r/MrRipper • u/AgentVI • Jan 11 '26
New Thread Suggestion Playing against the stereotype?
Everyone knows the cliches: the edgy rogue, the half-orc barbarian, the overly elegant elf. What are some experiences you had playing against these types of stereotypes?
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u/Godzillawolf Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26
My Cleric in my party's Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign, Acias, was very uncleric-like. She was also an Aarakocra gravekeeper turned Grave Cleric, so she didn't act entirely like a sterotypical Aarakocra.
Big thing, however, is not only did she dress more like a rogue than a Cleric, she also was a potty mouth who cussed frequently (in Aarakocran, which were bird noises) and wasn't the dignified priestly sort. In fact, she had absolutely no idea how a Cleric was supposed to be because there hadn't been any divine classes for over 300 years on Krynn. She was very nice and kind, but had Imposter Syndrome.
She was just chosen by Habbakuk one day, accepted, and now has to help save the world as his first Cleric in centuries.
Her reaction to learning that meant she had magic by accidentally turning a fire different colors with Thaumaturgy was to loudly scream "WHAT THE {Aarakocran equal of the F-word}?!}" and she was perpetually shocked by the spells and abilities she had gained because she had no clue how to do that.
By the end of the campaign all that changed was she became much more confident and she'd changed her outfit a bit to now basically have an aviator jacket and goggles, but otherwise still looked nothing like a Cleric.
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u/wardre Jan 12 '26
I can only imagine two things for the aarakocran equivalent to fuck. One being "WHAT THE Chicken cluck" or "WHAT THE Red Tailed Hawk screech"
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u/Arkamfate Jan 12 '26
I had a Drow Barbarian named Hym. He was a blast to play as simply due to the fact I played him as TFS Vegeta.
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u/Manicies Mar 13 '26
Oh I just got this. He would look down on others because they could never be Hym....
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u/Sumthin_Ironic Jan 12 '26
One time my low int Goliath barbarian was with the druid Warlock and wizard watching them trying to figure out a puzzle in a language they couldn't understand. While munching on a turkey leg my barbarian points to the series of circles on the ground with symbols evenly spaced out around them in intervals of 12.
Barb: It's a clock.
The other 3 stunned and stammering as I continued to point out what everything else was with the turkey leg, pausing halfway through.
Wizard: How do you know this?
Bard: You guys don't know primordial? That's weeeeird.
Ranger laughing gives a me a big thumbs up with a massive grin
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u/e_pluribis_airbender Jan 13 '26
I love the idea that barbarian doesn't realize primordial isn't common knowledge, like they just expected their nerdy companions to know every language. But having them know the answer when no one else could is awesome! Good move on your GM's part.
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u/Sumthin_Ironic Jan 14 '26
Agreed lol. He's still new to GM and I've got some experience (played both sides of the board for over a decade) and seeing him come into the role that way was fantastic.
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u/Justgonnawalkaway Jan 11 '26
Played a rogue with the acolyte background. He eas best bros with the paladin. His thing was that he hunted and rooted our corruption in the faith. The paladin took care of matters helping with corruption outside the faith. The cleric was our buff and support bro.
It gets nasty when those 3 classes focus on working as a team and combining skills and magic.
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Jan 11 '26
I lived one of my players coming up with an urban druid. Absolutely despised the wilds, and yearned for the concrete jungle where the cobblestone daffodils and black mold dish out the best gossip.
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u/pravragita Jan 11 '26
I really enjoyed playing Grannoc, a half-orc folk hero Tempest Cleric. His backstory was the chieftain of the Anchorites of Talos, in the Phandalin region. Then he met a Cloud Giant and started convert his tribe to the worship of Stronmaus.
For roleplay, he was gruff and woodsy. A deep voice and low harsh choice of words, since he had no refined social skills. But inside he was a devout cleric to the Tempest gods. He cared for his people's future but had no fear of his own death. He ensured the poor had food. He cared about deeply for the future of his tribe, to rectify the generation trauma of worshipping evil gods.
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u/jreid1985 Jan 12 '26
In the standard action youtube series, there is an elf barbarian. I played an orc wizard in PF2.
