I’ve been in a solo campaign for a one shot to start off my experience with D&D but I feel like that doesn’t really assist me in making a group friendly character. So here’s my story and lore for my character and I want brutal honesty so I can make some appropriate tweaks so that this character is ready for the right campaign.
Levi Mercy is an Avariel from a small Skyland city that is apart of a holy clan of Clerics, priests, and paladins under a single deity, Justitia, that’s only worshipped by them. My character is a kind yet naive person that’s lived her sheltered in the temple. Being raised in a holy environment she’s very diligent and disciplined but she’s also faced some hate from her own clan. This is because her mother, a high priestess of their deity, gave birth to Levi but has markings of a different deity as markings. These markings were quickly hidden by her mother as Levi wears a blindfold from then on or is hidden from the public mostly and only gets to go out when her paladin father comes from his crusades. She’s basically looked down on by those that know of her markings. Mainly raised by her father when he’s home and by the general temple members.
She tries to stay positive but has a poor self image and came to idolize her father and want to be like him based on the stories he’d share. She becomes a paladin and trains under her father and finally is old enough to do her Rite of Passage as a Mercy Clan member and get first hand experience in the real world outside of her city. Now she’s feels very strongly about Justice but because of her upbringing and the way she was treated she’s very open minded and understanding of the grey areas of good and bad. She’s believes everyone is initially good so she gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and trust too easily.
This is where the problem of my character arises. I wanted her story to be that her mother and father were possessed by deities the night my character was conceived through a rare but dangerous practice. This practice creates a mortal being that can also gain access to divine realms or outer planes mentally over time as she levels up as a paladin. I start it at level 5, but with each level after that she gains more markings that are a combination of Justitia’s and the other deity. My idea was for the other deity to be Selune but I’m not sure how that will be taken since they are both women and I don’t know much about if Selune ever had a lover and how deities reproduce in D&D lore.
Now this is main character Syndrome territory but the draw back of being this rarely historically documented being is the large drawbacks. Ancient long forgotten deities good or bad get a vessel into the material mortal world through her. She’s like a beacon to those with ill intent so she attracts dark entities to her and the more divine power she gets the greater the enemies trying to claim her body or energy. She needs to develop a more structured and balanced mind to fend off the dark entities that feed off her insecurities or suffering. They do this to break down her defenses and get a step closer to claiming her as a vessel. I don’t know if having her do random saving throws to see if she gets affected by the whispers of evil in her ear that cause to her to break a mental defense is a possibility. Maybe the mental barriers are parallel to her level so starting at level 5 she has 5 barriers that get tested? No clue how to work this without getting others opinions. It’s not fully fleshed out because I saw she was becoming a main character type problem and just want to know how to fix this or change things without losing the core factors or if this idea is just complete crap and I should scrap this. I’m sure this is probably a lot of work to implement into a campaign so maybe someone can make it simpler or explain how much actually work would need to be put in for this character to work.
I will say my character gives me a combo of Giselle from Enchanted, Raven from Teen titans with the vessel/needing concentration and discipline to keep things stable and Hercules with his naive, innocent and sincere behavior. Her wanting to prove herself and not feeling like she belongs but trying to be a person worthy of love and respect so she can be with her deity parents who truly see her is another thing she can work towards.
Okay yea the being born from two different gods is pretty nutty all things considered. That would probably bear something like an Empyrean, which is an extremely high level thing to deal with. It depends on your dm, but gods can reproduce from practically anything in mythology, see Loki's many children, how Athena came out of Zeus’s head and stuff. The best way to place it at a lower level is making the gods themselves weaker, maybe the gods involved are only worshipped within a small region or are demigods.
For the main character syndrome, the only way to deal with it is to rely on the rest of the party. Have the character learn from their party members, maturing or becoming worse depending on how their allies act. You probably shouldn’t deal with the random saving throws, that just places way too much attention on your character and away from the others.
For a relatively new player, and especially one who doesn't have a long history with their group, I would absolutely avoid making your character the child of one God, never mind two! That's the kind of thing which is very much Main Character Syndrome, and a lot of people will see it as such no matter how you see it.
One of my characters apparently left an impression of Main Character Syndrome on another PC based - as far as I can tell - on nothing more than the way I flavored my first casting of a cantrip.
Now, I don't know what an Avariel is, but it sounds maybe similar to an Aasimar. You can absolutely have your PC and her parents be Aasimar and still have your celestial markings. Just maybe don't go for "child of two gods" as your second character. The DM would presumably expect that you want that heritage to factor into the campaign, and such a significant one would carry a lot of story "gravity".
