For a brief instant, I thought I was going to play in an over-the-top DFRPG game hosted by one of my friends. It would up not working out, but during the course of conversation, the topic came up of using Delvers to Grow to help guide the creation of a very powerful hero, well beyond starting level.

Now, the point of Delvers to Grow (DtGr hereafter) is to make GURRPS character generation smooth and fast. It’s front-loaded by definition (that’s what point-buy does, mostly), but the possibility of having to buy things in 1-point chunks for a 600-point character requires a lot. From number of decisions to the system mastery required to be aware of synergies.

Even so, my interlocutor wondered if Delvers would be able to extend itself to a character that mighty. I thought yes, but wasn’t entirely sure.

So let’s find out. I’m going to start with the classic knight, and over time, do examples for each character.

A Knight To Remember

Couldn’t resist.

I boot up GCS, remember to set the Unspent points to 600, and then break out the master library. The highest template is the 187-point version, and then from there, it’s “pick 16 Upgrade packages.”

Sixteen! That’s in addition to the two the Master template comes with already. Mwa ha ha.

Start with Disadvantages

OK, here we go. The two disad module picks don’t matter too much, but I always like to start there. One of the interesting possibilities here that is not strictly “on the template” is using points to buy off or buy up various abilities. So let’s start with Dark Knight (lawful good isn’t lawful nice and all that) and Arrogant Noble representing a hard-bitten fighter trained or predisposed to deal with monsters and lower-class rabble by putting them down for good. Note that these carry two heavy Codes of Honor (Chivalry and Gentleman’s), as well as Intolerance (Low-Class Rabble). Trading one of the sixteen (!!) Upgrade Modules to selectively buy off some of these constraints, representing personal growth over the course of point accumulation, would make sense. Additionally, CoH (Gentleman’s) is subsumed substantially within CoH (Chivalry).

So we’ll nix CoH (Gentlman’s) since we already have CoH (Chivalry), also get rid of Intolerance (Low-Class Rabble) since that’s actually pretty annoying while dealing with adventuring out in the hinterlands, and bump the Control Rating on Bloodlust and Stubbonness to levels that are less irksome. All of this represents personal growth. As all PCs can take up to five quirks, it would make complete sense to use some of these to hint at prior disads. So rather than Intolerance, just a bit of mild disdain and acerbic manner (quick level) for “rabble,”

That’s “cheating” a bit, in that it’s eating up one of the upgrades, but I think it’s the sort of thing that would also grow with time.

Now the Basics for 187-pt Knight

The knightly module on the advantages side winds up giving a very solid attribute set (ST 13, DX 13, IQ 10, HT 12), plus Combat Reflexes and a few other nice things. Lots of room for improvement there with over 425 points yet to spend, too.

I’m starting with a bit of a spread in weapons, looking at axe/shield as my basic language (and naturally looking at a Dwarven Axe so I can still parry). I also pick up Spear for reach and Flail because crushing has some advantages against certain creatures.

The 187-point package comes with two upgrades, so I take advantage of the fact that I start with more than 25 points in required combat skills to pick up Armsmaster 1. As a noble, I pick up Fortunate Son which gives Luck and Comfortable Wealth…and I can take it more than once. And probably will. I spread some points around my weapons, and pick up Wrestling in addition to Brawling. It’s never a bad thing to grapple a bit when life turns to Close Combat.

Upgrade-Palooza

Here we go.

Let’s just start out with throwing down something with Weapon Master in it, because that’s the have/have-not when it comes to swung weapons, so that’s Weapon Specialist. Can’t go wrong with Extra Attack, either, so that’s Fifth Level Fighter. Note that 20 points in Weapon Master (One Weapon) plus the equivalent of another single upgrade module (25 points more) will upgrade Weapon Master (One Specific Weapon) to Weapon Master (All Weapons). Well, I see what I’ll be writing into a future book: Weapon Expert (requires Weapon Specialist; upgrades WM to WM (All) for 25 points).

That’s three.

