Messing with Character Archetypes and Personality Traits
If you’ve been playing fantasy RPGs for a while, you’ve probably grown tired of playing the tough but slow-witted fighter, the bookish wizard and the sly, shifty thief. You can go in the opposite direction, but then your character’s personality becomes a constant refutation of the cliche: “No, I’m a very smart fighter, and somewhat timid…” So let’s take some typical character traits and mix and match a bit to come up with something more subtle and interesting.
These days, D&D players have 4,000 different classes to choose from, but we’re going to stick with the basic, classic fantasy archetypes: fighter, wizard, cleric and thief. To begin with, we’ll list five character traits commonly associated with each class. Incidentally, this exercise will be very useful for DMs trying to whip up interesting NPCs on short notice. Just roll some D6s to find which traits you’ll be switching around.
We can quibble about individual choices there, but overall I think that gives a pretty accurate description of stereotypical fantasy characters. Now let’s start messing with them by switching just a single trait.
We’ll start with a wizard. He’s bookish, introspective, wise, timorous and eccentric. If we swap out timorous for avaricious, we have a wizard who seems pretty typical, but has a whole new set of motivations and reactions.
If we modify a simple thief, we can create one who’s devious, shifty, avaricious and secretive, but also deeply religious and fervent in her beliefs (pious).
If we start switching around more than one trait, we can come up with some pretty interesting characters. Here’s a fighter: brave, doughty, stoic, bookish, devious. Perhaps he spends much of his free time reading books on war and the writings of great generals. In battle, he is not above using deception to gain an advantage (all those great generals recommend it, after all).
Another example, a cleric: pious, trustworthy, devoted, brave, and introspective. That’s a pretty subtle change, but why is he so brave and introspective? Did he witness his family being killed and vowed never to let innocents suffer again? Or is he just a self-absorbed young man too inexperienced to know fear?
Of course there are some traits that don’t blend. You can’t really put self-sacrificing and self-serving together in the same character, nor brave and timorous. A few are somewhat necessary for the character to function, but swapping them out could actually make for some very interesting characters. A cleric who isn’t pious? A wizard who hates studying books?
Feel free to make up your own trait charts to fit whatever RPG you happen to be playing, although they work best when you’re tweaking well-known archetypes.
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April 26th, 2011 7:26 PM
One of my players made a sorcerer that specialized in close combat. He was known for backhanding people with Touch of Idocy as he charges into combat in his tuxedo.
April 27th, 2011 1:31 AM
I always enjoy trying stuff like this. Hell, sometimes I go so far as to sacrifice a secondary stat to boost a tertiary one that’s more in line with the character’s personality. Going outside of the norms is one of the reasons creating characters is about as fun as using them.
April 27th, 2011 9:43 AM
That fighter sounds a lot like the characterizations I’ve hear of Caesar. He actually got in the front lines of his legions on occasions and stood his ground and fought well (certainly not running away like a pansy-which is one of the reasons that his troops loved him). At the same time he was rather learned and VERY crafty as a politician. So much so that other countries that were never under Rome’s rule adopted his name as their title for emperor. Kaiser, Tsar.
Now that’s a Fighter!
April 27th, 2011 10:21 AM
Sorcerer isn’t one of the archetypes, but let’s see if I can create Dowsabel with the traits you have listed. Probably not that surprisingly, the Wizard traits are probably the furthest from her personality.
Actually, she is all over the board.
She’s most definitely Direct. Self-righteous. Devious. Trustworthy. I’d throw in Manipulative and Assertive/Arrogant as traits off the menu.
April 27th, 2011 10:32 AM
I wonder if it would be possible to go about the using chart in a different way. Instead of listing traits for an archetype, maybe categorize them further. So, for the purpose of character creation, maybe each trait answers a question.
1. How does the character see themselves? Devoted, Devious, Brave, Introspective
2. How does the character with to project his or her self to the world? Pious, Skillful, Tough, Wise
3. How do people view the character? Self-righteous, Shifty, Impetuous, Bookish
4. What trait has the character worked to develop?
5. What trait has the character worked to extinguish?
6. What trait defines the character’s role in the world?
Don’t have time at the moment to fill in the rest…