Tentatively interested! Had an idea for a character whose been wheelchair bound for a while, using the game as an escape- and give them the feeling of being able to walk again
All right. Here's my character. Tell me what you think about it @Eviledd1984
Character Name: Robert Holden
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Appearance:
IRL
In Game
Personality:
A realistic optimist, Robert is someone who tends to look for the bright side of things but still makes sure to keep it in the framework of realism. A cautiously optimistic person, one might say. For instance, in an essay for a philosophy class, he once wrote that while on a global scale, humanity as a race is actually pretty awesome and has massive potential, on the other hand, he keeps in mind that most people are not the exemplars of what the best of humankind can offer, and therefore keeping in mind that collectively humanity is an existence full of wonder and potential but most people you meet will disappoint you, is the wisest course of action one might take. A less philosophical example is the fact that while he sees his job, acting, as a great artistic endeavour that explores deep into the psyche and consciousness of a role that may bring forth hidden insight and deeper truths of who people are...starving artist is a thing for a reason, and theatre actor is not really paying the bill, so better quit while you're ahead and switch track.
In his personal life, Robert tends to be more on the introverted scale of social engagement type, rather than the extroverted one. Of course, being an actor, he has no issues putting on a more extroverted mask, and he does it often. He doesn't quite like it, but is also pragmatic enough to chalk it to 'just how the world is'. Just like how some people are more academically talented and thus can go through schools easier than others, some people are just more socially talented, while others have to put in extra work. Nevertheless, on his off days, he dislikes going out unless necessary, opting to stay at his apartment reading books, playing music, and of course, gaming.
As a gamer, Robert gravitates to RPG exactly because to him, immersing oneself in an RPG as the character you create feels like acting to a certain extent. He doesn't exactly have a specific class he doesn't like to play, but he tends to always incorporate some form of magic into his build. While focusing mostly on roleplay, Robert also enjoys theorycrafting builds and min-maxing the build for optimal efficiency.
Background:
Having been enamoured with acting ever since joining the theatre club in middle school, Robert Holden, once upon a time, was someone who was idealistic enough to throw away a scholarship to a prestigious university in the STEM field to study acting instead...to his parents chagrin, of course. Of course, unlike many stories written in the scripts, the real world is not always kind to idealism, and he found himself struggling to make it as a theatre actor, he landed good roles here and there, but the reality was that it simply did not pay enough for rent. Robert 'wisened up' and thus came to his current 'realistically optimist' outlook, decided to quit while he was ahead and took the offer of an agent to switch to more glamorous showbiz instead. Starting as a small extra here and there, he had made considerable progress in showbiz within the past 3 years. While he was nowhere an A-list actor, he had recently got a breakthrough by landing the main lead role in a TV show adaptation of a rather popular fantasy romance novel.
He realized that rather than pure acting skill, the agency was more interested in his pretty boy look, but he figured you gotta do what you gotta do. That being said, he did miss the artistic side of acting. Of delving into a role, researching and imagining what the person he was playing would be like as a real person, and eventually immersing himself in the role that for the period of the performance, he was no longer Robert Holden, but the character he was playing. To Robert, the joy of acting is precisely when you are portraying a character that is vastly different from who you are. And thus, when he heard of the virtual MMO Tales of Endoroth, he became interested in using the game as an outlet, by becoming a persona, as different from himself as possible. Of course, being a man, one of the roles that would be the furthest from who he is...is to act as a woman. It's not something done on television or in movies unless the role is specifically a transgender role, or something along those lines because television is more 'grounded' than the surrealism of theatre. In theatre, it was a practice with a long tradition from Cross-gender acting in Greece to the 'onnagata' of Japan's Kabuki theatre. Robert had always been interested from an artistic perspective, but hadn't actually had the chance to do such roles, and so...that was how Claudia Solaria von Gatriel joined the world of Tales of Endoroth.
