PC Concept: "My Nation Is Gone... I Seek To Rebuild It."

Overview:

This is my first PC Concepts post. As I mentioned in my "About Me" page, I am on a personal quest to create concepts for every subclass, including some Unearthed Arcana that I like and homebrew content.

For these concepts, I want to focus on creating a character either based on another pre-existing character, or based on a specific backstory, aesthetic, or premise. In this case, I want to look at the latter.

The concept that I'm focusing on today is that of a government official from a kingdom where the regime was recently overthrown. Obviously, when building on general ideas like this, there are so many different possibilities. Anyone could make a character with this idea and it could be so vastly different from how I interpreted it. However, today I'm going to share how I would go about making this character.

Race, Class, Stats, and Background:

The background that came into my head first was Noble, for obvious reasons, being that this idea refers to a "government official." Although it works, I think that I want to choose a different route for this build. I'm going to pick the Courtier background (Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide) because I really like the idea of this character actively serving a monarch in some way rather than just being a vassal. Courtiers also don't have to be born into their diplomatic or bureaucratic position; they can earn it. That fact will be really important when it comes to the class that I've chosen.

For this build, race can vary. The concept is so general that anything really works here. I'm going to choose a tiefling (Player's Handbook) because they get a +2 to their Charisma. That will really help sell the idea that this character is a diplomat. If you're playing with tiefling subraces from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, I suggest taking the Bloodline of Zariel for +1 to strength.

The +1 to strength will be really useful for me because I intend on making this character into a Fighter, specifically of the Samurai Archetype. At 7th level, this character would be able to add their Wisdom modifier to Persuasion checks (which they would be proficient in already from their background) and become an even better diplomat. Maybe this type of "government official" was a captain of the guard. Maybe it was expected of courtiers to be excellent fighters in the culture of this kingdom or empire. That's honestly a cultural and interpretive choice that can be made by the player and DM. For stats, I'd put my highest in Strength, followed by Charisma. This character is the type who's able to fight or talk their way out of a bad situation.

Roleplay Potential:

The two biggest outlets for roleplay with this character, in my opinion, are what type of samurai they really are and the situation going on in their country.

Samurai are typically viewed as these fighters that prioritize law, order, and loyalty (usually to a lord or nation.) This is a perfectly valid option, and personally, it's the direction that I would take. It would be this character's motivation for adventuring: to find someone who would help them restore their king or nation. However, maybe they've always secretly hated their nation, or maybe they've secretly wanted to leave, and now that they have, they've found something they perceive to be better. It could provide some interesting inner conflict.

That point also leads into the culture of their nation, and the government that they were part of. Was it tyrannical? Did it deserve to be overthrown? Was the country invaded, or was it a coup by the people? What state is the country in now? These are all interesting questions that could be explored in-game, and they're questions I would really want to discuss with my DM if I was playing this character. Maybe, for their whole life, they've been serving this king that they thought was good. But then, when they go back and try to restore everything, they see that their country is better off with the newer regime. How does that make them feel? Maybe the royals were good, and now everything has gone to hell and needs to be made right again. There's so much potential in that kind of arc alone that I think it would make playing this character totally worth it.

Within the party, there's also the potential for this character to be some kind of leader or protector. Maybe, after some time, the party becomes this samurai's new "nation" - the thing that they have sworn to protect.