introducing...
Thanks for all of your help everyone. I've copied and pasted all of your advice into my new character's character sheet. Here he is, back story and all. I assigned skill ranks based on usefulness and what made sense given his backstory. I decided on these feats because improved initiative lets him act first more often and dodge is not only useful in its own right but is also the first feat on the way to Spring Attack (helpful for tumbling in, flanking and then tumbling out).
I don't have a set plan on how I'm going to advance him. He's the kind of guy that would get good and whatever the party is bad at, and that's what I'm going to to. I'll probably put future skill ranks in whatever skills I find myself using the most often.
Zage Hane a.k.a. Scrubber, human, Rog 1, hp 7; init +6; Spd 30 ft.; AC 16 (touch 14, flat 12); Atk: +1 melee (1d6+1, rapier) or +1 melee (1d4+1, dagger), +3 ranged (1d6, shortbow); AL CN;
SV: F +1, R +5, W +2;
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 10,
Sneak Attack +1d6
Skills (ranks): Tumble +7 (4), Balance +5 (2), Jump +5 (4), Climb +5 (4), Bluff +4 (4), Hide +7 (4), Move Silently +7 (4), Spot +6 (4), Listen +3 (1), Pick Pocket +7 (4), Open lock +5 (1), Disable device +3 (1), Search +5 (3), Ride +5 (2*) *cross-class skill
Feats: Improved Initiative, Dodge
Possessions: Arrows (20); Dagger; Dagger; Rapier; Shortbow, Leather, Backpack, Bedroll, Caltrops, Flint and steel, Rations, trail (4 days), Rope, silk (50 ft.); Torch; Torch; Waterskin (full), 100 gp.
Zage Hane was born to a prostitute in an inn and bordello in a wild frontier town near the Groslen Wood. When he was three years of age, his mother disappeared and Zage was raised by the bordello’s cook, a grumpy but relatively kind woman who gave him his first name - “Scrubber.” As soon as he could carry a pot, Zage was set to scrubbing them. Through his childhood Zage cleaned stables, changed sheets, did laundry, swept, mopped, fetched water and scrubbed pot after pot after pot. When it was discovered that Zage could do backflips and handstands, he was sent out every night to entertain the guests. This earned him a few coppers and gave him a few hours off pot duty. So Zage got reasonably good at acrobatics. At age 14 he had a falling out with the innkeeper and left “home.” He took up with a band of somewhat successful horse thieves who utilized him first as a cook, then as a lookout and finally as a fellow thief. When he was 16, Zage stole a fine stallion from the very stable where he had once shoveled manure. The next day, he discovered that he had taken the prize horse of Baron Lureaux, a vain and cruel man with a reputation as a sadist. Sensing the hangman’s noose in his future, Zage saddled the Baron’s horse and rode for two weeks, making up his new name along the way. He has sense decided to take up the adventurer’s life as it is both somewhat more reputable than horse thievery and an occupation that keeps one traveling a lot. He has three goals in life. First, to not get caught and executed. Second, to never to wash another pot. Third, to make money in a (usually) honest fashion.
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