Last session ended with the death of Egart, our Halfling Rogue. Having been pregenerated for the game by the Starter-Edition he had an interesting connection with the Redbrands that made him exceptionally interesting to play during this chapter. His main motivation for the entire campaign was to have his revenge on Glasstaff. With prior knowledge of the hideout and the Nothic he made it easy for the group to head directly to the leader of the Redbrands and - having a character trait stating that he likes to improvise instead of making a plan - that seemed to be the way to go. Now of course Glasstaff, warned by his rat familiar, left the hideout injured, but not hurt in any major way. I did not even see the need for him to drink a potion of invisibility as the book suggests, since he never dropped below 50% health. With his spells and items he was well equipped for an offensive strategy against a singular opponent or a defensive strategy in case he was swarmed. But, lacking the speed to stay ahead of Egart during the chase, it seemed logical for him to use his Magic Missiles, knowing that they would not miss.
This actually was the first time I ever ran a chase sequence as stated by the book and I really enjoyed the experience. I will definitely use that in my games again.
Now, I did like the dynamic of a five-person party and it makes sense for me to roll up a new character. To do that I will use as much randomizing as I can, using the tables provided in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, chapter 1: This is your life and Appendix B: Character Names
Creating
a new Character for Lost Mine Of Phandelver (Solo-Run)
🎲Race, 1d100: 39 => Human
🎲Subrace, 1d4 (1-2: Regular Human, 3-4: Variant Human):
3 => Variant Human
🎲Class, 1d100: 22 =>
Cleric
🎲Name Origin, 1d20 (reroll 18 or
higher): 13 =>Norse
🎲Name gender, 1d6 (even=male, odd=female): 4
=> male
🎲Name, 1d100: 19 => “Brandr”
🎲Occupation, 1d100: 96 => Soldier
Here we
have Brandr, a Human Cleric with the Soldier background.
To determine how his Childhood was, we need his Charisma-modifier, so we need
to roll for Stats: 🎲 6 x 4d6 (remove lowest die on each roll) => 9, 10,
17, 12, 10, 9
🎲Parents, 1d100: 46 => Brandr knows who his parents are or were
🎲Birthplace, 1d100: 88 => Among People of a different race
🎲Race of those people, 1d100, reroll 40 or lower: 70 => Halfling
🎲Siblings, 1d10: 6 => 🎲1d4+1
=> 3 Silblings
🎲Birth
Order, 1x2d6: 4 (older Silbling)
🎲Name
Gender, 1d6 (even=male, odd=female): 5 => female
🎲Name,
1d100: 18 => Birghild
🎲Birth
Order, 1x2d6: 5 (older Sibling)
🎲Name
Gender, 1d6 (even=male, odd=female): 6 => male
🎲Name,
1d100: 92 => Sven
🎲Birth
Order, 1x2d6: 8 (younger Sibling)
🎲Name
Gender, 1d6 (even=male, odd=female): 1 => female
🎲Name,
1d100: 50 => Iona
🎲Family,
1d100: 94 => Mother and Father
🎲Family Lifestyle, 3d6: 14 => Comfortable (+10
to next roll)
🎲Childhood Home, 1d100+10: 27 => No permanent
residence; they moved around a lot
🎲Childhood Memories, 3d6+0 (Charisma Modifier): 10 => Brandr had a few close friends and lived an ordinary childhood
Brandr a man with
average abilities and high wisdom, coming from a normal family, the third of
four children, living a comfortable life while moving around a lot.
Personal Decisions
🎲I became
a soldier because (1d6): 6 => Invaders attacked my homeland. It was
my duty to take up arms in defense of my people.
🎲I became
a cleric because (1d6): 6 =>I realize that my god works
through me, and I do as commanded, even though I don’t know why I was chosen to
serve.
So when war came, Brandr was
drafted to take up arms, and apparently was also commanded by someone in his priesthood. This
does sound like a god of duty or war. With his high Wisdom Brandr feels that
what he does is right, even though he does not know why.
Coming from a traveling
family, this might either mean that his family is in service to a temple all
along, traveling about to help where they can or that he had to leave his
family to return home to fight against invaders. A lot of this will depend on
Brandr’s age and memories, which we’ll roll for now.
Life Events
🎲Age,
1d100: 5 => 20 years or younger (1 Life Event)
🎲Life
Event, 1d100: 36 =>Brandr made an enemy of an adventurer.
🎲Blame,
1d6: 5 (odd) => Brandr is to blame for the rift.
