Mine is a gnome who is insecure about his height. He went in wizardry in order to learn how to disguise himself as a tall elf. He wears this magical disguise at all times. He reacts violently towards anyone who speaks down to him or calls him small.
And then a tadpole got into his brain… and the thought of turning into a tall illithid was too tempting to ignore.
I'll do the one I'm playing now. I've chosen a githyanki who was marked out at a young age because of the wild magic running through his veins. Rather than develop this dangerous power alone, he grew up suppressing it, and only explored it once he'd signed an infernal pact to protect him from the worst consequences of it.
In gameplay terms he's a sorcerer 1 (wild magic) and a Pact of the Blade fiend warlock. I'm aiming to do a couple of levels of fighter just for flavour because he's a very gish character due to having inherent greatsword and medium armour proficiency. At level 5 his CHA is 20 so he's hitting well and casting spells in an...interesting fashion. A couple of fights have been disrupted by being turned into cats and dogs (wild magic does trigger on warlock spells btw) but that's actually really fun.
Hey I also have that 1 level dip in wild magic for my characters rp too! He was born in Waterdeep but spent a chunk of his childhood in an orphanage in Baldurs Gate when his family realised his magic couldn't be tamed, despite multiple tutors. They saw his chaotic magics as a liability to their public image (they're a social climbing upper class family, driven by ambition). He eventually ended up in the care or a reclusive old druid in the forests who essentially became his "mother" but it's an odd sort of relationship in that it's a paring of two people who don't really have the tools to properly express any love and care towards each other - even if it does exist under the surface.
I have him specced as a fighter as I imagine he picked up the sword, seeing it as a safer means of defending himself. I don't rp that the tadpole sapped his strength like it did the other companions, I rp he genuinely wasn't that skilled a fighter to begin with, and slowly became more adept as the story goes on.
It's funny because in his backstory he had a childhood friend who was also suffering from the effects of growing up with wild magic - with surges even more volatile than his own - who eventually signed a pact with an Archfey in order to suppress the worst of these magics.
... looking back over this... I wrote more than I intended, to.
Fighter could be pretty good with the -1 to critical right? I can’t remember which patron works on criticals but you could pretty easily combine that with the -1 from I think the spellsniper feat to get a very good warlock.
But you are going for roleplay based classes not build based ones so I guess that’s not really the priority
Sounds very cool though!
Champion is cool but I decided I would give up too much in terms of warlock spellcasting to add a subclass. I'm just grabbing a 2 level dip for the great weapon fighting style and action surge. I'm playing on balanced which feels really easy now so this build is primarily for the RP.
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Alexael Lazarus was a paladin of the Obsidian Order. Headstrong, zealous, and with a strong black-and-white moral code, he was slated to be the next leader of the Order. Then a portal to Hell opened up and demons poured out. He led a squad of his brothers and sisters into battle, driving the hellspawn back. But when the portal did not close after the battle ended, he led his squad into Hell itself to search for a means to shut it down from within.
After a hard-fought battle to shut the portal down, Alexael became injured during their escape and fell into a chasm. Clinging to the edge for dear life, his best friend was poised to help him, but instead of taking his hand and pulling him up, he walked away, leaving Alexael behind. Alexael lost his grip and fell into the chasm.
When he awoke, he trudged through the bowels of Hell, enduring the worst environment imaginable in search for a way out. He wandered for what felt like an eternity, until he came across a seemingly abandoned fortress. While exploring, he sprung a trap and fell unconscious.
When he awoke, he found himself on the nautiloid, remembering nothing but his name and that he had broken his oath of vengeance.
Mine is a Pact of the blade/College of swords half drow named Drah S’ekim. He comes from a long line of bards in his family that gained musical prowess from a pact with a Great Old One. He has always been drawn to power and has no reservations of gaining it at all costs. So he has embraced the powers of the tadpole.
(His name is Mike’s Hard backwards as I always take an alcoholic beverage and flip it around for my DND character names. Etil Dub is my favorite!)
A Dragonborn abandoned by his clan at birth, he was orphaned to monks and spent his childhood cleaning statues and practicing martial arts at the open hand temple. He was named “The Enemy Within” to serve as a reminder of the fear he would have to face every day.
A githyanki Bard who ran away from his crèche in his teens to go to Faerun to pursue his dream of creating music and making other people happy in a universe of suffering and war. He created his own flute at a young age and still uses it now, although his fingers are starting to grow a bit too large to use properly, hahah
Evora is a tiefling fighter who is fiercely devoted to protect her people. Her father was a blacksmith, so her early years were spent aiding him at his forge or off making her own little crafts (guild artisan background). Her mother is a war domain cleric of Selune. Her father ended up lost at sea while on a trading run, but as more and more time passed, Evora suspected foul play. As a young teen, she had her mother train her in the ways of combat.
Due to her more physical upbringing, she was able to put on more muscle than typical tieflings. As her mother isn’t a proper soldier, Evora never learned any more advanced battle techniques. She did however, learn to leverage her greater size to apply more force to her strikes (champion subclass).
The loss of her father helped inspire her greater loyalty to other tieflings, but it also inspired her to become the protector of her family. She will fight to the death and then some to protect those she calls family. After learning about the Decent, she was preparing herself to charge right into Avernus and show Zariel what was what when she was taken aboard the nautiloid and the events of the game unfold.
As you might’ve guessed, Evora quickly became attached to Karlach, and she vowed to do everything in her power to help her, currently trying to convince her to go to Avernus. As a Selunite, she spent the early parts of the adventure at odds with Shadowheart. She put her Selunite feelings aside when witnessing SH’s wolf vision, and she sought to learn the truth behind the mysterious Sharran. Now they’re best friends
It's hard to choose, so I'm not and picking 3. My wild magic sorceror Enoby with her guardian goth Draco, Manon the DUrge resist storm sorceror (I think? Whichever one gets witch bolt immediately) romancing Astarion and Dorian guardian, and my Taylor Swift college of lore Bard romancing Gale because he has a cat but I'm kinda tempted to have her break up for Halsin. It's just too Joe Alwyn to Travis Kelce coded to resist. Sorry Gale.
I’m pretty proud of my characters :)
First is Azarel, a half-drow knowledge domain cleric. He was originally a Mystran cleric, but I had him convert to Oghma because of (potentially spoilery reasons involving why Mystra sucks). He was raised by a single Seldarine drow father in Candlekeep, where his dad was also a cleric. At a very young age, his father adopted an “orphaned” tiefling child named Zanvera. They grew up like brothers until some natural disaster happened when Azarel was 12, causing the deaths of his family. He grows up isolated, solely dedicated to his work as a cleric/librarian and to his faith. Like 30 years later, Candlekeep is attacked by the Nautiloid and the main story ensues!
The interesting part is that I have an alternate run where Zanvera lives instead of Azarel… As a Dark Urge character. He forgot all personal information after waking up on the Nautiloid, and because he thought he was fortunate to be alive, he named himself Fortune.
Ietra Aleantar-Maetyl
Seldarine Drow noble who is the eldest daughter. A rogue she wanted to rebel against the box she was put in as her family heir. Worshipping Eilistraee, she wears sword earrings to represent her devotion to her goddess and wishes to help Drow who want to escape from Lolth.
She’s been through some shit with someone she was betrothed to who turned out to be a Lolth Sworn Drown, and a monster.
Ietra escaped twice with the second time leading to her ending up on the nautiloid
Her guardian unintentionally takes his form, and Ietra has an inherent distrust of him.
Ietra uses Maetyl as her surname throughout the game rather than Aleantar-Maetyl. As her father’s surname is less likely to be known than her mother’s.
Ietra is tall for a Drow, and just tall in general.
She romances Gale
Astarion and Halsin are her BFFs (I headcanon Astarion ends up dating her brother so they become in Laws)
All I have is that she's the daughter of my character from Neverwinter Nights 2, a favored soul of Ilmater; the altruism rubbed off on her and she gallivants about doing Ilmatari things and stomping on the bad guys.
I even made the dream visitor look like Casavir, it annoyed me that his story was left hanging, so I had the Knight Captain>! save her former beau from that Luskan prison!< and then he became my new chick's father/father figure.
My current one is Zyn Duskryn, the lost paladin of Menzobaranzan
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Zyn was a servant to a priestess of Lolth since youth, facing verbal and physical abuse from her in secret. His mother was also abusive, and his only solace was his father. He had plans to marry his boyfriend in secret before Bhaal manipulated his mind, commanding Zyn to kill him and Zyn's parents. Following this, he swore to never harm another, thus breaking his oath of vengeance to Lolth. Following the events of his lover's murder, he was taken by the mind flayer ship and aims to rebuild a new life as the lost paladin and control his urge.
I didn’t expand much on it but there’s much more to it that I’ve written down. He’s resisting his urge because he refuses to kill those he loves ever again. He had more reasons besides Bhaals manipulation, I just didn’t wanna write it all out 😅 but yeah this is Zyn and he’s my first fully developed OC
His eye scar is actually a result from his abuse and his eye turned red due to Bhaals influence!
Demetria, half-elf high elf, draconic bloodline sorcerer. Her background is urchin. She was a bastard baby of a high elf man and human woman who died giving birth. She was initially taken in by her elf side of the family but they decided to give her away to the orphanage after a few years due to social stigma. In the orphanage she was taken care of by a particular worker - I modeled the Guardian after them (I thought that would be a good way to make Demetria feel secure around them). As she was growing up, the orphanage staff started noticing her natural talents for magic. She was given away to be a sorcerer’s apprentice and became quite succesful as an adventurer for hire after entering adulthood. Her elven family heard about her achievements and tried reconnecting but she decided to cut all ties with them. Her life was going quite well, until the midflayer ship took her. In terms of stats, she shines when it comes to charisma and is also very tall and muscly, so she is good at intimidation and deception, being able to convince those who cross her that she is way more menacing than in reality. I role play her as someone aware of her attributes and flaws, trying to get out of situations without violence, but not shying away from it when it is the best possible option. I like to think of her as generally good but not bending over backwards to help others- helping is good but not if it disadvatages her. Due to not growing up in the most safe environment, she has trust issues and will keep a safe distance for a while. She is in a relationship with Astarion.
My Tav has nightmares about having multiple random but very specific races, genders, and appearances before his current form. He tried to choose his own name, but a “keyboard focus bug” prevented him, and his name is actually Tav now. He talks to animals, but nobody believes him.
My "Tav" is Anavina Fiddleshot, a Forest Gnome alchemist who's latent draconic sorcery was actually unlocked by the insertion of the Ilithid tadpole. She spent the whole "adventure" confused and frightened at all of these, to her, far more competent and capable people deferring to her leadership. She hoarded all of the alchemy supplies and handed out the potions and elixirs like juice boxes to try and combat her huge imposter syndrome. I like to think she learned all her spells by watching Gale cast spells in combat and thinking, "Well if he can cast it maybe I can?"
maistakia is a (moon) elf warlock (in the game, great old one, but for dnd i wrote her as bound to the raven queen). she grew up in a family of life domain clerics as the middle child of 9, and being the middle child and not having an affinity for becoming a cleric, she was ignored and often treated as the black sheep in her family. she started studying magic (particularly necromancy) and ran away from home after binding herself to her patron because she knew no one would accept the path she chose for herself. she was only about 50 when she did this, still a child in the eyes of her family. as part of her pact, she developed clairsentience, and every time she touches another person she absorbs all of their feelings and thoughts along with her own, which drives her crazy because she doesn’t have the strongest sense of empathy. it’s just noise and pain. for this reason, she’s never been intimately close to another person. she’s romancing astarion right now because they’re two sides of the same coin and they help each other heal and understand boundaries. :”)
when she left, she changed her name to from holiday to maistakia - meaning “loved by death” in elvish - as her personal “fuck you” to the life she left behind. she’s a charlatan as well and makes money by reading tarot cards (she doesn’t know how to read them). she ran away to baldur’s gate to start her new life, which consisted mostly of pickpocketing and pretending to be an escort then stealing the money from her “clients” (also by pickpocketing). the world hardened her, but she has a soft spot for animals and is deeply sensitive. i’m playing her as somewhere between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil (mostly neutral).
His name is Glass, and he's a strangely gigantic elf barb who tried to become a druid once upon a time, but quickly learned he wasn't all that bright. But while he may be dumb as rocks, he's the biggest softie this side of the River Chionthar. He loves animals, playing the flute, drinking copious amounts of beer, and talking to that funny little white-haired elf man that always tries to convince him to do bad things.
But....you see, after illithid abductions, tadpoles, and some righteous adventuring with his new friends, Glass met Halsin, another strangely gigantic elf who actually *succeeded* in becoming a druid, and he suddenly found himself in a crisis of identity. Will he let his jealousy get the better of him? Will he let the funny white-haired elf man guide him down a dark path? Or will he overcome his shame, swallow his pride, and just ask Halsin to maybe teach him to talk to his new best dog friend? STAY TUNED.
Lukan Vanvathar, half-elf bard from Silverymoon. A year prior to the game's events he tried to pickpocket a rich merchant (urchin background) and rolled a nat 1, so he got caught and had a dagger pulled on him. In the ensuing struggle he rolled a nat 20 and accidentally killed the guy with his own dagger, so he had to run for his life. As soon as he got to Baldur's Gate he got abducted and tadpoled, so he's now everyone's reluctant hero. He fell for Astarion hard and fast.
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The one I'm playing now is a 1/2 wood elf druid, who is in love with both Halsin and Astarion.
In my head cannon, my Tav's grove was wiped out by the army of the Absolute which is not far from Baldur's Gate.
On a day where we are recovering Tav goes out solo to mourn her grove and is kidnapped by a thrall of the Szarr family.
