Café de Nuit

I hear a lot of people saying that warlocks are the best class roleplay-wise because they come with built-in writing prompts: Who's your patron? How did you find them or they find you? Why were you ambitious or desparate enough to bargain with such a dangerous entity? What's your relationship with them? What could go wrong with it?

These people are right. Warlock is a very high-concept class, incorporating your backstory straight into your gameplay. But that's a surprisingly new part of the class. I remember the 4e party I played in as a kid - the warlock was just... The guy who talked to demons and got magic from them. Okay. There was no talk about who those demons were. The 5e subclass format implies you have one specific patron and forces you to make an active choice regarding who they are, which invites these questions.
So this gap isn't about the idea of the class, it's about the willingness to get specific about it.

So in this series, I'm going to look at the concept of each DND class and ask you get specific about it. I'll ask questions about how your character interacts with different aspects of that concept. Think about it like a writing workshop for RPG characters.

Stay Tuned.

So imma start with my personal favorite, the first class I ever played, the one I'd probably be if I lived in a fantasy world:

The Wizard

The word 'wizard' is driven from 'wise'. Wizards are the smartasses of the genre. They get their magic from learning about it. They're also a class that starts relatively weak than grows exponentially more powerful as you go up in levels.
This means insane commitment to studying.
If so, there are several questions you have to ask your wizard character:

- Who taught you? Were you a student in an organised 'magic school', or the apprentice of a village witch? Was this knowledge passed down in your family, or did you leave them to travel with an eccentric wandering mage? What was your mentor's impression of you, and yours of them? What particular advice did they give you, and do you adhere to it?
- Your magical schooling was a long and extremely formative period in your life. Was it a good one? Were you considered a good student? Did you have friends? What were you anxious about? Overall, would you say you were happy then?
- What do you still need to learn? This could be a specific spell, a piece of lore, or maybe personal life-lesson.

the most important question you have to ask your wizard character is:

Why do you learn?

The answers to this question are as varied as Bigbi's hands, but I here are a few examples:
(Note: These are ways to roleplay the class. Narratively. They have no mechanical effect, though I recommend subclasses I think might suit them.)

1) For Fun - The MaGeek
Your wizard is the type that browses Mistipedia or The Coppermind in 03:00 AM, looking for some obscure lore detail for one line in a fanfic that five and a half people would read. Something in that big brain of theirs makes them enjoy learning esoteric knowledge, for it's own sake.
They're us, basically. They're geeks. Only that they had the fortune of being born in a world where magic is real, so they can obssess on the real thing rather than made up stories about it!
MaGeeks tend to be adorkable, quircky and smart but absent-minded folks, often mistaken for childish or unhinged. They can be shy and quiet - until you ask them a question about how graviturgy interacts with the theory of relativity, and that spark in their eyes lights up and they start infodumping and shall never shut up again. They'd pick whatever subclass they find the most interesting, regardless of usefulness, and often gravitate towards visually wondrous ones such as transmutation, illusions, or conjurations.
Follow-up questions for The MaGeek:
- What got you into nagic? Did you find your first spellbook randomly in the public library and felt an immediate attraction to it, insisting to borrow it despite the librarian's concerns? Was it a classmate who showed you her scroll during lunchbreak hoping to have someone to share her hobby with? Was there a 'little mages' gifted program in your school? Maybe you were always fascinated by your weird uncle who would wander off for months then return with wonderous gifts and wacky tales, until you grew old enough for him to teach you a cantrip or two with no fear you'd burn the house in his absence - or, for a more dramatic take, mysteriously disappeared and left you with his books, staff and few clues regarding his fate? Or maybe you were introduced to the arcane later in life, by your lover, colleague or even child? Did you get the hype from the begining or had to be persuaded?
- What's your passion? Are you interested in a certain school of magic, historical spellcaster, series of spells, magical creature or something more niche?
- How do you play with magic? What do you like doing with it for no purpose other than beauty and amusement? Do you use alter self to experiment with funky hairstyles? Do you treat illusions as a form of visual art rather than trickery? Levitate your equipment around you simply because you can?
- Do you have a fandom? Since when? Did you grow up as the only one in your village who doesn't think 'cantrip' is some sort of a root vegetable, lonely and stigmatized? If so, did this alienation shame you or make you feel special? Do you crave a friend who also 'gets it'? When, if ever, did you realise you're not alone? Or did you have equally-mageeky relatives or childhood friends? What did they teach you, what's the weirdest thing you've ever done together, and what do you disagree about?
- Is your enthusiasm apparent, or buried under age, trauma and the cruel world's constant demand for practicallity? How do you move across this spectrum throughout the campaign?
- What's a magical thing you always wanted to do? One that always sounded so cool to you, but is either composed of spells and resources you don't have yet or extremely situational? Inform your DM about it, so they can include opportunities for you to do it.
(Yes, that's my favourite one. I'm absolutely biased here, won't even try to hide it. Play your wizards as geeks.)

