character biography

[ammama]

i need a biography and storyline for my character, an archer focused on ranged weapons. a storyline for either gender wud do. any ideas?

[myrophine]

Are they human? Do they have a particular alignment?

myrophine

PS - they could be a deserter from an army where they were trained in the archery corps. Perhaps they were presumed dead but they are always looking over their shoulder...

traveling north...

too cold, but it beats the guillotine!

[ammama]

that actally sounds pretty kool. an archer, male or female, halfling or teifling. like the ideas.

heres the biography of on of my other characters,
Li Mei the sorceress
Li Mei is from a land far beyond the borders of the known world, from a land in the Far East. her party listens in awe as she tells them tales of proud warriors who live by the sword, of mighty emperors too holy for mortal men to lay eyes on, and of the Tower of the Eternal Sun, where she was trained in the arts of sorcery

[Ravager]

Maybe an ex-hunter of some kind? Heard about the problems in the North and wanted to play hero or got fed up of a hunter's lifestyle.

Maybe even the different challenges of the North would appeal.

The sorceress bio. sounds good. You could embellish with other details about Kara-Tur or Shou Lung- eastern reaches of Faerun.

[Darkwind]

Is he/she solely focused on archery and not melee? If thats so, maybe some kind of hatred or fear of melee weapons is in order.. Remember that McGyver hated firearms since his friend was killed in firearm accident... At least thats what I remember

Maybe he/she was bullied in childhood games for always lacking fighting skills... So the character decides to study the art of ranged combat and fully master it.

Race, class and gender are very important for me when making bios... Character of same class but different race or gender may have very different backgrounds.

Oh.. and please would you inform us of your decision when you have made the bio for your archer? I´d like to hear it.

[ammama]

ok well here is what i have so far:

The figure moved silently through the treetops, leaping soundlessly from one branch to the next. She was hidden by the dark of night, and all that could be seen of her was the red light of the torches below her reflected in her eyes. A troop of orcs was carving a path through the thick shrubs underneath her perch, hacking at the dense undergrowth with battle-worn axes and blood stained swords. Their leader, a huge brutish creature, torn with countless scars and brandishing a cruel looking whip, snarled at those e line of halflings that lagged behind. Above him, a fire stirred in the eyes of the shadow, and it was not the flame or the torchlight. She watched as the poor, weary halflings, from children barely able to stand, to old men and women to ancient to walk, trudged onwards, their heads down.
At the back of the line, a young boy was struggling to keep up, for his leg was obviously injured. He was slowing down the whole troup. The orc cheif noticed. With a roar of impatience, he slashed at the ropes that tied the child to the rest of the line. The poor young boy for one brief moment breathed a sigh of relief, believing himself to be free. Then he looked up at the giant orc standing above him, with his sword raised high, ready to strike, and screamed. The huge sword flew down, slicing through the air, its razor blade diving towards the boy's skull.
The blade faltered. The boy looked up. The orc cheif was standing still, gasping and choking, spluttering gouts of blood. An long, iron tipped, feathered arrow pierced his throat, coming out at the other end. The giant staggered, and then slumped to the floor, where he lay spluttering.
There was a moment of utter silence as halflings and orcs both stared transfixed at the body. Then the orcs stirred. The bellowed in fury, and in seconds bows were ready, arrows notched, and a hail of steel tipped death was flying at the trees around them. The orcs fired non stop for a minute, then stopped, for they had exhausted their supply of arrows. all around them the trees were pierced all over by arrows, feathers protruding from every branch and trunk. The forest was silent. The orcs stood, panting, and looking all around them. The halflings had ducked for cover, terrified of the orcs and the thing in the trees.
And then it was upon them. Screaming like a banshee she leapt from the trees, launching a hail of darts as she fell. Ten orcs fell before she hit the ground. Before they could react, she had loosed her bow, and another tenlay dead. then they roar, and charged madly at her. she stood calmly, and replaced her bow. Then she took a second to count the orcs. Eight. She smiled. Perfect. Then the shadow drew a heavy axe, an hurled it at the first orc. With a roar it fell to the ground, gushing gouts of blood. She sprinted forward, and wrenched the axe from its chest. The shadow leapt into the air, and with the axe whirling above her head she fell on the second, cleaving his head in two. Then the axe flew again, straight into the chest of the third. She smiled at the satisfying crunch it made, then drew her darts again. she hurled these at the two nearest to her, and before they could reach her, they lay dead on the ground, covered in darts, looking more than anything like two bloodied porcupines. number four and five. six and seven she felled with her bow, which she had drawn quick as lightning. Then eight was upon her.
He wrestled her to the ground, his huge muscled frame more than twice her sized. He choked her with his left hand, which enveloped her whole neck, and with his right, forced her face away so she wouldnt bite him. But the shadow was quick. she drew an arrow from her quiver, and stuck hard into the beast's eye. It bellowed, and fell back, and she wriggled from his grasp. The wretched thing staggered to its feet, its hands clutched to its face. then the shadow moved. before the thing could react, a the axed had been shoved hard into its groin. it screamed in pain, and then the axe struck again. in an instant it was dead.
The halflings all around stared as the shadow pulled itself to its feet (it was a halfling like them, they saw with wonder), and brushed the dust and blood of her tunic. then it looked up. the halfings fell back, horrified.
'You're welcome,' she muttered. Slowly, an ancient old halfling stepped forward from the group. She presumed it was their leader.
'Wh-Who are you?' he stammered.
'A mercenary. I kill for money. One of your villagers, one who survived the raid, begged me to help you. she promised you would pay me. You owe me five hundred gold. As for my name, i am called Tatl.'