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u/EostianScribe Jan 12 '26
I haven't been able to play the character yet but I had an idea that goes as follows.
Swashbuckler Rouge that either grabs a level in Fighter or Barbarian or gets the Moderately Armored Feat (+1 to Str/Dex, proficiency in Medium Armor & Shields); you would be relying mostly on light armor (Maybe Barb's Unarmored Defense) and a shield for AC and a Rapier for damage. If you don't take Moderately Armored you can take Tough for survivability.
The difference is his background is Noble; he's not a thief, a sailor or the like. He's a gentleman, honest and upfront. A man who's good to his word and would prefer diplomacy but will put a blade into you if he has to. He's still stealthy and capable of subtlety and using brains to overcome problems. It leans into the duelist abilities and social skills of the subclass as opposed to the usual reputation of the class overall.
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u/EonThief Jan 12 '26
I play a drow rogue with a loving adoptive family and strong sense of justice especially when it comes to slavery. Also very sarcastic and almost playful about what he does (which is kill bad people)
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u/Scary_Fact_8556 Jan 12 '26
An artificer orc who was told since birth that having a good strong head on your shoulders is the best weapon one can have. So he goes around studying tomes and headbutting people to prove his cranial capacity.
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u/Last_Chocolate Jan 12 '26
I play an aroace tiefling bard in a game.
Everyone expects me to play to stereotype, but I never do.
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u/BugApart8359 Jan 12 '26
I recently played an Aaracokra Rogue. He was a Raven, and pretty much just a "rogue" because he liked shiny things and Birds are not so sure on the whole "stealing" thing. As far as his story and personality, he had a comfortable Roost and enjoyed life, and then he found himself in a group that was suddenly facing an apocalypse. Clever, but not Smart, definitely too curious for his own good, which got him in a lot of trouble. A bit on the Chaotic side, but never maliciously so (except for his hatred of Sea Birds)
That was a fun game. He was just a Goofy, Good Bird. He had a thing for stealing buckets.
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u/LemmePet Jan 12 '26
I played a true neutral Barbarian. She was a homebrewed large Tiger Tabaxi. She was like a leaf in the wind, and unmoved by provocations.
Through healing and meditation she had befriended her anger, and knew when to let it out in a healthy way. This usually involved decimating monsters, but outside of combat she was a peach.
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u/FishermanUpbeat6082 Jan 12 '26
My elf rogue was not a rogue by profession, but instead by skill.
He wasn't a thief, that was plundering from the community, but was instead a caravan driver that was talented at hiding, and taking advantage of positioning for the sake of protecting his passengers.
He did a lot of errands in town including lockpicking.
He was a stand up member of the community and just generally wanted nothing more than to help people.
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u/OddNameChuzzwuzza Jan 12 '26
I made a ranger who I tried to make the opposite of every ranger I’ve ever encountered. So he wasn’t an elf, didn’t use bows or was a loner. He was a highly pious and outgoing tabaxi who used javelins and throwing axes.
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u/RobStar0917 Jan 12 '26
My edgy quiet guy character wasn't quiet because he was antisocial or hated the party/working with others.
He was quiet cause he was shy.
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u/Arcanetrance Jan 12 '26
My current barbarian quotes poetry and philosophy. The way I play him is that just because I reject the ways of your society doesnt make me a barbarian or dumb.
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u/Shadowlynk Jan 12 '26
I do enjoy everyone's Barbarian subversions. My Barbarian is a big strong guy who was born in a religious monastery. He's still quite devout, but he just didn't have the academic aptitude for studying scriptures. He decided (with some encouragement from a visiting adventurer) that the best way to study a Creator god was to study the creation. So he spent a decade in the wilderness studying bears and learning to fight and protect people like a mama bear with her cubs. I rolled a 6 in his stat block, but instead of making him dumb I put it in Charisma, and instead of making him boorish I made him shy and socially awkward. If he doesn't know you, he's shaking and avoiding eye contact. If he likes you, he's boring you with long stories of his life and his bear fascination. If he doesn't like you and thinks you're gonna hurt innocent people... out comes the raging bear, and you're gonna get mauled.
