Forsetilafom's character sheet (Fantasy Friday #14)

Forsetilafom
Genderqueer AL aasimar (Nosilebo) ranger (dandy) 3
Medium-size outsider (native)/humanoid (human)
Aura: ; Senses: Darkvision 60 ft.

Strength 8
Dexterity 14
Constitution 15
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 17
Charisma 16

Hit Points: 26
Init: +2 or +4*
Saves: Fort +5 or +7 or +9 (+3 class + 2 Con)**, Ref +5 or +7 (+3 class + 2 Dex)***, Will +4 or +5 or +6 or +7 (+1 class + 3 Wis)****
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Base Speed: 30 feet
Special Qualities: Combat style (fencing/Cayden Cailean), favored nation (Natsiyaasim)*****, favored terrain (urban)*, rumor empathy******
Special Defenses: Deathless spirit (negative energy resistance 5)***
Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day ~ detect desires (CL 3rd, DC 15)
Skills*******: Bluff +9 or +11 (3 ranks + 3 Cha + 3 class)*****, Craft (clothier) +5 (1 rank + 1 Int + 3 class), Diplomacy +11 or +13 (3 ranks + 3 Cha + 2 race + 3 class)*****, Disguise +4 (0 ranks + 3 Cha + 1 Wary), Heal +7 (1 rank + 3 Wis + 3 class), Intimidate +8 (2 ranks + 3 Cha + 3 class), Knowledge (geography) impossible or +3 or +5 (untrained + 1 Int)********, Knowledge (local ~ Nosleborre) +9 or +11 (3 ranks + 1 Int + 3 class + 2 Street Smarts)*****, Knowledge (nobility) +7 or +9 (3 ranks + 1 Int + 3 class)*****, Knowledge (others) impossible or +3 (untrained + 1 Int)*****, Perception +10 or +12 or +14 (3 ranks + 3 Wis + 3 class + 1 ioun)*********, Perform (erotic arts) +5 (0 ranks + 3 Cha + 2 race), Sense Motive +12 or +14 (3 ranks + 3 Wis + 3 class + 2 Street Smarts + 1 ioun)*****, Spellcraft +5 (1 rank + 1 Int + 3 class), Stealth +6 or +8 (1 rank + 2 Dex + 3 class)*, Survival +3 or +4 or +5 or +6 or +7 or +8 (0 ranks + 3 Wis + 0 or 1 track)**********
Feats: Combat Reflexes (B), Endurance (B), Light Armor Proficiency (B), Martial Weapon Proficiency (all) (B), Medium Armor Proficiency (B), Sense Relationships***********, Shield Proficiency (B), Simple Weapon Proficiency (B), Street Smarts
Traits: Adrift, Debauchery Defier************, Wary
Drawbacks: Dependent (shaken after failing Diplomacy check)
Languages:
Equipment: Masterwork rapier, reinforced tunic, cracked blue rhomboid ioun stone, cracked magenta prism ioun stone mounted in a wayfinder*******, noble’s vigilant pillbox (white pearl only)*************

