Character Creation & Leveling Discussion Board

@jollycooperative, Medheyg's character sheet is almost complete.

A few things to consider: I ran the ability scores for your point-buy using https://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html, and I noticed that you still have a +1 that you can float into any ability except for Dexterity (since your +2 would go there).

I am good with the cliffclimb shifter trait that you created. I approve that.

I notice that Keen Senses (from the Elf kinship) is on your character sheet, but that is not something that shifters get. Please remove that, and remove the adjoining Perception proficiency related to it.

Let me know when those edits are done, and I can review and approve.

Sounds good! I think I'm gonna go with Starling for my Druid's Kinship. I may need the week though to finish putting the character together. I have a few obligations going on this week that are going to cut into my free time.

But basic gist of my concept is a Starling who was knocked down to Planegea and was initially terrified and isolated themselves from the things they saw. But people of some sort do spot them and start worshipping them as a deity. He still wouldn't directly interact with them, but they would bring him offerings and food and such and kind of these small introductions to the life of whatever particular tribe this might have been.

But he hasn't lost his connection with the stars at all, drawing upon magics in the world around him and especially what he can still feel from the night skies above. It's like this constant nostalgia for home, which keeps him at a distance from the people around him. I might eventually have him run out when someone realizes maybe he isn't an actual God, or there's some sort of conflict from a legit God rising up in the area. I'll flesh this all out more once I see what sort of adventure the second group might have and where I can build upon from those hooks.

Should be done now. Thanks for the oversight, Shifter's kind of all over the place.

I should also specify that Cliffclimb is from UA. I didn't make it myself.

Love the concept. Don’t sweat taking a week; real life takes priority. Plus, it will give me a chance to get the details down for that second group’s initial adventure.

Just so you all know, I am loving the creative juices flowing from you all. I have no doubts that this game will be engaging and fun, thanks to you all.

I didn’t realize that was UA. It’s not overpowered, so blaze on, friend!

I think Wotan is probably the person that mothers tell children will kill them in the night if they don't obey, but that's a myth. He wouldn't kill a child. He might scare it within an inch of its life. But he'd definitely act as Krampus and Santa. Made a list of all the kids as they grew up and found out who was naughty and who was nice. Checked it twice as they grew up. If they are still naughty he sacrifices them to himself after beating them with a cane and stuffing them in a Sack. But he can be placated with sweet treats.

Going off what I remember from the paper copy of 4e or 5e players' handbook, which I lost somewhere along the way ... Mostly flavor; I used the Tasha's option for floating ability increases to get the scores from standard array. I'm digging into the D&D Beyond link from your first post, now, to get more details. He'll be a Winter eladrin, which jars a bit with the character concept but might explain why he's hanging out with mortals instead of the Winter court.

EDIT to ADD: equipment choices ... it's not a standard setting, I'm going with the equipment from background (Raider) and my best guess at what makes sense for a Stone Age Fighter. Might want to add stonecrafter's tools, if that's allowed. (Practically, that's a hand-sized hard rock, a solid piece of antler, and a leather strap.)

Sorry for delays on my end. It's Thanksgiving here in Canada.

Happy turkey day!

That's cool, how about Stekko is the one that shared the stories about Wotan AND is the one that is secretly feeding him information about naughy and nice kids in the clan?

How about Stekko is the one that you healed? He's the cousin of the chief, so that would make Bracus really well accepted into the clan, plus Stekko would be bound by a life-debt towards Bracus. I am willing (if the DM agrees) to put in a wife and a couple cildren too for Stekko to fit in your backstory.

Yes this is good! Wotan needs a good PR man. Being a monster tends to limit ones survival prospects, at least socially.

All right, here's the character sketch while I finalize the sheet. Still working on finding a portrait.

I figure given the characters so far, that we're unlikely to be all from the same clan. If that wants to change (or if DM feels there's a better match for the lore) I can edit almost all of this to make it work better narratively.

---

Lilla, full name Lilla'martu which is badly mangled Sumerian for "wind daughter", is a human sorcerer. Lilla hails from the western reaches of the Great Valley, and was recognized from a young age both as showing promise both in hunting and fireside dance and song. Over the course of many years Lilla refined those skills and earned herself a reputation as a dependable and worthy member of the clan.

The western reaches of the Great Valley are subject to frequent raids by frost giants from the Stone Empire, and on a particularly fateful hunting trip Lilla and her band were beset by a raiding party not of giants but other mortals from an opposing clan. Knowing that a life of slavery awaited any who were taken captive, they broke ranks and fled in all different directions. The hunters became the hunted. Lilla and some of her comrades were cornered against a clifftop. One opted to jump. Two surrendered. Lilla stabbed one of their pursuers with her stone knife, only to look up and see the point of a spear rushing towards her chest. She felt pain, white-hot, and then she felt nothing.

When Lilla opened her eyes she was in a yellow-black maelstrom of horrifying creatures and twisted, gnarled flora. She wasn't standing so much as floating. And she seemed to lack corporeal form, drifting aimlessly through the abyss. There was a cold sense of dread and inevitability permeating all things and time lost meaning. After an eternity that passed in an instant, Lilla felt warmth in her chest and she gasped for air. She opened her eyes and found herself lying on her back at the top of the cliff where she had died. A strange woman was lifting her hand from Lilla's chest, and the hewn bodies of friend and foe alike lay as if toys tossed aside by some giant.

In the weeks that followed, word spread that the hunt had been betrayed by one of their kin. A name whispered by firelight. A traitor's name. Word also spread of the huntress who had cheated death and had been... altered somehow by the process. Friends became distant. Children shied away from her. Lilla could do nothing but what she knew how to do. She continued to hunt, but now using the arcane arts to augment her prowess.