[Ravager]

Wow, that's good. Wish I was motivated enough to write character biographies . What other characters do you have? Do you need any more tips for those?

[ammama]

thanks! Well, these are my characters-

Chinese style human sorceress, exiled from homeland
very arogant, craves power. obsessed with magic, and obsessed in the dark arts. slightly insane

mercenery huntress archer halfling
no morals, thinks only of money. sort of a contract killer. could just as well have fought on the side of the horde if they had been willing to pay as much.

cleric, elf, female. not sure about this one...


i plan to add more to the party but thats all i have so far. please give me more ideas! i dont want to have stereotypes though. they are not 'good guys', but nor are they truly evil.

[Ravager]

So you're going for a Chaotic Neutral party- the alignment of madmen?

With the merc. that was rejected by the Legion of the Chimera you could say the reason was due to your character being a pure-breed. The Legion are supposed to be championing half-breeds.

For your cleric- leave the bio. writing until the decide which god to go for, that's going to have a major impact on the background.

Add some fighter/barbarian types into the mix. You don't seem to have too many of those. They could have acted as bodyguards in the past of caravan escorts and got bored or saw a better opportunity.

While this isn't truly supported by IWDII, you could call one a blackguard- sort of an anti-paladin. That would be in the bio. though as there isn't such a class in IWDII (as in NWN). A blackguard gets the opposite abilities to a paladin such as Smite Good which you could work into a biography- serving an evil god- Bane or Cyric for example.

Neutral gods include Mask, God of Shadows which could be used in a bio especially for rogue types.

[ammama]

hmm...a barbarian fihgter?

a half-orc child, cast out by her human mother. found in the woods by an elf cleric of mask, who took pity on the helpless babe (a rare occurance). she raises him as her own,trains him in the ways of combat and of the great god Mask. he is loyal to her alone, and she loves him as a sun. an inseperable pair?


hey im getting loadsa ideas keep 'em coming!

[Ravager]

I didn't mean use them all at once!

You could include some kind of exile, someone kicked out of one of the big cities after commiting reviled crimes etc. Maybe someone being chased by bounty hunters.

I'll think of more later.

[ammama]