* Favored Terrain (Ex): At 3rd level, a dandy ranger gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks when he is in a city. A dandy ranger traveling through a city normally leaves no trail and cannot be tracked (though he may leave a trail if he so chooses). At 8th level and every five levels thereafter, the skill bonus and initiative bonus in the city increases by +2.
** Deathless Spirit: Asimar possess celestial spirits capable of resisting the powers of death. They gain resistance 5 against negative energy damage. They do not lose hit points when they gain a negative level, and they gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against death effects, energy drain, negative energy, and spells or spell-like abilities of the necromancy school. In addition, the magenta ioun prism stone adds +1 to a single save not affected by the ability score affecting the skill it boosts, chosen at sunset.
*** In addition to benefiting from deathless spirit and the magenta prism ioun stone, Fortitude benefits from Endurance. You gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks made to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion; Constitution checks made to continue running; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march; Constitution checks made to hold your breath; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst; Fortitude saves made to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments; and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation. You may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
**** In addition to benefiting from deathless spirit and the magenta ioun prism stone, Will benefits from Adrift. The four bonus represent (a) normal, (b) versus compulsion and charm effects, (c) versus the various types of effects listed in deathless spirit, (d) versus effects listed in deathless spirits that also happen to be charm or compulsion effects, if that ever happens.
***** Favored Nation (Ex): Each time he would select a favored enemy, a dandy instead selects a country with whose courtly graces he is wholly versed and studied. He gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against courtiers, officials, nobles, and gentry from that nation. Likewise, he gains a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A dandy can attempt the appropriate Knowledge checks untrained to identify such people from the selected country. A dandy gains additional favored nations, and can increase the bonuses of one of his current favored nations, in the same way he would with a normal ranger’s favored enemy.
****** Rumor Empathy (Ex): A dandy can alter the flow and spread of rumors in his favor. This functions similarly to wild empathy, except that it takes 1 day (8 hours of work), instead of 1 minute, and it affects the general tenor of a rumor instead of a wild animal. A successful rumor empathy check (using Diplomacy) allows the dandy to increase or decrease the rumor’s tone by one step. For example, he could make an indifferent rumor friendly and thus positive toward its target, or an unfriendly rumor hostile and thus even more negative toward its target than it was originally. The difficulty of influencing a rumor depends on the size of the community in which it is spreading. The DC of the check is 15 in a village or smaller settlement. This DC increases by 5 and the number of days required to attempt the check increases by 2 for every settlement size category larger than a village—to a maximum of DC 40 and 11 days to affect a rumor spreading through an entire metropolis. If the rumor is only spreading through a smaller segment of the population, such as the elven district in a larger metropolis, use the population of that smaller segment to determine the DC and number of days of work required to use rumor empathy. The DC also increases by 10 if the rumor is about the dandy himself, since the dandy is obviously a biased source with respects to rumors about his own person.
******* A magenta ioun stone gives a +2 competence bonus to one skill and a +1 competence bonus to one save affected by a different ability score, both chosen at sunset. That second effect suppresses the usual effects of the wayfinder.
******** Knowledge (geography) benefits from both favored nation and favored terrain. The three bonuses, in order, are (a) normal, (b) when involving someone from Natsiyaasim, (c) when involving a city in Natsiyaasim.
********* Perception benefits from both favored nation and favored terrain. The three bonuses, in order, are (a) normal, (b) when involving someone from Natsiyaasim or in a city, (c) when involving a person from Natsiyaasim in a city.
********** Survival benefits from both favored nation, track, and favored terrain, all class features of the dandy ranger. The six bonuses, in order, are (a) normal, (b) to follow tracks, (c) when rolled against someone from Natsiyaasim or when rolled in a city, (d) to follow the tracks of someone from Natsiyaasim, (e) when rolled against someone from Natsiyaasim in a city, (f) to follow the tracks of someone from Natsiyaasim in a city
*********** Sense Relationships: You can quickly sense relationships between others and use that knowledge to manipulate them. Prerequisite: Street Smarts. Benefit: After 1 minute or more of interaction or observation, you can attempt a DC 20 Sense Motive check to get a hunch in order to intuit the relationship between any two creatures interacting with one another. If you don’t understand the language they are speaking, you take a –5 penalty on the check, and if the creatures are a different type than you, you take an additional –5 penalty on the check. If you succeed at this check by 5 or more, for the next hour, you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff checks to lie about one of the creatures to the other and on Diplomacy checks to request that one act against the other. If you fail the check, you cannot attempt this ability on the same creatures again until you gain an additional rank in Sense Motive.
************ Debauchery Defier (Social): You are particularly adept at resisting addiction. You must fail two saving throws in a row to become addicted to a drug.
************* Noble’s Vigilant Pillbox: Aura: faint divination; CL: 5th; Weight: —; Slot: none; Price: 3,600 gp. This heart-shaped charm is set with three pearls: one white, one silver, and one black. Inside, a tiny compartment usually contains smelling salts or alchemist’s kindness. Each pearl has a primary, passive ability and a secondary, active ability that activates if it is removed from the setting and swallowed (a standard action, as if drinking a potion). Swallowing a pearl destroys it. A command word activates the primary abilities of all three pearls for 1 round. When activated, the white pearl detects poison in a 10-foot radius around the wearer, dulling to a dark gray if poison is within range. If swallowed, it grants the benefit of a delay poison spell. The silver pearl detects diseases in a 10-foot radius, turning bright blue on discovery. If swallowed, it grants the benefit of a remove disease spell. The black pearl turns white if any invisible creature is within 10 feet of the wearer. If swallowed, it grants the benefits of see invisibility for 1 minute. A pillbox found with missing pearls has its price reduced appropriately; a white pearl is worth 750 gp, a silver pearl is worth 1,150 gp, and a black pearl is worth 1,700 gp.

Equipping Forsetilafom (Fantasy Friday #13)

I think (I hope) traits for Forsetilafom will be relatively easy to choose. One will have to model their essentially orphaned/homeless origin story, of course, but first I fill the gap I left open by not choosing Unimpeachable Honor as a feat. Forsetilafom is a character able to indulge in all the excesses and fripperies of the court but not to become bogged down or corrupted by them ~ it’s basically their core character concept. Heroes of the High Court has a trait associated on Golarion with being a member of Grand Prince Stavian III’s court in the Imperial Palace of Oppara in Taldor called Debauchery Defier. Sidenote: I like the name Stavian, I should steal it. Debauchery Defier is a social trait that allows one to better resist addiction. It is abso perf for Forsetilafom! Yoink!

Surprisingly, the three books focused on social lalalas don’t provide any appropriate traits. Glancing through the social traits on the SRD reveals Bastard which, while not literally true, does kinda fit Forsetilafom’s childhood experiences of being an outsider and a noble without much power to back them up. Its benefit ~ +1 to Sense Motive and it’s always a class skill ~ works for Forsetilafom but is, truth be told, kinda blah. And their skill is already really fucking good, even without magic items: they succeed on a DC 20 (like for Sense Relationships) 70% of the time when dealing with people from Natsiyaasim. If they’re not humanoids and speaking a foreign language, that’s still a 20% success rate! Bastard is from Ultimate Campaign ~ mebbe I’ll take a look in there.  The aasimar racial traits on the SRD give us some maybe slightly better options, and if I take a drawback from Ultimate Campaign ~ like Dependent, which makes perfect sense for Forsetilafom’s background ~ I can take both! Wary and Adrift work together to portray their background well, I think, and contribute both to their primary weapon being Sense Motive and their role as High Reeve.

