unused character concepts

[Somensjev]

Have you ever had a character concept that you started working on, or even finished, before realising that you may not get a chance to use it?

It could be something as simple as "wizard 1 to 20", or, it could be so complex it has a ten page backstory.

I started this tread because recently I've been reimagining a character concept I thought of a few years back, but never got to use.
My idea was originally pretty simple, I wanted a character who could craft, and coat his weapons with, Luhix.

For those who don't know, Luhix is a highly addictive drug in the book of vile darkness. It is a powdered form of the Luhix plant, found only in the abyss.
It is used by being applied directly to open wounds, and overdosing on it is lethal (dc25 fort save), so obviously, having swords and arrows coated in the stuff would be pretty dangerous.

My character concept has since evolved into a neutral character, previously good, who acts like a paragon of goodness (donating to charity, being a general nice guy, the perfect example of altruism), except for three things: he made a deal with demons/devils for a steady supply of the plant, making this drug, and attempting to addict his enemies to it, if they live.

What are some concepts you've never gotten around to using in a game?

[Krazzman]

Basically I want to try them out in PF games:

Synthesist Summoner:
Getting to play a Venom/Carnage style character would be awesome.

Bloodrager:
This might stem from the fact that I currently try to build War (Darksiders) for the Video Game Protagonists as DnD Characters. It is coming along nicely but I doubt that I will ever being able to play as War, as such the Bloodrager itself is pretty interesting.

Barbarian:
Since PF launched I am itching to try out an Barbarian. But it's either: we don't need more Martials or my wife actively playing a Barbarian.

Bard:
I wanted to play a Bard in PF for quite some time. When I had the chance I began building Dharkan the Half-Orc Bard into Dragon Disciple (Another class i always wanted to use) but when the chance came the Magus was just released and I went with him instead... as such Dharkan lingers in the ready to play.

[Inevitability]

I want to go completely SAD with an archer caster of some kind. I've got two main build ideas.

The first is some kind of mystic ranger with Zen Archery.

The second is slightly more complex; a dragonborn unseelie fey star elf (+4 cha, -2 con, -2 str) battle sorcerer who's taken Charming the Arrow. Completely focused on charisma, and even able to dip Arcane Archer later in the game.

[Doctor Despair]

I essentially built my signature build just to see if I could. I may never actually play 3.5 again with my current schedule, especially since college ended and I'd have to find an entirely new playgroup.

[D.M.Hentchel]

Frank Setter
Human Ranger X

Frank is a simple cart driver who's primary goal in life is to see the world, marry, and settle down in the most beautiful place in the world. He doesn't view himself as a hero, just helping out a group of 3 - 4 heros get along in life. His time on the road has taught him quite a few tricks, moderate skill with crossbows, and even a little magic. But more than any of that he just wants to see the world. He studies fauna and animals in the locals he visits recording it all in his journel.

[Murmaider]

The first thing that I tried to do, as soon as I found out that there were more 3.5 books than Player's Hand, was make a fullplate wearing warriortype, who's dualwielding bastardswords. I eventually dropped the whole thing, but here's what I'd come up with if I had to do it right now.

Human Barbarian 1/OA Samurai 1/Fighter 2/Warblade 2/Exotic Weapon Master 1/full BAB class or prc 1/More Warblade

OA Samurai is for a free bastardsword, Exotic Weapon Master is for two-handed damage on power attacks.

[barakaka]

A Mercury Dragon sorcerer and a Wizard / Alchemist Savant / Alliance Merchant.

For the Mercury Dragon, I just love dragons and if you slap Loredrake on a small Mercury Dragon, it ain't half bad. Mercury Dragon is the runt of the Dragon species which is cool for underdog concepts, it has the shiniest scales of all dragons which can reflect sunlight into people's eyes, and its breath weapon is a freaking laser.