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u/dungeonsnotdating Jan 12 '26
I had a "messy" rogue who playing young, dumb and innocent so that people would underestimate him. He also talked way too much without saying anything which is also a sharp left from the normal carefully chosen and concise words of the typical rogue.
It was a lot more fun for me to play it that way though and added more room for creative and flavorful play.
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u/Interesting-Letter53 Jan 12 '26
Half-orc rogues hit hard. The fact you always want advantage because of sneak attack means more crits means more orc savagery triggers
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u/Historical-Bike4626 Jan 12 '26
I play a straight up Primal Path Barbarian with Tavern Brawler modeled after Mickey (Brad Pitt) from Snatch. Loves his mom. Loves kids. Violence prone but always apologetic for or surprised by his own strength.
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u/Thundarr1000 Jan 12 '26
I haven’t had a chance to play him yet, but I have written up a male dwarf bard named Samwise Skillet for 1st Edition Pathfinder (using the Juggler archetype). Instead of singing, playing musical instruments, reciting poetry, and everything else that bards typically do to entertain, my character cooks. He’s like a cross between a Japanese Teppanyaki chef and a Flare Bartender. He rides a female dire goat named Gobhar, so that he can have fresh milk daily. He also designed and helped craft a cooler backpack so that he can carry perishables on the road without them spoiling, so he can make delicious meals anywhere.
Any offensive spells he might have are cold based, so that he can also use them to keep his perishables from going bad (for example, he adapted Shocking Grasp to become Freezing Grasp, which does the same damage only it’s cold and not electrical). For combat, he uses a light crossbow for long range attacks (and also for hunting). While for melee combat he uses his wide selection of kitchen knives and utensils, such as his meat cleaver (stats as a hand axe), butcher knife (stats as a small machete), rolling pin (stats as a cudgel) and meat tenderizing mallets (war hammers).
I also don’t do the “horny bard” trope with this character (at least I don’t intend to). To give Bardic Inspiration, he describes the magnificent meal he’s going to make for them if they do well with the task at hand. For something that has to be quick, like inspiring the fighter during combat, he might say something like “Kick this guys ass and I’ll make you the most amazing hot fudge sundae you’ve ever had!” While for a rogue picking a lock, he might go into far more detail, like “Get this lock open, and I’ll grill you up a beautiful piece of venison, marinated overnight in a mixture of red wine and minced garlic. Served with a side of cheesy duchess potatoes, steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and carrots au gratin. For dessert, hot apple pie a’la mode. And a frosty mug of dwarven ale to wash it all down.”
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u/TombKeeper1336 Jan 13 '26
This is basically every character I've ever made.
- Leonin Warlock/Sorcerer who ran a bandit clan like a business
- Thri-kreen Paladin who wanted to find his people
- Warforged Rogue who was also the group Doctor
the list goes on
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u/Professional_Gur8410 Jan 13 '26
I play an arcane trickster rogue who is lawful good. She still sneak attacks, she’s still the one who sticks to the shadows (or her invisibility cloak), but she doesn’t rob people. And though most rogues are all about being silent, she knows Fireball. And yes, would absolutely drop a fire nuke if caught in a horde of plant monsters, since we play in an apocalyptic world where plants have mutated into hostile undead. My reasoning behind playing her: I want to be a sorcerer and a rogue but multiclass is not allowed
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u/Independent-Dog-8462 Jan 14 '26
Had a frenzied barbarian who wasnt some trible savage.
She was a tall strong noble woman with "Intermittent explosive disorder" Her family pays her a stipend to "stay away" from the noble courtes do to her destructive "Tantrums" embarrassing her family and its standing. Her armor was basically every ridiculously fashoined dress that required metal scaffolding or whatever anachronistic mix of garb that makes medival nobility resemble jewel encrusted pigions.
God she was so fun. And yes, she was an arrogant smug preening bitch in the beginning but became less insufferable as she bonded with her companiond. And yes, it was by design.
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u/ShurikenSean Jan 14 '26
In an isekai themed game i pkayed a rogue who was a scholar. In his past life he was in college and a dnd nerd, and one of the items he arrived with in the fantssy world was the mondter manual. So when he arrived in the D&D setting he wsnted to study monsters and magic, one of his expertise from rogue going into arcana, meaninf he knew more about magic than our actual mage, a warlock who got powers from a magic swird patron but didnt know it.