As for spending Forsetilafom’s 3000gp, Heroes of the High Court provides nothing useful beyond a price for ostentatious garments and the other two courtly books only a handful more of interest that they can afford. Searching for magic items that would supercharge Forsetilafom’s primary weapon results in a lot of things that are too expensive for them to purchase, but also ioun stones, two of which are affordable and appropriate (cracked blue rhomboid and cracked magenta prism). Costing a total of 1200 gp together, and 1700 with a wayfinder, their power is simply supercharging but the image is powerful. The crown jewels of Forsetilafom’s family riven by their betrayal, circling around their beautiful head. I wonder about searching for magic items that mention aasimar, noble, court, justice, sex, seduction, seduce, and prostitution? Aasimar only gives 6 results, prompting me to add Blood of Angels to my list for Forsetilafom’s shopping. Noble gives a couple, including a constant detect poison which would be super useful, but court refuses to turn up anything useful as do justice and every other keyword I try. Blood of Angels turns up all of nothing either.

OK, so let’s start looking at some packages of magic items: A cracked dark blue rhomboid ioun stone and a magenta prism ioun stone in a standard wayfinder (which would give Forsetilafom +1 to Perception, Sense Motive, and one save, and +2 to one other skill that isn’t related to the save that got the bonus) add up to 1700, as I said. A noble’s vigilant pillbox with only the white pearl (the constant detect poison 10 feet that I mentioned, plus a one-time delay poison effect) would bring that up to 2450 gp. There’s some flashy magic items that I was looking at ~ the Kitharodian pen, platter of exquisite feasting, and sleeves of many garments ~ but you know what? Fuck it. The family jewels that I just described are much more appropriate. Let’s go with them. 650 gp remain, from which an immediate 320 is removed to purchase a masterwork rapier, leaving 330 gp. Another single gp gives a reinforced tunic so Forsetilafom’s AC isn’t, like, the worst ever.

Ultimate Intrigue has a sidebar entitled “Tools of Intrigue” which lists good equipment choices for various intrigue-related professions. The paragraph on reconaissance is prolly a super-good place to start. A 50-page journal, book lariat to ensure it doesn’t get stolen, inkpen, and vial of regular ink would cost Forsetilafom a total of 18 gp 4 sp. Adding a signet ring and sealing wax to serve as their mark adds another 6 gp. An ear trumpet and a mirror to aid in covert surveillance through doors and around corners sets them back 15 gp more, leaving them with 289 gp 6 sp.

We should take a look at Forsetilafom’s wardrobe, too, I suppose. One outfit of 10 gp or less is free, which will be a courtesan’s outfit, I do believe. A courtier’s outfit, for more formal occasions, costs another 30 gp; Forsetilafom had to run from their home chateau in quite the rush and then rebuild their life and (somewhat) their standing afterwards, so we’ll spend only 25 gp on jewelry and accessories, halfway in cost between an out-of-place commoner wearing fancy clothes and an actual established noble. We’re down to 234 gp 6 sp.

Let’s put some antitoxin in that vigilant pillbox for 50 gp for a vial, and buy some clear ear for 15 gp beside. A perfume kit would seem to be a good spend for 40 gp, bringing Forsetilafom’s coffers down to 129 gp 6 sp. A Nosleborrean blue book, a book of puzzles, and some flash seeds cost another 90 gp, leaving us with 39 gp 6 sp. Let’s update Forsetilafom’s ink to ghost ink, further protecting their investigations. That takes another 17 gp. A courtesan’s kit might be a good 10 gp spent, and a grooming kit would be another gp. We’re down to 10 gp 6 sp. A Medium treasure chest to hold everything while the High Reeve Adventurant travels brings us to 3 gp 6 sp. Considering that’s the equivalent of $720-$1800, that’s good walking around money for a noble with no real power to back their station. Let’s leave it at that!

Well, this is just dandy, isn't it? (Fantasy Friday #12)

I wonder if there are any other archetypes that a dandy ranger could take? Let’s go look at the SRD . . . The answer is no, not at all ~ some variant 3rd party combat styles is all.

Rangers have d10 hit points, so rolling 2d10+16 (let’s make Forsetilafom the same level as Boanerges, y/n?) gives them 26 hp. A ranger’s 6 skill points per level results in Forsetilafom having 21 skill points to spend. Diplomacy, Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility), Sense Motive, and Perception all feel pretty core to Forsetlafom’s history and role as High Reeve. Conveniently, they’re also class skills, thanks to the dandy archetype; let’s max them out at 3 ranks each, leaving only 6 more points to spend. I find myself liking Craft (clothier), Heal, Intimidate, Spellcraft, and Stealth as secondary skills ~ that’s 5 skills, so we just decide that Intimidate is the most important, enough to get 2 ranks, and we’re all set.