On a chilly autumn evening Lilla was summoned to her chieftain's tent and given a new quarry to hunt: Leave with the traitor's name; return with the traitor's scalp.

Principles and Values
- Honor: At the end of the day, one's word is all they have.
- Freedom: Live free or die hard.
- Loyalty: In this world of wonder and danger, mortals can only survive by working together. Kin and kith foremost.
- Beauty: Dance, song, and art are how we pass down our traditions and knowledge, it is how we prepare our children for the world.

Character ties
None yet but I'm open to having ties with anyone!

Plot hooks for DM's nefarious purposes:

Okay, submitted my character sheet. It's not 100% complete (gotta do items still) but it's almost there.

Questions for the DM:

1) Many subclasses in Tasha's have expanded spell lists for sorcerers. I'm playing Shadow sorcerer and I really really don't want to sound entitled but I think the expanded spell lists in Tasha's is a tacit acknowledgement that the sorc is lacking on spells known per day.

So I figure it can't hurt to ask, and if you decide no I'll probably still stay the course as far as subclass, but I was googling around and found this: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MRY4U1W8dLMwlLGV9ca

The Shadow one seems pretty thematic. May I add those?

For reference the spell table is:

Level 1: cause fear, false Life
Level 3: darkness, invisibility
Level 5: gaseous form, summon shadowspawn
Level 7: shadow of moil, phantasmal killer
Level 9: antilife shell, seeming

2) Do we have any guidance as far as what session 0 will look like? Where we're starting, etc?

"If you don't let the child go, I'm going to kill you."

Berserkir - Danheim (to set a mood)

A tense staredown ensued, neither party willing to back down. Wotan drew himself out preparing to lunge, already his hand betraying to the blade of grass at his hip. One baleful green eye gleaming madly from behind the straw hat.

Neither moved, neither blinked. But Wotan didn't even breathe. He waited, in perfect stillness until an opening presented itself. It was something he had learned over centuries of combat. It confused the enemy, in single combat at least. Contorted as he was in the nearly impossibly Torqued low guard, the six raiders took a moment to reconsider.

Wotan didn't need further invitation as he struck out in his fury against his opponent who had fallen to his heel. Wotan's speed and intensity breaking instantly into a draw and slash caught him blindsided, the Blade of Grass expertly slashed through the air and bifurcated the bandit. The blow had cut the top knot clean off the boys head, but left him undamaged.

Wotan interposed himself between the boy and bandits half on instinct. He hunched forward and snarled through his lower register, a sound not unlike a massive snake bellowing. The five remaining descended upon Wotan with the fury to avenge their fallen comrade.

Wotan turned three blows away, the first two by dodging outright, the third blow catching him squarely in the ribs. The sound of bones breaking followed that. If it bothered him, Wotan didn't show it as he parried the fourth club deftly, and was grazed by the fifth attack.

All five had committed to their attacks, off balance Wotan struck from sinistra, a left handed slash through the groin of his nearest adversary. The leg was cut clean through by the Blade of Grass. Leaving Wotan bruised, and two of them dead.

They continued pummeling at Wotan with their barrage of clubs. Wotan managed to deflect the first two, but the third caught him in the forearm. Breaking the limb. The torn flesh around the attack erupted into a bright blue flame that cauterized the wound shut almost as soon as it opened, Wotan didn't even flinch.

Instead with perfect precision he struck from the right at shoulder level. A gout of blood followed by the battle cry of his friend. "I'll eat your liver." Two more strikes with their stone clubs. Wotan sidestepping the first but catching the second in his abdomen. Once more unflinching as if he felt no pain.

Wotan sliced to his right from sinistra across the younger of the two remaining bandits torso. The blade cut deep but missed the heart. Instead the youth dropped to the ground clutching his chest writhing in agony.

Wotan ignored him kicking the final surrendering bandit as hard as he could in the chest and neatly impaling him through his protesting mouth to the dirt beneath his corpse. The final bandit he grabbed by the base of the skull and smashed his skull so hard into a nearby stone stele it cracked the masonry. Crushing the bandit to paste. Wotan exploded into bright blue embers.

He walked back into the settlement the next day looking like the fight never occurred and with no knowledge of the events. This was about 20 years ago, he has only been heard of in murmurs of his protecting the roads. Speaking scorn to all the gods old and new.

Mood Change

Ever scornful of the gods, Wotan has a cult of shamans and witches and is a prolific supporter of their blood rites. They, the Heathen, Call Him Hangatyr, or the Hanged God. As he often contributes himself bodily to fulfill blood sacrament. In a bizarre ritualistic torture, Wotan is bled dry and his blood is drank with blue mead. His flesh is consumed in the sacrament as well. In such a way, Wotan has secured himself a great amount of notoriety.

Privately: He has become possessed with a notion of a conglomerate of tribes. An immortal kingdom that will storm the realm of the gods and kill them.

@HeroAmongMen I fixed rhe character sheet per your instructions by removing the standard dwarven features.

Hey @Jomsviking, I'm reviewing your character sheet for Wotan, and I have some questions:
- How did you get the ability scores that you have for him. They seem awfully high, based on a 27 point buy, they don't fit the standard array, and they don't fit my custom array.
- Under "Magic Initiate" (the variant human feat you chose), you have 4 cantrips listed and no 1st level spells.
- I do not know what "Revenant" is. Can you please provide some more details on that option?
- You chose the "Chieftain's Kin" background, but did not include anything about that background into your character sheet (like the skill proficiencies, tool proficiencies, or equipment)

Stekko is approved!