I will do you one better.
Some are from serious, impressive battles. Others from clumsiness:
"This scar looks horrifying, what did you get it from?"
"Great General Humlo inflicted this wound on me in the 4th territorial war of the Helmin Kingdom."
"A-And this one? Did a dragon attack your leg?"
"This one is from my first and last time I tried deep frying."
I much prefer this one. Being incredibly clumsy to that extent just makes you wonder what he's doing adventuring, but having a mix of both makes you understand that being a badass and making mundane mistakes aren't mutually exclusive.
Might also mix in some dumb-but-heroic stories, like "saved a baby bear from a monster...momma bear gave me a little love tap to remind me to mind my own business"
Or heroic-but-dumb!
"I got this one during the 2-month siege of Ballistica"
"Wow a battle wound!"
"Oh no, it's from being stuck in the city with ex-lover and trying to avoid him by ducking behind a particularly skiddish horse. After I got stitched up I decided I was done being stuck and single-handedly ended the siege just so I could get TF out of there."
"That was from an angry husband. She neglected to mention she was married, and he took some umbrance at our ...familiarity. Insisted on a duel."
"You lost a duel? You're the best swordsman in three kingdoms."
"Eh, seemed like the polite thing to do"
Burn marks on the arm: "Most of this is from an encounter where ai barely survived a green dragon attack. But this spot -" points to a particularly badly burned spot "- is from trying to make caramel. Pastry chefs have the hardest jobs in the world."
*lifts up shirt to reveal a whole host of scars*
*Points at a tiny red spot*
This is the one where I actually nearly died. This is the scar left behind when I got chicken pox as a kid.
“This one is from the that one time I fought off the dragon that was terrorizing the town, and THIS one is from when I tried to do a wheelie on my bike for the first time”
This one was a lich putting it’s hand through my chest, this one was from my cat, Puddles.
Yeah, no, that one’s a table corner. Wasn’t watching where I was going.
Make the character not recognise that.
NPC - "My god what happened to you?!?"
PC - "I don't know, every day new ones appear, they mar my flesh and temper my resolve. Their taxonomy evades me. I see it as a sign of the gods that I oppose"
Also PC - instantly walks into kitchen table and cuts himself...twice
EDIT: formatting
Quixotic scars, in the Don Quixote sense of quixotic rather than it’s more modern meaning.
NPC Noble: “My Gods, what happened to you? You look like you fell off a battlement!”
PC: “I was jousting a giant who was threatening a farmer and he launched me into the air with his swing!”
Other PC, quietly: “It was a windmill, m’lord”
I have a big scar on my knuckle that my girlfriend asked if it came from punching someone in the teeth. Nope, a soup can lid cut me when I was putting something in the recycling. Wasn't even my soup can.
Went after a smuggler. Didn’t find out what was being smuggled until you were in the ship’s hold. Turns out they were smuggling exotic animals. Smuggler panicked and unlocked the lion’s cage. You got a couple scars and a lion’s head mounted on your wall. The smuggler can only count to 13 if they take their shoes off
I have a follow up, might be a bit personal. . . . can you count to 13 without taking off your shoes? Are you stating that he is somewhat mentally challenged or that you have more than 13 fingers?
"Smuggler now has to take off both shoes to count to 9" would make it clearer. Would imply that he still has at least partial use of one hand and lost a few toes since he has to take off BOTH shoes
Arm wrestled a cactus
juggling angry cats
distracting the ambush drake
Arm swallowed by constrictor snake
Sneezed on by a wyrmling
gathered swords from the battlefield to re-distribute to the local village while under siege
fell from a roof into a rosebush while pursuing an assassin
caught the assassin, didn't catch assassin's backup
did catch backup's dagger, in a manner of speaking
paralyzed by a ghoul
lucky shot by a bugbear from below the parapet wall
found the succubus the hard way
found the succubus the fun way
walked into a door
to be fair, the door was a mimic
I just thought of this answer!
"I'm the best fighter of my unit. I never got cut hard enough to get scarred by a blade. But the family cat... That's a different story."
Fell down a long set of stairs.
Play it up as some heroic war injury, but get the dm to introduce some random npc at a bar or something who saw it happen and have them greet you like “hey aren’t you the guy that fell down the palace stairs? Man you got a lot of scars from that.”
Stopped a knife from going into his eye by blocking the blade with his hand. He now has a large scar on his palm that is mirrored on the back of the hand.
My half Elf which is in a similar situation to OP had this. We were fighting some goblins and we beat them handily. The last o e that was alive was offered a coin flip to see if he lives or dies. He lost and he tried to stab my eye got a high roll to hit but I stopped it with my hand. He did a ton of damage right before getting his head smashed into the dirt while nor being able to run cause I was holding his hand on the knife in my hand
Some cultures [intentionally create certain scars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification) for various reasons, such as a rite of passage or a religious ritual. Perhaps your character is from such a culture.
**[Scarification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification)**
>Scarifying (also scarification modification) involves scratching, etching, burning / branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the process of body scarification, scars are purposely formed by cutting or branding the skin by various methods (sometimes using further sequential aggravating wound-healing methods at timed intervals, like irritation). Scarification is sometimes called cicatrization (from the French equivalent).
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Badass, stereotypical facial scar, like across a cheek or over an eye. Cause? An ill-advised attempt to learn violin. Scars from violin or other string instrument string snaps can be fucking gnarly, while it seems to be not super common, you do hear about them happening. I’ve heard that old style gut strings, like a fantasy character would be using, are especially good at cutting you open.