Instead of a favored enemy, dandies have favored nations, gaining bonuses to a variety of social skills when used against them as well as to attack and damage. Normally, taking one’s own race as a favored enemy or one’s homeland as a favored nation might indicate either a murderer or an outcast. Forsetilafom is neither, but they also haven’t made their name protecting Nosleborre and Natsiyaasim from external threats. Quite the opposite: Forsetilafom has stood against corruption and rot that comes from within. We give Forsetilafom Natsiyaasim as a favored nation. In choosing Forsetilafom’s combat style, I’m tempted by Deceitful until I realize that, as the name implies, feinting requires Bluff and we didn’t give Forsetilafom a very high Bluff >.< So, I turn to Inner Sea Combat, which has a listing of divine combat styles for rangers. Obviously, Forsetilafom’s life doesn’t center around religion (though they, of course, honor Blessed Imye and the raskokabajhon who followed him as he wandered the world), but I’m hoping a nice, flavorful style can come out of the list. If not, I’ll just default to the bog-standard AD&D Driz’zt-made-it-trite two-weapon style. Looking through, Cayden Cailean’s style weirdly doesn’t include anything about drunken fighting, but is actually very much like fencing. The SRD even calls it “Fencing” since they can’t use IP content! At 3rd level, we can choose from Catch Off-Guard, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, and Weapon Finesse. Combat Reflexes and Weapon Finesse are both hella attractive, but Weapon Finesse is only so because it would mean an additional +3 to Forsetilafom’s attack rolls! Mebbe I’ll pick it up with some generic feat slots; I take Combat Reflexes for now, cuz it feels much more thematic.

A dandy’s other class features don’t require (or, in the case of favored terrain, allow) any other choices. Rumor empathy allows Forsetilafom to manipulate the rumors that fly through a community to make them better or worse for the people they’re about, while Endurance and Track give minor bonuses to Aragorny like activities that are easily guessable by their names. Favored terrain gives a bunch of bonuses in cities; because of the dandy archetype, these will increase but not spread to other terrains as time goes on. Next level, Forsetilafom starts gaining spells!

Next thing to choose is Forsetilafom’s two feats. This is always a bit of a slog, which makes choosing Weapon Finesse rather enticing, just to cut through all of that, but let’s give Heroes of the High Court and Ultimate Intrigue a chance. I am also thinking about Amateur Investigator ~ I’ll have to give that one a glance or two, as well. After doing that and looking through Heroes of the High Court, Ultimate Intrigue, Inner Sea Intrigue, Horror Adventures, and Horror Realms, I still don’t see anything featwise that jumps out and says “I’m perfect!”, but I get drawn more and more to the Street Smarts tree and the Unimpeachable Honor tree. Vacillating between the two for a little bit, I finally settle on Street Smarts + Sense Relationships. Sense Motive is a weapon for Forsetilafom, and those two feats really help to establish that.

My reluctance had been based on Sense Relationship’s benefits to Bluff, which I hadn’t given to Forsetilafom, but I also took good note of the Enchanting Courtesan prestige class in Inner Sea Intrigue. It DID jump out at me and beg to be added to Forsetilafom, though I resisted for a little bit because its emphasis on poison was a bit heavier than I would have liked. However, the prestige class wouldn’t leave me alone and I finally figured that the poison focus would add a little bit of George R. R. Martin into the Jacqueline Carey that is inspiring Forsetilafom. That recipe, if one is careful to not overdo the GRRM (he’s very much like cinnamon in that way ~ amazing as a background note in all kinds of dishes you wouldn’t expect, like macaroni and cheese, but just takes over the dish if you don’t use an absolutely miniscule amount), sounds wonderful. The requirements for Enchanting Courtesan include being able to cast 2nd level spells including at least 2 divinations and 2 enchantments somewhere in there, Spell Focus (divination OR enchantment), 2 ranks each in Knowledge (arcana) and Perform (act OR dance ~ and I’ll modify it a bit to accept erotic arts as an option, too. Cuz duh.), and 5 ranks in Sense Motive and . . . Bluff. Whatever are we to do!?

Well, aasimars don’t provide any specific favored class bonuses for rangers and, while we could co-opt the cavalier favored class bonus with some slight tweaks, doing more damage to people from Natsiyaasim doesn’t exactly fit Forsetilafom’s style. So let’s take 3 extra skill ranks and dump them into Bluff. Since they won’t meet the spellcasting requirement for the prestige class until 7th level, we have plenty of time to spend the 6 skill ranks we still need to qualify.

Introducing Forsetilafom (Fantasy Friday #11)

In time, even this character’s watchfulness couldn’t see every gradual corruption. As questionable magical activities came into vogue amongst this character’s peers, they almost fell to the same subtle spiritual disease as everyone else, almost found themself transformed into a wrathful brute. The nobility of their spirit wouldn’t allow them to trip over the line, however, and that drove them back into study. The loremaster’s smug grin as this character sheepishly came to the library after some years of frippery and social engineering was a bother, but a small price to pay as the pair’s research unearthed ancient secrets and a creeping spiritual rot. Strengthening all the spiritual purity they had, this character managed to throw off the effect and once more act as the Bulwark of Courtly Virtue to exorcise it, finally. The old Gold Dragon in Strength gives two tokens it doesn’t actually have to Intelligence.