2) For Power. - The Buff Seeker.
Your wizard had heard once that 'knowledge is power', and took it literally. They don't necessarily like reading, or adventuring, or keeping bat dung in their pockets, but if that's what it takes to become powerful, they'd do it.
For the Buff Seeker, magic is The One Ring: They're tempted by the influence it grants them on the world. This could start as the power to defend themselves and their loved ones, the power to change society for the better, the power to choose their own way in life - or the power to control others, to hurt those who oppose them, maybe even take over the world. Either way, they're at risk of being drawn into the neverending cycle of power-lust.
Buff Seekers can be ambitious and arrogant, but they're just as often driven by a hidden fear of helplessness. They usually go for the most effective build they can get, and often gravitate toward Enchantment for the dominion it grants over others' will, Evocation for its raw destructive potential, Chronomancy for the control over fate, or Necromancy in hope to gather an army of undead - or pursuit of even darker options.
Follow-up questions for The Buff Seeker:
- Why do you feel like you're not strong enough as you are? Was your weakness exploited once and you'd never let that happen again? Is something you hold dear threatened, and you're afraid you won't be able to protect it? Do you have a goal you want to achieve? Or are you simply addicted to power and always seek more of it?
- Why magic, of all things? If you want power, why not become a warrior, a politician, a buisnessman? What does magic give you that money or martial prowess can't?
- What do you value other than power?
- Where do you draw the line in your quest for power, if ever? Will you give up love, home, the simple pleasures of life? Will you go against your conciseness? Do you even have a conciseness? Will you murder, sell your soul, betray your friends (Don't! Infighting between PCs just ruins the campaign and makes everyone hate you!)? Are you considering lichdom?
- What did the people you left behind think about your ambition? Did they know? Did they encourage you, or warn you? How do you feel about their response?
- How do you feel about those weaker than you are? Do you have any respect to them? Do you seek to defend them, or to exploit them? Will you share your power with them, or keep it jealously to yourself?
- What do you do when you're weak - sick, trapped, outnumbered, out of spellslots? Do you freak out? Do you do your best with the little you've got? Can you trust anyone to help you?

3) For Science. - The Academic
This type of wizard seeks knowledge for knowledge's sake. They overlap with The MaGeek, and might have even started as one - but for The Academic, the study of the arcane is serious buissness. They aspire to unlock its secrets, to solve the mysteries of the universe - both for the love of the discovery and for practical purposes - and to record their research and be acknowledged for it.
Academic wizards can seem stuffy and boring, but they're incredibly adventurous in their own way, dedicating their lives to exploration - though often of a less physical kind. Their school of magic is usually the subject of their research, but their quest for knowledge might lead them to dabble in Divination or Conjuration for supernatural information sources, or to join The Order of Scribes.
Follow up questions for The Academic:
- Are you part of an organisation? A university, a research institution, a government body, a secret society? What's your role in the hierarchy? Did they send you on this quest and can back you up? Are you in conflict with them?
- How much do you care about the fame? The credit? Is it the discovery that matters to you, or being remembered as the one who made it? Do you tend to compete with other scholars or to collaborate with them?
- How fluent are you with the technical side of research? Recording your experiments, summing up sources and writing a proper bibliography with footnotes - do you (the character, not the player) know how to do that well, or is it something they struggle with - which might have led them to abandon their studies and go adventuring?
- What's your current study? What question are you trying to answer? Why does it interest you? Does your adventure advance or hinder that research?
- How do you view those with no formal education? Are you a bit patronising? Do you value street-smarts, or the sort of lore that might be remembered by the village elders and forgotten by the professors?

