Iconic characters in fiction

[Finarvyn]

I’ve tried to start this thread several times, and I never post it because I can’t quite focus my point on this. A couple of ideas sort of blurred together here, but I'm thinking about characters that are "iconic" to literature.
1. Where a single name is enough to identify the character, or
2. Where that one character inspired an entire class in D&D.

And in general I’d like to look for characters 30 years old or so; characters who might have been around and popular when D&D was created in the 1970’s.

For example, the Ranger has to be inspired by Strider (Aragorn) of the Lord of the Rings, and probably every woodsman written in a fantasy book is in some way a rip-off of the Strider character.

Conan is the barbarian. Others have done them, but they all really trace back to Conan.

Merlin is probably the most famous magic-user, although his style of magic isn't "Vancian" and I suppose some would argue that he is more of a druid. Gandalf would rank up there pretty high, but he's not really human, either.

Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser are probably iconic for the thief class and to a large extent the city adventure.

I think that Elric is the original anti-hero and I suspect that some of the development of the drow-as-hero characters trace back to him.

I've heard people say that Holger Carlson (Three Hearts and Three Lions) is the Paladin, but I think that you really trace that class back to the knights of Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, and so on.

I'm not sure there is a single iconic Fighter because so many fighting men tend to get routed into ranger or paladin types, but my vote would be in the line of Greek Mythology -- Perseus, Hercules, and so on.

I'm not sure of an iconic Cleric, either, but because of the "turn undead" thing perhaps the priests of The Exorcist fit the description in my mind.

Less fantasy based, if you use the name “Sherlock” or “Holmes” you immediately think of the ultimate detective, Sherlock Holmes. More recently, Philip Marlowe also seems to represent the gumshoe detective.

Mention of one name, Dracula conjures an entire image of vampires and gothic landscapes.

Any others you can think of?

[driver]

I'm not sure of an iconic Cleric, either, but because of the "turn undead" thing perhaps the priests of The Exorcist fit the description in my mind.

I think of the OD&D Cleric as a mix of medieval militant orders with Van Helsing from Hammer Films and Tomb of Dracula, probably because of the anecdote about the first Cleric being a response to Blackmoor's Sir Fang. I think Van Helsing as portrayed in later adaptations of Dracula is the iconic undead hunter.

(I think the WFRP Witch Hunter is equal parts Solomon Kane and Vincent Price from The Conqueror Worm.)

[bigjackbrass]

Kane, Karl Edward Wagner's warrior-wizard. Not the easiest of characters to depict in D&D terms (though I've seen it tried several times) and about as "multi" a multi-class character as can be imagined

[doc]

Let's not forget good old JRR and how his concepts influenced how gamers look at racial archetypes.

BILBO is fat, slippery, clever, fond of creature comforts, and has a habit of pocketing shiny things that don't belong to him. Sounds like almost every hobbit PC I've ever come across.

GIMLI is gruff and quick to anger, but is also unswervingly loyal, skilled with his axe, and tough as old boots.

LEGOLAS is merry and mysterious, a deadly shot with his bow, and more at home in the wilderness than in the cities of Man.

How many hobbits, dwarves, and elves have we seen that adhere to these character traits? Lots!


Doc

[jensen]

Aug 17, 2008 9:08:39 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I'm not sure there is a single iconic Fighter because so many fighting men tend to get routed into ranger or paladin types, but my vote would be in the line of Greek Mythology -- Perseus, Hercules, and so on.

I would stay a little closer to home (so to speak) - Beowulf, anyone? I hear tell Tolkien got a lot of inspiration from the historical classics; we all know about the effort he put into creating distinct languages for the races in his books and so on. I would imagine that, through the Lord of the Rings, the old Norse sagas had a lot of influence on the way D&D Fighter types developed.

[irdaranger]

Considering how popular the D&D-branded novels put out by Wizard's better authors are, it's quite possible that Drizzt has surpassed Strider as the Ranger, and that Elminster or Raistlin is the Wizard. D&D has become as Ouroboros, eating its own tail to create its own myths - but it's eating faster than its growing. In the long run I believe this will be the source of D&D's demise as its mythic center becomes too insular.

Even more popular than than Drizzt and Dragonlance though is Harry Potter, so there's a chance that Voldemort and Dumbledore will come to dominate the public's conception of what a puissant mage is. If I were going to write a fresh RPG today I would absolutely make sure that wizards needed to wield wands and could brew potions right out of the gate.

I think one of D&D's shortcomings is that it's a fantasy world with no easy way to model the Erol Flynn. Lots of people identify with Inigo Motoya or D'Artangan and want to play that role. Whole genres are based on that. Games that want to be successful should play the games people generally want to play, and not just be a vanity project to meet the designer's preferences.

Indiana Jones is the pulp Archaeologist. There's actually a good place for a character like this in D&D, who gets a bonus to INT and DEX checks to avoid traps and speaks the ancient tongues. I think Eberron had a class like this.

Han Solo is the Good-Hearted Scoundrel. It's pretty amazing, isn't it, that Harrison Ford defined two archetypes? Talk about multi-classed ...

Merlin is definitely the Druid, not a Magic-User.

[snorri]

Sept 1, 2009 14:06:24 GMT -6 irdaranger said:

Indiana Jones is the pulp Archaeologist. There's actually a good place for a character like this in D&D, who gets a bonus to INT and DEX checks to avoid traps and speaks the ancient tongues. I think Eberron had a class like this.

I'm a real archeologist IRL, but I fear I'm less sexy, and in despits of my efforts to learn ancient babylonien, I'm very bad for languages...

[bat]

Silent, One-Eye and Goblin as wizards, from Glen Cook's Black Company series.
Thangobrind from Lord Dunsany's "The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller, and of the Doom that Befel Him" for the thief.
Garth from Lawrence Watt-Evans' The Lords of Dûs for a fighter-type.
I would readily agree that many of the characters from Tolkien's work do well for inspiration for demi-humans.