Current Events > can any d&d nerds help me finish up my character

(+) Yeah! (+)

so far ive got a chaotic neutral 80-90 year old wood elf drunken fist monk
the only thing ive really got for her backstory-wise is that shes just a party girl that wants to see the world, but im having trouble deciding on a background and an actual backstory

normally i can come up with a rich and detailed story for my characters like its nothing but my creative juices have dried up
---

You've got a potentially interesting internal conflict between the ascetic lifestyle of a monk and the party girl lifestyle of your character.

Personally, i'm imagining a girl who spent most of her early life drunk and aimless, perhaps after some sort of tragedy, and than joining a monastery to learn martial arts, but finding herself not fully fitting in there. Maybe until she met her master, the one who taught her the drunken fist style.

You don't neccessarily need to go with the tragic angle either, maybe she's got lots of friends and her monastery is her family, and she's on a journey of personal growth.

Of course, you don't have to go with the monastery lifestyle at all, maybe she learned the style from a travelling master, or maybe from her family.
---

yeah im like totally drawing a blank here
normally i always lean towards tragic backstories but like man all my characters have tragic backstories
i figure just this once i can just have a character thats young and dumb and completely loving it

i kinda am stuck with coming up with a background(one of these: https://www.dndbeyond.com/backgrounds) because that usually helps me come up with the characters whole backstory, but none of those really fit all that much

family in particular is something ive always had trouble with in general, so i might just like go with "oh she was left on the doorstep as an infant" or something, but then id have to go into the hows and whys of that and urgh
---

There are real life monasteries that make wine and brew some strong, tasty beer. Shouldn't be too hard to come up with a story along the lines of her growing up there and maybe sneaking a little more booze than she's supposed to, then being sent out into the world as a coming-of-age thing and discovering that she can drink as much as she wants.
---

level 1 doesnt really call for much backstory
---

Not every monk needs to come from a monastery, especially a drunken master. She could just be someone that excels at fighting when drunk, and her monk abilities that typically require intense physical and mental training could be explained as her body adapting to her being drunk most of the time.
---

Sackgurl posted...

level 1 doesnt really call for much backstory

the party is at level six i came in late
---

bump
---

When did they relax the rules and allow monks to be non-lawful?

Other than that, get your character a couple of razors for all that edge. Just my inherent bias about every time I played the game and all the CN emo style characters that came to the table.
---

lolwhat how is my character edgy

shes silly and fun and likes to party and likes the color pink and cries over kittens
shes here to have a good time not a long time. helping an old lady cross the street and robbing a bank are just two different points on her to-do list
---

loafy013 posted...

When did they relax the rules and allow monks to be non-lawful?

Other than that, get your character a couple of razors for all that edge. Just my inherent bias about every time I played the game and all the CN emo style characters that came to the table.

I've been playing D&D for twenty years and this is literally the first time i've heard CN being associated with being emo. The cliche is usually that its for people who want to play evil characters without being an evil alignment.

I just tend to treat CN as always being motivated by self-interest myself. Someone like Jack Sparrow is CN.
---

I would focus specifically around the alignment contradiction. Maybe you come from a place of corruption?

To be honest, the way you describe your character makes her sound psychotic, not necessarily chaotic neutral.
---

destrian522 posted...

To be honest, the way you describe your character makes her sound psychotic, not necessarily chaotic neutral.

Psychotic?

That's basically the CN stereotype in a nutshell.

"Lol so randum" murder hobos.
---

Youre thinking of chaotic evil.
---

They're basically interchangeable for the purposes of the stereotype.
---

destrian522 posted...

I would focus specifically around the alignment contradiction. Maybe you come from a place of corruption?

To be honest, the way you describe your character makes her sound psychotic, not necessarily chaotic neutral.

He described her as a party girl who wants to see the world. Sure, thats unusual for a monk, but its hardly psychotic.
---

You missed the post where she robs banks for fun.
---

^its not that deep fam shes a cartoon character

anyways i need to choose one of those backgrounds asap cause there is a session tonight
---

You can make your own background just so you know. the phb has rules for it.
---