I'll stake out a place. Just need to finish looking over the House Rules and make up my mind about what will fit in best with existing character types.
edit: OK. Having read the House Rules, I'm shelving my original Paladin character concept.
As a team player, I'll step up to do that funky Wizard thing. (I'll flesh out the rest of his background later. This should be enough for other folks to start thinking about how our characters will fit together.)
Daffyd
Human, 1st-Level Wizard
Numbers: [sblock]Medium (6'1", 185lbs) Male Humanoid (Human), 37 years old
Hit Dice: 1d4+2+3 (9hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 11 (+1 Dexterity), touch 11, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-2
Attack: Dagger -2 melee (1d4-2) or Light Crossbow +1 ranged (1d8)
Space/Reach: 5ft./5ft.
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Spells
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +1
Abilities: Str 7, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 19, Wis 9, Ch 12
Skills: Concentration +6, Craft (Painting) +8, Knowledge (Arcana) +10, Knowledge (Architecture & Engineering) +8, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (The Planes) +8, Spellcraft +10
Feats: Improved Initiative, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft), Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Failings: Middle-Aged
Languages: Common, Celestial, Draconic, Elven, Undercommon
Alignment: Neutral Good
Class Abilities: Familiar (toad)
Spellcasting: 0th-level: 4, DC14; 1st-level 3, DC15. One spell per level must be from the Conjuration school. Conjuration spells have DC+1.
Spellbook (Conjuration spells marked with an asterisk*): 0th-level: All available cantrips; 1st-level: Comprehend Languages, Enlarge Person, Grease*, Identify, Mage Armor*, Protection from Evil, Silent Image.
Equipment: Light Crossbow w/ 20 bolts, Dagger,
Everburning Torch, Traveler's Outfit, Backpack, Bedroll, Waterskin, 3 days trail rations, Inkpen, 1oz Ink, Spellbook, 2 pieces of Chalk, Scroll of
Comprehend Languages, Scroll of
Grease, Scroll of
Protection from Evil, 7gp, 2sp, 8cp.
Daffyd also keeps an Artisan's Outfit and Painter's Tools at his cottage.
[/sblock]
Description:[sblock] Daffyd is a tall and handsome man, but he carries little muscle and has developed a slight paunch over the years. His long, dark brown hair is thick and slightly wavy, but starting to recede above his temples; to hide this, Daffyd has ceased simply pushing his hair back and now affects a fringe. The strongest of his features are his deep brown eyes and high cheekbones; the firm line of his jaw has softened with his waist, and his nose was always off-centre. He dresses more like an adventurer than the hedge wizard and artist that he is, favouring short leather boots, breeches and a good wool cloak over his shirt when he ventures out on cooler nights.[/sblock]
Current Events:[sblock]The folk of the valley finally have an epithet for Daffyd that they can use in his earshot, though they'll not be fully comfortable with it until the next spring. For better than a decade, he had been "Daffyd the Witch", or, less honestly, "Daffyd the Painter". Last winter, disease made him into "Daffyd the Widower."
The hedge wizard took the death of his wife badly. He and Alice had always been stand-offish, and Daffyd seems unwilling to substitute anyone else's company for hers. His remaining family, cousin Willem, checks in once a week. These occasions were awkward at first, as the two were never close, but both realised the necessity of the contact. As a result of his isolation, Daffyd is probably the last person in the valley to have learned of the extent of the recent troubles. The news seems to have stirred the widower's spirits somewhat - or at least, Willem would like to think so.[/sblock]
Background:[sblock]Daffyd was an only child. His main memories of his parents are coloured by their incessant quarrelling. Those raised voices drove the boy to flinch away from most people's company, turning his developing mind to quieter pursuits. A few learned folk in the valley quickly came to know Daffyd, and were soon impressed by his ability to learn. Indeed, he very quickly exhausted their ability to teach him more about magic and the workings of the world; Daffyd remained about his informal tutors largely to learn more of the workings of people. Relating to the other children of the valley, however, was more difficult, and Daffyd's few friends were those who would put up with him boasting of his ambition to become a powerful mage.
Adventurers would pass through the valley from time to time. Daffyd was rarely bold enough to approach the arcanists among them, but one day he was overheard regaling his companions with a prediction of future magical might. The eavesdropper confronted Daffyd as his friends shrank away, asking what made him think that he had the talent for magic. The boy stammered, and almost lost his chance. Fortunately, the conjurer Adalwyn looked for other than charm in a would-be apprentice; when it came to testing his faculties, Daffyd exceeded the conjurer's expectations, and was given an invitation to seek out Adalwyn at his secluded cottage when the lad was ready to take his first real steps on the path of magic. As he eagerly told them of this development, Daffyd's friends were sceptical. The wizard probably hadn't meant it, or if he had, could he be trusted? Their doubts piled onto the boy's own, and he let the opportunity slide. Still, Daffyd remained interested in learning but little else. As a teenager, he found his peers drawn into regular life, making his isolation more pronounced. Finally, the feeling that he had to seize his destiny or forever let it slide overwhelmed the young man, and he rashly set off to find the wizard Adalwyn.
The journey was no great hardship, despite Daffyd's lack of experience on the road. When the youth arrived at the cottage, his future mentor was somewhat surprised, and took a little convincing that Daffyd was in fact the same boy he'd met a few years ago. Adalwyn had a further complication: his daughter, Mara, had returned from being fostered by another mage, and was continuing her arcane education under her father. Mara was a year older than Daffyd, and had the benefit of a considerable head-start in their studies. She took up the lion's share of Adalwyn's time; such tutelage as Daffyd received in his first year at the cottage was mainly in painting, a talent that Adalwyn considered essential in developing a focused mind.
Still in his teens, Daffyd retained his proud but retiring disposition, and his body was stockier than just 'puppy fat' would explain away. He held little appeal to the fey, athletic Mara, and she largely ignored him to focus on her studies. Mara's focus on magic had the perverse effect of sparking Daffyd's feelings for her - but at first, he simply admired her ability and threw himself into the work with hopes of catching up. Thus, as he grew into manhood, Daffyd's appetite for learning over-shadowed all others; he grew thin from missing meals. His studies under Adalwyn prospered, and the wizard began teaching his two apprentices together. And Mara started to talk to him.
The two were sitting on the steps of Adalwyn's cottage, examining a treatise on the Planes which claimed that there existed Primes without number. Daffyd found the idea fascinating; Mara thought it was irrelevant, and when her patience with the text was exhausted, told her fellow apprentice as much. The young man didn't stop to think that perhaps this was a chance to get to know her, and instead simply retorted that her view was parochial: if this was the true nature of existence then that had its own value. They argued, and passionately, but without any malice. When the argument fell away with both conceeding that the other hand a point, but still refusing to budge from their own position, Daffyd and Mara kept talking, finally learning about one another. Surprisingly, they had much in common, though for different reasons.
Mara had never met anyone who wasn't grasping for power, and while she was not shy, shrank away from sapient beings for that reason. Her tutelage had mostly been undertaken by a self-serving wizard who asked questions mainly to embarass his many disciples, lecturing on their failings as often as he did on magic. Her father's more personal style had been a great shock; learning that the folk of the valley were more like Adalwyn was a greater one. As the sky darkened, the two kept talking, and their conversation almost outlasted the night, too - just before dawn, Mara crept to her bed and Daffyd to his place by the hearth, to feign that they had slept at least a few hours when Adalwyn woke them.[/sblock]
Half-Orc/Orc Monk for a while now.
