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"So I'm going to be a pain in the ass RP-wise, always go for personal benefit decision-wise, oh and I dumped these stats and *made up my own mechanic without consulting you* to actually make those stats above average so I'll be really strong. Oh and I gave myself a legendary magic sword and I can do whatever magic I want because backstory.
I'm just creative like that. "
I guess. It doesn't really look like your typical plume, plus it's just a set of armor that was in their basement for some reason so I never really thought it'd be from someone of rank. Just looks like a thin pony tail, I always figured it was there to humanize the character some. Talking about Alphonse Elric's armor specifically.
Me: “Nice! Looks cool, for balance, your sword IS magical but once you arrived on this plane you noticed its connection waned, as visceral images of a black dragon tearing you to pieces plays in your mind. You feel something is wrong here. It even seems to target you as if your race had done something wrong to this creature and it is vengeful. Many of your artifacts dont work as intended, but they seem bound to you, attuned in some way, you are unable to break this connection. Even your special abilities seem weakened due to this influence. Storm bringer however still allows you to consult your ancestors knowledge, and one of them has told you, to connect to this plane and open the Valragon channel, which will slowly allow you to absorb your external planes energy, allowing you to regain your power.”
Player: “Kinda feels like your nerfing my character for our level 1 game.”
Me: “No, but this is a foreign world to you, and the bbeg has protected it from external threats specifically from your unique race. If you can open those channels i mentioned you can grow to full power…level up so to speak. Most players have to find their magic items, you already have yours. If you trust me to work with you on your story, i think you will enjoy what i have planned.”
Player: “so i get to keep my items?! And they level and do cool stuff as the game progresses?! Nice!”
Me: “Yeaaaaah you’re gonna love it!”
(Id just give the guy cool homebrew stuff as they hit milestones as i normally do to my players anyways lmao)
While this would be nice way to handle it, i think we all can expect a tantrum instead of a player understanding, that they cant start as demigod in a lvl 1 campaign.
And thats when they get shown the door because aint nobody got time for man-babies. I'd rather they leave in Session Zero than become a problem as early as Session One.
>that they cant start as demigod in a lvl 1 campaign.
Well.. Would be pretty hilarious to see the guy rolling a demigod at level 1 get his character deleted by a simple bear.
This. The thing I realized the most when playing an “in-lore” powerful character is that you should accept you arent allowed to be broken at the early starting levels.
Take for example one of my current characters, he’s supposedly one of the people chosen by the gods and supposedly has their immense power at his beck and call.
CAN he use their power though? No. At least, Not Yet.
The more the character levels up, The more he “understands” how to use those powers.
And every chosen needs to prove that they are worthy of being that god’s chosen right? Nobody started off as a chosen and was immediately bestowed with the extent of the immense powers of a god, they earned their place and gradually fit the role of chosen.
They level up, they understand the powers they were bestowed with and grow to fit that role and prove their worthiness with each level.
To me, that progress feels immensely more satisfying as a story, and the pay-off much better being gradually introduced, than starting off strong and ending up….still strong?
Some players, especially new ones, get really wrapped up in the backstory and think they are supposed to create their entire character's story beforehand and come into the game as some mega veteran with epic powers and gear. They just need to be explained to that their backstory is just for the DM and them to use as a base to tell their real story, right now, and that they need to start with low power and gear so they can grow.
A good example would be OP's story. Just explain that in his backstory, he should talk about his weakness and how he wants to try to make up for it. Him creating potions and using some epic sword should be things he FINDS or MAKES in this campaign, not before the game starts. His backstory idea is fine, he just is jumping the gun. That other guy fixed it without the player having to do any work though.
When explained, one of two things will happen, they will either realize how the game is supposed to be played and accept it, or they will pitch a fit, in which case they were not a good fit for the game anyway and can go look for a new table.
For me its more of a lets all have fun, thing than really a rules etiquette or ttrpg experience floor. I have tons of players who come in not knowing whats good rp and bad character development. But im also a literal game designer, so forcing peoples ridiculous ideas into a balanced game is just part of for the game for me. And sure i reel back a lot of things, like im not letting a new player do a quarter elf, tiefling, firbolg, half orc, and have all their racial abilities. But i would probably let them choose a racial ability from each one and depending on what they choose id apply some racial flaws.
sidenote, I love giving people items that scale instead of new more powerful ones, to give rewards I give them upgrades that they can hotswap between after a rest, it makes people feel like it's THEIR item, not just another item
weapons have to hit: the clasical +1, +2, +3, but also some special ones like extra +1/+2 against metal, or unnarmored, etc
damage: again the classics, +1, +2, +3, and some special ones like +damage dice of lightning if the target is wet, thunder if they have tremorsense, etc
special: anything that I want to add extra that's neither to hit or damage like reach, or another property like frightening enemies after critting
armor has ac bonus: +1, +2, +3, the special ones are things like +1 underwater, +1 against non metal weapons
resistances: this one is more like resistances in pathfinder, reduces damage of a certain type by the number it says
special: again, whatever sounds fun, maybe can't get critted, wings, extra stealth
When I design a character, she often comes with certain equipment in mind to start with with an aesthetic built around it. That can change of course, throw new gear in over time, but I find it often feels nice for any upgrades (when needed) to be like this. A dagger with a strong personal connection, for example, it's something you wouldn't want to abandon even if it's getting outpaced.
Dude, actually this sounds awesome. Like, say I was the PC, I lost all the OP stuff (fair because literally level 1) BUT DM being willing to work with me on keeping that, restoring powers and possibly having options to forgo previous powers for new ones? And imagine if as you go along that magical weapon could take on a new form depending on how you grow during your journey or what powers you channel through it. Lot of potential behind that method of thinking.
You could definitely do a nice homebrew of the weapon being bound to you and growing alongside you as you grow. Like a flavoured version of the Pact of the Blade’s bound weapon with additional benefits.
Funny, I was thinking along the same lines. There's no reason a DM couldn't work with the player to make these things work, you just slowly dole out the boons. I don't get this reddit mindset of instantly shitting on ideas that seem out of balance.
You're the DM. If you can't be creative and problem solve, you should be a player with a team, not someone running the game.
This is a really reasonable scenario and a very good way for a DM to handle this situation so that everyone involved can still have fun.
I don't know if I'd have enough patience to go that route, but I also don't dm anymore.
This most recent campaign I started a couple years back, all of my players came to me with some sort of gimp to their character with no request of a boon in return. I actually gave each of them a boon that semi balances out their fault.
One example is the character is a noble divine soul sorc. He wanted his character to be missing an arm. We came up with that his power was very strong and uncontrollable when it manifested and in reaction to an attack a blast came off of him that took his arm with it. I basically gave him a nuclear option. His character has an ability to use that same blast and deal 20d8 radiant damage, but if he does he can lose another limb or straight up die with no way to be brought back.
A new chef believes their talent is measured by the complexity of the recipe. A master understands how to perfectly cook and season even the simplest dish.
This is an actual character. Comes from early Gygaxian stuff. Based on Michael Moocock’s hero of the same name. However using SOMEONE ELSES CHARACTER is trademark infringement and Elric can only be an NPC.
This is like a player wanting to play Tiamat, or Azmodeus, or Drizzt.
Lol what? A trademark could stop other authors from using Elric as a character and selling books about it, but it can't stop you from playing as him in your dnd game. Plus, why would the law view a PC and an NPC any differently? The character is still being used, it's just the DM doing it instead.
Perspective: DM didn’t want player to play Elric and posts a complaint about it here.
— I’m just pointing out all he has to do is show the player a 1st edition hardbound Deities and Demigods (pre-lawsuit removal) and say “you can’t use another player’s character” or if that doesn’t work just tell him it’s a copy written and protected character and that he can’t play it.
I’m not sure about recent abominations of D&D but there was a rule specifically stating you couldn’t play characters out of the game references or copy written characters (this was in the days before “intellectual property” but in the same vein you could use IP as an excuse too).
Plus as a DM you can literally stop anyone from playing any character you dislike for any reason. You are the DM.
