The Legend of Zelda: Forgotten Gates

Noab is a cantankerous middle-aged Goron who spent his youth as a wandering mercenary. I created this character as a matter of practicality, although he wound up being pretty well-liked by other players. The Crimson Wolfos Inn, which is Triforce MUCK's most popular hangout and an unofficial base of operations for general good-guys, is owned by a Zora named Rokua. Unfortunately, Rokua's player disappeared eventually, and we were left without an in-character authority about the inn. While discussing the matter, we noticed that Rokua's history mentioned that he occasionally left the inn under the care of his old friend Noab. Nothing else was given about this person, just the name. So with the MUCK staff's permission, I invented a gruff old Goron who was Rokua's travel and mercenary partner in the past, and runs the Crimson Wolfos like a drill sergeant. He's a tough but fair boss whose bark is worse than his bite, but that's not to say his bite isn't to be feared. >)

In Forgotten Gates, Noab is exactly what you'd probably expect from a Goron: a physical tank character, high on attack, defense, and health, low on speed, magic, and mana. His skills generally revolve around physical attack as well, although one of them adds a little fire magic to the mix, wreathing his weapon in flames. Fire is his elemental type, which is also to be expected for a Goron; this makes him strong against Forest and Shadow, weak against Water and Spirit, and neutral against Light.

Noab's special ability is Tactics. As long as the ability is active (basically while Noab is still "able to act" and until he takes a different action), the player is allowed to select which party member takes any single-target attacks from the enemy, and also the target of abilities that are normally random. It sounds a bit dull, and you sacrifice the actions of the game's biggest heavy-hitter to use it, but it could be quite advantageous for minimizing the impact of enemy assaults. You can direct elemental attacks toward heroes that are strong against them, and physical attacks could be absorbed by Noab himself, or even yet another hero using the Defend command in tandem with Noab. In fact, I may have to figure out a way to nerf this ability so that the boring strategy of devoting half your party to defense isn't made the optimal one in nearly all situations. X) I could limit the number of attacks that can be redirected per use of Tactics, or give it a random chance of failing, or force the player to choose just one party member to take all the attacks. As always, if you have any ideas for improvements, feel free to comment.