My question title pretty much says it all. I am looking for your thoughts and opinions on how I could make this guy. Also, about which part of Faerûn he would come from and what human ethnicity would most fit real-world France.
I am making someone, called; Sabinus Louis André de Beaumont, better known only as, Sabin. He is a lower rank untitled human noble, who became a policeman and worked his way up the ladder. He eventually received the title of Chevalier - a reward for his dedicated and loyal service to the crown. After becoming a Knight, he made his entry into politics, but found that it was not to his liking, and quickly shifted focus to the security and intelligence services. He found that security and intelligence required many of the same skills that he had honed during his time in law enforcement and set about applying himself to his role as Inquisitor, with dedication and singlemindedness that both impressed and worried his peers.
His peers were extremely impressed that a child of a low ranking noble family, who had developed his skills as a policeman, could be so talented and driven and well suited for spy work. At the same time, they were also concerned that he was after their jobs, titles and wealth. They need not have worried, however, as Sabin was not remotely interested in wealth or power. His only interest was to serve and protect his King and the Kingdom. That was why he did not find politics to his liking. Sabin received wealth and power; giving to him as a reward, or remuneration for his services, but he had never sought it, nor did he desire it. His peers could not accept that someone so young and talented only wished to serve, however, and at the earliest opportunity, recommended to the King that Sabin become the new Ambassador to the Barbarian hordes of the North. The Kingdom had a long-standing relationship with the Northmen. They had learned to both respect and feared them, and often used them as mercenary soldiers to reinforce their northern borders. Their ambassador to the region has just died, however, and Sabin's peers reasoned that he would prove inept and unsuited for the position. That he would screw everything up, lose favour with the King and get expelled from the court in shame, and even if he was not, at least he would be far away, and no longer a threat to them.
It was while serving as Ambassador that Sabin heard tales of a mythical sword; Durendal, supposedly stolen from a mighty Knight of a legendary King centuries ago. At first, he dismissed it as nothing but the superstitious ramblings of simple folk, harking back to a bygone "golden age", but the more he heard and read about this sword, the more he began to believe that it might genuinely exist. If he could find the sword, and return it home to his King, imagine the power and prestige his King would hold. Imagine the confidence and patriotic pride that would swell within the ranks of the people, if their King was to wield the very sword that once belonged to a legendary paladin of perhaps the greatest King ever to live.
The more he thought about this, the more his path became clear; this was why he was here; his entire life had lead to this, he had to find the sword; he had to return home and present it to his King; there could be no other way. So, at the age of forty-five, Ambassador Sabinus Louis André de Beaumont becomes an adventurer, to find the legendary sword of Roland and return home with it, so that he can present it to his King.
For the good of the Kingdom, and his people, he can not fail. Either he finds the sword and carries it home, or he does not return at all. That is the oath that he swears to himself. If he fails in this task, then he might as well be dead, because he will live out the rest of his days in self-imposed exile and he will never see the beauty and splendour of his homeland again.
There you go guys, that is the little story that I came up with for this person; but which part of Faerûn would you say is representative of Europe, and which human ethnicity would a French person belong to in D&D?
Also, any suggestions or thoughts on how you make this character (any parts of the character creation) would be most welcome.
Cheers
Foxes XD
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I am making someone, called; Sabinus Louis André de Beaumont, better known only as, Sabin. He is a lower rank untitled human noble
I would stop here, this is a D&D character ready to go. Everything else you write after this point isn't a character idea, it's a full character arc that you have no way of guaranteeing will happen.
Also, a lot of what you describe would be the kind of things the DM would put in the world, usually not the player.
I am making someone, called; Sabinus Louis André de Beaumont, better known only as, Sabin. He is a lower rank untitled human noble
I would stop here, this is a D&D character ready to go. Everything else you write after this point isn't a character idea, it's a full character arc that you have no way of guaranteeing will happen.
Also, a lot of what you describe would be the kind of things the DM would put in the world, usually not the player.
I'm much of the same mind, that said I'd probably start this character at the point in his arc where they turn to intelligence since that seems to be the meat of the character.
I'd leave the specifics of noble heritage to the DM to tie into the story, give the city guard background (if you are starting above level 1 a couple levels of fighter or paladin could be used to represent the time and training of his policeman portion of the story)
I'm thinking that rogue(mastermind) being a good path for leveling during play.
This character sounds more like a NPC. Maybe level 10 Fighter/Rogue multiclass with Samurai 7/Inquisitive 3? Samurai especially for Elegant Courtier.
