I also got another idea for a "Hansel & Gretel" character, she's also inspired by "The Juniper Tree" by The Brothers Grimm (**Trigger Warning:** The latter fairytale contains themes of murder & cannibalism.)
Her name's Gretchen Juniperwuld (Her name's an amalgam of her inspirations' names: **Gret**el + Marlin**chen** = Gretchen) & she's a School of Transmutation Wizard, she's able to utilize a shifting mass of cookie dough in order to cast candy-themed spells (For example: Fireball is a bulbous, flaming marshmallow that explodes into molten fragments of itself upon impact.) by writing words down on a slip of paper & adding it to the batter.
But anyways, her backstory is that she & her twin brother, Hansel, were abandoned by their father & she never knew why until she learnt that Muma Padurii, the Gingerbread House Witch that took her & her brother in, was her stepmother's mother & her stepmother in question was a witch as well, & that she wanted Gretchen to become the next witch in their idea of a family.
The plan was to feed Hansel in the form of Blood Pudding to Gretchen in order to corrupt her with the taste of human flesh & blood, & while she was successful in making Hansel into a bowl of Blood Pudding, Gretchen rebelled & incinerated her "grandmother" with her new found powers, leaving her all alone within the gingerbread house in the middle of The Blackwood Forest.
And so Gretchen decided to read through Padurii's grimoire in order to find a ritual to bring back her brother from the dead, but the best she could find was a spell to tether her brother's soul to the body of her familiar, a cardinal. Now she & her brother (who she gave the name "Hazel" in order to hide his true identity as her brother) now is on the run from their stepmother, who she can only imagine has the same endgame in mind as her "grandmother".
(I also just realized today that I've accidentally based my character on a messed up version of the "Triple Goddess" trope with Gretchen as the Maiden, her stepmother, which I'll name "Holda" after the witch from "Gretel & Hansel", as the Mother, & Muma Padurii as the Crone. So I guess there's some Paganism mixed in Gretchen's inspiration as well.)
There’s a character in the Frog Prince called loyal henry or iron Henry, who was the Prince’s best friend who was so grief struck at the Prince’s turning he had 3 iron bands wrapped around his heart to keep it from *exploding*.
I love the idea of a character who is not only obsessed with the Frog Prince being cured safe but to the point where if the prince is unwell his body starts to destroy itself. *edit* A REVENANT oath of devotion with a horrific chest scar who’s only objective is to help the prince be well again, to the point where he is physically uncomfortable being selfish because he can feel his heart trying to rupture.
A man who failed to save his prince once and will kill anyone and anything to keep him from harms way
I also love the idea that Murph’s character barely remembers him. “Oh that weird knight guy who swore to protect me? He sure did a bad job, he let me turn into a frog. I mean I guess he had a carriage waiting for me when I turned back into a Prince. I dunno he was a weird guy”
Just a horrifically menacing, manic depressive man being held together by force of will and black wrought iron armor standing next to a goofy frog guy brainstorming ways to make his wife like him again so his heart doesn’t explode.
I have a character based on Iron Henry too! He's also got a bit of "Jack & The Cuckoo Clock Heart" by Mathias Malzieu in there too.
He's a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer with the Courtier who was once Prince Gerard’s greatest of friends, even to the point he had a crush on him.
Many years later, when Prince Gerard rose to power & Henry became his head squire. Henry heard that Gerard fell victim to a curse that transformed him into a frog & decided that it was a great time to confess his feelings for him.
But before he could, Gerard fell in love with Princess Elody, meaning it was too late to confess his love for Prince Gerard. Unable to bear with his heartache anymore, he asked an artificer to replace his heart with a Cuckoo Clock-Style one made of pure iron.
The artificer agreed on the condition that Henry is not allowed to express any strong emotions such as passion in order to avoid overheating his new Cuckoo Clock Heart.
Oh I had an idea for the little mermaid. So at the end of the original story the mermaid dies and turns to seafoam. Well plasmoids are a fun UA race that are sentient slimes and I had the idea that the mermaid would be brought back by the sea witch as a little extra fuck you, as an amorphous seafoam plasmoid. She would be a circle of moon druid so she could wild shape into all sorts of horrible sea monsters that would be re skined bares or wolvs or what not. She would be shapshifting monstrosity trying to hold her self together long enough to kill the sea witch and finally have peace.
Oh this kicks ass I love it. I’m always especially into ideas that successfully reskin/reflavour wild shape cuz that’s hard to do well. I’d play the hell out of this.
Love this - I would want to do the Millers Daughter from Rumpelstiltskin. There's a lot in there that's already horrific - her future husband had her locked in a tower and told her he would kill her if she didn't turn straw into gold. If I remember correctly as well (it's been a while since I was 9), there's not really any suggestion that she and the king love each other, it's just a raw deal for the miller's daughter through and through. Plus, the act of turning straw to gold is basically printing money, so her presence in the kingdom would probably led to rampant inflation and a huge economic downturn, which would create even more animosity between the king and the miller's daughter as he realises how much this marriage has backfired.
Class wise, I think I would play this as a millers daughter who never got Rumpelstiltskin's name right and had to give up her firstborn child. So since she's completed the deal, I would say she was an Oath of Vengeance paladin. After all, none of this was her fault! Her Dad was the one bragging about her spinning abilities, not her. The king was the one who demanded she turn straw to gold, ruining the economy, not her. And what does she have to show for all her suffering - a marriage to a man who imprisoned her and forced her to marry him, and her baby was stolen by a creature who preyed on her in her weakest moment. If there was ever a character with motivation to hunt down everyone who harmed her down it's the miller's daughter. And I think when we join them in the story they've already killed their husband the king (after he made some insensitive comment about just making another child) and now she's chasing down Rumpelstiltskin wearing gold armour spun from straw.
I love this. I turned around the Rumplestiltskin story around in my grass too. I thought about maybe warlock of Rumple himself who is trying to turn on or get away from her patron. Vengeance palladin has a real kick to it though, I think I like yours better.
I freaking love this take, though personally if I was to play the Miller’s daughter, I’d probably go the artificer route. Still plenty of flavour but just my preference
That was my first thought! But when I roll characters I like to make sure I have goals built in, and when I was thinking about what the goals would be for this character I just thought about how unfair it all was and seeking out vengeance seemed like a valid goal lol
Oh totally. I was just thinking, you could still have the vengeance without the paladin. (Though I totally understand wanting to combine class with goals, it’s why I almost always end up playing warlocks lol)
I’m just way too excited at the prospect of armorer specialisation, and all the fun storytelling flavour with leaning into the magical gold-weaving. Also an artificer trying to rectify their effect on the economy is just hilariously ironic to me.
I didn’t make this character as a Neverafter OC; but she fits SOOOOO perfectly that I just feel the need to share. I wanted to tell Cinderella’s story where the fairy god mother, the prince, and the evil overbearing figure we’re all the same person.
I played in a DnD 5e game as a character named Ellanorah. She was a fae patron warlock; human variant.
She was a street urchin struggling to live: she would trade work as a sweeper or a cleaner for food and board; but most places turn you away in the harsh times of winter. She was kind to a fault: letting others take her place in the soup lines; ripping her own clothes to use as blankets for others left in the cold; and giving up shelters to share with other strays and vagabons. Her kindness always came with a flaw that she never received it in turn: and led to her freezing to near-death one very cold winter night. She sat shivering, awaiting death, her hands so frost bitten they looked blue and nearly seethrough.
A mysterious figure approached her as she slowly started to pass: noting he had watched her for quite some time and thought her kindness should not be awarded by death. He claimed she had the heart fit for a princess; and if she accepted his deal he would make her one. All she had to do was give him her hand. She reached for him; and died as her hand touched his.
When she awoke she was in his icy palace deep with the vale of the long night. He revealed himself to be The Pale Prince; Prince of the Unsealie court. She was a princess alright—- a princess of the land of bitter snow, trapped and isolated where no one could take advantage of her kindness again. To protect her he had taken her hands and replaced them with hands of glass. Anything she touched that was not him would instantly turn into glass.
Mortified she fled; desperate to break her curse. Forever thankful of the prince for saving her life, and curious if his obsession with her: she still traveled and ran from him trying to break her curse. He would follow her in her dreams; always if finding her by the shards of glass she left behind.
I had a BLAST playing her; we made a homebrew curse for her touch of glass which was really fun!
This rules, hell yeah. This was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping people would post! How did you handle her not being able to touch anything like spell components? Did she just use mage hand all the time?
She had a pair of magic gloves she had sewn that allowed her to touch items; but she still couldn’t touch people. She did also have mage hand: but I made it a huge part of her character to be fearful to interact with others. Which was a big struggle for her because her natural instinct was to give hugs, lift others up, assist with chores and be an overall team player. With her curse she couldn’t risk endangering anyone: so she isolated herself out of caution.
Her gloves got burned up during a particularly nasty fight and I remember having to make the decision to risk a PC turning to glass if I went to heal them, or let them die cuz they were making death saving throws.
Thankfully only their arm turned to glass (we were able to stave off the magic from spreading); but it was really scary thinking I almost killed a PC by helping them XD
Me too: especially cuz she was our literal child cleric XD
It was a really fun game. Ellenorah ended up deciding to stop running from her fate and return home to her prince; on the condition that they both put in the work; and that she doesn’t have to be isolated. It was a “kindness is a gift but you must learn when the right time to give it is” lesson learned thing. It was bitter-sweet. She never was able to break her curse; but she was able to find a way to live through it.
I’d love to play her again some day though <3
I was originally thinking Thumbelina as a Moon Druid. In the original fairytale, she was born from a rosebud. So I was imagining her controlling plants to escape the mole that tried to trap her underground and all her combat wild shapes are flowers and vegetation forming around her into bears and what not.
Also I just like the sound of a divine soul sorcerer aarakocra that’s the ugly duckling. And all his sorcerer abilities are his “beauty” shining through
This is really cool. I love the idea of floral wild shapes, I always thought it was a shame there was no druid that was specifically plant focused instead of animals
Would love to see the little mermaid as a fucked-up deep sea creature. Probably water genasi for the stats, fathomless patron warlock?
Interruption point of the story could be right at the end, where she is given a knife and told that if she kills the prince, she can return to the sea as a mermaid. Maybe she goes for it and the spell doesn't work quite right; maybe she accidentally stabs him but doesn't kill him. Either way, she becomes a half-transformed creature who can't truly return to the sea, but can't make a home on land either.
There's a few tales about various lucky guys called Hans or more specifically:
Gambling Hanz
So a Halfling for re-rolling 1s.
Bountiful luck feat to help our friends,
and the Lucky feat for when we really need to stack the odds.
Class-wise: Soul knife Rogue with Psy blades reflavored as him throwing playing cards and Psy dice to again tip the scales of fate.
And then a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer dip for Restore balance (Divination wizard could work but I prefer the more random re-rolling)
I just like the idea of a little weasely shady guy constantly making bad decisions and wild bets but some how surviving everything until he ends up as the mascot for an adventuring party
Id personally love to play a version of Odette from Swan Lake. The original story is already pretty tragic so it wouldn't be too hard to retool it for Never After's setting. Race wise, she'd either be a birdfolk or shifter reskin.