This character’s incipient devotion to study was somewhat cut short as they were given an actual position, with power as well as honor, within the court. As High-Reeve, this character served to decide cases brought to the court in their host’s stead. Though young, they served well, with justice and supreme judgment as such until they decided to go adventuring. Despite some grumbling at their age, the sheer force and easy joy of their presence prevented anyone from moving against them. Nonetheless, they felt the need to prove themself and that was what brought them to travel the realm as High-Reeve Adventurer. The Silver Dragon in Intelligence gives one of its tokens to Charisma.

This character’s final ability score array thus comes out as:
Strength 8 [-2 points]
Dexterity 14 [5 points]
Constitution 15 [7 points]
Intelligence 13 [3 points]
Wisdom 15 [7 points]
Charisma 14 [5 points]
Constitution missed a 16 by one point, giving one point to Wisdom and one to Charisma. Similarly, Dexterity has one extra point, which trickles down to Intelligence.

We seem to have already determined a race and a homeland for this character ~ they are an asimar (yes, it’s spelt that way in my world) from Natsiyaasim. We should probably name them; I rather like the idea of naming them Forseti, after the most just of the Aesir. One’s noble house is important to most of Natisyaasim’s populace. Each raskokabajho who settled there with Blessed Imye gave rise to several such noble houses, each descended from that raskokabajho. Looking over my notes, I determine that Forseti is a scion of the raskokabajho Nosilebo, patron of Natsiyaasim’s various houses of carnal love. Taking a peek over at a Kushiel’s Legacy series wiki, I see that Namarrese houses include L’Envers, Fhirze, Le Blanc, Le Doux, and Lafons. (Namarre is the region of Terre d’Ange settled by Naamah, the equivalent to Nosilebo; the equivalent region of Natsiyaasim is called Nosleborre). Looking at the meanings of these names, I decide Lafons (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Lafond) is the most appropriate for Forseti and remove the end to make the name work better with Natsiyaasim’s langauge.

In English/D’Angeline, their name would thus be “Forseti Lafo”, but in the language of Natsiyaasim, such a name would be constructed as a genitive phrase (Forseti of Lafo). I based the genitive construction in this language on that of Sumerian, so they are expressed as a single word constructed as follows: OWNED.OWNER.m. In this case, Forseti is the “owned” and Lafo the “owner”, so their name comes out as Forsetilafom, the asimar (a word that means “pertaining to that which is of the angel”, much like D’Angeline is an adjectival form of the prepositional phrase “d’Ange”).

As an aasimar descended from Nosilebo, Forsetilafonsom gains +2 Wisdom and +2 Charisma, some protection against negative energy, a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Perform (erotic arts), the ability to cast detect desires once per day, and darkvision. As to Forsetilafonsom’s class, well, that’s not nearly as obvious (this is an interesting inversion of Boanerges’s process!) I think looking through the book Heroes of the High Court might be a good place to start . . . . The biggest things that jump out at me from that book are a couple of spells (one far in the future, as its 6th or 7th level) that would seem to entice Forsetilafonsom into becoming a cleric, inquisitor, sorcerer, witch, or wizard. And the silksworn occultist. At first, I was ready to pass on the silksworn, as psychic powers are a Scarhasi thing, but the silksworn occultist’s spells are arcane! For the moment, that puts occultist in the front running.

Heroes of the High Court also reminded me of Ultimate Intrigue, so I’ll check that out now. And the dandy archetype for rangers wins the day! It’s absolutely perfect! Forsetilafom is officially a ranger (dandy). 6d6 roll a dead average 21, making them 41 years old (significantly younger than Boanerges). I’ve been thinking about Forsetilafom’s gender, and I think I really like the idea of them being genderqueer. I often feel myself as an inside-outsider in a society so heavily binarily-gendered and have found that such a position can be both quite revealing and very powerful. Perfect for Forsetilafom. So I’ll average the heights and weights listed for male and female aasimar. Again, the dice come out right in the average; in this case, it’s 2d8 and that gives Forsetilafom 5’10” of height. They’re just a tiny bit skinny, at 140 pounds.

But does it always turn out the same? (Fantasy Friday #10)

Let’s create another character with the Three-Dragon Ante system. It’s a test of the reliability of the system: if this second character comes out significantly different from the first, it’s a sign that the system is a robust and a useful one. If every character comes out the same, then this system wouldn’t be very useful, would it?

This character’s card spread is:
Nature: Blue Dragon 2
Spirit: White Dragon 4
Body: Princess
Mind: Brass Dragon 2
Nurture: Silver Dragon 8
Strength: Gold Dragon 6
Dexterity: Blue Dragon 1
Constitution: Blue Dragon 7
Intelligence: Silver Dragon 2
Wisdom: Gold Dragon 13
Charisma: Brass Dragon 7

Much more heroic than Boanerges, with six metallic dragons! And yet at the same time, three blue dragons, which hits a threshold of significance. Maybe this character is from the desert (Not!Sahara? The Scarhasi deserts? Somewhere further afield?) . . . Or mebbe the character has some electrical association. Ironic, since the name I stole from the Bible for the last character (Boanerges) means “Sons of Thunder” in Aramaic bastardized by Hellenic authors. Also, because I’m already thinking about Africa cause of Boanerges, I’m reminded of Shango, the Yoruba orisha associated with lightning, and his wife Oya, who is the thunder, and their rather . . . tumultuous marriage (storms occur whenever they argue, which is often).

