#Also re your comments on nokama… yes. Big buff beautiful fish lady

[crystaltoa]

Admittedly, I’m not much of a DnD person so I’ve mostly just used classic fantasy races with a few borrowed elements from DnD. I thought up a little backstory/context for some of the characters, but it’s fairly vague and doesn’t always fit neatly into the DnD class system.

Nuju would be a wizard (school of divination) There are a number of homebrews like seer, oracle, Astrologer etc that sort of fit, but I’m just going with the general title for now. As Shauni inferred from that other post, he’s had a very cushy and sheltered existence up in his wizard tower until now, so his outfit is woefully impractical for adventuring.

Whenua works for a museum and is trained in multiple disciplines such as history, biology and archaeology. His current job involves collection and study of magical creatures and artefacts, which involves a lot of fieldwork in ancient ruins and dungeons. Unlike most adventurers, he avoids fighting monsters as much as possible, which is a little odd given that he’s not exactly known for speed or stealth. His main class is Loremaster, but I feel he should have something else that reflects his strength and endurance, maybe something with Survivalist skills?

Matau is a Pilot, which is a subclass of Rogue. It may seem a little anachronistic given the medieval aesthetics of the others, but I’m picturing kind of a clockpunk/steampunk set of flying machines that look like airborne deathtraps and this tiny gremlin at the wheel having the time of his life. Maybe multiclassing in Bard to give him illusion magic, and to fit with his title of “the singer” as a Turaga. Nokama I think would still be a teacher of some kind in this AU. I think Knowledge Cleric probably fits that role the best, as some of the disciplines of study overlap with subjects Nokama taught in canon. Her outfit is designed to convey status and elegance, but it’s a lot more practical than Nuju’s robes. Her overskirt can be easily taken off to go for a swim (she has short trousers on underneath) and her sandals are comfortable for walking around a city, but maybe not quite suited to more rugged or wild areas. She’s fairly active and possibly has some martial arts training, though this is largely for fitness/recreation/cultivation of mental discipline rather than intended for serious combat. I imagine she would initially struggle in an actual fight against opponents who don’t play by the rules of the sport she trained in. I’m still not quite sure on her species. Genasi fits her appearance but I prefer the idea of the Metru coming from fairly mundane walks of life (for the setting) rather than being marked as special from birth, which is more how I see the Toa Mata. I’m kind of leaning towards Triton, which would give her the elemental control and language abilities similar to canon. Her height and colouring would be a little unusual for them though… hmmm… (might also take a multiclass approach for her if anyone has suggestions as to what?)

Onewa works as a craftsman of some kind, hence the apron. In canon he’s something of a dark horse, having worked on sculptures, buildings, and assembling machinery, so it’s possible he’s kind of a freelance odd-job man here as well, though given the choice he would prefer to pursue his own projects and make weird art all day. He wears armor under his apron, suggesting he’s always ready to drop everything and fight if he has to, even while he’s deeply immersed in his craft. I imagine he’s had a tough life and distrusts everyone around him, so maybe that armor is the only good bit of kit he owns and he suspects it will disappear if he lets it out of his sight. He’s often underestimated by others. Orcs perceive him as small and weak and overly sensitive, humans assume he’s a big, stupid brute. He’s secretly taught himself some magic from secondhand academic textbooks, which is what most of his meagre income goes towards. Part of him wants desperately to prove himself and show the world his skill and intellect, but it’s more practical to keep a low profile and let others be wrong about him. In terms of classes, I think multiclassing in Artificer combined with either fighter or perhaps even barbarian? Not sure how well that works with the lore or as a strategy, so advice is always welcome.

Vakama is a blacksmith by trade but discovered an innate talent for elemental magic, so in DnD terms he’s a Sorceror. In terms of his canon MO I would say he seems like a Rogue of some kind? Idk, I could use a bit of advice on this one too…

So, I wanted to do more character designs for the Toa Metru fantasy AU from this post, but I’m waiting for my new drawing tablet to arrive. So in the meantime, I’m making the characters in Heroforge.

So as you may recall, Nuju is an elf in this AU. His outfit is more or less a recreation from the drawing I did.

And Whenua’s a dungeoneering dwarf, who has no right to be pulling off the monobrow as well as he does.

Matau’s a gnome. Designated Funny Little Guy for life.

Nokama is a… I don’t know, honestly. I was thinking like a Neriad or a Nixie, though the closest thing in DnD would be a Sea Elf. I was planning on giving her blue skin, but there wasn’t a shade that worked well and she looked like a Na’Vi, so I went with a more realistic skin tone with some blue markings and I actually really like how it looks.

Onewa's a half-orc. He's the one I'd probably change the most when drawing him since Heroforge didn't have quite the hair or beard style that I wanted for him, and I don't think his face 'reads' as Onewa in the same way that the other characters look like themselves. That said, I like how his build turned out, and I think his outfit suggests an interesting story.

And Vakama, the token human blacksmith. His weapon is a magic crossbow since that seemed the most conceptually similar thing to the disk launcher.