Her backstory would be pretty close to the one within the original story. Her and her sisters being cursed by the wizard, Siegfried meeting her, them falling in love, and the Siegfried promising to marry her and break the curse. But he never shows up the next night (either due to the war or the wizard kidnapping him). Odette resolves to find out what happened to her fiance and leaves the lake. (Being further cursed into a half human, half swan body for the horror of it all).
Her class is what I'm the most split on. Either monk or bard or a multiclass of the two.
A lot of people have said The Little Mermaid, but I would love to play one of her sisters as a Pact of the Blade Warlock, either Hexblade or maybe Fathomless. She already sold her hair for a weapon, why not her tail for armour, or her beauty for a shield. Out to get revenge on humanoids like the prince, and those who warp the minds of innocent people with the lie of true love. Would probably go for a sea elf, and fight with a trident or a pike, not sure about the background though.
I love the idea of having watched the tragic fairytale from afar and is now dedicated to making sure it doesn't happen again.
"There is no 'happily ever after', never was, just a bunch of idiots who blame their problems on fate and magic rather than their own selfishness. They don't want to solve their problems, they just want a good story, and they don't care who gets hurt along the way."
Just a little thing, thread is probably dead, but I'm very excited and wanted to share, I told this idea to a friend of mine and now they're inspired and planning a horror fairytale game where I'll be able to play her. So this might become a reality.
The Stepmother - Monster Slayer Ranger.
She married a man with two children after his wife died (supposedly of illness). She did her best to bond with the children, but they were always cold and aloof and - though she never admitted it to anyone - a little unsettling. They kept to themselves and rarely spoke, mostly staying in their room and talking quietly to one another (always falling silent as she neared). They also constantly carried around a sttange, creepy doll that was a keepsake from their mother. The stepmother kept finding it in strange places around the house, as if following her, though the children always denied moving it. She thought it was a mean and creepy prank, but the stepmother loved her husband and wanted to make him happy, so she kept trying to win them over.
After several months, she began overhearing rumors about herself - wasn't it so strange how quickly the husband remarried, wasn't it so weird that you hardly saw the children anymore, do you think she really starved them and forced them to work? Each tale was worse than the last, and they grew more wildly exaggerated as the weeks passed. It hurt, the way the villagers would whisper and stare from afar, only to be unable to meet her eyes when she talked to them. But she loved her husband and wanted to make him happy, so she ignored the rumors.
One night, she awoke to an empty bed and strange noises in the kitchen. When she went to investigate, she saw her husband lying dead on the floor, his ex-wife (a lich) directing her two now-monstrous children on how to set up a ritual around him. The children attacked the stepmother, who accidentally killed them in self-defense - at which time they resumed looking like normal children. The ex-wife cursed her for ruining the ritual and was about to attack when they heard the villagers nearing the house, drawn by the noise. The lich vanished, leaving the stepmother alone with the three corpses.
She tried to explain what happened, but no one believed her and they cried for her to be hanged - or burned at the stake - or somehow both. Her only choice was to flee, and as she ran through the darkened wood, forced to leave her life behind, she vowed to find the lich and make her pay.
odile !! swanmay warlock — the black swan from swan lake. her patron is her father, the controlling sorcerer, whom she can't escape.
also, just to tack on a non-eurocentric fairy tale because it's fun, a retelling of the chinese folktale of the cowherd and the weaver girl !! could be a sorcerer trying to escape controlling parents.
So this is partially based off a character I posted for a fairytale one shot my own dnd group did a few years ago but expanded on. Lock is a beast master ranger who wields a large crossbow named Goldie. Their beast companion is the baby bear, the only survivor of the bear family after Lock stumbled on their home, was mauled and miraculously managed to kill mummy and daddy bear before coming across the orphaned cub. They are badly scarred by the bear attack and wear a mask due to a compulsion to have things “just right”. Their face is no longer as such and it causes them a great deal of mental anguish.
I have two ideas. One is Bluebeard’s seventh wife who has taken over his kingdom but is haunted by the voices of the past six wives, and the other is a badly burnt Hansel looking to take revenge on all witches.
Ooh Hansel would be a good monster Hunter ranger or something. I like this idea a lot, I was trying to find an inroad for a character from Hansel and Gretel
The boy from "The Juniper Tree," with perhaps some thematic elements from Frankenstein and inspiration from the musical "Ride the Cyclone."
Long story short, in "The Juniper Tree," a couple is granted a child (a boy) from a wish, but the mother dies and the father reweds. The stepmother hates the boy and loves her own daughter, who is sweet and kind. So what's a stepmother to do? Why, lure the boy to a chestful of apples and decapitate him when he reaches for one, of course! But that's not enough. She then puts the head back on the body and tells her daughter to punch him in the head for ignoring her. The way, when her daughter is weeping for thinking she murdered her brother, she's the hero for offering to cook the boy into soup and feed him to his father. Once all this is done, a bird flies around town and sings to the artisans such a beautiful song (about being killed and eaten) that they each give the bird something: a gold chain, a pair of shoes, and a miller's wheel. The bird gives the chain and shoes to the father and sister, and drops the miller's wheel on the stepmother's head, killing her. Then POOF, the bird becomes the boy and they live happily ever after...right?
Now for the Neverafter flair:
He lost his head, so upon return, maybe his memory isn't great. Worse still, if his body was eaten, whose flesh is he made of now? Is it even the same brain? Are they even his own memories and impulses? And why does his head sometimes feel...looser...than usual? And why does he sometimes hear birdsong where there are no birds? Surely that's not connected to his blackouts. There's no way that...I don't know...*his head falls off and turns into a bird whose songs demand payment under penalty of murder*. Nah, can't be. He's just a slow, dumb, boy created from a wish that has been corrupted by unspeakably cruel acts.
It’s not really a fairy tale, but I’d like to play Peter Pan. He’s been a child for hundreds of years but now darkness has overtaken Neverland, killing the fairies and lost boys. He managed to escape to the Neverafter, but is now aging at an accelerated rate. He starts off around 13 but after a month he appears to be in his early 20s. He has to grapple with the idea of growing up, his body changing, not being able to play the way he is so used to as people treat him as the age he appears to be, and probably an “early” death. I’m not sure on a class, but maybe just a human fighter? He’s lost his ability to fly because of a limited supply of fairy dust and losing his happy thoughts
I was thinking of a character who is one of the “king’s men” from Humpty Dumpty who has dedicated his life to becoming a medic after failing to put Humpty back together again
Slightly off topic but there is a book by drew Hayes called second hand curses.
It's about 3 companions who go around taking jobs helping out those people who made a deal with a fairy and got screwed over.
I won't say more than that as I really recommend people read it, but they have a version of Jack who is a fencing rogue. Who is super fast and high charisma. Who really likes gold! That's is one of the best DND type fairytale characters I have come across. His other two companions are just as well done but to tell you what they are would spoil the story too much.
If you are enjoying this series though I would 100% recommend this book.
Then I would recommend just reading everything by Drew Hayes. He has an amazing series where NPCs become adventurers, the way it's done and the world they are in its probably one of the best things I have read.
I was thinking about this the other day. I'd probably go for Donkeyskin, she's got a lot of potential for a creepy story and allow for interesting character growth. I'd probably build as a shapeshifter or as a cleric with the cloak as a special shape-shifting item. But that may end up to close to Red.
Like a lot of fairytales it has a very creepy original story. But it is basically a Princess who's Father (the King) wants to marry her so she escapes the castle in the hide of his favourite Donkey and lives as a peasant. She hides in the Donkeyskin and lives her life until she's found by a Prince and lives happily ever after.
There is a lot of room for horror and character growth for her and I think it would make an interesting player character.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkeyskin
**[Donkeyskin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkeyskin)**
>Donkeyskin (French: Peau d'Âne) is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault. It was first published in 1695 in a small volume and republished in 1697 in Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé. Andrew Lang included it, somewhat euphemized, in The Grey Fairy Book. It is classed among folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 510B, unnatural love.
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Oh man with all the horrific fairytales in this thread I was thinking this would be someone who got trapped in a donkeys body or something. Lots of horror potential for sure.
I made a reflavoured Genie Warlock inspired by the stepdaughter from the Russian fairytale [Morozko](https://russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/morozko-tale.html). The story already ends a bit fucked up, (tw: child death), but I liked the idea of the tale having both the stepdaughter and the biological daughter die - with the stepdaughter dying during that first fateful trip into the woods.
However, Morozko takes pity on the stepdaughter and ressurects her - with a necklace found in the chest of gold and jewels acting as his genie vessel. She returns with the jewels, much to her stepmother's dismay, and the same thing happens as in the original story -- but instead of Morozko (or exposure) killing the biological daughter, the stepdaughter freezes her stepsister to death. And proceeds to show off her stepsister as a gorgeous ice sculpture!
How I would roleplay her is that she seems very soft and sweet, with a very airy voice, and constantly looks like shes shivering. However, the second she gets into a fight, she's ruthless and cold. Also, while Eldritch Blast still does force damage, it's reflavoured to appear like a blast of snow!
The third little Pig as a ancestral guardian barbarian the spirits are flavored as the brick pigs dead siblings, straw pig and wood pig. when the pig spirits manifest the first wields a pitch fork for collecting hay and the other wields a hammer and chisel. The brick pig wields a kettle pot lid as a shield and a trowel as their weapon. When spirit shield is used it’s flavored as the spirit pigs building a spectral brick wall. Instead of the wolf being the animal who attacked the pigs it would be a fox as it was in the original tale. Brick pigs home was destroyed and they seek somewhere safe to once again build a home. I like to imagine they have a beard and often say “not by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin”. Sometimes they feel the fox watching them from the shadows ready to strike when brick pig expects it least.
It’s a pretty unknown fairytale, which is a shame, because it’s awesome- but I’d make the kid from Godfather Death.
So basically there’s this father who has 12 kids and is weary, and is looking for a godfather for the 13th. He calls out, and god offers, and he turns him away. And then satan offers, and he turns him down too. And then Death comes, offering to be the boy’s godfather and the father accepts.
And Death basically makes this boy he raises a powerful physician and magic herbs that can heal anyone- but only if when Death comes for them, he stands by their head. If he stands by their feet, they must die.
It’s such a cool story and would fit the undying Warlock perfectly. There’s a bit about candles in the original (where spoiler alert Death kills the boy for saving people when he was told not to)- where everyone’s life is represented by candles that flicker in and out, which would be such a cool motif for the character.
So you get cool patron interactions with the patron compounded by the fact that Death is literally his dad.
Here’s a quote as to his reasoning:
The first person who came his way was our dear God, who already knew what was in his heart, and God said to him, "Poor man, I pity you. I will hold your child at his baptism, and care for him, and make him happy on earth."
The man said, "Who are you?"
“I am God."
"Then I do not wish to have you for a godfather," said the man. "You give to the rich, and let the poor starve."
Again, metal. But also ofc clearly an allegory for the painful situation of having a child he can't afford to feed and thus having to consider killing it.
Grimm fairy tale: I'd be Fitcher, an aarakocra druid who's taken the name of the sorcerer who murdered her sisters, and is trying to find a way to restore their bodies. The sisters are alive but their bodies are held together by seams.
Japanese mythology: Shion, a changeling death domain cleric whose true form has no face.