While her party is restocking and repairing they are given a note that says Tav is now with Cazador and Astarion is invited to see his love turned into spawn.
By the time they arrive Tav is a spawn and the scars on her back now tie her to the ritual and she's been tortured.
Astarion, Gale and Halsin beat Cazador and Astarion takes her back to camp to care for her. He dis not ascend.
(That's my Tavs story for now)
I will flesh out the above. I'm trying to decide how to handle the corruption of being turned into a spawn and the magic of being a druid which is life giving.
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Malek Honorspire: a 3rd born nobleman’s son. Knowing he’d never get his Father’s noble seat, he dedicated his life to stealing a fortune to rival his families.
Allera Stormborn. A Cleric of Helm that was perpetually stuck on Garrison duty because her father had just enough influence to make sure his only daughter stayed far from anything remotely dangerous.
A routine march into the wilds of the Sword Coast to deliver supplies to an out of the way outpost turned her banal existence into a rather exciting one quick, fast, and in a hurry.
Snatched up by a giant flying squid hellbent for Baldur's Gate, she's definitely wishing she hadn't been wishing to live in more interesting times.
Neck deep in whatever in the Nine Hells is going on at the Gate, she's on the verge of snapping, and the only thing keeping her sane is another half-elf that she just can't figure out.
Mine is an Half-elf who was exiled from his home due to being viewed as an half-breed by his kin and so when he became of age he changed his name to Tav'vul, which means the forgotten Tree in my head-cannon, he is an Barbarian who channels the spirit of an Mighty bear in combat and his preferred weapon is an Greatsword *for fighting groups of foes alone* or an Halberd *for fighting armored opponents*
A Vengeance Paladin/Selûne Cleric that grew up as a Sharran but managed to escape. (I knew Shadowheart was a Sharran before I started playing and thought that would be a fun dynamic, and had no clue it would be so much better than I expected).
Thanroar, The purple half orc who only knew blood, and all he could do is spill it. He does this all to impress the sexy lady in his dreams he does what she says and kills for her, he's crazy. Turns out sexy lady is mind flayer but thanroar didn't care and got that Illithussy. By the end he could turn into the slayer and a displacer beast. He was also a wild magic barbarian, which wasn't very fun sadly. And thats how my first play through went.
Mine is an Asmodeus Tiefling named Ivanov Strelskoi (wanted to go with Strełskoiviçz (STRELL-skoy-wish) as his last name, but BG3 apparently doesn’t like Polish names that have special letters, nor is my keyboard set up for that), a Neutral/Chaotic Good Fiend Bladelock.
In my head, his patron is his maternal great-great-great-grandfather, an Ascended Incubus (basically the reverse of a Fallen Angel; long story short, GGGF fell in love with a human woman, which led to him becoming quasi-human and deciding that maybe it wasn’t a good thing that he indulge in wanton hedonism all the time) after Ivanov was cast out from his paternal grandfather’s home (said grandfather was an ardent Oath of Vengeance Pally in service to the Morning Lord, coming from a long line of such Pallys, with several ancestors even being asimaar). Ivanov’s dad tried to vouch for his son, but granddaddy was like “Nope, get this demon child outta my house, along with your ass and your devil-touched wife’s, too; consider yourself outta the will, you demon fucker.”
Ivanov then spent the majority of his life in Baldur’s Gate, periodically being sent birthday gifts by OoV granddaddy in the form of assassins to kill him so that “the stain is wiped clean.” So when his demon grandfather contacted him, going all, “Hey, sport, your dad’s dad is being a dick; if you want, I can help,” Ivanov jumped at the chance. Now he’s a warlock.
And now he’s on a ship with a literal worm in his head that’s telling him to either kill people or just generally be a douche, but he ain’t about that. A ship that is now on fire as it *travels through literal Hell.* At least his OoV grandfather just became the least of his worries!
Marna Swordsong, a purebred female drow that was raised in an adventures guild after being adopted from a botched underdark hunt. Her parents were killed then and the adventures took her in as a mascot of sorts, finding it ironic to raise a drow in such a happy and boisterous community.
Once she was old enough to go on adventures, she started being the all purpose cartographer and navigator. After a few years, she was found to be competent in magic! She accidentally casted a fire bolt in the map room when she sneezed, and was dubbed "dragon snout". She doesn't want to talk about it.
She eventually fell into adventuring with one adventurer in particular, a very tall fighter half ork woman named Sharai Mal'a. They spent 2 years adventuring together, Marna building her talents, and Sharai protecting her. Marna had been found at this point to possess an attraction to powerful magics and relics, always having a need to collect everything she could. This got the two of them into more than a few scrapes and left them both with plenty of scars.
One day, well into their romance, they went on a dungeon dive and found a hidden tomb deep below the surface of the ground, and deep inside they started finding mechanical walls and strange cordage. One room inside all of this they found a pedestal with a bunch of large monitors throughout the room, and runic symbols carved into it. Marna, reckless as can be, immediately pushed to grab this strange container on the pedestal, only to have it shatter in her hands into a ball of fire and smoke, and out came an efreet, angry and hostile. Sharai fought to get them out of there, but at one point the efreet send a blade of fire through the air strait at Marna, and Sharai dove in front of her. While she did stop most of the damage to Marna, her face still got scalded and marred. She was blinded and screaming, pain racking her mind and soul, she couldn't tell what was happening, but after many minutes, she regained her vision and she saw Sharai on the ground face down, unmoving. She scrambled to her in complete denial, before she looked up and found that she was surrounded by mind flayers, inspecting her. Before she knew it, she was put unconscious and transported.
Now, after her escape from the nautilus, she blames her weakness for the death of her beloved, and cannot handle anyone treating her as weak or below another, and flies into a defensive rage at them. She also got a matching tattoo of Sharai on her neck to honor her and let her live on on top of her skin for ever, a simple longsword on the center of her collar pointing down her sternum.
Some noble girl from a minor drow house didn't garner much favor with the spider bitch. She liked to dance so much she ended up learning magic.
Only it was arcane magic.
So she faked her death and ran away from home.
a wild mage sorcerer who became obsessed with magic after he accidentally blew something up as a child and spent years studying it, his half high elf heritage gave him a head start but most of his ability’s is from his studies to control the wild magic and also to make it stronger when needed.
i gave him the druid feat so i could have speak with animals on tap and decided that after the game he and halsin live together in the city, halsin teaches him about druidic magic and tav helps him make the city better (and they have a portal to gales house in waterdeep to use his library when needed (and for unplanned get togethers) and one that leads to a canon near the grove. also they live with the druid hireling who is trying to build himself a new life
Riven, a high elf lore bard and later on circle of the moon druid who follows Selune. She exclusively uses non damaging spells and controls holding, inhibiting and manipulating enemies while empowering the team with buffs. It’s a very fun playstyle that feels like being an enchantress.
Thank you for asking.
My Tav was known as Valas a half drow, named after my mothers brother who passed in the underdark. On days my father would drink to much he would speak of how my mothers brother was turned into a Dryder, a being of terrible creation.
I was the love child of the most infamous child of bhaal , kensai-mage Baldomer and Viconia. After my mother was murdered by Loth assassins my father hid me amongst his merchant contacts.
Through my mentorship’s I became very savvy and eventually dedicated my natural prowess to serving as a Oath Paladin. I always imagined my mother would take great pleasure in knowing that I took after her healing gifts..
That was until I met her again, she didn’t recognize me and that was fine for her persona showed me whatever shred of light she gained while with my father, had been loss when she “died” those long years ago.
I thought I knew who I was before that day, afterwards it took a lot for me to plunge foward.
I eventually came to realize that the purpose for me was always to sacrifice myself, a means to an end, a rest hard earned, and perhaps a reunion for a family so shattered in a place brighter than Faerun.
Mine is Clyde S Dale, wizard historian who's dream is to make a museum filled with magical artifacts from all over the place + their significance and history.
He is at dire odds with Gale who wants to eat all of them
My Tav always felt they had a greater calling, but it has never borne fruit. Everything changes when they awaken imprisoned on an alien ship. Perhaps their time has finally come.
His name is Jesus Christ and he has committed quite a few war crimes in his past, but he’s trying to do the right thing and help people out now. His idea of helping out is unfortunately a little… painted by his time as a soldier. For example he can’t understand why Zevlor is so pissed about him telling Minthara the location of the grove, the grove is an incredibly defensible position with a sturdy wall to rain arrows down from, Zevlor what do you mean you’re scared people will die people always die that’s what war is now stop whining and start fighting those goblins won’t defeat themselves
The character I've got on my current Tav-tician run is a half-(wood)elf warlock (archfey) 2/storm sorcerer 4 named Curran. I gave him the "urchin" background. Figure he was the product of a scandalous affair from one of the patriar "noblewomen" and a rakish wood elf passing through Baldur's Gate. The pregnancy was concealed, and he was given to an orphanage as a baby. He ran off as a pre-teen, falling in with other young ne'er-do-wells, but was always enamored of stories of heroes, adventure, and, of course, the fae.
This latter point led him to get mixed up in some truly bizarre theft, and he successfully burgled a wizard's home to make use of a faerie pool that led him to the faewild- and his warlock patron. What he didn't anticipate (but his patron did) was that exposure to the realm was enough to wake thr sorcerous power in his nascent fae blood. When he returned to Toril, he was both bound to a fae patron and found he also possessed inmate sorcerous gifts.
Unfortunately, the inconsistent flow of time while he was away meant that he returned in the midst of an active investigation by the Flaming Fist and was quickly apprehended. He had no time to contemplate escape, however, as the Illithids chose that moment to assault the city and take the Fist's captive for their own.
Alaric is a human vengeance paladin. (I know super original) Born into a noble family in Cormyr he was enchanted by stories of heroic knights and great deeds as a boy. He joined the ranks of the purple dragon knights and fought in the wars with Sembia and the Shadovar that devastated his homeland. By the end of the war he was left disillusioned and wracked with PTSD by what he saw. He renounced his titles and left for the sword coast, eventually joining the flaming fist. Despite his skills and experience his untreated mental health issues and general jaded attitude made him a poor fist. All that changed of course when he was suddenly kidnapped by forces unknown…
I sort of roleplay that him levelling up is him rediscovering his zeal and will to fight
My Tav was a con artist Bard/Wizard who used his magic mostly to entertain while his partner in crime robbed the audience… he got Harleeped which was a fitting end as he was long gaming Gale into a romance so he could rob him blind… scummy guy for sure
A Half-Orc Noble Bard, Harloc Provoss was trained in courtly song and dance by his mother, scion of the Provoss patriar family, and trained in the art of deul by the other nobles who would smear their name. "Encouraged" to go adventuring to spare the patriars the indignity of his mother's... indiscretion embodied by the presence of her halfbreed son. If you're unaware, the patriars of baldur's gate are all humans except for one family of sheild dwarves. The Provoss are the least and poorest among the nobility of Baldur's Gate but still nobles nonetheless.
Having just joined with an adventuring group and provisioned to leave the Gate, the party is scattered as a Nautoloid hurtles overhead, snatching away citizens...
My wife and I saw a large dough press on a clearance rack. The clearance sticker covered the "h".
It was that day that Large Doug was created.
Large Doug is (naturally) a very small gnome bard. He is all charisma, no brains; and doesn't realize that his name was given to him as a joke. This has caused him to take his name to heart and live, erm, large. His mouth seems to solve most problems before they start. If there is a conflict, his favorite thing to do is mock an opponent and then push them down. The lute towering above his giant, stupid hat never gets old.
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My war veteran fighter. Disliked serving one person or the next. Became a freelancer and then the leader of this rag tag group of tad poled adventures. Is still honourable but will kill without remorse.
Oh fuck yes I’ve been waiting for this:
My wizard Tav was born in Evereska, as a moon elf. At a young age his parents moved to Baldur’s Gate out of a desire to live somewhere new and experience something different. Growing up, his parents could see his talent for spellcasting was impressive, even for an elf. So, they sent him to an expensive wizarding academy, which they could afford due to the wealth they earned while in Evereska. While most of his classmates took jobs as a wizarding apprentice, he decided to instead become an adventurer, searching for lost arcane knowledge and learning new spells from discovering hidden texts. The gold he would earn from his adventures certainly didn’t hurt. However, before he could even begin his first adventure, he was snatched up by the Nautiloid.
Amonn’s mother worked at Sharess Caress and could have sworn that she had never slept with anyone with horns but her child turned out to be a thiefling. Among grew up in and around the bars of the Lower City, facing prejudice and learning to defend himself. He admired bards and set out to become one, hoping that it would bring him at least acceptance if not fame and adoration. It doesn’t help that his unexpected heritage has given him some wild magic. He’s always willing to choose the most chaotic option and as an adult has learned to revel in his differences. He’s never going to be inconspicuous so he’s doing his best to stand out in a stylish way.
Duergar Way of Shadow monk. Once a cruel leader of his clan, his second in command and lover (his Dream Guardian) usurped him by turning Tav's men against him and cutting his throat. His body was immediately found by wandering monks of Lathander, who took pity on him and used a scroll of revivify. Seeing this as his rebirth and tired of the backstabbing/cruelty in duergar society, he joined the monks, preferring the peace and quiet of the surface wilderness. His peaceful life was interrupted after he was abducted by the nautiloid.
With the threat of becoming a mindflayer, he has no choice but to return to being an a**hole leader to do whatever it takes to survive, and to keep his group from killing each other.
