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Fresh-picked from the character vats!

Unread postPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 11:59 am
by bringatoweltoo
This is my first Philsys character sheet ever, so... be gentle. Still hmming and hawwwing over techs and equipment and still writing background/bio up, but here's the work in progress. I used one of Archmage's sheets as the template, so if it looks funny, it's only partly my fault. I know WIS 0 will be a pain in the ass, but it's just a starting point for this guy. He grew up with no formal education whatsoever, for reasons I promise to make clear once his bio is up.

EDIT: Sheet still under construction, but here's some background stuffs. Also shuffled some skill points to better fit the backstory. Visual description added, too.

EDIT II: Expansion on personality notes. Equipment added.

EDIT III: There are techs! I think it's done!

--Background--

Devian spent his early childhood in Bridarc Orphanage and, until the time of his adoption, he was little different from any other child growing up in Baron. He was taken in by a Terumahilanan man named Naijing. The staff of the orphanage were uneasy at first about entrusting Devian to him; although he was not outright evasive of their questions, Naijing managed to get through all conversation providing only minimal information about his past. Naijing did make his wealth and education pointedly obvious, however. He was more than capable of providing Devian with a comfortable future, and as there were no clearly apparent reasons to deny him, he left with Devian the next day.

Unfortunately, Naijing had not adopted Devian to be a companion in his privileged lifestyle, but to raise him as a tool to perpetuate it. The Terumahilanan had left his native land to begin laying the foundations of a criminal syndicate in a number of Igalan port cities. It was with one of these cells that Naijing left Devian: a ring of thieves who preyed upon visitors to Port Rosalia. Devian, who had only just learned to read and write in the orphanage, began learning the quick and dirty art of fleecing a mark of every coin in their purse.

They started him slowly, easing him into the poor beggar child routine; at first, it wasn't even a lie, really. He moved on into shell games, dicing in the alleys, other minor scams. What was the harm, after all? They were just games of chance between him and a willing opponent. Maybe he won more than he lost - a lot more - but if the other guy didn't know the chances of the game, well, whose fault was that?

Everything after that was easy to rationalize - Devian only had to turn it into a game. A stolen coin pouch became the just spoils of a round well-played. If someone lost some property because their door had a shoddy lock - or, perish the thought, no lock at all - well, they should have had their head in the game. He certainly did, and even with Naijing skimming everything he brought in, he was in no way wanting for money. Devian had quite a winning streak... for a time.

He should have seen it coming, Devian knew. Everyone loses sometime. He'd seen them lose time after time, night after night. He'd gotten careless this time, gotten caught lifting some particularly poisonous reagents from a delivery bound for an apothecary's laboratory. He'd lost, but he wouldn't bleat about it like all the others, the ones who'd called him a liar, a cheat, a thief. He'd lost fair and square, and he'd take his licks standing. The judge went easy on him on account of his age; he'd been working Port Rosalia for years, but he still couldn't grow a full beard yet. It looked to the judge like what Devian needed was guidance. He left it to Devian to decide whether he found it locked in the stocks or drilling in the army, and so began Devian's career as a soldier.

The sergeant-at-arms at Fort Lancet told Devian that getting drafted would turn out to be the best thing that had ever happened to him. Devian came to agree, in a way. He was stuck in the fort, but so were all the other recruits, and since they didn't have to spend any coin on room or board, it was easy enough to get the dice rolling, the cards shuffling, and the cash trickling into his hands. He even put on a few pounds and learned to fight while he was at it.

Eventually, Devian's unit completed their training and went to their first deployment. By now, he had rooked every private in the outfit out of enough money that they were willing to report he'd fallen off of a bridge and drowned in the river below, so long as he returned his winnings to them. They got their money back, and Devian got out of the army, declared dead. Now he's back in the game with more going for him than ever, and he's free to play for himself instead of Naijing.

Since he's spent his entire childhood and adolescence carving out a niche for himself amongst thieves and worse, it's extremely difficult for Devian to assess any situation in a non-competitive light. He is constantly sizing up those he meets, less in a predatory fashion than in pursuit of a good match. In a dark, deserted alley, a drunkard stumbling home has little to fear from Devian. The bright youngster with a reputation as a duellist, however, had best be on his toes.

Devian looks at his criminal career as a game of sorts, but that's not to say that everything is a laugh; after all, every good game has rules, and Devian is well aware of the high stakes he sometimes risks. He does have a moral compass, albeit a skewed one by most people's standards. Justification of violence straddles a particularly fine line in his eyes. If he gets caught while "working," he has no qualms about giving the night watch a few nasty cuts to make them think twice about trying to haul him in, but killing them breaks the rules of the game. It's sloppy, and removing people from the game just because they're playing isn't fun or fair (by Devian's extremely liberal definition of "fair" play). Perhaps owing to his own upbringing as an orphan, Devian also has a soft spot for children - they're still learning the game, so they're off-limits.