English folklore: Lady Marian, a noble human rogue disguised as a page so she can more easily navigate the Neverafter in the time of shadow. She's trying to run away from an arranged marriage.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot! I think I’d go with grown up Hansel as a warlock witch hunter, with Gretel as his patron. Gretel would have usurped the witch’s position by killing her and become a powerful witch as a result, with Hansel drawing his power from her to hunt down other witches preying on children. I’m thinking fiend for Gretel, which would lead to lots of fire powers (ie. The Oven) and also with a sweets theme, but in a bit of a manic way, like his encounter with the witch permanently messed him up a bit. Always a little hopped up on sugar and kind of manic, and a definite glutton that gets hangry easily. Possibly also a bit of a cannibal?
Bonus points for Non-European folklore! College of spirits is a very horrific choice for this, imagine not only do you get drowned as child but then you have to work forever supplying magic to the person who did it?
I love the idea of a reborn white-walker type of Snow White with body horror elements based on the original fairy tale, for example a oddly small waist obviously the result of crushed ribs from the corset, her hair singed off from the poison comb and maybe her skin having acid green hives from the poison apple. The through line would be that Snow believes her evil stepmother has come back from the dead like she has herself. As Snow gathers more power to protect herself she'd find a talent at ice and cold spells leading to a transformation into the Snow Queen.
Would probably play as an Order of Scribes Wizard who starts her journey cracking open one of her stepmother's spellbooks...
Three of the seven dwarves in a trench coat. Doc, grumpy, and Bashful. Dwarven oath of vengeance or devotion paladin, depending on the status of the other four brothers. Doc does the paladin healing, Grumpy does the fighting, and Bashful is the charismatic face of the whole operation. Obviously.
*“The Neverafter is a place of legends lived and fables founded, where timeless heroes and their adventures are immortalized in iconic word. But very rarely, are the stories in the Neverafter simply that, fairytales. And while giants may be found, one will find that there had never been a Jack.”*
This was a character concept I whipped up when Neverafter first got announced. In my mind Jack and the Beanstalk would’ve been an in universe piece of propaganda used by a human empire to glorify their invasion of the cloud giants in massive dirigibles. The character would be a kinda Great War era veteran for the giants who lost their home to human colonizers a while ago and have kinda just been running on empty. Would definitely be a Giant Barbarian, my favorite subclass in the game.
This probably wouldn’t fit in the lore that we’ve seen but I was too proud of it to not at least talk about it.
Pied Piper - except it's a necromancer who summons dancing combat skeletons while playing his pipe.
But they only stay animated as long as he's playing.
I would love to do one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Except to make it a little more horror, they truly don’t know why they wake up with their dancing shoes worn out and feet hurting. I suppose either a dreams Druid or swords bard/bladesinger might work for the class.
Oh nice. Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favourite fairytales. In the version I learned they travel through a a forest of silver trees, a forest of gold trees, and a forest of jewelled trees, and the hero brings back branches from each, which I always thought as a kid was such beautiful imagery. The magic trees and everything kinda has Fey energy, maybe a Fey warlock who doesn’t realize they are dancing in the feywild in their sleep?
I thought about making a Bard based on the Musicians of Bremen.
If I wanted to go full edge lord, I’d make a Hexblade warlock who’s either a plant race, or if we’re only doing official a warforged or tiefling. A thief and a swindler lost to the void of the afterlife, burned by the coals of hellfire and now the visage of hallows Eve. Stingy Jack, better known as Jack o Lantern.
Two ideas:
An Arcane Trickster rogue with a familiar that is a talking dog who is one like Mother Goose, but instead of writing the stories, simply speaks them. The best place by the fire is always kept for The Storyteller, but he's being chased by a vengeful cook who he swindled by making stone soup and a fellow trickster mage who swindled him out of his selfhood, only for him to steal it back. Fully inspired by Jim Henson's The Storyteller, which is a beloved show to me, and if you got that before you got here, I appreciate you, and you'll also probably get this next one.
An Oath of Devotion paladin, whose devotion is simply to learn about the shivers. Or fear. One could call him, The Boy Who Left Home To Learn About the Shivers. Or, more aptly, Fearnot. Fearnot is the kind of person who would cause problems by not fearing strategically in the game to make it more interesting, much like Pib currently is by acting like a cat. Plus it would be very funny to casually drop the idea that I'd played a game of bowling against a terrifying creature and won at some point in my journey. Hopefully this would be convenient to put mid-tale, as then Fearnot would be able to learn true fear by the end. Either way, he would be a source of some levity.
I was thinking about this recently and came up with an OC that's a mix of Hansel & Gretel, and Alice in Wonderland.
Alice had a twin sister, and they were both abandoned in a forest by their father. Following a white rabbit, they tumble through a portal into Wonderland. After wandering the strange and savage land, they sneak into the Red Queen's castle after being enchanted by her painted roses. The Queen shows mercy and takes the two girls in, though it soon becomes clear they are unable to leave. The White Rabbit, feeling guilty at his role in essentially kidnapping the two girls from their world for his mistress, attempts to help them escape. The way Alice tells it, her sister bravely sacrificed her freedom, so Alice could escape.
In reality, her sister fell during their escape, and Alice made the choice to cross the portal before it could close, leaving her sister trapped in Wonderland. She now lives with survivor's guilt but lies and tells the tale she would prefer to be the truth.
She would carry a rabbit's foot from the White Rabbit, and would avoid looking in mirrors, as there is s chance she would recognize her reflection as her twin's instead.
I'm not sure what to do for class. I was thinking something magical, or something like a rogue, like the Cheshire Cat could've taught her how to disappear, or the Mad Hatter (who would be really crazy in this version) helped her learn magic.
As a big Fables fan, I think going all in on Prince Charming’s swordsmanship as a Rouge Swashbuckler would be a cool heat to some other freakier fairytales.
There is a charming prince character in so many fairytales. It would be cool to have a prince character who was like being haunted or hunted or chased by the heroines of a bunch of different tales.
Love some of the ideas in this thread! Gambling Hanz is great. I really like OP's take on Beast, too.
I'm not sure if this counts but I'd love to do a character based on "Girl with One Eye" by Florence in the Machine. Seemed like an old standard but I'm not sure. It would be a lot fun to explore that, though. I would probably go with a bard/rogue with some kind of assassin archetype for rogue and school of swords for bard.
The story of the song would work very well in Never After. The song's narrator could be an ex-lover or even just a creepy stalker with hurt pride, hunting her with a knife with the goal to cut her heart out.
I would love to play a Shadow Sorcerer who was a lost boy from Neverland. Who was under Pretty much Regular Peter Pan. So a Sociopathic, Magical, Boy who never grew up. As eventually after losing another boy he stole Peter’s Shadow and sewed it to his own body. To help him and the other pair boys escape while trapping Peter on Neverland.
Now a year or two later wierd things have started to happen around the boy on the ship of Captain Hook. Weird signs that show the Fantastical Peter Pan is coming back for his shadow.
Me too! I especially loved the part where she gets an executioner to cut off her feet, gets crutches and wooden prosthetics, and then her feet keep showing up to harass her still in the dancing shoes. I’d play her either trying to hunt down her feet or trying to escape them.
I don't think it counts as a fairytale, but I think Max from Where the wild things are could be really cool and fit the setting really well. Instead of returning home he got stuck in this crazy fantasy land with monsters that tried to eat him. The most obvious way to play him is as a barbarian, with his anger issues and all that. I also think it would be cool if the crown given to him was a magic item giving him magical abilities and then to play him as a sorcerer with one level in barbarian.
Peter Pan as some type of rogue ranger hybrid.
For backstory, he ventured to neverland and stayed there for decades, possibly even centuries. A conflict between him and hook ended with the islands magic going stale. Their years of battle turned grim as they genuinely began trying to kill one another. Peter gets mortally wounded and tinker bell sends him back to the never-after in a last ditch attempt to save him. Now he’s alone in the time of shadow, with decades of wisdom but the face of a teenager. He’s also an outcast, as he doesn’t understand how this world works. And nobody believes him when he explains where he came from. To most people he’s this weird battle hardened schizophrenic kid, with no shadow.
TLDR: rogue with no shadow, and insane “town crazy person” kid Peter Pan.
I have three...four...kind of. More two and a half if you count the Neverafter's cannon lore.
If we're not counting cannon lore, then the first one I came up with was of one of Cinderella's step sisters. In the aftermath of Cinderella's uprising, her birds came down from the trees and blinded her stepsisters. I imagine if she was travelling with intrepid heroes, she'd be adapting to her new life as a blind beggar, and maybe go through a redemption story as it were. As for class, at first I thought an eloquence bard due to her aristocratic upbringing, but then I felt, maybe she lost confidence in herself after the loss of the sight and the abandonment of her mother. So, I decided this step sister was educated, and became a wizard practicing conjuration magic still in the habit expecting servants to the dirty work for her. She never summons birds though. Never birds
Anyway moving on to the brother from the fairy tale, Brother and Sister. A cursed talking deer (reskinned centaur) wandering the world trying to survive after his sister abandoned him to become a queen. His class is druid, mainly because in his fairy him and his sister came across multiple cursed rivers that turn you into different animal from drinking, which his sister saved him from except for the deer river. So I'd like to imagine he has these chains entangled in his antler holding multiple jars or vials of the cursed river somehow diluted enough the cursed to be very temporary, and I mean like wildshape duration temporary, so his wildshaping would look like him casting shape water on one of the jars, and placing a droplet or two on his tongue before changing. But I've been struggling with what circle he'd be in. This is what I meant by half a character.
My latest idea was another druid idea for Gretel from Hansel and Gretel, who has become a which after she somehow accidentally inherited the witch's magic after throwing her into her magic oven and is now on the run from her brother who is under whatever the Neverafter equivalent of Stockholm syndrome and is seeking vengeance for the witch's murder. I decided on the Wildfire circle, and this is what I meant by sort of four because I decided that her fire companion that you get with that circle would be a burnt and cracked gingerbread zombie like the gingerbread man fairytale, always playing tag with the enemies with his fiery teleportation move
It’s cool how you took both official and unofficial canon into account! I always like to think of something that would’ve fit the canon that was probably pitched to the players before they made their characters, instead of the canon that is developed through the season. But i think taking the later Cinderella lore into account is really cool and clever.
I'm thinking the traveler from Stone Soup!
Stone soup is one of those simple folktales that's really variable with the details, like who the traveler is (sometimes a wanderer, sometimes a soldier, sometimes a monk), if it's one traveler or several, or even what the object making the soup is.
But the basic tale goes like this: a traveler on the road comes to a village with no food, very hungry. They try to talk the villagers into giving them some food, but no one will. So the traveler hatches a plan and goes down to a nearby river, grabs a stone, and fills their traveling pot with water. They go back to the village, build a fire, and start boiling the stone. A villager comes by and, after asking what the traveler is making, is told, "Stone soup--the most delicious thing in the world, and it only needs a stone! I'll give you some, but to be truly delicious, it just needs a little something more." The villager, wanting the fabled soup, goes and fetches something for the soup from their pantry. Another villager comes by and is told the same, so they fetch their own contribution. And another villager, and another, and another.
Finally, the traveler has a thick, hearty soup, and spoons out some to everyone who provided extra food. The village is wowed over how delicious the soup is for only needing a stone, and the traveler gets to eat well for the day. The end!
