[3.5] Need help making a class for character!

[TelemontTanthul]

So I have a character in mind, but I can't seem to think of what sort of class would best fit the description, or whether I will need to make a homebrew for it.

I have typed up the basic premise of the character, and I am looking for feedback on what sort of class would work best for it, and if anyone has already made a class similar to my needs.

Also, feel free to critique the story of this character, and give suggestions.

Basic Info:

Gender: Male
Alignment: Any Neutral, or Evil. (Depends, I suppose)
Race: Human
Spellcasting?: To be decided. (Would be useful)
Basic Idea: A class that specializes in absolute manipulation of an individual.



The Mind of Gregory Waltz

Why should the pursuit of knowledge be clouded with primitive and outdated concepts such as morality? How does one study emotion without bias?

These are the questions that plagued my mind as I traveled from village to village, learning the ways of the locals, and observing their interactions with one another. I studied classic examples of true love, and gazed upon selflessness from even some of the most unfortunate souls. From afar, mankind seemed to be basically good.

And oh, how the people danced! Many times a year, the people gather to feast, talk, and share in the company one another. When they danced, I felt that I had received a glimpse of their inner selves, the restraints of society would loosen, and the drinks would make it appear to vanish altogether. It made me often wonder if I was right: mankind is basically good.

But the deepest recessions of my mind knew otherwise; that beneath the clever facade of caring and good nature, dwells the demons inside each man, wrapped in obscuring shrouds of society, and sealed in with fear. The festivals were a temporary release, under ideal conditions. More testing would be necessary to sate my thirst for knowledge.

It was while watching a young couple, deep in love; I began feeling a paradoxical combination of indifference and jealousy. In that moment I came across the answer to my questions. I had learned of all the good things in life, of happy reunions, and sweet goodbyes. But what of all the ills and evils that plague humanity? I sheepishly realized that I had ignored half of a wide spectrum of possibilities and emotions, and that I would never learn of ethics, morality, and emotion if I let my own interfere. In order to fully understand ethics, one must throw away any bias you possess by discarding your own. Allowing nothing to distract you, nothing to stop you.

And so, understanding my goal, I vowed to ignore any and all emotion, I would become a living manifestation of impartial judgment, devoid of fear, anger, and mercy.

Set now upon a very clear path, I purchased a very large blank tome and had it labeled "Empirical Study on Ethics and Emotion", and on the first few pages, I scribed down a list of emotions, leaving plenty of space for any new ones I should come across in my travels. The first of these emotions: Betrayal. I already knew how I would begin my first experiment, the feeling natural, and unspoiled.

My thoughts drifted back towards the happy couple I had seen just prior to my grand realization. They were special to me, because without them, I would never have discovered the true path to enlightenment. Wouldn't it be poetic if they were also my first test subjects? This experiment had chosen me, and I would pursue it at any cost, no matter how long it took.
I took it upon myself to learn everything I could about my first test subjects; they would be the basis for the rest of my research. Genuinely, they seemed happy, lost in the nuances of young love, but if my experiments succeeded, I would get to see two different perspectives of the emotional response to a betrayal.

So I put my best smile on and introduced myself to the young lady, making sure that her true love was nowhere to be found. She smiled and blushed; intimidated by my handsome face, unknowing that it was nothing more than a mask in a grand, well thought out, costume party. We conversed for awhile, and drifted from topic to topic, each time I laid out a trap, she fell into it perfectly. The day ended, but the damage was done, I had made a flawless first impression, and knew that my experiment would succeed.

This facade continued on for awhile, each time I spoke to the woman, always being sure that the man was away, she fell deeper and deeper into the illusion of love, but this time, I was the object of her affection. I cared nothing for her, of course, and while she was mildly attractive, I made sure to stay objective. Each night, I would return back to the inn in which I stayed, and jotted down countless notes, she was my first test subject, and she was special because of it.

A few days passed, and I grew frustrated, this test was taking much longer than I had anticipated. At this rate, I wouldn't be able to complete even a third of the list in my book before I died of old age, it was time to accelerate. So I became more aggressive, still not wanting to be known to the other man, as it would spoil the results. Within the week, I had finally begun to wear down the girl's loyalty and resolve.

Then, one fateful night, she asked me the question I needed to hear to continue; "Do you love me Gregory?”

In my heart, a land of ice and snow, nothing stirred when she asked me, I simply checked off a step in my mind, and began moving on to the next one. I said "Yes", and plastered a smile to my face. The events that unfolded were unimportant to the study, as I am more concerned with "Betrayal", than "Lust". Now it was time to seek out the man, and proceed.

The very next day, I found him in the town market. As he looked over the selections of meat available, I descended upon him like a vulture circling over its next victim. I stifled the voices inside me, and reminded myself that I must remain objective to record the data.