3) For the money. - The Punch-Clock
IRL, most people study so they can have good grades, so they can progress to their next level of education and get good grades there too, so they can find a good job, so they can get paid. Folks who study out of personal interest or a higher ideal are rare gems that should be praised and cherished.
The sad truth is that in a world where anyone can learn magic, this would apply to it to.
The Punch-Clock wizard somehow manages to make the most wondrous thing in the universe mundane, which is wondrous on its own right. For them, magic is a profession - nothing more, nothing less. They don't have to have a dull personality- it's just that their true passions lie elsewhere.
Punch-Clocks will choose a subclass one can easily find a job as. Abjurers are often hired to set up magical security systems, transmuters for construction, evokers and war mages as mercaneries, and divinators as advisors. Punch-Clock Necromancers are unheard of in most societies, but never out of job in ones that view zombies as acceptable free labor.
Follow-up questions for The Punch-Clock:
- Did you choose this career? Did your parents press you in to it - so you can take after them, or on the contrary, so you can have the life they never got to live? Maybe a public school or an orphanage had to teach you some sort of a useful craft, and for some reason chose magic rather than something easier, like sewing?
- How do you use your spells for a perfectly mundane purpose? Can mold earth be used for mining, or for flattening a rocky or mountanous ground to prepare it for farming or construction? Are fire-based spells good for smithing? Talk to your DM about this - it's an amazing opportunity to think about the worldbuilding, how magic affects daily life!
- Are you currently employed? If so, by who, and how is it going? If not, how and why did you quit/got fired from your last job?
- Are you satisfied, or do you secretly wish for another life? What do you really want?
- Do you have a hobby? A pet? Social life? Your job doesn't fill your self-fulfilment needs, so is there something else that does?

Similar but different, I'm going on to...

Sorcerer

Sorcerers' magic is innate. It's not what they do, it's what they are. It's part of their body and mind like any other.
So the first question I have for your sorcerer is:
How does magic manifest in your body?
Dragonic sorcerers often have thin scales. Shadow sorcerers have their life processes seemingly slowed down in one way or another. A divine soul might always, by 'happenstance', have a trick of light or the arrangement of objects behind them form the image of an angel's wings.
Or maybe...
Harry Potter has that quirk where if you cut his hair, it grows back to the same length within moments. It drives his uncle mad, cause Harry's hair is also very unruly - much like Harry himself. It's such a small detail, but it emphasizes the difference between Harry's own chaos and his overly-tidy and control-freaky family.
Maybe your sorcerer has something like that, their magic subconciously responding to their personality?
Perhaps your magic even has negative consequences. Maybe your brain's connection to the weave interferes with its connection to your limbs, making you extremely clumsy?

And while we're at it:
What is it like to live and breath magic?
What spells do you use for everyday purposes, for amusement, or even out of a reflex? Think about your metamagic options here.

The third question, of course, is:
What makes you so special?
You can do something that most people can't. Some of them spend years studying and praying, or even sell their soul, to achieve a pale copy of what you have without trying.
How?

Most sorcerers come in one of two flavours: the nepo-baby and the radioactive spider.

The Nepo-Baby was born to spellcast. One of their ancestors was - or was influenced by - a magical being of some sort. Such heritage can be the source of privilege, prejudice or both.
Follow-up questions for the Nepo-Baby:
- How far does sorcery go up your family tree? The fewer generations, the weirder your story would be. You might come, let's say, from a centuries-old draconic bloodline, and never wonder how it came to be - But maybe you grew up knowing no family other than your father, a traveling bard, and always thought his tales of how he met your Gold Dragon mother are just another one of his fancies, until one day accidentaly breathed fire on your homework? Or even grew up in a dragon's lair?
- Who is your family nowadays, as people? What's your dynamic together? How does a typical holiday dinner look?
- What's your house's position in society? Are you respected for your power or shunned for it? How much of a big deal is it?
- Where do you fit in? Do you have a good relationship with your relatives? Are they railroading you towards a specific role, and do you cooperate? Do you hope to escape their reputation or to improve it, to continue tradition or to break it? What do you think about the anscestor who... Started this?
- When did your powers manifest? If you had them since birth or early childhood, how was it like to grow up with magic? What funny accidents happened to you during your early experimentations with your powers? If they only appeared as you grew up, how expected or unexpected was it?
- Do you view yourself as different from non-sorcerer members of your species? Do you even consider yourself part of your species? Do you feel superior, inferior or just different?
- What's your most uncool, embarrassing trait, to balance out the inherent coolness of sorcery?