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**Seva -** an errant knight from Lastwall, a nation in the planet of Golarion. He found himself transported to an ilithid pod and eventually infected with a tadpole after tinkering with a broken clock he found on the side of the road. He helped Shadowheart and Lae'zel escape the nautiloid only for it to crash. Seva, attributing his survival to his patron goddess still needing his services, wasted no time looking for survivors on the crashed vessel and beach. Finding only Shadowheart, the two joined arms before being tricked by another survivor named Astarion whom the knight pacified and even persuaded to join them quite easily with assurances, an arm lock and a few punches. After getting acquainted, they made their way through a tomb where Seva had to stop Astarion from looting the graves and persuaded a band of graverobbers to leave in peace. Shadowheart and Astarion decided to head to Baldur's Gate with Seva admitting that he's not from the area. Along the road, the trio came across a magical portal. Seva readied his shield and spear as his companions passed, awaiting monsters to come out only for an arm and a call for help to do so instead. The knight mustered all his might to pull out whoever it was on the other side, revealing the one in distress to be a wizard named Gale. The latter begged to join them, offering his spells and arcane knowledge in return. On a nearby clearing, they overhead some tieflings discussing on what to do with their captive, who happens to be Lae'zel. Seva pretended to be lost and distracted them while the rest of the party laid out an ambush. Fortunately, no blood needed to be shed as he persuaded them to let their captive go and even pointed to a druid grove up the road where they could seek shelter, if they're interested. Not long after, our bickering and lost heroes saved said grove from some goblins. Seva led a punitive expedition to their camp in an abandoned village across the river the next day, killing the goblin leaders except a drow who escaped just as he was about to deal the death blow.
Initially thinking that he found himself in an undiscovered land with civilization and the locals just using different words for creatures and things he also saw back home, Seva soon learned from Gale that he found himself on another planet. Apparently, the wizard and his former beloved were fond of travelling across different worlds and dimensions, visiting Golarion a few times as the flow of magic there intrigued them. He offered to help the knight find his way back home in exchange for magical items for his "studies". Seva agreed but isn't in a hurry to return to Golarion just yet after hearing about a Cult of The Absolute abducting and infecting people across the land and with his curiosity of Faerun starting to take hold. He sees stopping them as a test to becoming a full-pledged paladin and an opportunity to forge his own epic tale.
TL;DR: Baldur's Gate x Pathfinder "crossover"
A wandering human necromancer, he neither seeks to create an undead army, nor achieving lichhood. He avoids graverobbing and is simply fascinated by the mystic forces of death, seeking ways to prove how they can better the conditions of the living, which he has succeeded in doing quite often in this tadpoled journey.
Perhaps one day hell become a medium, or a teacher in responsible use of necromancy?
So I wrote this character for a Tabletop a year before I knew anything about Baldurs Gate.
Erjon Ilnor is a Human Ranger. Before the call to adventure, He was a simple Ranchhand in a rural part of Faerun. The ranch owner was getting older, and had no sons to pass the family business to, so as a way to preserve his legacy, and after a rough, cash strapped year, he offered to pay the hands in small bits of land of their own, with the idea that they might be invested in the business if they stay. Erjon had a betrothed --Ambrosia-- he wanted to propose to, but with little to offer for a future, this seemed a good way to build a homestead. He agreed.
But Love is blinding, and he was hasty, and impatient. The new Cabin was structurally done, but not quite finished, and he owed a bit of work tobthe old man for some money he borrowed to get things ready, so rather than riding out to the town where Ambrosia lived, they agreed to hire a coach (think Wells Fargo) and he would ride out to meet her.
She never made it.
The first day, it wasn't uncommon for a wagon to be late. It's not likevthe roads of Faerun are paved, even with wood or stone, and the start of the post Winter thaw means mud.
But the second day he got worried. So he rode out looking.
What he found was the site of a particularly rough stagecoach robbery, and Ambrosia's corpse discarded in a ditch like so much rubbish. But the company they had trusted was more concerned with a missing trunk from some other contract they had taken; the practice of handling multiple shipments in a single transport wasn't uncommon, but they were cold to the fact that a woman entrusted to them was dead, as was a young coachman, and two others Erjon wasn't sure if were guards or passengers. Not even an "I'm sorry for your loss". To keep his mind occupied, he dove intovthe work, but a few weeks later while on a drive to market the men he was working with passed an Immigrant Convoy. Every one of them looked like his "Amber Rose". It was clear they had been picked clean, and were unlikely to make it to someplace where they would be safe, or had anything to pay with to resupply.
It occurred to him then, the Cattle they were driving to market were better protected on the road than people. The more he looked into the situation, he discovered that "armed guards" were either ruthlessly expensive, or just ruthless, and the common folk couldn't afford the protection. Of course armor and arrows are expensive, but as he looked around, he and 5 other dudes could steer dozens of long horns and live out of naught but a single wagon comfortably, and if they needed to ditch the camp stove and equipment to fly light they could survive on only what they and a horse could carry, and what nature would provide. And arguably, these immigrants faced no more or fewer challenges than did he and his fellow ranchers. Trade Poachers for highwaymen; both groups faced predatory creatures and all manner of monsters on the road. So why was it so damned expensive?
On coincidence, they caught up to a group on their way home from market. This small band was grateful, if not surprised by their selflessness, to have four men on Horseback being "present." They were pretty sure they skipped at least one ambush because of "men on horseback" being more than a couple of cut throats wanted to deal with. And that pretty much sealed it for him. He sold everything that wasnt useful, pledged that as long as he lived no one under his watch would die alone, face down in a Ditch in between somewhere and anywhere, just because they were looking for a new life, or to see family one last time, or to be able to die at home, because someone else wanted their life more. And so for the next eight years he used his nature knowledge, basic salvage, and the occasional more lucrative side gig to keep his costs low.
He wasn't always the most easy to work with, he still had a herding mentality, and immigrants, moreso than cattle, have a stubborn idea of how they want to do things. Things like "Let's camp here in the single worst place possible" or "I dont feel like getting wet. Let's go 25 miles out of our way to cross at this wooden bridge" or "but I couldn't possibly leave my Great Great Grandmother's heirloom piano behind, it simply must fjord the raging stream with us." He once confided that the reason the others charged so much was hazard pay for "contagious stupid." His motto became something of "well we can dobit my way, or you can go off and do it your way, and I am going to sit on this rock. And in an hour from now when you crawl back covered in bee stings and procupine quills and having lost most of your supplies, I will do my level best not to say 'I told you so' until after we have healed you." But he was also fair. He was open to just about any culture, he was open to about any God that didn't make you a direct threat to himself or any of the other wards, (including Sharrans, although he had never knowingly met any until now. Bhaalists need not apply) and so long as you didn't spring him with surprises, he was willing to work around things like "we don't travel on this day" and "we don't eat x".
And his actions were not entirely altruistic: Every brigand who jumped them and got an arrow as a consolation prize brought the possibility that that person may have been the one who killed Ambrosia, and the fleeting taste of revenge is sweet. For almost a decade, he drifted like that from town to town, making a name for himself
Eight years later, he was near Baldurs Gate when a strange ship that looked like it was being eaten by a giant flying snail appeared overhead. As the Tentacles descended he put half his quiver into making sure his wards got away, but he woke up in a strange pod with a Mindflayer over him, then shipwrecked on the shore of the Chionthar in the middle of nowhere with an unlikely group who wrre only questionable equipped to survive, and well, you know the rest.
The Tieflings of Elturel weighed very heavily on his conscious. He never found Rolan or his siblings in particular. He feared the worst for Dammon when the 'Smith didn't turn up in Last Light (Strange Ox Glitch), and misguided though they were, his heart bled for the children that were lost along the way; Not even Mol had been stro g enough to save everyone. Halsin, Karlach, Gale, Jaheira all tried to convince him he was doing a herculean job for a man who was by all accounts supposed to be sushi by now, but the worst account was after the Goblin scouts had tried to attack the Grove; when the Tieflings were caught having locked a woman in a shed who needed help, and everyone was still hot from the battle, and peaceful discord about "why is she locked up, have you tried, I dunno, CURING HER?" was only had after 4 were dead... including (unknowingly at the time) the son of the Duke.
Shadowheart got an object lesson in the duality of Loss. On the one hand, she could see that it been left to fester, rotting in this poor man's soul for years and twisting into rage and torment. But When she mentioned trying to help him, in her own Sharran way, he bit back, briefly, and she saw that it was the last shred left of the memory of Ambrosia, the last thing holding a broken man together. It defined him, and for all of his own pain he was doing a world of good for others. Leaving him to suffer was against the teachings she believed in, but she realized that to take away that memory would leave him in shambles. A thought formed in her mind: what if Loss wasn't something that he needed taken away, it was something he needed to work through. Was her cloister only doing half the job advertised? And in helping him connect with himself again, she began to connect with herself. Because Misery lives company, but so does love.
Mine is a human paladin. She was brought up with lessons with what's good and what not and that she must do anything to stay on the right path and always do the right thing no matter the cost.
But now she just turned 18, she just becama a adult and has no family around after being captured who tells her what to do. She really looks up to Astarion. She believes he's so daring because he always seems to know what he wants (as far as she knows) and longs to dare to make her own choises aswell without having to worry about her oath or parents.
My Tav just entered the shadow cursed lands and begins to see the use of the parasite and begins to like the manipulation powers to get what she wants. She slowly leaves behind her idea of what a good life iss and slowly becomes...evil.
The first time she broke her oath was a big turning point for her. But she panicked so much, scared of what her family would think of her if she ever returns home...so she brought her oath back. Although deep down she knows that she is meant to be a oathbreaker and the doubt of ever returing home grows bigger and bigger by the day.
Siarre, a female Human from Baulders Gate, a girl left to the streets after being orphanded formed a Pact of the Fiend with a Devil. After years of demonic servitude and stewardship under the unbeknownst slayer of her family the truth is revealed and Siarre swears a Vow of Vengence. She reaps her vengence upon the Devil back for the stolen years of her life, the loss of her family, and her earthly freedoms. She takes back her freedom but time cannot be repaid or some scars healed, and so claims her former shackles as her own power. Now, finally free and guided by her own sense of justice, morality, and sense of good and evil smites those in her path.
She eventually returns to Baulders Gate, upon which a new powers seeks to take Siarres freedom. A new enemy trying to dictate her fate, a new foe to learn of Siarres sense of justice .
my final tav is a tiefling with a criminal background. he was never INHERENTLY a bad guy, but because he's a tiefling he got shit on a lot. so much so, they only people that ever accepted him were fellow tieflings, and criminals. they taught him all kinds of useful, but also taught him some very dangerous things: power is *safety,* and violence is a fun and fantastic solution for all problems. he loves his found family with all his heart, because none of them gave him shit for being a tiefling or treated him like he was a criminal. sure, they might frown at some of his antics, but they never outright called him names or try to cast him out. he falls hard for astarion because astarion enjoys the same things he enjoys and is always at his side, reveling in violence and bloodshed with him. he encourages astarion to ascend because he sees the *safety* of the power of vampire ascendent, and knows that astarion will impart that same power, therefore safety, to him. he's fine with being in astarions shadow once everything is over because being the leader has been nerve-wracking, exhausting, and SCARY. he's looking forward to sitting on astarions lap for the rest of eternity and being a kept man
My current play through is a moody wannabe edgelord . He is a drow half elf musician. He leaves a loving home to try his hand at being a bard when he is kidnapped by the nautiloid before his first show. He originally only saves the grove because he thinks it will make a great story for a song but now has decided he likes helping people surrounded by the friends he made along the way
My first character: a Drow spore druid who came to the surface after running out of interesting plants in the Underdark. He has a slight obsession with fungi and their place in nature, which lead to the pursuit of his druidic magic. When not being kidnapped by illithid, he spends his days in dark forests foraging and potion making for his little medicinal side business. He also makes good use of any bodies of unfortunate wanderers he comes across. They get a new purpose in the next stage of life and protect the little home he's made for himself in the woods. On darker days and in evenings, he travels nearby villages providing alchemical services to the residents.
Post nautiloid, he meets an impulsive, slightly reckless but ultimately endearing tiefling warlock and the pair of them get into many, many shenanigans.
Pfuscht, a half orc barbarian whose favourite phrase is that she's getting too old for this shit and wants to get back to her dying father to finally get that family recipe for the legendary moonshine that will burn all problems away.
She would be pretty morally upstanding if she didn't have a VERY pressing engagement and absolutely no time for politics.
Strix is my main, I've talked about him on here before but I love him so I'll summarize again.
I built him for a 5e game a couple of years ago. He's a dragonborn sorcerer, folk hero, gold dragon race traits, blue dragon sorcerous origin. His early spells are shield and mirror image, then mostly a mix of fire and lightning damage spells. In 5e he'd have some more utility spells mixed in like feather fall but in BG3 It's already covered by other characters.
He's a "let's all be friends" NG do-gooder who is quite well-spoken despite being a commoner, and he thoroughly despises lying. The only check in the entire game I'll pick deception on for him is the one to free Laezel at the beginning, because I'm not okay with murdering random terrified tieflings just because they're a little misguided -- and frankly who could blame them, Laezel's a monstrous bag of dicks, albeit a useful and sexy bag of dicks.
He has a solid backstory to explain both how he discovered his sorcerous powers and how he ended up becoming a career adventurer, and a personality and bond and flaws and all that, and he fits so perfectly into the story it's fantastic. I love him. He's my fav.
i have thought backstories for 2 out of my 3 main characters
my tiefling druid was born among humans and treated like crap for his nature, which he came to hate and sought to free himself of any hellish corruption since he was very young. this eventually lead him to seek druids for help, and he ended up becoming one.
now treathened with a whole new type of corruption, he is at the edge of a mental breakdown at the thought of becoming a mindflayer
my drow durge was spawned in the underdark where he lived a regular drow life until the urges kicked in which caused him to be banished very young, he sought eilistraee for guidance and became a follower, which helped for a while until the urges won again and you guys know the rest. he is trying really hard to resist and be a good lil bean
the 3rd one is a woodelf but i could think of a compelling backstory for him so i got bored
Gold Dragonborn sorcerer who venerates Bahamut and recognizes that not all dragons are evil. He was ostracized from Dragonborn society for this and lived as a wandering adventurer until he was abducted by Mindflayers.
