Test Post: More Larina Art

Testing a few things on my social media manager, but I figure this is also a good time to show off the latest art I had commissioned from OdinDoesArt.   I am quite pleased with it, to be honest.

Now to see how far and wide this one went!

Featured Artist: Brian Brinlee

Time for another Featured Artist post.  I discovered today's artist, Brian Brinlee, in one of the fantasy art groups I frequent on Facebook.  He had a great style and something about his art made me think of some of the old D&D books from the late 90s.   So I got him to commission a piece for me I was calling "Tea with the Witches." It featured five witches from various D&D worlds and it takes place in The Simbul's castle in the Forgotten Realms.

Here are the witches pictured. Left to right (clockwise, never widdershins when dealing with witches):

Sagarassi the Sea Witch (Krynn/Dragonlance), Iggwilv the Witch Queen (Oerth/Greyhawk), The Simbul, Witch Queen of Aglarond (Toril/The Forgotten Realms and where this is taking place), Larina (my OC), Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch (Golarion/Pathfinder).

They are playing Pentacles, a game played with five people using Tarroka cards.

I loved this one so much I wanted to share more of his art with you.

You can find Brian online on his Facebook, Instagram and DeviantArt pages.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Deviant Art

Thanks so much for sharing these with me Brian!

Mail Call: Art Package from Djinn

One of the things I feel is my privilege is the ability to share with you my readers and friends all the new and wonderful artists I can find.  I love getting art and if I can help out an artist on the way, well that is even better. 

But when the artist shares something with me?  That is the best of all!

So imagine my delight when the postman rings my doorbell today to have me sign for a package from Italy!

And what a package it is!

I had just featured some art from Djinn in the Shade this morning on my Dirty Nellie write-up.  She was the first artist I have ever had make some art for Nell.

And here is what I got!

This one is one of my favorites and it is based on Witches going to their Sabbath (1878), by Luis Ricardo Falero.  It features her OC sorceress Solaine (who is her Pathfinder/D&D character and star of her own comic strip) and my witch Larina.  There is an uncensored one as well. 

Halloween

Stickers!

Djinn also featured our witches in jail in a new bit of art this week to mark her "shadow ban" from Instagram for having "inappropriate art."  

So I am thrilled to death with these!

You can find Djinn on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (for now!), and most of all on her Pateron site. She was also one of my first Featured Artists here.

Thank you my friend for such wonderful art!

Tea with the Witches

Been crazy busy at work. That time of year.  But one big project is done and I am down to the last few courses in this contact hour audit I have been doing for weeks.  

I have been neglecting things here so here is a quick one.  I got some art made of a scene crucial to the "War of the Witch Queens"  back story.  The scene is called "Tea With the Witches" and it takes place in The Simbul's castle in the Forgotten Realms.

I want to send out a hearty thank you to Brian Brinlee for doing such a great job with this. Here are the witches pictured. Left to right (clockwise, never widdershins when dealing with witches):

Sagarassi the Sea Witch (Krynn/Dragonlance), Iggwilv the Witch Queen (Oerth/Greyhawk), The Simbul, Witch Queen of Aglarond (Toril/The Forgotten Realms and where this is taking place), Larina (my OC), Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch (Golarion/Pathfinder).

They are playing Pentacles, a game played with five people using Tarroka cards.

Hopefully regular posting will resume next week!

Plays Well With Others: Modern Occult Horror Games

Been thinking a lot about all the modern supernatural games I have (and I think I have all of them) and in particular the ones that have come out from the Old-School gaming scene.  These games all cover roughly the same sort of topics and themes but they all do them in different ways that I keep thinking they would all work great together. 

In other words, it sounds like a perfect topic for a Plays Well With Others. 

So the games I am talking about are Dark Places & Demogorgons, We Die Young, Dark Streets & Darker Secrets, and my own NIGHT SHIFT.  These are the big modern supernatural, occult horror games from the OSR. 

I have reviewed these games in the past.

• Review: Survive This! Dark Places & Demogorgons
• SURVIVE THIS!! We Die Young RPG Core Rules (2021)
• Review: Dark Streets & Darker Secrets

Obviously, I have not reviewed NIGHT SHIFT. Reviewing your own game is incredibly tacky and remarkably dishonest. 

