A Beginning….

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Welcome to my corner of the world.  Or worlds as it may be.

I am a reader, a writer, a gamer, a geek and more.

What do I write?

Mostly along the fantasy/sci fi lines, and mostly ones that touch on the darker and more macabre side without being totally grimdark.  More along the lines of nobledark.

In coming days and weeks and years I plan to start sharing some of it.  Or inflicting it on the unsuspecting depending on your point of view.

When I am not writing or reading, I tend to be gaming, of a wide variety of sorts.  Expect to see plenty of that mentioned and posted about on the blog as well.  I enjoy poking around with many different systems, to see how they work, to explore their mechanics and more.  Given I have more systems than I can play, and indeed, many that I have never played, I plan on exploring some of them, making sample characters and maybe even showing them off a bit on here.

Lets Create: AD&D 2E Character: Faolan Whisperwind: Gnome Cleric/Thief v2

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This time around in our series of AD&D 2e characters, we are going to work on a gnome cleric/thief called Faolan Whisperwind. Hang on, haven’t we already done him?

Yes, but this is going to be a little different. The first version was made using just the vanilla PHB. This time around we are going to be using various sourcebooks, like the Complete Books of Thieves, Priests and Gnomes & Halflings. We won’t be going through every book, as there are far too many for that, but we will look at how we can take the same concept of a character and make it a little different.

The very first thing we will do is select which subrace Faolan belongs to. The PHB only had vanilla gnomes, but the Complete Books introduced subraces, variants of the base race. The standard gnome, as presented in the PHB, is the Rock Gnome. There are also the svirfneblin (or deep gnomes), the tinker gnomes and the forest gnomes.

The svirfneblin live far underground, and are slightly smaller than their rock gnome cousins, being wiry and tough. They are miners who prize gems and tend not to come to the surface. The tinker gnomes are a Dragonlance race and a little bit mad, and we are going to ignore them. The last one is the forest gnome, shy and reclusive, and small even by gnome standards.

Rock gnomes have +1 INT and -1 WIS, while both svirfneblin and forest gnomes have +1 to WIS and DEX. The difference is that svirfnebin have -1 INT and -2 CHA while forest gnomes are -1 INT and -1 STR. I could go with either, as WIS and DEX are the two main stats for clerics and thieves.

From the perspective of game bonuses, svirfneblin get a lot more, but I am going with a forest gnome as I think it fits the character concept a bit better and is more likely to be encountered on the surface. They get slightly different languages to choose from, including treant and forest mammal, instead of burrowing mammal. In addition, they can Pass without Trace in any wooded terrain, so they can’t be tracked, and like halflings can Hide in Woods, becoming virtually invisible in wooded surroundings. Very handy for someone not wanting to be found. I can picture them moving through the forest, popping up to play tricks on any invaders and despoilers of the wilds. Due to their small size, they receive -4 AC when fighting against man-sized or larger enemies, which is better than what normal gnomes receive, and get +1 to hit against orcs, lizardmen, troglodytes or any creature they have observed damaging woodlands.

We are still using the same stats from last time around, which were;

STR 8, DEX 16, CON 11, INT 13, WIS 15, CHA 12.

With our new racial modifiers that ends up as;

STR 7, DEX 17, CON 11, INT 12, WIS 16, CHA 12.

Compared to the previous version, we get -1 to hit due to lower strength, +1 to missile attack and reaction and -1 to AC due to higher dexterity, 1 less NWP due to lower int, and +2 to magical defence and 2 bonus 2nd level spell due to higher wisdom.

Besides having a different subrace of gnome, we are also going to have a different type of cleric, and for that we will delve into the Complete Priest’s Handbook. There are a large number of various priesthoods, each based on a different faith, reflecting the various portfolios a deity may be in charge of; war, death, plants, oceans, magic etc. Each have different spheres of magic they can use, weapons and armour, powers and so on. A Priest of War will have better combat ability than a priest of Love, and their magic will be geared towards fighting. GMs are encouraged to tailor it for their needs. What about deities that control multiple portfolios, like a goddess of oceans, storms and magic? The priest could be a follower of one aspect of it, or, the GM could blend parts from the various portfolios together unique for that deity.

Looking through the list, there are a number Faolan could take – luck, gnomes, nature. One stands out though – trickery/mischief. A favourite of rogues, the deity delights in trickery for trickery’s sake, and the demonstration of cleverness.

To qualify Faolan needs INT and WIS of 12. He also has to have the Disguise NWP.

For weapons, he has a wider choice than normal, including bows, spears and swords. He is restricted to non-metal armours, and can’t use shields, but as a rogue as well he wouldn’t want to wear anything heavier anyway.

For his spheres, he has major access to All, Charm, Divination, Protection and Summoning, and minor to Animal, Elemental, Guardian and Plant. A little less than the basic cleric, but that is as a result of better combat abilities.

He also has access to some additional powers; Charm/Fascination (as the wizard’s suggestion spell, three times a day), Detect Secret Doors (same as an Elf), and at 8th level Shapeshifting (like the druid’s ability, three times a day, but restricted to three animals appropriate to their deity).

Notice something missing from the spell list? Yup, healing. And that is fine. 2e healing was weaker than in later additions, and clerics didn’t come synonymous with healbots until later as well. 2e clerics were more second line fighters who dealt with the undead and had support and crowd control abilities. It was better to avoid damage in the first place and patch up wounds after the fight than during it.

Now for a kit, to help flesh out the character some more. Kits in 2e could be a little all over the place. I don’t just mean that some where a lot more powerful than others. I mean in that there was no standardisation for them. Some books said they could only be for single class characters, others said they could be used by multiclass characters and some, in the racial handbooks, were designed specifically for multiclass characters. And the benefit they gave could likewise vary; some books gave out free NWPs for all kits while other required you to take NWPs but gave no free ones.

For Faolan, the choice of books to take a kit from are the Complete Thieves, Complete Priests and Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings. We can’t use Complete Thieves, as it says it is for single class only. Complete Priests does allow multiclass, but none of them are particularly fitting for the character concept. The most appropriate would be Peasant Priest, and that doesn’t quite work. The Book of Gnomes does have some multiclass kit, but not for cleric/thieves. Only for illusionist/thieves and fighter/thieves.

Looking at the priest kits, again neither work for the concept – one is a Rocktender, who lives underground and are associated with rock and stone, including only using stone weapons, and the other is the Treetender, who are hermetic druid like priests who use weapons of wood.

For thieves, there is the Mouseburgler, stealthy spy like characters but they require 13 INT, which we don’t have. The other option is the Tumbler. While it is flavoured towards an urban entertainer and acrobat, there is nothing to say that it can’t work just as well in the forests were Faolan lives, using it to play tricks and pranks on any who invade his domain.

It requires DEX 14 to take the kit, which we have. As part of the kit, they get the tumbling NWP for free. They also must take jumping, juggling and tightrope walking.

Normally with tumbling, if you win initiative and forgo your attacks you get, your enemies get -4 bonus to AC. However, due to a gnomes small size that increases to -6. And as a forest gnome, all enemies of man-size or larger (which will be most), get another -4 to hit. Meaning that, with dex and armour, Faolan is very hard to hit if he doesn’t want to be.

Against large or bigger enemies, a tumbler can try and tumble through an enemy’s legs on a successful DEX check. On the next turn, if they win initiative, they can make a backstab attack. Backstab attacks were hard to come by in 2e as once you are in a fight you can’t hide again. Being able to generate additional ones is very handy.

Tumblers also gain +10% to climb walls, with an additional +2% per level. For gnomes they are remarkably good climbers.

However, they aren’t so good at detecting noise and open locks – both of those skills are reduced to a base of 0% at creation.

With all of that out of the way, its time to make some choices.

He has 2 weapon proficiencies to choose. For his first he will take Short Bow. He can’t use anything larger, obviously, but a short bow makes a good ranged weapon for a small, nimble and well hidden character.

For the second we want a melee weapon. He could take a sword, either a longsword, which he would have to wield two handed due to his small size, or a short sword, but in the end we go with the humble dagger, for a number of reasons. It is fast, which helps win initiative (which will be useful for the roll through the legs backstab trick), can be thrown, and he is better at it than using it in melee, and, because he is a thief, he can wield one in each hand. Later on he can pick up two weapon fighting to reduce the penalties for doing so.

He starts with 4 NWPs and gains 3 more due to his INT. He also gets a bonus one, tumbling, from his kit. He has to take disguise, for his faith, and jumping, juggling and tightrope walking for his kit. That gives him three left, which he will spend on language: forest mammal, spellcraft and religion.

HPs remain the same as for the previous incarnation – 5.

Base saving throws also stay the same, but he gets a +2 to the rolls against spells that affect the mind due to his WIS and a -3 to his saving throw to attacks that can be dodged due to his DEX.

His thieving skills are a little different, as his base Detect Noise and Open Locks are reduced to 0% due to his kit, he gets +10% to Climb Walls also due to his kit and because of his dexterity he gets +5% to Pick Pockets, +10% to Open Locks, +5% to Move Silently and +5% to Hide in Shadows. The 60% he gets to spread across his skills will be split into +15% for Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Climb Walls and Detect Noise to emphasis the kind of character he is.

His final totals, taking into account the adjustments due to being a gnome, are Pick Pockets 20%, Open Locks 15%, Find/Remove Traps 15%, Move Silently 35%, Hide in Shadows 30%, Detect Noise 25%, Climb Walls 70% and Read Languages 0%.

He gets 3 1st level spells to start with, and while his spheres are a little different, he sticks with two of the choices from the other version of the character; Bless and Sanctuary. The last one is from one of the different spheres, in this case plant, from which he takes Entangle. The plan is to use it to impede the movement of enemies as they move through the wilds, enabling them to be picked off while unable to do much about it.

For his equipment, he still wears leather armour and has a holy symbol and lock picks, but changes the morningstar for 2 daggers and the sling and 20 bullets for a shortbow and 24 sheaf arrows. This costs him an extra 14 gold, 9 silver and 5 copper, leaving him 12 gold, 5 silver and 5 copper pieces left over for other expenses.

His AC is 8 due to leather armour, reduces to AC 5 due to dexterity. If they are man size or larger that reduces to AC 1, the equivalent of Full Plate. And if he goes full on dodging due to tumbling and being a small gnome, that goes down to -5 AC.