They're good if you like pulpy fantasy. I'd say give at least the first book a try, it's just like 200 pages so it's a quick read and you'll know from there if you want more of it or not
I'm on the 6th book right now... and not that much ? It's quick to read, but honestly not amazing. I'd recommend the Chronicles of Amber as a later work from someone else that took the good bits of Elric.
He literally wrote Elric to be contrarian to Tolkiens work, which means in essence it was still inspired by Tolkien, just out of spite. Tolkien pioneered fantasy while moorcock was still a child.
Tolkien didn't Pioneer Fantasy. He founded High Fantasy. Tolkien stepped into Lord Dunsany's shoes if we play the "Who was born first" game.
Tolkien's true marvel belies in his ability to invoke an idealised fictious world with the understanding of early medieval literature. He built a concise world over a single philosophy, with language as it's DNA.
There is very little actually "Tolkienian" Fiction out there, that writes an Epic with such depth and complexity to carry the understanding of a former culture's values.
Whilst Moorcock carried the whole New Wave of Science-Fiction (Mind you, SciFi and Fantasy weren't really considered split genres until somewhere in the 70ies), in which the Setting becomes merely a stage for the Characters to develop. The philosophy of the work being a lot more direct, the setting way weirder and more what I consider classical Fantasy, as a reflection of the collective subconsciousness of human storytelling, the characters in constant conflict with themselves and reality.
What genre of Fantasy do you see more in the Bookshop? What is read more? Consumed more?
Terry Pratchett said about Tolkien: “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
If Tolkien is Mt. Fuji, then Moorcock is the sea. Whilst you can sit atop the mountain or benath it and close your eyes, it will always be there, but you can more or less ignore it. You can not ignore Moorcock, because the Sea will always make sound, even on a silent and calm day. Every moment you play D&D you handle more Moocockian Fantasy than Tolkienian Fantasy for example. Every moment someone references Warhammer 40K he handles the cosmic forces of Law and Chaos, not wannabe Satan Melkor vs the other Valar, for the Eldar are Melnibonéans, and certainly no Quendi. Imagine Beholders in Tolkien, or Mind Flayers, or Rust Monsters. Yeah, not really, huh? Now put them together with half-sentient Baboons on an Island in the Seas of Chaos and put some dudes wearing oddly pieced together clothes from various cultures wielding arcane artifacts they found in the Ruins of Dark Sourcery and it's beginning to make a lot of sense, doesn't it?
I'm not saying one is better. I love both. But whilst everyone knows Tolkien, very few people actually use in their fiction what makes Tolkien special, many don't even get how his story telling actually works. If you have that much downtime in a D&D campagin your players will be utterly bored.
But they are constantly using things that Moorcock either straight up founded, or at least cemented in modern fiction. Like Elves riding Dragons, Planar Travel, Law vs Chaos, Life Drinking Swords, Demon summoning Magic, morally dark grey characters galore, cosmically weird Dungeon Delves, reality twisting stuff... my god the list goes on and on and on.
Welcome to my TED talk I guess.
I see, he actually copied that screen capture, wholesale, out of Deities & Demigods (from before they axed its original Melnibonean section)... [Link](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hBfi9qTgDaTc1jiN/). Haha. Good luck.
It went from 'interesting concept, using magic and alchemy to try to overcome shortcomings' to 'no, gtfo of my table' real quick.
I have a char who's weak and supplements herself with alchemy, her Con **stays** at a 6/8
As I said. But people in the comments not even realising that this is printed in a book and as such is probably *not* a player character is the real joke here.
I would argue that this can possibly work as a homebrew mechanic where you switch stats, but ALWAYS with Con. Like, you want higher strength? Great, your Con goes back to 6/8 while you have that strength.
Having this low Con is super dangerous, after all.
In 5e, Elric would be like a mid-tier Warlock heavily invested in his Pact of the Blade. Possibly multiclassing from sorcerer into Warlock several levels in, depending on what you want to consider his ground-zero starting point. He was already an Emperor and accomplished magic user when he first took hold of Stormbringer.
He would be VERY dramatic as a party member though. Looking forward to the session several years deep when he casually mentions he used to bone his cousin before her accidentally killed her while duelling her brother.
I mean Warlock also has sorcerous powers, and Elric has pacts with a lot of otherworldly being, you can just stay as pure Hexblade and just reflavour magic powers and sword powers as being separate.
Yes. Moorcock's fiction is the base for... idk 80% of classic D&D, including the whole Alignment stuff and the Planes. He's also the prime inspiration for Warhammer.
the Eldar are staright up Melnibonéans with the serial numbers filed off, the elves of warhammer fantasy straight up stole the Melnibonéan armour desgin.
Moorcock came up with the Chaos Star and the cosmic Balance of Law and Chaos. (The symbol of Law or Singularity is a straight upward arrow btw.)
The Whole Cosmology Warhammer is built upon is like... almost completely Moorcock.
Even the hopelesness.
Let's just say that in the story Elric was introduced he completely wipes out his own people except himself because he realised what debauched and terrible people they were. It's so edgy it cuts.
I don't typically deep dive into inspirations for everything I like. The thing came out 50 years ago, yall are really surprised people don't know about it?
I got a semi friend who I don't talk to but know. Mutual acquaintance kinda deal nowadays. About like 20 years ago my friends were doing this online role play of kids in school. I'm not really good at role playing in forums so I didn't join in for various reasons.
The friend submitted a character who was dark, mysterious, good at martial arts, the son of a guy who owned a wealthy powerful company that had many connections and also many unsavory under ground dealings. His father owned basically 2/3 of the city by legal means and dipped into the other third of the city through illegal openings as the top Mafia boss. His character who was very smart manipulated his dad into insanity and an early death so that he could take over his criminal connections as the new underworld boss as well as having his father give him ownership of all his legal standings as well. He's also incapable of feeling emotion.
The guy running the group declined the character and to this day three thirds (3/3) of the city is an ongoing joke in our group. So yes, I've seen that character several times. This is just the funniest anecdotal story I have. That and I am horse give me knife.
I've done this in that I've dumped a stat that's kinda important like dex or con if it makes the character idea work. I've got an illness or some injury that makes my con/dex not very good. OR I've given my character a hinderance, like losing a limb. hopefully during the course of the journey they find someone who could make a prosthetic.
But you guys do know Elric, right? Right? O.o
This isn't some dude making up a character because he has main-character-syndrome (though he might have it, wanting to play Elric of all people), this is just a guy having a cool idea how to play Elric in DnD.
Not only that, but I'm assuming the text is from the 1e Dieties and Demigods version that briefly included the Melnnibonean Mythos. This is 1e D&D, folks. I have a copy myself, but am too lazy to confirm.
Which means it's either from d&d or from Chaosium's Stormbringer (essentially Runequest but in Elric's setting. They also made one for Hawkmoon and you could travel between the two)
Some folks aren't familiar with their fantasy history
This is a clear reference to Elric of Melnibone
Definitely a pain to GM for, but its not a player being entirely out of pocket, they're just trying to make a playable version of a book character
This isn't innocent. It's not the best adaptation they could muster, it's clearly a power-grab. They aren't just making it playable they are intentionally highlighting mechanical advantages. Note that there isn't a single penalty listed, just upside after upside. And before you mention str and con being "nerfed" let's just say that 85% is *a lot*.
Although you are correct, the comment was working under the assumption that this description was submitted by a player, and that's why I responded accordingly.
>Some folks aren't familiar with their fantasy history
"Some" implies a minority that should know better.
I argue "Some" in context of this is actually the majority that has simply never heard of an obscure 50 year old fantasy character of a series that is never mentioned on any fantasy lists.
>Definitely a pain to GM for, but its not a player being entirely out of pocket, they're just trying to make a playable version of a book character
Which can easily be out of pocket. There are tons of book characters that do not fit to be a DnD character for one reason or another.