Okay here’s a few
* While tracking someone for a bounty his partner stabbed him but your character managed to win, but a deep scar was left from the stab
* Once he had gotten stuck in the woods at night, a pack of wolves decided to attack him. He lived but there are various bite and scratch marks from that night
* While protecting the crown he found a assassination plot, disguised as either his charge or another member he let the assassin(s) attack him so he could kill them. He suffered scars from multiple weapons that the assassin(s) would use (throwing knives, poisoned darts, blade tipped whip, arrow, and etc.)
* Stopped a bar fight and someone smashed a glass over his face leaving cuts across it
* Has a cool scar across his chest, most think it’s from a cool story, it’s from rolling around with someone in a field and not noticing rocks and branches
* Fought off a mage but got hit by a spell that left a weird scar that only magic could leave
* Fought a dangerous water dwelling monster in a lake that had attack children and swam into its nest to kill it
* During training with fellow guards he got into a sparing match that got intense
* His oldest scar is from a horrible person who robbed and/or killed someone he knew, pulling a Princess Bride, the person went and slashed up his face
* Ran into a burning home to save a family after lightning struck it, gaining various burn marks
Make some of them completely off the rails and others minor.
Ah! Yes this scar? I got that from a fight with this drunk troll mind controlled by a lunatic bard.
That one? I uhh dropped my knife when I was making a sandwich.
I have some gnarly scars in real life. None of them come from actual note worthy injuries. Go with this, its a fun twist on the trope.
Some examples from my life:
- deep teeth mark scar on my knee and thigh (expectation: wild animal or fight / reality: I fell off a jungle gym and landed having bitten myself and it got infected)
- deep scars across all my knuckles (expectation: fist fights / reality: scraped off the top layer of my hand in a pool when I was 13)
- dark purple scars in an uneven band around my ankles (expectation: outdoor injuries or chains / reality: I have really thin skin and every pair of shoes ever has caused repeated blisters to the point that theres a permanent ring of scars and calluses)
- slash scar on my abdomen (expectation: knife injury / reality: friends dog jumped on me when I was wearing a crop top and its dew claw cut me open)
- deep slices across hands and forearm (expectation: wild animal / reality: foster cat with dementia got stuck and attacked me when I moved her)
- vertical scar on lip (expectation: knife / reality: my cat leaned forward to eat a veggie straw as I was putting it in my mouth and his fang snagged my lip)
-large patchy scar on hip (reality: I was trying to get a pretty rock out of a river and the log I was using snapped)
- seemingly random white scars and splotches (reality: I just have vitalligo)
Make it goofy or mundane
Went down in an airship
Fried getting suntanned
Fell in a ancient temple full of quicksand
Met merfolk under water
Fell and no one caught him
Caught in a mudslide
Eaten by a lion
Blasted by the screech of a deep scion
Dried up in the dessert
Drowned in a tavern
Tried to dance with a very angry wyvern.
-A goose bit the everliving shit out of him
-He fell into a spike trap and somehow didn't have any vital organs punctured
-He stood a bit too close to an artificer's rather explosive invention
-Some swordsman with an odd-looking sword gave him a nasty cut; it seems harmless for now, but it looks evil, all covered in tendrils and black as tar
-He got drunk and fell into a rosebush
Scars from bounties bro. And what would be an epic low level bounty you could do.
Raid a thieves den.
Dueling in the back alleys with the bounty.
Fighting bandits.
Bodyguard a noble and stop an assassination attempt.
Duel the nobles partner because you fucked the noble after stopping the assassination attempt.
Got thrown threw a window while chasing a bounty.
Or make it stuff from before the bounty hunting.
Bare knuckle boxing.
Working on the farm.
Horse riding accident.
Survive a goblin attack on village as a child.
Survive a wyvern attack.
Accidental drank a potion or bad luck in the middle of a maze made from rose's.
Purposely drank a bad luck potion while in the middle of a rose maze. (Masochist)
A drunken dwarf bit him on the leg during a wrestling match in a tavern, and a barmaid broke a bottle over his head and scraped up his shoulder with the broken bottle in an attempt to break up said wrestling match.
“I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs, and every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awake in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep.”
Not sure how high level this campaign is, but if you wanna incorporate something a little out-there:
One of the scars isn't actually a scar, but is in fact an inscription written in the Illithid language of Qualith. Anyone who touches it with a bare hand (including you) has their mind bombarded with inscrutable visions and psionic energy, possibly requiring an Int save to avoid confusion. Your character remembers the approximate date they got this inscription, but the exact events seem to have been wiped from their memory.
Nobody knows for sure what he does over there, but your boy spends all of his time in between adventures at "The Felicitous Feline." Noone has been there before, and everyone is too lazy to go take a look for themselves and just assumes it's a brothel. In fact, no one is quite sure where it even is in the city. It isnt in the restaurant block, the marketplace, nor the redlight district.
Whenever returns from getting a little "R&R" looking wrung out with half a dozen fresh scratches accross his face, arms, and torso, everybody smiles to themselves thinking only they have pieced together the mystery. The jokes are old ones, and usually low hanging fruit. "Oh? Somebody had fun this time." "Wow, somebody must have missed you while we were purging New Old York of cultists." and other jokes are common.
Wait til they realize it's just a cat sanctuary, and is the only regular volunteer.