I second Inquisitive Rogue to go with the police/spy angle, and samurai or cavalier could work as well with what you've written, as both essentially boil down to knights who serve a lord (though European knights generally had more autonomy and ruled keeps of their own, while samurai were fully in service to their lords)
*edit*
Unless you're planning on starting this campaign at level 6+ however, I might also recommend pairing down your backstory into something that fits better with a level 1-3 character. You want to make sure you're not creating a character who's neck deep in the middle of their character arc. Give yourself a good starting off point that opens your character to adventure but still leaves plenty of story to be told. For example, being made Ambassador to your kingdom would be maybe an mid-to-end game thing. A level 1 character hasn't even met the King.
I had a thought about the character that I was discussing in my last post; what if I said that, Sabin had at first tried to find the sword of Roland on his own, but came a cropper? Being only one man and more suited to life within the royal court, he at first proved not to be much of an adventurer and was almost killed. After being rescued and nursed back to health, Sabin found that he had new abilities that he did not have before, as his experience of death had transformed him into a Phantom, who now walked the line that marks the veil between the living world and the land of the dead.
The best thing about this UA; if I understand it right, is that I could still have all my skills and abilities - which I could augment with, Whispers of the Dead, and later Tokens of the Departed, and Ghost Walk.
Primarily, as this character would be starting at level 3, he could have been working towards the Mastermind subclass, then had his brush with death and became a Phantom instead. He would ultimately become a highly intelligent and dextrous, decently charismatic Phantom.
Sabin's new abilities, combined with this intellect and charismatic nature, and experience of the world, would make him a much better adventurer and a far greater foe. So, when he joins the party, he does so far better equipped than he was before.
It would also give the DM NPCs to play with - the mother and daughter who nursed him back into the land of the living from certain death.
What do you guys think? Does this make sense or should I just go pure Mastermind?
Public Mod Note
(GPyromania):
Merged into existing thread.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I agree with previous statements. You already have pretty much a complete character, and story arc, there already. I don't really see the need to find a place that is particulary "French" so pretty much and place where a patriotic nobleman cop turned spy fits will work.
You already have some great class suggestions. Some kind of Fighter mixed with some kind of rogue works best or perhaps a Paladin of the Crown.
Personally I struggle to see why I would want to play a character that has already gone through a lot of his whole life's story. But that's just me.
I am pleased that you have all told me that I had gone too far with this guy because now I can scale him back.
If you were making him where would you write his story.
The easiest way to scale him back that I can think of is to have him still be a policeman, chasing a criminal—someone who has done bad things.
The DM could make the criminal that my character is after being a lieutenant or something for the truly evil person. So, there would be a reason for my character to continue after he has caught his bad guy.
So like this would be the event that somewhere down the line earns my character his knighthood. Or maybe not, depending on what happens in the game.
Would this make more sense, and if he was yours, how would you scale him back from what I had initially written to something more playable?
You don't write the story of a character, that comes from actually playing the game. You write the backstory, they (largely mundane) events that lead up to the character becoming an adventurer, which is where things should get interesting.
If your character is coming in to a campaign with more backstory than most characters leave a campaign with, you've gone too far.
Like I said before:
I am making someone, called; Sabinus Louis André de Beaumont, better known only as, Sabin. He is a lower rank untitled human noble
Stop here. That's a good starting character; name, social position and aspirations (they don't have a rank or standing)
I would focus on the elements of your character being a copper and your character searching for the sword. My tweak would be that Sabin is a former cop who had tried and move up the ladder into service of the crown, but perhaps a jealous superior took his zeal to serve as personal ambition, and contrived some reason to get him thrown off the force to get him out of the way. From there, he hears the legend of the sword and becomes convinced that he must find it for his king.
That way, Sabin has a stronger motive to explore. Rather than "well this sword sounds like a thing my king should have," it becomes "I will recover this sword for my king to prove myself" which is much stronger. From there you can delve deeper and discover why he feels the need to "prove himself". Is he trying to restore his honor? Show his nobility? Is he using the quest narrative to mask thoughts of revenge against the officer who wronged him? Pure altruism? Vengeance? Both? What percentage? You can discover the answer as you go along, and in doing so, discover the kind of person he truly is.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Tweet @theedverse, he usually answers.
Also
https://www.reddit.com/r/Forgotten_Realms/comments/3883xb/real_world_equivalents_to_forgotten_realm/
I would stop here, this is a D&D character ready to go. Everything else you write after this point isn't a character idea, it's a full character arc that you have no way of guaranteeing will happen.
Also, a lot of what you describe would be the kind of things the DM would put in the world, usually not the player.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I'm much of the same mind, that said I'd probably start this character at the point in his arc where they turn to intelligence since that seems to be the meat of the character.