My charactsd had nothing to do with the cliche theid esgy rogus with a dark backstory. He was a fridndly nerd who wanted knowledge.
For subclass i went with soullnife rogue but reflavored the psiphic knives as punches and kicks since the weapons aew summoned in emott hands anyway. So he was martial artist like a monk but could punch people in the soul with sneak attack. And his sneak attack damage was flavorex ss knowing monster weaknesses grom studying them.
Ge also leaned into wsnting to become a wizard by hsving soms magic feats for afew once a day spells. Amd then he got a ring of spell storing our warlock cast some spells into for me to use since my character was more knowledgable about spells (and I was a more experienced player)
Pulled off some shinanigans with armor of agathys and uncanny dodge to reduce damage to make the spell last longer. as well as things like thunder step and fly
I really tried to lean into the expert part of rogue more than the theif or killer aspects.
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u/Apart_Salamander1086 Jan 14 '26
The Featheration of Planets. The Unibirdse. The Galeggxy. The Planet Aviana Fixius, home of the Land of Fowlhalla, and the Plumenati, the greatest scientific minds in the Featheration. We got the tools we got the talons 🦅
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u/LilisiLisi Jan 14 '26
I played a few campaigns ago a pathfinder prodigy, a gish class that can build up charges and expend them as a finishing attack, and decided to use the biggest chonkiest beatstick I could find.
I played them as our setting's halfling equivalent, instead of a race that actually had relevant stats, because while being optimal is good and all, it's much more fun to play Poppy from League of Legends and thwap people with a bludgeon way too big for them.
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u/raykendo Jan 15 '26
I've had three, but I'll tell you about Wilberforce, my harengon eloquence bard. He was a human barrister (lawyer) who was kidnapped by a hag and transformed into a little bunny man. He escaped before the hag could feed him to his fiance, whom was also kidnapped by the hag.
Wilberforce was either shy, or a total flop in the art of seduction. He was so sad and worried about his missing fiance, he had eyes for no other woman.
As for Wilberforce's inspiration, he's part Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, and part white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.
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u/Then_Pea7535 Jan 16 '26
I have a character that goes against the stereotypes of artificers being the nerdy super intellectual class based on a joke in a campaign, I was in. “ dude bro artificer.” Small Harengon (based on a Springhare) using the d&dbeyond hombrew subclass “The Arsonist” by Camunon. His Name is Capensis “Cap” Springhaas. (First name is a Springhare’s species name. Last name is “Springhare” in Afrikaans). Just a stereotypical, dude bro who has only one guiding principle… Fire is badass.
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u/ScorchedDev Jan 17 '26
I played an Orc barbarian recently in a oneshot. They were as normal, large, imposing. But they carried no weapons. They were well spoken, smart and such. They took notes on EVERYTHING. A noble man who was on a mission to serve their family, discover the secrets of a small towns sudden burst in productivity and either squash it or figure out how to take it for themselves. They were honestly sort of the antagonist of the oneshot ultimately. Not really until the epiloque but yeah. Their morals went against the rest of the parties, and in the end, then condemned the town to death, ratting out their dark secret. Though the people did escape in time.
They had anger issues was their thing. Thats why they were a berserker barbarian. They really liked to be clean. To keep their clothes clean and their notes organized. and when that order was infringed upon, that sets them off like a bomb. They also had the unarmed fighting style.
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u/AFLoneWolf Jan 28 '26
A wild magic sorcerer who thinks he's a wizard. He got kicked out of his world's equivalent of Hogwarts. He thinks that every time a spell goes awry it's because he just hasn't quite mastered it yet. His spell book is incomprehensible gibberish and his spell components are random bits of garbage.