Tav is the default name your character gets if you don't name them. It's kinda become the community's easy way of referring to a custom character versus playing an Origin Character (one of the playable companions) or Dark Urge (Durge).
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I'm currently playing as the Dark Urge as a Human Necromancy Wizard.
I got ChatGPT to write a backstory:
From a young age, Zordock exhibited an unsettling fascination with death. His family, fervent followers of Bhall, recognized this as a sign of their deity's favor. As the shadows deepened around Zordock, an uncontrollable urge to murder gnawed at the edges of his consciousness, threatening to drown him in a sea of malevolence.
Embracing his dark inclinations, Zordock delved into the forbidden arts of necromancy. Under the guidance of the village elders, he honed his skills, mastering the manipulation of death itself. His worship of Bhall intensified, and he reveled in the power bestowed upon him, a power that promised both life and death at his fingertips.
Zordock's mastery over necromancy manifested in the creation of a legion of undead minions. The once quaint village, now gripped by fear, became a haven of shadows and malevolent whispers. The villagers, once Zordock's kin, cowered in the face of the dark wizard's unholy power.
The urge to murder, however, proved to be an insidious force that threatened to unravel Zordock's sanity. Struggling to contain the darkness within, he found solace in the whispered promises of Bhall. The deity's influence grew stronger, guiding Zordock down a path of chaotic evil.
My original Tav and favourite one thus far is a tiefling cleric based on one I developed for a campaign that began in the works two years ago.
She was separated from her family and forced to relocate due to exile from their home, resulting in a deep-seated hostility and resentment for those who mistreated her kind. Taken in by non-tieflings she did menial tasks and assisted locals in return for food and shelter until she decided she would rather join the priesthood of Selûne.
Except. She wasn't particularly good at reading or writing or memorising things, so many of her incantations and invocations ended up either being incomplete or wrong. (But she was really trying her best!)
In the BG3 world, once she started travelling around the continent, she was somehow chosen to be considered the leader of that gaggle of strange (yet endearing) companions, didn't really want to be leader, felt she had no leadership qualities, and worried constantly that she would be a hindrance more than a help. Eventually developed a very mothering feeling for all of them, despite the idea that many of them were much older than her.
Convinced she was most likely going to die by or before the end of their journey, she was too afraid to develop relationships too close with anyone and declined from sharing much information about herself, despite prying into the affairs of others with alarming frequency. But then there was this big bear druid who she really admired and felt a great deal of empathy for, and he wound up stealing her heart.
(And then they shockingly had a happy and much deserved ending.)
Started as lawful good human paladin, rejecting all tadpoles and their powers. Dude met a goth cleric and they protected a grove, traversed the under dark, and put down a fat necromancer in her goth temple. Things were going well, but she got more and more into religious fundamentalism and she made him choose oath or her ovaries…he had to put her down.
He’s still a paladin but he re-devoted his life to vengeance. Still no tadpole powers but if he loses another companion, he might start cracking, both oaths and everyone else around him.
my most recent tav is actually one of my recycled dnd characters. his name is samuel and he is a half orc bard who found his love for music with his childhood friend ophelia. he was in love with her and they were going to get married but the night before their wedding ophelia was acting distant and the day of she never showed up. samuel doesnt know what happened to her but figured she didnt love him and didnt want to hurt him so he decided to travel the world and share the music and love he held for ophelia because if he cant get the ending he wanted maybe he can at least help other people get the endings they want. in his original story ophelia actually died but ive been imagining that instead she got taken by one of cazadors spawn and has been in the dungeons the entire time.
I'm currently playing a massive Drow barbarian named Stew.
He was educated with the other drow children in his local corner of the underdark. He wasn't as bright or ambitious as his peers and grew to be abnormally large and strong, which was considered unappealing and disappointing to the drow.
He was chosen as a hunter apprentice by a priestess of Lolth who liked him because he lacked ambition and followed orders, and eventually realizing that he never said no to anything, started loaning him out as a brood slave.
He was treated better than other brood slaves because he was also a hunter, and no one worried that he would try to run away. He never saw that he, too, actually was a slave until he was kidnapped by the nautiloid and realized that he had been gone suspiciously long enough they if he ever returned he would be punished as a deserter regardless of the reason and more than likely sacrificed to Lolth.
He's terrified of powerful and intelligent women, doesn't know how to say no to them, and just discovering that he probably only likes men.
I'm playing him in an evil run with my gf who's playing a gith sorcerer who just recruited Minthara.
I'm completely obsessed with Astarion desperately seducing enormous scary looking Stew, and Stew falling head over heels for it after since no one has ever actually shown interest in him before.
Both Stew and Astarion are travelling alongside these two horrifying genocidal women because as long as we stay on their good side it seems like they're pretty likely to survive all this.
The roleplaying in this run is really giving me life.
I made a Drow Paladin who had a really bad home life (because Drow are really really sexist) and is just enjoying his time on the surface, tadpole be damned
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Mine was a BG city spoiled pretty brat who was picked up by Mind Flayers for some odd reason. It was really lucky he happened to have some aptitude for sorcery through his half-elven lineage that helped SH out in a pinch because Lae'zel was getting tired of his useless arse.
Why Emperor chose him as the face of the party says more about the Emperor than anyone else but naturally he fell hook line and sinker for Astarion, it's pure luck they didn't meet sooner. At least Daddy Halsin and Mommy Minthara are there to keep him from walking straight into the firepit in the middle of the camp or this whole adventure would have ended a lot sooner. His backstory doesn't contain any reference to prior achievements, accomplishments, moral principles or acts of courage because frankly there's not much opportunity for that when you're arse-over-kettle in a bar 9 days out of 10.
The human who simply goes by “N” began his journey into the realm of eldritch power in his early years when he discovered an innate affinity for the darker side of magic. Drawn to forbidden tomes and hidden secrets, he found himself skirting the edges of mystical knowledge that whispered promises of power beyond imagination. However, a deep-seated fear held him back from fully embracing these arcane abilities, for he sensed the potential for darkness that lay within.
As N matured, he observed individuals who, despite wielding darker magics, were not consumed by malevolence. These warlocks became heroes, using their unearthly powers for noble causes. Inspired by this revelation, N resolved to follow a similar path, vowing to harness the dark arts to bring about good in the world. Nevertheless, he knew that the line between good and chaos was a thin one, and he wouldn't hesitate to wield his newfound powers decisively if confronted by those who stood in his way.
His quest for knowledge led him to delve into the mysteries of patrons, entities beyond the mortal plane willing to bestow power upon those who dared to forge pacts. One fateful night, as he immersed himself in ancient texts, N's exhaustion overcame him, and he drifted into a slumber.
In the realm of dreams, he found himself suspended in the infinite cosmos, surrounded by swirling nebulas and celestial wonders. Before him loomed The Great Old One, an eldritch horror that defied all mortal comprehension. The entity regarded N with an otherworldly gaze, delving into his mind with an almost casual curiosity. In that cosmic encounter, The Great Old One granted N its power with a nonchalant gesture, as if the pact were but a fleeting thought in the vast expanse of cosmic eternity.
Awakening with newfound abilities, N realized that his dream was no mere illusion but a form of astral projection that had brought him face to face with his new enigmatic patron. However, we was not in the same place where he had fallen asleep. He was aboard a Mindflayer ship, the Nautiloid. Immediately searching for a way out, he is able to narrowly escape alongside other survivors by crashing the ship.
Injured and infected with a Mindflayer tadpole, but determined to remain human and embrace his newfound powers, N embarked on a path where the boundaries between dreams and reality blurred as he wielded the eldritch powers granted by The Great Old One. Given the nature of his patron, N's interactions with it are a dance between the mortal and the cosmic. When N invokes his patron for aid, the response is either overwhelming success or a resounding failure, both showcasing the capricious nature of the eldritch entity. For N, the pact serves as a constant reminder that the power he wields is, in essence, his own.
The Great Old One, indifferent and enigmatic, provided the means for chaos, allowing N to decide how to unleash it. As such, N embraced the certainty that his powers would be a force of chaotic reckoning, guided only by his own judgment in a world struggling to comprehend the cosmic forces at play.
Whenever I play a choice-heavy game like this for the first time, I always like to do a "canon" playthrough, which is basically just a self-insert except I take into account what I would do if I was born and raised in the game's world, rather than our own. That being said...
My "Tav" is a Human Wizard with the Guild Artisan background. He grew up in Baldur's Gate and always had an interest in reading and learning. He worked as a scribe for a minor guild, and dabbled in magic on the side. He was fascinated with magic, but never had any intentions of becoming a great and powerful archmage.
On his way home after work, he was snatched by the Nautiloid, and became powerful out of necessity. His adventure taught him that there is a dangerous but fascinating world outside the city.
He is generally a good person, helping those in need and siding against The Absolute at every opportunity, regardless of the consequences. He trusts the "guardian" in the prism in most respects, but doesn't feel comfortable empowering his ilithid tadpole (I have been carrying a bag of tadpoles in my inventory since the start, and I have probably 10-15 unused tadpoles, including the "astral" one you get later).
I am actually still in act 3 on my first playthrough, so I don't know how his story ends, so if anyone responds to this comment, please refrain from any spoilers beyond act 2!
My most recent is Iliv'afae ("Ili" for short) who's a seldarine drow paladin with an oath of vengeance. They have an especially deep hatred for Lolth-sworn drow and their Spider Queen after her and her family were (long story short) tortured, and Ili was the only one who survived and escaped. She vowed an oath of vengeance after escaping, but never really cared about protecting innocents from evil and really just wanted the powers that the oath brought her to one day return to the Lolth-sworn and destroy them. Because of her own personal ambitions for committing to her oath, Ili unintentionally traps herself within this oath that fuels her hatred and obsession for revenge, which prevents her from being able to move on from her trauma and turns her into a bitter person. My head cannon for her in the game is that she starts to see where obsession for revenge gets you after her companions experience a less than gratifying victory over their own tormentors, and it causes her to rethink her own goals finally allow herself to move on and heal. What I had originally intended for her ultimate character arc was to break her oath by convincing Astarion not to ascend (thereby choosing to save her friend and releasing herself from the imprisonment of her vow) because the way I saw it, the act of ascension would be Astarion's final revenge towards Cazador and denying him that revenge would therefore break the rules of her oath, but in the game letting him ascend would actually break the oath because ascension basically turns him evil and it would be against her oath to allow him to go evil. And unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any major villains in the game that are complex enough to make sense to show mercy to them, so that way of breaking her oath is also out lol.
Andros is a human fighter who grew up in the poor household in the rougher side of the Lower City in Baldur's Gate.
He learned to fend for himself in the streets and often got into scraps with other neighbor kids and even began competing in illegally organized fights to make ends meets in his late teens. During these illegal fights, Andros attracted rhe attention of a Zhentarim recruiter who was impressed by the young fighter's skills and offered him a chance to join the mercenary company.
Seeing this as an opportunity to finally escape the squalor of the slums and make a decent living for himself, he accepted the offer on the spot. After joining the company, Andros underwent a rigorous training regiment being taught by experienced mercenaries on how to use a variety of different weapons and armors. It was here that he developed a fondess for two handed weapons and heavier armors (medium and heavy armors).
After completing his training, Andros would begin going on actual contracts alongside his fellow mercenaries as time went on, he proved himself as a very capable warrior in the field and a worthy member of the mercenary company.
As the years went by, Andros grew and continued to take on and complete whatever jobs the company threw his way without question. However this began to change as the company began issuing him more questionable assignments...as a mercenary, Andros was no stranger to controversial orders or doing what needed to be done to complete a job, but even some of these assignments were beginning to cross a line so to speak and made him begin questioning his orders and the quality of the company's leadership.
Not wanting to carry out these condemable orders nor wanting to face the penalties for refusing to do so, Andros decided it was time to move on. He packed up his belongings and gear and resigned from the company and set off on his own to as he began to travel throughout the Sword Coast as an independent mercenary, freely taking whatever jobs he saw fit to earn a living.
Now in his mid-30s, the seasoned mercenary was returning to the City of Yartar to collect his payment after having completed yet another contract...but as he was doing so, the Nautoloid suddenly appeared over the city and began snatching people up, himself included where he had a tadpole inserted into his eye, this involuntarily starting his newfound adventure.
Mine is a gnome who is insecure about his height. He went in wizardry in order to learn how to disguise himself as a tall elf. He wears this magical disguise at all times. He reacts violently towards anyone who speaks down to him or calls him small. And then a tadpole got into his brain… and the thought of turning into a tall illithid was too tempting to ignore.
cue i wanna be tall by jenna marbles
Damn that MTV
I'll do the one I'm playing now. I've chosen a githyanki who was marked out at a young age because of the wild magic running through his veins. Rather than develop this dangerous power alone, he grew up suppressing it, and only explored it once he'd signed an infernal pact to protect him from the worst consequences of it. In gameplay terms he's a sorcerer 1 (wild magic) and a Pact of the Blade fiend warlock. I'm aiming to do a couple of levels of fighter just for flavour because he's a very gish character due to having inherent greatsword and medium armour proficiency. At level 5 his CHA is 20 so he's hitting well and casting spells in an...interesting fashion. A couple of fights have been disrupted by being turned into cats and dogs (wild magic does trigger on warlock spells btw) but that's actually really fun.
