort of a personal quest with rewards. So I chose that one but the DM knows stuff about it that I don't.
Gotcha. Thought that maybe coming back to the family about being sheltered and “protected” from the world might’ve been a cool story beat to explore. Still, the path you chose sounds fun!
Profile pic - credit to artist unknown
Maybe its not so much his family has been erased, but for some reason he wasn't.
Something like that should be alarming if his perceived background is that his family ancestry were people of some importance so he's ventured outside to discover that not only does noone know anything about his family, but all those achievements have been apparently claimed by another family of whom he has either little or no knowledge about?
Going by your description it sounds like he's an academic, but from part of the world the rest of the group are unfamiliar with.
Perhaps the first adventure requires his help and he asks for help in return as he's as much in the dark with whats going as they are with him!
Another possibility is that the place he was locked inside studying was either moved to another prime material world or was frozen in stasis so its a thousand years later and the world has collapsed and rebuilt during that time with him completely unaware whats happened.
So he might talk funny as his accent could be very antiquated and things that were normal every day conveniences no longer exist for one reason or another.
There's lots of possiblities with this have you asked what they know about Merlin the Wizard for example?