The Alchemist Savant was meant to be a salesman, using rules taken from PHB2 and whatever Faerun book Alliance Merchant is from. This was a pet project that I poured more time into than any other character I'd made. There's so much effort involved in doing a business by the rules in order to be profitable. In addition to that, I'd spent a huge amount of time going over all the online character/alchemy handbooks/posts I could think of, and the non-dragonmag books looking for any cool alchemical items that were powerful in combat or to clear encounters with. Stuff like Delver Slime or Explosive Packs to bypass walls, or Storm Tears to remove conditions. The salesman and business portion of the build was to keep enough money in my pocket to keep using all the alchemical items. Even crafting them gets expensive. Every minute of it was worth it, because now I'm the DM for a campaign and I load up mooks with alchemical items to boost their CR and provide a more fun battle.

[Someguy231]

Warblade 5/Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple 10/Warblade 4

I just want to do this build cause I feel it'll be a fun one to at least try out. I don't care for power and what not, I just wanna do it!

[Ruethgar]

I've about 70...

[Crake]

As a DM, I just turn all my character concepts into NPCs :smallbiggrin:

[John Longarrow]

Same here...

[Technetium43]

God, probably in the hundreds by now? My mind has constant new builds, characters, backstory chunks, neat mechanical things, and so much more just constantly flying through it, but rarely can I actually get any of it out. My problem is that I literally like... can't play most of them. I can think of how they would react in a vacuum, but when it actually comes to IRL roleplaying, or even PbP... I got nuthin'. Only a few characters have ever actually like, clicked with me, and it's honestly intensely disappointing.

[Ellrin]

I've got more of unused characters than I have characters I've used, ranging from a fairly dour widowed Oread Inquisitor in Pathfinder to a 3.5 Drow Beguiler who worships Lolth and Eilistraee at the same time because what in the world is Wis, anyway?

[Thurbane]

I finally got to run the Hellbred Binder I'd always wanted to, but sadly the game finished after 4th level.

As a bonus, he had a Human brother who was a Cleric, and they kind of played like the Winchester Brothers.

...I'd love to pick those characters up again sometime, but I can't see it happening (most DMs in our group don't allow ToM, among other books).

[The Glyphstone]

I've always wanted to play a Cloud Giant Were-Roc. Unfortunately, games that allow ECL41+ characters are essentially non-existent.

[Jack_McSnatch]

I've wanted to run a vow of poverty paladin or cleric with an aspergillum, but I haven't found the right game, and I'm reluctant to give up every cool item in the game.

[ZamielVanWeber]

CG Soverign Speaker for Chaos Undivided, although now I would now use Evangelist instead. The domain selection we got for the four gods has some pretty awesome choices.

[Crake]

I've always wanted to play a Cloud Giant Were-Roc. Unfortunately, games that allow ECL41+ characters are essentially non-existent.

I now gotta wonder what that would be CR-wise :smalleek:

Edit: Apparently it would be a mere CR 16, for a 35HD monstrosity....

[A.A.King]

Romulus and Remus, two halfling brothers whose fighting style is based around co-operation. The basic idea is combining Swarmfighting with the stance Island of Blades on one of the characters so that anything they fight is considered flanked when they stand in the same square. The current idea is that they started as Spiritual Wolf Totem Barbarians (very nice thematically for obvious reasons), with the feats Swarmfighting and Phalanx fighting but after that they get picked up and trained so that when they fight together one is the Indestructible Shield while the other is the Invisible Sword.

I'm fairly certain that I'll never get an opportunity to find someone to play the brothers with, but I would love it if I could. If only to have a chance for this scene to happen

"Give up, little men. We have you surround" The orc leader said. "Surrounded?" the halfling brothers replied "No, it is YOU who is surrounded"

[Lord Raziere]

As a DM, I just turn all my character concepts into NPCs :smallbiggrin:

and you don't get accused of DMPCing? how do you pull it off?

[The Glyphstone]

I now gotta wonder what that would be CR-wise :smalleek:

Edit: Apparently it would be a mere CR 16, for a 35HD monstrosity....

Yeah, it's not a bad NPC. Excellent HP pool and saves, very high mobility; still a melee brute, but a fairly dangerous one for its CR.

[Thurbane]

That's interesting - I always thought the Roc was a Magical Beast, but I can see it's actually an Animal...

[Crake]

and you don't get accused of DMPCing? how do you pull it off?

