Creating Fantasy Characters

It sounds more like you're talking the character archetypes rather then actual characters. Given the werewolf mention. Like the Rebellious Princess, Always Chaotic Evil Orc's and the Red Mage sorts? If it is so, I tend to take many of the archetypes and put them in a blender and then let the character grow from the bare bones (and many edits as they change and grow) so they don't fit in that archetype exactly. Or they've broken that particular mold. The archetypes have their uses and I do like a bit of originality with it. Or twists, like villain's being able to use (and probably abuse) The Power of Friendship.

I am also quite in favor of twisting things a bit with the archetypes or falling back on the originals and adding a little spice. They are not static things, even if their molds and grooves have been set for quite some time.

 

Personally, it depends on the story. I have stories that deal with supernatural creatures that are to one extent or another, the same as their origin. Other times, I'll twist an archetype until it's pretty unrecognizable. Other times, I'll create something without any archetype in mind. Sometimes it's a combination of the three. So I'm a little all over the place. Depends on what I'm going for in the context of the work at hand.

 

I'm guessing you, like me, spend way too much time on TV Tropes.

 

I like archetypes, at least as a starting point if nothing else. Probably because I like having a skeleton to put meat on in general. As for naming them after the archetype or making my own name, it depends. In my fantasy setting I renamed many of the "standard races" because I feel like I diverted enough from the traditional template that I wouldn't want readers to have standard expectations after seeing the standard name.

For example, the dwarves are Eorg, because if you read dwarf, you tend to think "live underground, like gold & gems, long beards, master smiths, scottish accent, etc", while Eorg are none of those things. They're short and stout so it's still clear that they're dwarves once they're described, you just don't get to instantly picture them as standard fantasy dwarves and have your mental imagine contradicted later.

But in one of my supernatural horror mystery short stories, I called the blood sucking monsters vampires, even though having human shapes and drinking blood are the only things they share with Standard Vampires(tm), because in that it's kind of useful that the reader assumes the traditional vampire rules and traits, because the pov protagonist assumes them too.