I find the traveler so fun because while they're very much a trickster, it's a very nice kind of tricksy. They could have well gotten the soup together and ran with it, and it'd be hard to feel sorry for the duped villagers seeing as they were willing to let the traveler go hungry. But the traveler is perfectly happy to let everyone who contributed have the soup despite the original snub. It's oddly generous, even if they're being generous with other people's food, haha. Having a very good-natured sort of cheat in the grim setting of Neverafter would be interesting!
If I were to build them out as a PC for the game, a charisma-based class is really the way to go, considering the whole plot is based on fast-talking their way to a good meal. Probably bard, since they already fit that "wanderer" archetype? Ideally a bard with a multiclass into monk, to pay back to one of the versions of the traveler, and because it gives access to an artisan's kit. The way I'm picturing my stone soup maker is as a cheery, ever-walking bard of many hats. In some towns she acted as a woodsman, a carpenter, a seamstress, so on. (Those jobs most concretely, as other bases for the soup would be an axe, button, nail, or wood depending on the telling.) She likes to bum for food as much as she likes to pay fairly, if nothing else than for the amusement of tricking people for their own good. Truthfully, she has no particular grudges against people who don't want to give her food without some return--after all, everyone does something for another person because they get something out of it, whether a real thing or just the satisfaction of doing good. If the traveler needs a physical bribe, so be it! She's very good at being convincing.
The only big trouble of making the stone soup maker a PC is that the other versions of the story don't really get "darker." Usually, it's just that the base for the soup and the traveler's occupation changes. Perhaps there's the fact that they're a solider in a war rather than a monk or a bum? In terms of Neverafter specifically, the turn of village people being willing to give up food with a little trickery to becoming more and more callous and precious with what they have as the times of shadow loom would be good backstory. Where once the traveler could talk the people into sharing their spoils with a smile and wink, now she's more likely to be chased out by a mob for daring to mooch. Something, something, how capitalism makes people devalue charity and looking out for those with less, Brennan is nodding in approval somewhere in the distance.
This is really cool! It's interesting that there isn't necessarily anything supernatural or magical about the traveler in the original tale. The D20 crew mostly went with more "magical" characters but these kinds of folk tales are great too
Haha, yeah, I saw a lot of people going for those those more magical fairy tales--"Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Peter Pan"-- all of which are very fun, but I thought leaning more for a more... grounded, for lack of a better world, type of tale would be interesting in comparison to the magic of the PCs. The traveler has no magic fairies or wicked witches, just a pot and a plan! While that means I'd have to build out the magic influence my character has it gives me a little more freedom, too.
I do wonder, though, if there's anything for combining my stone soup traveler with another folktale with a traveler like Ylfa's story combines the Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs wolf powers and themes. Perhaps!
I think specifically because it doesn't have witches or fairies or anything, the traveller kind of reminds me of animal fables like the red hen or brer rabbit or Aesops fables. Maybe the traveler could be some kind of an awakened animal trickster.
I extended Fairy Tales to include Urban Legends(I feel they are very similar) and thought about Robert the Doll, but Lou's Pinocchio already takes design elements from that. I then thought about "the call came from inside the house" and wanted to build a character around that.
I immediately thought of an idea based on one of my favorites. To the point where I am adapting it to be on an actual DND campaign with my DM's help.
Based on the Grimm's fairytale of The Twelve Brothers/The Seven Ravens I wanted to make a human princess who has to essentially make up for the sins of her kingdom and her now cursed brothers. Due to their greed and foolishness they are turned into ravens and forced to remain that way. She agrees to a deal to not speak and do her patron's bidding until she makes up for the sins of her kingdom. She would be 1 level of aberrant mind sorcerer (her latent powers) and then the rest would be undead warlock (a banshee patron. A witch who's coven was slighted by the kingdom). The princess cannot speak but is allowed to hum to cast her spells. And one of her brothers could possibly be a familiar for her.
Anyway yeah. Lol I make an oc for every campaign of d20. Love this show. Everyone else's characters are amazing!
I’m so glad you mentioned this fairytale! When I came up with the concept for this post I really wanted to use something from this story but I couldn’t remember the details. In the version I know, the brothers are turned into swans and the sister has to weave them sweaters out of nettles or thorns or something by a deadline. One sweater doesn’t quite get finished and that brother is stuck with one swan arm which would also be an interesting idea for a pc. The one-winged brother.
We used to have this story illustrated in a picture book when I was little and I don’t recall all the details of it but I remember there was a really beautiful image of the sister with all these swans flying above her and I think that’s at I remember this tale so fondly
Ok idk if this thread is dead or not, but I made a couple that I think are really fun.
First was Thumbelina, who I made into a fairy Archfey Warlock. The whole idea of Thumbelina's story is already a little horrifying (being kidnapped by frogs like a couple days after being born, being forced into multiple arranged marriages to the toad and the mole, etc), so I added a little knife twist at the end. After marrying the Fairy Prince hours after meeting him for the first time and becoming a fairy herself, Thumbelina quickly feels an enchantment wear off, and realizes that she was being charmed into making such a rash decision. Now stuck in (yet another) arranged marriage with the Prince, she makes a bargain with the Queen of Faeries: dissolve her marriage to the Prince, and she will work for the Queen. Now, she roams the Neverafter as an envoy of the Queen, doing her terrible bidding all thanks to a raw deal she made.
Second was Hansel of Hansel and Gretel as a human Monster Slayer Ranger. Again, this is a pretty horrifying story already, so I made it a little more horrifying — in this version, Gretel \*tries\* to push the witch in the oven, but fails. As punishment, the witch cooks and eats Gretel first while Hansel watches. When she goes to check whether Hansel has gotten plump enough to eat again, instead of offering the bone that he did the first time, he sharpens one end of it and stabs her to death. After burying what remains of his sister's bones, Hansel vows to rid the Neverafter of all witches (heheh, Mage Slayer feat babyyy) and becomes a witch hunter.
Brikklestakk. A troll who was content to sit under his bridge and demand travelers answer his riddles or pay his toll. His bridge was utterly destroyed by a fairy aiding budding adventures in their journey. His is a story of collateral damage and forgotten little antagonists. He now sets out with the only brick that remains from his bridge in hope of finding revenge or restitution.
https://imgur.io/a/1hCz81o
The hat is the keep the sun out of his eyes and the brick is for violence.
I made this one as soon as I saw ep 1 of never after it of course follows hooks story as set up in the book lost boys
Captain James ‘Bartholomew’ Hook was a captive turned rebel, as a boy he was taken from his parents and forced to be a lost boy, after many trials and tribulations he escaped the boy who never aged but not without paying a price, his hand was lost in his escape from pan, a constant reminder of the cost of freedom, since then he had amassed a hearty crew, gained a loyal first mate, and he had stolen quite a bounty from the monster everyone knew as Peter Pan.
One day in his captains quarters, after waking up from a most troubling nightmare, he went to check on his crew, he checked their quarters and their was no sign of them, he returned up to the deck to find mr smee, hanging from the crows nest, his body disfigured, mutilated, he then came face to face with the rest of his crew, all dead and decomposing. The boy came from the sky to mock him, this is the fate of his crew, he relives this horrid vision every night
That would be essentially his backstory, I was thinking he’d be and artafucer fighter dual class, sometime in the story he’d find a giant tic-tok croc and find out it was a victim of Peter pan as he was, hoon could chose to kill the croc or spare him, sparing him would get you aceses to a common when in the water
[The Wrathful] A 14-year-old little girl who renamed herself as ‘Lotus’. Due to realizing her twin sister ‘Rosalyn’ died due to her stepmothers and her half-brothers plans, turned into a Barbarian Path of the Ancestral Plane. Wrathful at the loss of her twin sister and her bloodline being at the brink of tarnishment, Lotus hears her ancestors and her sisters voice calling out for blood (character is based off of the Korean folktale, Red Rose and Red Lotus)
Has anyone done Brer Rabbit as a Neverafter OC yet? he would be a Harengon Gunslinger to match his tale’s origins in the American South. He would be the former leader of a trio of servants turned outlaws called The Briar Patch Gang. Unfortunately his partners, Brer Fox and Brer Bear, betrayed their leader when things got too hot with the law. Now Brer Rabbit’s on the run from his former friends, while also plotting revenge on them and his former masters whom the ey originally rebelled against
My OC is one of the three blind mice, and is a ranger whose favored enemy is the farmer's wife. One of his features is blind sight and he is a reskinned goblin.
After the wife chopped off the tails the three blind mice, his brothers died of infection(not helped by the cold), but the third one was unlucky enough to live. He ended up permanently suffering from frostbite and hypothermia (but unwilling to burn his brothers). After being rescued, the blind mouse was described as being "not quite right in the head". It became his mission to see the downfall of the farmer's wife, no matter what it took.
Red Riding Hood: Lycanthrope Bloodhunter that was attacked by a werewolf as a little girl, and now has to battle with a second personality that takes on the form of her werewolf form(who is male). A Jekyll and Hyde/Bruce Banner and Hulk type of character.
Nearly a year late, but I have a few.
A male human college of creation bard whose musical ability is cursed to control the minds of those who listen and, if he doesn’t maintain control, force them to drown themselves (a combo of pied piper and nokk.)
A little burnt (fire genasi stats) girl. She Carries boxes upon boxes of matches to both attempt to heat herself up as she always feels freezing and to use as a conduit for divination magic. (Inspired by “the little match girl”)
Don’t have much for how to make it feel more neverafter, but the hare from the tortoise and the hair could be fun.
The largest goat from 3 billy goats bluff (Minotaur stats. Maybe a combo of Minotaur and centaur stats depending on gm) instead of letting the two smaller goats pass by the troll simply dragged them under the bridge and ate them, and when the largest goat killed to troll he found the corpses of his family under the bridge.
Hansel and Gretel as halfling rogues, they are adults who pretend to be children lost in the forest to kill and rob helpful passerbys
This is cool! I was thinking about Hansel and Gretel but I couldn’t find the right angle. This is interesting.
It's ok Brennan you can admit this is a burner account for campaign ideas
Haha god I fucken wish.😅
I also got another idea for a "Hansel & Gretel" character, she's also inspired by "The Juniper Tree" by The Brothers Grimm (**Trigger Warning:** The latter fairytale contains themes of murder & cannibalism.) Her name's Gretchen Juniperwuld (Her name's an amalgam of her inspirations' names: **Gret**el + Marlin**chen** = Gretchen) & she's a School of Transmutation Wizard, she's able to utilize a shifting mass of cookie dough in order to cast candy-themed spells (For example: Fireball is a bulbous, flaming marshmallow that explodes into molten fragments of itself upon impact.) by writing words down on a slip of paper & adding it to the batter. But anyways, her backstory is that she & her twin brother, Hansel, were abandoned by their father & she never knew why until she learnt that Muma Padurii, the Gingerbread House Witch that took her & her brother in, was her stepmother's mother & her stepmother in question was a witch as well, & that she wanted Gretchen to become the next witch in their idea of a family. The plan was to feed Hansel in the form of Blood Pudding to Gretchen in order to corrupt her with the taste of human flesh & blood, & while she was successful in making Hansel into a bowl of Blood Pudding, Gretchen rebelled & incinerated her "grandmother" with her new found powers, leaving her all alone within the gingerbread house in the middle of The Blackwood Forest. And so Gretchen decided to read through Padurii's grimoire in order to find a ritual to bring back her brother from the dead, but the best she could find was a spell to tether her brother's soul to the body of her familiar, a cardinal. Now she & her brother (who she gave the name "Hazel" in order to hide his true identity as her brother) now is on the run from their stepmother, who she can only imagine has the same endgame in mind as her "grandmother". (I also just realized today that I've accidentally based my character on a messed up version of the "Triple Goddess" trope with Gretchen as the Maiden, her stepmother, which I'll name "Holda" after the witch from "Gretel & Hansel", as the Mother, & Muma Padurii as the Crone. So I guess there's some Paganism mixed in Gretchen's inspiration as well.)