Have them be enemies/side characters generally. It worked the best when I was running a cityscape game, and the players were part of one of several guilds, where the NPCs were there and available to ask to join on missions and whatnot. Each had their side story that developed whether the players got involved or not, but since that was a very open world game, making friends, allies, going on adventurers and chilling in their downtime ended up basically being the players' goals, so they got to know the guildmembers, their stories and participated.

Other times, I'm content with the NPCs to just exist as supporting cast, their abilities not ever necessarily fully utilized or shown, but I'm satisfied in knowing that they're there. The players are free to call upon them, if they are on good terms, have something to offer in exchange, or are owed a favour, but for those characters, the default state is "there, but not used".

Finally, there is of course, the builds that I run with enemies, that's fairly self explanatory.

I suppose it helps that my players aren't opposed to the idea of an NPC stealing the limelight, as long as it was they who invited the NPC along, knowing full well that that may end up being the case. An example of this was when the players were going up against an old red dragon, who happened to be a member of a mages guild. Upon revealing this fact to another member of the mages guild that they had developed a relationship with, and asking for help, the combat unfolded as such: The NPC scried the dragon (using blood from a previous combat where the party almost completely wiped), getting very lucky and catching him on an off day where his detect scrying had been dispelled, and didn't have any spare spell slots to re-cast it (the dragon was a hired mercenary in a war between three arabian princes, so he was seeing a decent share of combat each day, including against tribal shamans), that was a big factor in the success of this mission. The party then teleports in after the NPC casts assay resistance to overcome the dragon's DR. Then in the surprise round the NPC casts a quickened and a maximised ray of stupidity, hitting both times, while the players go about readying attacks to interrupt any spells he casts, or repositioning themselves, or shielding the slaves the dragon had. Then the NPC wins initiative, and does the same thing, dealing enough int damage to knock out the dragon. And that was the whole combat.

I myself hadn't even expected it to go down that smoothly, and the players were all just looking at me stunned, with newfound respect for their NPC friend, but they all admitted that despite barely even doing anything in that combat, it was fun to see something so outrageous once in a while, and now it's even become a recurring joke, as we decided this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WKS0Se_640) was pretty much exactly what happened.

Your mileage may vary from group to group of course, but the way I see it, the characters are there, the players have the option of befriending them and asking them for help, angering them and gaining a powerful enemy (has also happened, and resulted in the demise of characters before, note: don't go burning down people's houses when they noticed you were actually a vampire, and beat you in a staring contest, bad idea), or neither, it doesn't matter to me.

[Morphic tide]

One concept that I keep trying to figure out how to work with is a proper cultist of Lamashtu build that actually changes their body as they level up. The closes I ever got to making it work was a Synthesist Summoner/Alchemist duel class, but the amount of unused class features and lack of proper synergies made me think that trying to homebrew up a class to enable that concept properly. Namely a Summoner/Alchemist hybrid class focused on Homunculus-as-Eidolon and the Mutagens getting access to Eidolon mutations. Archetypes and PRCs would make a bunch of concepts work, like one that uses the mutagen as a poison to mutate enemies into weaker forms, perhaps causing massive Con damage with a Fort save to negate, one that focuses on buffs and, of course, a PRC for the Lamashtu cultist idea.

Another is the concept of a "does everything" mundane class that doesn't shatter game balance. I was mocked for the first attempt because of idiotic tier system arrangement, but I shall try again! And again, and again until it really can do everything without any entirely dead features. It will be a pain...

[AtlasSniperman]

I've always wanted to play a Bard Assassin. The one time I tried though, the DM threw him in an arena for a 1 on 1 at level 5 with a mindflayer.

[Morphic tide]

I've always wanted to play a Bard Assassin. The one time I tried though, the DM threw him in an area for a 1 on 1 at level 5 with a mindflayer.

He may have feared the Diplomancy... Or the fact that Bards get to Fascinate in a way that opens the way to stacking Sneak Attacks like crazy.

[Efrate]

I want to try to play an Edgelord Harbringer in PF and play it 100% straight if I can without cracking up as a dark kind of antihero.

I have always wanted to play the various Incarnates but never got around to it, and to try to do something with a soulborn.