I have covered many of these games in other Plays Well With Others too.

• Night Shift and Modern Supernatural Games
• Dark Places & Demogorgons: Cryptid Manual
• Kids Games, Dark Places & Demogorgons (with NIGHT SHIFT)

With the addition of Dark Streets & Darker Secrets to my occult library, I wanted to revisit some of these ideas. Though I want to take a different approach today.

With this Plays Well With Others, I am going to mention each game and talk about what can be used from that game in any of the other three.  In some cases, this is easy like moving from Dark Places & Demogorgons to We Die Young which are essentially the same system.  In others, it will be converting characters from one system to the other. 

At the core of all four games (three systems) is the old-school, the OSR, design.  All of these games have the same "godfather" as it were in Original or Basic D&D.  They have the same uncle (mother's brother), the d20 SRD. And their mother is all the D&D games we all played and the supernatural, occult, horror and urban fantasy media we consumed when not playing. 

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets 

This is the newest game, for me, and the one on my mind the most.  Thankfully it is also the one that has the most to offer all the games.  

For starters, the classes can be imported rather easily into the other three games.  In particular the Tough, the Nimble, and the Smart can be used as subtypes of the Veteran or Survivor in NIGHT SHIFT or as a class in We Die Young.  Maybe not so much for DP&D since those are supposed to be kids. The Gifted of DS&DS is similar to the Supernatural in NS.

The real gift of DS&DS is all the tables.  Someone online described the game as a great toolkit game. Some of the best ones to use in all games are the Complication table (p.20), Weird Items (p.32- 33), almost all the Gear. The Magic and Psychic backlash tables are also fun. ALL the artifact tables. The various "signs" in Chapter 7.  In fact, pretty much all of Chapter 7 to be honest.

Survive This!!

Both Dark Places & Demogorgons and We Die Young from Bloat Games use the same Survive This!! basic rule system, so right out of the gate they are compatible with each other.   Dark Places & Demogorgons focuses on kids in the 1980s and We Die Young on young adults in the 1990s.  So there is a continuum there for any that wish to use it.  There are plenty of "classes" in both games that can be used and mixed and matched.  Like DS&DS there are a lot of great toolbox-like tables and ideas that can be imported into another game.

I can easily see a game then of people in their 30s in the 2000s with large chunks of DS&DS mixed into the Survive This!! system.  Would this game be called "Survive This!! Dark Streets" or "Dark Streets, Dark Places, Darker Secrets & Demogorgons?"  I don't know, but I LOVE the idea of kids experiencing weird shit in the 80s, taking a bunch of drugs to forget them in the 90s (both DS&DS and WDY have these) and finally having to deal with this shit all over again in 2000-2020s as older adults.  Very "It" if you think about it.

The jewel though in the Survive This!! (and there are many) though HAS to be the DP&D Cryptid Manual.  DS&DS takes a toolkit view on monsters.  NIGHT SHIFT has a minimalist view (a very OD&D view if I can add) on monsters.  But the Cryptid Manual gives us a proper monster book.

Of note. Both DS&DS and We Die Young use the newer D&D5-ish Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic. Albeit in slightly different ways.  I have been using this in NIGHT SHIFT as well and find it works better for me than a simple +3 or +5 to rolls. 

Also, both games have a Madness mechanic.  I like the one in We Die Young much better.  Bits from DS&DS could be added to this, but in general, I think I'd use the one in WDY. 

We Die Young also has some really cool races that can help fill out the "Gifted" of DS&DS.

Don't forget you can get the new Hardcover version of Dark Places & Demogorns on Kickstarter now.

NIGHT SHIFT: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars

I talk a lot about NIGHT SHIFT here and with good reason, I am quite proud of the work I have done it.  It fills the void in my life left by the Buffy RPG and everything I wanted from all three editions of Chill, but never exactly got (no slight on Chill, fantastic game), a little more approachable and less nihilistic than Kult, and none of the baggage of The World of Darkness (though I do get the urge to play that again.  My oldest want to give it a try sometime).

Dark Places & Demogorgons makes some assumptions in the game that makes it what it is.  The characters are kids and there is also the Jeffersontown setting, all of which are central to the game and make it work.

Dark Street & Darker Secrets is on the other end of the spectrum with no assumed setting other than "The City" which also works fantastic for this game and one of it's great strengths.