TOE Name: Claudia Solaria von Gatriel
Attributes
Role: DPS/Secondary Healer
Profession: Paladin/Sorcerer/Warlock
Weapon Of Choice:
Nyxblade
<Snipped quote> -Flavor Text of Nyxblade
A magic item of legendary rarity that is a very rare drop of the boss Nyx from the 'Emergence of the Old Gods' event in TOE. The longsword deals fire and slashing damage. Though limited by a cooldown, it can also be used to channel purple flames in the shape of a tentacle for a ranged attack, dealing necrotic and fire damage in a large AOE. Each time it felled an enemy, the soul counter goes up, to a maximum of 5. Each 'soul' can be expended to deal extra damage or heal the user. Expended souls cannot be replenished until the next day. Robert grinded the Nyx boss for the sword extensively, to the point of almost missing an audition the next day because he overslept.
Other Equipment:
Cuirass of the Vital Aegis
<Snipped quote> -Flavour Text of Cuirass of the Vital Aegis
A magic item of rare rarity that gives extra HP as the 'False Life, Greater' spell effect that is replenished every day. It also gives extra HP to the user's healing spells.
Ring of the Inferno Pact
<Snipped quote> -Flavour Text of Ring of the Inferno Pact
A magic item of rare rarity that significantly boosts fire damage in exchange for giving a frost weakness to the user.
Starshard Amulet <Snipped quote> -Flavour text for the Starshard Amulet.
A magic item of a very rare quality that boosts MP and grants resistance to elemental attacks of the user's choice. The amulet comes with a set value of resistances that can be allocated to various elements based on the needs of the user. Robert allocated about 50% of the total resistance to offset the frost weakness from the Ring of the Inferno Pact.
Cloak of Protection <Snipped quote> -Flavour text for the Cloak of Protection
A magic item of uncommon quality that gives extra defence that stacks with armour for the user.
Magic:
[Divine Soul Sorcerer]
Word of Healing Heals a creature of the user's choice within the 60-foot range. The spell has no effect on construct and deals half damage on undead.
Flame Strike Conjure a divine pillar of flames with a 10-foot radius and height of 40 feet, that can be conjured within 100 feet of the caster. Half the damage is fire damage, but the other half results directly from divine power and is therefore not subject to being reduced by resistance to fire-based attacks.
Spirit Guardians Summon guardian spirits within a 15-foot radius of oneself. For the duration of the spell. Hostiles within the radius have their speed reduced and take radiant damage over time while friendlies receive increased defense.
[Warlock]
Eldritch Blast A beam of crackling energy that streaks toward a creature within 120 feet range. At the current character level, eldritch blast summons four beams, each can be directed at different targets.
Tendrils of Protection Conjures black and shadowy eldritch tendrils that increase defence. The user can choose to end the spell by having the tendrils sprout in a 5-feet radius around the user, dealing psychic damage and chance of giving the frightened status at afflicted enemies.
[Paladin]
Divine Smite Designate one enemy as a target of divine fury. While the spell is active, attacks from the user or its allies against the enemy have additional radiant damage.
Channel Positive Energy Heals allies in a 30-foot radius of the user with divine energy.
Other Skills:
[Divine Soul Sorcerer] Angelic Form Manifest a pair of angel wings and a halo. The angel wings can be used to fly while the halo emits a source of light.
Metamagic: Quickened Allows the user to cast spells with reduced cooldown. Can be used 15 times each day.
[Warlock] Soul Crucible A secret knowledge that imbued one's armament with the soul of the user. Allows the user to use Charisma instead of Strength to deal damage from melee weapons.
[Paladin] Aura of Righteousness Gives allies in the party resistance to status effect based on the Paladin's Charisma status.
Virtual History: A scion of the noble house of Gatriel, having the power to command celestial magic due to being descended from Gatriel the heavenly angel, Claudia Solaria von Gatriel used to be a Countess who made a contract with the old god Xal'Zagoth to prevent her people and fief from being burnt down by an Ancient Dragon. The old god returned the ancient dragon to slumber, but in return, Claudia must now serve as his champion, doing his bidding lest the dragon awakens once more and devastate her home. In doing the bidding of her patron, Claudia now found herself as a member of the Ebon Covenant, in the company of dangerous and malicious figures who banded together for protection and possible cooperation...such was the nutshell of the backstory for Claudia Solaria von Gatriel that was crafted by Robert.
