My Favorite Character I've Created

I play Dungeons & Dragons. It has fostered my creativity in ways no writer's workshop or art class has really managed to for me. There have been a few memorable characters I've created among my gaming group, one of the more popular ones being a pirate queen who was transformed into a natural Weretiger upon encountering a certain artifact. Her strength went through the roof, and saved the party from many a nasty fall by having superior reflexes and the power to merely haul everyone up to safety.

However, my own personal favorite that I've put a great deal of energy into is a druid named Shadesa. In her first incarnation, she was a human from the Icewind Dale, an arctic region in Faerun. My particular character trait with her was to play her like a dazed hippie from the 60s, who grew all her "plants" in her hair. This trait became handy for storing spell components as well, making storage space much easier. Since we started the campaign in Waterdeep, a good ways away from her home, I initially came up with a silly story phrase to describe how she came to be traveling: it involved a rabbit, an ice demon, and a spork, and she doesn't like talking about it overly much. This prompt led to a great deal of harassment from my group, as they wanted to know the juicy details, which I didn't rightly know at the time. I eventually came up with more plot for her back story, but it remains unfinished. Suffice to say it involves a great deal of social shunning, and a family history for flipping out all batshit crazy.

I built Shadesa up as a druid/scout, with plenty of ranged attack abilities to make her spells more effective in combat. Unfortunately, as often happens in gaming groups, real life events made it difficult to meet up and play, leading to a gradual disinterest in continuing the story. Which was a shame, as we had almost reached the coveted 20th level, and the promise of epic powers to kick much ass with. A few months later the possibility of restarting the campaign came up, albeit many generations later in terms of storytelling.

Upon revisiting the Faerun campaign, I asked my GM if I could reforge Shadesa as a pixie, since I'd always wanted to play one. Needless to say, Shadesa is way more formidable as a pixie caster than she was as a scouting sniper. Now she rides around on her animal companion when not flying around the battlefield, a Fleshraker dinosaur named Barnaby. I imagine him like this picture, complete with top hat. The story of the ice demon, the rabbit, and the spork is still unresolved, and I don't know when I'll get the urge to get back to it. In the meantime, I do an inner victory dance every time my druid's magic creates havoc and utter destruction. Plus I get to act like a stoner hippie who has an incredible fascination with shiny objects, without ever having to actually indulge in such things. Good times. Good times.