I'm excited to be playing in a new game starting tonight. 3 other players and the DM. I went a little off the rails with character concept, but I think its going to be a blast and allow for a lot of memorable moments (I mean, we'll see, but it has a lot of potential I think)
We are all starting at lvl 3 and party comp is this-
Player 1 is a Human Fighter, the build with maneuvers I think. Backstory is that he was a guard for a wealthy family and either he was away shirking his duty, or he hid, when the house was attacked. Everyone died but him, he blames himself and has dedicated his life to wandering and helping whomever is in need.
Player 2 is a Human Life Cleric, she worked in a temple healing the sick, but felt that she could do more, that this wasn't her future. So she left the church to spread the word of her god and show people his miracles.
Player 3 is a Halfling Barbarian, though I believe he plans on dipping into druid to shapeshift. I don't know much about his backstory, I know he will be very tribal and have a big "badger" theme, I think that's his shapeshifting goal - to actually become a badger. Don't know much else on him.
And me. I'm a Beastmaster Ranger (DM is allowing the revised ranger from Unearthed Arcana). My name is Deeeter the former hermit/farmer (I'm doing the backwoods country accent the entire time) and here's my background. I was living off in the mountains alone, farming, and maybe going to a nearby town once or twice a year, I was a grumpy man who didn't care for people. One day a shabby woman with a dozen children all in rags showed up at my house, asking for food and shelter for her and hers. I refused them, shouted at them, and even threatened to hurt them if they didn't "git gone!". Well (classic fairy tale twist) she reveals herself to be some Fey forest goddess and curses me. She summons an Ape, and weaves a bond between us (my pet) but then infuses a false memory into me. She makes me believe I had a wife, a girl I loved from boyhood, we had a life together, we loved each other truly and perfectly..... and my curse was that she was turned into this Ape. None of that is real, but I believe that my Ape is my cursed wife. I take care of her as you would an invalid family member. I clothe her in dresses and bonnets, talking her, knowing she's somewhere inside this ape, praying that I can find a cure. I put on old rusty set of scale mail I found years before half buried in the forest, grab a pitchfork, and head out into the world to redeem myself and save my true love.
So, I'm a farmer wielding a pitchfork, fighting with an ape in a dress. I'm only going to take spells that don't seem like magic (as I don't really want to be a caster), so stuff like pass without trace, charm animal, etc. and I'm going to play that I'm very patient and protective of my wife. I'm going to try and be kind to other people, not so much because I really want to, but because I'm scared of possible consequences since I "lost everything". I'm also going to play meek to authority, if a guard or person I see as above me tells me something, I'm going to assume they know better than me.
My connection to the party is that I heard about a traveling priest helping people and sought them out. They couldn't help me, but they felt sympathetic to my plight and accepted me. The ape (which I think will be named Maggie May, unless one of you has a better name?) will be clingy and protective over me, but prone to eating any foods left out, and occasionally getting interested in things, walking over and picking them up/inspecting them, before rapidly becoming bored and just chucking them off in the woods. Not in a disruptive way, but I'll have it happen a couple of times to kind of teach everyone that if she goes over and picks up your shield, you want to run over and take it away before she loses interest. This also sets up the situation where she could reasonably pick up something of someone else's and we could all just keep our mouths shut if we want that thing thrown off somewhere. Might never come up, but it gives her more personality and sets up possibilities.
At some point, probably 3-6 months into this game, when the situation presents itself, I plan on having the DM let some character climbing a ladder or something under my ape look up and see a big old set of balls and a cock dangling between my brides legs. If asked I'll break into tears about how the foul creature who cursed her had no ends to its mockery! Should be a funny reveal if all goes well.
Any thoughts or idea's? I know its a bit wacky, but my last character was a super serious pirate with strong motivations, and I thought for this game I just wanted to be a bit more comedic and light.