Designing Elric of Melnibone

[Garthanos]

Weren't his pacts with elementals and animal lords things he could only do once each?

Strasha started willing to do far more... other not so... then Elric changed the nature of his own universe and ...

Even though unable to call the Water lord back in to the world he was able to do large scale water elemental effects (affecting all the water in a small city so that it refused to attack his fire elementals implied he could have done other big water effects -- even if you would build it differently).

Paladin influence needs to be controlled I think...just because Striker is a better match up with how he fights... get the fight over fast.. use thp in the mean time.

 

[silverwhisper]

i really like mr. teapot's idea re: infernal pact/tiefling warlock--but if he's using weapon keyworded at-wills and feeds off the temporary HPs, doesn't that imply he needs to stay in melee, mixing it up?

ed

 

[Ryujin]

Elrics low constitution could be considered fluff "almost" he is constantly under the influence of remedies and Stormbringer.

His at-wills have a major martial cast to them... with melee training doesnt give you... and his heavy armor is hard to attribute without some mental skull duggery which I am not entirely opposed to. Magical armor - (hide) which appears as plate and defends close to that because of Elrics intellect.
If we start him at paragon and can get real plate by hybriding a warlock with paladin and paragon pathing in to something giving more complete warlock powers... or simply rely on a magic item to give him temp hitpoints when his enemies go down. ;-).... he could then have summoning wizard... though focusing on the book is unlike Elric.

Elrics role in the story was in some fashion a "Champion of Chaos who turned Champion of Balance"... this is not inconsistant with a paladin warlock. And the characters healthy intellect charisma bent rather works with it.

I guess you're right about basic attack not covering it and Paladin M/C with Warlock certainly has merit. Elric could almost be seen as a champion of his race (before it became degenerate), in the way that a Paladin is a champion of his god. Plate becomes an automatic proficiency, regardless of attributes, and it covers the various martial style exploits. It works better than Swordmage, I think.

It might be better as Paladin multi to Wizard though, taking both Learned Spellcaster (Arcane Power) and Arcane Initiate (PHB1). Toss in Alchemy as a feat and you're a good way along.

 

[Garthanos]

There's a regional benefit in 4E FR that lets a character use Intelligence in place of Constitution for starting HPs.

Yes that could be appropriate but there is also "Born Under a bad sign" which umm is soooo right and has a similar effect ;-)

 

[muchan]

Well, if you do go with Paladin, considering taking the Arcane Domain feat from Complete Divine...it would allow you to add on all the nifty extras like the White Lotus Feats onto the paladin's at-wills and fits the "arcane" flavor of The White Wolf quite well.

On a different tack, you might consider the Deva race with some flavor tweaks. It would be very easy to conceptualize them in the context of Elric being one of the Eternal Champions (I think that's what it's called) that are essentially incarnations of the same thing across the entire Multiverse which is very similar to the Deva's whole "a thousand lives" schtick.

 

[Garthanos]

Well, if you do go with Paladin, considering taking the Arcane Domain feat from Complete Divine...it would allow you to add on all the nifty extras like the White Lotus Feats onto the paladin's at-wills and fits the "arcane" flavor of The White Wolf quite well.

ahhhhh... that is interesting...
Arioch
so is their a chaos domain, skill domain and arcane domain

On a different tack, you might consider the Deva race with some flavor tweaks. It would be very easy to conceptualize them in the context of Elric being one of the Eternal Champions (I think that's what it's called) that are essentially incarnations of the same thing across the entire Multiverse which is very similar to the Deva's whole "a thousand lives" schtick.

Love it yes I was thinking of Deva but hadnt quite gone far enough in to reincarnating hero is... very good.

 

[Garthanos]

Here is a really base one for Elric at Level one call it before he gets bonded to the Black blade and really starts rolling with this Warlock powers.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Elric of Melnibone, level 1
Human, Warlock|Paladin
Eldritch Pact (Hybrid): Infernal Pact (Hybrid)
Hybrid Warlock: Hybrid Warlock Reflex
Hybrid Paladin: Hybrid Paladin Will
Hybrid Talent: Paladin Armor Proficiency
Eldritch Strike: Eldritch Strike Charisma
Background: Born Under a Bad Sign (Born Under a Bad Sign Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 12, Con 8, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 19.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 12, Con 8, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 17.


AC: 20 Fort: 12 Reflex: 16 Will: 16
HP: 32 Surges: 7 Surge Value: 8

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +7, History +7, Bluff +9, Diplomacy +9, Intimidate +9

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -4, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance -5, Heal +1, Insight +1, Nature +1, Perception +1, Religion +2, Stealth -4, Streetwise +4, Thievery -4, Athletics -3

FEATS
Learned Spellcaster: Ritual Caster
Human: Learned Spellcaster
Level 1: Hybrid Talent

POWERS
Bonus At-Will Power: Ardent Strike
Hybrid Paladin at-will 1: Bolstering Strike
Hybrid Warlock at-will 1: Eldritch Strike
Hybrid encounter 1: Heedless Fury
Hybrid daily 1: Your Glorious Sacrifice

ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Implement, Rod, Longsword, Heavy Shield, Plate Armor
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Technically Your glorous sacrifice and Headless fury are both... post Stormbringer...;-) effects.
Built as human because I wanted the extra feat... not for the extra - at will. Not an issue if we go up to more manageable level... and I am really liking that reincarnating hero connection to the Deva. (the attributes +2 intelligence and +2 wisdom are certainly styled right for elric.. )

Note anything radiant... should be visually black radiance and might be necrotic damage and maybe any power listed as affecting undead might instead be considered immortal. Shrug.