The Radioactive Spider, on the other hand, is magical by accident. They were striken by a lightning, exposed to The Far Realm's influence, stepped into a fairy cycle during a lunar eclipse or got bitten by a radioactive spider - and instead of catching some horrible illness or outright getting killed, they somehow got superpowers from that.
I'm saying 'superpowers' intentionally - this is mostly a superhero trope, cause superhero is the genre where you have to explain how someone got a weird magical ability that was never seen before and completely surprises humanity, rather than just make it hereditary or a system that anyone can learn. But there's nothing stopping it from fitting into every other world!
'Radioactive Spider' heroes in media are usually simple, naive folks suddenly 'burdened' with power, who fool around with it just for a little while before realising the responsibility that comes with it and choosing to use it for the greater good. But that's just the cliche - Maybe your character was already a full fledged adventurer when the aboleth xe was fighting took over her mind, controlling xem for a few days before the rest of her party defeated it, with heavy casualties some of which died by xir hand against xir will, and leaving xir on the verge of insanity and with a few levels of Aberrant Mind sorcery, and now xe has to rise again from this tragedy and learn to use the one good thing that came out of it? Or maybe she was a crooked merchant with no ideal other than money, who one day tried to cheat a witch and got cursed in return
(This is my chance to reccomend the Cursed One sorcerer subclass by Antonio Demico:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tze ... 1oA0Co/pub) - And they'd absolutely rather use their magic to trick clients into giving them even more money, but unfortunately her curse makes her unable to deny help so she's forced to become a hero!
Follow-up questions for The Radioactive Spider:
- How did you get your powers? Think about the whole chain of events, not just the supernatural influence itself. Why was it there in the first place? More importantly, why were you there? What choices did you made that led you to that moment? How does that story exemplify your personality and typical behaviour?
- What was the aftermath? Did you suffer at first a period of illness or unconciousness, or feel better than ever? At what point did you realise you're magical now?
- How did your life change following the transformation? What has improved, and what have you lost?
- Overall, do you view this transformation as a bless or a curse? And why?
- How much understanding do you have of your powers? Do you know what you're doing, or are you still figuring it out? Have you met any other spellcasters yet?

And our third guest on the thread is...

Paladin!

Paladins are one of the most interesting classes roleplaywise, IMHO, due to their oath. A paladin's powers directly depend on their roleplay desicions, like no other class's do.
This is a double-edged sword: It gives amazing storytelling opportunities, but can also be heavily frustrating if you do it wrong.

So how do we do it right?
Paladins are based on (the fairy-tale romantcized version of) knights. But I think the best piece of modern media decipting the specific concept of a knight gaining magical powers from keeping their oath is Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive (It's generally an amazing series. Read the Stormlight Archive.) with its Knights Radiant - so they'll be my main inspiration for this post.

What can we learn from the Radiants?

1) Optional rule: Tenet Milestones.
The Knights Radiant don't swear the entirety of their order's ideals in one ritual, but one by one, over the course of years, each said at the right moment for them to fully understand and accept it, and each granting them more power.
I think this should be applied for their DND counterparts too, for the following reasons:

- Time for adjustment. Playing a character that must obey a code in a game where the standard is chaos can be difficult, and dropping on a player four tenets at once doesn't help. Doing it step by step lets you enter that playstyle gradually and gives time to get used to it.
- Built-in character arc! I think that's why Sanderson did it that way. His characters' oaths and the scenes in which they're said are intrinsically tied to important moments in their personal development. Use your Sacred Oath's tenets as writing prompts for your character's inner conflicts, realisations they need to make etc. - Or find/make up a homebrew subclass whose tenets fit your character arc ideas. And if as you play it turns out that the arc your character really needs is different than the one you thought? See in 'Oathbreaking is great, actually'.
- From backstory to frontstory. Turning the oaths into on-screen moments, swearing them out loud in front of your party, makes them so much more meaningful than if they're just written in your subclass description.