🎲Adventurer
Race, 1d100: 51 => Elf
🎲Adventurer
Class, 1d100: 86 =>Sorcerer
🎲Name
Gender, 1d6 (even=male, odd=female): 3 => female
🎲Name,
1d100: 12 => Antinua
🎲Adventurer
Alignment, 3d6: 9 =>Neutral
🎲Adventurer
Status, 3d6: 13 => Alive and quite succesful
Assembling a backstory
Now, from all this information we know a few
things about Brandr’s life. He is still very young (I tend to use the roll on
the d10 when making the roll for age as the exact count of years above the decimal.
So that would make Brandr 15 years of age, very young. He has two older
siblings and a younger sister, plus his parents who are both still alive but
also there has been an invasion in his past and an enemy of an elf Sorcerer. We have an interesting duality of a good live and bad things happening. That
he became a cleric because his powers made him realize his god works through
him even though he does not understand his calling is logical for someone his
age and experience, though a very wise young man like that would perhaps just
follow his feelings instead of question a calling.
When I compare the reason
for becoming a cleric (realization and obedience to a divine being) with the
reason for becoming a soldier (duty), there is an interesting contrast that I
want to use.
A theme in Brandr’s life
however seems to be his strife for following up on orders and fulfilling the
expectations of others (his country, his god…) so being guilty of a rift with a
neutral sorcerer might be because of that dutiful attitude. This make me think
that Brandr is/was a good character, either Lawful or Neutral Good, but with strong
opinions on duty and honor. Perhaps the rift is because Brandr made a conscious
choice to do something that is perhaps not for the best, but it is what is
right - possibly even ignoring his own conscience and intuition telling him so. That idea pushes his alignment into the Lawful Good spectrum, at least for the moment when he made that enemy.
His family however was a
family of travelers, though comfortable. That makes me think they are successful
merchants, traveling with large caravans that were well-secured, perhaps trading in something that is coveted in many places. His name makes
me think he comes from a Northern country, somewhere that is cold. And that
idea makes things click into place in my head. Because cold is hard on
everyone, not only the good guys. And as I imagine a snowy landscape with mountains, fjords and deep, dark pine forests covered in white powder and glistening ice Brandr's story comes together:
parents were owners of the Tuskhunters Guild, a gathering of rangers, trackers and trappers specializing in the hunt on Mammoths. The meat they brought in fed hundreds of mouths but the most precious part of the beast were the enormous tusks of ivory. This precious material, cut into pieces of art or sold by the ounce was picked up once a year by Brandr and his family. They spend the rest of the year traveling the lengths and breadth of the Swordcoast, selling these goods and making a fortune with it that could not only ensure their livelihood but also the life of many of the villagers back home. When on the road Brandr usually spend a lot of time in conversation with the people they met or listening to the conversations his parents were having. He had a good intuition about other people work and therefore his father liked to have him around when negotiating. More than once it was Brandr who threw his father worried looks that made the merchant back out of a business deal with an untrustworthy individual.
Back home Brandr spend a lot of time near the small shrine of Tempus, listening to the stories of the hardened warriors that had lived through the bitter cold of the arctic tundra and fought bitter wars against Frost Giants or undead Draugr rising up from the eternal ice of their graves.
It was during an extremely
harsh winter that Brandr and his family returned to the Ten Towns and found
that the village of Good Mead was taken over by a tribe of goblins lead by some human sorcerer.
The inhabitants of Good Mead had fled to other settlements but were planning to
assemble a militia to retake their home. Brandr begged to join, feeling the
strong urge to come along that he did not entirely understand. He felt a strong
urge to fight in this battle and his father allowed him to be a part of the militia. Together
they attacked the invaders and quickly cut their way through their numbers.
Brandr, wielding a long spear felt the rush of the battle wash over him even
though something felt off, as if he was missing the point of the calling that led him here. Most Goblins fled from him, others only offered feeble resistance but his father and the other experienced warriors shouted for blood
and Brandr followed their commands, killing many of the small creatures.
The battle was won in less
than an hour and the last of the invaders had holed themselves up in the old shrine.
The fighters did not want to beat down the door, fearful of angering the foehammer.
Brandr did know of a low window that granted entrance to the basement of the
cellar beneath the shrine. He, being the youngest of the militia was the only
one old enough to enter through the window. He snuck through the basement into
the main prayer room, prepared to fight his way to the door but what he found
was a handful of half-starved, frostbitten goblins shivering in fear and woman
in fur-lined robes bitterly insulting him and the ‘murderers’ he brought. This
woman, an elf from the snow-covered winter woods had found this tribe of goblins
that were being decimated by the bitter cold and had marched them straight into
this town, expecting to negotiate a price for shelter and food. But instead the
townsfolk had fled from them and now returned to bring more death. A fire of
righteous fury burned in her eyes and Brandr understood how badly he had chosen when he went against his feelings and killed just because he was ordered to do so. It had
seemed the right thing to do, even if his emotions had told him differently. Guilt-ridden
he opened the front doors and convinced the mob not to hurt anyone
else. He managed to negotiate a temporary truce but when negotiations between
the deeply hurt elf woman – who introduced herself as Antinua – and the
villagers went sour he once again took his fathers side and voted for the sorceress
and her goblins to leave the town. He would never forget the look of hatred and
disappointment in her eyes as they led the shambling group of survivors into
the wilderness.