This character’s nature is almost as vain, resilient, and forceful as the last’s; I give six tokens from Nature to Body and three to Mind. Not a great sign when looking for differentiation between the two. Luck pushed them, however, towards the speed, ferocity, and agility of a white dragon. My first thought is that, while Boanerges is a preening barbarian dandy (when not the Unseen Heart of the Flame, of course), this character is more akin to the arrogant villain of a racing movie. They know they’re the best and they are overly assured that anyone who contests that will be eating their dust. They don’t show off to convince people to give them whatever they want, they just win always. Regardless, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma all get a token each.

The next card, somewhat sadly, inspires chuckles as I read it. The Princess denotes something very different from anything in Boanerges’s spread ~ that being diplomacy and influence ~ but has (at least for now) a very similar result. Constitution gets 4 tokens and Dexterity 2. I’m going to say that, however this turns out, that Princess in the Body position indicates that this character is devastatingly beautiful. Who knows if that will be in line with the rest of their occupation and reality or just a three-dimensionalizing extra quality? Although, a brass dragon’s wise and very perceptive mind lurks behind those good looks, so maybe they really are a social character who fights in courts rather than blood-mudded fields or the fantasy fucking Vietnam of a dungeon. Wisdom gets all three of Mind’s tokens, in a dramatic departure from Boanerges’s stats.

The adult Silver Dragon in Nurture continues the welcome distinction from Boanerges, as its judgment and justice give its token to Wisdom. I’m starting to get an image of this character ~ a noble of an evil realm forced by an uprising to flee as a child to another kingdom which, despite (or perhaps because of) its own goodness took them in and gave her a home. All that remains of their home culture is a vanity and an unrelenting drive for survival; all the rest of them is filled with the wisdom and the empathy and the justice of their rescuers. At the same time, their noble status among the houses of the realm and the friendship of their host has given them a solid place in their host’s court but their lack of any sort of realm or muster has left them without any sort of power amongst that court’s intrigues. Some years before they came of age, they learned to rely on a creative wit and judicious use of their good looks when those intrigues threatened the virtue of that court, maneuvering the host noble into uselessness and leaving the strong will of this character as the only advocate for justice. It was very Jacqueline Carey. Which, in turn, suggests that the character comes from Aoqina, my campaign world’s Europe-equivalent, specifically the realm of Natsiyaasim, which is based on Terre d’Ange (with influences from the Vikings and a religion tracing back to the grandchild of a Presterjho archangel who fought at a Troy-equivalent with Jedi expies).

Anyway, the adult Gold Dragon in the Wisdom slot gives two tokens to Charisma as the struggle for the soul of the court brings them much fame and skill at leading people with honor and nobility of spirit. That their host showered honors upon them as the Bulwark of Courtly Virtue only deepened the effect. Hilariously, the old Brass Dragon in Charisma just gives it right back. Where many would be tempted to just revel in the glory and the veneration of all the nobles around them ~ and this character was sorely tempted, considering their nature and early training ~ they resisted, and took the position of Bulwark quite seriously. Piercing eyes watched everyone, and discerned when and how to intervene without conflict to preserve the sanctity of the realm. Without conflict, to be sure, as this was a job of glittering laughter, not the dim and judgmental work of an inquisitor.

Of course, vanity could not be held at bay for long. It never hindered their work, but it is true that this character came to enjoy their position, the favor of their host, and the rewards of their good looks. Several relationships ended in tears and anger as this character’s incisive mind caught notice that they were founded upon the other’s desire for advancement, privilege, or ability to get away with some vice or crime, but for the most part, this character was free to indulge themselves in the gleaming giggles of play amongst the court. That old Blue Dragon in Constitution steals two tokens from Strength. The Blue Dragon in Dexterity isn’t so old, however, so it only steals one token from Intelligence, as these pleasures and this work call for time to be spent on them to succeed. Besides, studying with the castle’s loremaster was always yawn-inducing, so the distractions were quite welcome.

Boanerges of Prester is born (Fantasy Friday #2)

Nurture is the first area the character received training or which they put effort into improving. The adult (cuz it’s strength 5) black dragon here picks up the themes of the Spirit card ~ cunning, sneakiness, and lies. It appears that it was one of those random things which exert so much force on our lives that led this character to their class. They didn’t set out to become a vigilante; chance pushed them down this path. Nurture gives its token to Dexterity.

I think I’ll name the character Boanerges, or something like that; they remind me of those two somehow. They have all the force of a lightning bolt, funneled into a subtle fight for minds and souls in order to save their own infected one.

The Red Dragon 10 in Dexterity steals Strength’s two tokens, furthering the theme of constrained force, I suppose. I think Boanerges was raised to be a soldier, a vain and venereal bravo filled with a dark panache, but a chance encounter in a military raid brought them to the side of the angels. Literally. But one soldier against an army, let alone the nation that sent them, is a losing proposition. So Boanerges turned to shadier methods to spread the word.

