My newest character is a 60 year old Human Lore Bard. He is level 4, and I am a bit stuck on his backstory. He comes from a small and impoverished noble house and spend quite some time working for the lords alliance. Originally, his story was that he was an adventurer once, but he lost his leg to a manticore. He then spent the subsequent years of his life, saving up money for a treatment with the "Regenerate" spell. But Bards get this spell, so he could just have practiced to become a better Bard and eventually heal himself. Right? I thought of an old man that just picked up the adventuring life, but that doesn't really fit with his level. I could maybe do the old "out of practice" story, but would that work with a spell caster? and why would he have given up his magic? any ideas/suggestions? thanks in advance ❤️
Reading this I went from the Skyrim meme 'I used to be an adventurer until I ....' to Moby Dick.
So you could go for the Manticore being your characters version of the white whale from Moby Dick, it becomes an obession and fear of the character, something he needs to find and kill before he dies and over the course of this he eventually learns the healing magic to regrow his leg. As for how/why he gains the magic, he may think it is god given, perhaps from a god of music or the arts or maybe some fey influence and performing music, song or acting out plays is how it manifests.That way you could say that he is writing the final chapter of his story and it deals with his redemption and overcoming his old enemy.
Perhaps he was working as a spy in the service of the Lords’ Alliance, posing as a functionary in the court of a more powerful noble. He was lying low, hiding his abilities but now is exposed and has been expelled from the court or been forced to flee. Who or what exposed him: were they caught in the act, a secret message uncoded, or sold out as a pawn in some scheme of the Lords’ Alliance? Was the noble he was spying on evil and has but a bounty on his head; now he is traveling incognito, one step ahead of pursuit? Or was the noble simply a rising power the Lords’ Alliance we’re keeping tabs on and disappointed to find a trusted adviser spying on them, and now he has lost the only home he knew for years and have taken up adventuring?
He could be an old, traveling storyteller who makes his money playing on the street. Doing it for so long, he picked some magic and practiced it up to the 4th level. There are tons of ways you could push him into an adventuring type character, but personally I would just have him get swept up into a quest after hearing about it, desperate for cash and a change of pace.
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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
- Litany Against Fear, Frank Herbert
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My newest character is a 60 year old Human Lore Bard. He is level 4, and I am a bit stuck on his backstory. He comes from a small and impoverished noble house and spend quite some time working for the lords alliance. Originally, his story was that he was an adventurer once, but he lost his leg to a manticore. He then spent the subsequent years of his life, saving up money for a treatment with the "Regenerate" spell. But Bards get this spell, so he could just have practiced to become a better Bard and eventually heal himself. Right? I thought of an old man that just picked up the adventuring life, but that doesn't really fit with his level. I could maybe do the old "out of practice" story, but would that work with a spell caster? and why would he have given up his magic? any ideas/suggestions? thanks in advance ❤️
Reading this I went from the Skyrim meme 'I used to be an adventurer until I ....' to Moby Dick.
So you could go for the Manticore being your characters version of the white whale from Moby Dick, it becomes an obession and fear of the character, something he needs to find and kill before he dies and over the course of this he eventually learns the healing magic to regrow his leg. As for how/why he gains the magic, he may think it is god given, perhaps from a god of music or the arts or maybe some fey influence and performing music, song or acting out plays is how it manifests.That way you could say that he is writing the final chapter of his story and it deals with his redemption and overcoming his old enemy.
Perhaps he was working as a spy in the service of the Lords’ Alliance, posing as a functionary in the court of a more powerful noble. He was lying low, hiding his abilities but now is exposed and has been expelled from the court or been forced to flee. Who or what exposed him: were they caught in the act, a secret message uncoded, or sold out as a pawn in some scheme of the Lords’ Alliance? Was the noble he was spying on evil and has but a bounty on his head; now he is traveling incognito, one step ahead of pursuit? Or was the noble simply a rising power the Lords’ Alliance we’re keeping tabs on and disappointed to find a trusted adviser spying on them, and now he has lost the only home he knew for years and have taken up adventuring?
He could be an old, traveling storyteller who makes his money playing on the street. Doing it for so long, he picked some magic and practiced it up to the 4th level. There are tons of ways you could push him into an adventuring type character, but personally I would just have him get swept up into a quest after hearing about it, desperate for cash and a change of pace.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
- Litany Against Fear, Frank Herbert