In between those two, we have NIGHT SHIFT (and We Die Young, but I'll get to that).  NIGHT SHIFT does not have a default setting. There are different levels of difficulty you can configure the game in, Cinematic, Realistic, or Gritty.  DP&D would be Cinematic, DS&DS is the poster boy for Gritty, and WDY is around Realistic.  So I would use ideas from those games to inform my choices in the three levels of NS and vice-versa. 

What NIGHT SHIFT has to offer these other games are our "Night Worlds" or mini-settings.  Any of these can be used in any of the other games and the other games can be used to add more details.  Jason's "The Noctnurmverse" can be supplemented either by or used in DS&DS.  The "City" in DS&DS becomes the Noctnurmverse's Pittsburgh.  Or dialing back the Way-Back Machine use it with We Die Young in the 1990s.  My own "Generation HEX" benefits from the ideas on playing kids in DP&D.  You could even take Generation HEX and play it as a DP&D setting if you wanted.  My "Ordinary World" can be used in DS&DS IF you ever decide to move out of the city into the suburbs. 

I already talked a lot about how NIGHT SHIFT and Dark Places & Demogorgons can be used together.  The same logic applies when adding in the other two games.  In fact one place where this might work great is my own Sunny Valley, OH game of the Buffyverse in the 1980s rather than the late 90s/early 2000s.  This works well since a.) NIGHT SHIFT was made to fit the "Buffy-shaped" hole in my life and b.) DS&DS takes a lot of cues from and was influenced by Buffy in all media.  I might just be the best melting pot for all these games. Or crucible. Time will tell.

Putting it All Together

Honestly, there are just too many ways to combine these four games into something you can use.  Start with one and add what you need.  Start with two and be pickier about what you add from the others.  One of the ways I am using it is in my Life-Path Development ideas. Each game represents a different point the characters' lives and each is used to model that time.  The obvious reasons are that DP&D takes place in the 80s with kids, WDY in the 90s with younger adults, and DS&DS and NIGHT SHIFT go beyond that.  To go with personal experience, I was living in Chicago proper in the mid to late 90s and then in the suburbs after that.  To use my ordinary world example my progression would look like this:

DP&D (high school, small town) -> WDY (college, college town) -> DS&DS (grad school, city) -> NIGHT SHIFT (adulthood, suburbs).

In a weird way, it makes sense to me.  But I am not stating up myself. I don't live in a magical world, I live in this one.  BUT I do have my Drosophila melanogaster of these sorts of experiments, Willow and Tara.   I have done stats for them for Dark Places & Demogorgons and NIGHT SHIFT.  Doing ones for We Die Young and Dark Streets & Darker Secrets would be easy enough.  BUT.  Those are not the same characters really. They fall under my "Alternate Reality" versions rather than "Lifespan or Lifepath Development."   Though doing DS&DS versions of Willow and Tara should be in my future.

No for this I need a character that has been around for a while, for that I am going to have to turn to my Iconic Witch Larina.

Fortunately for me, the witch is one of the few character classes/archetypes/concepts that can be found in all these games (the weird psychic is as well, but witches are my thing).  So building a witch feels right.

I worked up all the sheets and this is what I ended up with.  Purple is the color of all of Larina's sheets. Click for larger. 

Dark Places & Demogorgons

It's 1984 and Larina is 14 and 4th level.  She lives in a small town where her mom runs a spice shop and her dad is a Professor of Anthropology and teaches music.  She is called "creepy girl" by the kids in school.  At this point, she is shy and can't quite understand why others can't see the strange things all around them. 

Most of these adventures are of the "Scooby-Doo" sort; short ones that are resolved by the end.  Easily Monster of Week sorts.

We Die Young

We are moving to the early 90s now and she is 7th level. Larina is in grad school and is now Larina Macalester. She was married at age 19 but obviously, it is not working out well.  She is living in Chicago while her estranged husband is still living in Ireland. Her stats nudge up a little but she largely is similar to her 1DP&D version.  There are some differences between the two types of Witch classes (and DP&D still has others) but nothing I consider earth-shattering.  I did get to add her two tattoos. One is a protection tattoo (a large Triple Moon Goddess on her back) and one on her left wrist that allows her to cast a magic bolt. 