So how to play it?
A DND class has more levels than a Sacred Oath has tenets, so we're going for tenet-for-subclass-feature.
If that's still not enough tenets (I checked and some Oaths only have three), make a personal one - preferably one that balances the rest of the oath's ideology and hinders radicallity - for example, Oath of the Watchers is all focused about staying vigilant against an external threat, so their fourth tenet can be 'Self-criticsm. The Watchers need watching too. Take care to not become what you've sworn to destroy.'.
Example:
Born in the village of Barovia, Ienti grew up in the constant shadow of tragedy and opression. When her father was recruited to fight in Gundarak, the child realised she has to be strong for her mother and siblings, and swore to Kindle the Light for them in this hour of darkness, unwittingly accepting the first tenet of Oath of the Ancients, and recieving the ability to Channel Divinity.
But a few years later, when her childhood friend was taken to Castle Ravenloft, Ienti realised that if no one stands up to Shelter the Light, the forces of evil will swallow it anyways. She gathered her friends and convinced them to join her in an act of insanity: To break into the castle and rescue the young woman. Logically, they were supposed to die there. When Strahd himself grasped her arm and she felt the strength draining away from her body, Ienti thought much the same. But then she saw her friend lying behind him, terryfied but seemingly unharmed, and she knew she has to succeed. She found the courage to look into the vampire's eyes (generally a horrible idea, but she didn't know that), and declare:
"You shall not have her! I will shelter the light! I won't let the darkness have its way!"
A burst of light surrounded her, and the vampire fell to his knees. Enraged, he started muttering the words of a horrible curse - but the magic held no sway over Ienti and her comrades, for she'd just sworn her second tenet - and with it, achieved the Aura of Warding.
Despite their success, the heroes dared not to tempt their luck, and fled Barovia by jumping into the nearest patch of mist. Over the next few years they traveled from domain to domain, fighting the creatures of the night and protecting the innocents. But overtime, Ienti started feeling worn out. She'd spent her whole life being strong for other people - her family at first, then her friends, then the people of countless towns and villages across the land. She'd lost so many people, seen so much gore and despair, but could never afford to break down. She can't go on like that. After failing a horror save during a fight against a lich, her instinct told her to shove it off again: they were two days away from the monster's tower, and still had a phylactery to destroy. But her friends insisted she needs time to recover. Normally she'd not hear of that, but this time, for the first time in ages, she... Agreed to take a break. She lended her sword to Rina - the same friend she saved from Strahd on her first adventure ever - And passed the leadership of the party on to her. She spent the next week in the nearby village, resting, wandering the sun-bathed fields and getting to know the locals, helping them a bit with preparations for their annual fastival. She realised she needs to do this more often. She's not retiring anytime soon, but she should make time for such moments of joy and relaxation between fights. Her vacation was approprietly disturbed by a vengeful spirit rising to ruin said festival - but by then, Ienti had already sworn her third - and arguably most important - tenet: "I'll protect my own light, so that I may continue to protect others." Inspired by her own newfound inner peace (and incidental absence of weapons), Ienti tried talking to the ghost. Its horrifying gaze was supposed to turn the knight into a wizened crone, but the new Undying Sentinel was immune to such magic, allowing her to endure long enough to get the spirit talking and eventually find out how to put it to rest.

I'm not sure whether the features will still need to be tied to a level. On the one hand, it seems forced out for every character to have to reach the same point in their emotional arc as in technical EXP. But on the other hand, if people get what's meant to be a level-20 ability in level 4 it will be very unbalanced. I'd say, treat the feature's original level as a guideline but allow for flexability. The tenets don't have to be sworn in the same order in which they're written - go for what makes sense for your character.

