I’m in a Curse of Stradh game and came up with what I thought would be an awesome character for it, but the character is just adding to combat numbers, not really adding to the RP. I saw them as a bit of a conflicted problem solver with a level of rogue and going monk the rest of the time because they lost a friend doing wild stunts as a rogue. What I’m finding, though, is there are already a lot of other “serious” character personalities in the group and CoS is a pretty dark, serious module. Kinda wished I’d gone with something to add some comic relief, but I just don’t see Elves in that light.

I’m wondering if others have ever had a character that they are just meh about. What have you done.

Or, if anyone has come inspiration for a comical Elf that could inspire me, chime in with your suggestions! :)

Life's too long to spend it all being serious and dour, particularly if you have an elven lifespan. Elves appreciate beauty and art, songs and merriment as much as any race and probably more than most. Your elf doesn't have to be a comedian - if they're optimistic and try to enjoy life, they'll lift everyone's spirits just the same.

Nonetheless, if a character really doesn't work out there's nothing wrong with asking your DM if you could be allowed to create another one. No point in having to suffer through one session after another with a character you don't like playing.

Perhaps it's not a problem about your character.......... it's a problem about your way to manage the passive situations aka named as non-combat moments. You should manage those particular moments with an ellegant POV, or at least with a femenine thinking.

I'd argue that it is kind of the "job" of the DM to make the campaign fit to the character. Currently I'm the DM for a RotFM campaign and none of the backstories of the players fits to the adventure at all. So I have to figure out, how to modify everything to incorporate what the players gave me into the scenario. This is also true for running the campaign as a whole. For example RotFM is also designed to be around horror elements and sometimes leaning heavily on the harsh conditions of Icewind Dale.

But if the players don't like all of it that much, then I have to adapt and I just do not roll for snow storms and so on, every time they head out of one of the towns. Yes this might be a whole more work for me. When I'm reading all the premade adventures, there are always so many open points, assuming the players never ask any questions especially when resolving a quest (e.g. you've searched for this magical item, bring it back to the quest giver and he gives you X gold...why not ask what this item is about, what the motives are and so on). So far I've never played in a campaign as a DM or player where we strictly followed the given path of a book and always modified what was given by the books.

Of course everyone is free to play and interpret adventures as you like. To me the adventures are there to give several ideas for a plotline and meta info. Everything can be changed as needed so that everyone, including the DM, can have as much fun as possible. And if your character doesn't really fit into the base setting of CoS, yes talk to the DM if changes are possible to give more room for your character to shine. Why is it not possible to also focus on your lost friend? Why are the "problems" of the other characters more important/serious?
Or on the other hand: why not play an Elf as some kind of comic relief? The basic descriptions of a race are just to sort and very often pretty "black and white" and it is up to you, to fill in all the blanks ;) Not every Elf is super serious like Lord of the Rings Elrond ;) Maybe think of classical characters like Jarlaxle. Not the typical Dark Elf right? 

TL:DR I see two possible solutions: talk to the DM to include more of your backstory and make it fit into CoS, or get rid of the super serious Elf image in your head and maybe make some kind of a trickster, because you know you might get 500 years old. Why not have some fun in all these long years ;)

It's very helpful to design a character with the lore of the campaign in mind. Something, anything, that can be used to guide their behavior and lend significance to their presence in Barovia. A well thought-out backstory is good, but a living connection is much better. A lot of characters created for CoS are just random adventurers who suddenly appear in an arbitrary setting, which may be canonically appropriate, but not as conducive to an engaging experience. I'd recommend that DMs give their players a few leads to chew on before the game starts.

For example, a character could already be aware of Barovia for one reason or another and have sought it out deliberately in search of someone who got themselves trapped years before. That gives the DM something to integrate into the story. (There are plenty of elves who live in Barovia.)

As for fantasy race perceptions: As others have said, there is as much diversity among elves as any other race. Your sub-type might lean toward certain cultural biases, but those with a stronger connections to other planes might be increasingly unpredictable.

However, beyond that, a lot of humor comes from pain, and while it's common to think of adventurers as being paragons, many of the most interesting characters are deeply flawed. An otherwise "serious" character might start using humor as a coping mechanism. Perhaps your character's lost friend used to be the local comedian, and after they died, your character started telling jokes to feel more connected to their memory. It might seem uncharacteristic, but that incongruity is an indicator for others that something is going on beneath the surface.

On a separate note, my current character is one of my favorite. Following CoS, my group progressed into a more open world sandbox adventure. I switched out my largely generic chef/ranger to a shadow sorcerer who was native to Barovia. The party having spent the last 10 levels in Barovia grants my character an implied history that everyone at the table is already familiar with. My character is indirectly aware of the impact that the others have had on the region, and they in turn understand the general circumstances of my character's upbringing that shaped who they became.

The specific details of their backstory are largely irrelevant. It's the connection with the other players, and sense of belonging, that really matters.

I've had it before where I made a character, got enthusiastic about their character and using them (It was a drow assassin who specialised in poisons, I spent ages picking out their spells to make them match with using poisons). I was fortunate to use them for a one-shot first, and really didn't enjoy them. The spells seemed really lacklustre, even sneak attacks didn't give me much enjoyment. That character was retired after one session!

If you're not enjoying your character then chat with your DM. If you want to change the personality of the character but keep their stats & equipment, perhaps discuss something with the DM and see if you can make some weird magical effect change it without needing a new character - or if it's early days, talk to the group and explain that you want to change the personality of the character without making a new one, or just claim that they're a bit antisocial and as they grow to know the group they will start cracking some dry humor which sort of fits their personality - unexpected, but still in-keeping. You wouldn't have the edgy character start doing cartwheels to entertain people, but they might relax enough in time to crack some jokes and loosen up into a more friendly and less serious person.

Alternatively, if you want a different character as well, then discuss retiring the old one and bringing in a new one. 

Yeah it's always good to talk to your fellow players during character creation/session 0 about what kind of character everyone's planning on building, that way you don't end up with 5 "the strong, silent type" characters. 

I don't find my own character very interesting either, I've even made several posts about that very issue. I find that it's easy to have sort of a 2 dimensional idea of what kind of character you want to be, and then when game starts it sort of falls flat.

Something that's helped me a bit, is to find some actual values and ideas and hold on to them as the chracter, and then just sort of just RP off of that, finding the personality during play.. I find it works out better than going into a session thinking "I wanna be the funny girl" or "I wanna be the brooding guy" because more often than not, the character and player dynamic will have a huge effect on what role your character falls into in the party dynamic.

There can also be room for player development. I struggle to be funny when I can't be relaxed and fully comfortable with the situation, so I probably wouldn't be able to be the jokester character from session one.. However once I get used to everything and I know what to expect socially, I'd feel much more comfortable in that sort of role.

Thanks everyone, this have been a lot of great advise. I'll give myself a kick in the butt (as a player) and try a few of these out for this Thursday's game.

Thanks!

Don