the unlikely hero

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  • February 3, 2014 at 10:15 pm #150657
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Does anybody have some ideas on how to build an “unlikely hero”? I ask because when I originally built Oozy, I ended up with an avoidance of just 15. Great roleplaying material and it really made me creative about how to be effective in combat. But when I ran him in a BI last year, the random avoidance based attacks from the environment just hosed me.

    Keep in mind that I really like the challenge of playing a mechanically flawed PC. But I don’t want to be so flawed that it diminishes the enjoyment of others…..

    Any thoughts?

    February 3, 2014 at 10:31 pm #256214
    frootsnax
    Participant

    Judge in the BIs! Then tell people after the fact about the amazing and critical things Oozy did or didn’t do. \":D\"

    Or invest heavily in AR so the hits don’t hurt as much. Or get an animal companion to be your … Or steal a flying disk from the harvesters and hover above the battlefield

    February 3, 2014 at 10:51 pm #256215
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    To me, I view the “unlikely hero” to be someone akin to Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings: You are a common person who, for whatever reason, is called to do great things. This type of character just screams for backgrounds like Tutor, Peasant, Street Urchin, Former Merchant, etc.

    How do you represent this mechanically? Well, skimping on a defence (usually Avoidance) is one way to do it, while another is to keep yourself to ‘common’ weapons like a knife or a club rather than “martial weapons” like a sword. I’d go with the Expert Archetype, and spend a lot of your skill points in ‘civilian’ skills like Artisan, Perform, etc.

    February 3, 2014 at 11:42 pm #256219
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Judge in the BIs! Then tell people after the fact about the critical things Oozy did or didn’t do. \":D\"

    Or invest heavily in AR so the hits don’t hurt as much. Or get an animal companion to be your protecter. Or steal a flying disk from the harvesters and hover above the battlefield

    With half serious talk of banning skyward, some how I don’t think flying disks are going to be LA legal. But as a gnome who flew on a flying disk in a 3.5 campaign I wholly approve of the idea.

    February 3, 2014 at 11:49 pm #256220
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    {snip} How do you represent this mechanically? {snip}

    Ok any suggestions to for improvement?
    (Sorry about formatting I did this as a Word Outline and I can’t figure out how to put the tabs back in to the text.
    {Edit Removed ‘Wall of text’}

    February 4, 2014 at 12:04 am #256221
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    can you pull this out into a linkable doc instead of a wall of text?

    February 4, 2014 at 12:24 am #256223
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I’d be happy to. Any suggestions on how?

    February 4, 2014 at 12:55 am #256226
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Will this work?

    https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=d04648c0 … tion=Share

    February 4, 2014 at 1:06 am #256227
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    nope file not found error

    February 4, 2014 at 2:52 am #256231
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I got it to work for me, opened it into Word.

    February 4, 2014 at 9:29 am #256247
    frootsnax
    Participant

    So what exactly is the problem you’re grappling with? You want to play a “pocket caster?”

    Your options to take less damage boils down too:

    Get a higher Avoidance (prof w/tower shield?)
    Get a higher AR (armor prof)
    Become more mobile so enemy swordsmen can’t get to you (path of the wolf/path of the raptor)
    Get a pet to be your blocker. (Loyal companion)
    Strong control spells to keep attackers at bay (fog cloud, enemy of my enemy)

    February 4, 2014 at 3:01 pm #256262
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Fog Cloud would solve a LOT of the issues I’ve been having. But until just recently, I had figured that it was off limits for Commune with Spirits since it had Personal Illusion as a prerequisite. So I had been using Doom of Shadow instead.

    I’ve toyed with bumping up my Avoidance the past few days. I can flip my stats around a bit and not loose too much of the disadvantage I see fitting with the concept. But the higher the avoidance the more of the ‘flavor’ I’m looking for seams to get lost. So I guess I am looking for a good balance between concept and application. I’m not certain how to achieve that.

    From my mind I don’t see this PC has having anything more than a below average Prowess. But as I type this I’m now thinking that a high Insight will make up the avoidance, and would be fitting for a shaman. That may be the answer!

    Thanks Eric for prompting me to think about this from a new angle.

    February 4, 2014 at 3:50 pm #256273
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I made changes based on suggestions…

    February 5, 2014 at 4:44 am #256349
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Ok. I made several changes based on suggestions, AND the realization that Pr is used for the spell attack roll. No more pocket caster. The link above goes to the build sheet. While this link goes to the final PC sheet.

    https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=d04648c0 … tion=Share

    Thanks for all your help!!!!

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