2) Oathbreaking is good, actually. ONCE.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying you should completely ignore your character's oath. If you just want to be a magical warrior, no oath - play a fighter with a magical subclass, a monk with a magical subclass, a bladesinger, a ranger - you have a ton of options there. The oath is what makes the paladin a paladin.
What I'm saying is, that because the oath is so important, breaking it can be a powerful storytelling tool.
I noticed a common trope in superhero shows: an episode - usually a quarter into the first season, just when we started understanding what's going on - where the hero loses their powers for a couple of days. They have to handle a threat without those powers (or watch the mundanes handling the threat with no hero), find out what happened to their powers and get them back in time for the final battle.
This episode is an important milestone: It tests the superhero's ability to be a hero when the 'super' isn't working - the courage and selflessness to stand up to evil even when they're volunrable, the wit and creativity to find ways around this limitation... And when the loss of powers is their actual fault, this can also be a cute little redemption arc! Spoiler to The Stormlight Archive: This is what I'm suggesting. If your party's paladin breaks their oath (seriously enough for it to count!), take the opportunity to incorporate these themes. Build the session so the temporarily-magicless paladin will always have something to do - meaning either little-to-no combat, or splitting the party and balancing the paladin's encounters with his reduced ability in mind - and give them a way to atone (one that requires them to actively make things right, not just find the local priest. Let's say, if an Oath of Devotion paladin breaks their oath of honesty by unnecessarily cheating an ally, they'd have to go to that ally, confess the truth and make amends. If an Oath of the Crown paladin breaks the law by stealing something - which isn't the blueprints for the doomsday machine stolen from the villain's lair in order to save the world. Use common sense. - they have to give that thing back to the rightful owner.). The atoning might even be the milestone needed to get your paladin to the next tenet! (see spoiler).
But I can't emphasize more that you should only do it once per campaign. Twice at best, very far apart. After that, it just loses meaning and becomes annoying and implies you just don't care that much about the value system you've sworn to represent. And conflicts around the oath will probably rise naturally as the campaign unfolds, don't go out of your way to look for them. Unless your character's whole thing is that she sucks at keeping her oath despite caring a great deal about it, which can be interesting as a story, but very frustrating to play.

3) Paladins Aren't a Monolith.
The Knights Radiant come in all shapes, sizes, ages, statuses, personality types, sexual orientations, food preferences - and even alignments.
Some of them are very much your typical Lawful Good paladin, but others are 100% Chaotic.
That's what I love about them - the diversity.
Cause paladins aren't heroes because they have a special ability - they have a special ability because they chose to be heroes. A paladin can emerge anywhere, from any group. It's not about being born special or being blessed by your god or even about being especially strong or smart - it's about commitment to doing the right thing. And you can be commited to doing the right thing and still be chaotic about it. You can be commited to doing the right thing and just terribly wrong about what the right thing is. Even if you are Lawful Good, there's still a lot of room for nuance: What 'law' are you lawful about? do you idealize it, or simply acknowledge the practical need for it? What would be required to make you break it nevertheless?


So far for Paladin Part 1 - I'll make a Part 2 With Character Creation Questions when I have the time to.
Bye!

Paladin Part 2 - Character Creation Questions


Your Oath
- When, where and why did you make your oath? What situation had led you to believe that these are the ideals you should live by? Was it a planned ritual you've prepared for, or a spontaneous decision? Were the words told to you beforehand, or did they just come to your mind that moment and felt right? Write that scene.
- Did you always believe in the ideals behind your oath? If you hadn't, what made you see the light?
Writing exrecise: Describe a memory from your character's youth that exemplifies either how she embodied her oath's ideals since childhood (Let's say, an Oath of Redemption paladin-to-be staying nonchalant in front of a school bully's insults and getting the kid to talk about what's really bothering him.), How he was educated to follow them (Let's say, an Oath of the Crown paladin-to-be being lectured by faer uncle about the importance of responsibility) or how ey was the absolute opposite of them until they had a heel-face (or face-heel) turn (Let's say, an Oath of the Watchers paladin-to-be being careless, absent-minded and naive - but much happier than ey is now - until their first encounter with an eldritch creature; A future Oath-of-Revenge being a chill, gentle and completely non-violent person until their kid was kidnapped and sold to a vampire who also killed their wife; An Oath-of-Devotionist who was actually a thief and trickster thinking 'honest' people are either fools or hypocrites and not even believing honor is a thing, until they met a man of true dignity who outsmarted them without a single lie.)
- How did you swear your oath? What was the exact phrasing? (This is meaningful in the technical sense of what loopholes you might have left, but moreso in the characterisation sense: What's your personal take on your oath's tenets? How was it influenced by the situation?)
- How much do you still believe in your oath? And why? How had your perspective changed over the years?
Writing exrecise: Write a short essay (200-400 words) from your paladin's perspective about why their oath is important.
- Is there a condition that would make you break your oath? What is it? How often do you ponder this prospect?

