Personality
Dungeons & Dragons is a game of heroic extremes populated by legendary heroes and unrepentant villains. Your character needs only a few personality traits that you can use as roleplaying touchstones, key traits that you can focus on and that are fun to play. A complex background and extensive motivations aren't necessary, although you can flesh out your character's personality as much as you like.

A typical D&D adventure offers many opportunities for your character's personality to shine. Those roleplaying opportunities usually arise in three kinds of situations: social interactions, decision points, and dire straits. The following sections pose questions to help you choose personality traits for your character, which you can write on your character sheet. Select one personality trait for each kind of situation. If you already have a personality in mind for your character, you can skip this section; the information here is for inspiration only.

Social Interactions
When you communicate with a nonplayer character outside combat and try to influence that individual, that's a social interaction. You might try to persuade a guardian monster to let you pass, negotiate with a merchant lord to increase the pay offered for a dangerous mission, or question a surly centaur about the goblins that ambush travelers in the forest. The DM plays the part of any NPC you talk to , while you and the other players decide what your characters say, even speaking in character if you like.

How do others perceive you in social situations?
Cheerful? Charming? Talkative? Witty? Reserved? Relaxed?

How optimistic are you?
Enthusiastic? Hopeful? Fatalistic? Grim? Self-Assured? Brooding?

How trusting are you?
Gullible? Open-minded? Skeptical? Suspicious? Naive? Trusting?

Decision Points
When you face tough choices in an adventure, your character's personality can influence the decisions you make. Do you try to sneak past the dragon's cave, approach openly to parley, or storm in with blades drawn and spells blazing? Which of the six stone doors in the entry hall do you open first? Do you save the captives from the trap or pursue the slavers? When your group decides what to do next, how do you approach such conversations?

How assertive are you at a decision point?
Humble? Adaptable? Commanding? Timid? Easygoing? Impatient?

How conscientious are you about following rules?
Scrupulous? Pragmatic? Dutiful? Honest? Flexible? Wild?

How empathetic are you?
Kind? Stern? Thoughtful? Protective? Hard-hearted? Oblivious?

Dire Straits
Some of the most memorable demonstrations of a character's personality appear in dire straits. A character retorts to a villain's threat with a trademark one-liner, shouts a famous battle cry, leaps into harm's way to protect others, or turns and flees in the face of overwhelming odds. Every battle, hazard, or other dire situation offers opportunities for roleplaying, especially if things go awry. When your character lands in a dire situation, how does he or she react? Do you follow a code? Do you follow your heart/ Do you look out for yourself or others?

How courageous are you in dire straits?
Brave? Competitive? Steady? Cautious? Reckless? Fierce?

How do you feel when faced by setbacks?
Stoic? Driven? Happy-go-lucky? Vengeful? Bold? Impassioned?

Mannerisms
The easiest way to bring your character to life at the gaming table is to adopt distinctive mannerisms-particular patterns of speech or other behaviors that you can take on at the table to convey how your character looks, sounds, and acts. If you are naturally inclined to spin dice or shuffle cards while the game takes place, you might consider incorporating that behavior into your character. Perhaps your character carries a deck of cards that he shuffles when he's bored or nervous, or maybe she crouches to the ground and creates little sculptures out of rubble while she's waiting for her companions to decide where to go next. By contrast, another character might vociferously participate in these deliberations, frequently resorting to exclamations such as "By Kord's right arm!" to emphasize his opinion.

Speech patterns can be even more distinctive. A dwarf who never enters battle without shouting, "The dwarves are upon you!" injects a dose of fun role-playing just as the die rolling is getting more intense. A wizard who never speaks except in haiku might be carrying the idea of distinctive speech to an extreme, but if you can pull it off (try writing a page full of standbys to cover common situations before the game begins), everyone at the table will remember your character for years!

Another good way to think about speech and other mannerisms is to create specific prompts your character says or does when using certain powers. For example, your paladin might yell, "Feel the might of Bahamut!" every time she uses the righteous smite power, and murmur, "Bahamut's healing breath wash over you," when she uses lay on hands.

LightWarden posted:

---

Really, there's no reason not to give your character a presence, personality and motivations. A quick test is to see what happens when no one has prompted you. If you just stand around waiting for someone, you should probably do some more thinking about what your character is.

---

NickLitYouAFlame posted:

---

So, I'm going to try and keep an entirely stoic character. For nearly the whole of a game. No mid-post revelations of the perks of showing emotion. I want him to bury every feeling he might ever think about exhibiting; bury it deep down. I think I might do that for Hammur's game, or possibly the next good one that comes around. And, so maybe that isn't creative, but I always try to do this and end up getting angry and showing it. Then, at the very, very, very end of the game, I'm going to let him release all of his hidden pain and anger and love and hate and whatever, into one situation and completely destroy himself and his surroundings.

Like, one of those "stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers" scenarios.

---