His base THACO is 20, reduced to 18 with ranged weapons due to DEX, but due to his low strength, that goes back to 19 with ranged weapons and 21 with melee weapons. With the Short Bow he is THAC0 19, Speed 7, att 2/1, doing 1d8/1d8 damage, while with the dagger he is THAC0 21 (19 thrown) Speed 2, #att 1 (2/1 thrown), doing 1d4/1d3 damage. Needless to say he is better off using the bow than getting into melee.

His final form looks like this;

Faolan Whisperwind: CL/TH 1/1; AL CG; AC 5 (Leather & dex); HP 5; THAC0 20 (19 with shortbow, 21 with dagger); #AT 2/1 (1 with dagger); DMG 1d8 (shortbow), 1d4 (dagger); Str 7, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 12.

Saves; PPDM 10, RSW 11, PP 12, BW 16, SP 12.

Weapon Proficiencies; Shortbow, Dagger

Non-weapon Proficiencies; Tumbling, Disguise, Jumping, Juggling, Tightrope Walking, Spellcraft, Religion.

Languages; Common, Gnomish, Forest Mammal.

Spells; 3 x 1st (Entangle, Sanctuary, Bless).

Special Abilities; Charm/Fascination 3/day, Detect Secret Doors, Pass Without Trace, Hide in Woods.

Thief Skills: Pick Pockets 20%, Open Locks 15%, Find/Remove Traps 15%, Move Silently 35%, Hide in Shadows 30%, Detect Noise 25%, Climb Walls 70% and Read Languages 0%.

Gear; Leather armour, 2 x dagger, shortbow and 24 sheaf arrows, holy symbol, thieves tools.

He is similar to the original Faolan, but the addition of kits, subraces and faith have given him some differences that do make him stand out a bit.

Lets Create Dark Sun Characters (AD&D 2e): Pyras the Golden – Half-elf Bard/Preserver/Psionicist

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Returning to our Dark Sun character tree, we move on to the second, and most complex, of the characters, the half-elven bard/preserver/psionicst. Already I have a picture of them, so lets try and build a character to match.

On face value, Pyras ‘the Golden’ is a typical half-elven bard, craving acceptance yet at the same time standing apart and remaining self-sufficient, and an entertainer that is accepted to be a spy and assassin.

This is just a facade, a role that he plays well to mask his true nature and calling, for he is an agent of the Veiled Alliance, and with them he has found acceptance and a purpose.

While noted for his graceful and charming performances, Pyras has hidden skills as well, with access to powers of the mind and the arcane. He favours subtle psionics and even subtler preserving magic that he can pass off as psionics should the need arise, using them to aid his subterfuge and investigations.

He knows that as a bard, people will suspect his intentions, but he counts on that to misdirect his foes. After all, if they think they know who he is and what he is doing, and if he lets them do so, then, in the surety that they are right, they won’t dig any deeper.

It is a dangerous game but one that so far he has survived.

We have the concept so lets see what we have to work with and how to build him.

  • STR 10 gives no bonuses.
  • DEX 18 gives +2 reaction, +2 missile attack and -4 defence.
  • CON 11 gives no bonuses.
  • INT 17 gives 6 NWPs, up to 8th level spells, 14 spells a level and a 75% chance of learning a spell.
  • WIS 17 gives +3 magical defence.
  • CHA 18 gives 15 henchmen, +8 loyalty bonus and +7 reaction.

Being a half-elf gives him 60′ darkvision at creation. When he hits 3rd level he gets a free survival proficiency in one type of terrain. At 5th level he gets a free pet of a local animal no larger than man sized. Not a whole lot of bonuses, but he gets the widest array of class options and highest level of advancement in them of any race that isn’t a human.

A preserver is no different from the regular wizard as in the PHB and a psionicist is as described in the Complete Psionics Handbook. It is the Athasian bard that is different than regular ones. They can still influence reactions, inspire and know a little bit of everything as per normal, but they loose the ability to cast magic. In exchange they get to use all thief abilities instead of the limited selection vanilla bards have, though they aren’t quiet as good as normal thieves. They are also masters of poisons; at each level they roll to see if they have mastered a new poison.

Athasian bards are a class of entertainers and storytellers prized by the city dwelling aristocracy. They are also known to lead double lives as blackmailers, thieves, spies and assassins. The nobles often use them as tools, sending them as gifts to other houses. Despite knowing who and what they are, it is considered rude to turn them down, and so a merry game of deceit and subterfuge begins. Consider that – your worst enemy sends a known assassin to your house and you can’t turn them away because it would be rude. After all, you have a reputation to maintain. Yeah, Dark Sun bards are a really cool concept.

As we are a multiclassed character, we start with enough XP to start at 2nd level with our most expensive class. In this case it is the preserver. That gives us enough XP to also be a 3rd level bard, but only enough for the psionicist to be 2 level. So that makes us a 3/2/2 bard/preserver/psionicist.

HP for multiclass characters can be a little tricky. For the first level we roll the dice for each class and then divide by the number of classes we have. In this case it is 1d6 for bard, 1d6 for psionicist and 1d4 for preserver, totalled up then divided by 3. After that, whenever we level up we roll the dice for the class and divide by 3, rounding down. That it the downside of a mutliclass character – you can easily roll badly and get no HP. Especially for multiclass wizards. So we roll (1d6+1d6+1d4)/3 + 1d6/3 + 1d6/3 (for 2 levels of bard) +1d6/3 (for 1 level of psionicist) + 1d4/3 (for 1 level of preserver).

We roll (6+2+2)/3 + 1/3+ 4/3 +6/3 +3/3 = 3+0+1+2+1 = 7 HP. When you consider Arkun our gladiator starts with 28 HP, you can see Pyras is a little squishy. And later, when we do our half-giant, he will look even more so.

Our next choice is kits. The rules for kits were never properly worked out. Some books (like the complete fighters) said that they were only available to single class characters, while others allowed them to be used for multiclass characters. And when it comes to Dark Sun, some races and classes had Athasian themed kits provided for them in some of the supplements, like elves, thri-kreen, gladiators and psionicists, while others got nothing as they never had books. Dwarves, especially, never received any love in Dark Sun. They were rather under-developed.

After searching around a bit, the kit picked for Pyrus comes Dragon Magazine #194, which had an article on kits in Dark Sun. It listed some from the various Complete books that were appropriate for Athas, as well as a few new ones, including a wizard kit called Veiled One. A Veiled One is a member of the Veiled Alliance, an underground movement of preservers and psionicists who oppose Defilers and the Sorcerer-Kings.

To be a Veiled One, a character is required to have WIS 13, which we do. They have a cover profession that they need to carefully maintain, in this case a bard. They receive the free NWPs of Reading/Writing, Disguise and Somatic Concealment, and are required to have at least one craft proficiency related to their cover identify. The benefits of being a Veiled One include access to safe houses and escape routes should you be compromised, as well as access to the spells and research of others wizards, allowing them to add one spell to their spellbooks each time they level. The hinderances of the kit are that they must carefully maintain their cover at the risk of being outlawed and hunted down, and that they have to honour requests for assistance made by other Veiled Ones.

So, with the kit decided, we move on to NWPs. Pyras starts with 4, due to being a wizard, and gains 6 bonus NWPs due to his high intelligence. He receives free for being a Veiled One 3 (Reading/Writing, Disguise and Somatic Concealment. As he has hit 3rd level Bard, he gains Survival as a bonus for being a half-elf. He chooses scrublands for his terrain. And for being a Bard, according to the Complete Bard’s supplement, he gets Play Instrument, Singing, Local History and Reading/Writing again. For Play Instrument, Pyras chooses the Harp and for Local History he goes with Tyr. That is a few bonus NWPs before he even starts spending his slots.

First up, because of his kit, he needs a proficiency related to his cover identity, in this case a bard. For this we go with Artistic Ability (Composition). Pyras is a crafter of songs and tunes, used to impress and inspire. He also picks up Spellcraft, an important proficiency for those involved in magic. For the rest, he chooses one that will help out his spying and bardic activities; Sign Language, Gaming, Tumbling, Etiquette, Dancing, Heraldry, Forgery and Juggling.

Next we move on to Weapon Proficiencies. Pyras has only two. He isn’t much of a combatant, and due to his role, he prefers small and easily concealed weapons. He goes with Dagger, which can double as a thrown weapon, and Ambidexterity from the Complete Fighter’s Handbook. As a Bard is part of the Rogue group, he can wield two weapons at once, in this case, two daggers. Normally he would suffer a -2/-4 penalty to his main hand and offhand, but ambidexterity means it is reduced to just -2 for both hands. Due to his high DEX, those penalties are negated so he can use two daggers without penalty, should he need to.

Now for his Bard abilities. Each level, a bard rolls 1d4 and adds his level to the number to find out wha new poison he has learned to make. On a duplicate roll he learns nothing new. Our rolls are 2, 3 and 5, meaning we know type A, B and D poisons. We missed out on the E poison, which is the best one around. All three are injected poisons with onset times of 10-30 minutes for Type A, 2-12 minutes for Type B and 1-2 minutes for type C. A combat round in 2e lasted 1 minute, to only really Type C is likely to have an impact. Damage is 15/0 for A, 20/1-2 for B and 30/2-12 for D. The first number is for a failed poison safe, the second for a successful save. A bard can make a single does of each poison he knows per day using easily obtainable materials.

Bards also know all thieving abilities, using the same starting values, but with fewer points to spend. They don’t get any at first level and only 20% per level after. As a half-elf, Pyras gets +10% to Pick Pocket and +5% to Hide in Shadows. His DEX gives +10% Pick Pockets, +15% Open Locks, + 5% Find/Remove Traps, +10% Move Silently and +10% Hide in Shadows. Wearing no armour, which he almost never does, gives +5% Pick Pockets, +10% Move Silently, +5% Hide in Shadows and +10% Climb Walls. The bonus points are split as follows; +10% Read Languages, +15% Move Silently and +15% Hide in Shadows. The final totals are’

Pick Pockets 40%, Open Locks 25%, Find/Remove Traps 10%, Move Silently 45%, Hide in Shadows 40%, Detect Noise 15%, Climb Walls 70%, Read Languages 10%.

Now his bardic abilities are sorted out, we move onto his psionic ones. At first level, we start knowing one of the 5 psionics disciplines, which is to be our primary school. At second level we get to choose a second one we can gain powers from, and later on we can add further disciplines. There are some restrictions on what powers we can take – firstly we must know twice as many devotions as sciences in any discipline, and secondly no other discipline can have as many sciences or devotions as they have in their primary discipline.

