I think I’ll go with something simple to start with. So, here are a few of my favorite characters that I’ve played in various campaigns. And no, it’s not an accident that all of them are spellcasters. I think you’ll find they have sufficient differences between them anyway.

Eclipse Shadowheart – Eclipse was raised in a family of necromancers, and began life practicing evil necromantic magic. He was a natural magician, and over time, he became very powerful in his art. However, when one of his mother’s spells went out of control, he and his sister Aurora found themselves pitted against a demon who was slowly killing her. Desperate, they prepared the magic they knew, raided their supply of magical scrolls and spellbooks, and set about summoning the demon, Desdemona, who was killing their mother. After toying with them for a short time, she dragged the two of them into the lower planes, where they continued the fight until Eclipse battled her to a stalemate. At the end of the battle, he was flung into a new world, where he renounced his old ways and vowed to work towards the betterment of all the humanoid races. He would do so using his own power, and with the help of those who had a common cause. When his sister Aurora arrived, things became complicated as she had no such change of heart, and remained devoted to her practices.

Sagan Stormwalker – This man was a priest of storms. Everything he did had a dash of recklessness to it. He called storms against his enemies, became one with those storms and always worked with them. Even his weaponry was imbued with the power of storms in the form of lightning, just by virtue of him holding it. He would charge into battle right alongside the warriors, keeping everyone standing strong and unrelenting in the face of those who opposed them. Possibly one of the more one-dimensional characters I’ve played, but it was still great fun to play him.

“Merlin” – I no longer remember the actual name of this character, as he ended up going by the names Merlin and Gandalf most of the time. He grew up in modern society, struggling to learn magic, a power hinted at if you knew where to look, and even practiced by a few of his friends, but always out of his own grasp. Then one day it all made sense to him, and he found he could remake reality at will (well, mostly anyway) and did so gleefully, not bothering to consider the consequences. Though he eventually learned that magic has consequences, he never really took the lesson to heart, and was always happy to show off his power, flaunting it whenever the opportunity arose, even for mundane daily tasks. Because of this, he earned the disparaging nicknames Merlin and Gandalf from his friends… well, he thought they were his friends, though they didn’t see it that way. He took great pride in the names, not realizing his associates were making fun of him. Becoming the Master of the Tower (which was mainly a bar with a library that supernatural people frequented) did wonders for his ego, and added to his perception that he was truly powerful, though he really had no idea what he was doing. In actuality, he was a puppet to the person truly running the tower. He tried to do the right thing, but usually just blundered through situations as they arose instead.

A particular moment of pride was when he busted a friend out of jail all by himself. Walking into the spirit world, he walked through the jail unseen, then flipped back into the physical world to bust out his friend, who had been framed by corrupt police. Now would be a good time to note that Merlin always wore wizard robes and carried a staff around with him. Using magic, he forced the door open, and disappeared with his protesting friend, who wanted to work with the system instead of causing a big scene. The security videos posted to the internet touting “Jedi Breaks Man Out of Jail” inflated his ego more.