He paid me no mind as I stood next to him, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

"How is your wife?" I asked casually.

He took a moment to register that I was speaking to him, and when he turned to look at me, I continued my charade by pretending to be interested in the meats.

"Excuse me?" He replied cautiously.

"I asked, 'How is your wife'?" I repeated without inflection. I sincerely hoped that this man did not have a hearing problem, if so, this would not proceed smoothly.

"Do I know you?" I could tell that he was suspicious of me as I watched him out of the corner of my eye. It seems that the average man possesses a paranoid quality; I made a mental note to write down later.

"Not yet, but I am going to get to know you very well over the next few hours." It was now or never, I had passed the point of no return. With calm determination, I turned towards the man to finally face him. I watched as he visibly twitched upon seeing the unworldly calm in my eyes. It was then that I sprung my plan into action.

"I asked you a question, and you have yet to answer me." If he continued to be difficult, I decided it might be necessary to be more forward.

"Uhm..." He fumbled around, trying to find some resolve. "She is fine, I suppose. Why are you asking me this?"

I smiled, a mask plastered on, "Are you sure she is alright? When did you last see her?" I motioned him to walk with me, away from the crowds. He was so distracted by my presence that he obliged.

This line of questioning was obviously bothering him. But what could he do? Holler out to the guards to seize me? I had done nothing wrong; so far as he knew, and even if I had, the man had no way of telling what would happen if he did interrupt our conversation.

A cold sweat began rolling down his forehead, down to his brow, "I saw her this morning. What is going on here? What are you trying to get at?"

We had wandered a good ways from the crowds, and he was still oblivious to the fact, hypnotized by the creeping horrors and fears that would soon seize him.

Time to push.

"I will not lie to you", I began, "I have taken her as my captive, and if you ever hope to see her again, you will be silent and follow my commands." I smiled gently at him. "If you do not believe me, I urge you to return to your home, wait a week if need be, by that week's end, you will still be alone."

A lie. In truth, I could only hope that she did not cross our path while I executed my plan, if the worst scenario came to pass, I would lose weeks of research.

His rapidly paling visage told me I had succeeded. Was it fear? Or perhaps anger? I would need to assess this fully when I had the chance. So many experiments, so little time.

"Do you understand me? Nod if you are going to cooperate. If not, try something and see where that course of action takes you." I opened my old gray duster to reveal that I was armed with a simple sword, and proceeded to take out a flask.

Quivering, he fiercely nodded in agreement. He was no fighter, just a simple townsman, who had neither courage nor valor. Of course, while proficient at fighting, I was hardly considered a warrior either. I made another mental note; this would be a very revealing experiment.

"Good. Now I need you to drink this, it contains a drug that will make you sleep, but not to worry, I promise you will only taste the whiskey," I opened and handed him the flask, the liquid sloshing inside, "If you are going to unite with her again, you are going to need to go through everything she did, so that you can understand."

He eyed the flask suspiciously, "Understand what?"

"You will learn soon enough, now drink", I grew tired of the charades.

"Do I have a choice?" He asked, almost rhetorically, one glance back toward me cemented that this would be the only way. He lifted the flask to nostrils, and very carefully sniffed it. He recoiled from it at first, the power stench of whiskey invading his senses. However, he would not smell anything unusual, the chemical compound is odorless and tasteless, the result of hours of careful labor.

He took a quick swig, and looked at me, "You are a--", he immediately began to feel the effects of the drug; "You're a- a-". He stumbled slightly as we continued our walk, motor functions beginning to fail. He threw a hateful stare at me, and collapsed, sound asleep.

"I know, but it must be done," I responded.

I stood in the middle of a field; we had drifted far from the village center. Ahead of me a shovel stood, lodged in the dirt pile next to a hole, waiting to be given an order. Inside the hole sat a makeshift tomb, a box of flimsy wood. Everything was according to plan.

I had to work quickly, as the drug would be effective for only a few hours. With great effort, I pushed the man into my box, his limp body landing awkwardly, and painfully. I moved his limbs so that they would fit. I then grabbed the discarded flask and poured the remaining contents upon his clothing, the thick aroma of whiskey in the air. I knew that five foot drop would be painful, but not life-threatening. I loosely dropped the lid on top of the box, and made sure that it would not move when I started piling on the dirt.

Within the hour, I had buried him alive. I took my time, cleaned myself off in a nearby stream, changed into a fresh set of clothes; I made my way back to the village to initiate the next stage. It would still be a couple of hours before the man awoke, and dragged himself out. I had dug the grave shallow, and used dried and rotted wood. If he did not make it, my experiment would only prove that not all specimens are able-bodied enough for my experiments.
I searched out his wife, and found out that the man was correct, she was at her home. She answered the door, more than a little surprised to see me. I greeted her warmly, and explained that her husband is out of town. In return, she offered me passage into her home. So close now, the experiment had to succeed.

