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View Full Version : CE Bard Concept: needs evaluation.



MarkusWolfe
2011-03-30, 12:22 PM
Alright, I need this character concept evaluated. Don't worry your pretty little heads off about mechanics, I got that all figured out.

CE bard prestiging into War Chanter. Uses dagger-whip, rides mammoth (at some level, anyways), takes cavalry feats. Plays drums and sings.

There was once a little boy named Talmus Brofirm who wanted to please his dark god Erynthul by slaughtering his entire village. However, he was not strong enough to be a warrior, and thus could not slaughter the village by his own hand, disappointing his god. Fortunately (well, from HIS point of view), he found an opportunity to embark on the path of a bard. He then did what every bard has done since time immemorial when they find they can't do something themselves: Get some other idiots to it for him. Turning the people against each other, he waiting until there was only one man left standing and then violently murdered him with a dagger-whip.

Talmus's current goal is to cause so much slaughter/be such a good musician that Erynthul will forgive/overlook his inability to kill by hand and allow him to play music in his presence for all of eternity in Pandemonium. Talmus has an obsession with making noise; not only will he make a large noise at any opportunity he sees (ex, walks into town, discovers there is a tower with a large bell in it; he will spend the rest of the session trying to sneak into the tower and ring that bell) but he will always fail his move silently check because he is always humming some tune, whether it be the James Bond theme, the Mission Impossible theme or just some generic 'sneaking around' music.

While he very much reflects the teachings of Erynthul, Talmus is hypocritical in his chaotic evilness; he would definitely steal candy from a baby if he thought the candy was tasty, but upon seeing someone steal candy from a baby, he will beat up that person and take the candy for himself regardless of whether he thought it was tasty before, because if someone else took it then it has to be delicious. The way I see it, I can circumvent most of the problems of having a CE character by hiding what evil I do perform and appearing to want to punish those who do evil when I actually just want to take their stuff.

The mammoth is there for both mechanical and character purposes. In addition to carrying Talmus and a big set of drums, the mammoth is also Talmus's main way of doing damage in combat. Talmus is useless as a warrior on foot, and he could be a better buffer if he wanted to. But once he's on the back of the mammoth, those cavalry feats come into play and together they're a combat monster. It really helps the 'gets other people to do his killing for him' theme I'm shooting for.

So.....evaluations?

begooler
2011-03-30, 12:51 PM
I like the character concept as a whole, but the beginning of the story seems a little bit contrived. (He wanted to slaughter the village to please his dark god but couldn't.)

Some development into other motivations to destroy his hometown, (perhaps humorous ones,) how he came to know the god of slaughter, how he became a bard, and if his original mentor was a good bard, or a master of death metal would go a long way with fleshing out the character's personality and motivations.