Galen(iyel) – angsty half-elf Mystic Archer

We’re gearing up for another Dungeon Fantasy-style campaign, this one more hex-crawl-like. Lots of wilderness, some dungeons. +Syndaryl calls it Chaos Scar, a properly evocative name.

Last game, run by +Nathan Joy, I played Cadmus, a Warrior Saint. Fun character, but limited in some ways.

This time, I wanted to go back to my roots, and try my hand at one of my favorite character types – the ranger-ish point-man. DF call this guy a Scout. But I was significantly impressed by +Mark Langsdorf‘s Mystic Knight, so I definitely wanted a touch of Imbuement skills.

This is what I came up with. Oh – Em decided to rework a bunch of stuff, defining a new trait called Reflexes from which certain other traits were based, coding it into GCA, etc. So if there’s weirdness, I’ll try and call it out.

Ideally, I’d like him stronger. Even with Strongbow or Trained ST for bows, ST 13 and Strongbow is only ST 15, for a base thrust damage of 1d+1 on the usual GURPS scale. Sure, I could nab a composite bow or something and push that to 1d+4, which is nice, but stronger is always better here. The rest of the stats represent a nice above-average range. Not great, but not poor. Where I differentiated myself here (and it helped the Reflexes score, a balance of DX and Per) is in Perception. I was picturing him as a true scout first, and a warrior second. Sneaky, blending in, etc. He’s quick enough (Speed/Move of 7). For a while, he had Combat Reflexes, but you’ll see later that when I decided to go absolutely nutso on Talents, I dropped CR in favor of more raw sneakitude.

 Nothing special here, although he speaks Elvish (and he really should speak accented Common; that must have dropped off the sheet due to GCA conflicts with Templates) and is all broken up about being half elven instead of full elf.

This is where I get a bit cheater-head. All of these are perfectly legal, but I take a lot of them, and they overlap. A lot. Eldritch Talent to boost the imbuement skills, Outdoorsman, Stalker, and Forest Guardian as cheap ways to boost the skills I care about the most. A few perks for my weapons. Shoves and Tackles is to push the foe to Reach 2 if I can, then slash him with the naginata.

Disadvantages

He’s still a work in progress characterization-wise, so still unused Quirks. Disads are to represent that he’s a half-breed son of a clan leader, his mother. She went adventuring, decided to dally. Her son wants truly to be an elf (and his father was a very powerful warrior, so no shame there) but of course he’s not. He’s got a soldier’s code of honor and elvish arrogance and confidence, and at the same time tremendous pride and jealousy of a clan that will likely never accept him. The no sense of humor, callous, and bloodlust is to make him seem less human, he thinks. His full name is Galeniyel, but his parents called him Galen. He now tries to use his full name . . . but can’t quite pull it off. “I’m Galen. Er . . . Galeniyel. Galeniyel. Yes.” “Hey, Galen!” “What? NO! Don’t call me that!”

Skills

• Annihilating
  Weapon (Polearm) (VH) DX+1 [1]-14†
• Armoury/TL3
  (Missile Weapons) (A) IQ-1 [1]-10
• Bow (A) DX+6
  [8]-19‡
• Burning Strike
  (Bow) (VH) DX+2 [2]-15†
• Camouflage (E)
  IQ+11 [0]-22§
• Cartography/TL3
  (A) IQ+1 [4]-12
• Climbing (A) DX-1
  [1]-12
• College of Light
  & Darkness (VH) IQ-2 [2]-9
• Fast-Draw (Arrow)
  (E) DX+4 [1]-17‡
• Fishing (E) Per-2
  [0]-13¶
• Ghostly Weapon
  (Bow) (VH) DX+2 [2]-15†
• Ghostly Weapon
  (Polearm) (VH) DX+1 [1]-14†
• Guided Weapon
  (Bow) (VH) DX+1 [1]-14†
• Hidden Lore (Magical
  Items Lore) (A) IQ [2]-11
• Hiking (A) HT+4
  [2]-16**
• Mimicry (Bird
  Calls) (H) IQ+1 [2]-12¶
• Naturalist
  (Earth) (H) IQ [1]-11¶
• Navigation/TL3
  (Land) (A) IQ+5 [1]-16††
• Observation (A)
  Per+1 [4]-16
• Polearm (A) DX+2
  [8]-15
• Riding (Equines)
  (A) DX-1 [1]-12
• Search (A) Per
  [2]-15
• Shattershot (Bow)
  (VH) DX+1 [1]-14†
• Spear (A) DX-2
  [0]-11
• Staff (A) DX
  [2]-13
• Stealth (A) DX+7
  [1]-20‡‡
• Sumo Wrestling
  (A) DX+1 [4]-14
• Survival
  (Mountain) (A) Per+1 [1]-16¶
• Survival (Plains)
  (A) Per+1 [1]-16¶
• Survival (Woodlands)
  (A) Per+5 [1]-20§§
• Swimming (E) HT
  [1]-12
• Tactics (H) IQ+1
  [8]-12
• Thaumatology (VH)
  IQ+3 [4]-14†
• Tracking (A)
  Per+7 [4]-22††
• Traps/TL3 (A)
  IQ+1 [4]-12

