Grown-Up Delvers: Holy Warrior of Warding (guest post by Kreios)

When, in my previous post, I said that I’d use Delvers to Grow even to build a full 250pt Dungeon Fantasy character, I was not kidding. There follows an example.

As usual, this is based on a prerelease version of Gaming Ballistic’s Delvers to Grow project (written by Kevin Smyth). And when I say prerelease I mean done content-wise and mostly art-wise.

My concept for this was to build a Holy Warrior of the Lord of Warding (from Hand of Asgard, also published by Gaming Ballistic and written by Kevin Smyth). I also decided to combine it with a racial template; in this case, the Himneskur (God-Blodded) from Nordlondr Folk (also published by Gaming Ballistic and written by Kevin Smyth). Did I mention Kevin’s work is amazing? Because it is.

To preface the actual build: I built a full 250pt DF character including extra Holy Abilities from Hand of Asgard and a race template in fifteen minutes.

The book is available on kickstarter.

Building a Holy Warrior

Building a character using DtG uses five steps:

1. Choose a category and point level
2. Choose basic and advanced modules
3. Choose upgrade modules
4. Choose disadvantage modules
5. Choose equipment.

I came up with this concept while reading through Hand of Asgard. The Lord of Warding (also, of messengers apparently) appealed to me; building a sort-of pseudo-Knight who protects those around him. Similar for the Himneskur: Those are essentially half-gods wandering the Earth. Nice!

Choose a Category and Point Level

At 250 points, we’re leaving Delvers to Grow behind; the last template is the 187 point master template above. I’ve used this as a base, adding two more upgrade modules to it, leaving me with 13 free points in the end.

For my secondary (ranged) weapon skill, I’ve chosen the crossbow, though I don’t expect I’ll use it often in the actual game. Brawling gives me basic close combat abilities. For my main weapon, Hand of Asgard tells me Holy Warriors of the God of Warding should always choose Shield; that makes sense. I’ll put 4 points in Shield and 12 in Broadsword.

Choose Basic and Advanced Modules

As you can see, the Holy Warrior basic template gives you rather much will, and a choice for Higher Purpose to either slay demons or undead. I’m choosing the former: The description for Himneskur says that “Demons will never pass up an opportunity to deprive the Aesir of one of their children” – except this Holy Warrior is ready and willing to fight back.

I won’t take Born War-Leader, again because Hand of Asgard tells me not to take it. Similarly, HoA gives me a few other choices for my faith-defining disadvantage; I’ll take the flavourful Vow (“Never let an innocent come to harm without trying to stop it.”) – that seems fitting.

The skills given here give a good background, except I’ll again follow HoA and remove Strategy and Leadership. I keep Tactics, though.

I’ve already chosen to use Broadsword as a weapon instead of the recommended Axe/Mace, primarily to avoid the unready after parry/attack larger axes suffer from. On the other hand, swords are far more expensive.

Continuing in the profession-defining modules, Holy Warrior II gives us more competences: The +1 to IQ will come in handy (the Holy Warrior is something of a mixed class). I’m choosing to upgrade Holiness 2 instead of the new Higher Purpose against undead. For the disadvantages, I’ll note down to later on remove -10 points.

Even more points are spent on my primary weapon skill, and two more points on the secondary weapon skill. The latter brings me up to 6pts; I’ll downgrade it to four and put the other two into my slush fund.

Similar for Brawling, which’d leave me with 3 points. I put one of these into my slush fund. Wrestling is obviously nice to try and avoid getting bogged down in close combat, although a measly two points will obviously not suffice against my 125pt Wrestler. On the other hand, the Holy Warrior will pretty much always parry or block, so that’s fine.

The other skills are pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll note the four points in Exorcism. Those will come in handy.

Choose Upgrade Module

I’m going to choose many, many different upgrade modules – four in total. My choices are mostly defined by the concept of “defends everyone and everything”, and “does not like demons”. I’ll chose:

• Juggernaut (Defences!)
• Stalwart (Defences!)
• Blessed Warrior (a Holy Warrior without Holy Abilities would be kind of sad)
• Demon Slayer (pretty much self-explanatory)

Juggernaut

The Juggernaut module is probably the most controversial, and one you’d need to talk to your GM about, since it’s officially a Knight-only module. But since Holy Warriors of the God of Warding get both Armor Mastery and Shield-Wall training, I judge it as being acceptable.

The module primarily upgrades my DR (assuming I wear at least some armour) and allows layering; at the same time, Shield-Wall Training allows me to both use larger shields without penalty and to block for people besides me.

Stalwart

The Stalwart module is more of the same: Another two levels of Enhanced Block (and more levels of Shield), together with Enhanced Parry mean that most attacks won’t even land on me. Fevered Defense pulls in a rule from the Basic Set, allowing me to spend FP to get another bonus to active defences.

With all of these, I have a Block of 16 and a Parry of 15, both with a Medium Shield.

Blessed Warrior

Blessed Warrior gives me 25 points to spend on Holy Abilities. I won’t choose the proposed ones from the book, but instead pull in the special abilities from Hand of Asgard: Warding Dismissal means I don’t need to spend three hours exorcising something – giving “a glare while brandishing [my] holy symbol” suffices. I’ll also take Contingency Casting 1 for that extra flexibility. One level of Resist Evil rounds out the 25 points.