The five disciplines to choose from are telepathy (used to make direct contact between minds), clairsentience (used to gain knowledge though means other than normal senses), psychoportation (used to move characters or creatures around), pyschokinesis (used to move objects around) and psychometabolism (used to affect the body). (Technically there is a 6th, metapsionics, but it doesn’t really concern starting characters.)

Pyschometabolism especially, as well as pyschokinesis and pyschoportation, are not subtle enough for the style of character Pyrus is. Both clairsentience and telepathy work for a gatherer of knowledge that Pyrus is. In the end we go with Telepathy for his primary discipline, and take Clairsentience as his second one, mostly because telepathy allows the option of extracting secrets directly from other people’s minds.

For powers, at first level he starts with 1 science, 3 devotions, all of which must come from our primary discipline, and 1 defence mode. At second level we can add 2 more devotions, which can be taken from any of the two disciplines we know.

Our first devotion and science are pretty much mandatory – Contact (WIS) and Mindlink (WIS-5). So many other telepathic powers have these are prerequisites. Contact allows the mind of the telepath to touch that of any non-psionicist or willing psionicist mind. If they aren’t willing a psionic contest needs to take place. Mindlink allows for telepathic communication to take place between contacted minds. Our other two starting devotions are Conceal Thoughts (WIS), which prevents the reading or detection of thoughts through magic or psionics unless a psychic contest is won, and ESP (WIS-4), which allows the reading of surface or active thoughts of a contacted person.

For the first of the next 2 devotions, we are going with another Telepathy power, and this one a Telepathic Attack. While all psionicists start with 1 defence mode, chosen from a list of 5, they need access to the Telepathy discipline to choose any of the 5 attack modes. The only way to break through an unwilling psionicists defences to establish contact is through a psionic contest, which requires the attacker to make 5 successful attacks. So if Pyrus runs up against another psionicist, he needs at least 1 attack mode to use most of his powers.

The one we go with is Ego Whip (WIS -3). Not only can it be used against psionicists, but against any contacted individual it hits, for 1d4 rounds they suffer -5 (or -25%) to all dice rolls, such as attacks or saves, and they cannot cast any spells above 3rd level.

For the last of our devotions, we go looking at the Clairsentience discipline, and from The Will and the Way sourcebook released for Dark Sun. The devotion we go with is Sensitivity to Observation (WIS). This is a power that is always on, unless otherwise chosen, and alerts the user to when they are being watched, even by means such as clairvoyance or clairsentience. Very useful for a sneaky character.

For his defence mode we go with Mind Blank. While in some way the weakest of the defence modes, it has no cost and is considered to always be on, even when sleeping.

Now to calculate PSPs used to power his abilities. With WIS 17, he starts with 24. INT 17 gives a bonus +2, but CON 11 gives nothing. At 2nd level, he gains 10 + 2 from his WIS, or 12. So in total he has 38 PSPs.

On to his wizard spells. A starting character has read magic, detect magic and 4 other 1st level spells. Due to our kit, we get one more 1st level spell when we reach level 2, so we have 5 1st level spells to choose from. Given our character description, any spells we do take will have to be subtle, so illusionary and enchantment style spells work best. In the end we choose Change Self (to help with disguises), Audible Glamour (to create fake distracting sounds in the distance), Charm Person (when we really have to get a person to like us), Message (when we need to send a message to someone without telepathic powers) and Hypnotism (to make suggestions to people to do what we want.) At any time he has 2 memorised, usually Change Self and Charm Person, though it can vary depending on the job.

As for a spell book, what he has is a song book, where he composes tunes in – and disguises his spells using Artistic Ability (Composition) to look like tunes.

His saving throws are as follows; Paralyzation, Poison or Death Magic (PPDM) 10, Rods, Staffs or Wands (RSW) 11, Petrification or Polymorph (PP) 12, Breath Weapons (BW) 15, Spells (SP) 12. We do have some bonuses to those rolls. We get +3 against illusions and spells that attack the mind due to our high WIS and +4 to attacks that can be dodged, like lightning bolts, due to our high DEX.

For money, he chooses the best option from his three classes, in this case 3d4 x 30 ceramics for a psionicist. The rolls are 2, 3, 4 for a total of 270 ceramics. And he is going to need them.

For started he needs a lyre, which in the Complete Bard’s book comes out to 75 ceramics. A set of thieves picks is another 30 ceramics. For clothing purposes, he selects a set of plain clothes, which comes out to 5 ceramics and 6 bits when totalled up, used for when he doesn’t wish to stand out. He also needs a flashy set, for when entertaining among the nobles, and so buys another set, paying 5 times the price to make it really good, which comes out at 28 ceramics. For weapons, he goes with a pair of bone daggers, each at 60 ceramics. All up he has spent almost all his money, leaving just 11 ceramics and 4 bits for anything else he should need. Luckily he is good at being a bard, meaning he can earn a living from it.

For his alignment, there is only one option available to us. We have to be good aligned to fit in the character tree, and a bard needs to be at least part neutral, so we are neutral good.

He wears no armour, as it would be a little obvious, but due to his DEX he is AC 6. Still, combined with his low HP, he really doesn’t want to get into melee.

His base THAC0 is 19, due to being a 3rd level bard.

Wielding the dagger he is THAC0 20 (-1 due to being made of bone), speed 2, doing 1d4-1/1d3-1 damage. He can wield 1 in each hand without penalty, attacking twice a round.

Throwing the dagger he is THACO 17 (+2 due to DEX), speed 2, doing 1d4-1/1d3-1 damage, and he can throw 2 a round.

On top of that he can coat the dagger with the poisons he knows.

And now for the physical characteristics. A half-elf starts at 15+2d4 years old and can reach 90+2d20 years old. They are 70+2d6 inches tall and weigh 120+3d12 pounds in weight. For his age we roll 2 & 3, making him 20 years old, and 2 & 19 for maximum age, meaning he could live to 111 years of age. For his height we roll 4 & 6, making him 80 inches (6′ 8″) tall and 8, 10, 11 for weight, making him 149 pounds in weight. For a half-elf, he is rather tall, as tall as some elves, and almost stocky. He certainly cuts a noticeable figure.

Pyrus the Gold; Bd/Pre/Psi 3/2/2; Kit: Veiled One; AL NG; AC 6; MV 12; HP 7; THAC0 19 (20 with dagger, 17 with thrown dagger; #ATT 1 + 1 (offhand attack), 2/1 (thrown dagger); DMG 1d4-1; STR 10, DEX 18, CON 11, INT 17, WIS 17, CHA 18.

Psionic Summary; PSPs 38; Disciplines: Telepathy, Clairsentiance; Defence Mode: Mind Blank (WIS -7, Cost 0, Maintenance 0); Sciences: Mindlink (PS WIS -5, Cost Contact, Maintain 8/rd); Devotions: Contact (PS WIS, Cost varies, Maintain 1/rd), Conceal Thoughts (PS WIS, Cost 5, Maintain 3/rd), Ego Whip (PS WIS -3, Cost 4, Maintain NA), ESP (PS WIS -4, Cost Contact, Maintain 6/rd), Sensitivity to Observation (PS WIS, Cost 5, Maintain NA).

Spell Book; Read Magic, Detect Magic, Change Self, Audible Glamour, Charm Person, Message, Hypnotism. Memorised; 2 x 1st.

Poisons: A, B & D.

Thieving Abilities; PP 40%, OL 25%, F/RT10%, MS 45%, HS 40%, DN 15%, CW 70%, RL 10%.

Saves; PPDM 10, RSW 11, PP 12, BW 15, SP 12.

Weapon Proficiencies; Dagger

Weapon Specialisation; Ambidexterity.

Non-weapon Proficiencies; Reading/Writing (18), Disguise (17), Somatic Concealment (17), Local History (18), Singing (18), Musical Instrument – Lyre (17), Survival – Scrub Plains (17), Artistic Ability – Composition (17), Spellcraft (15), Sign Language (18), Gaming (18), Tumbling (18), Etiquette (18), Dancing (18), Heraldry (17), Forgery (17) and Juggling (17).

Languages; Common.

Gear; Bone dagger x2, clothes (breeches, belt, tunic, cloak, hat, soft boots), expensive clothes (breeches, belt, tunic, cloak, hat, soft boots), thieves tools, lyre, 11 ceramics, 6 bits.

Cyberpunk Red Homebrew: Australia in the Time of the Red

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I have been playing Cyberpunk for many, many years now, and as an Australian always had my games set in Australia. Cyberpunk 2020 had the Pacific Rim sourcebook that covered the situation in Australia at that period of time, but with Cyberpunk Red, the timeline has shifted forward a quarter of a century. Apart from a couple of very minor mentions, what has happened to Australia in the intervening time remains unknown.

So I have homebrewed up a version of Australia in the Time of the Red.

Economically depressed, politically unstable, with high levels of unemployment and poverty, Corps trying to muscle back in and a half built city that acts as a focal point for smuggling and piracy – government sanctioned as well.

These are just early notes. It still needs a bit more fleshing out and expanding on.

Lets Create: AD&D 2E Character: Faolan Whisperwind: Gnome Cleric/Thief

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Before we return to creating our Dark Sun characters, I want to go back to vanilla AD&D 2e and have a look at it, and one of the most interesting multiclass choices available – the gnome cleric/thief.

For those who haven’t experienced 2e, not all classes were available to all races. The humans could be any class, and the half-elves anything but paladins, but the others had limitations, such as dwarves only being able to be fighters, clerics and thieves. On top of that, there were level limitations for demihumans as well, preventing them advancing far in the classes they did have access to. There were a number of reasons why this was put in place, and it was one of the most houseruled parts of the game.

Another difference between humans and demihumans was that demihumans could multiclass – the ability to be leveling in 2 (or 3 in the case of elves and half-elves) classes at a time. There were also limitations as to what classes could be combined. Only gnomes could be cleric/thieves for example. The classic gnome multiclass combo was the illusionist/thief, but the cleric/thief deserves a look at, if not for the fact that it is the fastest leveling of all the multiclass combos. On top of that, the gnomish gods are generally of the trickster and mischief maker types, so cleric/thief that follows in that vein is pretty thematic.

We are actually going to be looking at two variants of the character, starting with plain vanilla PHB only.

So what do we need to be a gnome cleric/thief. For cleric we need 9 WIS and for thief we need 9 DEX. A gnome needs a minimum of 6 STR, 8 CON and 6 INT, and has a racial modifier of +1 INT and -1 WIS. The last one hurts a little being a cleric but it cant be helped. All in all, not too difficult – we should be able to manage that with our rolls.