CW Samurai just to say I did. Same with Truenamer.

I had a focused specialist necromancer who was 100% debuff focused that was trying to bring more understanding and acceptance into necromancy as a font of knowledge about the intricacies of life, but the campaign ended at like lvl 2. Him and his illusionist friend made constant fun of evokers.

I had a DMM CoDzilla of a cleric of Kord at one point, but after my old character died who was the de facto leader the DM decided there wasn't any more point to adventuring, we had saved greyhawk, fought off Igglwiv, and so on and there was no reason for high level adventurers to randomly show up. We were lvl 17 at the time, and I spent the better part of 20 hours coming up with a selection of buffs, multiple copies of character sheets based on number of active buffs, etc.

I had an idea for an ocular spell AMF cleric of Joramy, a obscure greyhawk deity who is the goddess of volcanoes. The idea was to be immune to magic for the most part and fight by opening volcanoes up under the feet of your enemies, and with the fire subtype and enough DR to just ignore immersion in lava. It was to be a crazy primitive shaman type who just offered sacrifices to her goddess; just instead of bringing them to the volcano, she brought the volcano to them.

[ChaosStar]

Every character I've ever made.

I have to stay home and take care of my dad, I'm not a sociable guy, I can't drive a car, and I live in the suburbs of LaVergne. Safe to say that I may never get a chance to actually play a game of D&D unless I can get one going over the internet.

[Crake]

He may have feared the Diplomancy... Or the fact that Bards get to Fascinate in a way that opens the way to stacking Sneak Attacks like crazy.

Fascinate doesn't enable sneak attack any more than just being nonhostile does, it just gives an enemy -4 spot and listen, making it SLIGHTLY easier to sneak up on them. It immediately breaks upon hostile actions, so at most, it would let you fascinate an unsuspecting target, move up to them and get a surprise round to get one sneak attack, before initiative, which is generally how non-hostile combat starts anyway.

I mean, it's a pretty novel way to get into melee range to deliver a death attack, I'll give you that, but an invisibility would have sufficed just as well.

[Morphic tide]

Fascinate doesn't enable sneak attack any more than just being nonhostile does, it just gives an enemy -4 spot and listen, making it SLIGHTLY easier to sneak up on them. It immediately breaks upon hostile actions, so at most, it would let you fascinate an unsuspecting target, move up to them and get a surprise round to get one sneak attack, before initiative, which is generally how non-hostile combat starts anyway.

I mean, it's a pretty novel way to get into melee range to deliver a death attack, I'll give you that, but an invisibility would have sufficed just as well.

Clearly you aren't familiar with how much DC stacking can be made to happen. And it has to be an obvious hostile action, so an opposed Slight of Hand check makes the stab non-obvious. As does standing behind them. And attacking from sufficient range. And a -4 is a sizeable debuff for many non-optimized characters and creatures, given that it's a fifth of level 20 skill ranks. Easily a 10% chance change. If nothing else, the amount of buffing and ability to use it properly is still an issue. As you said, Invisibility works just as well. And is a second level Bard spell.

[Crake]

Clearly you aren't familiar with how much DC stacking can be made to happen. And it has to be an obvious hostile action, so an opposed Slight of Hand check makes the stab non-obvious. As does standing behind them. And attacking from sufficient range. And a -4 is a sizeable debuff for many non-optimized characters and creatures, given that it's a fifth of level 20 skill ranks. Easily a 10% chance change. If nothing else, the amount of buffing and ability to use it properly is still an issue. As you said, Invisibility works just as well. And is a second level Bard spell.

Yeah, but again, the point is, against an initially non-hostile opponent, you haven't actually gained anything. Against a hostile opponent, fascinate simply just doesn't work, so you end up at the point where it's like "ok, this is cute and all, but it doesn't actually do anything special that you couldn't do without some other, equally, if not more effective means".

Not to mention, that by going into assassin, the bard's fascinate duration would practically be capped at 5 rounds (assuming he went in at bard 5, the earliest level), and able to only target 2 creatures, so it's not exactly breathtaking. Plus bard's cha doesn't synergise with assassin int.

