This Was A Great Idea On Paper

Have you ever had a great idea for a character only to find that four sessions into the campaign that it just wasn't working out? There is a difference between good characters and good player characters.

Lionel Pureheart, Master of the Gentle Necromantic Arts

A couple years ago, I got the great idea that I wanted to play a Lawful Good-aligned necromancer. He'd let people talk to dead relatives, make a zombie mule for Grandma so she could keep the farm going, and help evil people atone for their sins after they died by fighting for truth and justice (as zombies).

It was an interesting take on the eeeeevil Necromancer stereotype, I thought it was funny, and it offered me a lot of chances to roleplay because I figured people would be a combination of grateful and horrified at the acts of kindness Lionel would perform. Hell, I even tried to talk our DM into letting me make "positive energy undead" that weren't evil or bloodthirsty in the slightest!

The Problem Is.....

I made a really stupid decision in the name of Roleplaying. I decided that I would have him specialize in the magic school Necromancy and chose Evocation and Transmutation as my restricted schools. I would like to take this moment to caution all would-be mages that cutting these schools out of your diet will basically turn your wizard into an arcane punching bag for all practical purposes. No magic missile, no light, no fireball, no acid arrow..... not a whole lot of attack spells unless you're some kind of kung-fu master with vampiric touch. This is especially not good when just about anything he does will cause somebody to get scared and summon the city guard.

Part of it was also that our DM at the time had some very strong beliefs about necromancers and how people would treat them -- with intense fear and disgust -- even if they were being nice. While I don't necessarily agree with some of what he thought, the fact of the matter is I was in his world and I decided to be a Gentle Necromancy Evangelist and pass out flyers to the villagers whether he liked it or not. Maybe not the brighest idea, in restrospect.

So How Do I Fix This?

• Do some research.
  
  We eventually found this obscure spell called "Chill Blood" in some 3rd party expansion about necromancers. It allowed poor Lionel to go from somebody who couldn't attack, to someone who was doing more damage than both our fighters put together, and stunning the bad guy in the process. We think the spell was probably a bit unbalanced (15d4 from a 2nd level spell at 11th level?), but it at least got me back in the game.


• WORK WITH YOUR DM!!!
  
  Remember when we talked about working with your DM on your backstory? This would have helped prevent a lot of problems. Even if I didn't talk him into getting my way, it would have at least let me know what I was in for so that I didn't get as far into the campaign as I did before feeling helpless, necromantically persecuted, and generally frustrated.
  
  
• Get under the hood and fix it.
  
  Chapter 8 of WoTC's Player's Handbook 2 is all about "Character Rebuilding", and has rules on how to exhange feats, skills, and lots of other stuff -- so you may be able to atone for some of the mistakes you made in the beginning.
  
  
• Don't forget that you have to do other things besides roleplaying.
  
  Lionel would have made a great character in a novel or a comic, but as a PC he just didn't cut it. You have challenges to face and monsters to defeat, and sometimes the best roleplaying in the world isn't going to get you out of it. Remember you have to actually USE this character, and keep him (and the party) alive!
  
  I feel in some respects that this is the player equivalent of being a Dungeon Novelist. These sort of characters have their place -- and it probably isn't in your D&D game!
  

All this said, don't be afraid to step out of the box. It is better to have gone out of the box and created a monster, than not to have stepped out of the box at all. Just don't be afraid to tame the beast if it's not fun to ride it anymore.