For this we are going with probably the most popular method of dice rolling for 2e – 4d6 drop the lowest. The average for 4d6dl is around 12.24, which means we should be able to roll up 2 9s, 2 6s and an 8, and hopefully higher, but it doesn’t eliminate bad rolls due to the small number of dice involved. So lets kick off and see what we get.

Roll 1; 6, 5, 5, 5 = 16

Roll 2; 2, 3, 1, 3 = 8

Roll 3; 3, 6, 2, 2 = 11

Roll 4; 6, 4, 3, 2 = 13

Roll 5; 4, 3, 5, 1 = 12

Roll 6; 6, 4, 5, 4 = 15

Getting a 16 is good while the 8, though not the best, could have been worse. We assigned them as follows;

STR 8, DEX 16, CON 11, INT 13, WIS 15, CHA 12. With racial modifiers that ends up as STR 8, DEX 16, CON 11, INT 14, WIS 14, CHA 12.

We do get a few bonuses from those stats; +1 reaction, +1 missile attack, -2 defense from DEX, 4 bonus NWPs from INT and 2 bonus 1st level spells from WIS.

Gnomes have a number of benefits. One of the languages they can learn is burrowing mammal. Basically they can speak with moles, badgers, weasels etc. It may not get much use but why wouldn’t you take it? They are also highly resistant to magic, getting a bonus to saves vs spells, rods, staves and wands based on their CON, the same as dwarves do. The down side is that they suffer a 20% failure chance any time they use a magic item except for weapons, armour, shields, illusionist items and items that duplicate thieving abilities if they are a thief. They have 60′ infravision, get +1 to hit against kobolds and goblins and when large monsters like giants, trolls, ogres and the like attack them, they suffer a -4 to hit. Also being exceptional miners, they can detect distance, direction and slope underground, as well as how safe walls and ceilings are, though I haven’t seen it used much at all.

A first level cleric gets 1d8 HP and a first level thief gets 1d6. We roll a 5 for cleric and a 5 for thief, for a total of 10. Divided by 2 equals 5 HPs.

Taking the best saving throws per class we get PPDM 10; RSW 14; PP 12; BW 16; SP 15. Due to his CON, he subtracts 3 from the RSW and SP saves for PPDM 10; RSW 11; PP 12; BW 16; SP 12. In addition, if it can be dodged, like a lightning bolt, he also reduced the save by a further -2.

For proficiencies he receives 2 WP and 4 NWPs, with a bonus 4 due to his INT.

One of the conditions of being multiclasses is that he must abide by the weapon restrictions of a cleric, which is they must be blunt only. He takes sling and morningstar, giving him one ranged and one melee weapon. As he is a small creature, he must wield the morningstar 2 handed.

For his NWPs, he can select from the general, priest and rogue groups. He chooses Read/Write (INT +1), Language (borrowing mammal) (INT), Religion (WIS), Spellcraft (INT -2), Tumbling (DEX), Juggling (DEX -1), Ventriloquism (INT -2) and Rope Use (DEX). Its a mix of practical and fun as befits a gnomish cleric/thief who is probably a bit of a trickster and mischief maker.

A 1st level Cleric starts with 1 1st level spell, but due to his WIS he gets 2 bonus ones. The three that he starts with are Bless, Cure Light Wounds and Sanctuary, though that can change as needed.

Next the thieving skills. In 2e they worked a little different than later editions. They were a percentile check where you had to roll under the points you had assigned in them. At creation you had a base score, modified by race, dexterity and armour, and at each level you got 60 discretionary percentage points to assign, with no more than 30 per skill.

As a gnome we get +5% to open locks, +10% to find/remove traps, +5% to move silently, +5% to hide in shadows, +10% to detect noise and -15% to climb walls. Our DEX also gives us +5% to open locks. As long as he is wearing leather armour he suffers no penalties, but going up to studded leather or padded incurs fairly hefty ones, so he will stick at leather. One option is to wear no armour and get bonuses, though that is risky.

We go with putting +15% into Detect Noise, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows and +5% into Read Languages, Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps. Our final totals are;

Pick Pockets 15%, Open Locks 25%, Find/Remove Traps 20%, Move Silently 30%, Hide in Shadows 25%, Detect Noise 40%, Climb Walls 45% and Read Languages 5%.

For gear, we start with 3d6x10 gp as a priest. Our roll gives us 110gp, with which we purchase leather armour (5gp), a morningstar (10gp), a sling (5cp) and 20 sling bullets (2sp). We also get a set of thieves picks (30g), and a holy symbol (25gp). The remaining 37 gold, 5 silver will be spent on gear and clothing, and maybe even a mule to ride.

Leather armour gives him AC of 8, reduced to AC 6 with his dexterity.

His base THAC0 is 20, reduced to 19 with ranged weapons. With the morningstar he is THAC0 20, speed 7 doing 2d4/1d6+1 damage. With the sling he is THAC0 19, speed 6 doing 1d4+1/1d6+1 damage.

And lastly age, height and weight. Faolan is 60+3d12 years old (77), living to 200+3d100 (340). He is 38+1d6 inches tall (44) and weighs 72 +5d4 pounds (87).

So there you have him, a fairly rounded character. Can fight a bit (though preferably from range as they are a little squishy), cam cast a few spells, do a bit of sneaking and has some interesting proficiencies to use.

Faolan Whisperwind: CL/TH 1/1; AL CG; AC 6 (Leather & dex); HP 5; THAC0 20 (19 with sling); #AT 1; DMG 2d4 (morningstar), 1d4+1 (sling); Str 8, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12.

Saves; PPDM 10, RSW 11, PP 12, BW 16, SP 12.

Weapon Proficiencies; Morningstar, Sling

Non-weapon Proficiencies; Read/Write, Religion, Spellcraft, Tumbling, Juggling, Ventriloquism, Rope Use.

Languages; Common, Gnomish, Burrowing Mammal.

Spells; 3 x 1st (Cure Light Wounds, Sanctuary, Bless).

Thief Skills: Pick Pockets 15%, Open Locks 25%, Find/Remove Traps 20%, Move Silently 30%, Hide in Shadows 25%, Detect Noise 40%, Climb Walls 45% and Read Languages 5%.

Gear; Leather armour, morningstar, sling and 20 sling bullets, holy symbol, thieves tools.

Lets Create Dark Sun Characters (AD&D 2e): Arkun the Bronze – Mul Gladiator

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For the first of our 2ed Dark Sun characters in our chraracter tree, we are going to start with the Mul Gladiator, which is really the simplest of the lot. Firstly we will look at what we have to work with.

The stats they rolled are 20 STR, 16 DEX, 19 CON, 9 INT, 16 WIS and 8 CHA.

20 STR gives +3 to hit and +8 damage.

16 DEX gives +1 reaction and missile attack and -2 AC.

19 CON gives +5 HP a level, +1 poison save and 1 hp/turn regeneration. A turn is one hour, so it is slow but every little bit helps.

9 INT gives +2 proficiencies.

16 WIS gives +2 magical defence against attacks that target the mind.

8 CHA gives 3 henchmen and a -1 loyalty bonus.

Being a mul allows the character to choose if they are human (with unlimited advancement and dual classing) or demihuman (with class limits and multiclassing.) Given gladiators can’t multiclass there is no reason not to go with human, though about the only thing he could qualify for to dual lass in is cleric.

They also only require 8 hours sleep to be fully rested, no matter the amount of exertion they had experienced. And on top of that, they can work much longer than anyone before they need to rest. For heavy labour (such as running, quarrying etc) it is 24+CON hours. In our case 43 hours. So Arkun can run for 43 hours straight before needing any rest, sleep for 8 hours and be ready to go all over again.

Medium labour (jogging, light construction etc) is 36+CON hours. Light labour (combat training, walking encumbered) is 48+CON hours. Normal activity (talking, walking) is CON days. Yup, Arkun can walk for 19 days straight without rest. There is a reason why muls are such valued slaves.

Gladiators do one thing very well – fight. They are automatically proficient in every weapon, even ones they have never seen before and can specialise in multiple weapons. The only other class that can specialise in weapons is the fighter, and they can only choose one. They are experts at unarmed combat, gaining a 4 point modifier to punching and wrestling attack roles. At 5th level they can optimise their armour, reducing AC by 1 point for every 5 levels.

As normal, we start out at 3rd level as we are a single class. We get 1d10+5 HP per level due to our high CON, for a total of 3d10+15. Our rolls are 2, 3 & 8, which is a little below average. Combined with CON it gives us 28 HP, which is reasonable without being great.

For the purpose of building these characters, we will be using a range of options, not just the core rules. This will include the fighters and gladiator handbooks, The Will and the Way sourcebook and more, as needed.

Firstly we are going to work out his psionic wild talent, using The Will and the Way. This has an expanded list of powers and a new wild talent table to roll on. We roll a 1d100, coming up with 95. This means we can get a science, a usually more powerful ability. The second roll on the science table comes up as 37 – choose a psychokinetic science. There are 8 on it, including the extremely powerful disintegrate, though it has a nasty habit of blowing up the user as well. Instead I choose telekinetic flight, which allows Arkun to be able to fly for a short time, a useful ability, especially in combat. It requires a WIS -4 roll (12 in his case.) It also has two prerequisites which he gains as well, telekinesis (WIS -3) and levitate (WIS -3). He doesn’t have full control over them but they are useful to have. On top of that, with three powers he has a sizeable pool of PSPs to power them – 64 in his case.

The next choice is a kit. Kits in 2e added a little bit of colour to classes, coming with a few bonuses in the form of proficiencies and abilities, and usually with some disadvantages too. Instead of just having three fighters in a party, you might have one as a swashbuckler, another as an outlaw and a third as a berserker, meaning they all play a little bit different.

There are a few Dark Sun specific kits, though they only cover a couple of races and classes. It was something I always felt could have been expanded on. There are lists of what kits can and can’t be used from the various Complete books due to whether they are appropriate to Athas or not.

After looking through the Gladiator’s handbook, there aren’t any kits in there that really jump out as fitting the character so I turn to the Complete Fighter’s Handbook. Despite the name, it isn’t just for fighters but for all warrior classes. This was the first Complete Handbook that was released and while later handbooks were specialised for individual classes, this one wasn’t. Though Gladiators aren’t mentioned, as it predates Dark Sun, they are warriors and so qualify for the kits in there.