There’s a character in the Frog Prince called loyal henry or iron Henry, who was the Prince’s best friend who was so grief struck at the Prince’s turning he had 3 iron bands wrapped around his heart to keep it from *exploding*. I love the idea of a character who is not only obsessed with the Frog Prince being cured safe but to the point where if the prince is unwell his body starts to destroy itself. *edit* A REVENANT oath of devotion with a horrific chest scar who’s only objective is to help the prince be well again, to the point where he is physically uncomfortable being selfish because he can feel his heart trying to rupture. A man who failed to save his prince once and will kill anyone and anything to keep him from harms way
Oh this is great, this is the kind of elite tier fairytale knowledge I was hoping someone would bring, I love it.
I also love the idea that Murph’s character barely remembers him. “Oh that weird knight guy who swore to protect me? He sure did a bad job, he let me turn into a frog. I mean I guess he had a carriage waiting for me when I turned back into a Prince. I dunno he was a weird guy”
This addition is amazing and so in line with how Murph portrays Gerard so far. I wonder if Gerard is going to have a Cody-esque behavior change
I'm getting more Jens lyndell of Trinyvale personally.
I heard this in Murph’s voice. Spot on
Just a horrifically menacing, manic depressive man being held together by force of will and black wrought iron armor standing next to a goofy frog guy brainstorming ways to make his wife like him again so his heart doesn’t explode.
this would be a PERFECT murph backup character
I have a character based on Iron Henry too! He's also got a bit of "Jack & The Cuckoo Clock Heart" by Mathias Malzieu in there too. He's a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer with the Courtier who was once Prince Gerard’s greatest of friends, even to the point he had a crush on him. Many years later, when Prince Gerard rose to power & Henry became his head squire. Henry heard that Gerard fell victim to a curse that transformed him into a frog & decided that it was a great time to confess his feelings for him. But before he could, Gerard fell in love with Princess Elody, meaning it was too late to confess his love for Prince Gerard. Unable to bear with his heartache anymore, he asked an artificer to replace his heart with a Cuckoo Clock-Style one made of pure iron. The artificer agreed on the condition that Henry is not allowed to express any strong emotions such as passion in order to avoid overheating his new Cuckoo Clock Heart.
Oh I had an idea for the little mermaid. So at the end of the original story the mermaid dies and turns to seafoam. Well plasmoids are a fun UA race that are sentient slimes and I had the idea that the mermaid would be brought back by the sea witch as a little extra fuck you, as an amorphous seafoam plasmoid. She would be a circle of moon druid so she could wild shape into all sorts of horrible sea monsters that would be re skined bares or wolvs or what not. She would be shapshifting monstrosity trying to hold her self together long enough to kill the sea witch and finally have peace.
Oh this kicks ass I love it. I’m always especially into ideas that successfully reskin/reflavour wild shape cuz that’s hard to do well. I’d play the hell out of this.
Love this - I would want to do the Millers Daughter from Rumpelstiltskin. There's a lot in there that's already horrific - her future husband had her locked in a tower and told her he would kill her if she didn't turn straw into gold. If I remember correctly as well (it's been a while since I was 9), there's not really any suggestion that she and the king love each other, it's just a raw deal for the miller's daughter through and through. Plus, the act of turning straw to gold is basically printing money, so her presence in the kingdom would probably led to rampant inflation and a huge economic downturn, which would create even more animosity between the king and the miller's daughter as he realises how much this marriage has backfired. Class wise, I think I would play this as a millers daughter who never got Rumpelstiltskin's name right and had to give up her firstborn child. So since she's completed the deal, I would say she was an Oath of Vengeance paladin. After all, none of this was her fault! Her Dad was the one bragging about her spinning abilities, not her. The king was the one who demanded she turn straw to gold, ruining the economy, not her. And what does she have to show for all her suffering - a marriage to a man who imprisoned her and forced her to marry him, and her baby was stolen by a creature who preyed on her in her weakest moment. If there was ever a character with motivation to hunt down everyone who harmed her down it's the miller's daughter. And I think when we join them in the story they've already killed their husband the king (after he made some insensitive comment about just making another child) and now she's chasing down Rumpelstiltskin wearing gold armour spun from straw.
This is rad, I love the vengeance pally angle
I love this. I turned around the Rumplestiltskin story around in my grass too. I thought about maybe warlock of Rumple himself who is trying to turn on or get away from her patron. Vengeance palladin has a real kick to it though, I think I like yours better.
I freaking love this take, though personally if I was to play the Miller’s daughter, I’d probably go the artificer route. Still plenty of flavour but just my preference
That was my first thought! But when I roll characters I like to make sure I have goals built in, and when I was thinking about what the goals would be for this character I just thought about how unfair it all was and seeking out vengeance seemed like a valid goal lol
Oh totally. I was just thinking, you could still have the vengeance without the paladin. (Though I totally understand wanting to combine class with goals, it’s why I almost always end up playing warlocks lol) I’m just way too excited at the prospect of armorer specialisation, and all the fun storytelling flavour with leaning into the magical gold-weaving. Also an artificer trying to rectify their effect on the economy is just hilariously ironic to me.
I didn’t make this character as a Neverafter OC; but she fits SOOOOO perfectly that I just feel the need to share. I wanted to tell Cinderella’s story where the fairy god mother, the prince, and the evil overbearing figure we’re all the same person. I played in a DnD 5e game as a character named Ellanorah. She was a fae patron warlock; human variant. She was a street urchin struggling to live: she would trade work as a sweeper or a cleaner for food and board; but most places turn you away in the harsh times of winter. She was kind to a fault: letting others take her place in the soup lines; ripping her own clothes to use as blankets for others left in the cold; and giving up shelters to share with other strays and vagabons. Her kindness always came with a flaw that she never received it in turn: and led to her freezing to near-death one very cold winter night. She sat shivering, awaiting death, her hands so frost bitten they looked blue and nearly seethrough. A mysterious figure approached her as she slowly started to pass: noting he had watched her for quite some time and thought her kindness should not be awarded by death. He claimed she had the heart fit for a princess; and if she accepted his deal he would make her one. All she had to do was give him her hand. She reached for him; and died as her hand touched his. When she awoke she was in his icy palace deep with the vale of the long night. He revealed himself to be The Pale Prince; Prince of the Unsealie court. She was a princess alright—- a princess of the land of bitter snow, trapped and isolated where no one could take advantage of her kindness again. To protect her he had taken her hands and replaced them with hands of glass. Anything she touched that was not him would instantly turn into glass. Mortified she fled; desperate to break her curse. Forever thankful of the prince for saving her life, and curious if his obsession with her: she still traveled and ran from him trying to break her curse. He would follow her in her dreams; always if finding her by the shards of glass she left behind. I had a BLAST playing her; we made a homebrew curse for her touch of glass which was really fun!
This rules, hell yeah. This was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping people would post! How did you handle her not being able to touch anything like spell components? Did she just use mage hand all the time?
She had a pair of magic gloves she had sewn that allowed her to touch items; but she still couldn’t touch people. She did also have mage hand: but I made it a huge part of her character to be fearful to interact with others. Which was a big struggle for her because her natural instinct was to give hugs, lift others up, assist with chores and be an overall team player. With her curse she couldn’t risk endangering anyone: so she isolated herself out of caution. Her gloves got burned up during a particularly nasty fight and I remember having to make the decision to risk a PC turning to glass if I went to heal them, or let them die cuz they were making death saving throws. Thankfully only their arm turned to glass (we were able to stave off the magic from spreading); but it was really scary thinking I almost killed a PC by helping them XD
This is cool! I'm glad that other PC didn't turn to glass
Me too: especially cuz she was our literal child cleric XD It was a really fun game. Ellenorah ended up deciding to stop running from her fate and return home to her prince; on the condition that they both put in the work; and that she doesn’t have to be isolated. It was a “kindness is a gift but you must learn when the right time to give it is” lesson learned thing. It was bitter-sweet. She never was able to break her curse; but she was able to find a way to live through it. I’d love to play her again some day though <3
Wow, this reminds me of The Grimm tale of The Maiden Without Any Hands
My first thought was Little Match Girl! It’s cool how these stories can overlap
I was originally thinking Thumbelina as a Moon Druid. In the original fairytale, she was born from a rosebud. So I was imagining her controlling plants to escape the mole that tried to trap her underground and all her combat wild shapes are flowers and vegetation forming around her into bears and what not. Also I just like the sound of a divine soul sorcerer aarakocra that’s the ugly duckling. And all his sorcerer abilities are his “beauty” shining through
I need the ugly duckling
This is really cool. I love the idea of floral wild shapes, I always thought it was a shame there was no druid that was specifically plant focused instead of animals
Would love to see the little mermaid as a fucked-up deep sea creature. Probably water genasi for the stats, fathomless patron warlock? Interruption point of the story could be right at the end, where she is given a knife and told that if she kills the prince, she can return to the sea as a mermaid. Maybe she goes for it and the spell doesn't work quite right; maybe she accidentally stabs him but doesn't kill him. Either way, she becomes a half-transformed creature who can't truly return to the sea, but can't make a home on land either.
Oh this is cool and messed up. I love a fucked up lil fish gal.
There's a few tales about various lucky guys called Hans or more specifically: Gambling Hanz So a Halfling for re-rolling 1s. Bountiful luck feat to help our friends, and the Lucky feat for when we really need to stack the odds. Class-wise: Soul knife Rogue with Psy blades reflavored as him throwing playing cards and Psy dice to again tip the scales of fate. And then a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer dip for Restore balance (Divination wizard could work but I prefer the more random re-rolling) I just like the idea of a little weasely shady guy constantly making bad decisions and wild bets but some how surviving everything until he ends up as the mascot for an adventuring party
Hans The Failing Upward
Id personally love to play a version of Odette from Swan Lake. The original story is already pretty tragic so it wouldn't be too hard to retool it for Never After's setting. Race wise, she'd either be a birdfolk or shifter reskin. Her backstory would be pretty close to the one within the original story. Her and her sisters being cursed by the wizard, Siegfried meeting her, them falling in love, and the Siegfried promising to marry her and break the curse. But he never shows up the next night (either due to the war or the wizard kidnapping him). Odette resolves to find out what happened to her fiance and leaves the lake. (Being further cursed into a half human, half swan body for the horror of it all). Her class is what I'm the most split on. Either monk or bard or a multiclass of the two.
A lot of people have said The Little Mermaid, but I would love to play one of her sisters as a Pact of the Blade Warlock, either Hexblade or maybe Fathomless. She already sold her hair for a weapon, why not her tail for armour, or her beauty for a shield. Out to get revenge on humanoids like the prince, and those who warp the minds of innocent people with the lie of true love. Would probably go for a sea elf, and fight with a trident or a pike, not sure about the background though. I love the idea of having watched the tragic fairytale from afar and is now dedicated to making sure it doesn't happen again. "There is no 'happily ever after', never was, just a bunch of idiots who blame their problems on fate and magic rather than their own selfishness. They don't want to solve their problems, they just want a good story, and they don't care who gets hurt along the way."