--Basic--

Name: Devian
RPer: bringatoweltoo
Race: human
Age: 19 (D.O.B. Kazerora 8, 1297)
Hometown: Baron Castle's surrounding town
Current Residence: Port Rosalia
Drunk type: Giddy - everything becomes a hilarious inside joke.
Favorite food, drink: fresh-baked bread, still warm and with enough butter to choke a horse; a good, dry red wine.
Least favorites: pickles, milk
Religious beliefs: The gods have a great racket going. It must be nice to make the rules that mere mortals play by.
Level: 1
XP: 0
HP: 70
MP: 20
TP: 31
Initiative: 6+2d6

Physical description: Devian is a touch on the short side, with a light, wiry build and sharply angular facial features. He has short black hair and a perpetual speckling of stubble; it's less from an effort to cultivate a tough-guy image than from simple inattention to grooming. He's sometimes seen in a simple undyed cotton tunic and breeches, but far more often in his "working clothes": studded leather armor that was, at one time, all black. The elbows of the jacket and the knees and seat of the pants have been worn down to a yellowed, bare-leather tone, and the spikes, cones, and pyramid studs that almost completely cover the jacket's shoulders and sleeves have lost their shine to tarnish and rust. Devian tops off his working clothes with a short sword on each hip and calf-height, scuffed boots.

--Attributes--

Courage: +4
Wisdom: +0
Intuition: +4
Charisma: +2
Agility: +4
Dexterity: +3
Strength: +1
Stamina: +3
Magic Aptitude: +0

Base AT/PA - 13/13 (15/15 with light weapons)
Modified for skill - 15/14 (17/16)
Modified for armor - 15/13 (17/15)

Base MATK: 4
Base MBlock: 22

--Skills-- (28 pts: 17 normal, 2 knowledge, 9 support)

Disarm Trap - 2 {Dex/Dex/Int}
Escape Artist - 2 {Dex/Agi/Int}
Gambling - 2 {Int/Int/Wis}
Lockpicking - 3 {Dex/Dex/Int}
Pickpocketing - 3 {Cou/Int/Dex}
Short Sword - 3 {Cou/Agi/Dex}
Trading - 2 {Cou/Int/Cha}
[k]Arms Lore - 2
[k]Etiquette (Streetwise) - 2
[s]Advanced Parry - 2
[s]Appraise - 2
[s]Athletics - 2
[s]Chink Detection - 2
[s]Observant - 2
[s]Sense Motive - 2
[s]Stealth - 3
[s]Two-Weapon Fighting - 3

--Equipment--

2 Short Swords - 7/10/13; +0/+0; weight 0.75 each (11/15/19 w/ STR & skill)
Studded Leather - AC 6; -0/-1; durability 15; weight 4
Chain Bracers - AC 8; durability 15; weight 2

--Spells/Techs--

[Chink Detection=1]Penetrate Armor (2 TP) - Using this skill, it is possible to find a weak point in a humanoid target's armor. On a successful attack, make a second AT vs. PA check (including PA roll, if the defender had one in the first place). Add rank to the attacker's AT as a bonus. If the attacker hits with this attack, the defender's armor class is totally ignored.

[Short Sword=1, Stealth=1]Cheap Shot (3 TP)
Devian's not above throwing a sword-play sucker-punch and making it really hurt. Using Cheap Shot adds Devian's Short Sword rank to his damage roll a second time.

[Short Sword=2]Precise Striking (2 TP)
Uses DEX to determine weapon damage bonuses instead of STR and eliminates all penalties to hit other than those caused by magical debuffs for one round. Heavy attacks are impossible when using Precise Striking.

[Stealth=2]Sneak Attack (3 TP)
Takes advantage of an opponent's inability to defend themself to deliver an incredible deathblow melee attack. This ability can only be used against an opponent that is either denied a PA roll or that is unaware of Devian's presence (because he is hiding, for instance). Adds DEX to AT a second time and uses DEX to determine weapon damage instead of STR for one round--and can be stacked with any other weapon techs. If used with Precise Striking, double the damage bonus contributed by his DEX. Only one of Devian's attacks each round is granted these bonuses unless he pays additional TP for further attacks. Only creatures with discernable anatomies can be sneak attacked (not machines, golems, oozes, etc.; undead MAY be sneak attackable at GM's discretion).

[Short Sword=3, Two-Weapon Fighting=3]Double Down (3 TP)
Sometimes you've gotta bet it all. With both weapons, Devian springs into a desperate last-ditch attack. Using Double Down allows Devian to sacrifice up to 5 points of PA bonus to gain an equal amount to his AT bonus for one turn.

Unread postPosted: Mon May 14, 2007 12:58 am
by bringatoweltoo
This is - I hope - starting to look a lot more like a finished character; I think at this point all I need to add is techs and any more background stuff that occurs to me, so... *shamelessly fishes for comments toward improving this thing*