* Includes
+1 from ‘Extra DX’.† Includes
+4 from ‘Eldritch Talent’.‡ Includes
+4 from ‘Forest Guardian’.§ Includes
+4 from ‘Forest Guardian’, +2 from ‘Outdoorsman’, +4 from ‘Stalker’.¶ Includes
+2 from ‘Outdoorsman’.** Includes
+4 from ‘Stalker’.†† Includes
+2 from ‘Outdoorsman’, +4 from ‘Stalker’.‡‡ Includes
+4 from ‘Forest Guardian’, +4 from ‘Stalker’.§§ Includes +4
from ‘Forest Guardian’, +2 from ‘Outdoorsman’

The imbuement skills (bolded) are to ensure that he can effect critters that are insubstantial, can destroy stuff (Annihilating weapon is basically “Lightsaber”) or cut through objects, can deal with swarms and mooks (Shattershot is basically a 1d grenade deliverable to 200+ yards). Burning strike is for creatures that don’t deal well with fire. As you can see, he’s a competent warrior (bow and polearm), but mostly he’s a sneaky tracker, with Camouflage, Stealth, Woodland Survival, and Tracking atll at 20+. His naturally high Perception led me to boost such skills where I could. Also: Sumo Wrestling.

• 40× Arrow (Bodkin
  Point; $80; 4 lb)
• 1× Blanket ($20;
  4 lb)
• 1× Canteen ($10;
  3 lb)
• 7× Elven Rations
  ($105; 3.5 lb)
• 1× Hip Quiver,
  Large ($30; 2 lb)
• 1× Large Knife
  ($40; 1 lb)
• 1× Leather (Feet,
  Shins; DR (3)
• Quality Hardened;
  $139.32; 5.97 lb)
• 1× Leather
  (Forearms, Hands; DR (2); Quality Hardened; Fine; $105.12; 2.12 lb)
• 1× Longbow (ST
  15; Fine; $800; 3 lb)
• 1× Naginata
  (Silver-coated; $300; 6 lb)
• 1× Personal
  Basics ($5; 1 lb)
• 1× Plate (Full
  Helm, Wide Cheek Guard, Padding; DR (4); $222; 3.52 lb)
• 1× Quick-Release
  Backpack ($300; 3 lb)
• 4× Rope, 3/8”
  (per 10 yards; $20; 6 lb)
• 1× Scale
  (Shoulders, Upper Arms, Knees, Thighs, Neck, Torso; DR (4); Reinforced Vitals;
  Ornate (+1); $1260; 25.2 lb)
• 1× Woodwind ($40;
  1 lb.)

Nothing special here. A fine longbow, run-of-the-mill polearm, DR 4 scale armor, leather on his limbs. He always uses “bodkin” point arrows (1d+3 (2) pi) but aims for the vitals for creatures that have them, which basically is a x3 multiplier giving 3d+9 injury for most shots. Through DR 7 plate (2d on the average), he’ll typically thus do about 9 points to the vitals. Through DR 4 mail, he’s hitting hard enough to put a man down to KO-land in one shot. If he gets ornery, he can do that from hundreds of yards for a Fatigue Point with Guided Weapon. 

In the test combat we ran last night, Galen was dangerous enough – clusters of mooks fell easily to shattershot (which is the point), he was good to 50 yards to the vitals once per round (thanks to generous Fast-Draw and Quick-Shooting house rules, and Forest Guardian adding to Quick-Shot).

He should be fun to play, but if he’s always “the guy way out in front” he’s going to quickly find himself surrounded if he’s not careful.

One thing I will say: learning the macro language of MapTool is worth your time. +Theodore Briggs provided me with a templat for rolling Fast-Draw, Quick-Shot, and a to-hit roll which made all of that a trivial thing . . . and I’m still somewhat in awe of what Em can do with macros. Automatic explosives. Group mass dodge. Wow, and neat.