My point is, a bard assassin isn't any scarier than a normal assassin, it just has a different opening toolkit. And the DM was a jerk for doing that, a level 5 solo vs a mindflayer.

[Morphic tide]

Yeah, but again, the point is, against an initially non-hostile opponent, you haven't actually gained anything. Against a hostile opponent, fascinate simply just doesn't work, so you end up at the point where it's like "ok, this is cute and all, but it doesn't actually do anything special that you couldn't do without some other, equally, if not more effective means".

Not to mention, that by going into assassin, the bard's fascinate duration would practically be capped at 5 rounds (assuming he went in at bard 5, the earliest level), and able to only target 2 creatures, so it's not exactly breathtaking. Plus bard's cha doesn't synergise with assassin int.

My point is, a bard assassin isn't any scarier than a normal assassin, it just has a different opening toolkit. And the DM was a jerk for doing that, a level 5 solo vs a mindflayer.

Several of the better options are Bard spells that level 5 Bards have access to. Invisibility is a second level Bard spell, available to level 5 Bards. And Fascinate still gives you buff time.

[Thaneus]

Phrenic Human Psion Egoist 5 + Anarchic Initiant 10 + Ghostbreaker 5 (Hyp) (la buyoff on)
I planed to show what a Wizard did not want to come across :D

I know when the cheesfactory is rolling even this build will be flattened but my DM shed sweat after i first explained the mechanism.

Other was a typical power cheese build:
Greyelf Generalist-Domain-Wizard 5 + Incantatrix 10 + Archmage 5 with spellcraft unbuffed about ~110

non full caster build:
Marrulurk 3 + 11 Factotum + 6 Telflammar Shadowlord (la buyoff on)

[Ruethgar]

Gnarlack Isam Dua Dean Dragon Queen- I have a lot of stories written about her, and she does have a 40 lvl racial class written up for her. Basically she's a fire dragon of life and creation with undeath on the side. Eventually becomes a god.

Azca'Vyna- Actually made a post about her here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?445289-Dragon-PC-Azca-Vyna-the-Hellfire-Scourge). She's the daughter of Gnarlack and a black dragon from Heroes of Might and Magic and takes after her destructive ancestry far more than her mother. Where-as Gnarlack is more of a druid with a wrathful streak on the side, Azca'Vyna is wrath incarnate with some slight ability to replenish the forests she burns to the ground. She has a 24 lvl racial class, but also an ECL 0 version that goes all stalwart battle sorcerer and dragon mystic for fire with utility. It doesn't scale well but it could be a lot of fun at low levels.

Ruethgar- Ruethgar is the son of Gnarlack and a blue dragon of Azeroth. He is a very contemplative and observant spellhoarder. He is almost straight sorcerer. He followed his mother through other worlds and learned her ways before setting off in a different direction. He is sort of typical, wizard locked away in his tower kind of guy. Very wise and knowledgeable but leaves the world alone most of the time. Not really fit for play with that attitude.

Veramore Sinde'Nom- Gnarlack's creator had enemies, and when they learned of her creation, Veramore Sinde'Nom was their reply. Almost exactly like Gnarlack but with every unholy and hellfire reversed to Good. Veramore is a multiheaded flying serpent and holds the typical LG zeal for killing all that is evil or tainted by evil.

Dalari- Basically a Disc DPS priest from Warcraft converted into D&D with much difficulty.

Abadon- Hellfire devil person. Warlock and demon binder.

Alucard, Ira, Gaia, and Victor all have stories here (https://www.booksie.com/users/Itova+Sythr-183436).

Alucard has extensive story set up with multiple different fleshed out characters including Victor who become his generals. He's basically leadership abuser with a lot of support and some nice person power if he gets in a pinch.

Ira is my attempt at the ents of LotR. Gets AoE melee knockback and some serious rock throwing.

Gaia is super druid.

Arboris is basically a scholar from an extradimentional garden. Learned how to replicate druidic magic by arcane means, learned alchemy, and gramarie. Has a lovely little set up story, ready to be plopped in anywhere.

Storm has several variation for different sets of rules, but basically try to dream storms into being, often with a minor in flora. She has a whole fleeing princess backstory too.