Demon Slayer

Not surprisingly, the Demon Slayer module allows me to better slay demons. It does so primarily through upgrading the Higher Purpose for +3 to all rolls against demons. Aside from that, Soul Warding grants another two DR against direct damage from Demons. They’ll really hate this warrior…

If you add those +3 from Resist Evil, he should be essentially immune against even the strongest demons’ temptations.

Choose Disadvantage Modules

First of all, I’ll note the disadvantages granted by the Himneskur racial template to the right – at a total of -25 points those fit a disadvantage module too perfectly to ignore it. So, one module is “demons always attack me if first and will show no mercy” plus “take 1d/minute damage in unholy areas”; luckily for the latter, I can exorcise it pretty much instantly. That’s convenient – you’d almost think I planned for this…

The Hero disadvantage module seems fitting, too. I have to remove ten points of disadvantage, and choose to remove the Selfless and Sense of Duty – the former is essentially the same niche as my Vow.

Rounding out Everything

Compared to the Wrestler, I have to tweak several things, since I removed and added advantages pretty much at will.

The first one is the racial template – I follow the advice from DtG and settle attribute points with those from my base template, leaving me with essentially one the ten points of Appearance, Covenant of Rest, and Fit.

Then, I have 13 points to spend, which I got from removing Born War Leader, Strategy and Leadership, and left-over points in Brawling and Crossbow. I spend five of them on Protector’s Rune (should I ever fail to defend an ally, I can declare his wound to be only 1 HP), and add the Sacrificial Block and Parry perks. Then, I rejigger points – removing one level of Enhanced Block and Enhanced Parry and investing another five points buys me Combat Reflexes for a net +1 to dodge and the freezing benefits Combat Reflexes provides.

I’ll also choose quirks:

• Always takes letters on his journeys
• Sends money home to his mother
• Unwilling to let others take point
• Dislikes bathing (“Unarmed and unarmoured? That’s as good as dead!”)
• Believes all Eldhuð can be saved

Choosing Equipment

I didn’t buy any equipment. With potentially five quirk points to spend, I could buy the Huskarl’s Armor package at almost $2,000; at 48lbs that’d get me to light encumbrance. I’ll end up buying only a medium shield, because large shields are heavy. Adding the broadsword and basics, and a holy symbol… well, those five quirk points are well-invested.

Writing Everything Up

How does the character look like in the end?

ST	14	HP	14	Basic Speed	6
DX	12	Will	14	Basic Move	6
IQ	11	Per	11	Sw	2d
HT	12	FP	12	Thr	1d
Dodge	10	BL	39lbs

Attacks:

• Broadsword: 2d+1 cut, Reach 1, Parry 15, Skill-16
  • Broadsword cut to the neck: Skill-12
• Shield Bash: 1d cr, Block-16; Skill-16
• Dodge is 11 for the medium shield, Combat Reflexes, and Encumbrance.

Advantages: Higher Purpose (Slay Demons) 3 [15], Combat Reflexes [15], Holiness 2 [10], Enhanced Block (Shield) 2 [10], Armor Mastery [5], Enhanced Parry 1 (Broadsword) [1], Fit [5], Appearance (Attractive) [4]

Perks: Covenant of Rest [1], Fevered Defence [1], Rest in Pieces [1], Sacrificial Block [1], Sacrificial Parry [1], Shield-Wall Training [1], Trademark Move (Swing to the Neck) [1], Spend on Cash [5]

Holy Abilities: Contingency Casting 1 [14], Warding Dismissal [10], Soul Warding 2 [8], Protector’s Rune [5], Resist Evil 3 [3]

Disadvantages: Weakness (1d/minute in unholy spaces) [-20], Charitable [-15], Vow (“Never let an innocent come to harm without trying to stop it”) [-10], Demonic Emnity [-5]

Quirks: Always takes letters on his journeys [-1], Sends money home to his mother [-1], Unwilling to let others take point [-1], Dislikes bathing (“Unarmed and unarmoured? That’s as good as dead!”) [-1], Believes all Eldhuð can be saved [-1]

Skills

• Broadsword-16 [16]
• Shield-16 [12]
• Crossbow-14 [4]
• Exorcism-14 [4]
• Brawling-13 [2]
• Intimidation-13 [1]
• Meditation-12 [1]
• Wrestling-12 [2]
• Hidden Lore (Demons)-10 [1]
• Esoteric Medicine (Holy)-9 [1]
• Physiology (Demons)-9 [1]
• Religious Ritual-9 [1]
• Tactics-9 [1]
• Theology-9 [1]

Summary

In conclusion, I built a full 250pt DF character including extra Holy Abilities from Hand of Asgard and a race template in fifteen minutes, and that includes clicking it together in GCS. I really do need to repeat this again. It’s a full-fledged DF character, and essentially ready to play.

Is it done? It’s probably not. I can spend another hour updating and optimizing point distribution. But that’s the whole point: I’m already further with this character after fifteen minutes than I’d be after two hours building him myself. And I don’t have to suffer from forgetting pesky things like Exorcism.

That’s why – aside from support for lower-level gaming and fast character generation (which are already huge), Delvers to Grow is such a game changer. Because it allows you to build your character so smoothly.

Back it. Right now.