A male picking female avatars in games is hardly a novel concept. Some do it because they explicitly wish to troll other players, some because 'If I'm spending a lot of time with this character might as well make it a hot girl', and some actually do it in an attempt to explore their sexuality. Robert's reason was none of the above. He was interested purely in its 'artistic merit' as an actor, that is to say, to experience playing a role that is vastly different from who he is. Whereas Robert is an introverted somewhat cynical man, Claudia is an extroverted caring woman who is torn by her natural kindness and her deal with the old god. That is all there is to it to Robert, an interesting role to play and explore, nothing more, nothing less.
Robert first joined TOE about two years ago, about a year after he made the shift from theatre to showbiz. It was at this point, that Robert started to miss actual acting again rather than being a glorified fan service. While there was nothing stopping him from acting, his new schedule made it hard to dedicate time to a theatre troupe. It was then, that a friend of his from high school—who was still pursuing a career in theatre, unlike Robert—invited Robert to join The Ebon Covenant, his RP-focused guild in the virtual MMO Tales of Endoroth. The Ebon Covenant was an RP guild for evil RP, with the concept being a secret society of various evildoers who banded together for protection and ease of cooperation. Its members range from crime lord to a demon possessing a demoniac, to necromancers, to—in Claudia's case—a noblewoman who made a pact with an evil old god.
Now, two years later, what started as just a fun hobby has turned into a passion that Robert sunk quite a bit of time on. He mostly played with the guilds, but as someone who also likes to optimize builds, Robert occasionally plays with players outside the guild, since not all of the guild members focus on grinding for the best loot if it doesn't concern their RP. Of course, while Robert did not go full-on RP mode while playing with players outside the guild, since he treated Claudia as he treated a role he would play in a theatre performance, it was hard to break character completely while on 'Costume', especially after playing the character for so long, making Robert interact with people using the personality of 'Claudia' rather than 'Robert' just minus the whole fantasy noblewoman backstory bit. His ladylike prim and proper mannerisms as well as his fancy way of speaking as Claudia often make people in his party joke about his true identity being some famous socialite rich girl or even the princess of England or some other country that still has monarchs. A fact that Robert is quite pleased with as it means that his acting is impeccable. It is, admittedly a somewhat eccentric way of playing an MMO, but Robert always said that the eccentric artist is a trope for a reason. Art is rather quirky at times.
Notes: *Claudia is built with dumping Strength and maximizing Charisma both for melee damage and spell damage. *Jacob, Robert's friend and Guildmaster of The Ebon Pact is currently the only one who knows Claudia's IRL identity.
@Eviledd1984 thank you~ Sorry, I kinda went overboard with details and stuff. I promise I don't usually write quite this much for posts! ^.^;;
Please take a close look at Other Skills, and make sure they're all okay. I figure experience in an area gives little perks to abilities and such.
Emma Ellison /// Elian Zefra
click for full image
“If you want me to heal you, STAY WHERE I CAN @#$%ING HEAL YOU!”
O V E R V I E W
N A M E
Emma Ellison
A V A T A R
Elian Zefra (also answers to Elly, Zef, and a few other nicknames, including her unofficial title of Chaos Butterfly)
A G E
31
G E N D E R
female
A P P E A R A N C E
Emma is a fit young woman, her body shaped by years of dance classes. She is solidly built, not willowy, and if she isn't mindful of what she eats she gains weight. She's taller than most women, but this doesn't stop her from wearing heels if she wants to dress up a bit. Her dark hair is untamably curly and she keeps it cut very short so it is manageable. Her eyes are an unremarkable hazel, her brows thick, and her face rounded. Emma favors intense colors, be it vibrant crimson, royal purple, eye-searing green, or jet black. Outside of the dark and the bright, she also likes metallics, and a lot of her jewelry is metalwork, where it's not chunky modern-art plastic. Her fashion sense is a bit quirky, and she is just as likely to be wearing a blouse and a skirt as she is jeans and a T-shirt. One thing she does insist on is comfort -- if it bothers her too much she won't wear it, whether she's having a day in or a night out. Because she can't do much with her hair, Emma has a whole collection of hats, and she'll wear one more often than not.
