Character Creation Challenge: Deathstroke Shadowreaper

 Today's character is another Starmaster, with emphasis on his Shadowmaster upbringing, and the chip off of Warluk's old block, his son Deathstroke Shadowreaper.

Now, you might first ask, "Was Grenda a fan of the Teen Titans?" I think the answer is obvious. 

While Deathstroke here is stated as a Starmaster, in play he was pretty much a thief/fighter with some magical abilities. 

While I saw more of Deathstroke than Warluk, I liked Warluk better. Deathstroke had all of Warluk's bad qualities and almost none of his good ones. And like Warluk, he was estranged from his family. Warluks was by accident, and Deathstroke's was by choice.

So, in short. He was an asshole.

I know he was a fun character to play because of how often he showed up, but as a DM he got on my nerves a little. BUT Grenda loved playing him, and I wanted to see how the Starmaster and Shadowmaster classes worked so it was fine. Maybe because the classes were so overpowered, that led to his "assholishness." 

About "New Humans"

New Human, or Homo Sapiens Nova, was from a Star Frontiers game we played that blended some Gamma World elements. During what was our Great Wars (the campaign we played before I went to University and resulted in our worlds getting merged) a few characters got sent forward in time, where they got genetic treatments. These characters had longer life spans (double) and could exceed human norms. A few characters returned to "AD&D" to fight in the Great Wars. Deathstroke here was one of them. I forget what the side effects he had since the treatment always had side effects. Typically it was things like loss of psionic ability or inability to shapeshift or turn invisible. I can see on his sheet that he had his base on Mars for a while. 

Largely, it was an excuse to play some sci-fi and explain why some characters had ability scores above 18. 

The HUGE side effect for me? It was here that I wanted a system to allow me to move between Fantasy, Horror, and SciFi. You can see the result of that in the O.G.R.E.S. system in Wasted Lands, NIGHT SHIFT, and Thirteen Parsecs.

Deathstroke Shadowreaper

Class: Renegade/Warrior
Level: 9/9
Species: Human (using the Supernatural type from NIGHT SHIFT and other species rules from Wasted Lands)
Alignment: Twilight Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 22 (+4) A
Agility: 19 (+3) N 
Toughness: 18 (+3) N
Intelligence: 18 (+3)  
Wits: 15 (+1) 
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: -1
Vitality: 120 (d4/d10)
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 3

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +4 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +4 (base)
Saves: +3 vs Death attacks and area effects

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3), Perception, Vital Strike x3, Read Languages, Stealth Skills

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: Psychic Ability: Psychokinesis
Level 3: +1 to melee attacks
Level 5: "Luck" befit
Level 7: Psychic Ability: Body Control
Level 9: Reroll
Level 11: Powerful Defense vs. melee
Level 13: +1 to attacks, checks, and saves
Level 15: Psychic Ability: Bio-Feedback
Level 17: Psychic Ability: Temporal Sense

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Death

Gear
Sword (Darksheath), Dagger (Silver Thorn), leather armor +4, cloak of night (protection)

Ok. Not bad really. To get past the Starmaster silliness I used the Heroic Touchstones to give him psychic abilities and completely ignored his magic use. NOW I could have taken a younger version of him and stated him up as a Slicer for Thirteen Parsecs. Maybe I still will. 

A lot of those games in the early part of 1987 became the source of my desire to work on Thirteen Parsecs.

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

New Year. New Games

 Well. More like, "New Year, time to get rid of games I have not played in forever."

Expect some odd ball reviews coming up.

Character Creation Challenge: Finn Danis

 This is the first Monday of the new year and the first day back to work for many. So it is good that I am starting off the week with this character. 

Finn Danis was a Cheysuli Starmaster.

Ok, that is a sentence I need to parse out a bit. 

Back in 1986 both Grenda and I were heavy into making our own classes. I have detailed that tera here plenty of times with my Witch class. This era also produced my Healer, Necromancer, and Sun Priest classes.

Grenda created the Riddlemaster, Shadowmaster, Beastmaster, and finally the Starmaster classes. I will detail these classes this month as they come up more and more. But suffice to say they were extremely overpowered. This was be design, and they had the XP requirements to match. 

I posted my own Riddlemaster last year. The Starmaster class was essentailly a proto-prestige class similar to the original Bard or Acrobat classes. A potential Starmaster had to advance as Riddlemaster, then a Shadowmaster and then a Beastmaster. Never reaching level 10 (The Black of Mastery; levels had colors) in any. Then you progress as a Starmaster.

Finn was the head of the School of Riddlery in Grenda's game. He was his test character for for all his Riddlemaster classes. He was, in pretty much every aspect, his "Larina."