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets

Things are getting darker.  Larina is now 35, 10th level, and back to going back to using "Nichols" as her last name.  Her complication is she is hiding from her ex-husband who was in the IRA.  (NOTE: I actually played through this back in the early 2000s.  The big twist was that while she was hiding out, her ex had moved on and was living his own life with his new wife.)  I wanted to use my new idea for Sanity by having it as Intellect +  Willpower /2. BUT for Larina here both scores are 17 giving me an average of 17. 

NIGHT SHIFT

Here is the one closest to my heart, obviously.  She has more spells, but this is expected at 13th level. 

As expected the powers don't always match up right and I could have taken more care in aligning the spells with each version. But I figure that these changes can be chalked up to learning and experiences.  I do feel that all versions reflect the character at the time well.   

Looking forward to trying this with other characters to see how they work out. Also, I am keeping all of these books together to use as needed.  By themselves, they give me a wonderful experience. Together they give me an epic experience.

Character Creation Challenge: Dark Ages Mage

Ah! World of Darkness. 

We have had some great times together. And some not so great.  But I never grow tired of picking up a WoD book (new, old, Chronicle, whatever) and seeing what is going on.  As you can imagine Mage was a particular favorite of mine. I loved all the lines but Mage: Sorcerer's Crusade was my favorite.  Dark Ages: Mage though has a lot going for it though too.

The Game: Dark Ages Mage

As it turns out, Dark Ages: Mage requires you to have Dark Ages: Vampire as opposed to Mage: The Ascension or Mage The Sorcerer's Crusade.  That is of course fine, but not what I was expecting for character creation.

Still. This gives the Dark Ages line a sort of continuity that would be both a blessing and curse that the "modern" line did not have and would not have until we get the "New Wolrd of Darkness" in the start of this century.   The year is 1230 AD and stuff is bad all over.  Dark Ages of the World of Darkness. That's like double dark.   

If you have played any of the World of Darkness games then you know what to expect. There are not as many "Traditions" as we will see in Mage, but it does give us a good idea of how they all got here. 

Since we are still in the Dark Ages let's do one of the descendants of Lars and Siân.

The Character: Lowis Larsdottir

Lowis is a reincarnation, future incarnation, past-life or something weird and magical in relation to my Larina. I was playing in a WitchCraft game with her and then I also started a Mage: The Ascension game and wanted to play the same character.  I decided they were the same, but parallel worlds.  This got me on a path where there are many versions of my witch out there and all are more or less aware of the others. 

Lowis here has a Welsh first name and a Nordic last name and I suspect she lives on the continent somewhere.  Maybe Italy or Austria. 

Photo by JJ Jordan from Pexels

Lowis Larsdottir
Initiate

Nature: Pedagogue
Demeanor: Fanatic
Fellowship: The Old Faith

Cabal: Followers of Aradia
Mentor: Gezzie

Physical
Strength 1
Dexterity 2
Stamina 3

Social
Charisma 3
Manipulation 2
Appearance 3

Mental
Perception 3
Intelligence 3
Wits 4

Talents
Alertness 1, Awareness 2, Empathy 2

Skills
Animal Ken 2, Crafts 3, Herbalism 3, Survival 1

Knowledges
Academics 2, Cosmology 1, Enigmas 2, Hearth Wisdom 3, Linguistics 2, Medicine 1, Occult 3, Theology 1

Backgrounds
Mentor 1, Chantry 2, Familiar 2, Library 3

Foundation (Spontaneity) 2

Pillars
Autumn 3, Spring 1, Summer 2

Lowis is new to the Old Faith.  She knows the faith has been handed down over the generations and now she has been awaked to it. As a merchant's daughter, she is afforded some luxuries and can read. She is also a steadfast member of her faith and wants to see it spread.  She is not quite "run naked through the woods" but she is getting there. 

Character Creation Challenge: Yggdrasill

Today is part 2 of my two-part character creation.  Yesterday I re-introduced you all to Siân ferch Modron and the game Keltia.  Today is her soon-to-be husband, if they don't kill each other first, Lars son of Nicholas from the RPG Yggdrasill.