One in particular sounds really promising – Wilderness Warrior. They are heroes that come from tribes that live on the edge of society, in harsh lands like deserts. Which is Athas in general. For the backstory, I have Arkun come from a tribe of nomadic herders that live in the rocky badlands regions of Athas, forever on the move trying to find food and water for their flocks. It is a perilous existence, forever in danger and one that breeds a tough type to survive it. He will also have a different set of beliefs and values to those who come from places like the cities.

The kit comes with some bonuses. They get 2 free NWPs; Endurance (CON) and Survival (INT) in their home terrain (rocky badlands). Endurance allows a character to perform continual strenuous activity for twice as long as normal. Meaning Arkun can work for a long, long time. Survival allows him to find food, water and shelter and know the hazards of the type of terrain it applies for, enough at least to survive, though not exactly thrive. There are also recommended NWPs, relating to their land of birth. For weapons, they can choose any they want, but the DM could insist they choose culturally appropriate ones, but a gladiator is proficient in all weapons to start with anyway. They may only spend their starting money on items appropriate to their culture, as determined by the DM. As a special benefit, they get a +5 bonus to survival checks, but only in their home terrain. If they pick up other survival terrains later, it doesn’t apply to them. The only special hindrance they have is a roleplaying one, in that in their early years they are occasionally hindered by a lack of familiarity of society out in the wider world.

So with that done we can work out the rest of our NWPs. A gladiator starts with 3 and he gets 1 more at 3rd level, plus 2 due to his intelligence, for a total of 6.

The first one I choose is Animal Handling (WIS -1) to represent his background, allowing him control over pack animals and beasts of burden. Of much use in the arena? Probably not but I want to actual be faithful to the kit chosen for the character. The next two NWPs chosen also tie into his background, as well as being useful – Heat Protection (INT -2) and Water Find (INT), from the Dark Sun Campaign Setting book. Given his low INT, Arkun isn’t exactly good at them, but again they are the kind of skills he would have learned in a nomadic tribe out in the wilderness. Heat Protection means with a succesful check they only need to consume half as much water to avoid dehydration and can also wear metal armour longer. Water Find means they can find enough water to sustain themselves for the day they can’t rehydrate but at least don’t dehydrate.. Unlike Survival it can be used anywhere, though it is water only, not food and shelter.

The last three NWPs go to ones of use for the arena – Tumbling (DEX), Dirty Tricks (WIS -2) and Taunting (WIS). Tumbling is a rogue skill and so would normally cost 2 slots, but in the Gladiator’s handbook it states that a gladiator can learn it for 1. It gives the user +4 AC rather than +2 when going fully defensive and also +2 to hit with unarmed attacks. The other two both come from the Gladiator’s handbook. Dirty Tricks covers things like kicking sand into the enemies eyes, giving a small bonus to the character or penalty to the enemy for a round, though can only be used once or twice against a foe. If the character makes a successful taunt roll, and the enemy fails a saving throw, the enemy becomes enraged, losing some AC and to hit, though doing a bit more damage. NPCs with 14 WIS or higher are immune. An interesting combo would be taunting the foe then going full defensive with tumbling to really make it hard to be hit while friends take them out.

Next we move onto the weapon proficiencies. A gladiator starts with 4 and gets another at 3rd level, for a total of 5. Given they are already proficient in all weapons, what they spend them on is specialisations. It still costs them two slots to specialise though, just like a regular fighter.

Dark Sun is filled with an array of interesting new weapons. There are some in the Setting Handbook but more appeared in the Gladiator’s Handbook and Dragon magazine, and these later actually had a difference to regular weapons – they got bonuses for use when someone was proficient or specialised in them. There is nothing to say we couldn’t go for normal weapons, but it is more fun and thematic to use them.

First up we go to the Complete Fighter’s Handbook for fighting styles. The first WP is spent on Ambidexterity, allowing us to use either hand equally well if something happens to our main hand, as well as reducing our offhand penalty by -2. In 2e, when fighting with two weapons you get a bonus attack with your offhand but suffer a -2 to hit with your main hand and -4 with your off hand and have to be holding a smaller weapon in your offhand. Ambidexterity reduces the penalty to -2 in the offhand. If we chose two weapon fighting specialisation it reduces both penalties to 0 and allows equal sized weapons in both hands. But we aren’t choosing that as we have another option in mind.

We spend two more on specialising in the alhulak, a Dark Sun weapon that looks like a grappling hook, usually carved out of bone, on a short rope. There is a related weapon, the cahulak, which is two alhulaks on a longer rope, and which features in a well known picture of Rikus the mul gladiator. Playing a mul gladiator with cahualks is probably a little plagiaristic though. Merely being proficient with the alhulak enables us to use a medium sized weapon in the other hand at -2 to hit and a small weapon with no penalties. In effect we get the benefit of two weapon fighting for free, but only with the alhualk. A specialist can also ensnare the enemy as if grappling. A hit does reduced damage but automatically grapples them, allowing the wielder to keep them off balance. Which will then make it easier to keep hitting them.

The remaining two WP slots are spent specialising in two-headed spear. From the Gladiator’s Handbook, it is basically a spear with a blade on each end and is counted as a medium weapon, so we can use it with the alhulak. It gets a -2 penalty, but remember our ambidexterity bonus? Yep, we get to cancel that out. It also comes with some interesting special abilities. The proficiency bonus of the weapon allows us to twirl the blades, using both ends in combat against a single opponent. This confuses intelligent foes who have never seen it before, giving them a -1 penalty to hit and damage for 2 rounds. Fun little bonus but is dependent on the whims of the DM – and doesn’t work against non-intelligent foes. The specialised bonus is a little more powerful, as can be expected. It can be used to attack two different opponents at the same time at -1 to damage. This is a extra attack in addition to attacks normally added from specialisation, as long as the targets are no more than a pace apart.

So if he is facing off against two foes before him, Arkun can make up to 7 attacks over two rounds. He gets the regular 3 per 2 attacks with his alhulak in his main hand and his regular offhand attack with the spear which can be split into 2 attacks. And we can swap out the regular alhulak attacks to try and entangle.

His saving throws are as follows; Paralyzation, Poison or Death Magic (PPDM) 13, Rods, Staffs or Wands (RSW) 15, Petrification or Polymorp (PP) 14, Breath Weapons (BW) 16, Spells (SP) 16. We do have some bonuses to those rolls. We get +1 against poisons due to our high CON, +2 against illusions and spells that attack the mind due to our high WIS and +2 to attacks that can be dodged, like lightning bolts, due to our high DEX.

A starting warrior in Dark Sun receives 5d4x30 ceramic pieces to purchase gear with. We roll 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 for a total of 14. Times 30 that comes to 420 cps to spend. We spend 120cp on a set of scale armour, 9 cp on a alhulak and 2 cp on a two-headed spear. Both of those are allowed to be made at 1% cost due to not requiring metal – it doesn’t say what they are made of so we decide on bone. 4 bone tipped javelins for 2 cp are added as well to give him some ranged options. We spend 5 cp on clothes (breeches, belt, tunic, cloak, hat and two pairs of sandals). We also buy some miscellaneous gear – a backpack (2cp), waterskin (8 bits), a fire kit (2 bits), 50′ of rope (1 cp), 1 weeks iron rations (5cp) and a small tent (5 cp). That is just 152 out of our 420 ceramics. We give the two-headed spear bronze blades, costing us 200 ceramics, taking the total to 350 ceramics. That gives us 70 left over which we will save for later, for food and drink and lodging and bribes as needed.

Scale armour is AC 6. With his DEX he is AC 4.

His base THAC0 is 18, dropping to 15 with STR.

Wielding the alhulak, he is THAC0 15 (+1 due to specialisation, -1 due to being made of bone), speed 5 doing 1d6 + 9 damage (+8 STR, +2 specialisation, -1 bone) and can made 3 attacks per 2 rounds if in his main hand.

Wielding the two-headed spear, he is THAC0 14 (+1 due to specialisation), speed 6, doing 1d8+10 damage (+8 STR, +2 specialisation) and can make 3 attacks per 2 rounds if in his main hand.

Throwing the javelins, he is THACO 14 (+1 due to DEX), speed 4, doing 1d4+7 damage (+8 STR, -1 bone) and can throw 1 a round.

As for alignment, the options are fairly limited. As part of the character tree, all characters must be either good, neutral or evil. Given that a ranger, which we have in the tree, must be good, all characters have to be good. Coming from a nomadic background, living away from the cities, Arkun strikes me as a chaotic good type.

Lastly we work out the physical details of the character – age, weight and height. A mul starts at 15 + 1d6 years old and can reach 80 +1d10 years old. They are 66 + 2d6 inches tall and weigh 220 + 5d10 pounds in weight. For his age we roll 4, making him 19, and 8 for maximum age, meaning he might live to 88. For his height, we roll 2 and 5, making him 73 inches (6 foot 1) tall and 1, 3, 5, 5, 8 for weight, making him 242 pounds in weight. In this regards he is about as average as they come.

Arkun is something of an oddity for a mul, born not as a slave but free. His mother belonged to a small tribe of nomadic herdsmen who tended their herd of erdlu through the canyons of the rocky badlands. His father was a dwarf cleric of earth who wandered the same region, aiding those who lived in the badlands. It was during such wanderings that his parent met, and he was the result of that. Though his birth was difficult, with the aid of his father his mother lived.

He grew up among the tribe, learning the handling of the erdlu and how to survive the harsh lands in which he lived. As he reached adulthood, he felt the need to leave the tribe behind for a time, to make his way in the world. As he left, his father gifted him with a bronze bladed double-headed spear. Heading to Tyr, he found the city strange and found that his strength and fighting ability were valued as a gladiator.

Arkun the Bronze; Glad 3; Kit: Wilderness Warrior; AL CG; AC 4 (Scale & dex); MV 12; HP 28; THAC0 18 (15 with alhulak, 14 with two-headed spear and javelin); #ATT 3/2 (alhulak or two-headed spear) + 1 (offhand attack), 1 (javelin); DMG 1d6+9 (alhulak), 1d8+10 (two-headed spear), 1d4+7 (javelin); STR 20, DEX 16, CON 18, INT 9, WIS 16, CHA 8.