Your Order
Are you part of an organised knight order? You don't have to be. Your oath could have been a spontaneous, individual thing. But if you are, ask yourself the following questions:
- What's your order's history? Who founded it, what's its purpose, what major events in your world was it involved in?
- When did you join? Did you train in their fortress since you were 9yo, came to them later in life - perhaps after swearing your oath?
- What relationships do you have there? A mentor? A rival? A bestie? Any NPCs your DM could use?
- Are you considered a good knight by the rest of the order?
- What would the rest of the order think about your party had they met? (wait a few sessions in to the campaign to answer that one.)

Others
- How shiny is your armour? Both literally (As the saying goes - A knight in a shiny armour is either never using it, or very good at maintaining their equipment.) and metaphorically (Where are you on the scale of idealism VS cynicsm?).
- Paladins are classified as divine spellcasters. Historically, the concept of knighthood which they're based on is rooted in Christianity. However, the modern DND community (IDK how it was in older editions) doesn't view paladinhood as inherently religious: You recieve your magic from the shapeless, intangible force of oaths - Gods don't have to be involved, and a paladin can be a complete atheist. So what's your opinion? Do you percieve your duty as a religious one? What's your relationship with gods and religions in general? (Tie this to the worldbuilding. A Ravenloftian adventurer has good reasons to lose their faith, while to their fellow in the Forgotten Realms atheism might sound akin to the flat-earth conspiracy - unless they have a very good argument.)
- As a paladin, you are defined by your values. Over the course of your adventures, you are going to meet many, many people who do not share those values. How will you deal with them? Will you keep them at bay? Will you try to convert them - and how blatantly? Are you willing to listen to a different opinion? What taboos are you willing to break for the sake of peace in the party, and where do you draw the line? Is this going to be part of your character arc?

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Mon Dec 22, 2025 8:40 am I hear a lot of people saying that warlocks are the best class roleplay-wise because they come with built-in writing prompts: Who's your patron? How did you find them or they find you? Why were you ambitious or desparate enough to bargain with such a dangerous entity? What's your relationship with them? What could go wrong with it?

These people are right.

FYI, in RL 3e, the RL campaign setting provides a set of question to build their caracter (p60-61).

Ex. 1. What do you look like? 2. Where is your family? 3. What is your greatest love? 4. What is your greatest regret? 5. What makes your skin crawl? 6. What fascinates you? etc.

I used that at the start of my campaign, and used that info to make the PCs personally involved in the campaign, other than just being the hero that solves a problem.

Joël of the FoS wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 11:20 am

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Mon Dec 22, 2025 8:40 am I hear a lot of people saying that warlocks are the best class roleplay-wise because they come with built-in writing prompts: Who's your patron? How did you find them or they find you? Why were you ambitious or desparate enough to bargain with such a dangerous entity? What's your relationship with them? What could go wrong with it?

These people are right.

FYI, in RL 3e, the RL campaign setting provides a set of question to build their caracter (p60-61).

Ex. 1. What do you look like? 2. Where is your family? 3. What is your greatest love? 4. What is your greatest regret? 5. What makes your skin crawl? 6. What fascinates you? etc.

I used that at the start of my campaign, and used that info to make the PCs personally involved in the campaign, other than just being the hero that solves a problem.

Yeah, I've seen those. They're nice, but kinda basic. Feels like they tried to make it apply to every character.
What I'm trying to do here is to get the character thinking about
A. The theme of the class and how the character interacts with it.
And B. The character's past and how it affects their present.

Next I'm going for...

Cleric.
Clerics are priests (Or rabbis. Or... I forgot what Muslims call their religious sages. Whatever, we accept all religions here. Except from The Eternal Order, that one's objectively horrible) who recieve miracalous powers from their god.