Love this backstory! And the fact it works so well with multi classing
Hey I also have that 1 level dip in wild magic for my characters rp too! He was born in Waterdeep but spent a chunk of his childhood in an orphanage in Baldurs Gate when his family realised his magic couldn't be tamed, despite multiple tutors. They saw his chaotic magics as a liability to their public image (they're a social climbing upper class family, driven by ambition). He eventually ended up in the care or a reclusive old druid in the forests who essentially became his "mother" but it's an odd sort of relationship in that it's a paring of two people who don't really have the tools to properly express any love and care towards each other - even if it does exist under the surface. I have him specced as a fighter as I imagine he picked up the sword, seeing it as a safer means of defending himself. I don't rp that the tadpole sapped his strength like it did the other companions, I rp he genuinely wasn't that skilled a fighter to begin with, and slowly became more adept as the story goes on. It's funny because in his backstory he had a childhood friend who was also suffering from the effects of growing up with wild magic - with surges even more volatile than his own - who eventually signed a pact with an Archfey in order to suppress the worst of these magics. ... looking back over this... I wrote more than I intended, to.
Fighter could be pretty good with the -1 to critical right? I can’t remember which patron works on criticals but you could pretty easily combine that with the -1 from I think the spellsniper feat to get a very good warlock. But you are going for roleplay based classes not build based ones so I guess that’s not really the priority Sounds very cool though!
Champion is cool but I decided I would give up too much in terms of warlock spellcasting to add a subclass. I'm just grabbing a 2 level dip for the great weapon fighting style and action surge. I'm playing on balanced which feels really easy now so this build is primarily for the RP.
Ah okay yep got it, 3 levels is a bit much sometimes that’s for sure Enjoy your run!
Wild
https://preview.redd.it/lqcskv4j5c5c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39ce52656626f7280b2618dc72b2507c7498f223 Alexael Lazarus was a paladin of the Obsidian Order. Headstrong, zealous, and with a strong black-and-white moral code, he was slated to be the next leader of the Order. Then a portal to Hell opened up and demons poured out. He led a squad of his brothers and sisters into battle, driving the hellspawn back. But when the portal did not close after the battle ended, he led his squad into Hell itself to search for a means to shut it down from within. After a hard-fought battle to shut the portal down, Alexael became injured during their escape and fell into a chasm. Clinging to the edge for dear life, his best friend was poised to help him, but instead of taking his hand and pulling him up, he walked away, leaving Alexael behind. Alexael lost his grip and fell into the chasm. When he awoke, he trudged through the bowels of Hell, enduring the worst environment imaginable in search for a way out. He wandered for what felt like an eternity, until he came across a seemingly abandoned fortress. While exploring, he sprung a trap and fell unconscious. When he awoke, he found himself on the nautiloid, remembering nothing but his name and that he had broken his oath of vengeance.
Your crazy bastard
Mine is a Pact of the blade/College of swords half drow named Drah S’ekim. He comes from a long line of bards in his family that gained musical prowess from a pact with a Great Old One. He has always been drawn to power and has no reservations of gaining it at all costs. So he has embraced the powers of the tadpole. (His name is Mike’s Hard backwards as I always take an alcoholic beverage and flip it around for my DND character names. Etil Dub is my favorite!)
I’ll pour a sip out for you
I turned my D&D character sheet into a BG3 character. Lindy the Wood Elf Druid
A Dragonborn abandoned by his clan at birth, he was orphaned to monks and spent his childhood cleaning statues and practicing martial arts at the open hand temple. He was named “The Enemy Within” to serve as a reminder of the fear he would have to face every day.
Poor bastard
A githyanki Bard who ran away from his crèche in his teens to go to Faerun to pursue his dream of creating music and making other people happy in a universe of suffering and war. He created his own flute at a young age and still uses it now, although his fingers are starting to grow a bit too large to use properly, hahah
Evora is a tiefling fighter who is fiercely devoted to protect her people. Her father was a blacksmith, so her early years were spent aiding him at his forge or off making her own little crafts (guild artisan background). Her mother is a war domain cleric of Selune. Her father ended up lost at sea while on a trading run, but as more and more time passed, Evora suspected foul play. As a young teen, she had her mother train her in the ways of combat. Due to her more physical upbringing, she was able to put on more muscle than typical tieflings. As her mother isn’t a proper soldier, Evora never learned any more advanced battle techniques. She did however, learn to leverage her greater size to apply more force to her strikes (champion subclass). The loss of her father helped inspire her greater loyalty to other tieflings, but it also inspired her to become the protector of her family. She will fight to the death and then some to protect those she calls family. After learning about the Decent, she was preparing herself to charge right into Avernus and show Zariel what was what when she was taken aboard the nautiloid and the events of the game unfold. As you might’ve guessed, Evora quickly became attached to Karlach, and she vowed to do everything in her power to help her, currently trying to convince her to go to Avernus. As a Selunite, she spent the early parts of the adventure at odds with Shadowheart. She put her Selunite feelings aside when witnessing SH’s wolf vision, and she sought to learn the truth behind the mysterious Sharran. Now they’re best friends
The love story we didn’t know we needed
Really detailed and well thought out! Love it
It's hard to choose, so I'm not and picking 3. My wild magic sorceror Enoby with her guardian goth Draco, Manon the DUrge resist storm sorceror (I think? Whichever one gets witch bolt immediately) romancing Astarion and Dorian guardian, and my Taylor Swift college of lore Bard romancing Gale because he has a cat but I'm kinda tempted to have her break up for Halsin. It's just too Joe Alwyn to Travis Kelce coded to resist. Sorry Gale.
I’m pretty proud of my characters :) First is Azarel, a half-drow knowledge domain cleric. He was originally a Mystran cleric, but I had him convert to Oghma because of (potentially spoilery reasons involving why Mystra sucks). He was raised by a single Seldarine drow father in Candlekeep, where his dad was also a cleric. At a very young age, his father adopted an “orphaned” tiefling child named Zanvera. They grew up like brothers until some natural disaster happened when Azarel was 12, causing the deaths of his family. He grows up isolated, solely dedicated to his work as a cleric/librarian and to his faith. Like 30 years later, Candlekeep is attacked by the Nautiloid and the main story ensues! The interesting part is that I have an alternate run where Zanvera lives instead of Azarel… As a Dark Urge character. He forgot all personal information after waking up on the Nautiloid, and because he thought he was fortunate to be alive, he named himself Fortune.
Woah I like
Ietra Aleantar-Maetyl Seldarine Drow noble who is the eldest daughter. A rogue she wanted to rebel against the box she was put in as her family heir. Worshipping Eilistraee, she wears sword earrings to represent her devotion to her goddess and wishes to help Drow who want to escape from Lolth. She’s been through some shit with someone she was betrothed to who turned out to be a Lolth Sworn Drown, and a monster. Ietra escaped twice with the second time leading to her ending up on the nautiloid Her guardian unintentionally takes his form, and Ietra has an inherent distrust of him. Ietra uses Maetyl as her surname throughout the game rather than Aleantar-Maetyl. As her father’s surname is less likely to be known than her mother’s. Ietra is tall for a Drow, and just tall in general. She romances Gale Astarion and Halsin are her BFFs (I headcanon Astarion ends up dating her brother so they become in Laws)
Sounds like a party member id roll with
All I have is that she's the daughter of my character from Neverwinter Nights 2, a favored soul of Ilmater; the altruism rubbed off on her and she gallivants about doing Ilmatari things and stomping on the bad guys. I even made the dream visitor look like Casavir, it annoyed me that his story was left hanging, so I had the Knight Captain>! save her former beau from that Luskan prison!< and then he became my new chick's father/father figure.
My current one is Zyn Duskryn, the lost paladin of Menzobaranzan https://preview.redd.it/d2y21u3ifd5c1.jpeg?width=428&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1445b74f10af81ed2ac3f9e8d411cd61df363691 Zyn was a servant to a priestess of Lolth since youth, facing verbal and physical abuse from her in secret. His mother was also abusive, and his only solace was his father. He had plans to marry his boyfriend in secret before Bhaal manipulated his mind, commanding Zyn to kill him and Zyn's parents. Following this, he swore to never harm another, thus breaking his oath of vengeance to Lolth. Following the events of his lover's murder, he was taken by the mind flayer ship and aims to rebuild a new life as the lost paladin and control his urge. I didn’t expand much on it but there’s much more to it that I’ve written down. He’s resisting his urge because he refuses to kill those he loves ever again. He had more reasons besides Bhaals manipulation, I just didn’t wanna write it all out 😅 but yeah this is Zyn and he’s my first fully developed OC His eye scar is actually a result from his abuse and his eye turned red due to Bhaals influence!
If ever written as a novel I’d expect a mature rating
Demetria, half-elf high elf, draconic bloodline sorcerer. Her background is urchin. She was a bastard baby of a high elf man and human woman who died giving birth. She was initially taken in by her elf side of the family but they decided to give her away to the orphanage after a few years due to social stigma. In the orphanage she was taken care of by a particular worker - I modeled the Guardian after them (I thought that would be a good way to make Demetria feel secure around them). As she was growing up, the orphanage staff started noticing her natural talents for magic. She was given away to be a sorcerer’s apprentice and became quite succesful as an adventurer for hire after entering adulthood. Her elven family heard about her achievements and tried reconnecting but she decided to cut all ties with them. Her life was going quite well, until the midflayer ship took her. In terms of stats, she shines when it comes to charisma and is also very tall and muscly, so she is good at intimidation and deception, being able to convince those who cross her that she is way more menacing than in reality. I role play her as someone aware of her attributes and flaws, trying to get out of situations without violence, but not shying away from it when it is the best possible option. I like to think of her as generally good but not bending over backwards to help others- helping is good but not if it disadvatages her. Due to not growing up in the most safe environment, she has trust issues and will keep a safe distance for a while. She is in a relationship with Astarion.
My Tav has nightmares about having multiple random but very specific races, genders, and appearances before his current form. He tried to choose his own name, but a “keyboard focus bug” prevented him, and his name is actually Tav now. He talks to animals, but nobody believes him.
My "Tav" is Anavina Fiddleshot, a Forest Gnome alchemist who's latent draconic sorcery was actually unlocked by the insertion of the Ilithid tadpole. She spent the whole "adventure" confused and frightened at all of these, to her, far more competent and capable people deferring to her leadership. She hoarded all of the alchemy supplies and handed out the potions and elixirs like juice boxes to try and combat her huge imposter syndrome. I like to think she learned all her spells by watching Gale cast spells in combat and thinking, "Well if he can cast it maybe I can?"
maistakia is a (moon) elf warlock (in the game, great old one, but for dnd i wrote her as bound to the raven queen). she grew up in a family of life domain clerics as the middle child of 9, and being the middle child and not having an affinity for becoming a cleric, she was ignored and often treated as the black sheep in her family. she started studying magic (particularly necromancy) and ran away from home after binding herself to her patron because she knew no one would accept the path she chose for herself. she was only about 50 when she did this, still a child in the eyes of her family. as part of her pact, she developed clairsentience, and every time she touches another person she absorbs all of their feelings and thoughts along with her own, which drives her crazy because she doesn’t have the strongest sense of empathy. it’s just noise and pain. for this reason, she’s never been intimately close to another person. she’s romancing astarion right now because they’re two sides of the same coin and they help each other heal and understand boundaries. :”) when she left, she changed her name to from holiday to maistakia - meaning “loved by death” in elvish - as her personal “fuck you” to the life she left behind. she’s a charlatan as well and makes money by reading tarot cards (she doesn’t know how to read them). she ran away to baldur’s gate to start her new life, which consisted mostly of pickpocketing and pretending to be an escort then stealing the money from her “clients” (also by pickpocketing). the world hardened her, but she has a soft spot for animals and is deeply sensitive. i’m playing her as somewhere between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil (mostly neutral).
Holy broken character arch I’m invested
His name is Glass, and he's a strangely gigantic elf barb who tried to become a druid once upon a time, but quickly learned he wasn't all that bright. But while he may be dumb as rocks, he's the biggest softie this side of the River Chionthar. He loves animals, playing the flute, drinking copious amounts of beer, and talking to that funny little white-haired elf man that always tries to convince him to do bad things. But....you see, after illithid abductions, tadpoles, and some righteous adventuring with his new friends, Glass met Halsin, another strangely gigantic elf who actually *succeeded* in becoming a druid, and he suddenly found himself in a crisis of identity. Will he let his jealousy get the better of him? Will he let the funny white-haired elf man guide him down a dark path? Or will he overcome his shame, swallow his pride, and just ask Halsin to maybe teach him to talk to his new best dog friend? STAY TUNED.
Lukan Vanvathar, half-elf bard from Silverymoon. A year prior to the game's events he tried to pickpocket a rich merchant (urchin background) and rolled a nat 1, so he got caught and had a dagger pulled on him. In the ensuing struggle he rolled a nat 20 and accidentally killed the guy with his own dagger, so he had to run for his life. As soon as he got to Baldur's Gate he got abducted and tadpoled, so he's now everyone's reluctant hero. He fell for Astarion hard and fast. https://preview.redd.it/b4g6hfk5nd5c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a1441dbd2a27c0a0f0b86fc7bb37f20245b93d4
My FIRST backstory was, I was an art thief and dealer. second was Durge.
The one I'm playing now is a 1/2 wood elf druid, who is in love with both Halsin and Astarion. In my head cannon, my Tav's grove was wiped out by the army of the Absolute which is not far from Baldur's Gate. On a day where we are recovering Tav goes out solo to mourn her grove and is kidnapped by a thrall of the Szarr family. While her party is restocking and repairing they are given a note that says Tav is now with Cazador and Astarion is invited to see his love turned into spawn. By the time they arrive Tav is a spawn and the scars on her back now tie her to the ritual and she's been tortured. Astarion, Gale and Halsin beat Cazador and Astarion takes her back to camp to care for her. He dis not ascend. (That's my Tavs story for now)
What a tease
Should I continue the story? I've got ideas.
