I’m having difficulty putting together anything resembling a cohererent blogpost, so instead I’ll offer a challenge. Can you think of any oh-so-wrong (yet strangely cool) class and race combinations for D&D? I’ll take any edition for this little game, and start the ball rolling with a couple of my own.
Goblin Paladin (the Palagoblin)
There’s something instinctively bad about encasing a goblin in a suit of full plate armour. It’s like urinating on Lancelot’s holy name, or coating a roast chicken in chocolate (mmmmm!). But now you’ve got the mental image of a little biddy goblin head peeking out of over a solid steel breastplate, you want to play one, right? The idea of a classically evil race becoming a force for lawful good is a popular one, especially if it’s a half-orc under all that tin – but a goblin?! That’s the wrong kind of wrong.
And in a strange and twisted way, that feels so right.
Elf Barbarian
I’ll just say this: no one wants to see an oversized fairy in a loincloth.
But utter the magical word ElfQuest, and all that badwrongness fades away to be replaced with something that’s even better than good. A wrongness, righted!
Over to you. Gimme your wrong-yet-right race and class combinations. I wanna hear you.
Gnomish Used Car Salesman. Who is going to believe a dimmutive used car salesman and not laugh their pretty little head off? Enuff said.
.-= EltonJ´s last blog ..Tribes of the Wilderlands: The Telosians =-.
Dragonborn Rogue.
I have hard time imagining one of those big guys sneaking around or battle dancing with rapiers and cutlasses a-la Pirates of the Carribean or Three Musketeers.
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Gnome Fighter/Rogue/Blackguard riding a hyenadon (dire hyena) (3.5).
Warforged rogue
Pixie Fighter/Barbarian
Drow two-weapon ranger who has fled the Underdark to escape his dark heritage, and who has an animal companion of a panther. Sorry, minor rant. I have nothing against R.A. Salvatore, but against Drizzt-fanboys …
Haha, I play as a PC very rarely, but when I do, I exclusively play ridiculous combinations of race/class/whatever.
In fact, for a vignette game this weekend, I rolled all my stuff randomly.
Came up with tiefling paladin multiclass rogue! :)
A friend of mine is currently enjoying a goliath cleric who has the pacifist thing (4E), and it’s always fun when he describes this towering beast in flowing robes refusing to harm anything..,
Great post, GW. :D
Goliath Cleric of Moradin.
Enough said :-)
Also, I’ve made a Warforged Frost Wizard, which we reflavored to say that he was just a giant refrigerator.
I’ve got a hafling barbarian in my current game – a lot of fun. He was rolling badly all last session until he critted with his daily last against the BBEG, leaping off of some stairs, battleaxe flashing in the air before splitting the bullywug from chaps to knave. It was pretty awesome.
Half-Orc/Paladin may not be terribly unconventional (except in Old School terms), but I think a 7ft tall dude with fangs in plate mail, bringing the wraith of God might bring some sinners to repentance.
Pixie/Bard: At last, someone to make the Elvish/Bard feel less fruity.
Half-Orc combined with just about anything based on social graces, intelligence, or any of the trapings of civilization can throw some people. Bard and Wizard are at the top of the list.
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I actually had an elf barbarian in my party for almost a year. Yes, a Greataxe-swinging elf in a breastplate. Well, the guy was a pitiful player overall.
Want crazy race/class combinations? Just play one of Wizards’ Game Days. We’ve had dragonborn rogues, halfling barbarians, warforged artificers (a construct that build things), and other crazy stuff.
But also adding some of my own… Dwarf Rogue, Deva Infernal Warlock, Shadar-Kai Paladin (so long as you keep the “radiant” stuff), Gnoll Wizard… all would need awesome backgrounds to even make sense.
Hey, I’m playing a half-elf barbarian. :)
Anyway, thought it would fun to play a Halfling Monk/Paladin.
I played a warforged swordmage. A big clunky guy with a loud personality playing finesse class actually worked. I had him do this whole’ll batman-shtick about bounded over roofstops and sneaking around city alleys … yet he wasn’t trained in Acrobatics, Bluff, Stealth. Just Athletics …. Arcana …. and whatever.
Anyway, it was a fun character.
Heh, how about a minotaur bard, tapping his big ol’ hoof to the beat and getting his pan pipes caught in his nose ring? He might be good for a few bawdy limericks too.
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My brother played a halfling barbarian (3.5) in a long-running campaign. It actually worked out quite well, because he rolled really well on his ability scores (and he rolled well in general). His schtick was to hide in the cleric’s knapsack to jump out at enemies with his axe.
His Crowning Moment of Awesome:
He had a Ring of Jumping that he used a lot to his advantage. In one tough battle, he and the cleric were pushed off a ledge. Luckily, the cleric had a Ring of Feather Falling to keep himself from going splat. He went “nyah nyah” at barb. Instead of taking falling damage, the barb landed on the slowly wafting cleric and used his Ring of Jumping to spring off him, leaping back over the cliff and to return to the battle. :3
Lawful Good Half-Orc Diviner. Actually going to play him in an upcoming Pathfinder campaign
gnome avenger!
jukebox, warforged bard
are my comments being eaten?
@All I don’t even know where to begin. I love ’em! They’re all inspired and terrific.
Keep them coming!
The dwarven wizard always tickles my fancy given the long tradition of not getting your arcane magic in your dwarf.
I want to see a vampire that is a devout cleric of a good-aligned god. It begs the question: can you turn-undead yourself?
.-= DeadGod´s last blog ..Help me make a list of awesome character ideas! =-.
@justaguy Yeah. Dwarven Wizards are very appealing. I love the image of a Dwizard in heavy dusty thick robes carrying a rune-enscribed spellbook.
@DeadGod :grin: Maybe a vampire cleric would spin so much they eventually burrow into the centre of the earth. Either that, or they can Turn Living. Now, there’s a thought…….
Yeah, well . . .
No one can beat a Gnomish used car salesman. Unless he a gnoll pimp pimping yer sister.
:p
.-= EltonJ´s last blog ..Tribes of the Wilderlands: The Telosians =-.