Making new characters

I always enjoy making characters, regardless of the game system. Something about piecing things together and making a whole makes me excited. Maybe it harkens back to my lego (the old school lego, you know with the blocks, not the specialized bits that only make 1 object) days. Sometimes I start with a mechanical/rules idea, whether it’s just a race, or a class, and sometimes I have a personality, quirk or trope that I want to play.

I’m starting in a new group and we’re going to play using the Pathfinder system, but we’ll be playing a homebrew rather than an adventure path. I had two concepts I wanted to play, one being a cleric of Desna and the other being a wizard. Just a wizard. Any old wizard would do. I much prefer magic, whether divine or arcane, to a melee fighter or roguish character. Well, the more I focused on the wizard, the more I wanted to partly recreate a previous wizard I had played back in Japan. That wizard was a fire elf named Dalan Cinderroot, living in the city of Chauldron, where the Shackled City Adventure Path takes place. Being a sensualist by nature, he was thoroughly enjoyable to role-play. Having the trait, “Touched in the Head”, and therefore being slightly ‘odd’, was an additional thrill. As warned by the creators, Shackled City is a real meat-grinder, and Dalan lived through plenty of challenges, but had a blast until we stopped playing at 8^th level. Damned moving back to Canada! Heh.

I had a desire for Dalan to live again, although not the true Dalan, for he must remain in stasis until a miracle happens and the campaign renews (hint: this will never happen, but all gamers hold on to the hope that a favourite character will rise again). No, the new Dalan would be built using some basic blocks. An elf. Check. A wizard. Check. Fire is involved in there somewhere. Check. The name ‘Dalan’. Check. And there we go. Okay, some of you may argue there’s no relationship, but as I said, it’s rough ;)

Dalan was built using the Advanced Player’s Guide new Elemental School for wizards. Fire School, obviously. Here is his background:

Dalan, Elf Wizard (Fire Elementalist, Opposition element = Water) Familiar: Raven, goes by the name of Ka, and it speaks Ignan (language of fire creatures). Ka’s eyes burn red and have wisps of flame.

When Dalan was a child, a rampaging druid had summoned multiple fire elementals to destroy a forest and the elven village within. Dalan was caught in the assault, and was grabbed by an elemental, leaving massive scars on his upper legs, torso and upper arms. Elven mages fought back and quenched the fire elementals, but the one holding the dying Dalan, in fear of its existence (since elemental’s souls and bodies are one, so if the body dies the soul is gone, no resurrection possible for them), merged with Dalan as they both died, re-lighting the boy’s spark of life with its own. From that moment on, Dalan has had a love/hate relationship with fire. He wears bandages/wrappings around his upper legs, torso and upper arms at all times, covering scars which look vaguely like Ignan runes. The scars glow at night with a faint redness, although not enough to provide illumination.

Boy with the baboon heart, may I introduce elf with the fire elemental merged soul.

Dalan’s raven familiar is essentially also harbouring some fire elemental essence. Once Dalan reaches 5^th level he’ll take the Improved Familiar feat and the raven will combust into a small fire elemental. It will be the same fire elemental that burned younger Dalan, reborn. Yeah, I look forward to playing him.

The other players in the group are:

Brom, a dwarven cleric of Abadar, who initially worshipped Aroden until that deity died. The dwarf was in denial for decades before he began worshipping Abadar. The dwarf is middle-aged, but “starting over” at 1^st level.

Valeria, a half-elf ranger, wandering the lands looking for her elven father.

Ragnar, a half-orc fighter from Cheliax, young and brash.

It should be a fun group and some good times. The DM loves playing Conan d20, so I expect lots of big fights, and little magic. I’ll update again after this Friday, when our first play session begins.

Cheers!