RPGaDay 30) Share something you learned about playing your character.

Jebeddo Ningel in DnD 3.0 was a Gnome Druid with a True Neutral outlook where a balance between nature and urban must be kept. Over time he evolved into a character that increasingly viewed the world of civilization as the enemy and he must bring the people back to nature, back to "balance". He became a Tamer of Beasts (Prestige Class from Call of the Wilds splatbook) to increase his menagerie of beasts to help him enforce his will. As he grew in power he would warn people to evacuate as he predicted disaster and then simply earthquake cities to the ground the next day. By that point he had become Neutral Evil with an obsession with destroying civilization. He dreamed of becoming so powerful that he could tame the Tarrasque and use it to destroy all the cities on the planet. He would force all the races to return to nature by unleashing the ultimate living engine of destruction. He never gathered enough power as the campaign ended, but this wise-cracking, helpful gnome with pokemon beasts able to say their name (and later talk with a spell) who wanted balance between nature and the cities had become Kefka from Final Fantasy searching for a way to crush civilization in the name of Obad-Hai.

What did I learn? To let characters walk down their own path. Jebeddo was a revelation in my characters as he was the first one to evolve from a mere piece of paper and concept to a more complex individual that had literally walked beyond the bounds of my original creation and intention. He hadn't died a hero, in fact his failures and the party's failures had the world prophesied for destruction as he had freed the one who would destroy the world (helping a person by freeing him from a vine prison in the first adventure who had been bound there by a wizard to stop the prophecy) and the group failed to save the life of the slayer chosen to stop him. But he did live long enough to become the villain. If there was a prophecy of the world ending that he couldn't stop, he was gonna do it himself first.  

Since then all my characters have been awesome because they evolve over the course of a campaign.