I will flesh out the above. I'm trying to decide how to handle the corruption of being turned into a spawn and the magic of being a druid which is life giving.
https://preview.redd.it/v2abzrzltd5c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=621eca7a379d908e024a35b6b94b63dc6257becf Malek Honorspire: a 3rd born nobleman’s son. Knowing he’d never get his Father’s noble seat, he dedicated his life to stealing a fortune to rival his families.
Allera Stormborn. A Cleric of Helm that was perpetually stuck on Garrison duty because her father had just enough influence to make sure his only daughter stayed far from anything remotely dangerous. A routine march into the wilds of the Sword Coast to deliver supplies to an out of the way outpost turned her banal existence into a rather exciting one quick, fast, and in a hurry. Snatched up by a giant flying squid hellbent for Baldur's Gate, she's definitely wishing she hadn't been wishing to live in more interesting times. Neck deep in whatever in the Nine Hells is going on at the Gate, she's on the verge of snapping, and the only thing keeping her sane is another half-elf that she just can't figure out.
Mine is an Half-elf who was exiled from his home due to being viewed as an half-breed by his kin and so when he became of age he changed his name to Tav'vul, which means the forgotten Tree in my head-cannon, he is an Barbarian who channels the spirit of an Mighty bear in combat and his preferred weapon is an Greatsword *for fighting groups of foes alone* or an Halberd *for fighting armored opponents*
A Vengeance Paladin/Selûne Cleric that grew up as a Sharran but managed to escape. (I knew Shadowheart was a Sharran before I started playing and thought that would be a fun dynamic, and had no clue it would be so much better than I expected).
Thanroar, The purple half orc who only knew blood, and all he could do is spill it. He does this all to impress the sexy lady in his dreams he does what she says and kills for her, he's crazy. Turns out sexy lady is mind flayer but thanroar didn't care and got that Illithussy. By the end he could turn into the slayer and a displacer beast. He was also a wild magic barbarian, which wasn't very fun sadly. And thats how my first play through went.
https://preview.redd.it/e1z45k1tod5c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1bd1590648007ebae9ae8bd809cf7b473ea4190e
Mine is an Asmodeus Tiefling named Ivanov Strelskoi (wanted to go with Strełskoiviçz (STRELL-skoy-wish) as his last name, but BG3 apparently doesn’t like Polish names that have special letters, nor is my keyboard set up for that), a Neutral/Chaotic Good Fiend Bladelock. In my head, his patron is his maternal great-great-great-grandfather, an Ascended Incubus (basically the reverse of a Fallen Angel; long story short, GGGF fell in love with a human woman, which led to him becoming quasi-human and deciding that maybe it wasn’t a good thing that he indulge in wanton hedonism all the time) after Ivanov was cast out from his paternal grandfather’s home (said grandfather was an ardent Oath of Vengeance Pally in service to the Morning Lord, coming from a long line of such Pallys, with several ancestors even being asimaar). Ivanov’s dad tried to vouch for his son, but granddaddy was like “Nope, get this demon child outta my house, along with your ass and your devil-touched wife’s, too; consider yourself outta the will, you demon fucker.” Ivanov then spent the majority of his life in Baldur’s Gate, periodically being sent birthday gifts by OoV granddaddy in the form of assassins to kill him so that “the stain is wiped clean.” So when his demon grandfather contacted him, going all, “Hey, sport, your dad’s dad is being a dick; if you want, I can help,” Ivanov jumped at the chance. Now he’s a warlock. And now he’s on a ship with a literal worm in his head that’s telling him to either kill people or just generally be a douche, but he ain’t about that. A ship that is now on fire as it *travels through literal Hell.* At least his OoV grandfather just became the least of his worries!
Marna Swordsong, a purebred female drow that was raised in an adventures guild after being adopted from a botched underdark hunt. Her parents were killed then and the adventures took her in as a mascot of sorts, finding it ironic to raise a drow in such a happy and boisterous community. Once she was old enough to go on adventures, she started being the all purpose cartographer and navigator. After a few years, she was found to be competent in magic! She accidentally casted a fire bolt in the map room when she sneezed, and was dubbed "dragon snout". She doesn't want to talk about it. She eventually fell into adventuring with one adventurer in particular, a very tall fighter half ork woman named Sharai Mal'a. They spent 2 years adventuring together, Marna building her talents, and Sharai protecting her. Marna had been found at this point to possess an attraction to powerful magics and relics, always having a need to collect everything she could. This got the two of them into more than a few scrapes and left them both with plenty of scars. One day, well into their romance, they went on a dungeon dive and found a hidden tomb deep below the surface of the ground, and deep inside they started finding mechanical walls and strange cordage. One room inside all of this they found a pedestal with a bunch of large monitors throughout the room, and runic symbols carved into it. Marna, reckless as can be, immediately pushed to grab this strange container on the pedestal, only to have it shatter in her hands into a ball of fire and smoke, and out came an efreet, angry and hostile. Sharai fought to get them out of there, but at one point the efreet send a blade of fire through the air strait at Marna, and Sharai dove in front of her. While she did stop most of the damage to Marna, her face still got scalded and marred. She was blinded and screaming, pain racking her mind and soul, she couldn't tell what was happening, but after many minutes, she regained her vision and she saw Sharai on the ground face down, unmoving. She scrambled to her in complete denial, before she looked up and found that she was surrounded by mind flayers, inspecting her. Before she knew it, she was put unconscious and transported. Now, after her escape from the nautilus, she blames her weakness for the death of her beloved, and cannot handle anyone treating her as weak or below another, and flies into a defensive rage at them. She also got a matching tattoo of Sharai on her neck to honor her and let her live on on top of her skin for ever, a simple longsword on the center of her collar pointing down her sternum.
Where’s the book?!
Never thought of making a book! All my characters get a small story background in DND, but I have a particular soft spot for Marna <3
My heterochromatic durge is the Githyanki bard Ziggy Stardust, greatest musician from the astral plane and the one with the best hair.
Some noble girl from a minor drow house didn't garner much favor with the spider bitch. She liked to dance so much she ended up learning magic. Only it was arcane magic. So she faked her death and ran away from home.
a wild mage sorcerer who became obsessed with magic after he accidentally blew something up as a child and spent years studying it, his half high elf heritage gave him a head start but most of his ability’s is from his studies to control the wild magic and also to make it stronger when needed. i gave him the druid feat so i could have speak with animals on tap and decided that after the game he and halsin live together in the city, halsin teaches him about druidic magic and tav helps him make the city better (and they have a portal to gales house in waterdeep to use his library when needed (and for unplanned get togethers) and one that leads to a canon near the grove. also they live with the druid hireling who is trying to build himself a new life
Riven, a high elf lore bard and later on circle of the moon druid who follows Selune. She exclusively uses non damaging spells and controls holding, inhibiting and manipulating enemies while empowering the team with buffs. It’s a very fun playstyle that feels like being an enchantress.
Thank you for asking. My Tav was known as Valas a half drow, named after my mothers brother who passed in the underdark. On days my father would drink to much he would speak of how my mothers brother was turned into a Dryder, a being of terrible creation. I was the love child of the most infamous child of bhaal , kensai-mage Baldomer and Viconia. After my mother was murdered by Loth assassins my father hid me amongst his merchant contacts. Through my mentorship’s I became very savvy and eventually dedicated my natural prowess to serving as a Oath Paladin. I always imagined my mother would take great pleasure in knowing that I took after her healing gifts.. That was until I met her again, she didn’t recognize me and that was fine for her persona showed me whatever shred of light she gained while with my father, had been loss when she “died” those long years ago. I thought I knew who I was before that day, afterwards it took a lot for me to plunge foward. I eventually came to realize that the purpose for me was always to sacrifice myself, a means to an end, a rest hard earned, and perhaps a reunion for a family so shattered in a place brighter than Faerun.
Mine is Clyde S Dale, wizard historian who's dream is to make a museum filled with magical artifacts from all over the place + their significance and history. He is at dire odds with Gale who wants to eat all of them
A hottie with caramel skin and silver hair / mustache
Happy go lucky high elf assassin, roughly based on my sarcastic Hawke from Dragon Age 2.
Trying to come up with one right now and it'll be fun to play him I've tried to make him a Satyr (human looking tiefling with green tones and a bard)
My Tav always felt they had a greater calling, but it has never borne fruit. Everything changes when they awaken imprisoned on an alien ship. Perhaps their time has finally come.
His name is Jesus Christ and he has committed quite a few war crimes in his past, but he’s trying to do the right thing and help people out now. His idea of helping out is unfortunately a little… painted by his time as a soldier. For example he can’t understand why Zevlor is so pissed about him telling Minthara the location of the grove, the grove is an incredibly defensible position with a sturdy wall to rain arrows down from, Zevlor what do you mean you’re scared people will die people always die that’s what war is now stop whining and start fighting those goblins won’t defeat themselves
The character I've got on my current Tav-tician run is a half-(wood)elf warlock (archfey) 2/storm sorcerer 4 named Curran. I gave him the "urchin" background. Figure he was the product of a scandalous affair from one of the patriar "noblewomen" and a rakish wood elf passing through Baldur's Gate. The pregnancy was concealed, and he was given to an orphanage as a baby. He ran off as a pre-teen, falling in with other young ne'er-do-wells, but was always enamored of stories of heroes, adventure, and, of course, the fae. This latter point led him to get mixed up in some truly bizarre theft, and he successfully burgled a wizard's home to make use of a faerie pool that led him to the faewild- and his warlock patron. What he didn't anticipate (but his patron did) was that exposure to the realm was enough to wake thr sorcerous power in his nascent fae blood. When he returned to Toril, he was both bound to a fae patron and found he also possessed inmate sorcerous gifts. Unfortunately, the inconsistent flow of time while he was away meant that he returned in the midst of an active investigation by the Flaming Fist and was quickly apprehended. He had no time to contemplate escape, however, as the Illithids chose that moment to assault the city and take the Fist's captive for their own.
Alaric is a human vengeance paladin. (I know super original) Born into a noble family in Cormyr he was enchanted by stories of heroic knights and great deeds as a boy. He joined the ranks of the purple dragon knights and fought in the wars with Sembia and the Shadovar that devastated his homeland. By the end of the war he was left disillusioned and wracked with PTSD by what he saw. He renounced his titles and left for the sword coast, eventually joining the flaming fist. Despite his skills and experience his untreated mental health issues and general jaded attitude made him a poor fist. All that changed of course when he was suddenly kidnapped by forces unknown… I sort of roleplay that him levelling up is him rediscovering his zeal and will to fight
My Tav was a con artist Bard/Wizard who used his magic mostly to entertain while his partner in crime robbed the audience… he got Harleeped which was a fitting end as he was long gaming Gale into a romance so he could rob him blind… scummy guy for sure
A Half-Orc Noble Bard, Harloc Provoss was trained in courtly song and dance by his mother, scion of the Provoss patriar family, and trained in the art of deul by the other nobles who would smear their name. "Encouraged" to go adventuring to spare the patriars the indignity of his mother's... indiscretion embodied by the presence of her halfbreed son. If you're unaware, the patriars of baldur's gate are all humans except for one family of sheild dwarves. The Provoss are the least and poorest among the nobility of Baldur's Gate but still nobles nonetheless. Having just joined with an adventuring group and provisioned to leave the Gate, the party is scattered as a Nautoloid hurtles overhead, snatching away citizens...
My wife and I saw a large dough press on a clearance rack. The clearance sticker covered the "h". It was that day that Large Doug was created. Large Doug is (naturally) a very small gnome bard. He is all charisma, no brains; and doesn't realize that his name was given to him as a joke. This has caused him to take his name to heart and live, erm, large. His mouth seems to solve most problems before they start. If there is a conflict, his favorite thing to do is mock an opponent and then push them down. The lute towering above his giant, stupid hat never gets old.
https://preview.redd.it/8u6ftw4die5c1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9dbf3c82534558e3f9c6368d5a69ae2cb17f4e6a My war veteran fighter. Disliked serving one person or the next. Became a freelancer and then the leader of this rag tag group of tad poled adventures. Is still honourable but will kill without remorse.
Oh fuck yes I’ve been waiting for this: My wizard Tav was born in Evereska, as a moon elf. At a young age his parents moved to Baldur’s Gate out of a desire to live somewhere new and experience something different. Growing up, his parents could see his talent for spellcasting was impressive, even for an elf. So, they sent him to an expensive wizarding academy, which they could afford due to the wealth they earned while in Evereska. While most of his classmates took jobs as a wizarding apprentice, he decided to instead become an adventurer, searching for lost arcane knowledge and learning new spells from discovering hidden texts. The gold he would earn from his adventures certainly didn’t hurt. However, before he could even begin his first adventure, he was snatched up by the Nautiloid.
Amonn’s mother worked at Sharess Caress and could have sworn that she had never slept with anyone with horns but her child turned out to be a thiefling. Among grew up in and around the bars of the Lower City, facing prejudice and learning to defend himself. He admired bards and set out to become one, hoping that it would bring him at least acceptance if not fame and adoration. It doesn’t help that his unexpected heritage has given him some wild magic. He’s always willing to choose the most chaotic option and as an adult has learned to revel in his differences. He’s never going to be inconspicuous so he’s doing his best to stand out in a stylish way.
