So me and a friend have been thinking up a couple of characters, twins, who are on the side of REALLY creepy, though the flavor of said creepy would highly depend on the campaign itself (we just like making characters, but have no time for ANOTHER campaign, but kinda have them on the backburner, just in case). So there are really two sets of backstories, depending on the setting, both are highly trope-heavy, but tropes we haven't played before.
If the setting is more a grimdark, maybe Ravenloft-esk setting, then this one would be the fit: Two twin Tieflings, orphaned at a young age, parents killed by... I don't know... hate and distrust or something. They were forced to flee and have taken up residence in an unvisited, unused mausoleum, in some graveyard, in a city that doesn't outright want them dead. One twin, growing up, is forced into a life a crime, resorting to being a rogue, stealing, pick pocketing, and scheming their way to support them and their sibling, the other stays at the graveyard, mostly, looking over the gravestones, and learning the name of each person buried there. The one who stays in the graveyard is infused with magic, and becomes a CHA based spellcaster, as they start to resonate with the dark, necrotic energy in the graveyard.
If the setting is more anything else... Or Grimdark and ravenloft-esk, but we don't want a tragic backstory, then there's this one: Two twins Tieflings, born to a mortuary and gravekeeper. An actually happy, healthy family, though they have a goth-grim aesthetic. Think Adams family vibe. Both parents love each other, are fully supportive of each other, and host birthday parties with the corpses by animating them, and then end the party with an undead brawl to both try not to die... And some of the undead might have extra presents inside. Both twins go off to adventure when they reach an age of adulthood, and the parents are ecstatic, fully supporting their decision. Both aren't exactly afraid of death or the dead, both are still really creepy. One is still a rogue, the other still a CHA based spellcaster.
So the idea is two really creepy people who grew up in and around the dead, have a skewed view on life and death, and are just, generally, the creepy goth kids (maybe the spellcaster's arcane focus is a doll or something).The rogue is easy to figure out, at level three, go with shade rogue. Boom, easy done.
It's the Spellcaster that I'm struggling with (the character I'd be playing, my friend wants to play the rogue, if we ever get to play them).
Shadow magic sorcerer. Fits the creepy vibe, looks dead, doesn't blink or bleed or something, generally creepy. But the sorcerer's spells REALLY don't fit the creepy vibe, except the niche few. Sure, could reflavor and reskin some spells (Green fire, dark purple and black spell effects, maybe flaming sphere is just an undead skeleton that runs headfirst into the enemies and crumples into a pile every turn) to do the exact same effect but look different, but ultimately they just don't... fit (they don't get the cool summon spells like summon undead/shade at level 3) Sorcerer spells feel really "elementally" and not exactly the right kind of "creepy."
The Other class would be warlock with an undying patron, I thought about undead patron, buuut ultimately didn't feel the flavor was correct, wasn't exactly creepy, just... Dead... Warlock spells fit the theme so much better, though! With hexes and summonings, a invocation that allows the use of animate dead, the summon undead/shade spells. Just a bunch of good, creepy flavored spells built into the class that feel right up characters alley... Except that I don't exactly see them making a pact with any powerful being (though, It could be interesting to flavor it as a pact with the graveyard itself). Plus warlocks limited spell slots really make them a boring, full on spellcaster.
I know "Sorlock" exists as well, multi-classing into both and getting a ton of benefits from both, but I just don't know how I feel about that, and am looking ideas on which class would be better in this situation for the kind of "creepy-goth person" backstory. What are your thoughts.
Why not just go Wizard/Necromancer or Order of Scribes and say you found a book and a skull in the graveyard and started hearing a voice (the spirit of the previous owner who may or may not be a fey creature) and learned how to cast the spells it contained, you can then be as creppy as you want with the most versatile spell list in the game. Nab the FeyTouched feat from Tasha's cauldron of what not (or Unearthed Arcana if you don't have access to Tasha's) to get the Hex spell, the skull could be used as an arcane focus (reflavour an orb), you could go so far as to have the fey spirit summoned by the Find Familiar spell to be bound to the skull so you could bind a owl or raven spirit to it and have a floating skull. And just to be a little more "friendly" you travel round speaking with spirits of dead people and finishing the tasks they had outstanding when they died.
It gives you a strange character that has infernal heritige from being a Tiefling but also has some Fey influence which isn't trying to snare you with a Pact but otherwise wants you to finish something it started.
Shadow Magic if you choose the Adam's Family Vibe background and Undying if you choose grew up in a graveyard. Maybe in the graveyard one of them found an entrance to a powerful undead's (Lich, death knight, vampire, etc.) lair, and the undead took pity on them.