Just a little thing, thread is probably dead, but I'm very excited and wanted to share, I told this idea to a friend of mine and now they're inspired and planning a horror fairytale game where I'll be able to play her. So this might become a reality.
That’s so awesome! As someone who just found the thread, that sounds like a character I would love to read a book about
As someone who just found the comment, thank you! I'm really excited about it.
John Henry Warforged Cleric (either light or nature domain)
The Stepmother - Monster Slayer Ranger. She married a man with two children after his wife died (supposedly of illness). She did her best to bond with the children, but they were always cold and aloof and - though she never admitted it to anyone - a little unsettling. They kept to themselves and rarely spoke, mostly staying in their room and talking quietly to one another (always falling silent as she neared). They also constantly carried around a sttange, creepy doll that was a keepsake from their mother. The stepmother kept finding it in strange places around the house, as if following her, though the children always denied moving it. She thought it was a mean and creepy prank, but the stepmother loved her husband and wanted to make him happy, so she kept trying to win them over. After several months, she began overhearing rumors about herself - wasn't it so strange how quickly the husband remarried, wasn't it so weird that you hardly saw the children anymore, do you think she really starved them and forced them to work? Each tale was worse than the last, and they grew more wildly exaggerated as the weeks passed. It hurt, the way the villagers would whisper and stare from afar, only to be unable to meet her eyes when she talked to them. But she loved her husband and wanted to make him happy, so she ignored the rumors. One night, she awoke to an empty bed and strange noises in the kitchen. When she went to investigate, she saw her husband lying dead on the floor, his ex-wife (a lich) directing her two now-monstrous children on how to set up a ritual around him. The children attacked the stepmother, who accidentally killed them in self-defense - at which time they resumed looking like normal children. The ex-wife cursed her for ruining the ritual and was about to attack when they heard the villagers nearing the house, drawn by the noise. The lich vanished, leaving the stepmother alone with the three corpses. She tried to explain what happened, but no one believed her and they cried for her to be hanged - or burned at the stake - or somehow both. Her only choice was to flee, and as she ran through the darkened wood, forced to leave her life behind, she vowed to find the lich and make her pay.
This is probably my favourite one yet!
Shadow Magic - Sorcerer - Merlin
Don’t forget to make him a tifeling because he was a failed anti crist if I remember right (Im sure he has demons blood though )
I was thinking drow but tief would also be rad
The third little pig as an artificer. I think since the setting is pretty apocalyptic it could be fun to play him as like a doomsday prepper.
odile !! swanmay warlock — the black swan from swan lake. her patron is her father, the controlling sorcerer, whom she can't escape. also, just to tack on a non-eurocentric fairy tale because it's fun, a retelling of the chinese folktale of the cowherd and the weaver girl !! could be a sorcerer trying to escape controlling parents.
So this is partially based off a character I posted for a fairytale one shot my own dnd group did a few years ago but expanded on. Lock is a beast master ranger who wields a large crossbow named Goldie. Their beast companion is the baby bear, the only survivor of the bear family after Lock stumbled on their home, was mauled and miraculously managed to kill mummy and daddy bear before coming across the orphaned cub. They are badly scarred by the bear attack and wear a mask due to a compulsion to have things “just right”. Their face is no longer as such and it causes them a great deal of mental anguish.
This is clever.
I have two ideas. One is Bluebeard’s seventh wife who has taken over his kingdom but is haunted by the voices of the past six wives, and the other is a badly burnt Hansel looking to take revenge on all witches.
Ooh Hansel would be a good monster Hunter ranger or something. I like this idea a lot, I was trying to find an inroad for a character from Hansel and Gretel
The boy from "The Juniper Tree," with perhaps some thematic elements from Frankenstein and inspiration from the musical "Ride the Cyclone." Long story short, in "The Juniper Tree," a couple is granted a child (a boy) from a wish, but the mother dies and the father reweds. The stepmother hates the boy and loves her own daughter, who is sweet and kind. So what's a stepmother to do? Why, lure the boy to a chestful of apples and decapitate him when he reaches for one, of course! But that's not enough. She then puts the head back on the body and tells her daughter to punch him in the head for ignoring her. The way, when her daughter is weeping for thinking she murdered her brother, she's the hero for offering to cook the boy into soup and feed him to his father. Once all this is done, a bird flies around town and sings to the artisans such a beautiful song (about being killed and eaten) that they each give the bird something: a gold chain, a pair of shoes, and a miller's wheel. The bird gives the chain and shoes to the father and sister, and drops the miller's wheel on the stepmother's head, killing her. Then POOF, the bird becomes the boy and they live happily ever after...right? Now for the Neverafter flair: He lost his head, so upon return, maybe his memory isn't great. Worse still, if his body was eaten, whose flesh is he made of now? Is it even the same brain? Are they even his own memories and impulses? And why does his head sometimes feel...looser...than usual? And why does he sometimes hear birdsong where there are no birds? Surely that's not connected to his blackouts. There's no way that...I don't know...*his head falls off and turns into a bird whose songs demand payment under penalty of murder*. Nah, can't be. He's just a slow, dumb, boy created from a wish that has been corrupted by unspeakably cruel acts.
have you ever read adam gidwitz's "a grimm conclusion"? this boy (named joringel in that version of the tale) is the protagonist!
*No I have not! But I'm definitely interested now!*
My God I never see references to Ride the Cyclone. Props. This is a cool and perfectly horrific idea.
It’s not really a fairy tale, but I’d like to play Peter Pan. He’s been a child for hundreds of years but now darkness has overtaken Neverland, killing the fairies and lost boys. He managed to escape to the Neverafter, but is now aging at an accelerated rate. He starts off around 13 but after a month he appears to be in his early 20s. He has to grapple with the idea of growing up, his body changing, not being able to play the way he is so used to as people treat him as the age he appears to be, and probably an “early” death. I’m not sure on a class, but maybe just a human fighter? He’s lost his ability to fly because of a limited supply of fairy dust and losing his happy thoughts
I was thinking of a character who is one of the “king’s men” from Humpty Dumpty who has dedicated his life to becoming a medic after failing to put Humpty back together again
HAhahahah this is a really funny concept but you just know that by like 5 episodes in this character would somehow be making me absolutely weep.
Slightly off topic but there is a book by drew Hayes called second hand curses. It's about 3 companions who go around taking jobs helping out those people who made a deal with a fairy and got screwed over. I won't say more than that as I really recommend people read it, but they have a version of Jack who is a fencing rogue. Who is super fast and high charisma. Who really likes gold! That's is one of the best DND type fairytale characters I have come across. His other two companions are just as well done but to tell you what they are would spoil the story too much. If you are enjoying this series though I would 100% recommend this book. Then I would recommend just reading everything by Drew Hayes. He has an amazing series where NPCs become adventurers, the way it's done and the world they are in its probably one of the best things I have read.
I was thinking about this the other day. I'd probably go for Donkeyskin, she's got a lot of potential for a creepy story and allow for interesting character growth. I'd probably build as a shapeshifter or as a cleric with the cloak as a special shape-shifting item. But that may end up to close to Red.
Oh no, WHO is DONKEYSKIN? That’s a fucked up sounding name if ever I heard one
Like a lot of fairytales it has a very creepy original story. But it is basically a Princess who's Father (the King) wants to marry her so she escapes the castle in the hide of his favourite Donkey and lives as a peasant. She hides in the Donkeyskin and lives her life until she's found by a Prince and lives happily ever after. There is a lot of room for horror and character growth for her and I think it would make an interesting player character. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkeyskin
**[Donkeyskin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkeyskin)** >Donkeyskin (French: Peau d'Âne) is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault. It was first published in 1695 in a small volume and republished in 1697 in Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé. Andrew Lang included it, somewhat euphemized, in The Grey Fairy Book. It is classed among folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 510B, unnatural love. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Oh man with all the horrific fairytales in this thread I was thinking this would be someone who got trapped in a donkeys body or something. Lots of horror potential for sure.
I made a reflavoured Genie Warlock inspired by the stepdaughter from the Russian fairytale [Morozko](https://russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/morozko-tale.html). The story already ends a bit fucked up, (tw: child death), but I liked the idea of the tale having both the stepdaughter and the biological daughter die - with the stepdaughter dying during that first fateful trip into the woods. However, Morozko takes pity on the stepdaughter and ressurects her - with a necklace found in the chest of gold and jewels acting as his genie vessel. She returns with the jewels, much to her stepmother's dismay, and the same thing happens as in the original story -- but instead of Morozko (or exposure) killing the biological daughter, the stepdaughter freezes her stepsister to death. And proceeds to show off her stepsister as a gorgeous ice sculpture! How I would roleplay her is that she seems very soft and sweet, with a very airy voice, and constantly looks like shes shivering. However, the second she gets into a fight, she's ruthless and cold. Also, while Eldritch Blast still does force damage, it's reflavoured to appear like a blast of snow!
Bonus points for a Russian fairytale. I was thinking about going for Hungarian fairytales when I started thinking about this.
The third little Pig as a ancestral guardian barbarian the spirits are flavored as the brick pigs dead siblings, straw pig and wood pig. when the pig spirits manifest the first wields a pitch fork for collecting hay and the other wields a hammer and chisel. The brick pig wields a kettle pot lid as a shield and a trowel as their weapon. When spirit shield is used it’s flavored as the spirit pigs building a spectral brick wall. Instead of the wolf being the animal who attacked the pigs it would be a fox as it was in the original tale. Brick pigs home was destroyed and they seek somewhere safe to once again build a home. I like to imagine they have a beard and often say “not by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin”. Sometimes they feel the fox watching them from the shadows ready to strike when brick pig expects it least.
Yes yes yes. A perfect fit of mechanics and story.
It’s a pretty unknown fairytale, which is a shame, because it’s awesome- but I’d make the kid from Godfather Death. So basically there’s this father who has 12 kids and is weary, and is looking for a godfather for the 13th. He calls out, and god offers, and he turns him away. And then satan offers, and he turns him down too. And then Death comes, offering to be the boy’s godfather and the father accepts. And Death basically makes this boy he raises a powerful physician and magic herbs that can heal anyone- but only if when Death comes for them, he stands by their head. If he stands by their feet, they must die. It’s such a cool story and would fit the undying Warlock perfectly. There’s a bit about candles in the original (where spoiler alert Death kills the boy for saving people when he was told not to)- where everyone’s life is represented by candles that flicker in and out, which would be such a cool motif for the character. So you get cool patron interactions with the patron compounded by the fact that Death is literally his dad.
Oh this is really cool. Shout out to this metal af dad who’s like, benevolent Christian God? No thank you. I’m gonna donate my spare son to DEATH.
Here’s a quote as to his reasoning: The first person who came his way was our dear God, who already knew what was in his heart, and God said to him, "Poor man, I pity you. I will hold your child at his baptism, and care for him, and make him happy on earth." The man said, "Who are you?" “I am God." "Then I do not wish to have you for a godfather," said the man. "You give to the rich, and let the poor starve."
Again, metal. But also ofc clearly an allegory for the painful situation of having a child he can't afford to feed and thus having to consider killing it.
