Skylla: Spellcraft & Swordplay: Eldritch Witchery

For my first conversion of Skylla I wanted to start as far back as I could while still using a proper "Witch" class.  Plus I want to do something that is more similar to a "wizard" class.  For those reasons I am choosing to use Spellcraft & Swordplay (since it is very much like OD&D) and the warlock class from Eldritch Witchery.

A few conceits.
- While the original Skylla was 6th level, I am going to stat all my versions as 7th level.  The reasoning is that a lot of my witch classes gain a power at 7th level and many others have at lease one power by that point.
- I am also working under the assumption that Skylla began as a good character, either as a good witch or a good magic-user/wizard and then soon became evil.  By 6th level she is unrepentant chaotic evil.  So her initial options as a character would be the ones a good character might choose.
- I am keeping her same stats, but I am going to rearrange them so her Prime Attribute always has the highest value (in this case 15).
- I am going to try to give her the same or similar spells from her original stats.

Skylla from Eldritch Witchery
I choose the Warlock class since it seems to fit my narrative of her. Warlocks are "betrayers" and evil typically, but they don't have to be.  You can use Eldritch Witchery to make a good Warlock.  Evil just happens to be easier.  Also Warlocks are an advanced class of Wizards (Magic-Users) so it fits.

She belongs to the Goetic Lodge. Figured that it was the best choice to fit a character that wanted to seek out more magic.

Skylla, 7th Level warlock (Goetic)

Strength: 9
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 15*
Wisdom: 12
Charisma: 11

Hit Points:  25
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
AC: 3 (Ring of Protection +1)

Occult Powers
Familiar: Elemental Sprit
7th level: Summon 6HD Elemental to do her bidding (typically she likes fire and air)

Spells 
First: Charm Person, Light, Read Magic, Spirit Dart
Second: Detect Invisible, Knock, Levitate
Third: Bestow Curse, Slow, Wizard Lock
Fourth: Elemental Armor

Magic Items
Ring of Protection +1, Dagger +1, Staff of Enchantment, demon helm (+1 saves vs. demons and charming magic, +1 AC)

Some rearrangement of spells but still comes close.  There is no Staff of Commanding in S&S, but there is the Staff of Enchantment which fills the same niche.

Skylla, Evil Magic User

I reviewed Module XL1 Quest for the Heartstone recently and among other things it had the stats for a character I knew very little about.

Skylla was an evil magic-user for the LJN/AD&D toy figure line.
She never made it to the larger "Action figure" as far as I can tell, but instead was one of the smaller "collectible" figures, abut 2" tall.

She comes up every so often on eBay, and she never appeared in the D&D cartoon to my knowledge.

Here is what is said on her card:

"while wizards are the most powerful of magic users, the female must be considered even more special. In a world where every hand is turned against her she has risen in a field that is difficult indeed. Able to cast magical spells of awesome power, she will go to any lengths to win her private battles. Often this type of person can be counted on to use magical devices of great power. Glowing slaves. Rings, and amulets are constantly found in the possession of such a person much to the horror of her enemies."

Well...it was 1983.

While I want to say I never saw her before and I honestly don't remember the character, there are some similarities with this character and a witch I made around the same time.  I pulled up her stats from Quest of the Heartstone.

Yeah. That is Larry Elmore doing the Skylla art.
A couple other things jump out at me. She is 6th level so her "name level" is "Warlock", or in old D&D Expert, a "Witch".   Plus the Italian version of the character refers to her as "La Strega" which also means, the witch.

She also appeared in The Shady Dragon Inn supplement.

SKYLLA™ Evil Magic-User
S 9; I12; W 8; C 9; D 11; CH 11; AL C;
LV 6; AC 8; hp 22; P/D 11; MW 12;
S/P 11; DB 14; SP/MS 13; THACO 17
[16 using dagger +1]
Spells: 1st Level: light, magic missile.
2nd Level: detect invisible, levitate.
3rd Level: hold person, lightning bolt.
Wears ring of protection +1; carries dagger
+1, staff of commanding (10 charges).

SKYLLA™ Evil Magic-User has silvery dark hair, stands 5'10", weighs 131 lbs., and has flashing dark eyes. She favors gray clothing, although she always wears her golden demon headress and her golden demon girdle. SKYLLA carries a magical staff, a staff of commanding. Once she was a student of RINGLERUN's, but when she was exposed to the Heartstone, she began to seek out the evil, harmful side of magic.
Her lust for power grew until she broke away from the good magician, seeking personal gain and power. Because the Heartstone did not affect RINGLERUN, she has grown to hate him for what she feels is his "soft and stupid" use of magic.

Her stats are quite similar to a witch character I had been using (and still use) at the time.
Also her concept, a magic-user that uses a lot of magic items, is not unique (there was one in the Myth Adventures books) was also something I had done for my witch.

This is all a rather fortunate find for me really!

I needed a new adversary to work with that had a history with one of my witch characters.  I was going to go with Iggwilv, but she is way too big.  Skylla here is perfect.
Also, I wanted a witch character I could use to compare the various witch books I have.  I wanted someone around 6-7th level. I needed someone with "normal" stats and someone that would not take me hours to stat up.  I was going to go with my own witch character (again), but none of you have the connection to her that I do.  So the reading might be a little dull.

Skylla is perfect for all of this.
I can develop the character as I stat her up to compare systems.  Win all around.
Besides. Playing around with a chaotic evil witch will be fun.  I plan on using her (in some way) in my kids 1st Ed game this weekend.  They are still working through the Cave of Chaos.

In the meantime I'll also keep looking for more information on her.

Links

• Custom figure and on eBay (for 300 bucks)
• Puffy stickers pack
• Noble Knight Games and Elmore art (though it does say "good", she began as good)
• A page with all the NPCs
• Her "namesake" Scylla