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So me and a friend have been thinking up a couple of characters, twins, who are on the side of REALLY creepy, though the flavor of said creepy would highly depend on the campaign itself (we just like making characters, but have no time for ANOTHER campaign, but kinda have them on the backburner, just in case). So there are really two sets of backstories, depending on the setting, both are highly trope-heavy, but tropes we haven't played before.
If the setting is more a grimdark, maybe Ravenloft-esk setting, then this one would be the fit:
Two twin Tieflings, orphaned at a young age, parents killed by... I don't know... hate and distrust or something. They were forced to flee and have taken up residence in an unvisited, unused mausoleum, in some graveyard, in a city that doesn't outright want them dead. One twin, growing up, is forced into a life a crime, resorting to being a rogue, stealing, pick pocketing, and scheming their way to support them and their sibling, the other stays at the graveyard, mostly, looking over the gravestones, and learning the name of each person buried there. The one who stays in the graveyard is infused with magic, and becomes a CHA based spellcaster, as they start to resonate with the dark, necrotic energy in the graveyard.
If the setting is more anything else... Or Grimdark and ravenloft-esk, but we don't want a tragic backstory, then there's this one:
Two twins Tieflings, born to a mortuary and gravekeeper. An actually happy, healthy family, though they have a goth-grim aesthetic. Think Adams family vibe. Both parents love each other, are fully supportive of each other, and host birthday parties with the corpses by animating them, and then end the party with an undead brawl to both try not to die... And some of the undead might have extra presents inside. Both twins go off to adventure when they reach an age of adulthood, and the parents are ecstatic, fully supporting their decision. Both aren't exactly afraid of death or the dead, both are still really creepy. One is still a rogue, the other still a CHA based spellcaster.
So the idea is two really creepy people who grew up in and around the dead, have a skewed view on life and death, and are just, generally, the creepy goth kids (maybe the spellcaster's arcane focus is a doll or something).The rogue is easy to figure out, at level three, go with shade rogue. Boom, easy done.
It's the Spellcaster that I'm struggling with (the character I'd be playing, my friend wants to play the rogue, if we ever get to play them).
Shadow magic sorcerer. Fits the creepy vibe, looks dead, doesn't blink or bleed or something, generally creepy. But the sorcerer's spells REALLY don't fit the creepy vibe, except the niche few. Sure, could reflavor and reskin some spells (Green fire, dark purple and black spell effects, maybe flaming sphere is just an undead skeleton that runs headfirst into the enemies and crumples into a pile every turn) to do the exact same effect but look different, but ultimately they just don't... fit (they don't get the cool summon spells like summon undead/shade at level 3) Sorcerer spells feel really "elementally" and not exactly the right kind of "creepy."
The Other class would be warlock with an undying patron, I thought about undead patron, buuut ultimately didn't feel the flavor was correct, wasn't exactly creepy, just... Dead... Warlock spells fit the theme so much better, though! With hexes and summonings, a invocation that allows the use of animate dead, the summon undead/shade spells. Just a bunch of good, creepy flavored spells built into the class that feel right up characters alley... Except that I don't exactly see them making a pact with any powerful being (though, It could be interesting to flavor it as a pact with the graveyard itself). Plus warlocks limited spell slots really make them a boring, full on spellcaster.
I know "Sorlock" exists as well, multi-classing into both and getting a ton of benefits from both, but I just don't know how I feel about that, and am looking ideas on which class would be better in this situation for the kind of "creepy-goth person" backstory. What are your thoughts.
Why not just go Wizard/Necromancer or Order of Scribes and say you found a book and a skull in the graveyard and started hearing a voice (the spirit of the previous owner who may or may not be a fey creature) and learned how to cast the spells it contained, you can then be as creppy as you want with the most versatile spell list in the game. Nab the FeyTouched feat from Tasha's cauldron of what not (or Unearthed Arcana if you don't have access to Tasha's) to get the Hex spell, the skull could be used as an arcane focus (reflavour an orb), you could go so far as to have the fey spirit summoned by the Find Familiar spell to be bound to the skull so you could bind a owl or raven spirit to it and have a floating skull. And just to be a little more "friendly" you travel round speaking with spirits of dead people and finishing the tasks they had outstanding when they died.
It gives you a strange character that has infernal heritige from being a Tiefling but also has some Fey influence which isn't trying to snare you with a Pact but otherwise wants you to finish something it started.
Shadow Magic if you choose the Adam's Family Vibe background and Undying if you choose grew up in a graveyard. Maybe in the graveyard one of them found an entrance to a powerful undead's (Lich, death knight, vampire, etc.) lair, and the undead took pity on them.
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