Have a whole line of more beastial dragons, another line abusing sculpt self for thematic builds. A file of faeries, file of demigods, one of beasts, kobolds, arcane abominations, undead, a few of E6, and a file of skill users and melee builds.

[Sheogoroth]

Gary Gallenstonecraft

Male Drow Cavalier 5
Beastmaster 1
Mammoth Rider 2

Born into servitude and oppression as a result of his gender, Gary suffered as a second class citizen- a mere cog in the machine of the Drow Empire.
One day he had enough and, throwing off his mantle of slavery, he escaped and grasped hold of his freedom!
Now Gary, Giant Spider-Rider, Adventurer and Freelance author of the controversial banned book: The Masculine Mystique, lives as a soldier of fortune, looking to one day return home and shatter the "Darkglass Ceiling" and create a world that is equal for all Drow.

[Dragonrider99]

I've more then a few. But the one I have the most work in that I have yet to use, is a halfling summoner. He has a lame leg, and can't walk on his own without either a cane/stick or getting pulled/pushed in a cart. He grew up with his eidolon though - and has learned to be effective at adventuring by riding it, and using his magic while mounted. He's also just a "little bit" insane and somewhat absent minded, despite not having any intentional penalties to mental stats.

[The_Iron_Lord]

I'll just start by saying that the character concepts that I never used are innumerable; every time I come across a new thing, I create a character for it.

I've thought it would be fun to play an insane CN cleric of madness, who worships an imaginary god and actually is an ideal-worshiper.

[unseenmage]

Some I've never gotten to play.

Effigy Flying Monkey who flies around in a spelljammer skiff.

Dwarf Shifter who is insane and convinced he is a true wererat. Sole survivor of Dwarf Fortress style !FUN!

Kobold wielding oversize gauntlets whose Str is high enough he goes toe to toe with large and larger opponents.

There are others I've gotten to play but only briefly.

Fettle the Porcelain Warforged. Is a porcelain enameled warforged scout were-winged warforged with Embedded Warforged Component Spellsong Nightingales.

Motif the Repository, an Illumian Factotum searching for his family's stolen mystical library which contains his ancestors research on the TN version of the BoED/BoVD wirds of power.

And many many more.

[Steven]

Some I've never gotten to play.
*snip*
Kobold wielding oversize gauntlets whose Str is high enough he goes toe to toe with large and larger opponents.
*snip*

An intelligent set of animated gauntlets that hits people with Kobolds? That sounds fantastic.

[unseenmage]

An intelligent set of animated gauntlets that hits people with Kobolds? That sounds fantastic.

....
....
Okay.
You're not wrong.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I've wanted to play a soul-broker ever since reading FC2. Not an actual fiend, per se, but someone who's made a faustian pact for the right to draw up faustian pacts and take a finder's fee from the rewards given to his victims.

[John Longarrow]

One of the oddest being rolling around in my game is a pixie. A pixie who's become a rather powerful, if unhinged, necromancer. Said pixie has a massively huge humanoid skeleton that its animated and has built a duplex in its chest. The pixie steers it by standing inside its massive skull looking out the eye sockets.

Strange part is said pixie has rented out the other half of the duplex to a nice couple, an awakened monkey and their spouse who was reincarnated at a monkey.

NOTE: Yes, I'm intentionally leaving out some details.. can't wait until I have a party encounter them and I don't want to give much away.

[thorr-kan]

I posted this elsewhere, but it keeps rattling around my subconscious.

LN Frostblood Half-orc Stalwart Battle Sorcerer
Frostblood half-orc: dragonblood subtype, Resistance to Cold 10, Endurance (bonus feat), and Vulnerability to Fire.
Martial Weapon Proficiency (kurki) - Battle Sorcerer bonus feat
Martial Weapon Proficiency (warhammer) - Stalwart Sorcerer bonus feat
Weapon Focus (warhammer) - Stalwart Sorcerer bonus feat

1 - Mother Cyst (LM, bonus for flaw), Endurance (PH, bonus for race), Necormantic Bloodline (DragonMagComp), Arcane Fatigue [Flaw] (DragMag333), Divine Companion (for familiar, CompChamp).
2 - N/A
3 - Corrupt Arcane Studies (Ghostwalk).
4 - Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution 4th-level (Races of the Dragon).
5 - Domain Access (for Spells Know, CompChamp).
6 - Charnel Miasma (CompChamp).