The Game: Yggdrasill

Like Keltia, Yggdrasill is from the French publisher Le 7ème Cercle (The 7th Circle) and was published in English first by Cubicle 7.  Now it is published in English exclusively by Le 7ème Cercle.  The games have a lot of similarities in rules and in tone, so using them together is expected really. The production values for Yggdrasill are higher, with full-color pages and a stylized character sheet, and it leads me to believe it was the newer game. However, the publication date of it is 2009 and Keltia is 2012.

Yggdrasill is, as you might imagine, a game of the Epic Sagas of the Vikings and Norsemen.  I do have to point out that "Viking" is not a group of people but rather describes what they do.  It is handy for describing the era though, 800 AD to 1100AD or so.  Already we are talking about a time period later than what we see in Keltia which is usually depicted in the 100AD to 500AD era.  This works out well for me since I would want to play in a time that is an overlap of the eras; the end of the Druids and the rise of the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and, well yes, the Vikings. Maybe there was a time when Northmen raiders came ashore to Ireland or Wales and encountered Druids. Maybe not.  That is why we have games.  

Also like Keltia, there is a TON here that I could use with Troll Lords' Codex Nordica and visa versa. All four books combined? Now there is a campaign worth playing! 

I have to admit one of the reasons I was drawn to both of these games was that the art for the Volva (witch) archetype, reminded me so much of Larina.

The Character: Lars son of Nicholas

Lars got his start a little bit before Siân did.  Lars' name of course was easy, I knew my witch Larina was named after her father because of the red hair they both share. Nicholas, or sometimes Nichols, was named for a professor I had at the beginning of my Ph.D. studies.  I imagined him as a traveling scholar, from somewhere far away, maybe in the North.  His travels brought him to a new land where everything was the most verdant green as far as the eyes could see. He was born a Northman, but he was an Irishman in his heart.  The rest came easy.

In this version, Lars came to Cymru (Wales) while traveling on a ship. He was to sole survivor of a shipwreck.  He was to be sacrificed but his ability to play the harp showing he was a Bard (Skald in his world) saved him.

Lars son of Nichols

Lars Nicholason
Archetype: Sage
Profession: Skald
Kingdom: Denmark

Runes: Ansuz+, Perth+, Mathr-
Gifts: Initiate (Galdr), Scholar
Weakness: Curious

BODY
Strength: 2
Vigor: 2
Agility: 2

MIND
Intellect: 2
Perception: 2
Tenacity: 2

SOUL
Charisma: 2 
Instinct: 3
Communication: 2

Reaction: 6
Physical Defense: 6
Mental Defense: 7
Move: 4
Enc: 4

HP: 37

Furor Pool: 6

Skills
Art (Skaldic) 7, Eloquence 7, Languages (Norse, Brythonic) 2, Sagas 7
Galdr 7
Long Weapons 3

Incantations
Illusion: Hearing (3), Sight (6)
Charms: Sleep (3)

Like Keltia there is a LOT to go with here.

While reading over this I just HAVE to make a Finnish Volva/Witch of Tasha/Iggwilv. That would be a lot of fun.

Character Creation Challenge: Keltia

First of a two-parter today!  I delve into a game I REALLY wanted to play more of, but is now out of print from it's English publisher.  The games are Keltia and Yggdrasill, two games that really capture the feel of the Post-Roman Celtic and Norse worlds.  Both use the same base system and both really grab my attention. Today for part one I will focus on Keltia.

The Game: Keltia

Keltia, or Keltia, the Chronicles of Arthur Pendraeg, is from the French publisher Le 7ème Cercle (The 7th Circle) and was published in English first by my good friends at Cubicle 7.  The game is set roughly in the years following the exit of the Romans from Britain.  There are mentions of Roman civilization and Christianity, but this is a purely Celtic world.  Or rather, it is a world of the Celts of Myth, Legend, and Folklore.

It is the Dark Ages, but this isn't the one you read about in history books. This is a game-world; so not Britain exactly, but Ynys Prydein.  It uses a lot of Welsh so already it has my undivided attention.

This game is quite good and character creation was pretty fast.  Again, there are a lot of options and I really must come back to this one in the future.  I can see using this in conjunction with Troll Lord's Codex Celtarum for Castles & Crusades.  Both cover similar ground and one would easily work as a background and as a supplement for the other.

I am rather fond of the Mind/Body/Soul stat groups.  I was working on something similar a long time ago, but that work eventually became NIGHT SHIFT.