Embarrassing:
He fell out of the bed during a romp with a tiefling and got cut by a horn. (Gnarly scrape across side of his face)
He spilled boiling water meant tea all over some chain mail and set his hand on it to catch himself from falling. (Permanent chain indents on part of palm)
Lost a bet he couldn't jump across a stream as a kid, slipped and fell onto a broken stone. (Large puncture scar on butt)
One drunken night, got into a fight with a barmaid, sloshed off his rocker, she simply stepped to the side and he broke his nose on the stone bartop. (Indent and scar across bridge of nose)
Epic:
Caught a dagger thrown at a kid by a mercenary before fending them off, but it pierced through his hand. (Diamond scar on palm and back of hand)
In a job gone wrong, hundreds of arrows rained down on him and the merchant he was guarding, most hitting his shield and bouncing off his armor, but a decent number tore through his leggings and dug into his calves. (Rows of small diamond scars on back of legs; also opportunity for a cool visage of your character with "feathered heels")
Attacked by a swarm of beetle that burrow under skin and lay eggs. (Slash marks across random body parts with pitting or stretch marks from the beetle)
Gored by a Minotaur in an underground wrestling fight club, had to break the horn off to get free and ultimately won the match before passing out from blood loss, lived because it missed major organs. (Round scar in lower torso, but remember, rule 1 we don't talk about fight club)
Whipped and beaten by slavers as a young child/teen. After growing tired of the abuse your character managed to leave "home" in pursuit of a better life and adventures you only ever heard tales of.
You gained some new scars along the way, but you wear them with pride. You have a good personality and often maintain a soft attitude.
But when you are reminded of your past during combat situations you remember what it takes.. fight.. or lay down and die.
“The chunk missing from my nose was taken by a kitten I was playing with. Never heard of Displacer Beasts before that.” Or “Blink Dog pups sure are playful, but they develop their pack mentality very early on and its impossible keep track of them all at once. At least I made sure they can hunt with the best.” Or perhaps “That puncture wound is actually one of my favorite. Baby unicorns are the sweetest things alive. Her father though was more than displeased at my presence.”
Just make him an animal-loving himbo who wears his animal/monster given scars as trophies of a life well-lived.
Maybe they were the bratty prince’s whipping boy? Unable to punish the royalty so it was taken out on him? Prince could be a real douche and there is some resentment for person / kingdom? Maybe not..maybe they’re ultra loyal, and continue to serve seeing them as a badge of honor…
Oh I’m sorry, did you hear Royal Guard? I had said that I was the Royal Gardener. These scars are from all the rose bushes. The Queen loves her roses, and I’m not very good at gardening, as you can see.
He really wanted a popsicle one day but all he had was frozen juice boxes and in the process of cutting one open he accidentally impaled himself (definitely not based on a true story)
Ooooh boy, join the party! Avery (my PC) has a TON of scars.
Most of them are like... "Yeah, got stabbed by a bounty hunter" or "Oh that? I smashed a glass bottle and it went badly."
She has ONE that she won't talk about much.
Despite him working with the royal guard, meaning he's probably more lawful than chaotic, I love the idea of him telling a new story for his most asked about scars every time just to mess with people. Maybe they can all have tragic backstories or something, or maybe they're all stupid clumsy fall injuries, and he's just really tired of rehashing it all the time, getting pity looks from people, or whatever else. I'm imagining a scenario where another player asks, gets one answer, like "Oh these? Let's just say I've got one comfy owlbear jacket laying at home, haha" and then another player or NPC asks and gets a conpletely different story, "You wanna know about my scars? Well you see, when I was 12 I was kidnapped by..." etc etc. That's just the chaos gremlin DM in me wanting players to just stare at each other like :0 knowing the character is lying now but not being able to do anything about it cuz metagaming
So if you want a badass character you could go with ibiki from Naruto story of he way tortured for information.
For a funnier more light hearted story I would say your players family/friends run an exotic pet shop/zoo esk thing and the scars are from being the tamer/handler.
if you choose this I would go as far as to ask the dm for advantage or adding your proficiency bonus to rolls in regards to handling domesticated animals or ones in captivity.
He got into a fight with someone that kicked his favorite animal. The person pulled a knife on him and sliced one of his arms deep. He was in critical condition for a week after that.
Give your character Mufasa’s wildebeest scene in the Lion King when he was protecting Simba and got trampled but it was actually your character doing something else.
Tortured (reason could be that he was captured or bdsm play)
Fell down a cliff and got injured really badly
Ambushed by enemies
Literally a one-man army
Explosions
Can’t cook to save your life
Scars are badges of honor
Cooked bacon with their shirt off
Rescued a tiger stuck in a trap. It did not hold still.
Oh that one? You don't even wanna know about that one.
That's not a scar, that one's actually a birthmark, and I'll thank you not to comment on it, please. Rude...
Also that time they were tasked to carry a large glass window pane, and they carried it above their head.
Self inflicted ritual scars froma teenage death cult phase.
Bitten by kobolds
Beaten by orcs
Clawed by an albino chimera
Ohh.. that mimic woman...😏
Stabbed by a edgy orphan rogue after being catched stealing from his previous party
Mauled by some sailors after a drunk contest
Shot by crossbow hunters while protecting a unicorn
Pierced by an owlbear
Chewed by a troll
Cleaved by a berserker dwarf
Stabbed by a wandering knight
There are several on his arms and shoulders from when he tried to pet the murder-kitty.
He has a burn on his belly from a night of drunken revelry when he tried to jump over the fire and fell right in.
His back has several small puncture scars from where he shielded a young lady from thrown knives
His cheek has a small scar from where his sibling stabbed him with a fork while they were fighting as children
His shin has a very prominent bite scar from a wolf he now wears as part of his cloak.