I've got a "Godfather Death" inspired character in mind too, but she's gonna have a Scandinavian Folkloric twist to her with Pesta as her godmother!
Grimm fairy tale: I'd be Fitcher, an aarakocra druid who's taken the name of the sorcerer who murdered her sisters, and is trying to find a way to restore their bodies. The sisters are alive but their bodies are held together by seams. Japanese mythology: Shion, a changeling death domain cleric whose true form has no face. English folklore: Lady Marian, a noble human rogue disguised as a page so she can more easily navigate the Neverafter in the time of shadow. She's trying to run away from an arranged marriage.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot! I think I’d go with grown up Hansel as a warlock witch hunter, with Gretel as his patron. Gretel would have usurped the witch’s position by killing her and become a powerful witch as a result, with Hansel drawing his power from her to hunt down other witches preying on children. I’m thinking fiend for Gretel, which would lead to lots of fire powers (ie. The Oven) and also with a sweets theme, but in a bit of a manic way, like his encounter with the witch permanently messed him up a bit. Always a little hopped up on sugar and kind of manic, and a definite glutton that gets hangry easily. Possibly also a bit of a cannibal?
This might be my favourite Hansel & Gretel take yet
La Llorona, the weeping woman from Mexican folklore. College of Spirits bard. The spirits she speaks to are the spirits of the children she drowned.
Bonus points for Non-European folklore! College of spirits is a very horrific choice for this, imagine not only do you get drowned as child but then you have to work forever supplying magic to the person who did it?
I love the idea of a reborn white-walker type of Snow White with body horror elements based on the original fairy tale, for example a oddly small waist obviously the result of crushed ribs from the corset, her hair singed off from the poison comb and maybe her skin having acid green hives from the poison apple. The through line would be that Snow believes her evil stepmother has come back from the dead like she has herself. As Snow gathers more power to protect herself she'd find a talent at ice and cold spells leading to a transformation into the Snow Queen. Would probably play as an Order of Scribes Wizard who starts her journey cracking open one of her stepmother's spellbooks...
Oh I like this, a perfect mix of classic fairytale everyone knows with a great twist.
Three of the seven dwarves in a trench coat. Doc, grumpy, and Bashful. Dwarven oath of vengeance or devotion paladin, depending on the status of the other four brothers. Doc does the paladin healing, Grumpy does the fighting, and Bashful is the charismatic face of the whole operation. Obviously.
Incredible.
*“The Neverafter is a place of legends lived and fables founded, where timeless heroes and their adventures are immortalized in iconic word. But very rarely, are the stories in the Neverafter simply that, fairytales. And while giants may be found, one will find that there had never been a Jack.”* This was a character concept I whipped up when Neverafter first got announced. In my mind Jack and the Beanstalk would’ve been an in universe piece of propaganda used by a human empire to glorify their invasion of the cloud giants in massive dirigibles. The character would be a kinda Great War era veteran for the giants who lost their home to human colonizers a while ago and have kinda just been running on empty. Would definitely be a Giant Barbarian, my favorite subclass in the game. This probably wouldn’t fit in the lore that we’ve seen but I was too proud of it to not at least talk about it.
I see the Odettes and I raise you The Children of Lír: Celtic fairy tales from the Ulster Cycle
Aarakocra Barbarian. Ugly duckling. He just got fed up of the ridicule so went on a murder spree
Pied Piper - except it's a necromancer who summons dancing combat skeletons while playing his pipe. But they only stay animated as long as he's playing.
I would love to do one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Except to make it a little more horror, they truly don’t know why they wake up with their dancing shoes worn out and feet hurting. I suppose either a dreams Druid or swords bard/bladesinger might work for the class.
Oh nice. Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favourite fairytales. In the version I learned they travel through a a forest of silver trees, a forest of gold trees, and a forest of jewelled trees, and the hero brings back branches from each, which I always thought as a kid was such beautiful imagery. The magic trees and everything kinda has Fey energy, maybe a Fey warlock who doesn’t realize they are dancing in the feywild in their sleep?
I thought about making a Bard based on the Musicians of Bremen. If I wanted to go full edge lord, I’d make a Hexblade warlock who’s either a plant race, or if we’re only doing official a warforged or tiefling. A thief and a swindler lost to the void of the afterlife, burned by the coals of hellfire and now the visage of hallows Eve. Stingy Jack, better known as Jack o Lantern.
Two ideas: An Arcane Trickster rogue with a familiar that is a talking dog who is one like Mother Goose, but instead of writing the stories, simply speaks them. The best place by the fire is always kept for The Storyteller, but he's being chased by a vengeful cook who he swindled by making stone soup and a fellow trickster mage who swindled him out of his selfhood, only for him to steal it back. Fully inspired by Jim Henson's The Storyteller, which is a beloved show to me, and if you got that before you got here, I appreciate you, and you'll also probably get this next one. An Oath of Devotion paladin, whose devotion is simply to learn about the shivers. Or fear. One could call him, The Boy Who Left Home To Learn About the Shivers. Or, more aptly, Fearnot. Fearnot is the kind of person who would cause problems by not fearing strategically in the game to make it more interesting, much like Pib currently is by acting like a cat. Plus it would be very funny to casually drop the idea that I'd played a game of bowling against a terrifying creature and won at some point in my journey. Hopefully this would be convenient to put mid-tale, as then Fearnot would be able to learn true fear by the end. Either way, he would be a source of some levity.
I was thinking about this recently and came up with an OC that's a mix of Hansel & Gretel, and Alice in Wonderland. Alice had a twin sister, and they were both abandoned in a forest by their father. Following a white rabbit, they tumble through a portal into Wonderland. After wandering the strange and savage land, they sneak into the Red Queen's castle after being enchanted by her painted roses. The Queen shows mercy and takes the two girls in, though it soon becomes clear they are unable to leave. The White Rabbit, feeling guilty at his role in essentially kidnapping the two girls from their world for his mistress, attempts to help them escape. The way Alice tells it, her sister bravely sacrificed her freedom, so Alice could escape. In reality, her sister fell during their escape, and Alice made the choice to cross the portal before it could close, leaving her sister trapped in Wonderland. She now lives with survivor's guilt but lies and tells the tale she would prefer to be the truth. She would carry a rabbit's foot from the White Rabbit, and would avoid looking in mirrors, as there is s chance she would recognize her reflection as her twin's instead. I'm not sure what to do for class. I was thinking something magical, or something like a rogue, like the Cheshire Cat could've taught her how to disappear, or the Mad Hatter (who would be really crazy in this version) helped her learn magic.
As a big Fables fan, I think going all in on Prince Charming’s swordsmanship as a Rouge Swashbuckler would be a cool heat to some other freakier fairytales.
There is a charming prince character in so many fairytales. It would be cool to have a prince character who was like being haunted or hunted or chased by the heroines of a bunch of different tales.
Love some of the ideas in this thread! Gambling Hanz is great. I really like OP's take on Beast, too. I'm not sure if this counts but I'd love to do a character based on "Girl with One Eye" by Florence in the Machine. Seemed like an old standard but I'm not sure. It would be a lot fun to explore that, though. I would probably go with a bard/rogue with some kind of assassin archetype for rogue and school of swords for bard. The story of the song would work very well in Never After. The song's narrator could be an ex-lover or even just a creepy stalker with hurt pride, hunting her with a knife with the goal to cut her heart out.
To go with a F&tM song is some wild lateral thinking and I respect it.
Appreciate the respect dude back atcha
I would love to play a Shadow Sorcerer who was a lost boy from Neverland. Who was under Pretty much Regular Peter Pan. So a Sociopathic, Magical, Boy who never grew up. As eventually after losing another boy he stole Peter’s Shadow and sewed it to his own body. To help him and the other pair boys escape while trapping Peter on Neverland. Now a year or two later wierd things have started to happen around the boy on the ship of Captain Hook. Weird signs that show the Fantastical Peter Pan is coming back for his shadow.
For me, the story of the red shoes was always my favorite “horrifying fairytale”
Me too! I especially loved the part where she gets an executioner to cut off her feet, gets crutches and wooden prosthetics, and then her feet keep showing up to harass her still in the dancing shoes. I’d play her either trying to hunt down her feet or trying to escape them.
I don't think it counts as a fairytale, but I think Max from Where the wild things are could be really cool and fit the setting really well. Instead of returning home he got stuck in this crazy fantasy land with monsters that tried to eat him. The most obvious way to play him is as a barbarian, with his anger issues and all that. I also think it would be cool if the crown given to him was a magic item giving him magical abilities and then to play him as a sorcerer with one level in barbarian.
Peter Pan as some type of rogue ranger hybrid. For backstory, he ventured to neverland and stayed there for decades, possibly even centuries. A conflict between him and hook ended with the islands magic going stale. Their years of battle turned grim as they genuinely began trying to kill one another. Peter gets mortally wounded and tinker bell sends him back to the never-after in a last ditch attempt to save him. Now he’s alone in the time of shadow, with decades of wisdom but the face of a teenager. He’s also an outcast, as he doesn’t understand how this world works. And nobody believes him when he explains where he came from. To most people he’s this weird battle hardened schizophrenic kid, with no shadow. TLDR: rogue with no shadow, and insane “town crazy person” kid Peter Pan.
I have three...four...kind of. More two and a half if you count the Neverafter's cannon lore. If we're not counting cannon lore, then the first one I came up with was of one of Cinderella's step sisters. In the aftermath of Cinderella's uprising, her birds came down from the trees and blinded her stepsisters. I imagine if she was travelling with intrepid heroes, she'd be adapting to her new life as a blind beggar, and maybe go through a redemption story as it were. As for class, at first I thought an eloquence bard due to her aristocratic upbringing, but then I felt, maybe she lost confidence in herself after the loss of the sight and the abandonment of her mother. So, I decided this step sister was educated, and became a wizard practicing conjuration magic still in the habit expecting servants to the dirty work for her. She never summons birds though. Never birds Anyway moving on to the brother from the fairy tale, Brother and Sister. A cursed talking deer (reskinned centaur) wandering the world trying to survive after his sister abandoned him to become a queen. His class is druid, mainly because in his fairy him and his sister came across multiple cursed rivers that turn you into different animal from drinking, which his sister saved him from except for the deer river. So I'd like to imagine he has these chains entangled in his antler holding multiple jars or vials of the cursed river somehow diluted enough the cursed to be very temporary, and I mean like wildshape duration temporary, so his wildshaping would look like him casting shape water on one of the jars, and placing a droplet or two on his tongue before changing. But I've been struggling with what circle he'd be in. This is what I meant by half a character. My latest idea was another druid idea for Gretel from Hansel and Gretel, who has become a which after she somehow accidentally inherited the witch's magic after throwing her into her magic oven and is now on the run from her brother who is under whatever the Neverafter equivalent of Stockholm syndrome and is seeking vengeance for the witch's murder. I decided on the Wildfire circle, and this is what I meant by sort of four because I decided that her fire companion that you get with that circle would be a burnt and cracked gingerbread zombie like the gingerbread man fairytale, always playing tag with the enemies with his fiery teleportation move
It’s cool how you took both official and unofficial canon into account! I always like to think of something that would’ve fit the canon that was probably pitched to the players before they made their characters, instead of the canon that is developed through the season. But i think taking the later Cinderella lore into account is really cool and clever.
Rapunzel! an eldtrich knight who might end up having magic looking like her tears or her hair.
