Hey /tg/
I've got a campaign coming up and I want to make a wizard, but I don't want my character and their backstory to be boring and generic and cliched. But I'm also a bit uncreative. Any of you want to help me shoot some ideas?
One idea I had was actually a Sorcerer that was raised by a wizard and grew up thinking they were a wizard, and they unnecessarily prepare their spells every morning. But, I actually want to play a wizard class, so that won't work.
Personally I'm a fan of playing younger, more inexperienced casters, as opposed to old and wise wizards. My last wizard character was a student at a state-sponsored magic academy and got assigned to the rest of the party as an "adviser" on magical matters (the leader of the city owed the party a political favor). The character's main goal was to survive the shit the party got into and graduate magic school. Yeah, it was kind of a "boring" backstory, but it worked. Remember, the meat of the game should happen within the game itself, nobody wants to read 3 pages of stuff that supposedly happened before the game even started.
>>43819408
Well, I was mentally batting around the idea of playing a Dwarven Wizard with an insatiable thirst for exploration/knowledge. But I don't want him to seem like a snowflake kind of thing either, but I do want him to seem like an outlier to the rest of his clan.
He's the weirdo who wants to go to the surface and trample across fields, paddle a boat across lakes, and climb mountains instead of dig into them
>>43819451
Just have them plainly state, "We had differences of opinion", leave it at that, and if anyone cares enough to ask, let them.
>>43819281
Wizard Ideas?
Make him like stereotypical black pimp - flamboyant clothes, bling everywhere and right attitude (ZAP MUTHAFUCKA). Also, hoes and bitches. He must swim in bitches and hoes, so no CHA or STR (for proper bitch-slaps) dump stats.
>>43819451
Play a Dwarf Wizard. Dwarves in mythology were often master wizards. Just use a spellbook full of runes, obsess over crafting [especially rings], and go from there.
>>43819504
His name shall be Grandmasta Staff, Lord of all that is sexy.
>>43819451
>>being a dwarf
>>not wanting to stomp across the surface with your vengeful little feeties
>>not wanting to beat lakes with a giant paddle, muttering "fuck you"s with every stroke
>>not wanting to check the peak of a mountain before carving it out to see what you'll be living under
>>43819451
Have it be a situation where the clan sees the usefulness or need for magic... but most members of the clan don't really care for it themselves and see it as strange or queer out of superstitious ignorance or a lack of aptitude. Kinda like how the Nords in Skyrim are suspicious of magic but every Hold still has a court mage.
The character doesn't have to be a snowflake, there can be others like him who have expressed interest... and one of them has to replace the aging wizard the clan already has because he won't be around forever. Just make sure you're the one that actually survives or doesn't give up on the endeavor before seeing through, as so many in the past have already done...
>>43819573
>>43819515
I wonder.... are there any spells that act as a sort of "metal detector" of some sort? It could be a thing he does in his free time, because despite having odd tastes (magic and running around on the surface) he does like to craft things from time to time.
>>43819603
I guess I should have specified, I'm playing Pathfinder.
>>43819603
The idea that Dwarves can't into magic isn't true mythologically. I'd just play as a dwarven wizard. No reason Dwarves would have no wizards.
>>43819542
Sounds pretty Scottish to me.
>>43819610
There's not, but if your GM isn't awful, there shouldn't be any reason you can't just fluff a variant of "detect magic" or some kind of divination spell to do it.
Here's your backstory:
> realizes bones are just rocks
> compare geomancy to necromancy
> chief geomancer accuses you of supporting illegal necromancy
> you cast stone-to-mud on his dog
> kicked out of wizard school
>>43819281
What edition it is? If it is 5e, where Investigation is an int skill and you will as a wizard have Int cranked up to eleven, take something like the Spy or Faction Agent background and become the magical detective Merlin Holmes.
>>43820062
>>43820135
I would do that, but i don't even see an "investigation" skill here on the Pathfinder srd.
>>43819504
We have a gunslinger in our party who due to several OOC jokes ended up being Black Dynamite. The player made a soundboard to play the "DYN-O-MITE! DYN-O-MITE!" sound whenever he does anything cool
I'm guessing you're playing d&d
It's worth noting that there's nothing wrong with cliche, but there's everything wrong with being boring. No, they're not one and the same.
Going with something based off your idea though, maybe have a Wizard who was raised in a society of Sorcerers.
>Parents have a happy bouncy baby boy
>As he grows, he shows absolutely no natural magical aptitude
>While all the other kids start casting basic cantrips around their preteen years, he's not able to perform any magic at all
>Becomes the butt monkey of the village
>Steals some magical artifacts or spellbooks and studies them in secret, developing smatterings of basic formalized magical power to hide his lack of innate magic power
>Wakes up early every day to secretly prepare his spells and be stingy with them so as to not reveal his dark secret and disappoint his parents
Put some effort into explaining *why* you have a society of sorcerers and why he has no innate magical talent (leladopted) and you have a fairly decent locale and a decent enough character to build off of. Think of a reason to adventure and you're off to the races.
>>43820574
Ohhh, thanks anon that's actually a pretty decent idea. I might actually go with that instead of my adventuring Dwarf Wizard. I'll have to flesh it out a bit, but I like it.