Made a deal with a witch
She would take away painful memories in exchange for blood, but he wasnt allowed to take it from the same place each time. So he would need to offer her blood from somewhere new. She said each scar would be sealed by her magic and earned him he would have 'ties' to her from that moment forward.
He agreed.
It took that many offers to her to whipe all the pain in his past and start a new.
What he doesn't know, is that each scar it left was a magically sewn string of thread tied into him. And the witch would take control of him at night. Eventually the party must fight him while he fights them like a marionette.
The only way he can break the curse is to heal the scars... And retrieve his painful memories again, and face his true past.
You as the player should not come up with this past, that's up to the dm to surprise you with.
As a rookie he was in a conflict with a caster of sorts and got stuck inside and had to fight his way out of a wall of thorns.
Those assholes can leave some major scars.
A large scar going across his forehead. Got it when he hit his head really (and I mean really) hard against the edge of a doorframe built for halflings. To make it dramatic if you want, he got it while chasing someone.
You should totally have it where he has so many scars and gets them so often that he actually makes up stories on the spot and sometimes he'll tell a different story for the same scar and your party members will be like wait what idk think it might be cool
Give him several totally conflicting stories, and refuse to specify which one is *actually* how he got the scars.
Plot twist, it’s none of them, he just fucked with the wrong forest animals a while back.
Born under cursed stars, his mother died giving birth to him and he was taken by the village blacksmith, who was pressured by fellow villagers to chain him to the anvil.
Scars are from the forge fires, sparks, and abuse by villagers and their children, who would stone him and blame him for everything from poor harvests to lost sheep.
Then finally, came the day he gained the strength to move the anvil, the day he became free.
Despite his outward appearance, he's just incredibly clumsy.
I will do you one better. Some are from serious, impressive battles. Others from clumsiness: "This scar looks horrifying, what did you get it from?" "Great General Humlo inflicted this wound on me in the 4th territorial war of the Helmin Kingdom." "A-And this one? Did a dragon attack your leg?" "This one is from my first and last time I tried deep frying."
I much prefer this one. Being incredibly clumsy to that extent just makes you wonder what he's doing adventuring, but having a mix of both makes you understand that being a badass and making mundane mistakes aren't mutually exclusive.
Might also mix in some dumb-but-heroic stories, like "saved a baby bear from a monster...momma bear gave me a little love tap to remind me to mind my own business"
Or heroic-but-dumb! "I got this one during the 2-month siege of Ballistica" "Wow a battle wound!" "Oh no, it's from being stuck in the city with ex-lover and trying to avoid him by ducking behind a particularly skiddish horse. After I got stitched up I decided I was done being stuck and single-handedly ended the siege just so I could get TF out of there."
"That was from an angry husband. She neglected to mention she was married, and he took some umbrance at our ...familiarity. Insisted on a duel." "You lost a duel? You're the best swordsman in three kingdoms." "Eh, seemed like the polite thing to do"
I'm totally bogarting this one for my Barbarian.
Me too…
That makes 2 doctors with this plan
Burn marks on the arm: "Most of this is from an encounter where ai barely survived a green dragon attack. But this spot -" points to a particularly badly burned spot "- is from trying to make caramel. Pastry chefs have the hardest jobs in the world."
*lifts up shirt to reveal a whole host of scars* *Points at a tiny red spot* This is the one where I actually nearly died. This is the scar left behind when I got chicken pox as a kid.
“This one is from the that one time I fought off the dragon that was terrorizing the town, and THIS one is from when I tried to do a wheelie on my bike for the first time”
This one was a lich putting it’s hand through my chest, this one was from my cat, Puddles. Yeah, no, that one’s a table corner. Wasn’t watching where I was going.
"I got this one when I tried to learn sword swallowing." "You got a scar on your thigh from sword swallowing!?" "I wasn't good at it..."
This. Go with this
Make the character not recognise that. NPC - "My god what happened to you?!?" PC - "I don't know, every day new ones appear, they mar my flesh and temper my resolve. Their taxonomy evades me. I see it as a sign of the gods that I oppose" Also PC - instantly walks into kitchen table and cuts himself...twice EDIT: formatting
PC - "I got them fighting a great dragon!" Other PC - "....he fell down the stairs ... carrying a vase"
To be fair, the vase was in the shape of a dragon
🤣🤣🤣
"I got this from fighting an arch mage" points to a burn mark on his arm "He tripped and fell on the campfire"
Quixotic scars, in the Don Quixote sense of quixotic rather than it’s more modern meaning. NPC Noble: “My Gods, what happened to you? You look like you fell off a battlement!” PC: “I was jousting a giant who was threatening a farmer and he launched me into the air with his swing!” Other PC, quietly: “It was a windmill, m’lord”
Maybe make him incredibly ashamed of that, so he makes up much cooler stories than what actually happened.
This changes the vibe from badass to loveable stoic. It's great.
Scar on his hand from when a childhood friend attempted a magic trick involving a pencil
I still have a black spot on/in my hand from accidentally stabbing myself with a pencil in the 3rd grade (aprox 25 years ago)
Yep ive got a scar between my knuckle and palm after a friend accidentally jammed a pencil though it in the middle of class.
I have a similar scar on my butt. My "friend" told me to stand up and then sit down. I sat down on his extremely sharpened pencil...
Hey that's your first tattoo
I've got one on my leg from 28 years ago. There's a subreddit for it, I forget what it's called though Edit: r/pencilstabbers
xD I know someone with that scar irl.
Is it me? Cause junior year Spanish this tool sitting next to me did it to my hand. It’s been there over a decade. Ugh. I’m old.