Strength, in its turn, steals two tokens from Intelligence as it is also an adult Red Dragon. Panache was glorified and fostered in the army’s ranks, but questions weren’t. Venal tastes were catered to, pointless pleasures and decadent diversons employed to keep the bravos from rebelling. A third adult Red Dragon lurks in Intelligence’s land, stealing two tokens from Wisdom. Armies like this one present a paradox: it does everything it can to restrict the exercise of intelligence, which means that a piercing mind is the only thing that allows promotion.

An old bronze dragon in Wisdom gives its token to Dexterity. Constraining the thunderous force of Boanerges’s personality into clandestine activities breeds skill, but discernment has a tendency to disappear into discomfort. Planning is replaced by quick wits. As Boanerges’s angelic master pushed them away from their chaotic life into one of discipline and honor, their heuristic, social, and behavioral skills prove less and less useful, more and more foolish, even when drawn upon in the appropriate situations. But it also pushes them to become damn good at what they do.

The old Gold Dragon in Charisma passes two of its four tokens to Constitution. Recently, Boanerges had to take a severe beating in order to cover for a fellow bravo they had managed to convert to the way of good after months of work. This act of self-sacrificing nobility left them humbled but even more resilient than before. Significantly more resilient, as the Dracolich in Constitution (the last card in the reading) steals a token from all the evil dragons in the spread: Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence.

Constitution ends up with a freakin’ 14 tokens! That’s one more than the 13 needed for a 17 Constitution. According to the article, I take that token and apply it to the next highest score. But Dexterity would be in the situation, as it has exactly enough for a high Dex. I should skip the tie between Intelligence and Charisma and apply the token to Strength. However, it makes more sense for this character to give it to Charisma, I think, so I’ma do that. Boanerges’s ability scores come out to
Strength 11 [1 point]
Dexterity 15 [7 points]
Constitution 17 [13 points]
Intelligence 12 [2 points]
Wisdom 9 [-1 point]
Charisma 13 [3 points]

OK, I seem to have chosen a class and even an initial feat for Boanerges, so lemme backtack a bit and consider a class. The region of my campaign world in which celestials are the biggest deal religiously is roughly equivalent (in geographical and geohistorical relation to other regions, at least) to Eastern Africa. Ethiopia and the like. While I always try to do all the research and include actual elements from a variety of real-world and literary sources, I am by no means an Africa scholar, and this region is in no ways intended to actually represent East Africa. As a nod to the ancient, questionable European legends that inspired me to make this region the angelic one, I’ve named it Prester.

My world-creation has been focused on Aoqina (roughly, Europe) and Scarhas (roughly, the Middle East) so far, so I’m not yet certain what the racial makeup of the area is like. Elfs exist all across the surface of the world, and dwarfs can easily pop up anywhere. Halflings are an Aoqinan race, but they’ve been around a helluva long time, so they’ve spread. Gnomes came into existence on the border between Aoqina and Scarhas, as dwarfin sailors bred with merbunnies (descendants of outcast anthropomorphic rabbits from the moon) in the Hemaya Sea, but that was also a long time ago. Now, gnomes range far and wide. Gnomes gave rise to gnolls in Aoqina a decent time ago by breeding with trolls OD&D style, so they’ve had time to spread, but they’re prolly pretty exotic by the time you hit the equivalent of, say, western China or of the Congo Basin (though more headed south from Aoqina than any other direction). Humans are the leavings of a uselessly successful gnollish magickal experiment. They sought to remove all that was obedient from them to ensure their everlasting freedom, but that left only an unintelligent animal: the hyena. The intelligent humans were the obedient bits they discarded, and are pretty young as a race, so are unlikely to be found in significant numbers outside of the three regions bordering the Voda Sea (Aoqina, Scarhas, and my equivalent of the Maghreb/North Africa).

So, Prester’s population of standard races, to summarize:
Dwarfs: Possible, but somewhat unlikely
Elfs: As common as elfs ever get
Gnomes: Uncommon
Halflings: Common, but a minority
Humans: Rare
Orcs: Absent

I also note that a full quarter of the Three-Dragon Ante spread is red dragons ~ this suggests maybe a direction to start looking beyond the standard seven races. Red dragons live in warm mountains, I wonder what comes up on www.pfsrd.com with that ecology . . . . Naw, nothing useful comes from that search. I consider ifrit (I don’t think I want an elemental theme to races in Presterjho), kobold (possible, draconic, but a little small for the sheer force of personality I’m imagining), tiefling (currently the front-runner, but a little on-the-nose), kuru (tied with tiefling, currently), I keep coming back to the goblinoids but their homes are on an entirely different continent. The charau-ka are interesting, with tactics based on intimidation and exuberance which could blend in the swashbuckly elements I’m imagining.

Dragon Magazine's Cartomantic Character Creation (Fantasy Friday #1)

Way long ago in an earlier age, an eighth of a century ago, in the inexplicably ancient time of 2005, Wizards of the Coast released a card game that could function as a game prop, much like White Wolf’s series of vampiric, werewolf (including the bad ones), hunter, demon, and mage scriptures (published long before Zak's name was associated with the company ~ like at least two decades before), or Pathfinder’s Harrow Deck. The game was called Three-Dragon Ante; I own it but I’ve never played it.