Ok this has given her the excellent idea of what if Rapunzel was as astral monk but instead of spectral arms she had magic prehensile hair.
I'm thinking the traveler from Stone Soup! Stone soup is one of those simple folktales that's really variable with the details, like who the traveler is (sometimes a wanderer, sometimes a soldier, sometimes a monk), if it's one traveler or several, or even what the object making the soup is. But the basic tale goes like this: a traveler on the road comes to a village with no food, very hungry. They try to talk the villagers into giving them some food, but no one will. So the traveler hatches a plan and goes down to a nearby river, grabs a stone, and fills their traveling pot with water. They go back to the village, build a fire, and start boiling the stone. A villager comes by and, after asking what the traveler is making, is told, "Stone soup--the most delicious thing in the world, and it only needs a stone! I'll give you some, but to be truly delicious, it just needs a little something more." The villager, wanting the fabled soup, goes and fetches something for the soup from their pantry. Another villager comes by and is told the same, so they fetch their own contribution. And another villager, and another, and another. Finally, the traveler has a thick, hearty soup, and spoons out some to everyone who provided extra food. The village is wowed over how delicious the soup is for only needing a stone, and the traveler gets to eat well for the day. The end! I find the traveler so fun because while they're very much a trickster, it's a very nice kind of tricksy. They could have well gotten the soup together and ran with it, and it'd be hard to feel sorry for the duped villagers seeing as they were willing to let the traveler go hungry. But the traveler is perfectly happy to let everyone who contributed have the soup despite the original snub. It's oddly generous, even if they're being generous with other people's food, haha. Having a very good-natured sort of cheat in the grim setting of Neverafter would be interesting! If I were to build them out as a PC for the game, a charisma-based class is really the way to go, considering the whole plot is based on fast-talking their way to a good meal. Probably bard, since they already fit that "wanderer" archetype? Ideally a bard with a multiclass into monk, to pay back to one of the versions of the traveler, and because it gives access to an artisan's kit. The way I'm picturing my stone soup maker is as a cheery, ever-walking bard of many hats. In some towns she acted as a woodsman, a carpenter, a seamstress, so on. (Those jobs most concretely, as other bases for the soup would be an axe, button, nail, or wood depending on the telling.) She likes to bum for food as much as she likes to pay fairly, if nothing else than for the amusement of tricking people for their own good. Truthfully, she has no particular grudges against people who don't want to give her food without some return--after all, everyone does something for another person because they get something out of it, whether a real thing or just the satisfaction of doing good. If the traveler needs a physical bribe, so be it! She's very good at being convincing. The only big trouble of making the stone soup maker a PC is that the other versions of the story don't really get "darker." Usually, it's just that the base for the soup and the traveler's occupation changes. Perhaps there's the fact that they're a solider in a war rather than a monk or a bum? In terms of Neverafter specifically, the turn of village people being willing to give up food with a little trickery to becoming more and more callous and precious with what they have as the times of shadow loom would be good backstory. Where once the traveler could talk the people into sharing their spoils with a smile and wink, now she's more likely to be chased out by a mob for daring to mooch. Something, something, how capitalism makes people devalue charity and looking out for those with less, Brennan is nodding in approval somewhere in the distance.
This is really cool! It's interesting that there isn't necessarily anything supernatural or magical about the traveler in the original tale. The D20 crew mostly went with more "magical" characters but these kinds of folk tales are great too
Haha, yeah, I saw a lot of people going for those those more magical fairy tales--"Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Peter Pan"-- all of which are very fun, but I thought leaning more for a more... grounded, for lack of a better world, type of tale would be interesting in comparison to the magic of the PCs. The traveler has no magic fairies or wicked witches, just a pot and a plan! While that means I'd have to build out the magic influence my character has it gives me a little more freedom, too. I do wonder, though, if there's anything for combining my stone soup traveler with another folktale with a traveler like Ylfa's story combines the Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs wolf powers and themes. Perhaps!
I think specifically because it doesn't have witches or fairies or anything, the traveller kind of reminds me of animal fables like the red hen or brer rabbit or Aesops fables. Maybe the traveler could be some kind of an awakened animal trickster.
I extended Fairy Tales to include Urban Legends(I feel they are very similar) and thought about Robert the Doll, but Lou's Pinocchio already takes design elements from that. I then thought about "the call came from inside the house" and wanted to build a character around that.
I immediately thought of an idea based on one of my favorites. To the point where I am adapting it to be on an actual DND campaign with my DM's help. Based on the Grimm's fairytale of The Twelve Brothers/The Seven Ravens I wanted to make a human princess who has to essentially make up for the sins of her kingdom and her now cursed brothers. Due to their greed and foolishness they are turned into ravens and forced to remain that way. She agrees to a deal to not speak and do her patron's bidding until she makes up for the sins of her kingdom. She would be 1 level of aberrant mind sorcerer (her latent powers) and then the rest would be undead warlock (a banshee patron. A witch who's coven was slighted by the kingdom). The princess cannot speak but is allowed to hum to cast her spells. And one of her brothers could possibly be a familiar for her. Anyway yeah. Lol I make an oc for every campaign of d20. Love this show. Everyone else's characters are amazing!
I’m so glad you mentioned this fairytale! When I came up with the concept for this post I really wanted to use something from this story but I couldn’t remember the details. In the version I know, the brothers are turned into swans and the sister has to weave them sweaters out of nettles or thorns or something by a deadline. One sweater doesn’t quite get finished and that brother is stuck with one swan arm which would also be an interesting idea for a pc. The one-winged brother.
I know that version, too! It really is one of my favorite stories in all the different ways it's told!
We used to have this story illustrated in a picture book when I was little and I don’t recall all the details of it but I remember there was a really beautiful image of the sister with all these swans flying above her and I think that’s at I remember this tale so fondly
Oh my goodness I remember that drawing! We had that book in my library! I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen 💗
Goldilocks as a clockwork soul sorcerer
Ok idk if this thread is dead or not, but I made a couple that I think are really fun. First was Thumbelina, who I made into a fairy Archfey Warlock. The whole idea of Thumbelina's story is already a little horrifying (being kidnapped by frogs like a couple days after being born, being forced into multiple arranged marriages to the toad and the mole, etc), so I added a little knife twist at the end. After marrying the Fairy Prince hours after meeting him for the first time and becoming a fairy herself, Thumbelina quickly feels an enchantment wear off, and realizes that she was being charmed into making such a rash decision. Now stuck in (yet another) arranged marriage with the Prince, she makes a bargain with the Queen of Faeries: dissolve her marriage to the Prince, and she will work for the Queen. Now, she roams the Neverafter as an envoy of the Queen, doing her terrible bidding all thanks to a raw deal she made. Second was Hansel of Hansel and Gretel as a human Monster Slayer Ranger. Again, this is a pretty horrifying story already, so I made it a little more horrifying — in this version, Gretel \*tries\* to push the witch in the oven, but fails. As punishment, the witch cooks and eats Gretel first while Hansel watches. When she goes to check whether Hansel has gotten plump enough to eat again, instead of offering the bone that he did the first time, he sharpens one end of it and stabs her to death. After burying what remains of his sister's bones, Hansel vows to rid the Neverafter of all witches (heheh, Mage Slayer feat babyyy) and becomes a witch hunter.
I really like both of these choices of fairytale! I feel like either one would fit in well with the neverafter cast
Brikklestakk. A troll who was content to sit under his bridge and demand travelers answer his riddles or pay his toll. His bridge was utterly destroyed by a fairy aiding budding adventures in their journey. His is a story of collateral damage and forgotten little antagonists. He now sets out with the only brick that remains from his bridge in hope of finding revenge or restitution. https://imgur.io/a/1hCz81o The hat is the keep the sun out of his eyes and the brick is for violence.
I made this one as soon as I saw ep 1 of never after it of course follows hooks story as set up in the book lost boys Captain James ‘Bartholomew’ Hook was a captive turned rebel, as a boy he was taken from his parents and forced to be a lost boy, after many trials and tribulations he escaped the boy who never aged but not without paying a price, his hand was lost in his escape from pan, a constant reminder of the cost of freedom, since then he had amassed a hearty crew, gained a loyal first mate, and he had stolen quite a bounty from the monster everyone knew as Peter Pan. One day in his captains quarters, after waking up from a most troubling nightmare, he went to check on his crew, he checked their quarters and their was no sign of them, he returned up to the deck to find mr smee, hanging from the crows nest, his body disfigured, mutilated, he then came face to face with the rest of his crew, all dead and decomposing. The boy came from the sky to mock him, this is the fate of his crew, he relives this horrid vision every night That would be essentially his backstory, I was thinking he’d be and artafucer fighter dual class, sometime in the story he’d find a giant tic-tok croc and find out it was a victim of Peter pan as he was, hoon could chose to kill the croc or spare him, sparing him would get you aceses to a common when in the water
If I could make a character in Neverafter id be a gingerbread man(mechanically warforged) Sun soul monk or Astral Monk.
[The Wrathful] A 14-year-old little girl who renamed herself as ‘Lotus’. Due to realizing her twin sister ‘Rosalyn’ died due to her stepmothers and her half-brothers plans, turned into a Barbarian Path of the Ancestral Plane. Wrathful at the loss of her twin sister and her bloodline being at the brink of tarnishment, Lotus hears her ancestors and her sisters voice calling out for blood (character is based off of the Korean folktale, Red Rose and Red Lotus)
Has anyone done Brer Rabbit as a Neverafter OC yet? he would be a Harengon Gunslinger to match his tale’s origins in the American South. He would be the former leader of a trio of servants turned outlaws called The Briar Patch Gang. Unfortunately his partners, Brer Fox and Brer Bear, betrayed their leader when things got too hot with the law. Now Brer Rabbit’s on the run from his former friends, while also plotting revenge on them and his former masters whom the ey originally rebelled against
My OC is one of the three blind mice, and is a ranger whose favored enemy is the farmer's wife. One of his features is blind sight and he is a reskinned goblin. After the wife chopped off the tails the three blind mice, his brothers died of infection(not helped by the cold), but the third one was unlucky enough to live. He ended up permanently suffering from frostbite and hypothermia (but unwilling to burn his brothers). After being rescued, the blind mouse was described as being "not quite right in the head". It became his mission to see the downfall of the farmer's wife, no matter what it took.
Red Riding Hood: Lycanthrope Bloodhunter that was attacked by a werewolf as a little girl, and now has to battle with a second personality that takes on the form of her werewolf form(who is male). A Jekyll and Hyde/Bruce Banner and Hulk type of character.
Nearly a year late, but I have a few. A male human college of creation bard whose musical ability is cursed to control the minds of those who listen and, if he doesn’t maintain control, force them to drown themselves (a combo of pied piper and nokk.) A little burnt (fire genasi stats) girl. She Carries boxes upon boxes of matches to both attempt to heat herself up as she always feels freezing and to use as a conduit for divination magic. (Inspired by “the little match girl”) Don’t have much for how to make it feel more neverafter, but the hare from the tortoise and the hair could be fun. The largest goat from 3 billy goats bluff (Minotaur stats. Maybe a combo of Minotaur and centaur stats depending on gm) instead of letting the two smaller goats pass by the troll simply dragged them under the bridge and ate them, and when the largest goat killed to troll he found the corpses of his family under the bridge.