Emma is very aware that her avatar is not herself. While she might embody Elian while she's logged in, and while MMOs are really not roleplay-heavy in most cases, outside of specific groups, her concept of Emma-as-Elian and Emma-irl are quite distinct. Since that is the case, it's not too surprising that Elain only somewhat resembles Emma herself. The build is the same, with perhaps an extra inch or two of height, but her brown hair has darkened to jet and her eyes lightened to gold. Since it was an option, she elected to get her hair permanently straightened. It's still a shorter style, but now the back is completely off her neck while the very front reaches her collarbone. Her skin tone is slightly darker too, more bronzed than tanned, and she's come out with elfin ears, just pointed enough to have the tips show through her hair. She's traded her hats for a woven golden circlet, but her fondness for dark colors is still very much in evidence. Her favorite attire is three pieces of black velvet, a close-fitting tank top, a long-sleeved jacket, and flowing pants. The pants might be mistaken for a skirt at a distance, cut loose in the leg and widening from hip to ankle. The waist is broad and snug, providing a bit of padding between her skin and a leather utility belt. Her jacket has no collar and only a single, small button near the top so it doesn't fly completely open. Unlike shirt and pants, this garment is covered in gold filigree, Even the smallest movement is accompanied by sparkle and flash as the embroidery catches the light. Leather boots with a slight heel finish off her outfit, with sturdy soles and metal reinforcement for the toes. She wears a light leather vest with a soft lining underneath her tank for defense, as well as bracers and kneeguards, but these are all hidden by her outfit. In addition to the utility belt, Elian often also carries a leather satchel of holding strapped to her thigh to carry somewhat larger items.
P E R S O N A L I T Y
Emma is generally kindhearted and compassionate. She's known among her friends for being a good listener and willing to lend a hand. She is mostly cheerful, with a good sense of humor, and fluent in sarcasm. She is willing to laugh at anything, including herself -- and all the inappropriate jokes as well. Her outlook tends to be a mix of optimism, pragmatism, and cynicism. She did well though not great in school, but she is particularly adept at puzzle-solving and thinking on her feet. She's mostly dependable and trustworthy, though she tends to have trouble learning names, and will forget when things are if she doesn't write them down. She enjoys a good party, so long as it's not too loud, and is perfectly at home among strangers. Emma is outgoing, eager to meet new people and make new friends. This desire for new experiences leads her to be the sort of gamer that enjoys exploration.
She's always had one foot in the virtual world, and the people she befriends online are just as real to her as those she knows in the physical one. She believes there are advantages to each sort of relationship. She's had a number of boyfriends over the years, some starting irl, some starting online, but she's yet to find the person she'd like as her permanent Player Two.
Emma is a huge geek, and acknowledges her various fandoms openly. She is also a dedicated gamer, though she does not play competitively. For her, gaming is a way to step away from any worries she might have and immerse herself in another world, a chance to be whoever and whatever she likes. It's not that she dislikes her life -- indeed, she is quite happy with it. But that doesn't mean there isn't time to let her imagination take the lead while chilling with whomever happens to be on.
Emma is quick to anger, but just as quick to forgive. She's mostly a good sport, though she never likes losing. She hates trolls and people who mess things up for others through sheer stupidity. It should be noted that kindhearted does not necessarily mean kind or polite. She tends to give those she likes a hard time, teasing, taunting, and being generally snarky. This verbal abuse is given with the greatest affection, a casual lack of concern for what's proper or polite that shows she's truly comfortable with that person. Of course, if she really hates someone she's likely to insult and mock sincerely, and this can be a bit confusing if one is not sure where one stands.
