Drone of character, say (3)
I believe the answer is:
bee
'drone' is the definition.
(drone is a type of bee)
'character say' is the wordplay.
'character' becomes 'b'.
'say' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'b' sounds like 'BEE'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for bee that I've seen before include "Social gathering" , "Social insect" , "Social worker possibly" , "Insect, may be in bonnet" , "Four-winged insect" .)