I DO want to upgrade to Fortunate Son 2, making him the scion of a Very Important Person. (that’s four)

Now let’s see what else we have here. If we have Armsmaster, might as well go Armsmaster 2. (five)

The Stronger Delver module can be taken twice? Sold. Is there one that will eke out +1 more to DX? Yeah…Speedy. Also can be taken twice. While not quite as critical to hit DX 15, it’s never bad. That’s nine modules total so far. Juggernaut and Stalwart deliberately synergize well, and Juggernaut is Knght-only, so we take that.

We’re actually running out of things to pick, with only Bjorn, War-Leader and Side of Beef (thirteen modules) remaining untapped.

A Lot Left

So, even having invented a new Weapon Expert upgrade, we’re looking at having about a 500-point character, though we also bought down some of the disads, and there are 97 points to go.

That means had I targeted 500 points, I’d have made it. Even so, looking at our Knight, there are some avenues for improvement…notably in the weak spots provided by still having only IQ 10.

But now to get to the target 600, we’ll spend freely.

The big weakness of this character is in the IQ section, with Will being particularly horrid. That makes him the plaything of nearly any wizard or monster with mind control. It would require GM permission, but I think it would be easily obtained. +2 to IQ [40], +2 each to Per and Will [10 each] burns 60 of the 97 points right there. Toss in +1 ST to get to that happy happy ST 19 breakpoint for swung weapons. Now only 19 points to spend…which should be distributed into skills to plus-up things needed from the professional template in Adventurers that don’t get slapped on from Upgrades. Stealth has yet to appear, and that’s the sort of thing everyone really ought to have some of; First Aid is probably a nice-to-have. Heraldry makes sense due to his background; so would Riding, Gambling, Carousing, and Intimidation or Observation. Looking at the Knight Template (and this character), Shield Mastery at 15 points would provide an absolutely brutal block score. Of course, with Shield-22 and a Medium Shield (+2) for a base Block-16, Combat Reflexes (+1), and Enhanced Block 3, having Block-20 is nothing to sneeze at. It would be even spiffier if the rules allowed more than one Block the way they allowed multiple parries. Oh, and Shield-Wall Training allows ignoring the -2 to attack from behind a large shield, so Kite Shield it is for Block-21! That’s going to be the bane of, well, at least one archer per turn.

Weapon skills in my primary axe are not bad, with Axe/Mace-20 from skill alone, +1 from Weapon Bond, +3 from Master at Arms, and another +1 from a Balanced Dwarven (fine!) axe. Assuming that an enchanted one isn’t found. So Dwarven Axe-25, giving a base Parry-15, +1 for Combat Reflexes, +2 from Enhanced Parry (Axe/Mace) from Stalwart, and +3 for the Large Shield. Parry-21, but additional parries are only -2. Rapid Strikes at -3. And Extra Attack. Lots’ of room here for three swings per round and absorbing target location penalties, low light, and deceptive attacks.

Parting Shot

So, my overall take here is that Delvers to Grow, which aims squarely at the realm of 62 to 200 point characters extends quite well past 250, but starts to peter out past 400 or so. By the time my Knight got to 500, I was basically out of things the book guided me to spend points on. Doing that within the bounds of the template/professional system provides some shockingly exploitable weaknesses in the IQ/Per/Will department, though, so having growth in that direction is sensible, and even more so if you can look at a Giant Pile of Points like we were.

It also calls out for

Smart Jock

Someone has to be the quarterback, and that’s you. Even the most stronk delver can be laid low by wizards and monsters that target perception (illusions) and willpower (mind control). Not to mention that low Perception gets you ambushed. A lot. This upgrade can be taken twice[1]. Even more so than with the Quick upgrade for Fast Delvers, challenging a Sicilian to a battle of wits with death on the line is strongly contraindicated.

• Prerequisite: Strong Delver
• Attributes: +1 IQ [20]
• Skills: Spend five points to improve existing IQ-, Will-, or Per-based skills from your primary professional template (the one in Adventurers, not limited to Delvers to Grow).
• Alternate: +1 to Will or Per for five points.

[1] Up to three times might be OK, but the best Strong Delver in the IQ department is the Holy Warrior, who starts with IQ 12. Plussing up IQ for barbarian and knight to 12, or holy warriors to 14, won’t break anything, and plugs a weakness without superseding any of the Smart Delvers, or even the Fast ones, who can take unlimited levels of the basically identical Quick.