I'd leave the specifics of noble heritage to the DM to tie into the story, give the city guard background (if you are starting above level 1 a couple levels of fighter or paladin could be used to represent the time and training of his policeman portion of the story)
I'm thinking that rogue(mastermind) being a good path for leveling during play.
This character sounds more like a NPC. Maybe level 10 Fighter/Rogue multiclass with Samurai 7/Inquisitive 3? Samurai especially for Elegant Courtier.
I second Inquisitive Rogue to go with the police/spy angle, and samurai or cavalier could work as well with what you've written, as both essentially boil down to knights who serve a lord (though European knights generally had more autonomy and ruled keeps of their own, while samurai were fully in service to their lords)
*edit*
Unless you're planning on starting this campaign at level 6+ however, I might also recommend pairing down your backstory into something that fits better with a level 1-3 character. You want to make sure you're not creating a character who's neck deep in the middle of their character arc. Give yourself a good starting off point that opens your character to adventure but still leaves plenty of story to be told. For example, being made Ambassador to your kingdom would be maybe an mid-to-end game thing. A level 1 character hasn't even met the King.
Hi, everyone
I had a thought about the character that I was discussing in my last post; what if I said that, Sabin had at first tried to find the sword of Roland on his own, but came a cropper? Being only one man and more suited to life within the royal court, he at first proved not to be much of an adventurer and was almost killed. After being rescued and nursed back to health, Sabin found that he had new abilities that he did not have before, as his experience of death had transformed him into a Phantom, who now walked the line that marks the veil between the living world and the land of the dead.
I could then use this UA for him at level 3 - https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/rogue#PhantomUA.
The best thing about this UA; if I understand it right, is that I could still have all my skills and abilities - which I could augment with, Whispers of the Dead, and later Tokens of the Departed, and Ghost Walk.
Primarily, as this character would be starting at level 3, he could have been working towards the Mastermind subclass, then had his brush with death and became a Phantom instead. He would ultimately become a highly intelligent and dextrous, decently charismatic Phantom.
Sabin's new abilities, combined with this intellect and charismatic nature, and experience of the world, would make him a much better adventurer and a far greater foe. So, when he joins the party, he does so far better equipped than he was before.
It would also give the DM NPCs to play with - the mother and daughter who nursed him back into the land of the living from certain death.
What do you guys think? Does this make sense or should I just go pure Mastermind?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I agree with previous statements. You already have pretty much a complete character, and story arc, there already. I don't really see the need to find a place that is particulary "French" so pretty much and place where a patriotic nobleman cop turned spy fits will work.
You already have some great class suggestions. Some kind of Fighter mixed with some kind of rogue works best or perhaps a Paladin of the Crown.
Personally I struggle to see why I would want to play a character that has already gone through a lot of his whole life's story. But that's just me.
Thanks, everyone
I am pleased that you have all told me that I had gone too far with this guy because now I can scale him back.
If you were making him where would you write his story.
The easiest way to scale him back that I can think of is to have him still be a policeman, chasing a criminal—someone who has done bad things.
The DM could make the criminal that my character is after being a lieutenant or something for the truly evil person. So, there would be a reason for my character to continue after he has caught his bad guy.
So like this would be the event that somewhere down the line earns my character his knighthood. Or maybe not, depending on what happens in the game.
Would this make more sense, and if he was yours, how would you scale him back from what I had initially written to something more playable?
Cheers
Foxes
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
You don't write the story of a character, that comes from actually playing the game. You write the backstory, they (largely mundane) events that lead up to the character becoming an adventurer, which is where things should get interesting.
If your character is coming in to a campaign with more backstory than most characters leave a campaign with, you've gone too far.
Like I said before:
Stop here. That's a good starting character; name, social position and aspirations (they don't have a rank or standing)
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I would focus on the elements of your character being a copper and your character searching for the sword. My tweak would be that Sabin is a former cop who had tried and move up the ladder into service of the crown, but perhaps a jealous superior took his zeal to serve as personal ambition, and contrived some reason to get him thrown off the force to get him out of the way. From there, he hears the legend of the sword and becomes convinced that he must find it for his king.
That way, Sabin has a stronger motive to explore. Rather than "well this sword sounds like a thing my king should have," it becomes "I will recover this sword for my king to prove myself" which is much stronger. From there you can delve deeper and discover why he feels the need to "prove himself". Is he trying to restore his honor? Show his nobility? Is he using the quest narrative to mask thoughts of revenge against the officer who wronged him? Pure altruism? Vengeance? Both? What percentage? You can discover the answer as you go along, and in doing so, discover the kind of person he truly is.