To follow-up on my post from last week, I did finally settle on just creating a new character entirely – this time a Dragonborn Paladin, which plays a lot different than the Eladrin Swordmage, but still retains the defender role to make the transition easier for the rest of the party (and me). Initially I was really torn on which direction to go, however it’s kind of funny how once I started to develop a vision for the new character, it became a lot easier to let go of the old one.
It’s still a bummer to see him, and likewise his ties with the other PCs go, but further talks with the DM hinted that it’s still up in the air how he might continue on in the story as an NPC, so that could be cool. Of course, ultimately it’s probably better off that way anyways – the idea that I was entertaining was that he could come back as a revenant, filled with hatred and a burning desire to seek retribution against his enemy, but the more I thought about it, the concept wasn’t very realistic for our current campaign because it’ll probably be a while before we face the big boss guy for the real fight. Pursuing a drive like that would’ve been a suicide mission for him – it would’ve worked in a video game where he dies and then comes back 15 levels higher and ready to kick some ass, but not coming back at the same level that he died at. We’ve still got a lot of leveling and growing to do, and that character concept would’ve wanted no part in the teamwork angle of it.
So anyways, so far I’m liking the new character – he doesn’t really have a major sink into the plot like the last, but I’m sort of just developing him as we go and I think that’ll be a nice change. Also, most notably he has a much different personality, in that the paladin is very noble and polite, whereas the swordmage almost got his ass thrown in jail for mouthing off to the Lord of the town we’re working for! So far I like playing a more charismatic character – it should be fun to see where it goes from here…
“Niiice kitty, errr, I mean displacer beast…”