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I’ve been in a solo campaign for a one shot to start off my experience with D&D but I feel like that doesn’t really assist me in making a group friendly character. So here’s my story and lore for my character and I want brutal honesty so I can make some appropriate tweaks so that this character is ready for the right campaign.
Levi Mercy is an Avariel from a small Skyland city that is apart of a holy clan of Clerics, priests, and paladins under a single deity, Justitia, that’s only worshipped by them. My character is a kind yet naive person that’s lived her sheltered in the temple. Being raised in a holy environment she’s very diligent and disciplined but she’s also faced some hate from her own clan. This is because her mother, a high priestess of their deity, gave birth to Levi but has markings of a different deity as markings. These markings were quickly hidden by her mother as Levi wears a blindfold from then on or is hidden from the public mostly and only gets to go out when her paladin father comes from his crusades. She’s basically looked down on by those that know of her markings. Mainly raised by her father when he’s home and by the general temple members.
She tries to stay positive but has a poor self image and came to idolize her father and want to be like him based on the stories he’d share. She becomes a paladin and trains under her father and finally is old enough to do her Rite of Passage as a Mercy Clan member and get first hand experience in the real world outside of her city. Now she’s feels very strongly about Justice but because of her upbringing and the way she was treated she’s very open minded and understanding of the grey areas of good and bad. She’s believes everyone is initially good so she gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and trust too easily.
This is where the problem of my character arises. I wanted her story to be that her mother and father were possessed by deities the night my character was conceived through a rare but dangerous practice. This practice creates a mortal being that can also gain access to divine realms or outer planes mentally over time as she levels up as a paladin. I start it at level 5, but with each level after that she gains more markings that are a combination of Justitia’s and the other deity. My idea was for the other deity to be Selune but I’m not sure how that will be taken since they are both women and I don’t know much about if Selune ever had a lover and how deities reproduce in D&D lore.
Now this is main character Syndrome territory but the draw back of being this rarely historically documented being is the large drawbacks. Ancient long forgotten deities good or bad get a vessel into the material mortal world through her. She’s like a beacon to those with ill intent so she attracts dark entities to her and the more divine power she gets the greater the enemies trying to claim her body or energy. She needs to develop a more structured and balanced mind to fend off the dark entities that feed off her insecurities or suffering. They do this to break down her defenses and get a step closer to claiming her as a vessel. I don’t know if having her do random saving throws to see if she gets affected by the whispers of evil in her ear that cause to her to break a mental defense is a possibility. Maybe the mental barriers are parallel to her level so starting at level 5 she has 5 barriers that get tested? No clue how to work this without getting others opinions. It’s not fully fleshed out because I saw she was becoming a main character type problem and just want to know how to fix this or change things without losing the core factors or if this idea is just complete crap and I should scrap this. I’m sure this is probably a lot of work to implement into a campaign so maybe someone can make it simpler or explain how much actually work would need to be put in for this character to work.
I will say my character gives me a combo of Giselle from Enchanted, Raven from Teen titans with the vessel/needing concentration and discipline to keep things stable and Hercules with his naive, innocent and sincere behavior. Her wanting to prove herself and not feeling like she belongs but trying to be a person worthy of love and respect so she can be with her deity parents who truly see her is another thing she can work towards.
So give me your honest thoughts. Thank you!
Okay yea the being born from two different gods is pretty nutty all things considered. That would probably bear something like an Empyrean, which is an extremely high level thing to deal with. It depends on your dm, but gods can reproduce from practically anything in mythology, see Loki's many children, how Athena came out of Zeus’s head and stuff. The best way to place it at a lower level is making the gods themselves weaker, maybe the gods involved are only worshipped within a small region or are demigods.
For the main character syndrome, the only way to deal with it is to rely on the rest of the party. Have the character learn from their party members, maturing or becoming worse depending on how their allies act. You probably shouldn’t deal with the random saving throws, that just places way too much attention on your character and away from the others.
For a relatively new player, and especially one who doesn't have a long history with their group, I would absolutely avoid making your character the child of one God, never mind two! That's the kind of thing which is very much Main Character Syndrome, and a lot of people will see it as such no matter how you see it.
One of my characters apparently left an impression of Main Character Syndrome on another PC based - as far as I can tell - on nothing more than the way I flavored my first casting of a cantrip.
Now, I don't know what an Avariel is, but it sounds maybe similar to an Aasimar. You can absolutely have your PC and her parents be Aasimar and still have your celestial markings. Just maybe don't go for "child of two gods" as your second character. The DM would presumably expect that you want that heritage to factor into the campaign, and such a significant one would carry a lot of story "gravity".