Psionic Summary; PSPs 64; Wild Talent – Telekinetic Flight (PS WIS -4, Cost 15, Maintain 4/rd), Telekinesis (PS WIS -3, Cost 3, Maintain 1/rd), Levitate (PS WIS -3, Cost 12, Maintain 2/rd)

Saves; PPDM 13, RSW 15, PP 14, BW 16, SP 16.

Weapon Proficiencies; All.

Weapon Specialisation; Ambidexterity, alhulak, two-headed spear.

Non-weapon Proficiencies; Endurance (19), Survival: Rocky Badlands (14), Animal Handling (15), Heat Protection (7), Water Find (9), Tumbling (16), Dirty Tricks (14), Taunting (16).

Languages; Common.

Gear; Scale armour, bone alhulak, bronze two-headed spear, 4 bone javelins, clothes (breeches, belt, tunic, cloak, hat, two pairs of sandals) backpack, waterskin, 1 weeks iron rations, 50′ rope, small tent, firekit, 70 ceramics.

Lets Create: Dark Sun Characters (AD&D 2e): Planning the Character Tree Part Two

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In the previous entry on creating Dark Sun characters and a character tree, we discussed how it worked and rolled up four sets of stats to use to actually create the characters.

Now the time has come to actually create them.

Our very first choice is about as iconic as you can get for Dark Sun – a mul gladiator. You almost kind of have to have a mul gladiator at some stage.

Each race and class has various ability requirements that have to be met For a mul, we need the following before racial adjustments; STR 10, CON 8. For a gladiator it is STR 13, DEX 12, CON 15. So for this character we need STR 13, DEX 12, CON 15 and the rest can be anything.

The stat array we are going with is 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4.

We could go a couple of ways – one purely stated towards combat, putting everything in strength, dexterity and constitution, or one a little bit more rounded out. In the end I choose the later, assigning the dice as follows;

STR 4, 4

DEX 3, 3

CON 4, 3, 1

WIS 3, 2, 1

This gives a base of STR 18, DEX 16, CON 18, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 10. When factoring in racial modifiers (+2 STR, +1 CON, -1 INT, -2 CHA) we get;

STR 20, DEX 16, CON 19, INT 9, WIS 16, CHA 8.

He may not be all that smart and is a little bit crude, but he is cunning and very athletic. There are a number of very useful proficiencies that key off wisdom for him.

That is our fighting expert out of the way. Next we will go with one who is more adept with people and in the cities, and for this I am taking full advantage of the many multiclass opportunities available in Dark Sun – a half elf bard/preserver/psionicist.

For a half elf we need a minimum of 8 DEX, a preserver needs 9 INT, a psionicist need 11 CON, 12 INT, 15 WIS and a bard needs 12 DEX, 13 INT and 15 CHA. So we need a minimum 12 DEX, 13 INT, 15 WIS and 15 CHA.

Obviously charisma is very important to the character concept. Intelligence is needed for the preserver but also for the psionicist. Psionicists powers are keyed off one of three stats – CON, INT or WIS. We will concentrate on the WIS and INT powers and mostly ignore the CON ones, as they are more combative ones.

Our stat array for this one is 1, 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 which we assign as follows.

DEX 4, 3

CON 1, 1

INT 4, 3

WIS 4, 3

CHA 4, 4

This gives a base of STR 10, DEX 17, CON 12, INT 17, WIS 17, CHA 18. With racial modifiers (+1 DEX, -1 CON) , that turns out as;

STR 10, DEX 18, CON 11, INT 17, WIS 17, CHA 18.

Not a very physical character, but quick, sharp and very likeable.

This character covers a range of options anything to do with people, cities and magic. Now we turn to a character who can do well in the wilds, and that means a thri-kreen. Specifically a thri-kreen ranger/druid. Okay, that might be a bit of a controversial choice for some who say that isn’t a valid option. Druids need to be neutral and rangers need to be good aligned but I have always read it that they can be any kind of neutral and not true neutral as the rules don’t actually specify that. So neutral-good is an allowed choice. Besides a ranger/druid is thematically very appropriate. That’s my view at least and how I’ve always run it.

The requirements for a thri-kreen ranger/druid are fairly steep. A thri-kreen needs 8 STR and 15 DEX, but can only have a maximum of 17 CHA. A ranger needs 13 STR, 13 DEX, 14 CON and 14 WIS. A druid needs WIS 12 and CHA 15. Why such a high charisma is needed for a druid I do not know. But it makes having a thri-kreen druid tough. They have to roll a 17 for CHA, because that is the most they can have before their racial modifier of -2, which means the actual highest CHA they can have is 15, not 17. And 15 is the minimum required for a druid.

Our stat array is 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 which we assign as follows;

STR 4, 2

DEX 4, 1

CON 4, 1

WIS 3, 3

CHA 4, 3

This gives a base of STR 16, DEX 15, CON 15, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 17. With racial modifiers (+2 DEX, +1 WIS, -1 INT, -2 CHA) , it turns out as;

STR 16, DEX 17, CON 15, INT 9, WIS 17, CHA 15.

Not exactly smart, but well rounded otherwise. They can do the whole wilderness exploration and survival thing, as well as handling priestly magic and being able to fight fairly well on top of that.

On to the last character and given we have covered most of the different areas you might run into, so this one is a bit more of fun, while still being useful. We don’t yet have a half-giant, so we are going to take one. Rather than the obvious, a half-giant gladiator or fighter, we are going a multiclass psionicist. The other choices for multiclass for a half-giant are fighter, ranger or cleric. While the idea of a half-giant ranger is tempting, having them sneak around dual wielding two handed swords, we are going to stick with a fighter/psionicist, mostly focusing on the CON based psionics powers to boost their combat potential.

A half-giant requires a minimum of 17 STR and 15 CON before modifiers, but can’t have more than 15 DEX and INT and 17 WIS and CHA. Before modifiers. A fighter needs just 9 STR and a psionicist needs 11 CON, 12 INT and 15 WIS. So we need 17 STR, 15 CON, 12 INT and 15 WIS.

Our stat array is 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 which we assign as follows;

STR 4, 4

DEX 2, 2

CON 4, 4

INT 4, 1

WIS 4, 3

This gives base stats of STR 18, DEX 14, CON 18, INT 15, WIS 17, CHA 10. With racial modifiers (+4 STR, +2 CON, -2 INT, -2 WIS, -2 CHA), that gives us;

STR 22, DEX 14, CON 20, INT 13, WIS 15, CHA 8.

While fairly average intellectually compared to other races, for a half-giant he is a genius, as wise and smart as they come. On top of that he is still physically imposing.

So that is how they have turned out stat wise. Next time we will start the builds proper.

Lets Build a World: Part Eighteen: Government Form and Social Alignment

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In the small part of the world we are concentrating on, we have worked out the cultural archetypes, racial makeup and technology of the realms we are working with, resulting in an interesting mix, ranging from the more advanced socially and technologically tabaxi to the rather more backward giants.

Our next step on the path of building the world is to look at how the realms are ruled. Each culture can have a number of realms in it, each with differing forms of government. For this region we have five thri-kreen realms at the heart of it. Studying the maps, I have decided that there is room on it for 1 giant, 1 tabaxi and 2 human realms as well.

We start with the giants to the east, rolling a 1d100 on the Government Form table. The dice come up with a Dictatorship – a supreme ruler holds absolute power, but not necessarily dynastic. For their social alignment we roll another 1d100 and get chaotic evil.

From what we previously knew of the giants, this all fits together. The nation is ruled by the principle of ‘might makes right’, with local strongman bosses and their warbands obeying those above them out of fear, and at the top being the most dangerous of the lot. They may call themselves a king or warlord or by another title. Treachery and violence are an acceptable route of promotion, with one strongman taking down another while being on the lookout for other rivals. Beneath them are the slaves – ogres, orogs, orcs and humans, keeping society running. They are kept in check by the neogi slavemaster, valued and respected parts of the realm. And then there are the dwarves, living a precarious existence where only their valued skills keep them from being enslaved.

Next we come to the tabaxi. They roll confederacy for the Government Form, where individual cities and towns govern themselves but contribute to a league or federation for the common good of all, and neutral good for the social alignment.

Initially we were meant to have three tabaxi realms in the region, including an area across the water to the southwest. After this I decided to collapse them all into this single confederacy and model it in part on the Hansaetic League. The tabaxi are a confederation of mostly independent mercantile city-states that have banded together for mutual trade and protection, where their traders travel far and wide and brought back wealth and knowledge. They believe the well-being of all comes before the rule of law and the rule of individual liberty, and they extend that to all who live among them, regardless of race.

All in all, a place that stands starkly different to the land of the giants.

Moving on, we turn to the first of the human nations. They turn out to be an oligarchy, a small group of absolute rulers who share power, and the social alignment is lawful neutral.

For this I picture a feudal nation that is nominally a kingdom, but the king is weak and ineffective, and the true power in the land is a small group who form the King’s Council, ruling the land in the name of the king. They do it for what they perceive as the good of the nation, ruling through a slowly growing bureaucracy, where law and order is paramount and everyone is treated the same, regardless of circumstances. They see it as necessary to bring peace and stability to the land and to preserve their feudalistic system in the light of outside dangers.

The other human nation rolls up a hierarchy, a feudal or bureaucratic system of government which proceeds through different levels of a religious institution. Basically a highly stratified religious government, with power being concentrated at the top in the form of High Priest. The roll for social alignment also turns up as chaotic evil, which at first I don’t think would work with the stratified nature of the nation, but on second thoughts can see it working if there is a lot of infighting within the ranks of the religion, with frequent assassinations, blackmail, treachery, corruption and the works.

Given the nature of the place, I can see which of the gods they worship, that being the lesser power of fire and war we rolled up back in the deities section, a chaotic evil goddess who reveled in the destructive aspect of war, of burnt offerings and sacrificial victims set aflame. Not the most pleasant of neighbours.

Finally we come to the thri-kreen, with their five small nations that are in effect little more than city-states in the jungles. Given their small size and that they are all of the same culture, it is probable that they are fairly similar in the way they are governed and their outlook. They won’t necessarily be all the same, but I can’t see their being any extremes in differences, which we will have to keep in mind as we develop them.

Rolling up for the first one, we get a militocracy, where military leaders rule under martial law, while the alignment comes out as chaotic-neutral, a place where there is no central authority and no law. At first I consider throwing this out but after some reflection I can see how to make it work. A CN country can be one in the process of disintegration, such as through an invasion. Given the neighbours around them, this seems a good choice – the city-state has been invaded, the rulership fled or dead and the army is all that is left, trying to hold the nation together. It also makes a great place for adventures for players, to try and help stabilise and rebuild in the face of an aggressor army.