We talked for awhile. She wanted to talk about our future together, as if we had one. I humored her, and promised the world and all the stars. A good deal of time passed, and I knew that soon the woman's husband would come home.

I heard muted shouting from outside, that was my queue. I turned to the wife, and kissed her. Less than a minute later, the husband came bursting through the door. We parted lips, and she jumped in surprise. I did my best to pretend I had no idea what was going on. I really should have taken up a career in acting.

"Elise!” he cried angrily, "What are you doing?”

The woman looked terrified; her husband was covered in mud, the dirt mixing in with the alcohol. Unfortunately it did little to cover the stench.

"Alaster? I heard you were going out of town!" She replied, getting up from where we had sat on a windowsill and turning away.

"What? No! What are you doing with this man? You and I are married!"

Not even great tragedies are acted out this well. I heard their names, but decided to ignore them, they are unimportant.

The argument continued for awhile, and just as I planned, their bickering did not include me often. Whenever they asked a question, I gave an answer. I lied time and time again, and each time, the woman took my side. Eventually she accused him of being drunk, and tempers flared higher and higher.

"This man is lying to you! He told me he had kidnapped you! I wanted to rescue you from *him*!” he screamed.

"What are you talking about? He has been nothing but kind to me, far more than you ever were!” she wife screeched.

My head pounded, I was starting to get a headache. I made a mental note that future experiments should probably not involve the tossing of words back and forth.

As I was contemplating the future, the present grabbed my attention, as the man advanced across the room towards his wife. Time to play the hero. I intercepted him, and ordered him to stop.

He looked at me, and I saw the anger and hurt on his face, followed by a flash of realization. "You want to steal her from me!" He bellowed. I shook my head slightly, indicating otherwise.

He rushed outside and I could hear him yelling for help. I ran outside to follow him, wife trailing behind slowly. People began to gather around him.
The man pointed in my direction, 'This man is trying to steal my wife!"
There was a wave of laughter that rippled through the crowd. Obviously the man's appearance and smell was working against him.

"Alaster, I think you are drunk, why don't you stay the night somewhere else before you hurt anyone," offered someone stepping out from the crowd. It was the village planner, the speaker for the townsfolk. "Stay at my place, and tomorrow you will feel right as rain."

"No! I am not drunk! Listen to me!" He stammered. He was obviously losing fire. Perhaps he thought this was a bad dream? He spun around towards me and said, “This is your fault! I’m gonna kill you!” He lunged towards me, swinging his arms wildly.

I watched, still without any fear, or anger, completely void of those clouding concepts. I calmly but quickly opened my grey duster and drew my sword and placed it between myself and my opponent, stopping the man from coming any closer.

“I think your speaker is right, you should sleep it off. Your wife will much appreciate sleeping with both eyes closed tonight.” I watched as the emotion I had been searching for finally surfaced within the man I faced. I saw the defeated anger, perfectly combined with revelation and hopelessness. The feeling of betrayal, where everyone you trusted has turned against you faster than you could imagine possible. To him, the world had stabbed him in the back, and left the knife, signed in blood by everyone he knew.

“Take him somewhere to sleep off the fog on his mind, the rest of you, go back to your business, this is over,” commanded the village planner. People began to wander away, but deep in all their minds, the man covered in mud, whiskey and humiliation was now someone to be wary of. They watched as he was grabbed by some onlookers and escorted away, chances are, he would be sent to a prison eventually, because even after a few days to sit a spell and think, he would still be claiming all that was true. Unfortunately, I doubt anyone would ever believe him.

I walked the man’s wife back towards the cottage. She was more than a little distraught. Not that it mattered to me at all, for I still needed to finish my work.

“I think you and I should go for a walk, try to clear your mind of everything,” I innocently suggested.

“The sun will go down soon, I don’t know if I want to. I’m so confused.”

“Well, nothing like a walk at sunset to get your mind off of things, and I found a wonderful pond nearby the other day, quite beautiful.” This needed to happen.

I was in luck, she agreed, probably hoping that I would make her forget the pain. She was right, to a degree; I would make her forget everything, forever. But she needed to see that her husband had been right, and that I had been the deceiver. The experiment would continue without delay.

We walked at a lazy pace, and I did my best to make the woman feel better. She seemed to calm after awhile, and began to talk about her husband, focusing on all the less glamorous moments. It became clear that she would leave him, and try to find a new start elsewhere. She seemed particularly interested in where I would be going, and eventually asked if she could come with me.

