Characters suitable for making in Dungeons and Dragons?

Hello everyone. I apologize if I am not following proper forum etiquette, I haven't spent much time lurking here.

Anyway, I love anime in general, and I also love D&D and other tabletop RPGs. I volunteer at an anime con every year (this coming year will be my third), and the tabletop room requested my assistance this year. The head of the department asked me if I could think about integrating anime into a 5th edition D&D game to run at the convention. I agreed, and came up with a concept that I think will go over well.

Heroes and important allies, from popular anime shows, are ripped from their world and appear in a faintly Japanese flavored D&D fantasy setting, with their abilities converted into D&D mechanics. The heroes must contend with a variety of standout D&D monsters (orcs, dragons, beholders, gelatinous cubes, etc.) as well as antagonists from each respective anime, and figure out how to get back home.

However, what I'm stuck on is character choices. I want to include a character of each class, and while some came easily to me, I'm having trouble with others. I have no problem homebrewing custom mechanics to get them right, but I'm trying to modify each class as little as possible.

Characters should be from currently popular shows (not necessarily currently airing), so that people are familiar with them.

Here's what I have so far:

Barbarian: Ryuko from Kill la Kill (her synchronization with Senketsu is her barbarian rage)
Bard: Kamina from Gurren Lagann (he casts enchantment spells by inspiring his allies)
Cleric: ??? (should probably have shown healing powers in the show, and could have religious influences or fight Evil monsters)
Druid: ??? (Could be a shapeshifter, or someone in tune with nature)
Fighter: Eren from Attack on Titan (with home brewed 3DMG and swords)
Monk: Goku from Dragonball
Paladin: ??? (Could be a healer, more likely a punisher of Evil)
Ranger: Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin or Ganta from Deadman Wonderland (Ganta would have a home brewed Ganta Gun ability and be focused on sharpshooting)
Rogue: ??? (Trickster, sneak, thief. I'm contemplating Yato from Noragami, but not sure if he's a great fit. Could also be a character from Naruto)
Warlock: Roy Mustang from FMA (reflavoring the Warlock pact into his alchemy)
Wizard: Gene from Outlaw Star (he casts spells using his magic gun)

As you can see, my main problems are with cleric, druid, and paladin characters, but I would take anyone's input on potentials for any class.

Well, that's my post. I'll gladly take any ideas anyone has, and I'll be grateful to you all if I end up making this adventure work.

You can check out Sword Art Online, very famous and the anime is about a VRMMORPG
Asuna + Kirito should be known enough, Asuna is a sort of healer in one of the arcs.
https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/sword-art-online

Or a less known but a better show imo : Log Horizon, a MMORPG anime
https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/log-horizon
Shiroe is a mage class and a main character.

More in that gaming genre: Accel World about virtual reality + No Game No Life which is is about a very broad area of gaming (chess, cardgames, coinflips, etc etc)

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Don't know why it was bumped so randomly...but...

Just do the entire Slayers universe. From what I've heard, the characters are pretty much stereotypes you'd find in D&D anyways:
- Lina is a mage with a munchkin at the helm
- Gourry is the player in your team who just dump stats any mental attribute and decides that the solution to everything is to beat it to a pulp
- Zelgadis is your overly player who built 20 pages of backstory...all of it melodramatic
- Amelia is your lawful stupid player. Probably also that guy who builds troll characters and tries to loosen the mood.

For the classes you hadn't decided on yet:
Cleric: Orihime (spelling? Girl from Bleach) would fit if you're just wanting a white mage-esque healer. Otherwise you could implement another FMA character, alchemists all have healing abilities and they're far more interesting as characters. There's always Nicholas Wolfwood as well, if you just want to go full religious route.

Druid: Shinichi from Parasyte might work. Migi holds typical druid character traits, just build it around shapeshift, I think there's actually a variant that lets you take any form, though it's significantly weak than some forms. Alternatively you could use aberrant blood feat and that should work pretty well, you'd have to find a way to implement it into 5e though.

Paladin: Characters with black & white morals. Saber, or maybe a police office Inspector Lunge, better yet Inspector Tsunemori (you have her gun as a smite evil ability).

Rogue: You could probably sneak a Bebop character in here. Spike is the obvious go-to.

I would definitely ditch Ganta from your list, because Deadman Wonderland is awful, and you're throwing away a perfectly good opportunity for some Captain Harlock action in the ranger department. Ryuko is also probably a poor barbarian fit. Kikuchiyo from Samurai 7 is probably a much better option, he's a farmer so he has a nature affinity, and he gets stronger when he's angry.

I also just realized you have one post, so I'm glad no one will ever care about all this crap I just wrote.

kirant said:

Just do the entire Slayers universe.

Click to expand...

I was about to say this, although I swear there was a Slayers D&D expansion or some kind of tabletop RPG using Slayers characters made yonks ago. I could be making it up though, I know sweet bugger-all about tabletop gaming. :happy:

kirant said:

Don't know why it was bumped so randomly...but...

Just do the entire Slayers universe. From what I've heard, the characters are pretty much stereotypes you'd find in D&D anyways:
- Lina is a mage with a munchkin at the helm
- Gourry is the player in your team who just dump stats any mental attribute and decides that the solution to everything is to beat it to a pulp
- Zelgadis is your overly player who built 20 pages of backstory...all of it melodramatic
- Amelia is your lawful stupid player. Probably also that guy who builds troll characters and tries to loosen the mood.

Click to expand...

I see a flaw here, because unless there's an Almighty Motherfucker class in Dungeons and Dragons I don't see where Xellos would fit.

CaptainSlow said:

I was about to say this, although I swear there was a Slayers D&D expansion or some kind of tabletop RPG using Slayers characters made yonks ago. I could be making it up though, I know sweet bugger-all about tabletop gaming. :happy:

Click to expand...

There is. It's called Slayers D20. It's actually not too bad last time I tried it.

LinkSword said:

I see a flaw here, because unless there's an Almighty Motherfucker class in Dungeons and Dragons I don't see where Xellos would fit.

Click to expand...

GMPC. Nobody dares mess with your horribly broken and obviously rule breaking character if you can say the words "Rocks fall; everybody dies".

I'm sorry, but how is Guts from Berserk not the go-to Barbarian? He is a huge man with a HUGE sword and only feels alive in battle.

Holo from Spice and Wolf is the obvious Druid. She has both a capability to shapeshift into a wolf and a connection to nature (makes crops grow, et cetera).

Paladin is obviously Saber from Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. There really is no other choice.

Rogue... hmm... Ken from Daughter of Twenty Faces, probably. Other than being an actual thief, he's also good with knifes.

It's an older show but there is Record of Lodoss War. It's actually based around a Japanese role-playing game, but it's very D&D like.

Gary beat me to my thoughts on this.

I know you wanted more known characters, but also check out Rage of Bahamut.