Following that up we roll up lawful good feudalism for the next state, a fairly standard state for a fantasy setting, if one that is someone unusual in its racial makeup.

The third is a chaotic good monarchy, one with less laws and more freedoms, which makes it less stratified and lacking the peasants the previous city-state had.

The fourth is another lawful good state, but this one another hierarchy – basically feudalism but with priests in place of nobles. Interestingly there is only one lawful good deity in the pantheon, the sole demigoddess whose portfolios are war, redemption and guardianship. Given who some of their neighbours are, including one that worships the evil goddess of fire and war, I can see how one city-state may have taken to worshiping her.

The last thri-kreen city-state is a neutral-good republic, where government is in the hands of representatives chosen by electors. This is an interesting place, having thrown off the shackles of the old style feudalism that was once common to the thri-kreen and instead embracing new ideas coming from their tabaxi neighours.

All of this does make the concept of giant slaves a bit hard to work in as good societies tend not to have them. What I am thinking is that the giants are actually captured raiders made into indentured servants and prisoners, not quite free but not true slaves either.

The final step of this part of the chapter is what is labeled situations – elements we want to introduce into the immediate area. This is one we don’t roll for but make up, and a number of suggestions are made.

This can range from typical things like raids, famines, wars and the like, to more unusual things like unusual laws, technology, the way magic works and even racial roles. Maybe only gnomes are allowed to be bards or maybe only red-heads can use clerical magic.

We have already come up with some as we designed our small nations – the main one being the invasion of one of the thri-kreen city-states and its fight for survival. The best fit for this is that the neighbouring giants have launched a large invasion. The other thri-kreen are aiding them in the fight, and most likely the tabaxi as well. Meanwhile the humans are not involved, though the evil human nation is probably involved in some raiding for victims to take off for sacrifice, and if keeping an eye out for weaknesses to exploit should the situation arise.

I would like to add some more unusual elements to the tabaxi at some point – it sounds an intriguing place and deserves more fleshing out.

Next time we return to the map and the physical cartography of the region.

Lets Build a World: Part Seventeen: Realm Culture and Technology

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Previously we finished up Chapter Three: Continents and Geography in the World Builders Guidebook. Now we are moving on to Chapter Four: Kingdoms and Sociology.

For this we pick a kingdom or region of the continent map and zoom in on it. For us, given the small size of kingdoms on the map, we will go with a region which contains a number of small kingdoms, though in reality a lot of them will probable be more like city-states.

Like all parts of the guidebook, you could jump in and start here, designing a kingdom before going up or down in size.

For the part we are working on I have chosen this part of the world;

What really got me intrigued was the jungle-dwelling thri-kreen, and so it is there that we will be concentrating. To flesh it out a bit more, we will also include some of their neighbours – giants to the east, humans to the north and tabaxi catfolk to the west. Certainly interesting neighbours.

The first step of the process is not actually working on the map but detailing the people and their culture. There is nothing stopping you doing the map first if you want, as with anything in the guidebook, but we are following the book as it was written.

Each culture has a cultural archetype. There is a list you can roll on but it points out that it isn’t an exhaustive list and that you can come up with your own if you want. I have decided that I won’t roll for the thri-kreen. Instead I am going to chose a Mesoamerican archetype for them, based on cultures like the Aztecs, Incan and Mayans.

For the humans we roll Middle Ages European. Basically your standard fantasy setting then. The giants get Dark Ages Europe. This is a pre-feudal setting, where chieftains and their warbands rule. The Anglo-Saxons are a good example of this. The tabaxi roll up Renaissance Europe, where arts, literature and technology are flourishing and a wealthy merchant class has risen up, resulting in mercantile city-states.

The next step is to work out who lives in the nations. Realms can have any number of different demihuman, humanoid and even monstrous races in them. The number varies, with small kingdoms having less than empires. For this I am saying the thri-kreen are a small kingdom, with 1d2 primary and 1d4+1 secondary races, while the other three are moderate kingdoms, with 1d2 primary and 1d6+1 secondary races. Primary races generally have 25-50% of the total population, while secondary ones account from 1-10%, though there are exceptions where a small group of overlords are a primary race but rule over a more populous secondary race. The giants we rolled up may fill that role.

Rolling up we get;

  • Thri-kreen – 1 primary, 4 secondary races
  • Humans – 1 primary, 6 secondary races
  • Giants – 2 primary, 5 secondary races
  • Tabaxi – 2 primary, 4 secondary races.

For the exact type of each race we can roll up for them on the race table we used earlier when determining the cultures of the region previously. We can also assign or change things up as we see fit.

For the thri-kreen, they are obviously the primary race. For the secondary ones we roll up humans, giants, orcs and goblins. Humans and giants are neighbors and orcs live not far away so it makes sense that they may have communities within thri-kreen lands. Goblins are a new race though, one not powerful or large enough to have their own lands.

The humans are the primary race in their culture, with orcs, giants, dwarves, orges, goblins and kobolds as secondary races. Once again orcs, giants, dwarves and ogres are neighbours or near neighbours. The goblins turn up again, so a pocket of them seem to be spread between the human and thri-kreen lands. It may be that their homelands may have been conquered at some point, something we will have to explore. The kobolds are another new race that has turned up.

For the giants, we make the giants and their ogre slaves the two primary races. For secondary races, we start with humans and dwarves. Then we roll up orogs, who are an ogre-orc cross. From that I decide to add orcs to the mix, to facilitate that. Lastly we get neogi, a race of spiderlike creatures who are generally slavers. We might make them slavers who work for the giants, capturing or trading slaves for them. The other races, including humans and dwarves, may have been captured in slave raids along the borders.

Lastly are the tabaxi. They are one of the two primary races. For the second we roll up gnomes. While there are gnomes on the continental map, those are a long way away so these may be a different type of them. The secondary races are humans, ogres, thri-kreen, again all local races, and yuan-ti, normally depicted as jungle dwelling snakepeople, so they fit the region.

Now we know who lives in each realm, we need to know how they fit in, their status and position in relation to the main race. Once more you can roll, pick or do both.

For the thri-kreen, the humans, orcs and goblins all live among the thir-kreen, though in their own districts but the thri-kreen are the dominant race. It means that they may not be seen or treated as equals to the thri-kreen, may not have the same rights, may be seen as children to be protected or one of a number of other options. In a surprise turn of events, the giants turn up to be slaves to the thri-kreen. That is something we will have to work out how happened, but it certainly puts a new spin on relations with the giant neighbours.

For the humans, the goblins live in human communities in their own districts and are treated as equals to the humans. The dwarves are also treated as equals, but live in their own communities. The others, the giants, orcs, ogres and kobolds, have their own communities but aren’t seen as equals.

For the giants, the orcs, ogres and orogs are made slaves rather than rolling. The humans roll up being slaves as well, but the dwarves aren’t. The live in their own communities, though are seen as beneath the giants yet somehow have preserved their freedom. The neogi turn out to be seen as equals by the giants, living among them, no doubt valued for their slaver ways.

For the tabaxi, the first two rolls see the gnomes and ogres seen as equals, so on a whim I decide that the tabaxi are more enlightened due to their renaissance ways, and treat all others as equals. The gnomes live among the tabaxi, while the ogres, thri-kreen and yuan-ti have their own separate communities.

The next section is on language. There is nothing to roll here, just a short bit on language as social distinction, the common tongue and literacy. We could, if we want, go into depth on working out how it functions, but we will for this example, keep it simple.

There is no common tongue, as such, due to the fragmented balkanised nature of the region. Giantish, dwarvish and human tend to be more dominant due to their spread and size. Among the thri-kreen, they speak their own language. The humans, orcs and goblins who live alongside them do have their own languages but favour thri-kreen in day to day use. The giants are given no choice – they are banned from speaking in giantish and must speak thri-kreen.

Lastly, in this section of the chapter, is technology. The technology used during ancient times was different to that of the middle ages. It is something that we can roll for, or select depending on what we rolled up for cultural archetype earlier, though just because a nation is culturally of the dark ages, it doesn’t mean their technology has to be either. For the giants, humans and tabaxi though, we will do that. The giants have dark ages technology, without much intensive farming but plenty of animal husbandry, with crude warbands and levies as standard military units. The humans are feudal, with kings, vassals and peasants, and the start of the merchant and specialised craftsmen class. The tabaxi are at a renaissance level, with such things as the printing press and waterwheel and improved sailing vessels able to undertake long voyages. They may even have firearms and cannons.

For the thri-kreen we don’t have an indication so we will roll for them. The roll for them comes up as late middle ages, between that of the humans and tabaxi. The feudal system is beginning to break down as the merchant class grows in importance and trade guilds increase production and importance. Power moves away from the nobles into the towns. If firearms are allowed, the first crude ones show up here.

Next time we will move on to looking at the governments of the nations, how they are ruled and what their social alignments are like.

Lets Build a World: Part Sixteen: The Culture Map

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Previously in our world building exercise using the World Builders Guidebook, we started to sketch in the locations of the dominate races on the map. This time around we shall fill in the rest of the races, the major and minor ones.

For some we roll for locations as we did with the dominate races, but for others we just squeeze in where we have room. Given this is a mostly water map, there is a shortage of land and so we have to make do with what we have for the many races that we have.

hat we get is a map that looks like this;

  • 1 – Giants (3 cultures, 6 realms) – Ogre slaves
  • 2 – Dwarves (4 cultures, 9 realms)
  • 3 – Humans (3 cultures, 8 realms)
  • 4 – Tabaxi (3 cultures, 7 realms)
  • 5 – Bullwugs (3 cultures, 12 realms)
  • 6 – Kobolds (1 culture, 1 realm)
  • 7 – Thri-kreen (1 culture, 5 realms)
  • 8 – Orcs (2 cultures, 7 realms)
  • 9 – Ogre-mages (1 culture, 5 realms)
  • 10 – Gnomes (2 cultures, 5 realms)
  • 11 – Aaracokra (1 culture, 1 realm)
  • 12 – Tasloi (2 cultures, 6 realms)
  • 13 – Grell (1 culture, 5 realms)
  • 14 – Beholders (2 cultures, 5 realms) – Lizardmen slaves
  • 15 – Ogres (1 culture, 4 realms)

From studying the map and locations of various races, we can start to form ideas as to what they are like. Some of the cultures are obviously sailors and mariners, coming from the dwarven, human, tabaxi, bullywug and orcish races. The free ogres live alongside one of the giant nations, who keep ogre slaves. The second group of giants is not too far away from them either.

