Sunday 21 April 2013

Pregenerated Character for 3rd Level: A "Druid-lite" Ranger

This is a pre-gen I created for a player in my group for a "flashback session" where everyone used PCs that were different from their main characters.  This player wanted to try out the Ranger, but has been complaining regularly that his regular character, a Paladin, is too simple.  Given that the Ranger is also one of the "simple classes" I knew that I wanted to eke as much complexity out of it as possible.

First I rolled up a Ranger with an Animal Companion.  I figured having a second figure to move around and attack with would be suitably interesting, and I took the feat that lets the companion turn an enemy's successful disengage into a failure so that the character had a mix of "tankiness" and damage.

Then I started playing around with my own concept, because while building the above pre-gen my eye kept being drawn to the spellcasting talents.  My intention was to create the most Druid-like Ranger I could, and here's the result.  I actually presented both pre-gens to my player before our session and he picked this one (Druid-lite).  He had a blast with it, so I figured I'd put it out there for any other players who like the archetype.  It's also a good demonstration of how many different directions you can go with a single class in 13th Age.

Reese Magreth - Level 3 Human Ranger

Str   18
Con 12
Dex 14  (Initiative +9; roll twice)
Int     8
Wis 16
Cha 10

AC: 19    PD: 16    MD:13
HP: 40
Recoveries:  8     3d8+1 (re-roll 1 die and keep the highest)

Backgrounds:
Druidic Circle of the Moon Initiative +4
Bounty hunter, certified by the Imperial Bounty Board +2
Curator of New Port's arboretum +2

Icons:
Note that I didn't bother with icons because it was a one session flashback, but my recommendation here would be 2 points positive with the High Druid, and 1 point conflicted with the Prince of Shadows.

One Unique Thing:
I didn't bother with these either for the flashback (I had a lot of ground to cover in one session and didn't want the distraction).  I'm a fan of letting players come up with their own anyways.

Talents:
Ranger ex Cathedral - choose to prepare either Great Cat's Ferocity (Hammer of Faith re-fluffed) or Bear's Endurance (Divine Endurance re-fluffed) at the beginning of each full heal up.

Fey Queen's Enchantments - choose to prepare either Call Lightning (Lightning Fork re-fluffed) or Tundra Wind (Breath of the White re-fluffed) at the beginning of each full heal up.

Double Melee Attack

Feats:
Fey Queen's Enchantments (Sorcerer spells use Wis)
Ranger ex Cathedral (1/battle use of Heal)
Strong Recovery
Improved Initiative

Combat Actions:

Basic Melee Attack (sword)
+7 vs AC
Hit: 3d8+4
Miss: 3

Double Melee Attack (swords)
+7 vs AC
Hit: 3d6+4
Natural Even Roll: Make second attack
Miss: 3

Basic Ranged Attack (bow)
+5 vs AC
Hit: 3d8+2
Miss: 3

Heal
Close quarters
1/battle
quick action
Target: you or one engaged ally
Effect: target can heal using a recovery

Choose one of the following each full heal up
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Great Cat's Ferocity
close quarters
Daily
Quick Action
Effect: Your basic melee attacks use d12s as their base damage

Bear's Endurance
Ranged
Daily
quick action
Effect: Choose one ally to gain 40 temp HP, OR up to 3 nearby creatures to gain 20 temp HP each.
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Choose one of the following each full heal up
______________________________________________

Call Lightning
Ranged
Recharge 16+
Target: 1 nearby enemy (chain)
+6 vs PD
Hit: 7d6+3 lightning damage
Natural Even Roll: repeat attack against a different target
Miss: half damage

Tundra Wind
Close quarters
Daily
Target: 1d2 nearby enemies in a group
+6 vs PD
Hit: 5d6+3 cold damage
Miss: half damage
Special: each turn during this battle roll a d20; on a 16+ you can use this spell again that turn.
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Gear:
Standard Adventurer's kit
Leather Armor
2 swords
longbow
rations (7 days)
holly and mistletoe
Seasickness tonic

3 Potions of Healing
2 Runes (+1)

Magic Items:
My pre-gens didn't have any.

Notes from Play:
My player prepared Bear's Endurance and Tundra Wind as his spells for the session.  The other PCs were a Wizard and a Rogue, so needless to say Bear's Endurance and Heal were both of tremendous benefit.  He wasn't too shabby as a support character.  When he used Tundra Wind, he managed to roll a 16+ one other round during the battle so he got to use it twice.  He flipped a coin as his d2, and both times he managed to hit 2 enemies with the attack.  It was pretty devastating.