ForceUser
Explorer
This is a thread for fans of The Cask of Winter story hour to see the stat blocks of the player characters and relevant NPCs. I use the stat block format first detailed in the DMG II, which I enjoy immensely and find quite easy on the eyes during play. As the PCs are introduced, I will detail them below. As they level I will update the original posts with new stats and equipment. When interesting bad guys are vanquished, I will list their stats here post-mortum for all to see.
A couple of notes regarding the PCs' stats. First, I do not use the ranger in the PHB; instead, I use a variant created by Einar's player, Hjorimir, which I quite like. Without getting into nuts and bolts, the class is a wilderness warrior with no access to magic, and bears some resemblance to Tolkien's Strider. Around here we call it the "Aragorn Ranger." Second, I do not use standard turn undead rules. Instead, I've adopted the turn undead variant from Complete Divine, wherein a turn attempt is a point-blank area effect burst of positive energy that deals damage to undead. It's cooler, more synergistic, and easier to keep track of than the standard turn undead. Third, while four of the PCs are human, two of them, Louis and Rurik, are homebrew nonhuman races, the aelfborn and the half-ogre, respectively. I will detail the races at some point if there is interest. Fourth, many of the magic items in my campaign world are nonstandard and difficult to price; don't bother trying, I don't either. I consider the ramifications of introducing an item before doing so, just to make sure that it's not exorbitantly powerful, but I don't worry about where it puts a character's wealth by the rules as written. I couldn't really care less about that. My criteria for items insist that they must be cool and interesting--beyond that, I'm pretty flexible. Finally, I don't use alignments. Instead, creatures that are mystically aligned to a force, such as clerics, fiends, celestials, or undead, have an Axis. The four Axes are Grace, Taint, Chaos, and Order. If a character isn't aligned to an Axis, he's essentially neutral. That's not an alignment, however; it is simply an indicator that the character is not aligned to a higher power. The vast majority of mortal creatures are neutral and act according to their nature, not to an alignment construct.
One more thing--the PCs as posted will be a level ahead of where they are when the story hour begins. That's a spoiler, I guess; they all lived to make 7th-level.
Enjoy.
A couple of notes regarding the PCs' stats. First, I do not use the ranger in the PHB; instead, I use a variant created by Einar's player, Hjorimir, which I quite like. Without getting into nuts and bolts, the class is a wilderness warrior with no access to magic, and bears some resemblance to Tolkien's Strider. Around here we call it the "Aragorn Ranger." Second, I do not use standard turn undead rules. Instead, I've adopted the turn undead variant from Complete Divine, wherein a turn attempt is a point-blank area effect burst of positive energy that deals damage to undead. It's cooler, more synergistic, and easier to keep track of than the standard turn undead. Third, while four of the PCs are human, two of them, Louis and Rurik, are homebrew nonhuman races, the aelfborn and the half-ogre, respectively. I will detail the races at some point if there is interest. Fourth, many of the magic items in my campaign world are nonstandard and difficult to price; don't bother trying, I don't either. I consider the ramifications of introducing an item before doing so, just to make sure that it's not exorbitantly powerful, but I don't worry about where it puts a character's wealth by the rules as written. I couldn't really care less about that. My criteria for items insist that they must be cool and interesting--beyond that, I'm pretty flexible. Finally, I don't use alignments. Instead, creatures that are mystically aligned to a force, such as clerics, fiends, celestials, or undead, have an Axis. The four Axes are Grace, Taint, Chaos, and Order. If a character isn't aligned to an Axis, he's essentially neutral. That's not an alignment, however; it is simply an indicator that the character is not aligned to a higher power. The vast majority of mortal creatures are neutral and act according to their nature, not to an alignment construct.
One more thing--the PCs as posted will be a level ahead of where they are when the story hour begins. That's a spoiler, I guess; they all lived to make 7th-level.
Enjoy.
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