The Character: Siân ferch Sinéad

In a lot of ways Siân is not just the main reason I wanted to try out Keltia, she is also the reason I wanted to do this challenge.   Siân ferch Sinéad is the mother of my iconic witch Larina.  Tomorrow I will feature her father Lars. If you have been a long time reader here you will recognize her as also being one of my playtest characters for The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch Tradition for Old-School Essentials.

Siân (along with Lars) was featured with her "Irish" name, Siân nic Stefon.  She is the daughter of Stefon and Sinéad; nic and ferch being the Irish and Welsh (respectively) way of meaning "daughter."

These though are Siân's and Lars earliest days.

Siân is the daughter of a Druid and High Priestess, so she follows in her mother's footsteps and will become a high priestess as well. She is a bit haughty and this comes out in her Arrogance weakness.  She certainly feels her culture is superior to all others.  It is not until she meets Lars, a "Gogleddwr" (Northman), that her ideas begin to change.

Siân

Siân ferch Sinéad
Archetype: Wise One
Profession: Priestess of Avalon
Kingdom: Cymru

Gifts: Blood of the Ancients, Scholar
Weakness: Arrogant

BODY
Strength: 1
Vigor: 2
Agility: 2

MIND
Intellect: 2
Perception: 3
Tenacity: 2

SOUL
Charisma: 3
Instinct: 2
Communication: 2

Reaction: 7
Physical Defense: 6
Mental Defense: 6

HP: 26

Furor Pool: 6

Skills
Art (song) 3, Knowledge (Ritual) 7, Languages (Brythonic), Ogham 7, Traditions 6
Awen 7
Short Weapons 3

Spells (Priestess of Avalon)
Sense Awen 1, Blessing of the Gods 1, Read Omens 1, In the Arms of Dôn 1

I like how this character is shaping up.  I would use Keltia and the Codex Celtarum to inform how she would be played in Old-School Essentials.

Looking forward to seeing how her future husband turns out tomorrow!

Character Creation Challenge: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

Of all the RPGs I have looked at so far it is this one I know the least.  Part of the issue is that Pathfinder 2nd Edition is so new, only published in 2019, and I have not had the chance to play it really at all.  Indeed I wasn't even going to pick up but my oldest expressed an interest in playing it so we got it.   He would later return to his true love, D&D 5, but I found I rather liked the books myself.

The problem I am running into here, for today, is I do have so little knowledge about it.  So little in fact that my plan for today was to update a character I had played in PF1 but I only now discovered that the class I wanted, Cavalier, has not been updated to PF2 yet! Though other options are open to me.

The Game: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

As I mentioned Pathfinder 2nd Edition was released back in 2019.  I recall the Paizo "booth" (more like "block") staked full of shiny new Pathfinder books.  I am sure they expected them all to sell out, but I get the feeling that the sales were not as high as they wanted.  Not a huge surprise really.  Pathfinder 1st Edition's success was built on their success with the D&D 3.5 products they had made and no small amount due to the failures of D&D 4th Edition.  Today, or at least in 2019, D&D 5 is a huge success and some gamers have gone from Pathfinder back to D&D.   

Also as I said I was not originally going to pick this game up, but I changed my mind after going over the playtest materials and my son wanting to get it.  There are a lot of really cool ideas here and some I think would work well in D&D 5. For example, Ancestry would be better in D&D 5 over the very outmoded "race" or even the awkward "species."

Much like a software development fork, Pathfinder represents one development off of the D&D 3.x line where D&D 5e is a different fork.  To be fair, Pathfinder is closer to its OGC roots than D&D 5 is, but looking at the games in 2021 you see similar parentage and DNA.  This means that someone could in theory bring the best of both worlds back together into one game.  An interesting thought experiment to say the least.  

One thing I will say for Pathfinder 2nd Edition.  It is designed from the ground up to show new players how to play and give them enough to keep them for a long time.  I think it would be fun to play a character in this from 1st to 20th level in a well-crafted adventure path.  I can see how that would be great.

The Character: Oisín

Character creation in Pathfinder 2 is a more modern process than the games in its, well, ancestry.  While you could easily roll up a character here just like you did in AD&D or D&D 3.x, it behooves me to follow the process here.

