The Traveler was a character created for my Table Top RPG class that I took Spring semester of my Freshman year at USC. One of the class assignments was to play a 13-session campaign from any tabletop RPG game (examples being D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu) and write in our journals what happened narratively. This was to get inexperienced players familiar with an RPG system, gain experience playing as Game Master and preparing for sessions, and learn how to improvise in role-play scenarios. 

I didn’t realize it would be several weeks before I could play. As one of the more experienced D&D players in our group, appropriately named the Critical Misses, I was tasked with being the Dungeon Master for at least the campaign's first session. This left me with an interesting predicament. Because I was going to be DMing first, I had a longer time to craft my character for when I eventually get to play. Initially I was meant to play in the second session … but due to complications, I was finally able to start playing in the fourth session.

 With all those weeks of acting as DM and not player, I had a lot of time to create a character that the other players needed based on my observations as their DM and witnessing their tragedy and comedy. I still wanted to have fun and remembered how some players would base their DND character off of a character in media, and I wanted to do the same. I was recently into the Doctor Who series and was inspired to make my player character off of The Tenth Doctor from the 2005 series. As sessions passed, I was inspired to draw other versions of the Traveler based on other versions of the Doctor, starting with the newer Doctors and then including older Doctors from the 1963 series. 

The Traveler is a wood elf cleric with no weapons, but a lot of magic spells and tools to help about. The Traveler is also equipped with many healing spells and damage inducing spells to help out when party members are hurt or are in danger. Many of the spells in their arsenal are versatile in combat and in roleplay situations and will help the Traveler with investigation and assistance while being able to defend themselves. 

Despite being a cleric, the Traveler’s highest stat is Intelligence in reference to the Doctor being super smart, even though the most important stat for a cleric is Wisdom. In terms of inventory, the Traveler does not carry a weapon on them as they believe they do not need one as they believe in a more passive stance. With the lack of weaponry, the Traveler does rely on magic and improvisation during combat situations. I figured that since the campaign would focus on heists, combat would be rare to engage in, so the lack of a weapon would not be a big issue. Ultimately, the Traveler is built to be the party’s support, which will be needed in a group of two rogues and a ranger.

After playing for several sessions as the Traveler, I can confirm that my teammates needed the support. My party had a tendency to rush into danger without checking out the environment for traps, magic or otherwise. This was a critical error, especially when trying to infiltrate an establishment without being detected, so having a character that can detect traps and magic, was certainly helpful for mission success.