It’s a betting game designed by Rob Heinsoo in which you compile flights of cards of various strengths, many of which have various triggered abilities whose activation is dependent on its strength compared to those played previously. After each “gambit” (kinda like a trick, I guess), the stakes go to the player with the most strength and a new gambit begins. Collecting matching sets of same-color or same-strength dragons triggers extra gold-earning effects. The idea is that this is a game that exists within Greyhawk (the default setting for D&D 3.x) so you can play while your characters play. 

I’m most interested in it not for this, however. No, far more interesting is that the August ‘06 issue of Dragon included a Tarot-like character generation method using the deck. The only thing better than a cartomantic spread for 2nd-generation RPG character creation is a good lifepath system. I’m a sucker for those, as Traveller Tuesdays will no doubt eventually show. I thought I’d create an adventuring party by this method (using Pathfinder rules, however, cuz duh) and see how it does at providing me with story seeds and interesting character details. Join me in this adventure? 

First thing I do, obvi, is shuffle the deck. Fun fact: I always shuffle decks 7 times because I picked up somewhere that a standard 52-card playing deck achieves pure, unpredictable randomness at seven riffle shuffles, combinatorily speaking. So I do that. The spread involves three cards (Body, Spirit, and Mind) surrounded by 4 others, laid horizontally, in the cardinal directions (Nature, Nurture, Dexterity, and Wisdom) and four more bursting diagonal at the corners (Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma). The orientation of the cards plays a role in the reading, so you should know that Strength is in the upper left, followed in clockwise order by Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Constitution, and Dexterity. Thus, there’s a physical side (the left) and a mental (the right). 

I draw the following cards for my first character: 

Nature: Blue Dragon 4 

Spirit: Black Dragon 1 

Body: Green Dragon 6 

Mind: Silver Dragon 8 

{Oooh! An evil body, with evil instincts and urges, but a good mind stronger than it. It’s Driz’zt, sure, but the idea that I’m not even done drawing and already seeing interpretations suggests that this will be a useful creation method!} 

Nurture: Black Dragon 5 

Strength: Red Dragon 12 

Dexterity: Red Dragon 10 

Constitution: Dracolich 10 

Intelligence: Red Dragon 8 

Wisdom: Bronze Dragon 11 

Charisma: Gold Dragon 11 

Hmmm, there’s just so much evil in this spread ~ maybe the good mind, despite its being stronger than the evil body, is losing the battle, just outnumbered by instincts and culture. I have to be careful, though, cuz while I like the idea of deconstructing Driz’zt, these themes edge a little closer than I’d like to some truly disgusting ideas. 

Let’s see, we then put 9 tokens on Nature, 3 on Spirit, 1 on Nurture, and 2 on each ability card. These will eventually become points in standard point buy that will determine the character’s actual ability scores. 

The character’s nature, represented by a blue dragon, is resilient, vain, and forceful. I give six tokens to Body and three to Mind off the Nurture card as a result. Spirit, perhaps oddly-named, represents chance. We all have things that are central to who we are that just kind of bumbled their way into our path, whether it’s the career we discovered after a friend forwarded us a funny job posting or our love of Fleetwood Mac because the diner we ate lunch at everyday while homeless played a lot of it over the stereo. In this character’s case, these things involve the stealth, cunning, and deceit of the Black Dragon. Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence each receive a token as a result. 

More doubling themes! I’m seeing a character inclined toward vanity and forcefulness, but pushed by circumstance into acting secretly, maybe even from the shadows. Perhaps I’ll make them a vigilante . . . . I think it might be fun to play up the discomfort of the character, the strain of trying to stifle their usual habits and bearing in order to be most effective. These are much safer themes than the ones I mentioned earlier, thankfully, though they could be combined by creating a sneaky character from a member of a typically brutish race like ogres. Side note: Golarion’s ogres might exist as part of a long line of classist depictions of rural folk (as ogres usually are), but damn if their sheer, utter, going-for-it monstrosity is much more fun than standard D&D uses of the ogre! 

The Green Dragon in the Body position tells us that the character can handle most anything, accepting what would be maiming blows with nothing but a snarling belligerence. I kind of envision this more as the really annoying kind of person who is never down for very long, no matter what’s thrown at them, but always brings things to account. Many have tried to take them down, only to fall to the character’s retaliations. All six of these tokens go to Constitution. 

We finally get a glint of something pleasant and hopeful in this character ~ who seems very much like a Mean Girl, to be honest, vain, cunning, tricksy, and vengeful ~ as their Mind is filled with the judgment and justice of the Silver Dragon. I kind of want to make them a paladin, but it seems like that would fail to capture the duality of the character, the tidal wave forced into the trickle that rots your walls. Maybe there’s an archetype of vigilante that would be appropriate . . . not really (at least not one listed on www.pfsrd.com), though I did briefly consider a zealot. It didn’t quite fit what I wanted, however. I think I could model what I want with the Celestial Obedience feat, perhaps, as I’m getting an image of a character in an evil society who has turned to devious methods to promote a good religion. Sort of a Frank Miller villain by day, sneaky Superman by night kind of situation. More on that later. For now, that Silver Dragon gives two tokens to Charisma and one to Wisdom.