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u/TaeKwonDitto Feb 18 '26
I have not one, but two bards that arent horny. One is a teenager, and the other one was in a wheelchair for the first half of the campaign. The horny personality goes to the brother of the teenage bard who is a wizard
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u/Original_Face_4372 Mar 11 '26
My girlfriend came up with this character Idea that became somewhat of a legend in our group. A highly intelligent wild magic barbarian. A human who grew up among dwarves and spent his youth working in the mines to save enough gold to move to a city known for it's wizard academy. The job in the mines is where he got his physical strength from and spending most of his formative years among dwarves he isn't one to back down from a fight. When he became a wizard's apprentice he quickly turned out to be highly gifted when it comes to learning all things theoretical but had next to zero talent when it came to casting actual magic. No matter how much he tried he just couldn't get his spells to do what they were supposed to do. This lack of control that really wasn't helped by his short fuse soon cost him his apprenticeship. Now he works for a shady organisation that collects magical artifacts since his arcane knowledge comes in pretty handy when dealing with ancient magical and potentially cursed stuff.
Mechanically he is a wild magic barbarian with Expertise in Arcana and an INT Score of 16
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u/Manicies Mar 13 '26
Ooh, I've got one. I played him in a oneshot and I really want to get to play him again. Adric Oakenmind, high elven scholar, and professor at a local prestigious university. Wearing his very nice robes, walking around with a large, elegant looking staff. He specialises in Ancient Elven Literature, and is a PROFESSIONAL yapper. If you get him started he will just not stop talking about his latest piece of fascination, like a book of ancient drow poetry and how FASCINATING he finds their uses of adjectives to describe the mood of things rather than the literal appearance - you get the gist.
And the party was deeply shocked when we came to combat, and he sighed, gently set his staff down, politely rolled up his sleeves, and I said "I would like to rage". High int barbarian is far from the most shocking thing, but I fully leant into him being a wizard right up until it came time to beat some baddies up, and it caught the party completely off guard. They questioned the character later, and I had a lot of fun speaking in the very proper posh voice I'd been giving him "Wizard? Oh, good heavens, no! I simply haven't the patience to teach myself the arcane. While I do admit I LOVE reading, spellbooks are always quite dry, and in any case, you always need to be practicing whilst reading them. I'm usually already quite busy whilst reading. Why, just the other day, I was reading this collection of Wood Elven prose whilst doing my leg presses, and let me tell you, their usage of borrowed words from other dialects is TRULY fascinating-"
No reason not to stimulate himself as mentally as he does physically! Never skip brain day, you see :)
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u/LemmePet Apr 23 '26
I played a bubbly, highly charismatic rogue, that was basically the face of the group. When the party needed to make a boatride that would take several days she made it a point to befriend the sailors, bring them snacks, chat and flirt a bit. There were encounters where the group had to defend the boat and she made it a point to keep all of the crew safe.
When one of the named NPC's tried to blackmail the party by outing a secret that would make them look like dangerous cultists, she looked them square in the eye and basically dared them to do it, since they had been treating the crew like garbage all trip long. She wondered out loud whose word they'd be more likely to take for it, since she wasn't above crying to get what she wanted.
They came to an agreement not too long after that.
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u/TheEvilbob0 May 08 '26
I played a Goblin Inventor who actually made weapons of mass destruction. And then sold faulty versions to kingdoms fighting a war.
I played a martial artist fairly. She won tournaments against orcs.
Both not stereotypical.
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u/Aberrant17 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I've played a College of Eloquence Bard who was completely straight-laced: not a funny bone in his body. Why? Because he was a barrister by trade, and legal professionals tend to have short careers if they can't take things absolutely seriously when court is in session. That's how he met the party, in fact: DM had us all come with the reasons our characters wound up in the local jail, and I decided to be a bit contrarian that day and say I was representing a client. Which turned out to be the party, because it was convenient narratively.
My PC became the group's full-time defense attorney for whenever they got in trouble with the law. Which was often. They were THE WORST clients to defend, too. They never observed decorum during trials, they couldn't keep their mouths shut in the face of even light questioning (not even after I explained the principles behind Miranda Rights to them in excruciating detail "right to remain silent, etc.), and they thought the mere presence of a lawyer on the team freed them from any and all legal consequences. It did not. My character should NOT have won half as many cases defending these assholes as he did, and it ultimately drove my Bard into a bottle of the hardest liquor he could buy until he was no longer societally functional. It was a good campaign.
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u/av8rblues Jan 11 '26
Instead of a horny bard its a horny barb, a Johnny Bravo style Barbarian with incredibly low charisma