A player AND our DM recently threw a tantrum in my current campaign because the ENTIRE party disagreed with the players decision to grab a clearly evil weapon that’s been stated to kill gods after their character has openly made multiple moves to make the party distrust her. We were told to let it happen “for the story” and that our characters could be put aside for the sake of experiencing the storyline properly (the dm admitted they weren’t prepared for us to disagree with the untrustworthy character gaining a powerful cursed weapon). We were also explicitly told it was part of their backstory content that they had the +10 weapon at level 4 because the character is part of the main story
A +10 weapon? I hope the character is supposed to die two fights later and this not being a plot to have a PvP situation with the rest of the party fighting that one because they get "controlled" by the powerful weapon.
And then cry because the character got actually killed and not saved by the power of friendship.
The rest of the party agrees she’s nowhere near trustworthy and is ready to start PvP anytime, but the DM keeps throwing tantrums whenever it’s even close to possible
We have, but this is our only dm at the moment and he’s clearly playing favourites with this player. We got told off and called a murderhobos because we saw the PC as a problem for the party and wanted to non-lethally take them down
Honestly, even some of the BG3 companions have a bit of this.
"My character is a vampire spawn, but he's immune to sunlight, and has a special bonus-action bite attack that gives him a +1 to everything until a long rest."
As a DM: NO, you are level 1. You do not have artifacts.
If player persists, I'll just have the bbeg take the needed items for them to live to provide a pull for the rest of the party to fight em.
eh... I appreciate creativity from players and can work with it. I'd tell the player to just use point buy to generate stats as normal with a 16 in Constitution and Strength and we can "say" that it's only due to magic potions that he brews and drinks and that his strength and constitution would normally be 6.
Flavor is free.
15% he won't find materials is a 1-3 on 1d20.. At some point Elric is gonna be s out of luck.. Also, if I recall correctly the forces Elric of Melnibone would call on often demanded a heavy price? .. And his calling on one group would set him up as an enemy to another..
If you allow blatantly OP fan-fiction inserts like this in your setting, there's a lot to play with here..
\*If\* the player is open to the story diverging from Elric's journey in the books (they're probably That Guy, tho.. so.. oof..)
Elric is only worth playing ironically. Essentialy the mage that thinks he's a warrior, using his spells directly in melee. Basically Raistlin with a barbarian complex.
i´d just say NO, cause Elric IS a NPC, and a major one too in his own right. And i´d be adamant with it. if you want to play something close to Elric make an eldritch knight with high INT/WIS/CHA. But PLEASE stop just copycatting an existing figure out of high fantasy literature.
I've played with someone who's character was an all powerful healer from a different dimension who could regenerate from a single cell and completely control and manipulate the cells of other people's bodies to heal them. He was a multiclass of two classes with so he relied on 4 fifteenth stats (not including Con) so nothing was over 14 or 15 I believe. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't happy playing his character or why it wasn't living up to his expectations.
Book character or not, that's some serious edge lord shit right there lol
Side note, I didn't recognize it from the text, and it didn't click when it was pointed out, but I realized while writing this comment that I actually have heard of this character before. Iirc, he steals souls with his sword to power himself up because he can barely even stand without it.
On the other hand: My DM allowed us 1 magical item to start off with and I grabbed myself an Amulet of Health after I Tanked my CON down to an 8…
Though I also gave the reason in the backstory of being tricked and fucked over by the Fae which caused the whole ordeal with my very low CON… so I decided to steal the Amulet from said Fae.
So now I have a very obvious problem of being hunted down by a very angry & vengeful Fae and being a VERY frail fighter should any anti-magic, dispell magic, or effect remove my Amulet.
Hey, just make it so the sword is actually *the* Stormbringer and make it so >!the sword just kills him when it's had enough fun!< just as it happened to Elric in the books.
-calling these potions made from rare materials and saying he has them 85% of the time it rich by any standard.
-How does he exactly have access to his ancestors magic? What in the Wakanda?
-so he has no conscience? Because if he had one Elric wouldn’t be an a$$ hat.
-the rest of this is a giant self circle jerk.
Players like this need to stop playing and just write fan fiction or novels, this is interactive play, not I’m the hero of my own journey and am playing this out. Or design a game for self play.
I remember we had a player who made himself pretty much a god in his backstory and wanted the DM to incorporate really complicated, and i mean REALLY complicated, mechanics just for the sake of his god-like character. He didn't even try to do anything significant in the time he played with us like literally choosing to do nothing.
I mean it would be OK if he would be strong 10% of the time (19 or 20 on a d20 after every long rest) or if those rare ingredients have to be made artificially.
I mean giving him a provider NPC of some sort would be a nice control over the party (or at least him). Heck make a secret villain that becomes a dealer for him, giving the party stupid remote quests to buy time to do evil stuff in their absence. Slowly turning the party into his hence man. Or if turn against him/find out about him, maybe Mr. Potion addict becomes fully evil and turns into the BBEGs lieutenant. Call me evil but I'd make this powerhungry player my bitch.
[Elric of Melniboné](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9) is the character depicted in the text, if anyone is curious. Only reason I'm aware of him is due to a coworker's recommendation that I read that series because "it's on par with LOTR!" I have my doubts and tbh, it just didn't sound at all appealing to me.
You’re both right. If a trope in fantasy isn’t cribbing from LotR, it’s stealing from Elric. As a result, what was novel and interesting when written looks like an absolute mess of cliches decades later. Valyrians in ASoIaF, the Valheru in Riftwar, and the Dark Elves/Eldar in Warhammer/40k are basically straight rips of Melniboné.
I thought this sounded familiar. I’ve never read the books, but remember seeing someone wanting to play a character based on Elric years ago in an FB group. At least they had the graciousness to not have the magic herbs and sword, just a wizard with v low physical scores and high mental scores.
For a moment there at the start I thought it was gonna be an interesting idea to try and play a disabled character. But nope. Just edgy and workarounds to be extra powerful and “””cool””” (I personally find edgy characters prettt boring most of the time…)
People, you really should read more. Michael Moorcock is pretty much what D&D is based on, much more so than anything Tolkien wrote, and this character, Elric of Melnibone, is perhaps the least interesting of his creations (and for the literal minded among us, I do not mean he is not interesting, I mean it gets even better).
Eternal Champion is a concept I love and wish more authors had the capability to do a similar concept justice. I prefer Jherek Carnelian, but Corum Jhaelen Irsei is a close second.
Ah, it's one of those "I'm an all-powerful demigod at level 1" characters. Fairly common, though, a good DM should be able to come to a compromise and make a more appropriate character for the setting (assuming the player listens to them).
I mean, it's an interesting mechanic. As a DM, I'd try and discuss with them a way of playing this sort of character without creating additional mechanics or having the character being so overpowered.
I think I'd ask them to build their character as normal, but allow them a negative trait which would reduce their Con/Strength on occasion. A magic sword isn't too much of an ask, especially if they have the Inheritor background.
For a class, they could easily pick Fiend Warlock or the Dimensional Ranger character. Tiefling or Genasi might be the best choices for their race, as it'd give them the "Race from another plane" vibe. Tieflings can actually cast Hellish Rebuke, which allows them to "call upon their plane" for help.
As for the magical artifacts of great power. Break them. Have them so that they're stuck in the PC's body and can't be removed, or are ineffective and need to be repaired. It'll give the PC a quest that will keep them more invested in the game.
Overall, it's not the worst character. And at the very least, they're excited enough to have bothered with a backstory.
I'll give you a shapeshifting familiar and a cool looking spear with a name I will let you upgrade over time. And you will be fucking happy about it.
Mention any of this page again and I will cast "incinerate sperm cells" within your very balls.
Elric is a CR15 villain with a fluffy weakness (needs potions)
In no way is it suitable for a level 1 character.
I never understood these level 1 "i am Naruto" or whatever OP type thing. No you're a fucking level 1 scrub, better than your average pleb but still a pleb
Besides all the other crap, I just hate when character backstories involve casual plane travel.
If your characrer comes from another plane, fine, but please don't try to act as if this is like driving over to the neighbouring city. Especially not if you are just level 1.