The notion here was all the Riddlemaster classes were Psionic. Their powers were psionic/psychic based. We decided that the powerful Wizard's Guilds and Priestly Orders had worked together to make psionic powers illegal in our realms. So the Riddlemasters (also called "Adepts") had to disguise their powers to look like magic. They could take wizard spells, had thief skills, turn undead, and had great combat. Did I mention they were overpowered? 

Finn was also a Cheysuli, from Jennifer Roberson's Chronicles of the Cheysuli. He was a tall dark-skinned, shape-shifting warrior who could also become a large panther. Since Finn was 6'7" we figure he turned into a giant panther.  I was not into Roberson's books as much as Grenda was. But I liked Finn. 

Think of Dean Henry Fogg from The Magicians, but instead of being played by Rick Worthy, he is played by Tony Todd. 

The biggest problem with Finn is how do I represent him in other games?

On the surface he is a Psychic, with enough heroic touchstones to give him some other abilities. But even with a heroic touchstone per level I am not sure I could replicate him well enough.

Finn Danis

Class: Psychic / Scholar
Level: 20
Species: Cheysuli
Alignment: Light Neutral
Background: Cheysuli

Abilities
Strength: 19 (+3) 
Agility: 19 (+3) 
Toughness: 13 (+1) 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) N
Wits: 16 (+2) A
Persona: 19 (+3) N

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 140
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +8/+6/+2
Melee Bonus: +4 (base) +1 (touchstone) 
Ranged Bonus: +4 (base)
Psychic Attack: +7
Saves: +7 vs Persona (Psychic), +1 to all (touchstone)

Background
Shapeshift to a large panther. Speak with Animals.

Psychic Abilities
Psychic powers: 5, Supernatural attacks, Supernatural power: Astral Projection

Psychic Powers
Bio-feedback
Psychokinesis
ESP
Telepathy
Temporal Sense

Sage Abilities
Languages: 15, Lore 95%, Mesmerize others, suggestion, Renegade Skills: 3rd level, Spells 3/2/1

Stealth Skills
Open Locks: 30%
Bypass Traps: 25%
Sleight of Hand: 35%
Sneak: 30%

Spells
First level: Arcane Dart, Light, Mystical Senses, Command
Second level: Lesser Renewal, Unlock
Third level: Concussive Blast

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: Glamour
3rd Level: +1 to melee combat
5th Level: First Level Spell: Command
7th Level: Divine Smite
9th Level: +1 to all checks, attacks, and saves
11th Level: Immunity to Undead Attacks
13th Level: Character ceases to age
15th Level: Persistent Luck
17th Level: Down but not out
19th Level: Overwhelming Aura

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Natural Order

Gear
Sword (Mistweaver)

Ok. There is no way I can do Finn justice and stay within the rules as written for Wasted Lands. Or pretty much any other game really. For amusement sake I started a D&D 4e version of him, but even that was unsatisfying.

No. Finn is really too much for any game and he is even stretching AD&D to point of ridiculousness. 

But, that was the point. He was an experiment who just happened to also be a great character. 

There is a question here though.

Does anyone want to see the Riddlemaster classes? Is there any interest out there for these über-powered classes?

Mind you, I LOVED playing my Riddlemasters. Maybe as much as I did my witches. But I am sure they are a lot more niche than my witches are. 

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

Character Creation Challenge: Damelon Myrildean

 I am not sure how many old players had generational characters, but Grenda and I certainly did. This stack of characters I have were not sorted by date and certainly not by family. So, finding Adnerg's grandson here is kind of neat.

Damelon Myrildean was not just a wizard; he was an avatar of fire. He was trapped on the Elemental plane of Fire for a number of years. Yeah, he was part of the "lost son" cliché, but here I am embracing the clichés.  Which is fun, because Damelon was not much like his grandsire, but he was who you called when you absolutely needed everything burned from orbit.

Damelon is also one of the first characters I have detailed here from "Rivendell." Not the "Rivendell" but the city he created while we were in High School. It was part of our great city project, the Urban Survival Guide.

He did rename the city later to "Riddleholm." 

Damelon also seems to be somewhat influenced by Elric, with his Strength and Constitution scores of 3/18. Again, I am not 100% sure what was happening here, but I like it.