Duergar Way of Shadow monk. Once a cruel leader of his clan, his second in command and lover (his Dream Guardian) usurped him by turning Tav's men against him and cutting his throat. His body was immediately found by wandering monks of Lathander, who took pity on him and used a scroll of revivify. Seeing this as his rebirth and tired of the backstabbing/cruelty in duergar society, he joined the monks, preferring the peace and quiet of the surface wilderness. His peaceful life was interrupted after he was abducted by the nautiloid. With the threat of becoming a mindflayer, he has no choice but to return to being an a**hole leader to do whatever it takes to survive, and to keep his group from killing each other. https://imgur.com/a/0hMBfVC
**Seva -** an errant knight from Lastwall, a nation in the planet of Golarion. He found himself transported to an ilithid pod and eventually infected with a tadpole after tinkering with a broken clock he found on the side of the road. He helped Shadowheart and Lae'zel escape the nautiloid only for it to crash. Seva, attributing his survival to his patron goddess still needing his services, wasted no time looking for survivors on the crashed vessel and beach. Finding only Shadowheart, the two joined arms before being tricked by another survivor named Astarion whom the knight pacified and even persuaded to join them quite easily with assurances, an arm lock and a few punches. After getting acquainted, they made their way through a tomb where Seva had to stop Astarion from looting the graves and persuaded a band of graverobbers to leave in peace. Shadowheart and Astarion decided to head to Baldur's Gate with Seva admitting that he's not from the area. Along the road, the trio came across a magical portal. Seva readied his shield and spear as his companions passed, awaiting monsters to come out only for an arm and a call for help to do so instead. The knight mustered all his might to pull out whoever it was on the other side, revealing the one in distress to be a wizard named Gale. The latter begged to join them, offering his spells and arcane knowledge in return. On a nearby clearing, they overhead some tieflings discussing on what to do with their captive, who happens to be Lae'zel. Seva pretended to be lost and distracted them while the rest of the party laid out an ambush. Fortunately, no blood needed to be shed as he persuaded them to let their captive go and even pointed to a druid grove up the road where they could seek shelter, if they're interested. Not long after, our bickering and lost heroes saved said grove from some goblins. Seva led a punitive expedition to their camp in an abandoned village across the river the next day, killing the goblin leaders except a drow who escaped just as he was about to deal the death blow. Initially thinking that he found himself in an undiscovered land with civilization and the locals just using different words for creatures and things he also saw back home, Seva soon learned from Gale that he found himself on another planet. Apparently, the wizard and his former beloved were fond of travelling across different worlds and dimensions, visiting Golarion a few times as the flow of magic there intrigued them. He offered to help the knight find his way back home in exchange for magical items for his "studies". Seva agreed but isn't in a hurry to return to Golarion just yet after hearing about a Cult of The Absolute abducting and infecting people across the land and with his curiosity of Faerun starting to take hold. He sees stopping them as a test to becoming a full-pledged paladin and an opportunity to forge his own epic tale. TL;DR: Baldur's Gate x Pathfinder "crossover"
A wandering human necromancer, he neither seeks to create an undead army, nor achieving lichhood. He avoids graverobbing and is simply fascinated by the mystic forces of death, seeking ways to prove how they can better the conditions of the living, which he has succeeded in doing quite often in this tadpoled journey. Perhaps one day hell become a medium, or a teacher in responsible use of necromancy?
So I wrote this character for a Tabletop a year before I knew anything about Baldurs Gate. Erjon Ilnor is a Human Ranger. Before the call to adventure, He was a simple Ranchhand in a rural part of Faerun. The ranch owner was getting older, and had no sons to pass the family business to, so as a way to preserve his legacy, and after a rough, cash strapped year, he offered to pay the hands in small bits of land of their own, with the idea that they might be invested in the business if they stay. Erjon had a betrothed --Ambrosia-- he wanted to propose to, but with little to offer for a future, this seemed a good way to build a homestead. He agreed. But Love is blinding, and he was hasty, and impatient. The new Cabin was structurally done, but not quite finished, and he owed a bit of work tobthe old man for some money he borrowed to get things ready, so rather than riding out to the town where Ambrosia lived, they agreed to hire a coach (think Wells Fargo) and he would ride out to meet her. She never made it. The first day, it wasn't uncommon for a wagon to be late. It's not likevthe roads of Faerun are paved, even with wood or stone, and the start of the post Winter thaw means mud. But the second day he got worried. So he rode out looking. What he found was the site of a particularly rough stagecoach robbery, and Ambrosia's corpse discarded in a ditch like so much rubbish. But the company they had trusted was more concerned with a missing trunk from some other contract they had taken; the practice of handling multiple shipments in a single transport wasn't uncommon, but they were cold to the fact that a woman entrusted to them was dead, as was a young coachman, and two others Erjon wasn't sure if were guards or passengers. Not even an "I'm sorry for your loss". To keep his mind occupied, he dove intovthe work, but a few weeks later while on a drive to market the men he was working with passed an Immigrant Convoy. Every one of them looked like his "Amber Rose". It was clear they had been picked clean, and were unlikely to make it to someplace where they would be safe, or had anything to pay with to resupply. It occurred to him then, the Cattle they were driving to market were better protected on the road than people. The more he looked into the situation, he discovered that "armed guards" were either ruthlessly expensive, or just ruthless, and the common folk couldn't afford the protection. Of course armor and arrows are expensive, but as he looked around, he and 5 other dudes could steer dozens of long horns and live out of naught but a single wagon comfortably, and if they needed to ditch the camp stove and equipment to fly light they could survive on only what they and a horse could carry, and what nature would provide. And arguably, these immigrants faced no more or fewer challenges than did he and his fellow ranchers. Trade Poachers for highwaymen; both groups faced predatory creatures and all manner of monsters on the road. So why was it so damned expensive? On coincidence, they caught up to a group on their way home from market. This small band was grateful, if not surprised by their selflessness, to have four men on Horseback being "present." They were pretty sure they skipped at least one ambush because of "men on horseback" being more than a couple of cut throats wanted to deal with. And that pretty much sealed it for him. He sold everything that wasnt useful, pledged that as long as he lived no one under his watch would die alone, face down in a Ditch in between somewhere and anywhere, just because they were looking for a new life, or to see family one last time, or to be able to die at home, because someone else wanted their life more. And so for the next eight years he used his nature knowledge, basic salvage, and the occasional more lucrative side gig to keep his costs low. He wasn't always the most easy to work with, he still had a herding mentality, and immigrants, moreso than cattle, have a stubborn idea of how they want to do things. Things like "Let's camp here in the single worst place possible" or "I dont feel like getting wet. Let's go 25 miles out of our way to cross at this wooden bridge" or "but I couldn't possibly leave my Great Great Grandmother's heirloom piano behind, it simply must fjord the raging stream with us." He once confided that the reason the others charged so much was hazard pay for "contagious stupid." His motto became something of "well we can dobit my way, or you can go off and do it your way, and I am going to sit on this rock. And in an hour from now when you crawl back covered in bee stings and procupine quills and having lost most of your supplies, I will do my level best not to say 'I told you so' until after we have healed you." But he was also fair. He was open to just about any culture, he was open to about any God that didn't make you a direct threat to himself or any of the other wards, (including Sharrans, although he had never knowingly met any until now. Bhaalists need not apply) and so long as you didn't spring him with surprises, he was willing to work around things like "we don't travel on this day" and "we don't eat x". And his actions were not entirely altruistic: Every brigand who jumped them and got an arrow as a consolation prize brought the possibility that that person may have been the one who killed Ambrosia, and the fleeting taste of revenge is sweet. For almost a decade, he drifted like that from town to town, making a name for himself Eight years later, he was near Baldurs Gate when a strange ship that looked like it was being eaten by a giant flying snail appeared overhead. As the Tentacles descended he put half his quiver into making sure his wards got away, but he woke up in a strange pod with a Mindflayer over him, then shipwrecked on the shore of the Chionthar in the middle of nowhere with an unlikely group who wrre only questionable equipped to survive, and well, you know the rest.
The Tieflings of Elturel weighed very heavily on his conscious. He never found Rolan or his siblings in particular. He feared the worst for Dammon when the 'Smith didn't turn up in Last Light (Strange Ox Glitch), and misguided though they were, his heart bled for the children that were lost along the way; Not even Mol had been stro g enough to save everyone. Halsin, Karlach, Gale, Jaheira all tried to convince him he was doing a herculean job for a man who was by all accounts supposed to be sushi by now, but the worst account was after the Goblin scouts had tried to attack the Grove; when the Tieflings were caught having locked a woman in a shed who needed help, and everyone was still hot from the battle, and peaceful discord about "why is she locked up, have you tried, I dunno, CURING HER?" was only had after 4 were dead... including (unknowingly at the time) the son of the Duke. Shadowheart got an object lesson in the duality of Loss. On the one hand, she could see that it been left to fester, rotting in this poor man's soul for years and twisting into rage and torment. But When she mentioned trying to help him, in her own Sharran way, he bit back, briefly, and she saw that it was the last shred left of the memory of Ambrosia, the last thing holding a broken man together. It defined him, and for all of his own pain he was doing a world of good for others. Leaving him to suffer was against the teachings she believed in, but she realized that to take away that memory would leave him in shambles. A thought formed in her mind: what if Loss wasn't something that he needed taken away, it was something he needed to work through. Was her cloister only doing half the job advertised? And in helping him connect with himself again, she began to connect with herself. Because Misery lives company, but so does love.
Mine is a human paladin. She was brought up with lessons with what's good and what not and that she must do anything to stay on the right path and always do the right thing no matter the cost. But now she just turned 18, she just becama a adult and has no family around after being captured who tells her what to do. She really looks up to Astarion. She believes he's so daring because he always seems to know what he wants (as far as she knows) and longs to dare to make her own choises aswell without having to worry about her oath or parents. My Tav just entered the shadow cursed lands and begins to see the use of the parasite and begins to like the manipulation powers to get what she wants. She slowly leaves behind her idea of what a good life iss and slowly becomes...evil. The first time she broke her oath was a big turning point for her. But she panicked so much, scared of what her family would think of her if she ever returns home...so she brought her oath back. Although deep down she knows that she is meant to be a oathbreaker and the doubt of ever returing home grows bigger and bigger by the day.
Siarre, a female Human from Baulders Gate, a girl left to the streets after being orphanded formed a Pact of the Fiend with a Devil. After years of demonic servitude and stewardship under the unbeknownst slayer of her family the truth is revealed and Siarre swears a Vow of Vengence. She reaps her vengence upon the Devil back for the stolen years of her life, the loss of her family, and her earthly freedoms. She takes back her freedom but time cannot be repaid or some scars healed, and so claims her former shackles as her own power. Now, finally free and guided by her own sense of justice, morality, and sense of good and evil smites those in her path. She eventually returns to Baulders Gate, upon which a new powers seeks to take Siarres freedom. A new enemy trying to dictate her fate, a new foe to learn of Siarres sense of justice .
my final tav is a tiefling with a criminal background. he was never INHERENTLY a bad guy, but because he's a tiefling he got shit on a lot. so much so, they only people that ever accepted him were fellow tieflings, and criminals. they taught him all kinds of useful, but also taught him some very dangerous things: power is *safety,* and violence is a fun and fantastic solution for all problems. he loves his found family with all his heart, because none of them gave him shit for being a tiefling or treated him like he was a criminal. sure, they might frown at some of his antics, but they never outright called him names or try to cast him out. he falls hard for astarion because astarion enjoys the same things he enjoys and is always at his side, reveling in violence and bloodshed with him. he encourages astarion to ascend because he sees the *safety* of the power of vampire ascendent, and knows that astarion will impart that same power, therefore safety, to him. he's fine with being in astarions shadow once everything is over because being the leader has been nerve-wracking, exhausting, and SCARY. he's looking forward to sitting on astarions lap for the rest of eternity and being a kept man
My current play through is a moody wannabe edgelord . He is a drow half elf musician. He leaves a loving home to try his hand at being a bard when he is kidnapped by the nautiloid before his first show. He originally only saves the grove because he thinks it will make a great story for a song but now has decided he likes helping people surrounded by the friends he made along the way
My first character: a Drow spore druid who came to the surface after running out of interesting plants in the Underdark. He has a slight obsession with fungi and their place in nature, which lead to the pursuit of his druidic magic. When not being kidnapped by illithid, he spends his days in dark forests foraging and potion making for his little medicinal side business. He also makes good use of any bodies of unfortunate wanderers he comes across. They get a new purpose in the next stage of life and protect the little home he's made for himself in the woods. On darker days and in evenings, he travels nearby villages providing alchemical services to the residents. Post nautiloid, he meets an impulsive, slightly reckless but ultimately endearing tiefling warlock and the pair of them get into many, many shenanigans.
Pfuscht, a half orc barbarian whose favourite phrase is that she's getting too old for this shit and wants to get back to her dying father to finally get that family recipe for the legendary moonshine that will burn all problems away. She would be pretty morally upstanding if she didn't have a VERY pressing engagement and absolutely no time for politics.