Future feats: White Dragon Heritage (DragMagic), Kin Mastery (DragonMagComp).

(This isn't a character I've played. But it's one I've designed, and the backstory keeps burning a hole in my mind (insert obligatory B5 reference here).)

"I was born dying.

"My mother was human, favored of Nerull and touched by draconic influences. My father was some nameless orc, probably chief of her bodyguards. And I was destined for sacrifice, the final component in a ritual to cleanse the entire barony of its filthy, human infestation. I can still feel the cold of their hatred.

"Apparently, I also inherited a tendency for melodrama from someone.

"A local band of adventures thought otherwise. They disrupted the ritual, killed the priestess, and slaughtered the orc horde. When the blood settled, all that was left was miscellaneous treasure and a squalling infant.

"My real father and his companions are not paragons of virtue, but they are men of their word. Their contract was suppression of the cult of Nerull, not killing children. Father claimed me as his reward and returned to seminary.

"Apparently, I was not a difficult baby to raise. I got into everything and I was strong for my age, but listened to what I was told and developed appropriately. I am told even then, I was a bit odd. I watched what was not there; cold never bothered me; animals avoided me. I do not know; I do not remember it.

"Childhood, while not idyllic, was enjoyable. I assisted father in his research and help out around the temple. I played with other children in the city. I was never truly accepted, but I was never an outcast. Being an orphan and half-breed always created some distance. There was also the magic. I was infused with a necromantic energy since birth. It manifested without warning and without control. That furthered any gulf between me and my playmates.

"At six, I entered the temple boarding school. Father decreed a course of study in magic and religion. He hoped for a priest or possibly a wizard for a son, but that was not to be. I never felt called to the Ruby Sorceress's clergy, not felt her divine will manifest itself to me. My studies were intriguing, but never the overwhelming obsession any successful wizard has. Instead, there was my power, untamed and alien to my blood. But it was mine, and I would not dismiss it. My studies lent me understanding of what I was, and what I might be: a sorcerer.

"Boarding school decided, since I was a half-orc, I would receive weapons training. Somebody had to face physical enemies. Our weapons master was a taciturn old dwarf who hated all of us. But he was knowledgeable, and he was fair. We respected that. I enjoyed the training and took to it well. It helped that I excelled with warhammers, a traditional dwarven weapon. I also became enamored of the kukri. It is not Wee Jas's favored weapon, but I enjoy it's exoticness.

"Physical activity helped my focus. I finally gained some control over the necromantic energy running through me. I started manifesting small magics and aquired the nickname Spooky from my dorm mates. Puberty actually increased my control. Magery was looking more and more attainable.

"Then church politics reared its ugly head. Someone decided I would make the perfect component for their summoning ritual. I was charged with necromantic energy and tainted by my mixed blood, so it had to be my destiny, correct? How could I disagree? I was implanted with a mother cyst, and the ritual started.

"Father...disagreed. His strike team seized the renegade temple, freed the prisoners, and killed every heretic they could find.

"Father is not very demonstrative, but I know he loves me. How? He tells me so. And if there is a threat to me, he exterminates it with extreme prejudice. I could have worse role models.

"After my rescue, I turned fanatical in my studies. I pushed myself harder in my martial training. I focused my fear and anger into my magical studies. I researched and pursued divine knowledge of our Lady. I was determined not to be a victim again. It has paid off. My power is tamed, though it will never be truly a part of my being. I have tapped my Lady's divine presence into my magic. I am a sorcerer of some fell power, I have the blessings of Wee Jas on my magic, and I can handle myself in a common tavern brawl or a pitched battle.

"My name is Klotto Rubiini Kosketti. I am a half-orc, I serve the Ruby Sorceress, and my magic brings death to her foes. My enemies don't fare to well, either.

"I *told* you I had a penchant for melodrama."