Oisín was a character I played in Pathfinder 1st Edition. In the game he was the youngest son of this powerful lord and a witch.  In reality, I decided he was the son of a Paladin/Warrior named Fionn and my witch Labhraín.  In the game, he was searching for who killed his mother and who his true father was. 

In Pathfinder 2nd Ed. we have a variety of character customization options that recreating that character is no longer as interesting as rebuilding him from the ground up.

For this character, I am going to use the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rules and the Advanced Player's Guide which features the witch class.  Also for this character, I am going to start him at 1st level, but advance him to 2nd.  Also, just because, I am going to limit my 1st level choices to the Core Rules, and then 2nd level choices to the Advanced Player's Guide. I have my reasons.

Oisín

Lawful Neutral half-elf*
Bard 1

Ability Scores
Strength +0 (10)
Dexterity +1 (12)
Constitution +0 (10)
Intelligence +3 (16)
Wisdom +1 (12)
Charisma +4 (18)

Reserves
Hit Points 16/16
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 1/1

Defenses
AC 15 (Leather)
Fort +3
Ref +4
Will +6

Senses
Perception (Wis) +6 (E)
Low-light Vision

Tactical
Speed 25ft
Size Medium
Space 5 ft.
Reach 5 ft.

Other
Wealth 2 gp; 80 sp
Bulk 4/10

Attacks (1st/2nd/3rd Strike)

Dagger
Melee +4 / +0 / -4 1d4 Pier
Ranged +4 / +0 / -4 1d4 Pier

Fist
Melee +4 / +0 / -4 1d4 Blud

Longsword
Melee +3 / -2 / -7 1d8 Slsh

Hand crossbow
Ranged +4 / -1 / -6 1d6 Pier

Sling
Ranged +4 / -1 / -6 1d6 Blud

Skills
+6 Academia Lore T
+1 Acrobatics U
+6 Arcana T
+0 Athletics U
+6 Bardic Lore T
+6 Crafting T
+7 Deception T
+7 Diplomacy T
+4 Intimidation U
+4 Medicine T
+4 Nature T
+6 Occultism T
+7 Performance T
+4 Religion T
+6 Society T
+1 Stealth U
+4 Survival T
+1 Thievery U

Feats
Half-elf (Heritage)
Otherworldly magic (Elf, Ancestry)
Assurance - Arcana (Background)
Bardic Lore - Egnima (Bardic Feature)
Composition Spell (Bardic Feature)

Spells

Bard Cantrips
Chill Touch (DC 17) Unlimited +7
Daze (DC 17) Unlimited +7
Light Unlimited +7
Mage Hand Unlimited +7
Shield Unlimited +7

Bard 1st-level Spells
Magic Missile 2/2 +7
Magic Weapon 2/2 +7
True Strike 2/2 +7

I will be honest, this one took me a lot longer to do than expected.

I choose "Half-elf" as both a nod to the original myths of Oisín and to reflect there is something otherworldly about him.  He would not really be a traditional "AD&D Half-elf" more of a human with fey or sidhe blood in him from his father.

At 2nd Level instead of a Bard class feat I am going to take a multi-classed witch feat, Witch Dedication.    Multiclassing in Pathfinder 2nd Ed is a little bit like multiclassing in D&D 4 where you take a feat to gain some of the abilities of that class. This feat gives Oisín access to witch spells and feats as well as a Patron (including skills), and a familiar. 

Since Oisín has Engima as part of his Bard training I am going to choose a Fate Patron. Though there is some overlap here. He would get training in Occultism skill and the True Strike spell, both of which he already has.  I am going to leave this since the Egnima he is following is Fate; they are the same.

This is of course not optimized, but it fits better with my concept of the character, so I'll take the hit. In building this I realized I had unintentionally built the Pathfinder version of the Ghosts of Albion Occult Poet.  I am not unhappy with that.

Again, this is a good character idea, I might try to replicate it in D&D5 with a Bard/Warlock mix, I think it might actually work out a little better there.

Maybe I can even work out his Niamh one day.

Character Creation Challenge

Tardis Captain is the originator of this idea and he is keeping a list of places participating.  When posting to Social Media don't forget the #CharacterCreationChallenge hashtag. 