The next day Brandr stole
provisions and warm furs and followed them but he only found the goblins. They
had died in the snow, not far from the town. Some of them had frozen but others
had been killed by a blade to the heart. They seem to have gone without
resistance, accepting this quick death instead of starvations and hypothermia.
The elf-woman was no where to be found.
praying to the statue of Tempus for an answer. One night he had fallen asleep, half-kneeling at the foot of the foehammer’s effigy when a voice called to him in his dream: “Go, pick up your spear and find another fight. A worthy fight, a fight that means something. Go, take your arms and shield yourself with wisdom and insight, and find worthy foes to battle in a way that brings honor to you. Restore yourself with deeds of righteousness and bravery, fight for a worthy cause. Protect those that cannot defend themselves. Your way is clear.”
When he woke up he found that his spear had fallen and was pointing at the door of the shrine. And when he picked it up and walked through the door he found the first sun of spring shining into his eyes. He said his goodbyes to the village when his family left for the South but only accompanied them for a while. They traveled around the Spine of the World to Luskan and Neverwinter. Here he heard about the small town of Phandalin, where civilization was starting anew in the ruins of an old settlement, surrounded by wilderness and dangers.
When his family travelled South towards Waterdeep he said his goodbyes and headed East on the Triboar Trail, heading for this town where he hopefully would be able to restore his honor. A symbol of Tempus that he had taken from the temple around his neck he hoped to find what the voice in his dreams had told him to seek.
This backstory makes him an interesting character to add to the party, and with Tempus as his God he will be a War-domain cleric. And this is how a character is born.
I really like working with these random tables, because it forces me to think creatively. Life is strange in many ways and having to combine these different, sometimes almost contradictive pieces of information into a logical story that leads to the adventure is a challenge that gives me great joy.
Now all that's left to do for now is to fill out the rest of the character sheet.
Racial Feats
A variant human offers us two +1 boni to put into any attribute we see fit. I went for Dexterity and Wisdom. Since he was born among halflings - I immagine him having a halfling Godmother, perhaps Qeline Alderleaf - I'll choose halfling as his second language. Now there is only the feat to choose. I doubted a bit about using the Shield Master feat, since I like the idea of a shield imbued with divine blessing but in the end Tempus is a more offensive god and given the fact that Brandr has a very high Wisdom an no physical capabilities that would enable him to hit his opponents with weapons very well I went with War Caster in the end, which utilizes his higher spellcasting ability better instead of weapon attacks.
Besides proficiency in Athletics and Intimidation I get to choose a game proficiency and of course I choose the playing cards to fit in with the party. He has a badge made of a bit of wood with dried snowberries that is a memorial for all former militia members and a necklace with wolf-teeth that he took as a reminder from one of the dead goblins and that he wears around his wrist.
I choose his traits as logically as possible:
Personality Trait: I’m haunted by memories of war. I can’t get the images of violence out of my mind.
Ideal: Independence. When people follow orders blindly, they embrace a kind of tyranny.
Bond: I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Flaw: I made a terrible mistake in battle that cost many lives—and I would do anything to
keep that mistake secret.
Class
First order of business with a Cleric is to choose the divine domain. As said, Brandr will be a War Domain Cleric, following Tempus, the God of war. Adding to the Background Proficiencies I take the Insight and Medicine Proficiency for him. I take a spear instead of a light crossbow since he will rely on spells anyway and the spear is in his background.
For cantrips we need good offensive cantrips so we'll go for both Toll the Dead and Word of Radiance, since Brandr is a front line cleric. (which is so far also true for Harbek and hasn't turned out very well for the dwarf)
🎲HP for Lvl 2, 1d8+1 (reroll 1): 9 => Total of 18 HP
As an addition to that we'll take the Light Cantrip, since Brandr does not seem self-secure enough to go for Guidance (which on a mechanical level would have had my preference).
The war domain gives us access to the following spells at lvl 1: Divine Favor and Shield of Faith and while that second one will come in handy, Divine Favor works on weapon attacks and Brandr will not often make those. So I replace Divine Favor with Heroism.
Looking at the features we get, only War Priest seems more or less worthless, since Brandr will not be making many Weapon attacks. I am therefore tempted to allow him to use that feat on Cantrips as well (but the damage of a second cantrip will always be the damage it would do at lvl 1).
And there we have it, Brandr is finished and ready for adventure. On the next blog I'll explore options for him to enter the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment