Tomorrow, I'm going to an (outdoor, fully vaccinated) session zero for a new campaign set in Wildemount, the continent on Exandria, which is D&D's most recent canonical setting (originally established by Matthew Mercer as the setting for the Critical Role campaigns. Actually, given its mention in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, you could argue that Theros is actually newer, but on the other hand, the MTG worlds are also only dubiously "canonical" as part of the greater D&D cosmos, given that they're from the multiverse of a different IP that is, conveniently, owned by the same company. Similar questions arose when the MTG set called Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms brought in folks like Zariel, Mordenkainen, and Lolth as Planeswalkers.)
Per the instructions of our DM (who is also one of my oldest and best friends, and has played in every campaign I've run, and is a veteran DM himself,) we've been asked not to come up with characters until this session zero. This goes against my instincts, which is to write 6-10 page short stories as a backstory (I've actually written stories that began as character backstories before deciding they had legs as fantasy literature, and am now 8000 words into something that might become a novel). In an effort to build the characters deeply into the world, he wants us to all begin crafting our characters with RP at the forefront.
Still, D&D is a game with mechanics, and we're still going to be playing the game, so I've given some vague thought to the general shape of what I want to play.
I'm torn, slightly, between one class and subclass I want to play and a broader goal. Currently, the three characters I play most are an Eldritch Knight Fighter who is the group's tank and is melee-based, an Oath of Vengeance Paladin who is more more focused on damage output (but due to being one of the two melee characters in the party, becomes something of a tank by default,) and a melee-based Gloomstalker Ranger (who has been an illustration of why you should always go with a Dex build as a Ranger even if you plan on fighting in melee. Just use shortswords or scimitars instead of handaxes and you'll be fine.)
As you can see, I always seem to play characters who get into melee, and whose primary combat move is to just hit things.
So, my general intention with this new campaign is to try to be the opposite, playing a pure caster who would sit at range. My personal aesthetics push me toward a Wizard, but I'm trying to avoid going too specific on that should another player really want to be one. I have been somewhat drawn to the idea of a Druid - so often Wild Shape is the feature people focus on with them, and I think it would be fun to play one that is truly a caster first and foremost, likely going with either Circle of Wildfire or maybe Circle of Stars.
I love Warlocks, but I have played one through level 13, and so would prefer to try something new.
Now, this might all go out the window if I decide to go with the class and subclass I've been kind of obsessed with, which is the Armorer Artificer. In its Guardian Mode, I think it becomes the best tank class in the game (though Ancestral Guardian Barbarian is up there,) but of course this puts me once again into the category of a heavily-armored character who mostly just hits things. I could focus more on the Infiltrator Mode, but my instinct is that that version of the Armorer is not quite as amazing (though still decent.) And, of course, while you do get half-caster spells, the primary mode is still going to be attack rolls.
I've played one before (to level 12, actually,) but I do love Monks, and could imagine that as an alternative, though again that is utterly opposed to my primary intentions. I've only played one in a one-shot, but I did enjoy playing a Rogue as well, though again, the same issue arises.
Now, the point of the session zero is to come up with the character first, and then figure out a class that fits for that character. But I think there are a fair number of classes that could work for different classes. A Fighter's intense training could easily translate into a Monk's time at a martial-focused monastery. A Druid who studies natural mysteries could easily be a Nature Cleric, or even a Wizard.
When I write a backstory, I like to include at least one (though usually several) big mysteries - something weird happened that has not yet been explained, or there's a strange person who told the character something that does not yet make sense. I like to include these to seed things with the DM. Our DM is also doing what I intend to do in future campaigns as well, which is to not even come up with a primary plot until the characters have established their backstories. Brennan Lee Mulligan made this suggestion, arguing that in any good story, you wouldn't be able to just swap out different protagonists.
The nature of WotC's published adventures requires them to be somewhat open-ended in order for anyone to be able to run them with whatever party. And a really skilled DM can work specific character elements into a pre-written story. But it's a pretty exciting prospect to imagine that the big bads we fight and conflicts we deal with are all baked into our characters' stories. I mean, isn't it way cooler that Darth Vader is Luke's father instead of just some random bad guy? (Though, counterargument: didn't it suck when they dragged Rey's grand-parentage into Rise of Skywalker when the story would have been so much more meaningful if her destiny wasn't determined by her genetic donors?)
Anyway, the plan is for us to have a nice long session talking about the world and where we want our people to come from within it (naturally, I've gravitated toward races that aren't actually mentioned in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Warforged are actually technically in the lore if you consider campaign 2 canonical, and then Tritons are just not mentioned at all, but I think they're really cool. We'll see. I could play an elf, though I'm usually less inclined toward the non-human Tolkienesque races).
Then, after our session zero, we're going to have one-on-one discussions with the DM about our character, including secrets they might possess that the group doesn't know, or just more broadly fleshing things out.
Conceptually, I think I'm going to try to avoid a dark and brooding backstory filled with trauma (which my Paladin is currently sitting on a whole mountain of). I had a lot of fun in a one-shot playing an older character who has a super healthy home life. I also might try playing an idealistic and naive young character (arguably my Great Old One Warlock was one of those, though he had that in addition to being literally psychotic... and he was also convinced he killed his dad in what was actually an accident, so I guess he had trauma too.)
Anyway, our session is tomorrow, assuming nothing comes up to delay it, so I might post about the new character tomorrow evening!
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