 

[Garthanos]

A full blown Warlock might be better .... Stormbringer and Arioch representing two different pacts...Stormbringers Infernal boon(boom you get temp hit points) and Ariochs seems almost like the Dark Pact though not identical (he has a build up then grants an attack power maybe a mobile sustainable acid cloud .. or better be sustained based on how much build up of soul energy you did before Arioch answered.)
Twofold pact is a feat sort of required for the above.

Doing this is tough with Elric unless we indeed go with Stormbringer allowing Charisma to be used in place of Con for Warlock Powers.

Life Stealer seems a cool paragon path with somewhat more interesting effects from soul stealing than stormbringer...

 

[Tony Vargas]

The Eternal Champion certainly had an influence on D&D, mainly on the alignment system and cosmology, both of which have altered over the years. There's vanishingly little of moorcockian Law/Chaos/Balance in what's left of the alignment system. Though, I suppose, you could find vestiges of it in the divine/primordial conflict.

Elric was concieved as an antithisis of Conan. Where Conan was a physically powerful barbarian usurper who pitted honest steel against wicked wizardry, Elric was a feeble scion of a decadent empire who employed vile magic gained from demonic pacts. He was also concieved at a time when Moorcock was probably clinically depressed, and it shows.

How you want to model Elric or a character inspired by Elric depends on what you're trying to capture. If you want to simulate Elric in detail - or anything else, for that mater - a more simulationist system might be in order. If you want to bring across the idea of a feeble unhuman scion of a lost empire, still using the demonic alliances of that empire, Tiefling Warlock certainly captures that.

Melniboneans are physically and conceptually more like Eladrin or Drow - effete, elegant, intellectual, beautiful to humans but distinctly un-human (or even evil). So those races could also be options.

Elric served Arioch, a 'Lord of Chaos' and 'Duke of Hell.' Depending on the state of the balance in any given world, Arioch could range in power from little more than a half-remembered boogeyman to the greatest of Gods. A Vestige Warlock would model a servitor of the former, an Invoker, one of the latter.

Elric did swing a sword throughout the series, but his real power came from magic, mostly the magic of ancient pacts with elementals, his relationship with Arioch, and of course, Strombringer. He was almost certainly well schooled in whatever decadent martial styles perdominated in the Melnibone of his day, but that hardly justifies a martial class or even multiclass. Plenty of non-martial classes let you whack someone with a weapon, and melee training could easily model some wierd style of Melnibonean fencing.

Mostly for me he is a big weapon melee striker -- with encounter powers feeling like barbians and dailies feeling like wizards (knocking down minions by the buckets).

Hmmm... 'servant' of a Deity (Arioch, in the realms where chaos i is ascendant) who chops enemies to bloody bits with a big sword? Avenger, perhaps?

 

[Garthanos]

He was almost certainly well schooled in whatever decadent martial styles perdominated in the Melnibone of his day, but that hardly justifies a martial class or even multiclass.

Moorcock was rather vivid with describing how Elric attacked ... You can almost name the attacks and moves he makes in some of his first fights as a sequence of at-wills and standard actions from the fighter...charge possibly tide of iron with a shield swapping out to two handed use of the weapon followed by a cleave and a brash strike...or maybe power attack etc... Martial in hybrid and MC isnt that far fetched admittedly it might have included more at-wills than D&D alots even for a human

The point of mentioning that the Melniboneans were definitely not as Arcane as they used to be and that they pretty much fought with sword and spear and bow and war board.
Was to demonstrate how he could be Melnibones prodigy sorceror better than most all of his contemporaries and still not be that horribly high of level.... (Though Elrics training in using all of the above was explicitly mentioned... so those wanting that detail.... shrug)
That doesnt mean martial with hybriding and mcing is the best D&D translation of Elric in my opinion but it isnt an unreasonable one either ...if that was the route somebody wanted.

Elric was flabbergasted when he realized you could do sorcery faster than hours of time (although he did perform lesser magics - alah cantrips fairly adroitly -- that points to a Wizard). That he is there greatest sorceror really implies they were down to rituals and old fashioned bloody sword fighting ... unless one was one of the few talents (Elric and his Cousin Yrkoon).

Elric and Yrkoon are exceptions..but simple Melee training is inadequate ... at-wills are where its at for defining normal fighting and theres were mostly melee ...so that gives us various possibilities... (one is martial with multiclassing but Warlock looks far sweeter due to the right flavor and class features... but will take a lot to get them melee capable. No melee training isnt even needed (Eldritch Strike or Reapers Touch are better).

His dailies seem to often be area effects keep pulling in the multiclass wizardry even though may be berserkergang style stuff but those style of actions certainly sneak in from other sources than barbarian/battleragers (like Avengers and Warlocks and Paladins) which he associates with using Stormbringer.

Avengers aspect of might is awefully controlled feeling... and in general that focused control only rarely seems a solid invocation of Elric... it was control and choice that made the difference between his fighting and Yrkoon but ... that could be my intelligence/charisma is higher than yours when we are doing Eldritch strikes.

Elric Wades through a lot of minions... which a swordmage build might get when some of the others dont especially avenger and that is as much a reason for me to say hmmm maybe not Avenger. The swordmages lighter armor type sort of conforms to his later after gaining Stormbringer habits which I seem to recall included somewhat less armor. The swordmages bond with his blade and summoning it are certainly an Elric feature...swordmages teleport way too much...if taken at pure dont feel that great...