As a gamer, Emma tends to be a completionist, and she enjoys experimenting with what a game will let her do. She loves turning up secrets and the accompanying thrill of discovery. Her temper also shows in games, and there is a dent in one of her game room's walls where she once threw a controller a bit too hard after some idiot turned a challenging but doable boss run into a TPK. It's interesting to note that while she doesn't often yell at people in the real world, she has no such qualms in virtual combat and an impressive array of curses to boot. All of which she will unleash on...well, just about anyone. The guy that got the party killed. The camper that keeps killing her. The one that steals her kills. The teammate that ruined her perfect shot -- even the tank she was healing who moved out of range. But give her a brief break after a fight and she will settle down again.
Emma will play any class, but tends to favor melee DPS fighters and ranged DPS casters when playing alone. However, because she is very familiar with the shortcomings of MMOs, she knows that a healer and support caster will rarely lack for willing companions in dungeon runs, and these are the areas she chose to have Elian focus on.
B A C K G R O U N D
Emma's life has been nothing particularly exceptional. She grew up in midwest America, the elder of two siblings from an upper middle class family where affording the latest game system was never much of an issue. Both her parents had jobs dealing with computers, and Emma entered the world of the internet and video games young. She'd try just about anything, but has always gravitated toward puzzle games, rpgs, and open-world games. With a network of fellow gamers that spans the globe, it was no surprise that she heard about TOE very early on. She had to tighten her budget and do some saving, since dance instructors don't exactly make a ton of money, but it was more than worth it when she first entered the world of Endoroth.
A T T R I B U T E S
R O L E
caster (primarily healer and support)
P R O F E S S I O N
healer, dancer
W E A P O N O F C H O I C E
Butterfly's Wings - Rather unconventional implements, the Butterfly's Wings are deadly weapons masquerading as ornate, ornamental fans. The ribs are quite sturdy, made of metal with wooden handles and extending beyond the dark fabric of the fans themselves. Those tips are sharpened, as well as the leading edges of the outermost ribs, designed to slice and stab as effectively as long knives. Each fan can open as far as a hundred and eighty degrees, revealing a bright swirl of butterflies on the fabric, and she can lock the fans in any position, to keep them from collapsing on impact when this is not desired. The hingepoint of each fan consists of a large gemstone, a magical focus allowing the wielder to cast much like with a wand or a mage's staff.
O T H E R E Q U I P M E N T
Healing and Mana Potions - It's always a good idea to have some of these on hand.
Rope and Grappling Hook - Good for climbing.
Cooking Supplies - Useful in the wild.
M A G I C
Healing and Restoration - Elian specializes in magic with healing properties, whether for a single person or for a group. She can resurrect a fallen companion, remove curses, and cure wounds of all kinds.
Buffs and Defense - Pumping up her allies is a key ability for a support caster. More speed, more strength, resistance to various forms of energy, protection from evil, these are all things Elian has under her belt.
Utility - Things like spark, light, and prestidigitation, these spells are not combat oriented but still very useful to have around.
Wind - Elian started playing as a wind mage before she decided to focus on healing, and she has kept a couple wind-aligned spells under her belt, including featherfall, jump, and one rather unique spell that allows her to retreat unhindered after a strike on an enemy.
O T H E R S K I L L S
Healer - Elian specializes in magic with healing properties, whether for a single person or for a group. Because she's cast so many of them, the healing effects of her spells are improved, and she is better at casting them.
Support Caster - The vast majority of Elian's participation in combat is as a support caster. Because of her experience, she has excellent endurance when it comes to casting, much better than mages who only dabble.
Battlefield Awareness - Healers are responsible for keeping people alive, and this means knowing when they need help. Elian has done her best to consistently track her partymates and healing them when they need it, and now she has a general though vague awareness of who is in trouble, and how badly.
