Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Character Creation Challenge: Queen Talason

Queen Talason Character Sheet
Evil ruler? Sure why not. I have to admit this sheet jumped out at me for a number of reasons. First, it is a rare evil woman in Grenda's collection. Secondly, she is a Queen, and finally, this sheet looks OLD. I don't know anything about Queen Talason here. She is a fighter, but she also can turn undead and has some spells. She has psionics, like a lot of Grenda's characters. 

Also, I love her character sketch. Grenda was always a good artist, and this one is just fun.

I am not 100% sure what is going on with her. She looks like an anti-paladin but has no thief or assassin abilities. Plus, anti-paladins were all chaotic evil, and she is lawful evil. Her spells are from the Magic-user list and not the Cleric one. I checked the old "Plethora of Paladins" article from Dragon #106. The Lawful Evil "Illrigger" and they do use Magic-user spells, but her spell progression and XP progression do not match our Queen here. 

This sheet is also much older than Dragon #106's Feb 1986 date. This one looks a lot closer to his sheets from the early 1980s; as in 1981-82.

I think re-crafting her as an Anti-Paladin, or at least an evil Divine Warrior, is a fun idea.

Queen Talason
Queen Talason

Class: Divine Warrior
Level: 8
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Evil*
Background: Warrior 

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) N
Agility: 18 (+3) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 16 (0) 
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 17 (+2) P

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: -2
Vitality: 53 
Degeneracy: 5
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +3 (base), +2 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Saves: +3 to all Wits and Persona Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Divine Warrior Abilities
Sixth Sense, Heal Injury and Illness (8d6), Supernatural Attacks, Protection from Evil, Spot Hidden (1-3 on d6).

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Ability: Telekinesis
3rd Level: +1 to melee attacks 
5th Level: Favored Weapon, Sword
7th Level: 1 level of Sorcerer

Spells
First Level: Arcane Dart

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Death

Gear
Longsword, Mace, Battle Axe, Spear, Crossbow, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

I imagine that Queen Talason here was a warrior princess, cleaving a bloody path between herself and her goal, the throne. As a Queen, she was no less bloody. In Grenda's games, she worshipped Hades, the god of the Dead. In my revised Wasted Lands games, Hüter is not really the same deadly god. No, in my new campaign, she would worship Helga, the Ghost goddess in her aspect as the Battle Crone. This would also explain her level of Sorcerer as a Heroic/Divine Touchstone. 

I think as a nod to her history and her near miss as an Illrigger, I'll make her birthday February 14th. 

Again, I am loving the Divine Warrior class.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Character Creation Challenge



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