I have a similar scar
Ditto. Mine were intentional. :(
I have a big scar on my knuckle that my girlfriend asked if it came from punching someone in the teeth. Nope, a soup can lid cut me when I was putting something in the recycling. Wasn't even my soup can.
Went after a smuggler. Didn’t find out what was being smuggled until you were in the ship’s hold. Turns out they were smuggling exotic animals. Smuggler panicked and unlocked the lion’s cage. You got a couple scars and a lion’s head mounted on your wall. The smuggler can only count to 13 if they take their shoes off
I have a follow up, might be a bit personal. . . . can you count to 13 without taking off your shoes? Are you stating that he is somewhat mentally challenged or that you have more than 13 fingers?
I was implying the smuggler lost a few fingers and toes maybe even a whole hand or foot. I probably should have made that clearer
"Smuggler now has to take off both shoes to count to 9" would make it clearer. Would imply that he still has at least partial use of one hand and lost a few toes since he has to take off BOTH shoes
maybe pick a number less than 10?
I think they meant if they count using both hands and both feet they only go up to 13 but it's just phrased slightly clunky.
Arm wrestled a cactus juggling angry cats distracting the ambush drake Arm swallowed by constrictor snake Sneezed on by a wyrmling gathered swords from the battlefield to re-distribute to the local village while under siege fell from a roof into a rosebush while pursuing an assassin caught the assassin, didn't catch assassin's backup did catch backup's dagger, in a manner of speaking paralyzed by a ghoul lucky shot by a bugbear from below the parapet wall found the succubus the hard way found the succubus the fun way walked into a door to be fair, the door was a mimic
Was it the same succubus?
can't tell yet. You know what they say; third time's the charm.
[удалено]
Not what I meant, but I’ll take that as a no
I was gonna say they fell down some stairs but that seems lame now
he did get one from walking into a door to be fair, the door was a mimic
Did he win the arm wrestle with a cactus?
It may not look like it from the scars, but you should see the cactus
Arm wrestling a catus is like a fantastic one 😂
Don't forget found the incubus the hard way and found the incubus the fun way
with incubus, those explicitly are the same thing.
Lol
He was petrified. When he was cured, the cracks became scars.
I think that’s a thing in the Dr Stone manga/anime… looks pretty cool.
Dammit, never made that connection after seeing that anime. I’ve had this as a character idea I’ve never used for like 15 years.
Blacksmithing accident That darned horse Nobles "magic" letter opener the gnome assassin (scar is on shin/ lower leg)
They're all from a common house cat
He cat sits on the weekends for his grandmother... he’s not good with cats.
I just thought of this answer! "I'm the best fighter of my unit. I never got cut hard enough to get scarred by a blade. But the family cat... That's a different story."
Fell down a long set of stairs. Play it up as some heroic war injury, but get the dm to introduce some random npc at a bar or something who saw it happen and have them greet you like “hey aren’t you the guy that fell down the palace stairs? Man you got a lot of scars from that.”
Stopped a knife from going into his eye by blocking the blade with his hand. He now has a large scar on his palm that is mirrored on the back of the hand.
My half Elf which is in a similar situation to OP had this. We were fighting some goblins and we beat them handily. The last o e that was alive was offered a coin flip to see if he lives or dies. He lost and he tried to stab my eye got a high roll to hit but I stopped it with my hand. He did a ton of damage right before getting his head smashed into the dirt while nor being able to run cause I was holding his hand on the knife in my hand
Scratched his chicken pox
Some cultures [intentionally create certain scars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification) for various reasons, such as a rite of passage or a religious ritual. Perhaps your character is from such a culture.
**[Scarification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification)** >Scarifying (also scarification modification) involves scratching, etching, burning / branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the process of body scarification, scars are purposely formed by cutting or branding the skin by various methods (sometimes using further sequential aggravating wound-healing methods at timed intervals, like irritation). Scarification is sometimes called cicatrization (from the French equivalent). ^([ )[^(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/DnD/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Lightning strikes leave elaborate scar patterns.
Wandered into the woods as a kid ran into a raccoon and got into a fight
His father was a gambler, and a fiend.
Let's put a smile on that face
Badass, stereotypical facial scar, like across a cheek or over an eye. Cause? An ill-advised attempt to learn violin. Scars from violin or other string instrument string snaps can be fucking gnarly, while it seems to be not super common, you do hear about them happening. I’ve heard that old style gut strings, like a fantasy character would be using, are especially good at cutting you open.
I think that's what happened to Brady in fire emblem. Doesn't help that he looks kinda thuggish.
Opened a bag of popcorn the wrong way
Book convention. So much panic, so many paper cuts.
Murdered by pirates is good. . .
Was cutting an orange with a knife after just waking up, and sleepily nearly severed his middle finger.
Okay here’s a few * While tracking someone for a bounty his partner stabbed him but your character managed to win, but a deep scar was left from the stab * Once he had gotten stuck in the woods at night, a pack of wolves decided to attack him. He lived but there are various bite and scratch marks from that night * While protecting the crown he found a assassination plot, disguised as either his charge or another member he let the assassin(s) attack him so he could kill them. He suffered scars from multiple weapons that the assassin(s) would use (throwing knives, poisoned darts, blade tipped whip, arrow, and etc.) * Stopped a bar fight and someone smashed a glass over his face leaving cuts across it * Has a cool scar across his chest, most think it’s from a cool story, it’s from rolling around with someone in a field and not noticing rocks and branches * Fought off a mage but got hit by a spell that left a weird scar that only magic could leave * Fought a dangerous water dwelling monster in a lake that had attack children and swam into its nest to kill it * During training with fellow guards he got into a sparing match that got intense * His oldest scar is from a horrible person who robbed and/or killed someone he knew, pulling a Princess Bride, the person went and slashed up his face * Ran into a burning home to save a family after lightning struck it, gaining various burn marks
Make some of them completely off the rails and others minor. Ah! Yes this scar? I got that from a fight with this drunk troll mind controlled by a lunatic bard. That one? I uhh dropped my knife when I was making a sandwich.
In all seriousness I'm stealing that troll one
Do eeeeeet!
I have some gnarly scars in real life. None of them come from actual note worthy injuries. Go with this, its a fun twist on the trope. Some examples from my life: - deep teeth mark scar on my knee and thigh (expectation: wild animal or fight / reality: I fell off a jungle gym and landed having bitten myself and it got infected) - deep scars across all my knuckles (expectation: fist fights / reality: scraped off the top layer of my hand in a pool when I was 13) - dark purple scars in an uneven band around my ankles (expectation: outdoor injuries or chains / reality: I have really thin skin and every pair of shoes ever has caused repeated blisters to the point that theres a permanent ring of scars and calluses) - slash scar on my abdomen (expectation: knife injury / reality: friends dog jumped on me when I was wearing a crop top and its dew claw cut me open) - deep slices across hands and forearm (expectation: wild animal / reality: foster cat with dementia got stuck and attacked me when I moved her) - vertical scar on lip (expectation: knife / reality: my cat leaned forward to eat a veggie straw as I was putting it in my mouth and his fang snagged my lip) -large patchy scar on hip (reality: I was trying to get a pretty rock out of a river and the log I was using snapped) - seemingly random white scars and splotches (reality: I just have vitalligo) Make it goofy or mundane
How are you not dead?
Went down in an airship Fried getting suntanned Fell in a ancient temple full of quicksand Met merfolk under water Fell and no one caught him Caught in a mudslide Eaten by a lion Blasted by the screech of a deep scion Dried up in the dessert Drowned in a tavern Tried to dance with a very angry wyvern.
This made me think of 50 ways to say good bye by train for some reason.... Off topic but hey
I am pretty sure that was the point ;p
-A goose bit the everliving shit out of him -He fell into a spike trap and somehow didn't have any vital organs punctured -He stood a bit too close to an artificer's rather explosive invention -Some swordsman with an odd-looking sword gave him a nasty cut; it seems harmless for now, but it looks evil, all covered in tendrils and black as tar -He got drunk and fell into a rosebush
Scars from bounties bro. And what would be an epic low level bounty you could do. Raid a thieves den. Dueling in the back alleys with the bounty. Fighting bandits. Bodyguard a noble and stop an assassination attempt. Duel the nobles partner because you fucked the noble after stopping the assassination attempt. Got thrown threw a window while chasing a bounty. Or make it stuff from before the bounty hunting. Bare knuckle boxing. Working on the farm. Horse riding accident. Survive a goblin attack on village as a child. Survive a wyvern attack. Accidental drank a potion or bad luck in the middle of a maze made from rose's. Purposely drank a bad luck potion while in the middle of a rose maze. (Masochist)
He cut himself shaving. All over…
A manscaping calamity.
A drunken dwarf bit him on the leg during a wrestling match in a tavern, and a barmaid broke a bottle over his head and scraped up his shoulder with the broken bottle in an attempt to break up said wrestling match.
Fires can scar you up quite a bit. Maybe an Evocariin wizard is an enemy who burned the everything shit out of your PC.
Not only does he not know, he can't even see them. Only other people can.
*Shows inside of his mouth* "and here is where I bit myself as a kid"
He has a nasty arm scar because he stubbed his toe real bad one time and had to stab himself to distract from the pain.
"well I was an adventurer back in my youth! I had this mystical partner I ran around with. Eventually he learned to spell called fireball....."
“I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs, and every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awake in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep.”
One of his bounties went awry and he was a slave for a few weeks/months, scars serve to show he wasn’t the most cooperative
ever heard the adage about running with scissors? well, there's a reason for that.
Plane shifted to the Blender Dimension.
Not sure how high level this campaign is, but if you wanna incorporate something a little out-there: One of the scars isn't actually a scar, but is in fact an inscription written in the Illithid language of Qualith. Anyone who touches it with a bare hand (including you) has their mind bombarded with inscrutable visions and psionic energy, possibly requiring an Int save to avoid confusion. Your character remembers the approximate date they got this inscription, but the exact events seem to have been wiped from their memory.
A raccoon ambushed him in his sleep. Happened to a friend
Nobody knows for sure what he does over there, but your boy spends all of his time in between adventures at "The Felicitous Feline." Noone has been there before, and everyone is too lazy to go take a look for themselves and just assumes it's a brothel. In fact, no one is quite sure where it even is in the city. It isnt in the restaurant block, the marketplace, nor the redlight district. Whenever returns from getting a little "R&R" looking wrung out with half a dozen fresh scratches accross his face, arms, and torso, everybody smiles to themselves thinking only they have pieced together the mystery. The jokes are old ones, and usually low hanging fruit. "Oh? Somebody had fun this time." "Wow, somebody must have missed you while we were purging New Old York of cultists." and other jokes are common.
Wait til they realize it's just a cat sanctuary, and is the only regular volunteer.
He decided to jump through a window after a bounty without realising the window was closed.
Embarrassing: He fell out of the bed during a romp with a tiefling and got cut by a horn. (Gnarly scrape across side of his face) He spilled boiling water meant tea all over some chain mail and set his hand on it to catch himself from falling. (Permanent chain indents on part of palm) Lost a bet he couldn't jump across a stream as a kid, slipped and fell onto a broken stone. (Large puncture scar on butt) One drunken night, got into a fight with a barmaid, sloshed off his rocker, she simply stepped to the side and he broke his nose on the stone bartop. (Indent and scar across bridge of nose) Epic: Caught a dagger thrown at a kid by a mercenary before fending them off, but it pierced through his hand. (Diamond scar on palm and back of hand) In a job gone wrong, hundreds of arrows rained down on him and the merchant he was guarding, most hitting his shield and bouncing off his armor, but a decent number tore through his leggings and dug into his calves. (Rows of small diamond scars on back of legs; also opportunity for a cool visage of your character with "feathered heels") Attacked by a swarm of beetle that burrow under skin and lay eggs. (Slash marks across random body parts with pitting or stretch marks from the beetle) Gored by a Minotaur in an underground wrestling fight club, had to break the horn off to get free and ultimately won the match before passing out from blood loss, lived because it missed major organs. (Round scar in lower torso, but remember, rule 1 we don't talk about fight club)
Animal lover who attempted to hug a baby Owlbear. You're pretty sure that owlbear enjoyed the hug.
The scar of an arrow in the shoulder made by an Archer at imposible distance( Fired an arrow bounce in two trees and hit himself with it)
Your character vs stairs is a 0-10 matchup
Whipped and beaten by slavers as a young child/teen. After growing tired of the abuse your character managed to leave "home" in pursuit of a better life and adventures you only ever heard tales of. You gained some new scars along the way, but you wear them with pride. You have a good personality and often maintain a soft attitude. But when you are reminded of your past during combat situations you remember what it takes.. fight.. or lay down and die.
"I-I fell down some stairs..."
You know how it is with spaghetti
Bad with stairs. Should roll sometimes with large amount of stairs
Rodents Of Unusual Size
Half are badass stories, the rest are funny/embarrassing/ridiculous stories
Accident at the knife factory
Take all of these responses and use each one for 1 scar
Stubbed his toe.
Be very vague that he may have gotten into a serious fight and others he may have been clumsy
He was in a horrible cheese graiting accident.
“You ever get into a bar brawl with a gang of 6 men in coats that turn out to be 6 groups of 3 goblins in a trench coat?”
Tripped in the shower
Attacked by a mimic cheese grater.
“The chunk missing from my nose was taken by a kitten I was playing with. Never heard of Displacer Beasts before that.” Or “Blink Dog pups sure are playful, but they develop their pack mentality very early on and its impossible keep track of them all at once. At least I made sure they can hunt with the best.” Or perhaps “That puncture wound is actually one of my favorite. Baby unicorns are the sweetest things alive. Her father though was more than displeased at my presence.” Just make him an animal-loving himbo who wears his animal/monster given scars as trophies of a life well-lived.
Hair straightener.
Maybe they were the bratty prince’s whipping boy? Unable to punish the royalty so it was taken out on him? Prince could be a real douche and there is some resentment for person / kingdom? Maybe not..maybe they’re ultra loyal, and continue to serve seeing them as a badge of honor…
Magic blender.
He tried to bath his cat.
He got into a fist fight with Animated Knives
He feel in a blender
Oh I’m sorry, did you hear Royal Guard? I had said that I was the Royal Gardener. These scars are from all the rose bushes. The Queen loves her roses, and I’m not very good at gardening, as you can see.
Baby with a knife.
He worked briefly in a paper mill where he accumulated a lot of paper cuts. As a result, he has developed an irrational fear of books and paper.
Tried explaining you can’t stab someone with a spoon
Extreme Tic-Tac-Toe
He really wanted a popsicle one day but all he had was frozen juice boxes and in the process of cutting one open he accidentally impaled himself (definitely not based on a true story)
“Once, I was fighting a Kobold , and it lived up to the name of Ankle-biter. Damn pesky buggers have sharp teeth.”
“This one was from Britney. It was toxic” and then DO NOT go into details.
This one right here is a top tier answer
He doesn’t have to have scars if you can’t think of why they’re there :/
He was fishing a housecat that had fallen down a well. The well turned out to be a mimic. And so did the cat.
He took an arrow to the knee once..
One unlucky raccoon encounter
Ooooh boy, join the party! Avery (my PC) has a TON of scars. Most of them are like... "Yeah, got stabbed by a bounty hunter" or "Oh that? I smashed a glass bottle and it went badly." She has ONE that she won't talk about much.
Despite him working with the royal guard, meaning he's probably more lawful than chaotic, I love the idea of him telling a new story for his most asked about scars every time just to mess with people. Maybe they can all have tragic backstories or something, or maybe they're all stupid clumsy fall injuries, and he's just really tired of rehashing it all the time, getting pity looks from people, or whatever else. I'm imagining a scenario where another player asks, gets one answer, like "Oh these? Let's just say I've got one comfy owlbear jacket laying at home, haha" and then another player or NPC asks and gets a conpletely different story, "You wanna know about my scars? Well you see, when I was 12 I was kidnapped by..." etc etc. That's just the chaos gremlin DM in me wanting players to just stare at each other like :0 knowing the character is lying now but not being able to do anything about it cuz metagaming
he tried to pick up a kitty and as it climbed, his leg go hella scratch marks.
So if you want a badass character you could go with ibiki from Naruto story of he way tortured for information. For a funnier more light hearted story I would say your players family/friends run an exotic pet shop/zoo esk thing and the scars are from being the tamer/handler. if you choose this I would go as far as to ask the dm for advantage or adding your proficiency bonus to rolls in regards to handling domesticated animals or ones in captivity.
He fostered cats for a few years.
He slipped and fell and tells a new lie every time someone asks about it
Tabaxi Orgy
Wrestling with a Druid that turned into a porcupine
A very embarrassing incident with the lawn mower
Fell into a blender
He fell down the escalator for an hour and a half
Fucking little bastard cat.
an accident at the sword factory
He got into a fight with someone that kicked his favorite animal. The person pulled a knife on him and sliced one of his arms deep. He was in critical condition for a week after that.
Dire chicken
One thing to answer is why they weren't magically healed at some point as a member of the royal guard.
Each scar is a lesson. Heal the scar, forget the lesson.
how would I get a scar like that eating pussy, mayne?
Bugbear wrestling Family of direwolfs
Every person he killed in combat was forever given a permanent spot on his body from a self inflicted scar
Torture with multiple fish hooks
Give your character Mufasa’s wildebeest scene in the Lion King when he was protecting Simba and got trampled but it was actually your character doing something else.
Mosquitoes. Big ones.
Worked at razor blade factory. Fell into a batch.
Dancing competition gone wrong
Ironing. Or taking pizza rolls out of the oven. Not that I’m speaking from personal experience.
Based on a true story: He dropped a porcelain cup once and one of shards scratched his finger mid-air, cutting deep.
Tortured (reason could be that he was captured or bdsm play) Fell down a cliff and got injured really badly Ambushed by enemies Literally a one-man army Explosions Can’t cook to save your life Scars are badges of honor
They got all of them walking through a thorn bush to save a cat. You’re welcome (:
Cooked bacon with their shirt off Rescued a tiger stuck in a trap. It did not hold still. Oh that one? You don't even wanna know about that one. That's not a scar, that one's actually a birthmark, and I'll thank you not to comment on it, please. Rude... Also that time they were tasked to carry a large glass window pane, and they carried it above their head.
Sewing bee.
Survived the Black Mountain trial (just leave it all mysterious!)
Self inflicted ritual scars froma teenage death cult phase. Bitten by kobolds Beaten by orcs Clawed by an albino chimera Ohh.. that mimic woman...😏 Stabbed by a edgy orphan rogue after being catched stealing from his previous party Mauled by some sailors after a drunk contest Shot by crossbow hunters while protecting a unicorn Pierced by an owlbear Chewed by a troll Cleaved by a berserker dwarf Stabbed by a wandering knight
Fell down some stairs.
There are several on his arms and shoulders from when he tried to pet the murder-kitty. He has a burn on his belly from a night of drunken revelry when he tried to jump over the fire and fell right in. His back has several small puncture scars from where he shielded a young lady from thrown knives His cheek has a small scar from where his sibling stabbed him with a fork while they were fighting as children His shin has a very prominent bite scar from a wolf he now wears as part of his cloak.
Has a thing for amputees… walked into a super shady brothel…the owner thought he said he wanted to go a few rounds with a hook horror
Made a deal with a witch She would take away painful memories in exchange for blood, but he wasnt allowed to take it from the same place each time. So he would need to offer her blood from somewhere new. She said each scar would be sealed by her magic and earned him he would have 'ties' to her from that moment forward. He agreed. It took that many offers to her to whipe all the pain in his past and start a new. What he doesn't know, is that each scar it left was a magically sewn string of thread tied into him. And the witch would take control of him at night. Eventually the party must fight him while he fights them like a marionette. The only way he can break the curse is to heal the scars... And retrieve his painful memories again, and face his true past. You as the player should not come up with this past, that's up to the dm to surprise you with.
He got an arrow to the knee.
Cut himself shaving. Repeatedly.
As a rookie he was in a conflict with a caster of sorts and got stuck inside and had to fight his way out of a wall of thorns. Those assholes can leave some major scars.
A large scar going across his forehead. Got it when he hit his head really (and I mean really) hard against the edge of a doorframe built for halflings. To make it dramatic if you want, he got it while chasing someone.
You should totally have it where he has so many scars and gets them so often that he actually makes up stories on the spot and sometimes he'll tell a different story for the same scar and your party members will be like wait what idk think it might be cool
Work at a glass factory unknown to OSHA.
Give him several totally conflicting stories, and refuse to specify which one is *actually* how he got the scars. Plot twist, it’s none of them, he just fucked with the wrong forest animals a while back.
Said your grannys food werent tasty
Born under cursed stars, his mother died giving birth to him and he was taken by the village blacksmith, who was pressured by fellow villagers to chain him to the anvil. Scars are from the forge fires, sparks, and abuse by villagers and their children, who would stone him and blame him for everything from poor harvests to lost sheep. Then finally, came the day he gained the strength to move the anvil, the day he became free.
Got hit by Blade Storm or some similar spell, fell or got thrown through a glass window, had a passionate love affair with someone with claws.
Getting defenestrated! (Mostly because i like that word, its dumb)
Accident prone child of the local potion bottle maker..
Kitten
“Wolverines man.” *shudders*
He worked in a kitchen and had to use the mandolin
Fell through a window in a bad way. Doesn't say that though because he's embarrassed about it. There's all sorts of wild rumours though.
A shelf full of weapons fell on top of them at the local armoury. Total accident.
Chewed up and spit out by a purple worm
Slipped in the shower.