Danger Assessment - A squishy healer does not last long if she doesn't know how to avoid danger. Experience (and a number of early deaths) have taught Elian how to recognize unsafe terrain and places where unpleasant things might lurk, and now she is much better at noticing such things, almost like a gut feeling at times.
Dancer's Grace - Elian is a dancer, like her player, and she makes use of these skills even when not dancing. Between practicing routines and pushing herself in exploration, Elian is flexible and acrobatic. Her balance in particular is superb, and she can keep her footing and land jumps even on difficult terrain, where it's all but impossible to do so.
Agility - Before Elian started partying up regularly, and before she'd developed her skills as a mage, she employed a nimble in-and-out fighting style. She still relies on her agility to react to threats and make herself a more difficult target, as well as for getting past obstacles in her explorations. As a result, Elian is highly agile, able to get close and then fall back, and changing directions easily. She can pull maneuvers that others could not.
Saw It Coming - Elian relies mostly on grace and agility, trying to avoid taking damage as much as she can -- particularly since if she goes down, there's usually no one to come to the rescue. Practice anticipating and avoiding has left her better able to identify attacks that will hurt her in time to cast a counter spell or get the heck out of the way. Sometimes she can avoid attacks that she did not anticipate.
Identify Monster - Emma enjoys the tactical aspects of combat, and she believes that is important to know your enemy. To this end, she's made an effort to remember the appearance and location of various foes, and what sort of abilities they used. Upon reaching a town, she would look up the things she'd encountered to learn more about them. Her dedication and research have paid off, and now in addition to knowing almost all of the ones she's encountered, there is a small chance that Elian has skimmed over the entry for a monster that she has never encountered herself and knows a bit about it and what it is capable of, even if she never read the entry properly.
Enemy Assessment - If she identifies an opponent, she may know this automatically, particularly for common foes. For others, Elian tries to keep track of what works and what doesn't, and she thus has some skill identifying weak points and what kinds of attacks are effective based on the ones tried. Once she has, she is highly likely to retain that information for future reference. This is possible even on foes she's never heard of.
Pathfinder - With her love of exploration and taking the road less travelled, Elian has honed her pathfinding skills. She is quite good at figuring out ways to get somewhere, including less conventional routes. Her chances of noticing hidden doors, shortcuts, and less dangerous routes is increased, even if she's not actively searching for them.
R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y
Elian has been in Tales of Endoroth since near the beginning, though she spent a good amount of time getting used to an entirely new system, and then playing with it. For Emma, the new system was fairly familiar, being a lot like other games she had played. Once she got the hang of it she immediately set off to see what she could do. A lot of time was spent exploring, whether by herself or with a party. A lot of solo explorations ended in death. Embarrassingly many, actually. She still likes solo exploration, as she does in just about any game, particularly the open-world ones, but Emma's learned that Elian's far better off travelling with a group in many cases. There was some benefit to all the dying, and it takes the form of Elian being able to actually land hits in melee combat and then get out of range. She can even do respectable damage for a character that isn't offensively oriented.
To the community of TOE as a whole, Elian is known as a reliable healer who will do everything she can to take care of her party. She's known to be adventurous and not afraid of a challenge. She is, however, also known to be a real firecracker, between her habit of shouting profanity at friend and foe alike, as well as her low tolerance for fools. One rather interesting rumor says that after a particularly close call, the feisty healer ressed, killed, and then reressed her party's DPS archer multiple times in a row, since he'd drawn aggro on not only the mobs they were fighting but several more beside, and then failed to back off when he was told he was making a mess of things. The rumor isn't true, of course. Elian only killed him once. And she had help.
N O T E S
name - description.
Emma/Elian uses FFCC55.
The character looks good. Accepted.
Huh. Looks interesting. If it's based on DnD Class is multiclassing allowed?
Awesome, I'm going to be working on my sheet this week. I hope I can get it down ASAP. There might be a HUD to show HP, MP, inventory, quest marker, and what skills/spells you could use.
True, I might just make it so it's something that happens in the background or something. Like I said in the first post, I want this to be more character driven.