Damelon Myrildean

Class: Sorcerer
Level: 18
Species: Human
Alignment: Twilight Neutral
Background: Scholarly

Abilities
Strength: 3 (-3) / 18 (+3)     
Agility: 17 (+2)     
Toughness: 3 (-3) / 18 (+3)
Intelligence: 18 (+3)  
Wits: 17 (+2) 
Persona: 17 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 40 (d4)
Degeneracy: 3
Corruption: 1

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +8/+6/+4
Melee Bonus: +3 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +3 (base)
Spell Attack Bonus: +9
Saves: +4 vs magic attacks and area effects

Arcane Powers
Astral Projection, Polymath, Shapeshifting, Wild Form

Spells
1st level (5+2): Arcane Darts, Black Flames, Gout of Flame, Mystical Senses, Restore Vitality, Flame Ray (Chill Ray), Phantom Lights
2nd level (5): Conjure Flame, Eternal Flame, Heat Metal, Invoke Fear, Vampiric Augmentation
3rd level (5): Blinding Speed, Concussive Blast, Conjure Fireworks, Dark Lightning, Protection against Energy 
4th level (4): Conjure Fire, Globe of Daylight, Improved Invisibility, Metamorphosis
5th level (4): Blight, Elemental Wall, Summon Elemental, Telekinesis
6th level (4): Disintegrate, Evaporation, Envoke Weather, Instant Death
7th level (3): Ball of Sunshine, Drain Life, Wave of Mutilation
8th level (3): Mind Shield, Snuff Life, Summon Other
9th level (2): Feedback Barrier, Orb of Imprisonment

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: First level spell
Level 3: Additional first-level spell 
Level 5: Aspect control: fire
Level 7: Additional mode of movement: fly
Level 9: Magic recovery
Level 11: Conjure element: Fire
Level 13: Aspect: Fire
Level 15: Metamorphosis: Fire
Level 17: Divine Aura: Fire

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic/Fire

Gear
Dagger, staff

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

Character Creation Challenge: Torvak Con Dain

 I only vaguely remember Torvak. He was a lawful good Paladin (as they all were back then) and dedicated to the ruler of his realm, who might have been Pathon. Not sure. He is certainly an old character, and his various character sheets show a long career, but he is not always super active.

He is a great candidate to test out the Divine Warrior class from Wasted Lands.

Torvak Con Dain

Class: Divine Warrior
Level: 16
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Good
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

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

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: -1
Vitality: 120 
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +7/+5/+3
Melee Bonus: +6 (base), +3 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +6 (base)
Saves: +6 to all Wits and Persona Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Divine Warrior Abilities
Sixth Sense, Heal Injury and Illness (20d6), Supernatural Attacks, Protection from Evil, Turn Undead (level 15), Spot Hidden (1-3 on d4).

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks
3rd Level: Cure Light Wounds Spell
5th Level: Favored Weapon, Sword
7th Level: Zone of Protection vs Evil
9th Level: Special Attack
11th Level: Smite
13th Level: Extra Attack
15th Level: Great Smite

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Justice

Gear
Longsword, Full plate armor, Holy symbol

I am really happy with the Divine Warrior class as a Paladin substitute. I played a LOT of Paladins over the years and this class feels right to me. Tweak it with some spells or levels of other classes to get just the right mix.

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

Character Creation Challenge: Adnerg Myrildean

 Every campaign needs a high-level wizard. Whether that is Elminster, Gandalf, Merlin, or Mordenkainen, a high-level wizard is good to know. In Grenda's campaign, this was Adnerg Myrildean.

Adnerg was a wizard supreme. He picked up some levels of fighter to stay alive, but he was a wizard through and through.

If I continue with my ham-fisted Freudian analogies here, Adnerg was Grenda's "Super-Ego." 

Adnerg was a great character. 

When my characters first met him, he was in a bar gambling. He was loud and boisterous and not at all like a wizard, until combat came around. Then he became the "nuclear option."

Notes about High Levels

Adnerg here is the third character from this collection and in many ways is the poster child for our games in the 1980s.

I have four character sheets for him at different parts in his career. The image above has hi at level 97 Magic-user / level 30 fighter. Yeah. I know. BUT there are good reasons for this. First off keep in mind that these characters are old. Adnerg here has a creation date of 8/14/1984. So they go a lot of play. I think for a while there I was playing every weekend and sometimes three or four nights per week in the summers. 

Also, there was BARDD. BARDD was our computer-based combat simulator for the TRS-80 Color Computer 2. We would put our characters in to the software and let it run. Our rule was that if the characters died in it, they were dead. This was the fate of my first and only half-orc character. Grenda put his characters in and let it run. His characters earned a lot of XP.

We were both good at math, but I was better and calculated the XP tables and spell-progression tables for levels beyond 30. These skills served me well when I would later work on my witch class and Grenda would work on his various Riddlemasters (more on that later).

Like all good wizards, he had many names. He was also known as Erife'nur, the Rune Fire mage.

