This would easily work for a paladin backstory. Your Oath (subclass) could be reflective of your friend's personality or your character's relationship with them.
Alternatively, having a close personal relationship with a new deity sounds spot on for a Celestial Warlock.
Defeating a lich king is only really acceptable in a backstory if your character is starting in tier 4 (level 17+), maybe late tier 3.
You could certainly tone down the story by being less specific, turn lich king into a great evil and also change your bestie becoming a god to being a chosen one of a god. Being close with an actual god is generally something that you earn in a high level campaign, not something you start with (generally).
Well I actually planned on the big fighting force that was attacking their kingdom was comprised of a lich king and his undead army and a cultist group who served a dark being who also made deals with the lich king
So, relatively small peanuts then... I would say you and your bestie stopped a gnoll ritual sacrificing innocent humanoids and your bestie died saving you from a gnoll pack Lord. After bestie dies, you witness your friend's spirit gets called into the service of some God where he could eventually turn into some type of angel.
I want to jump on this reply thread. u/HilmNotABot001 and u/Madus4 have a great point of view to downsize the backstory. You will likely be a new adventurer (low level) and having a grandiose backstory like that can work against the collective effort to build a world you can grow in. Take Ginny Di’s video on “tragic backstories” ([try the timestamp of 3:08](https://youtu.be/kwZEc21lyTY?si=sruGQuxTK1U3H3qL) and her rationale.
Some ideas you can use that will help fit into whatever game you find your character joining include:
Downsizing the threat you overcame so it is much more to scale for a low level adventurer, and downsizing the divine nature of the friend. (But I feel like you don’t want to take this cool story you came up with and shrink it)
So, what if this story actually happened to your character’s parent or relative of an older generation. You admired this hero in your family and had an emotional attachment to the tragic story of your hero relative and their friend who sacrificed themself to overcome a lich. You have a deep bond with said legend and you can use that family friend as your patron.
To add to this second suggestion, you can always inform your dm that you’d love to develop a plot of a lich reemerging or something to do with you reliving or interacting with the legend you designed. (If it’s homebrew. If not that’ll be harder to do).
I’ll stop talking now lol. Let me know your thoughts!!
Well I don’t want to tell you what to do but I was imagining like that cliche of a kid who reads about a hero and tries to model themselves after them. But, your character would actually be really close to the legend of Hero X who had Friend Y but Friend Y sacrificed themself during that grand battle with Lich Z. It was your uncle! Or your great grandmother! Or your sibling! And you’ve been inspired and you want your patron to be that Friend Y who became a godlike entity years ago.
This way that cool story stays but *Your * character gets to have their grand adventures *in* the campaign that you join. That’s why we join campaigns anyway right? What’s the fun of a Greek chorus telling us what happened behind the scenes?
Yeah you could play with this concept easily. Paladins get their power from an Oath and not a God, so this will work even if your God friend is weak, or not a God at all.
You could make any mix of Paladin, Warlock. Bard, or Sorcerer and it'll fit your theme.
This screams Devotion Paladin to me.
That aside, just bear in mind that your DM might not want you to be best friends with a god. Your DM might not want to squeeze in a Lich King BBEG into a current plan. If you’re starting at lower level, maybe consider something with lower stakes.
This would easily work for a paladin backstory. Your Oath (subclass) could be reflective of your friend's personality or your character's relationship with them. Alternatively, having a close personal relationship with a new deity sounds spot on for a Celestial Warlock.
Defeating a lich king is only really acceptable in a backstory if your character is starting in tier 4 (level 17+), maybe late tier 3. You could certainly tone down the story by being less specific, turn lich king into a great evil and also change your bestie becoming a god to being a chosen one of a god. Being close with an actual god is generally something that you earn in a high level campaign, not something you start with (generally).
Thanks for the feedback! So how would you go about making this character work?
Have the friend sacrifice himself so your character can escape the Lich. That also gives you a Big Bad to fight in the future.
Well I actually planned on the big fighting force that was attacking their kingdom was comprised of a lich king and his undead army and a cultist group who served a dark being who also made deals with the lich king
And that they would be two ways that the DM could have us adventure
What level are you starting at?
Well I haven’t found a dm yet so let’s say hypothetically level 3
So, relatively small peanuts then... I would say you and your bestie stopped a gnoll ritual sacrificing innocent humanoids and your bestie died saving you from a gnoll pack Lord. After bestie dies, you witness your friend's spirit gets called into the service of some God where he could eventually turn into some type of angel.
I want to jump on this reply thread. u/HilmNotABot001 and u/Madus4 have a great point of view to downsize the backstory. You will likely be a new adventurer (low level) and having a grandiose backstory like that can work against the collective effort to build a world you can grow in. Take Ginny Di’s video on “tragic backstories” ([try the timestamp of 3:08](https://youtu.be/kwZEc21lyTY?si=sruGQuxTK1U3H3qL) and her rationale. Some ideas you can use that will help fit into whatever game you find your character joining include: Downsizing the threat you overcame so it is much more to scale for a low level adventurer, and downsizing the divine nature of the friend. (But I feel like you don’t want to take this cool story you came up with and shrink it) So, what if this story actually happened to your character’s parent or relative of an older generation. You admired this hero in your family and had an emotional attachment to the tragic story of your hero relative and their friend who sacrificed themself to overcome a lich. You have a deep bond with said legend and you can use that family friend as your patron. To add to this second suggestion, you can always inform your dm that you’d love to develop a plot of a lich reemerging or something to do with you reliving or interacting with the legend you designed. (If it’s homebrew. If not that’ll be harder to do). I’ll stop talking now lol. Let me know your thoughts!!
I like this
So like a mentor character?
Well I don’t want to tell you what to do but I was imagining like that cliche of a kid who reads about a hero and tries to model themselves after them. But, your character would actually be really close to the legend of Hero X who had Friend Y but Friend Y sacrificed themself during that grand battle with Lich Z. It was your uncle! Or your great grandmother! Or your sibling! And you’ve been inspired and you want your patron to be that Friend Y who became a godlike entity years ago. This way that cool story stays but *Your * character gets to have their grand adventures *in* the campaign that you join. That’s why we join campaigns anyway right? What’s the fun of a Greek chorus telling us what happened behind the scenes?
Might work if the friend is upgraded to being a mentor, so he can justify the extreme level difference between the PC and NPC.
Sounds great!
As long as he goes by Dic I see no problems here
Yeah you could play with this concept easily. Paladins get their power from an Oath and not a God, so this will work even if your God friend is weak, or not a God at all. You could make any mix of Paladin, Warlock. Bard, or Sorcerer and it'll fit your theme.
Good for a high level character I think, backstory might be a bit much for a lvl 1 adventurer
This screams Devotion Paladin to me. That aside, just bear in mind that your DM might not want you to be best friends with a god. Your DM might not want to squeeze in a Lich King BBEG into a current plan. If you’re starting at lower level, maybe consider something with lower stakes.