D&D 2E Recreating a memorable 2e character

[John Cecil]

Hello,

New the the forum.
I am DM ing a group right now. I am wanting to remake a memorable character as an NPC that one of the players will get to use as a one shot.

Here is the catch.
In 2e he was an Elf Fighter/mage. The player insisted that he would only use a Two-handed Sword.

The character had a lot of color. At one point he got his arm permanently cut off. It was a cursed blade that did the deed. So it was never able to be restored. But he insisted on continuing to use his weapon. The character was a drunk and made all kinds of bad decisions. The player did too in real life . I want him to be either a full caster or at least a half caster. He cannot be a half elf because he will be ancient even by elven standards. Bladesinger is out of the question with the Greatsword requirement. I thought about Eldritch Knight. I also looked at Scorladin but with the elven requirements he will have stat deficiency. I am going to Max his levels out. I would consider Warlock if the flavor was right. Having a dark side to this character is perfectly acceptable.

Let me know what ideas you might have. His name is Calizornia.

 

[77IM]

Uh, how is this character wielding a two-handed sword with only one arm? The 5E rules don't have any way to do that. So it sounds like you're already into house-rules territory. How deep in do you want go?

Anyway, Str/Cha-based sorcadin is a fantastic build and possibly overpowered. Multiclass Eldritch Knight/wizard is also pretty good if you want Str/Int. If you'd rather be Dex/Cha, and still have a greatsword, Hexblade warlock can do that because they can attack with Cha.

 

[Blue]

Trying to convert a character I always go for the concept and not the mechanics.

I'm a bit confused about the wielding a two handed sword with only one arm. If you really want to, give him a variation on the Sun Blade (longsword that has finesse and acts like long or short sword) to be a two handed sword without the two handed property. Solves the one-armed issue as well as the Bladesinger issue. Then just make him a bladesinger.

You mention avoiding things for stat definciecy, but an elf is going to be well behind on STR for using a two handed sword anyway.

Alternately, a single level of fighter for armor/weapon (& CON saves) plus the rest in some other type of wizard (like abjurer).

If casting is more important to the concept then casting stat and what he is aligned with gets his power (as you seem to be implying with CHR-based casting and looking at paladin), look at a hexblade / pact of the blade warlock. At 3rd they can make a greatsword into their pact blade, which means you can use the hexblade ability to make it CHR wield-able. So CHR for attack, damage, and spells. But you still need to get around the one arm issue.

Maybe just go Fighter(EK), and just give him a custom "Monkey Grip" feat to use a two handed weapon in one hand. Fighters have plenty of feats.

 

[John Cecil]

Oh I am aware it is not possible to wield it one handed. I will come up with a house rule to allow it. The one armed thing is just for flavor. The rest of it will need to be by the rules. I should have clarified that.

I didn't think about the Hexblade being able to wield two handed weapons with Cha attack bonus. Maybe I can work something out with that. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[John Cecil]

Blue. Thank you for the comments. I agree on the concept over mechanics. The reason our DM cut the characters arm off was because the player did not build his character well and 20 years ago he was not optimized then. The DM hated the character so he tried to give good reason to stop playing him and play something else. But the player was stubborn and kept playing him, kept using the sword, with heavy minuses, and ended up being one of our favorites in the end. He made so many terrible decisions and somehow, despite the DM trying to kill him off, somehow lived through it all. I think a Scorlock might be a good choice

 

[John Cecil]

I like the Sunblade idea too

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It sounds like the character is supposed to be filled with bad ideas, the easiest mechanic for using a greatsword one-handed would be just to give this NPC disadvantage on attack rolls with it.

Since this is for a one-shot, I’d recommend sticking to a single class build like Eldritch Knight, War Mage, or Hexblade.

Bringing back old characters can be fun. I recently used an old PC of mine (Ralif Redhammer, my namesake here, dating back to the Red Box) as an aged dwarven NPC that they went to to forge magic armor and weapons for them (once they quested for the special materials needed, since I don't believe in just buying magic items). Even if none of the players got the reference, it made me happy.

Oh I am aware it is not possible to wield it one handed. I will come up with a house rule to allow it. The one armed thing is just for flavor. The rest of it will need to be by the rules. I should have clarified that.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Oh I am aware it is not possible to wield it one handed. I will come up with a house rule to allow it. The one armed thing is just for flavor. The rest of it will need to be by the rules. I should have clarified that.

I didn't think about the Hexblade being able to wield two handed weapons with Cha attack bonus. Maybe I can work something out with that. Thank you for the suggestion.

A simple house rule for wielding a greatsword one-handed: impose disadvantage as others have suggested. Any small creature that attempts to wield a Heavy weapon has disadvantage IIRC, so a similar rule (i.e. one-handed) might work well.

Without knowing more about the 2E character, I don't think I could offer any more than what others have said from skimming the responses.

 

[bedir than]

Oh I am aware it is not possible to wield it one handed. I will come up with a house rule to allow it. The one armed thing is just for flavor. The rest of it will need to be by the rules. I should have clarified that.

I didn't think about the Hexblade being able to wield two handed weapons with Cha attack bonus. Maybe I can work something out with that. Thank you for the suggestion.

Every attack with disadvantage to start. It's kind of like a halfling using a polearm

 

[ccs]

Do you know what his stats/lvs were?

If so, then just make 5e Calizornia a multi-class Ftr/Wizard & adjust his stats via any ASIs as appropriate.


As for how he wields a GS one handed? Easy - magic. So he wasn't able to have his arm replaced because it was a cursed sword that took it? Well he's had many years to both enchant his current GS & practice.
So his greatsword, in his hand, is no more un-wieldly that a longsword.
He's also had just as long to practice casting spells one handed.