Adnerg "Erife'nur" Myrildean

Class: Sorcerer
Level: 20
Species: Human
Alignment: Twilight Neutral
Background: Scholar

Abilities
Strength: 9 (+0)     
Agility: 14 (+1)     
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 20 (+4)  
Wits: 16 (+2) 
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 110 (d4)
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +8/+6/+4
Melee Bonus: +4 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +4 (base)
Spell Attack Bonus: +10
Saves: +5 vs magic attacks and area effects

Arcane Powers
Astral Projection, Beguile, Polymath, Precognition, Shadow Walking, Telekinesis 

Spells
1st level (6+1): Arcane Darts, Black Flames, Gout of Flame, Luck Stone, Night Vision, Sense Death, Sleep
2nd level (5): Beguile Person, Conjure Flame, ESP, Lesser Renewal, See Invisible
3rd level (5): Concussive Blast, Conjure Fireworks, Dark Lightning, Dispel Magic, Fly 
4th level (5): Befuddlement, Conjure Fire, Globe of Daylight, Protection against the Deeper Dark, Serpent Arrow
5th level (4): Banishment, Command Winds, Elemental Wall, Summon Elemental
6th level (4): Dispel Evil, Evoke Weather, Move Earth, Part the Seas
7th level (4): Ball of Sunshine, Drain Life, Wave of Mutilation, Zone of Peaceful Conduct
8th level (3): Gaze of the Abyss, Mind Shield, Summon Other
9th level (3): Feedback Barrier, Orb of Imprisonment, Sleeping Village

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: Additional First level spell
Level 3: Additional Arcane Power: Telekinesis 
Level 5: Additional Vitality Points
Level 7: Luck Benefit
Level 9: Spirit Guide: Hawk "Rynn"
Level 11: Level 1 of Warrior
Level 13: Level 2 of Warrior
Level 15: Magical Recovery
Level 17: Level 3 of Warrior
Level 19: Level 4 of Warrior

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Magic

Gear
Staff ("Lacham"), mace ("Shatterside")

Note, unlike the Addingdales, Adnerg has no psionics. 

This is a really great build and "feels" like Adnerg. It would be a pleasure to add him to the Wasted Lands RPG.

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

Character Creation Challenge: Worluk Shadowreaper

 Yesterday, I introduced you to Pathon Addingdale, the patriarch of the Addingdale line. But he almost wasn't. He had a twin brother who was "lost."  Today, I'll talk about that twin.

Worluk Shadowreaper aka Torin Addingdale

The story goes that Pathon and Torin were separated at birth. Years later, Pathon was due to ascend the throne of his kingdom when he fought a notorious assassin, Worluk. They had disarmed each other, and Worluk picked up Pathon's mace Stormshadow. The mace glowed, something it only did in the hands of the true heir. Thus, they both learned that Warluk was really Torin. 

Derivative? Maybe. But like I said before, we ALL did stuff like this back then, and it was great fun. It still is, to be honest.

If Pathon was Grenda's "ego character," then Worluk would be his "Id." Worluk would show up in the game, and he ran as a foil for my largely Lawful Good group of characters. He wasn't presented as an enemy so much as a chaotic force. An evil one, but never directed directly at us. When I would play my own evil character, Death Blade, Worluk would show up as a rival. 

Years later, I revived another Grenda character, Yoln. I misremembered his last name and gave him the Shadowreaper last name as a title. 

Worluk Shadowreaper for Wasted Lands

I am going to provide playable stats for the Wasted Lands RPG from Elf Lair Games. Why? Well, one I want to do is provide Dungeons & Dragons alternatives, and Wasted Lands is my game of choice. 

Though, like Pathon, I am pulling his class from NIGHT SHIFT. While mechanically, Worluk is a survivor, he is even more of one thematically. While a Wasted Lands "Renegade" would also work, I like the idea of Survivor better.

Class: Survivor (from NIGHT SHIFT)
Level: 15
Species: Human
Alignment: Twilight Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N    
Agility: 16 (+2) A    
Toughness: 16 (+2) N
Intelligence: 16 (+2)  
Wits: 16 (+2) 
Persona: 14 (+1) 

Fate Points: 1d12
Defense Value: -1
Vitality: 79 (d4)
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 2

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +7/+4/+3
Melee Bonus: +4 (base)
Ranged Bonus: +4 (base)
Saves: +5 vs Death attacks and area effects

Survivor Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-6 d8), Perception, Vital Strike x5, Read Languages, Stealth Skills

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: Psychic Ability: Teleport
Level 3: +1 to melee attacks
Level 5: "Luck" benfit
Level 7: Powerful Defense vs. melee
Level 9: Reroll
Level 11: Spell: Invisibility
Level 13: +1 to attacks, checks, and saves

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Warrior

Gear
Sword, elven chain, hat of disguise, thieves tools

Ok, I like this version a lot.  Much like Nigel, I imagine Worluk (maybe now going by Torin again) is alive in NIGHT SHIFT.

I did notice that Pathon, in his early versions, worshipped Zeus. Worluk worshiped Loki. This was common for us back then, mixing up mythologies. This was certainly the genesis of my Black Forest Mythologies. Here, Pathon and Worluk would worship Unser Vater and Betrüger, respectively. 

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