Now, this one is going to be interesting for me: I'm religious and study in a religious school (Confession: I'm writing this post during a Talmud class. Don't tell my teacher.), my relationship with God is probably something I can write about with more personal experience than warfare or arcane magic. I'm pretty fascinated with the concept of prophets and even wrote some stories about it. But I'm also a religious Jew, meaning I have a different perspective than a writer raised in a Christian environment (as I suppose most of DND's official writers are) have on the topic.
Note: Some of these questions might apply to any deeply religious character, regardless of class.

Your God
- What deity do you worship? Who are they? If they're one of DND's thousands of canon gods, read their wiki page. If they're homebrew, make up at least 3 facts about them.
- How close are you to them? (Notice that this is a twofold question: IRL 99.9% of people will never actually meet their god, but many of us still feel like we have an intimate relationship with ours. While a DND cleric might regularly recieve visions from their god, but still feel they're too distant and ineffable to befriend.)
- When do you feel closest to them? What situations bring out this sentiment in you?
- What in the mortal realms would you compare your relationship too? Are they a leader you're serving? A mentor you seek guideance from? An equal partner?

Your Religion (this section is a bit more about worldbuilding)
- What does your religion emphasize more: The doctorine or the practices? The myths or the everyday life? The philosophy or the community? (This question is more important than you think. One of my biggest cultural shocks was to find out the schism between Orthodox and Catholic christianity happened due to disagreement about Christ's nature - cause it's just... Not the sort of thing Jews would start a new sect about. In Judaism, theoretical theological debates are very chill and not that much of a big deal - what differentiates between sects is the attitude to the Halacha and tradition. I think both have pros and cons - it's just a very interesting difference, and I think worldbuilders should notice it if they don't want every fantasy religion they write to feel like a reskin of their own's.)
- What are the religion's main values, and how much does the answer to this question depend on who you ask?
- What are some of the religion's practices? What's a widely-known prayer? Are there any dietary restrictions?
- What's a major holiday or ritual? Do you have an important memory from one?
- Were you raised as a member of the religion (if so, what was it like) or did you convert (if so, why?)

Your Faith
- Is your faith more rational, emotional or traditional? Is it driven by love or fear?
- Do you have any doubts or questions about it? How do you deal with them?
- How do your powers fit in? Do you think they're a reward for your devotion, or a means to fulfil your duty? Does having a supernatural evidence to your god's will reassure you, or make things more complicated?
- Keep in mind: How will the events of the campaign influence your faith? What ups and downs will you have?
- As with the paladin: Over the course of your adventures, you are going to meet many, many people who do not share your faith. How will you deal with them? Will you keep them at bay? Will you try to convert them - and how blatantly? Are you willing to listen to a different opinion? What taboos are you willing to break for the sake of peace in the party, and where do you draw the line? Is this going to be part of your character arc?

Your Role
- Did you choose priesthood? If so, why? When did you know that's your calling?
- If it wasn't your choice, what was it? Family pressure? The only job you were deemed suited for? Maybe you were directly chosen by your god before you were even born? Do you embrace the role or chaffe against it?
- What process did you have to go through? How many years did you study or serve as an acolyte? Was your final trial a standardized test of theological knowledge, or something more exciting?
- What's your actual role? Do you have a community to which you regularly preach and advise? Do you work as a healer? A missioner? A judge in a theocratic society? A teacher of the religion? Or is adventuring somehow your regular holy duty?
- Gameplaywise, Cleric is what we call a 'support class'. How supportive are you? How do you look after your comrades - other than by magical healing? Do you give them pep talks? Are you the party's cook? Do you act as a mentor for a younger PC? (Be flexible about this - recognise what your party really needs as the story unfolds.
- Is there anything you disagree with the rest of your religious organization (stop calling every single one of those 'church' in fantasy settings! Be creative! And less christiancentric!) about? Or something else that estranges you from them?
- How does your adventure fit in? Are you on a quest from your god? Is the rest of your religious organization pleased with it? Against it? Maybe they're the ones who sent you? Are you neglecting your duties or fulfilling them?

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Sat Jan 17, 2026 11:33 am Next I'm going for...

Cleric.
Clerics are priests (Or rabbis. Or... I forgot what Muslims call their religious sages. Whatever, we accept all religions here. Except from The Eternal Order, that one's objectively horrible) who recieve miracalous powers from their god.

imam, I believe is the term, but I could be mistaken.