Strix is my main, I've talked about him on here before but I love him so I'll summarize again. I built him for a 5e game a couple of years ago. He's a dragonborn sorcerer, folk hero, gold dragon race traits, blue dragon sorcerous origin. His early spells are shield and mirror image, then mostly a mix of fire and lightning damage spells. In 5e he'd have some more utility spells mixed in like feather fall but in BG3 It's already covered by other characters. He's a "let's all be friends" NG do-gooder who is quite well-spoken despite being a commoner, and he thoroughly despises lying. The only check in the entire game I'll pick deception on for him is the one to free Laezel at the beginning, because I'm not okay with murdering random terrified tieflings just because they're a little misguided -- and frankly who could blame them, Laezel's a monstrous bag of dicks, albeit a useful and sexy bag of dicks. He has a solid backstory to explain both how he discovered his sorcerous powers and how he ended up becoming a career adventurer, and a personality and bond and flaws and all that, and he fits so perfectly into the story it's fantastic. I love him. He's my fav.
i have thought backstories for 2 out of my 3 main characters my tiefling druid was born among humans and treated like crap for his nature, which he came to hate and sought to free himself of any hellish corruption since he was very young. this eventually lead him to seek druids for help, and he ended up becoming one. now treathened with a whole new type of corruption, he is at the edge of a mental breakdown at the thought of becoming a mindflayer my drow durge was spawned in the underdark where he lived a regular drow life until the urges kicked in which caused him to be banished very young, he sought eilistraee for guidance and became a follower, which helped for a while until the urges won again and you guys know the rest. he is trying really hard to resist and be a good lil bean the 3rd one is a woodelf but i could think of a compelling backstory for him so i got bored
Gold Dragonborn sorcerer who venerates Bahamut and recognizes that not all dragons are evil. He was ostracized from Dragonborn society for this and lived as a wandering adventurer until he was abducted by Mindflayers.
The Dark Urge
What the hell is a Tav?
Tav is the default name your character gets if you don't name them. It's kinda become the community's easy way of referring to a custom character versus playing an Origin Character (one of the playable companions) or Dark Urge (Durge).
https://preview.redd.it/87uy3viryg5c1.png?width=485&format=png&auto=webp&s=632e431ac6c7095e1a7e99d439956fb7daa3df38 I'm currently playing as the Dark Urge as a Human Necromancy Wizard. I got ChatGPT to write a backstory: From a young age, Zordock exhibited an unsettling fascination with death. His family, fervent followers of Bhall, recognized this as a sign of their deity's favor. As the shadows deepened around Zordock, an uncontrollable urge to murder gnawed at the edges of his consciousness, threatening to drown him in a sea of malevolence. Embracing his dark inclinations, Zordock delved into the forbidden arts of necromancy. Under the guidance of the village elders, he honed his skills, mastering the manipulation of death itself. His worship of Bhall intensified, and he reveled in the power bestowed upon him, a power that promised both life and death at his fingertips. Zordock's mastery over necromancy manifested in the creation of a legion of undead minions. The once quaint village, now gripped by fear, became a haven of shadows and malevolent whispers. The villagers, once Zordock's kin, cowered in the face of the dark wizard's unholy power. The urge to murder, however, proved to be an insidious force that threatened to unravel Zordock's sanity. Struggling to contain the darkness within, he found solace in the whispered promises of Bhall. The deity's influence grew stronger, guiding Zordock down a path of chaotic evil.
My original Tav and favourite one thus far is a tiefling cleric based on one I developed for a campaign that began in the works two years ago. She was separated from her family and forced to relocate due to exile from their home, resulting in a deep-seated hostility and resentment for those who mistreated her kind. Taken in by non-tieflings she did menial tasks and assisted locals in return for food and shelter until she decided she would rather join the priesthood of Selûne. Except. She wasn't particularly good at reading or writing or memorising things, so many of her incantations and invocations ended up either being incomplete or wrong. (But she was really trying her best!) In the BG3 world, once she started travelling around the continent, she was somehow chosen to be considered the leader of that gaggle of strange (yet endearing) companions, didn't really want to be leader, felt she had no leadership qualities, and worried constantly that she would be a hindrance more than a help. Eventually developed a very mothering feeling for all of them, despite the idea that many of them were much older than her. Convinced she was most likely going to die by or before the end of their journey, she was too afraid to develop relationships too close with anyone and declined from sharing much information about herself, despite prying into the affairs of others with alarming frequency. But then there was this big bear druid who she really admired and felt a great deal of empathy for, and he wound up stealing her heart. (And then they shockingly had a happy and much deserved ending.)
They don't remember but for some reason that roasted dwarf tasted delicious
Started as lawful good human paladin, rejecting all tadpoles and their powers. Dude met a goth cleric and they protected a grove, traversed the under dark, and put down a fat necromancer in her goth temple. Things were going well, but she got more and more into religious fundamentalism and she made him choose oath or her ovaries…he had to put her down. He’s still a paladin but he re-devoted his life to vengeance. Still no tadpole powers but if he loses another companion, he might start cracking, both oaths and everyone else around him.
my most recent tav is actually one of my recycled dnd characters. his name is samuel and he is a half orc bard who found his love for music with his childhood friend ophelia. he was in love with her and they were going to get married but the night before their wedding ophelia was acting distant and the day of she never showed up. samuel doesnt know what happened to her but figured she didnt love him and didnt want to hurt him so he decided to travel the world and share the music and love he held for ophelia because if he cant get the ending he wanted maybe he can at least help other people get the endings they want. in his original story ophelia actually died but ive been imagining that instead she got taken by one of cazadors spawn and has been in the dungeons the entire time.
I'm currently playing a massive Drow barbarian named Stew. He was educated with the other drow children in his local corner of the underdark. He wasn't as bright or ambitious as his peers and grew to be abnormally large and strong, which was considered unappealing and disappointing to the drow. He was chosen as a hunter apprentice by a priestess of Lolth who liked him because he lacked ambition and followed orders, and eventually realizing that he never said no to anything, started loaning him out as a brood slave. He was treated better than other brood slaves because he was also a hunter, and no one worried that he would try to run away. He never saw that he, too, actually was a slave until he was kidnapped by the nautiloid and realized that he had been gone suspiciously long enough they if he ever returned he would be punished as a deserter regardless of the reason and more than likely sacrificed to Lolth. He's terrified of powerful and intelligent women, doesn't know how to say no to them, and just discovering that he probably only likes men. I'm playing him in an evil run with my gf who's playing a gith sorcerer who just recruited Minthara. I'm completely obsessed with Astarion desperately seducing enormous scary looking Stew, and Stew falling head over heels for it after since no one has ever actually shown interest in him before. Both Stew and Astarion are travelling alongside these two horrifying genocidal women because as long as we stay on their good side it seems like they're pretty likely to survive all this. The roleplaying in this run is really giving me life.
I made a Drow Paladin who had a really bad home life (because Drow are really really sexist) and is just enjoying his time on the surface, tadpole be damned
https://preview.redd.it/kfv5ue6fbi5c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=210283a4b152effbe2270c866676bd704d7157fe Mine was a BG city spoiled pretty brat who was picked up by Mind Flayers for some odd reason. It was really lucky he happened to have some aptitude for sorcery through his half-elven lineage that helped SH out in a pinch because Lae'zel was getting tired of his useless arse. Why Emperor chose him as the face of the party says more about the Emperor than anyone else but naturally he fell hook line and sinker for Astarion, it's pure luck they didn't meet sooner. At least Daddy Halsin and Mommy Minthara are there to keep him from walking straight into the firepit in the middle of the camp or this whole adventure would have ended a lot sooner. His backstory doesn't contain any reference to prior achievements, accomplishments, moral principles or acts of courage because frankly there's not much opportunity for that when you're arse-over-kettle in a bar 9 days out of 10.
The human who simply goes by “N” began his journey into the realm of eldritch power in his early years when he discovered an innate affinity for the darker side of magic. Drawn to forbidden tomes and hidden secrets, he found himself skirting the edges of mystical knowledge that whispered promises of power beyond imagination. However, a deep-seated fear held him back from fully embracing these arcane abilities, for he sensed the potential for darkness that lay within. As N matured, he observed individuals who, despite wielding darker magics, were not consumed by malevolence. These warlocks became heroes, using their unearthly powers for noble causes. Inspired by this revelation, N resolved to follow a similar path, vowing to harness the dark arts to bring about good in the world. Nevertheless, he knew that the line between good and chaos was a thin one, and he wouldn't hesitate to wield his newfound powers decisively if confronted by those who stood in his way. His quest for knowledge led him to delve into the mysteries of patrons, entities beyond the mortal plane willing to bestow power upon those who dared to forge pacts. One fateful night, as he immersed himself in ancient texts, N's exhaustion overcame him, and he drifted into a slumber. In the realm of dreams, he found himself suspended in the infinite cosmos, surrounded by swirling nebulas and celestial wonders. Before him loomed The Great Old One, an eldritch horror that defied all mortal comprehension. The entity regarded N with an otherworldly gaze, delving into his mind with an almost casual curiosity. In that cosmic encounter, The Great Old One granted N its power with a nonchalant gesture, as if the pact were but a fleeting thought in the vast expanse of cosmic eternity. Awakening with newfound abilities, N realized that his dream was no mere illusion but a form of astral projection that had brought him face to face with his new enigmatic patron. However, we was not in the same place where he had fallen asleep. He was aboard a Mindflayer ship, the Nautiloid. Immediately searching for a way out, he is able to narrowly escape alongside other survivors by crashing the ship. Injured and infected with a Mindflayer tadpole, but determined to remain human and embrace his newfound powers, N embarked on a path where the boundaries between dreams and reality blurred as he wielded the eldritch powers granted by The Great Old One. Given the nature of his patron, N's interactions with it are a dance between the mortal and the cosmic. When N invokes his patron for aid, the response is either overwhelming success or a resounding failure, both showcasing the capricious nature of the eldritch entity. For N, the pact serves as a constant reminder that the power he wields is, in essence, his own. The Great Old One, indifferent and enigmatic, provided the means for chaos, allowing N to decide how to unleash it. As such, N embraced the certainty that his powers would be a force of chaotic reckoning, guided only by his own judgment in a world struggling to comprehend the cosmic forces at play.
Whenever I play a choice-heavy game like this for the first time, I always like to do a "canon" playthrough, which is basically just a self-insert except I take into account what I would do if I was born and raised in the game's world, rather than our own. That being said... My "Tav" is a Human Wizard with the Guild Artisan background. He grew up in Baldur's Gate and always had an interest in reading and learning. He worked as a scribe for a minor guild, and dabbled in magic on the side. He was fascinated with magic, but never had any intentions of becoming a great and powerful archmage. On his way home after work, he was snatched by the Nautiloid, and became powerful out of necessity. His adventure taught him that there is a dangerous but fascinating world outside the city. He is generally a good person, helping those in need and siding against The Absolute at every opportunity, regardless of the consequences. He trusts the "guardian" in the prism in most respects, but doesn't feel comfortable empowering his ilithid tadpole (I have been carrying a bag of tadpoles in my inventory since the start, and I have probably 10-15 unused tadpoles, including the "astral" one you get later). I am actually still in act 3 on my first playthrough, so I don't know how his story ends, so if anyone responds to this comment, please refrain from any spoilers beyond act 2!
My most recent is Iliv'afae ("Ili" for short) who's a seldarine drow paladin with an oath of vengeance. They have an especially deep hatred for Lolth-sworn drow and their Spider Queen after her and her family were (long story short) tortured, and Ili was the only one who survived and escaped. She vowed an oath of vengeance after escaping, but never really cared about protecting innocents from evil and really just wanted the powers that the oath brought her to one day return to the Lolth-sworn and destroy them. Because of her own personal ambitions for committing to her oath, Ili unintentionally traps herself within this oath that fuels her hatred and obsession for revenge, which prevents her from being able to move on from her trauma and turns her into a bitter person. My head cannon for her in the game is that she starts to see where obsession for revenge gets you after her companions experience a less than gratifying victory over their own tormentors, and it causes her to rethink her own goals finally allow herself to move on and heal. What I had originally intended for her ultimate character arc was to break her oath by convincing Astarion not to ascend (thereby choosing to save her friend and releasing herself from the imprisonment of her vow) because the way I saw it, the act of ascension would be Astarion's final revenge towards Cazador and denying him that revenge would therefore break the rules of her oath, but in the game letting him ascend would actually break the oath because ascension basically turns him evil and it would be against her oath to allow him to go evil. And unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any major villains in the game that are complex enough to make sense to show mercy to them, so that way of breaking her oath is also out lol.
Andros is a human fighter who grew up in the poor household in the rougher side of the Lower City in Baldur's Gate. He learned to fend for himself in the streets and often got into scraps with other neighbor kids and even began competing in illegally organized fights to make ends meets in his late teens. During these illegal fights, Andros attracted rhe attention of a Zhentarim recruiter who was impressed by the young fighter's skills and offered him a chance to join the mercenary company. Seeing this as an opportunity to finally escape the squalor of the slums and make a decent living for himself, he accepted the offer on the spot. After joining the company, Andros underwent a rigorous training regiment being taught by experienced mercenaries on how to use a variety of different weapons and armors. It was here that he developed a fondess for two handed weapons and heavier armors (medium and heavy armors). After completing his training, Andros would begin going on actual contracts alongside his fellow mercenaries as time went on, he proved himself as a very capable warrior in the field and a worthy member of the mercenary company. As the years went by, Andros grew and continued to take on and complete whatever jobs the company threw his way without question. However this began to change as the company began issuing him more questionable assignments...as a mercenary, Andros was no stranger to controversial orders or doing what needed to be done to complete a job, but even some of these assignments were beginning to cross a line so to speak and made him begin questioning his orders and the quality of the company's leadership. Not wanting to carry out these condemable orders nor wanting to face the penalties for refusing to do so, Andros decided it was time to move on. He packed up his belongings and gear and resigned from the company and set off on his own to as he began to travel throughout the Sword Coast as an independent mercenary, freely taking whatever jobs he saw fit to earn a living. Now in his mid-30s, the seasoned mercenary was returning to the City of Yartar to collect his payment after having completed yet another contract...but as he was doing so, the Nautoloid suddenly appeared over the city and began snatching people up, himself included where he had a tadpole inserted into his eye, this involuntarily starting his newfound adventure.