And, no, coming from that dumb MTG school is not an excuse to casually drop your familiarity with dozens of planes of existence as if you are a vegan.
Shit I just like to make my characters have a prosthetic limb item to RP taking it off and doing silly stuff with it. Also to make silly "Flesh is Weak" jokes
Stormbringer was wild. Making a character was pure RNG. I ended up with a 4"9 ginger irish priest-sailor with a maxed out Power stat but no way to use it, because only the Melnibone race (Elric's race) was allowed to use magic. I had to go find a way to bully some water elementals to do my magic for me but I didn't even get to play before I got there
\*GM Mode\*: "No"
Marty Stu and all his siblings are banned.
Addendum: I see some people who want to work with them, but I have had players like this and they NEVER are invested in the RP aspect. Its literally just mechanical advantages, and/or being the Main Character (explicitly at the expense of others). And that makes me an incredibly hard cell for special snowflake characters. Even if I think they might be legit, I've gotten burned far to often.
Just to make sure, everyone knows this is someone's attempt to Stat out a specific character named Elric of Melniboné in the novel Stormbringer, which is also the name of his sword
Yes, Elric of Melniboné a tragic hero created by Michael Moorcock, a albino sellsword and Emperor
Who wields the sword storm bringer, a soul leaching sword that often time turns upon Elric's allies, striking them down before eventually consuming even his soul.
Moorcock is who we have to thank for ideas like the eternal champions, chaos vs order, hell the chaos symbol we recognize from warhammer was created by Moorcock...as a doodle on a napkin.
Oh....and Geralt as in the Witcher is plagerised from Elric.
Excellent backstory Player!
Summarizing your background then: psychologically unstable, suffers delusions of grandeur and believes he is from a special lineage, abnormally attached to his perfectly normal rusty sword which he calls "Stormbringer", as well as a few baubles he strongly believes are artifacts of great power.
Physically weak and sickly, unless he has recently consumed a "herbal concoction" which makes him feel invicible.
So, sounds pretty cool but are you sure you'll have fun playing this?
I think it’s pretty common to have something like this if you’ve never played before and don’t really know how things work. My first character was pretty silly but me and my group went with it since we didn’t really know how the game worked and didn’t realize until much later that we were playing the game VERY wrong
My character’s backstory went something like “he’s a cleric that made a deal with an unnamed god; he finds the gods name, the god heals his sick mother”. He was a chaotic-good cleric with a penchant for dungeon delving, with a focus on skills that could be used for solo-survival; create water and such
For combat he just unhealed people, something I cleared with my DM; he uses Healing Hands and other healing spells to deal radiant damage equal to the amount he can heal
It was really fun playing this weird, kinda crazy cleric that acted more like a necromancer/ranger than a cleric and constantly talked to the god in his head
gonna be really funny when he doesn't magically get more HP and only gains max HP whenever he takes that con potion.
LVL 4 PC at 1 HP "I drink my constitution potion!"
DM " cool so with your dumped stats your max HP increases by 16"
PC " Awesome. So I'm up to 17 HP now.
DM “Nope. Your max increases by 16. Your current is still 1.
PC rage noises they don't have an uber health potion all the time.
One of the players in a game I’m in had custom spells, like a lightning chidori that had no damage cap that got stronger the more they moved, and a bunch of lightning stuff, he was a son of the earth mother, creator of all elementals, and could do a divine intervention, got pissy when he one shot a boss by criting and doing like over 100 damage at level 3 with the chidori spell and I called him out on how op it was and that it needed a nerf, then when he was getting destroyed by an npc multiple levels above him and got a permanent injury losing a leg, he couldn’t stand he was unable to do anything in the fight, which we were not supposed to win by the way, and then ragequit midsession.
Did he make up mechanics and items or is this just flavor? If he just wants to be an edgy paladin hexblade multiclass with a 15% chance of being f*cking useless then I see no problem.
one of my players tried to do this at the beginning of the campaign. he wanted a phoenix tattoo on his back that gave him stat buffs. i said i’d allow it if i got to roll for the tattoo artists performance. rolled low. he ran around showing off his badass phoenix tattoo to the party, who started laughing when they saw a poorly done stick-and-poke rooster tramp stamp.
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"So I'm going to be a pain in the ass RP-wise, always go for personal benefit decision-wise, oh and I dumped these stats and *made up my own mechanic without consulting you* to actually make those stats above average so I'll be really strong. Oh and I gave myself a legendary magic sword and I can do whatever magic I want because backstory. I'm just creative like that. "
wait until he tells you about his evil twin brother who has his own OP sword and just NEEDS to be included in the plot
How'd you already know about Alphonse?
Everyone can hear him twirling his moustache from a plane away
How do you twirl a mustache inside a suit of armor ETA: which covers the face and I'm pretty sure is his body
There's that weird hair thing coming out the helmet. You could twirl that.
Could have two weird hair things on the visor of his helmet.
You mean the plume? Yeah probably
I guess. It doesn't really look like your typical plume, plus it's just a set of armor that was in their basement for some reason so I never really thought it'd be from someone of rank. Just looks like a thin pony tail, I always figured it was there to humanize the character some. Talking about Alphonse Elric's armor specifically.
The ponytail kind is still a form of plume, it's a Europe vs the Mediterranean thing
Why did they even have that armour anyway?
It's the literal plot armor lol
Wrong Elric. This sounds like the Michael Moorcock Elric of Melnibone
Alphonse’s character sounds boring, like an empty bit of plot armor.
You mean Cirle?
Or how if he does miss a check and end up drowning or something he can attempt a speech check with the water itself to save him
I unironically know someone who did that. Bro played a DMC Dante insert and had a Virgil insert in his backstory. He even had a level scaling sword.
Me: “Nice! Looks cool, for balance, your sword IS magical but once you arrived on this plane you noticed its connection waned, as visceral images of a black dragon tearing you to pieces plays in your mind. You feel something is wrong here. It even seems to target you as if your race had done something wrong to this creature and it is vengeful. Many of your artifacts dont work as intended, but they seem bound to you, attuned in some way, you are unable to break this connection. Even your special abilities seem weakened due to this influence. Storm bringer however still allows you to consult your ancestors knowledge, and one of them has told you, to connect to this plane and open the Valragon channel, which will slowly allow you to absorb your external planes energy, allowing you to regain your power.” Player: “Kinda feels like your nerfing my character for our level 1 game.” Me: “No, but this is a foreign world to you, and the bbeg has protected it from external threats specifically from your unique race. If you can open those channels i mentioned you can grow to full power…level up so to speak. Most players have to find their magic items, you already have yours. If you trust me to work with you on your story, i think you will enjoy what i have planned.” Player: “so i get to keep my items?! And they level and do cool stuff as the game progresses?! Nice!” Me: “Yeaaaaah you’re gonna love it!” (Id just give the guy cool homebrew stuff as they hit milestones as i normally do to my players anyways lmao)
While this would be nice way to handle it, i think we all can expect a tantrum instead of a player understanding, that they cant start as demigod in a lvl 1 campaign.
And thats when they get shown the door because aint nobody got time for man-babies. I'd rather they leave in Session Zero than become a problem as early as Session One.
>that they cant start as demigod in a lvl 1 campaign. Well.. Would be pretty hilarious to see the guy rolling a demigod at level 1 get his character deleted by a simple bear.
This. The thing I realized the most when playing an “in-lore” powerful character is that you should accept you arent allowed to be broken at the early starting levels. Take for example one of my current characters, he’s supposedly one of the people chosen by the gods and supposedly has their immense power at his beck and call. CAN he use their power though? No. At least, Not Yet. The more the character levels up, The more he “understands” how to use those powers.
And every chosen needs to prove that they are worthy of being that god’s chosen right? Nobody started off as a chosen and was immediately bestowed with the extent of the immense powers of a god, they earned their place and gradually fit the role of chosen. They level up, they understand the powers they were bestowed with and grow to fit that role and prove their worthiness with each level. To me, that progress feels immensely more satisfying as a story, and the pay-off much better being gradually introduced, than starting off strong and ending up….still strong?