We had finally reached the pond when she asked that final question. I smiled at her sidelong, and checked my surroundings: No one was watching. Perfect. Slowly, but deliberately, I drew my sword. I watched as her warm smile, one I had seen perhaps a hundred times in the last week, turn into a look of confusion. Each time, it’s feeble rays tried to warm my heart, and each time, it failed.

Including now.

“At last, all the cards have fallen into the exact places I predicted,” I commented aloud.

“What do you mean?” The dead one spoke.

“Everything your husband said is true. He was my test subject in a larger experiment, one that included you.” For once, the smile upon my face was genuine, I was beginning to like my way of gathering data. “I know you won’t understand, and with that knowledge, I only ask that you know your husband was right. I deceived you from the beginning.” I placed the sword between us, “I am sorry, but now you must die, I can’t have you contaminating the rest of my experiments.”

A thought occurred to me then, something that I had not considered: If I kill her here, with a blade, someone will eventually discover her, and suspect foul play, and begin looking for me. But if I make it look like suicide…

I put away my trusty sword and lunged. She tried to run, but I was the faster. She screamed, but within a moment, they became muted as I placed my hand over her mouth. She put up a fight, but not enough to stop me from marching her over to the pond.

Drowning is not as difficult as it seems, the human body is so fragile.

After finishing the deed, I returned to the inn in which I was lodged, and packed my belongings. The longer I stayed, the higher the risk of being discovered. I tipped the innkeeper generously, removing any suspicion of my sudden departure. As far as they knew, I was just a traveler who got in a scrap with a drunkard. A “drunkard” who would be locked away for a long time if he continued to accuse me, by my guess.

I titled the first chapter of my tome “Betrayal”, and chronicled the information I had gathered: “Men and women react differently to betrayal it seems, the men are more violent upon discovering they have been betrayed, and the women are more shocked.”

And so I moved on to the next experiment. Who knows what I will learn.

[Fable Wright]

I would say Beguiler (PHB 2), with some levels in Mindbender (C. Arc). With beguiler, you have intelligence-based casting, which fits your character well, and it has uses for charisma, which your character also seems to possess. With beguiler, you gain proficiencies with illusions and enchantments; you can create illusions to see how people react, and make other people do what you say when it's needed, or you could directly inspire emotional responses within people. With mindbender, you gain telepathy to better read the emotional responses, as well as skill bonuses to diplomacy and bluff, which seem integral to the character concept. Mindbenders can also take thralls, which is, more or less, the complete control of an individual.

[Dragon Star]

Totally an evil character. Maybe NE or LE, but not neutral.

[Soulblazer87]

Psion could work out as well.

Also, depends on what your definition of evil is, but he probably IS evil. After all, can you really claim to have an evil soul when you lack all forms of emotion? Isn't that Insanity? Or isn't it not-Insanity, as emotions are in fact insanity due to affecting us to take non-logical decisions?

Pretty dark character, maybe I'll use the concept in a soon-to-be campaign...

[TelemontTanthul]

Beguiler, Psion or Mind Bender eh? Sounds interesting. I will look into those momentarily.

When reading this story, were there any parts of the character that you believe could be fleshed out more? Like parts of his personality that I could have dug deeper into?

As for alignment, he is probably going to be evil. But it should be noted that he is unbiased in the way he studies, which smells of neutrality. Combine that with the possibility of revisiting all the good emotions and ethics later, and he might be neutral. But if he is, he cannot be lawful, at least, I don't think he could be.

Also, just wanted to thank you guys for reading, I was really starting to think that no one would want to read it all. (7 Pages Single Spaced in Microsoft Word)

Lots of good opinions coming in here. Thank you thank you thank you!

[Soulblazer87]

Being a hobbyist author, I can sympathize with the feeling of believing noone reads your work. Yours, by the way, is very good. Needs a bit of a polish here and there but overall it's very good. Advice (which also works for DMs, GMs, storytellers etc); people don't only have sight to go by. Try using other things like sounds, scents etc. Helps flesh things out quite a bit.

More for personality? That's a bit hard. Depends on what you feel like playing. Mostly, well practically always, my characters have some form of insanity, be it from very mild to very, very heavy-duty (a combination of bipolar disorder and multiple personalities on a sorcerer with a penchant for explosions is my greatest creation). So, from that point, there are a few things you can do. From being unable to feel emotions (thus needing the research to see why others feel them when he doesn't), to possible obsession with order and perfectly-laid plans (which could cause him to go into frenzy if they fail) to even a slightly twisted view of the world (such as not really understanding why people react differently to the same stimulus or if he can transfer the mind of an animal to a human body and vice versa would make one human or animal).

The alignment depends on how far he's willing to go and what he does. It can be played as a true neutral or neutral evil depending on scruples. Which also leaves quite a bit of room for your DM and party to mess around with him and 'mature' your character into another alignment. Mindgames are real fun after all.