RPG Blog Carnival

This month's RPG Blog Carnival is being hosted by Plastic Polyhedra. They are doing Characters, Stories, and Worlds, so that fits right in with everything we are posting this month.

Check out all the posts going on this month at both of these sources.

Character Creation Challenge: Pathfinder 1st Edition

Paizo's Pathfinder was a bit of a revolution in the RPG market.  Paizo had been a solid d20/3e publisher in the heyday of the d20/OGL boom, with the zenith of this time actually publishing Dragon and Dungeon Magazines for a time. When WotC opted to move on to 4e, Paizo began their work on an update to the 3.5 OGC ruleset for their own game.  In 2009 the Pathfinder RPG was released and soon there became two "Big names" in the RPG biz; Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. 

The Game: Pathfinder, 1st Edition

Pathfinder quickly took on players that played D&D 3.x but who did not want to go on to D&D 4. Pathfinder was informally called "D&D 3.75" and moving between Pathfinder and D&D 3.x was fairly trivial compared to D&D 3.x and 4e.  Additionally, Paizo gave Pathfinder robust support both in terms of online presence and their Pathfinder Organized Play.  Releasing the rules as an open playtest was deemed so successful that many other companies, including WotC for D&D5, adopted it.

Paizo also released a number of high-quality sourcebooks, many of which are backward compatible with D&D 3.x. I am particularly fond of the Advanced Player's Guide, Book of the Damned, Bestiary 4 (for the mythos monsters), Occult Adventures, and Horror Adventures. I consider these part of my "core" for Pathfinder.  The witch-centric "Regin of Winter" Adventure Path is a must-have for me.

I have posted a lot about Pathfinder here. I enjoy the game but I don't play it all that much anymore. Still, I enjoy reading over the material.

The Character: Labhraín

I played in a Pathfinder game that I treated as an alt-Universe version of my 3e/4e game universe. I held the idea that the two universes I was playing (4e vs. Pathfinder) had a similar start (3e) and then diverted.  The Pathfinder universe had devils as their "big bad" while 4e (running the Orcus-themed HPE series) had demons. Some characters were the same in each world.  Labhraín was the Pathfinder version of Larina. 

Here, because of the influence of various devil cults from the former Chelaxian Empire, Labhraín hid her status as a witch.  I took a page from "Prime World" Larina, who faked being a wizard to hide as a witch, to Labhraín faking being a priestess to hide being a witch.  I did not do much with the character but use her as a backstory to my cavalier character that I was playing at the time.  The belief was that Labhraín was dead.  I detail my other character tomorrow.

ePic Character Generator

Labhraín
Human (Ulfen) witch 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 65)
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +1

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Defense

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AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10
hp 7 (1d6+1)
Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +3; +1 trait bonus vs. divine spells

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Offense

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Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks hex (charm^APG)
Witch Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
   1st—charm person (DC 14), cure light wounds
   0 (at will)—daze (DC 13), light, read magic
   Patron Fate

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Statistics

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Str 9, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB -1; CMD 9
Feats Scholar^ISWG, Silent Spell
Traits classically schooled, history of heresy
Skills Bluff +4, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +4, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (religion) +6, Spellcraft +8
Languages Common, Elven, Infernal, Jistka, Skald
SQ witch's familiar (cat named Scamall)

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Special Abilities

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Charm +1 (3 rounds, DC 13) (Su) Improve attitude of humanoid or animal in 30 ft. by 1 step(s).
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Familiar Bonus: +3 to Stealth checks You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Scholar (Knowledge [arcana], Knowledge [religion]) +2 bonus on two Knowledge skills.
Share Spells with Familiar Can cast spells with a target of "You" on the familiar with a range of touch.
Silent Spell Cast a spell with no verbal components. +1 Level.
Witch's Familiar (Ex) Gain the services of a special familiar that stores spells.

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I like the way she turned out to be honest.  It's a shame that I think she might be dead! 

Character Creation Challenge

Tardis Captain is the originator of this idea and he is keeping a list of places participating.  When posting to Social Media don't forget the #CharacterCreationChallenge hashtag. 

RPG Blog Carnival

This month's RPG Blog Carnival is being hosted by Plastic Polyhedra. They are doing Characters, Stories, and Worlds, so that fits right in with everything we are posting this month.

Check out all the posts going on this month at both of these sources.