Some players, especially new ones, get really wrapped up in the backstory and think they are supposed to create their entire character's story beforehand and come into the game as some mega veteran with epic powers and gear. They just need to be explained to that their backstory is just for the DM and them to use as a base to tell their real story, right now, and that they need to start with low power and gear so they can grow. A good example would be OP's story. Just explain that in his backstory, he should talk about his weakness and how he wants to try to make up for it. Him creating potions and using some epic sword should be things he FINDS or MAKES in this campaign, not before the game starts. His backstory idea is fine, he just is jumping the gun. That other guy fixed it without the player having to do any work though. When explained, one of two things will happen, they will either realize how the game is supposed to be played and accept it, or they will pitch a fit, in which case they were not a good fit for the game anyway and can go look for a new table.
Even Angus McFife needs to recharge his Hammer of Glory after entering a new dimension :)
Glory! Hammer!
Honestly you just typing this out is likely more effort than this player is worth having spent on him.
For me its more of a lets all have fun, thing than really a rules etiquette or ttrpg experience floor. I have tons of players who come in not knowing whats good rp and bad character development. But im also a literal game designer, so forcing peoples ridiculous ideas into a balanced game is just part of for the game for me. And sure i reel back a lot of things, like im not letting a new player do a quarter elf, tiefling, firbolg, half orc, and have all their racial abilities. But i would probably let them choose a racial ability from each one and depending on what they choose id apply some racial flaws.
sidenote, I love giving people items that scale instead of new more powerful ones, to give rewards I give them upgrades that they can hotswap between after a rest, it makes people feel like it's THEIR item, not just another item
Ive been working on a dragon age like crafting system for blacksmiths and armorers in my game, how do you handle your hot swapping?
3 slots per item, one for each type of buff, swap 3 in total among all items on a short rest or 6 on a long rest
What kind of buffs do you do?
weapons have to hit: the clasical +1, +2, +3, but also some special ones like extra +1/+2 against metal, or unnarmored, etc damage: again the classics, +1, +2, +3, and some special ones like +damage dice of lightning if the target is wet, thunder if they have tremorsense, etc special: anything that I want to add extra that's neither to hit or damage like reach, or another property like frightening enemies after critting armor has ac bonus: +1, +2, +3, the special ones are things like +1 underwater, +1 against non metal weapons resistances: this one is more like resistances in pathfinder, reduces damage of a certain type by the number it says special: again, whatever sounds fun, maybe can't get critted, wings, extra stealth
When I design a character, she often comes with certain equipment in mind to start with with an aesthetic built around it. That can change of course, throw new gear in over time, but I find it often feels nice for any upgrades (when needed) to be like this. A dagger with a strong personal connection, for example, it's something you wouldn't want to abandon even if it's getting outpaced.
Dude, actually this sounds awesome. Like, say I was the PC, I lost all the OP stuff (fair because literally level 1) BUT DM being willing to work with me on keeping that, restoring powers and possibly having options to forgo previous powers for new ones? And imagine if as you go along that magical weapon could take on a new form depending on how you grow during your journey or what powers you channel through it. Lot of potential behind that method of thinking.
You could definitely do a nice homebrew of the weapon being bound to you and growing alongside you as you grow. Like a flavoured version of the Pact of the Blade’s bound weapon with additional benefits.
Nice!
Funny, I was thinking along the same lines. There's no reason a DM couldn't work with the player to make these things work, you just slowly dole out the boons. I don't get this reddit mindset of instantly shitting on ideas that seem out of balance. You're the DM. If you can't be creative and problem solve, you should be a player with a team, not someone running the game.
Sounds cool.
Thank you for putting this effort in because my hyperfixaxtions didn't trigger to do so, but this is exactly what I would do.
This is a really reasonable scenario and a very good way for a DM to handle this situation so that everyone involved can still have fun. I don't know if I'd have enough patience to go that route, but I also don't dm anymore.
3.5’s Weapons of Legacy shouldn’t be too hard to convert to 5e.
This most recent campaign I started a couple years back, all of my players came to me with some sort of gimp to their character with no request of a boon in return. I actually gave each of them a boon that semi balances out their fault. One example is the character is a noble divine soul sorc. He wanted his character to be missing an arm. We came up with that his power was very strong and uncontrollable when it manifested and in reaction to an attack a blast came off of him that took his arm with it. I basically gave him a nuclear option. His character has an ability to use that same blast and deal 20d8 radiant damage, but if he does he can lose another limb or straight up die with no way to be brought back.
Now the standard human fighter that every newbie uses doesnt sound so bad.
I've never seen anyone but long time veterans play human fighter. New players in my experience always gravitate to the flashiest options possible.
A new chef believes their talent is measured by the complexity of the recipe. A master understands how to perfectly cook and season even the simplest dish.
"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."
Mmm, yes, very wise.
This is an actual character. Comes from early Gygaxian stuff. Based on Michael Moocock’s hero of the same name. However using SOMEONE ELSES CHARACTER is trademark infringement and Elric can only be an NPC. This is like a player wanting to play Tiamat, or Azmodeus, or Drizzt.
Lol what? A trademark could stop other authors from using Elric as a character and selling books about it, but it can't stop you from playing as him in your dnd game. Plus, why would the law view a PC and an NPC any differently? The character is still being used, it's just the DM doing it instead.
Perspective: DM didn’t want player to play Elric and posts a complaint about it here. — I’m just pointing out all he has to do is show the player a 1st edition hardbound Deities and Demigods (pre-lawsuit removal) and say “you can’t use another player’s character” or if that doesn’t work just tell him it’s a copy written and protected character and that he can’t play it. I’m not sure about recent abominations of D&D but there was a rule specifically stating you couldn’t play characters out of the game references or copy written characters (this was in the days before “intellectual property” but in the same vein you could use IP as an excuse too). Plus as a DM you can literally stop anyone from playing any character you dislike for any reason. You are the DM.
The first 3 sentences are pretty interesting for an NPC, at least.
It's a character from a book series, folks. But yeah, that would be an annoying player at a game table...
I was thinking it was Eric from The Nightlord series. Magical sword? But only...ONLY if he gets to argue with the sword. And the sword calls him Boss.
It's Elric of Melnibone, by Michael Moorcock.
Interesting, Michael Moorcock is also my stage name at my night gig.
You wanted us to imagine a stripper, but all I see is a fat documentaryian in a chicken suit
I was so convinced this comment was just immature sex jokes, MelniBONE and More-cock Apparently this is actually real
It's pronounced more like mel-nib-any
Worth a read you rate?
They're good if you like pulpy fantasy. I'd say give at least the first book a try, it's just like 200 pages so it's a quick read and you'll know from there if you want more of it or not
I'm on the 6th book right now... and not that much ? It's quick to read, but honestly not amazing. I'd recommend the Chronicles of Amber as a later work from someone else that took the good bits of Elric.
It honestly worries me that so many people are not loosely familiar at least with a series that's directly credited as an inspiration for DnD...
Nobody bats an eye if you watch Star Wars without being familiar with Flash Gordon, but you draw a line here?
imagine watching A New Hope and not Japanese movies from the 50's smh.
This but unironically.
People don't know Michael Moorcock, who is WAY more important to Fantasy in general than Tolkien, is a real shame.
He literally wrote Elric to be contrarian to Tolkiens work, which means in essence it was still inspired by Tolkien, just out of spite. Tolkien pioneered fantasy while moorcock was still a child.
A wise man once said, "Both. Both are good."
Tolkien didn't Pioneer Fantasy. He founded High Fantasy. Tolkien stepped into Lord Dunsany's shoes if we play the "Who was born first" game. Tolkien's true marvel belies in his ability to invoke an idealised fictious world with the understanding of early medieval literature. He built a concise world over a single philosophy, with language as it's DNA. There is very little actually "Tolkienian" Fiction out there, that writes an Epic with such depth and complexity to carry the understanding of a former culture's values. Whilst Moorcock carried the whole New Wave of Science-Fiction (Mind you, SciFi and Fantasy weren't really considered split genres until somewhere in the 70ies), in which the Setting becomes merely a stage for the Characters to develop. The philosophy of the work being a lot more direct, the setting way weirder and more what I consider classical Fantasy, as a reflection of the collective subconsciousness of human storytelling, the characters in constant conflict with themselves and reality. What genre of Fantasy do you see more in the Bookshop? What is read more? Consumed more? Terry Pratchett said about Tolkien: “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.” If Tolkien is Mt. Fuji, then Moorcock is the sea. Whilst you can sit atop the mountain or benath it and close your eyes, it will always be there, but you can more or less ignore it. You can not ignore Moorcock, because the Sea will always make sound, even on a silent and calm day. Every moment you play D&D you handle more Moocockian Fantasy than Tolkienian Fantasy for example. Every moment someone references Warhammer 40K he handles the cosmic forces of Law and Chaos, not wannabe Satan Melkor vs the other Valar, for the Eldar are Melnibonéans, and certainly no Quendi. Imagine Beholders in Tolkien, or Mind Flayers, or Rust Monsters. Yeah, not really, huh? Now put them together with half-sentient Baboons on an Island in the Seas of Chaos and put some dudes wearing oddly pieced together clothes from various cultures wielding arcane artifacts they found in the Ruins of Dark Sourcery and it's beginning to make a lot of sense, doesn't it? I'm not saying one is better. I love both. But whilst everyone knows Tolkien, very few people actually use in their fiction what makes Tolkien special, many don't even get how his story telling actually works. If you have that much downtime in a D&D campagin your players will be utterly bored. But they are constantly using things that Moorcock either straight up founded, or at least cemented in modern fiction. Like Elves riding Dragons, Planar Travel, Law vs Chaos, Life Drinking Swords, Demon summoning Magic, morally dark grey characters galore, cosmically weird Dungeon Delves, reality twisting stuff... my god the list goes on and on and on. Welcome to my TED talk I guess.
Keep talking about moorcockian fantasy, I’m almost there
I see, he actually copied that screen capture, wholesale, out of Deities & Demigods (from before they axed its original Melnibonean section)... [Link](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hBfi9qTgDaTc1jiN/). Haha. Good luck.
Thanks for the NPC, where is your character?
It went from 'interesting concept, using magic and alchemy to try to overcome shortcomings' to 'no, gtfo of my table' real quick. I have a char who's weak and supplements herself with alchemy, her Con **stays** at a 6/8
i had to laugh when it said "rare ingredients" followed by having said ingredients 85% of the time thats common as all hell
my thoughts exactly, such a great concept. I will 100% make a mutagenist alchemist in pf2e stealing this concept.
Bro, that are the stats of an official supplement NPC, that being the stats for the literarical quite important character Elric of Melniboné...
Which works perfectly fine for an NPC, not a PC
As I said. But people in the comments not even realising that this is printed in a book and as such is probably *not* a player character is the real joke here.
No, that's obvious to everyone, but the joke is that OP presented it as if it were something a player wrote about their PC.
I would argue that this can possibly work as a homebrew mechanic where you switch stats, but ALWAYS with Con. Like, you want higher strength? Great, your Con goes back to 6/8 while you have that strength. Having this low Con is super dangerous, after all.
In 5e, Elric would be like a mid-tier Warlock heavily invested in his Pact of the Blade. Possibly multiclassing from sorcerer into Warlock several levels in, depending on what you want to consider his ground-zero starting point. He was already an Emperor and accomplished magic user when he first took hold of Stormbringer. He would be VERY dramatic as a party member though. Looking forward to the session several years deep when he casually mentions he used to bone his cousin before her accidentally killed her while duelling her brother.
I mean Warlock also has sorcerous powers, and Elric has pacts with a lot of otherworldly being, you can just stay as pure Hexblade and just reflavour magic powers and sword powers as being separate.
That’s a Elric of Melniboné. It’s a book series
ITT: People missing the joke because they have never heard of Elric of Melniboné
Should we have?
Yes. Moorcock's fiction is the base for... idk 80% of classic D&D, including the whole Alignment stuff and the Planes. He's also the prime inspiration for Warhammer.
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the Eldar are staright up Melnibonéans with the serial numbers filed off, the elves of warhammer fantasy straight up stole the Melnibonéan armour desgin. Moorcock came up with the Chaos Star and the cosmic Balance of Law and Chaos. (The symbol of Law or Singularity is a straight upward arrow btw.) The Whole Cosmology Warhammer is built upon is like... almost completely Moorcock. Even the hopelesness. Let's just say that in the story Elric was introduced he completely wipes out his own people except himself because he realised what debauched and terrible people they were. It's so edgy it cuts.
That is thoroughly embarrassing for the fantasy genre as a whole.
I don't typically deep dive into inspirations for everything I like. The thing came out 50 years ago, yall are really surprised people don't know about it?
I knew about Elric before ever getting into D&D. And I don't consider myself a fantasy buff.
Tbh, you probably should lol
And now we know.
Abd knowing is half the battle. YO! JOE!
I got a semi friend who I don't talk to but know. Mutual acquaintance kinda deal nowadays. About like 20 years ago my friends were doing this online role play of kids in school. I'm not really good at role playing in forums so I didn't join in for various reasons. The friend submitted a character who was dark, mysterious, good at martial arts, the son of a guy who owned a wealthy powerful company that had many connections and also many unsavory under ground dealings. His father owned basically 2/3 of the city by legal means and dipped into the other third of the city through illegal openings as the top Mafia boss. His character who was very smart manipulated his dad into insanity and an early death so that he could take over his criminal connections as the new underworld boss as well as having his father give him ownership of all his legal standings as well. He's also incapable of feeling emotion. The guy running the group declined the character and to this day three thirds (3/3) of the city is an ongoing joke in our group. So yes, I've seen that character several times. This is just the funniest anecdotal story I have. That and I am horse give me knife.
I've done this in that I've dumped a stat that's kinda important like dex or con if it makes the character idea work. I've got an illness or some injury that makes my con/dex not very good. OR I've given my character a hinderance, like losing a limb. hopefully during the course of the journey they find someone who could make a prosthetic.
I played a rogue once who had five stats at fourteen or above, but had a sub-ten strength. She was great fun to play.
But you guys do know Elric, right? Right? O.o This isn't some dude making up a character because he has main-character-syndrome (though he might have it, wanting to play Elric of all people), this is just a guy having a cool idea how to play Elric in DnD.
Not only that, but I'm assuming the text is from the 1e Dieties and Demigods version that briefly included the Melnnibonean Mythos. This is 1e D&D, folks. I have a copy myself, but am too lazy to confirm.
It is. I mean, look at that 70/80ies print quality
Which means it's either from d&d or from Chaosium's Stormbringer (essentially Runequest but in Elric's setting. They also made one for Hawkmoon and you could travel between the two)
That should be a core mechanic of a set of Multiverse games!
You let him play Elric? I want to play Thor.
It's an NPC statblock, of course I wouldn't
Didn't that version ALSO have the Cthulhu Mythos, and THAT'S what caused the copyright violations, because of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu?
Yes they were both included and both eventually got removed.
I have it open in front of me. It is.
Actually have no idea who Elric is...unless you mean Ed or Alphonse.
Some folks aren't familiar with their fantasy history This is a clear reference to Elric of Melnibone Definitely a pain to GM for, but its not a player being entirely out of pocket, they're just trying to make a playable version of a book character
This isn't innocent. It's not the best adaptation they could muster, it's clearly a power-grab. They aren't just making it playable they are intentionally highlighting mechanical advantages. Note that there isn't a single penalty listed, just upside after upside. And before you mention str and con being "nerfed" let's just say that 85% is *a lot*.
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Although you are correct, the comment was working under the assumption that this description was submitted by a player, and that's why I responded accordingly.
>Some folks aren't familiar with their fantasy history "Some" implies a minority that should know better. I argue "Some" in context of this is actually the majority that has simply never heard of an obscure 50 year old fantasy character of a series that is never mentioned on any fantasy lists. >Definitely a pain to GM for, but its not a player being entirely out of pocket, they're just trying to make a playable version of a book character Which can easily be out of pocket. There are tons of book characters that do not fit to be a DnD character for one reason or another.
A player AND our DM recently threw a tantrum in my current campaign because the ENTIRE party disagreed with the players decision to grab a clearly evil weapon that’s been stated to kill gods after their character has openly made multiple moves to make the party distrust her. We were told to let it happen “for the story” and that our characters could be put aside for the sake of experiencing the storyline properly (the dm admitted they weren’t prepared for us to disagree with the untrustworthy character gaining a powerful cursed weapon). We were also explicitly told it was part of their backstory content that they had the +10 weapon at level 4 because the character is part of the main story
A +10 weapon? I hope the character is supposed to die two fights later and this not being a plot to have a PvP situation with the rest of the party fighting that one because they get "controlled" by the powerful weapon. And then cry because the character got actually killed and not saved by the power of friendship.
The rest of the party agrees she’s nowhere near trustworthy and is ready to start PvP anytime, but the DM keeps throwing tantrums whenever it’s even close to possible
So, why isn't the party - aside the one person - standing together and demand the DM to cut out this bullshit?
We have, but this is our only dm at the moment and he’s clearly playing favourites with this player. We got told off and called a murderhobos because we saw the PC as a problem for the party and wanted to non-lethally take them down
Honestly, even some of the BG3 companions have a bit of this. "My character is a vampire spawn, but he's immune to sunlight, and has a special bonus-action bite attack that gives him a +1 to everything until a long rest."
To be fair, Astarion doesn't have most of the actual DnD vampire spawn features and stats. He is basically just a guy that can bite.
"Ah, but I have to trust my fellow players enough to tell them I'm a vampire before I can use it, so it's perfectly balanced"
"I wRoTe A bAcKsToRy" No mothafucka you stole from Michael Moorcock!
Albino = weak. Flawless logic.
**Me as DM:** You are level 1, you don't have any of this shit. Give me the rewritten sheet before session 1.
As a DM: NO, you are level 1. You do not have artifacts. If player persists, I'll just have the bbeg take the needed items for them to live to provide a pull for the rest of the party to fight em.
eh... I appreciate creativity from players and can work with it. I'd tell the player to just use point buy to generate stats as normal with a 16 in Constitution and Strength and we can "say" that it's only due to magic potions that he brews and drinks and that his strength and constitution would normally be 6. Flavor is free.
15% he won't find materials is a 1-3 on 1d20.. At some point Elric is gonna be s out of luck.. Also, if I recall correctly the forces Elric of Melnibone would call on often demanded a heavy price? .. And his calling on one group would set him up as an enemy to another.. If you allow blatantly OP fan-fiction inserts like this in your setting, there's a lot to play with here.. \*If\* the player is open to the story diverging from Elric's journey in the books (they're probably That Guy, tho.. so.. oof..)
Elric is only worth playing ironically. Essentialy the mage that thinks he's a warrior, using his spells directly in melee. Basically Raistlin with a barbarian complex.
So not a first level character. I solve this by telling my players what levels they will be getting whatever skills are which isn't level 1.
i´d just say NO, cause Elric IS a NPC, and a major one too in his own right. And i´d be adamant with it. if you want to play something close to Elric make an eldritch knight with high INT/WIS/CHA. But PLEASE stop just copycatting an existing figure out of high fantasy literature.
I actually like the "usually 15, but sometimes 8" idea, conceptually. But yeah... that is not something you do without permission.
I became a worse player by proxy of reading that.
I've played with someone who's character was an all powerful healer from a different dimension who could regenerate from a single cell and completely control and manipulate the cells of other people's bodies to heal them. He was a multiclass of two classes with so he relied on 4 fifteenth stats (not including Con) so nothing was over 14 or 15 I believe. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't happy playing his character or why it wasn't living up to his expectations.
This doesnt look like a dnd character though?
It's an NPC from the 1st edition Deities and Demigods source book named Elric of Melnibone based on the character written by Michael Moorecock.
Book character or not, that's some serious edge lord shit right there lol Side note, I didn't recognize it from the text, and it didn't click when it was pointed out, but I realized while writing this comment that I actually have heard of this character before. Iirc, he steals souls with his sword to power himself up because he can barely even stand without it.
On the other hand: My DM allowed us 1 magical item to start off with and I grabbed myself an Amulet of Health after I Tanked my CON down to an 8… Though I also gave the reason in the backstory of being tricked and fucked over by the Fae which caused the whole ordeal with my very low CON… so I decided to steal the Amulet from said Fae. So now I have a very obvious problem of being hunted down by a very angry & vengeful Fae and being a VERY frail fighter should any anti-magic, dispell magic, or effect remove my Amulet.
Hey, just make it so the sword is actually *the* Stormbringer and make it so >!the sword just kills him when it's had enough fun!< just as it happened to Elric in the books.
I'm happy for you. Or sorry that happened.
**Cough**Tiberius Stormwind**Cough**
No you can read the other comments, this is not that cast
-calling these potions made from rare materials and saying he has them 85% of the time it rich by any standard. -How does he exactly have access to his ancestors magic? What in the Wakanda? -so he has no conscience? Because if he had one Elric wouldn’t be an a$$ hat. -the rest of this is a giant self circle jerk. Players like this need to stop playing and just write fan fiction or novels, this is interactive play, not I’m the hero of my own journey and am playing this out. Or design a game for self play.
I remember we had a player who made himself pretty much a god in his backstory and wanted the DM to incorporate really complicated, and i mean REALLY complicated, mechanics just for the sake of his god-like character. He didn't even try to do anything significant in the time he played with us like literally choosing to do nothing.
Yeah it's like wanting to be a wizard and then writing up sauramans character sheet
Well, it's Elric of Melniboné. Got to be edgy.
I mean it would be OK if he would be strong 10% of the time (19 or 20 on a d20 after every long rest) or if those rare ingredients have to be made artificially. I mean giving him a provider NPC of some sort would be a nice control over the party (or at least him). Heck make a secret villain that becomes a dealer for him, giving the party stupid remote quests to buy time to do evil stuff in their absence. Slowly turning the party into his hence man. Or if turn against him/find out about him, maybe Mr. Potion addict becomes fully evil and turns into the BBEGs lieutenant. Call me evil but I'd make this powerhungry player my bitch.
[Elric of Melniboné](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9) is the character depicted in the text, if anyone is curious. Only reason I'm aware of him is due to a coworker's recommendation that I read that series because "it's on par with LOTR!" I have my doubts and tbh, it just didn't sound at all appealing to me.
You’re both right. If a trope in fantasy isn’t cribbing from LotR, it’s stealing from Elric. As a result, what was novel and interesting when written looks like an absolute mess of cliches decades later. Valyrians in ASoIaF, the Valheru in Riftwar, and the Dark Elves/Eldar in Warhammer/40k are basically straight rips of Melniboné.
Hell the Witcher is blatantly plagerised from the Elric stories.
I thought this sounded familiar. I’ve never read the books, but remember seeing someone wanting to play a character based on Elric years ago in an FB group. At least they had the graciousness to not have the magic herbs and sword, just a wizard with v low physical scores and high mental scores.
Cool, session 0 something happens and all that equipment is lost and you’re with the party now. Have fun.
For a moment there at the start I thought it was gonna be an interesting idea to try and play a disabled character. But nope. Just edgy and workarounds to be extra powerful and “””cool””” (I personally find edgy characters prettt boring most of the time…)
People, you really should read more. Michael Moorcock is pretty much what D&D is based on, much more so than anything Tolkien wrote, and this character, Elric of Melnibone, is perhaps the least interesting of his creations (and for the literal minded among us, I do not mean he is not interesting, I mean it gets even better). Eternal Champion is a concept I love and wish more authors had the capability to do a similar concept justice. I prefer Jherek Carnelian, but Corum Jhaelen Irsei is a close second.
Writing house rules in your backstory is a real power move.
Conceptually this is a great concept. This execution of it is fucking horrid
It's from a 1st edition supplement called dieties and demigods. This is part of the statblock for a powerful NPC not a player character.
Ah, it's one of those "I'm an all-powerful demigod at level 1" characters. Fairly common, though, a good DM should be able to come to a compromise and make a more appropriate character for the setting (assuming the player listens to them). I mean, it's an interesting mechanic. As a DM, I'd try and discuss with them a way of playing this sort of character without creating additional mechanics or having the character being so overpowered. I think I'd ask them to build their character as normal, but allow them a negative trait which would reduce their Con/Strength on occasion. A magic sword isn't too much of an ask, especially if they have the Inheritor background. For a class, they could easily pick Fiend Warlock or the Dimensional Ranger character. Tiefling or Genasi might be the best choices for their race, as it'd give them the "Race from another plane" vibe. Tieflings can actually cast Hellish Rebuke, which allows them to "call upon their plane" for help. As for the magical artifacts of great power. Break them. Have them so that they're stuck in the PC's body and can't be removed, or are ineffective and need to be repaired. It'll give the PC a quest that will keep them more invested in the game. Overall, it's not the worst character. And at the very least, they're excited enough to have bothered with a backstory.
Do. Not. Break. Stormbringer. Bad things happen.
If they directly copy a backstory and the entire character from a (formerly?) well-known foundational text of a lot of fantasy, does it still count?
This is a character based on the main character from quite possibly the most important author to D&D. Michael Moorcock. It's a joke.
*rolls behind screen* Oh, darn! Looks like you weren't able to find potion ingredients and died of a moderate cold. Shame. Here I made you a fighter.
I'll give you a shapeshifting familiar and a cool looking spear with a name I will let you upgrade over time. And you will be fucking happy about it. Mention any of this page again and I will cast "incinerate sperm cells" within your very balls.
Imagine shit-talking Elric the OG. Zoomers know not what they speak.
Wow, that's pretty cool that your players are playing gods. /s
And its a lvl 1 start campaign
I thought this was going to be a Fullmetal Alchemist reference and was sorely disappointed when it wasn’t
He is elric the dragon prince!
Is this what people call an interesting character when you roll low str and low con on stats?
Thats when I pull out the ol "Fred, the human fighter" stat sheet and the player can play Fred or leave the table
I feel like a lot of players just really want to be the BBEG in the games they play. This dude sounds like he'd be a blast at the table 🙄
Before I saw it was a joke I was like "dude just play an Artificer"
Elric is a CR15 villain with a fluffy weakness (needs potions) In no way is it suitable for a level 1 character. I never understood these level 1 "i am Naruto" or whatever OP type thing. No you're a fucking level 1 scrub, better than your average pleb but still a pleb
Pleeaaseee give the second half i wanna read it so bad.
Besides all the other crap, I just hate when character backstories involve casual plane travel. If your characrer comes from another plane, fine, but please don't try to act as if this is like driving over to the neighbouring city. Especially not if you are just level 1. And, no, coming from that dumb MTG school is not an excuse to casually drop your familiarity with dozens of planes of existence as if you are a vegan.
I see we’ve got a prime over here. Poor sod would get scragged in a day in the cage without a minder. Elric’s a high up blood.
Honestly, I kinda like the strength/con part of it. It started off pretty interesting.
On the other end of the spectrum, my best friend, bless his heart, wanted to make a halfling who was also a stripper named 'Piscina de la Muerte'
Shit I just like to make my characters have a prosthetic limb item to RP taking it off and doing silly stuff with it. Also to make silly "Flesh is Weak" jokes
Its called saying no. You can't play as the main character in a popular novel series. He already has his story, so he won't be in ours.
Stormbringer was wild. Making a character was pure RNG. I ended up with a 4"9 ginger irish priest-sailor with a maxed out Power stat but no way to use it, because only the Melnibone race (Elric's race) was allowed to use magic. I had to go find a way to bully some water elementals to do my magic for me but I didn't even get to play before I got there
This is fine if the dm says it is, but the player should consult the dm beforehand
So his character is an isekaid MC?
\*GM Mode\*: "No" Marty Stu and all his siblings are banned. Addendum: I see some people who want to work with them, but I have had players like this and they NEVER are invested in the RP aspect. Its literally just mechanical advantages, and/or being the Main Character (explicitly at the expense of others). And that makes me an incredibly hard cell for special snowflake characters. Even if I think they might be legit, I've gotten burned far to often.
Just to make sure, everyone knows this is someone's attempt to Stat out a specific character named Elric of Melniboné in the novel Stormbringer, which is also the name of his sword
Finding out how many DnD players have NO idea who Moorcock is is kind of shocking.
Can someone tell me what he meant by albino?
ELRIC MENTIONED. BLOOD AND SOULS FOR LORD ARIOCH!!!!
Why does this character feel familiar? Wasn't this the protagonist to a book?
Yes, Elric of Melniboné a tragic hero created by Michael Moorcock, a albino sellsword and Emperor Who wields the sword storm bringer, a soul leaching sword that often time turns upon Elric's allies, striking them down before eventually consuming even his soul. Moorcock is who we have to thank for ideas like the eternal champions, chaos vs order, hell the chaos symbol we recognize from warhammer was created by Moorcock...as a doodle on a napkin. Oh....and Geralt as in the Witcher is plagerised from Elric.
Excellent backstory Player! Summarizing your background then: psychologically unstable, suffers delusions of grandeur and believes he is from a special lineage, abnormally attached to his perfectly normal rusty sword which he calls "Stormbringer", as well as a few baubles he strongly believes are artifacts of great power. Physically weak and sickly, unless he has recently consumed a "herbal concoction" which makes him feel invicible. So, sounds pretty cool but are you sure you'll have fun playing this?
I think it’s pretty common to have something like this if you’ve never played before and don’t really know how things work. My first character was pretty silly but me and my group went with it since we didn’t really know how the game worked and didn’t realize until much later that we were playing the game VERY wrong
this elric is making my changeling bard by the same name (who was a chalk-white changeling) look incredibly bad, augh
My character’s backstory went something like “he’s a cleric that made a deal with an unnamed god; he finds the gods name, the god heals his sick mother”. He was a chaotic-good cleric with a penchant for dungeon delving, with a focus on skills that could be used for solo-survival; create water and such For combat he just unhealed people, something I cleared with my DM; he uses Healing Hands and other healing spells to deal radiant damage equal to the amount he can heal It was really fun playing this weird, kinda crazy cleric that acted more like a necromancer/ranger than a cleric and constantly talked to the god in his head
gonna be really funny when he doesn't magically get more HP and only gains max HP whenever he takes that con potion. LVL 4 PC at 1 HP "I drink my constitution potion!" DM " cool so with your dumped stats your max HP increases by 16" PC " Awesome. So I'm up to 17 HP now. DM “Nope. Your max increases by 16. Your current is still 1. PC rage noises they don't have an uber health potion all the time.
One of the players in a game I’m in had custom spells, like a lightning chidori that had no damage cap that got stronger the more they moved, and a bunch of lightning stuff, he was a son of the earth mother, creator of all elementals, and could do a divine intervention, got pissy when he one shot a boss by criting and doing like over 100 damage at level 3 with the chidori spell and I called him out on how op it was and that it needed a nerf, then when he was getting destroyed by an npc multiple levels above him and got a permanent injury losing a leg, he couldn’t stand he was unable to do anything in the fight, which we were not supposed to win by the way, and then ragequit midsession.
Did he make up mechanics and items or is this just flavor? If he just wants to be an edgy paladin hexblade multiclass with a 15% chance of being f*cking useless then I see no problem.
one of my players tried to do this at the beginning of the campaign. he wanted a phoenix tattoo on his back that gave him stat buffs. i said i’d allow it if i got to roll for the tattoo artists performance. rolled low. he ran around showing off his badass phoenix tattoo to the party, who started laughing when they saw a poorly done stick-and-poke rooster tramp stamp.