While those two groups of giants live in the warm southern parts of the map, far off in the cold north lives another giant culture. Given the distance, it would seem unlikely that they also have ogre slaves. They may not even have slaves at all.

Meanwhile in the center of the map you have a widespread human culture made up of 2 realms spread across many islands, the center most one of which is the most important in the world. Every since placing it on the map the idea was that it tied into the mythology of the world, except at the time I didn’t know who would live there. It is First Land.

If you can remember back when we designed the pantheon for the world, we came up with Father Earth, the Lord of Volcanoes, whose birth to Mother Ocean resulted in a volcanic eruption that turned into the first island and the first land in the world.

This is that island, the holiest site in the world for followers of Father Earth, where his temple is built upon the volcano there.

But with all the cultures filled in, we move onto the next part of the book, Kingdoms and Sociology. For that we zoom in again, creating a home region and work on the kingdom, or kingdoms, there, making a place for the players to adventure in. Fleshing it out, seeing who lives there, exactly how they are organised and more.

And I have region picked out, which I will reveal next time.

Lets Create: Dark Sun Character (AD&D 2e): The Charismatic Fighter

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In my previous post about setting up Dark Sun character trees, I made mention of how you could make high CHA, high INT fighters in 2e and that they could be the social face of the party as a result, unlike in later editions.

Thinking it over, I wanted to do just that to show how effective it could be, and decided to go with a Dark Sun character given that it what I was already working on . This character isn’t part of the character tree, but another one off example. Besides INT and CHA being the best stats, I am going to make STR the worst one.

That may sound crazy, but for 2e it is not an issue like with later editions were you needed to max out your primary stat to remain viable. In 2e, the difference between 9 (the lowest a fighter can have) and 17 STR was +1/+1 hit and damage. Admittedly, it could get a little crazy when you hit 18 or higher STR, which was very possible in Dark Sun, but not so much in vanilla 2e.

For races, there are only three options really; elves, half-elves and humans. The other races (dwarves, muls, half-giant, halflings and thri-kreen get a penalty to CHA. Half-giants, muls and thri-kreen also have penalties to INT to go on top of that.

Elves do get a bonus to INT but they also have a penalty to WIS. Plus you’d have to play an elf.

That leaves humans and half-elves, and given half-elves in Dark Sun have no level limits for being a fighter, that added with their other benefits gives them an edge. So half-elf it is. You get to be the moody loner wandering into town and rallying the locals to your cause through sheer charisma and intellect.

For stats, I am going to use the 6d4 drop the lowest and assign method. The end result is 13, 13, 17, 17, 17, 19 which are arranged as STR 13, CON 17, DEX 17, INT 17, WIS 13, CHA 19. Half-elves get +1 DEX and -1 CON, giving us STR 13, CON 16, DEX 18, INT 17, WIS 13, CHA 19.

STR 13 gives no bonuses.

DEX 18 gives +2 to reactions and missile attacks and -4 AC.

CON 16 gives +2 HP a level.

INT 17 gives 6 bonus nonweapon proficiencies.

WIS 13 gives no bonuses.

CHA 19 gives 20 henchmen, +10 loyalty base and +8 reaction adjustment.

While he might not be a beast in combat, he is still difficult to kill, and those that fight for him are exceptionally loyal.

Varus never knew his father. He had been a trader that had encountered his elven mother’s tribe but had moved on before even knowing she was pregnant. When he was born though, the tribe had driven his mother out with the newborn Varus for dishonouring the tribe. They were luck that his mother was able to find refuge in a small village of escaped gladiators, under the protection of a preserver/druid, Thaxar Stonehand, a half-elf like him.

Varus grew up in the village, learning all he could from Thaxar, though the druidic and preserver arts were beyond him. He likewise learned all he could from anyone else willing to teach him, whether trader, psionicist or gladiator. He trained with the local militia, becoming a competent fighter, helping defend against slavers, raiders and wild beasts. It was here that his natural talent at leadership and inspiration came to light, his quick thinking and way with words.

As he grew older, it wasn’t enough to simply defend the village though. While Thaxar was content to stay with the village and defend it and his guarded lands, Varus wanted more. He wanted to make it safe, to go beyond the village and provide its security for the long term. And so he has set out, armed for battle with spear and shield, intellect and charisma, to make his mark.

As a third level fighter, he gets 1d10+2 HP a level. We roll 5, 7 & 7, which, adding the bonus HP, comes to 25 HP.

For his wild talent, we roll a 63 – Life Detection. In effect we can scan for living creatures like a radar. The power score is INT-2, which is 15 for us. Initial cost is 3 with a maintenance cost of 3/rd. We start with enough PSPs to activate it once and to maintain it for 4 rounds, for 15 PSPs, and 4 more per level, for a total of 23 PSPs. Interesting talent, though fairly situational.

Saving throws for a 3rd level fighter are; PPDM 13, RSW 15, PP 14, BW 16, SP 16.

Fighters start with 4 weapon proficiencies and gain another at 3rd level, for a total of 5 proficiencies. I am using the Complete Book of Fighters, which has more options. He spends 2 slots on the Spears tight group, giving him proficiency in things like spears and javelins. He spends one slot on specialisation in Spear. The Complete Book of Fighters changed up spears (and added Long Spear as well), making them able to be used 1 handed or 2 handed. So it can be thrown, used with a shield or used 2 handed for extra damage.

For the last slot we are going with Two Handed Specialisation from the CBoF. When a weapon is being used two handed, the weapon gets -3 to weapon speed, making it faster. So a spear used two handed becomes speed 3 and does 1d8+1 damage, though it does lose the AC from not using a shield. All up it gives him a lot of flexibility with spears.

Fighters start with 3 NWP slots and get 1 every 3 levels. We also get 6 bonus ones from our INT, for a total of 10 NWPs. Fighters have access to the General and Warrior groups of NWPs, but can buy from the other groups (Priest, Rogue, Wizard) at the cost of 1 extra slot.

So, going through the Dark Sun book and the PHB, we go with the following NWPs; Etiquette (CHA), Heraldry (INT), Gaming (CHA), Bureaucracy (CHA -2), Heat Protection (INT -2), Armour Optimisation (DEX -2), Sign Language (DEX) & Modern Language (Elven & Thri-kreen). Bureaucracy comes from the priest group so it costs us 2 slots. In addition, at level 3 half-elves receive a bonus Survival (INT) NWP in one type of terrain. For this I go with Stony Barrens, one of the most common terrain types in Dark Sun.

Heat Protection and Armour Optimisation are mostly about surviving in the harsh world, but the rest are about various forms of communication and knowledge when dealing with people, especially in cities. Thri-kreen don’t start with the common language that others do (they have to buy it, as do halflings), so there will be plenty of them around who can’t be spoken to unless someone knows their language. And his heritage lends himself to taking Elven – plus elves can be a little bit difficult so them refusing to speak common wouldn’t be that uncommon.

For equipment, fighters start with 5d4 x 30 cp. We roll a 14, which comes to 420 cp to spend. For the basics, we go with a set of inix scale armour at 120 cp and a leather medium shield at 7 cp. A spear costs 8 sp in the phb, or 8 bits in dark sun if not made with a metal spearhead. We have enough to afford one of those, as it works out as 80 cp. Javelins are just 5 bits each, so we get 4 non-metal ones at a total cost of 2 cp. We could afford iron headed javelins at 50 cp each, but there is a risk in throwing iron headed weapons at an enemy, in that they may not come back. We go with bone tipped javelins. That still gives him a lot of money left over for other items, such as clothes, mounts, adventuring gear, bribes and the like.

Combat wise, his AC with the scale armour, shield and dexterity is 1, meaning he is rather hard to hit. Without the shield he is still AC 2.

His base THAC0 is 18.

Wielding the spear 1 handed he is THAC0 17, speed 6, doing 1d6+2 damage and can make 3 attacks every 2 rounds. If he throws it his THAC0 is 16 but damage is just 1d6 – specialisation bonuses only apply in melee except for the rate of fire, but he does get a bonus to hit due to his high dexterity.

Wielding the spear 2 handed he is THAC0 17, speed 3, doing 1d8+3 damage and can make 3 attacks every 2 rounds.

Throwing his javelins he is THAC0 16, speed 4, doing 1d4-1 damage and can throw one per round. As it is bone tipped, it normally has -1 to hit and damage but the to hit penalty doesn’t apply to missile weapons. If he used it in melee it would apply. The benefit of the thrown javelin over the thrown spear is that it is faster and also longer ranged, with twice the distance of the spear.

Finally, age, height and weight. Half-elves are 70+2d6 inches tall and 120+3d12 pounds in weight. We roll a 7 for height and 29 for weight, making him 77 inches (6′ 5″) tall and 149 pounds in weight. Average half-elf height but slightly stockier than normal. For age, half-elves start at 15+2d4 years old and live to 90+2d20 years. We roll a 5 for starting age and 39 for maximum age. He starts at 20, again average for a half-elf, but will live to 129 years if he survives, about as old as a half-elf can get.

Of course, this is all put together in Dark Sun, so the stats are slightly better than normal, but the principle is still the same if playing in a vanilla campaign. A charismatic fighter can work just as well as just about anyone else, with the exception of a bard who gets an influence ability. You could go through the various source books looking for kits, other NWPs or the like to adapt it, even shop for magic items but the principle remains the same.

Varus: Ftr 3; AL NG; AC 1 (Scale, shield & dex); MV 12; HP 25; THAC0 18 (17 with spear, 16 with thrown spear or javelin); #AT 3/2 (iron spear), 1 (bone javelin); DMG 1d6+2 (1 handed spear), 1d8+3 (2 handed spear), 1d4-1 (bone javelin); Str 13, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 19.

Psionic Summary; PSPs 23; Wild Talent – Life Detection (PS Int -2, Cost 3, Maintain 3/rd).

Saves; PPDM 13, RSW 15, PP 14, BW 16, SP 16.

Weapon Proficiencies; Spear Tight Group.

Weapon Specialisation; Spear, Two handed.

Non-weapon Proficiencies; Etiquette, Heraldry, Gaming, Bureaucracy, Heat Protection, Armour Optimisation, Sign Language.

Languages; Common, Thri-kreen, Elvish.

Gear; Scale armour, medium leather shield, iron spear, 4 bone javelins.