Li Mei came from a land far beyond in the Eastern empires. Her father was an honoured nobleman, her mother the favoured daughter of the emperor. She lived a happy and contented life, and it seemed that the gods smiled on her. Not so, for in her fourteenth year there was a great civil was in that land, and the old emperor was deposed by one of his generals. Li Mei's father had been loyal to the last ruler and refused to bow to this new false king, and so her whole family was sentenced to death. Imperial soldiers stormed their house. Her father stood to fight the attackers, giving time for his wife and daughter to flee. However even Li Mei's father was overcome and killed, and the her mother was cut down by arrows. Only she escaped, and left the kingdom.
However, the new emperor did not take insults lightly. He hired a bounty hunter to track the girl down and punish her. A bounty hunter named Tatl, one that had never failed to bring back the heads of those she was hired to kill. And so the bounty hunter chased Li Mei, through dense jungle, over towering mountains, across endless deserts. For two long years she chased her, tirelessly and patiently tracking her. Eventually she found Li Mei.
She found her as a beggar in the streets of Luskan. Li Mei had once been a beautiful maiden. Her hair had been silky black, her eyes strong, dark, and proud, her skin soft like velvet. Now she her hair was caked with mud, her eyes wild, her body caked in dirt, lying naked in the street. The huntress looked at the wretched girl in disgust. She would put the creature out of her misery. But not here, in the open, where prying eyes would see her act. She picked her up, the girl was too weak to resist, and led her to an inn. She booked a room, and took the girl up there, dumping her onto the bed. The girl lay there, naked, helpless. This was not how the huntress liked to kill her prey, but it would have to do. She drew a knife and moved towards the girls throat.
Suddenly Li Mei let fly a magic missile. The halfling was caught off guard, and was blasted back several feet, crashing into the wall. The girl reared up, and beeckoned towards the one who had just tried to kill her. The halfling rose into the air, struggling in vain against invisible bonds that held her tight. Li Mei squeezed, and the halfling gasped as the air was forced out of her lungs.
Li Mei looked at the spluttering halfling, and smiled. Then she walked over to a basin in the corner, leaving the halfling dangling in mid-air. She quickly washed herself, getting rid of the worst of the grime, and rinsed her hair of the dirt. She was glad to feel clean once more. The halfling still floated in the air,constricted, as she picked a robe out of the hunter's pack, and put it on.
She looked down at herself. It was small, but it would have to do...
'What do you think?' she asked the halfling, the first words she had ever spoyou to the one who had hunted her for two long, unbearable years. She slowly turned round once, 'not too bad, eh?' The halfling could say nothing, but was coughing up blood. Li Mei laughed, a sound like tinkling bells, 'you thought you had me,' she crooned, 'so did I really. I thought you would be..well...bigger. And I had no idea you would be so east to deal with.'
She laughed again. 'Oh well,' she sighed, 'I'm afraid I have to leave you hear. Goodbye....oh, and thanks for the robe.' She bent down and kissed the halfling on the cheek, then made to leave
'w-wait,' choked the halfling. Li Mei paused and looked for a second. She loosened the magical bonds a little, so that the halfling could speak.
'I...I can help you'
'How?'
'A sorceress like you could need pro...protection....'
'What, from the likes of you?' Again that tinkling laugh.
'I...I'll help you. Just...free...me...'
Li Mei pretended to think about it.
'How do i know you won't betray me?'
'I am a woman of honour. you know that'
Li Mei actually did think this time.SUddenly the halfling fell to the ground with a crash.
'ok. but if you try to kill me...' she said, then bent down and whispered in the hunter's ear, 'I'll finish off what I started.' She giggled, then hugged the halfling. She was glad she had made a new friend.

[Ravager]

Good bio. Does the game allow you to enter that much?

From the halfling's perspective- Tatl, you could come up with a biography dependent on alignment.

If Tatl is going to be lawful then she could indeed honour her word although it may be going back on the eastern emperor. Then, I suppose it would depend on whether Tatl is good, neutral or evil and her personal opinion on the new emperor. If neutral or evil the lure of profit and more importantly staying alive is going to the highest concern, an evil emperor in a far away land is less of a concern.

If Tatl is going to be chaotic, then she might have no qualms about going back on her word with the emperor OR the one she just made with Li Mei. You could put into her bio. that she has no intention of keeping her word, just advancing her own ambition and waiting for a chance at revenge.

If you are going for chaotic though, you should find a good reason for Tatl to holdoff on assassination of your sorceress, perhaps fear or respect for one that has beaten her. It wouldn't do to have your characters kill each other off after all...

So there's the opposite side of the coin for you...

btw, the elf cleric of mask- pretty rare for an elf to follow Mask. A half-elf maybe would. Hmm.. Maybe I'll check the elf pantheon at some point.There's probably a Seldarine (elven gods) equivalent.

[ammama]

k here is what i have on my half orc and his elf 'mother'

the half dark-elf cleric found a half orc baby in the woods, cast out by his own human mother and left to be eaten by the vultures. Taking pity on the poor creature (for he was reviled as she often was), she took him in. She trained him in divine magics, and in the fighting disciplined. however, his magic was of a wilder, druidic kind, and his orcish blood meant he was more incline towards the barbarian way of life. he grew into a young, strong half-orc, and though he was often drunk and brutish, his dark maiden mother loved him still. and he clung to her.

however she was half elf, and her life would outlast his by at least a century. when he died, withered of old age, or more likely hewn down by countless enemies, she would be but a young woman still. and so she searches always for a way to make her son immortal. she journeyed through the ten towns in search of clerics or mages who could help her.

[Ravager]

Sounds quite good . And then the cleric finds Li Mei?

So you have a half-orc druid, elf cleric, human sorceress and a halfling rogue?

Then I'd definitely recommend you go for a couple of melee characters for the last two.

Perhaps one could be a bodyguard for the sorceress.