Character: Celebros Thallien, Jungle Elf Shaman

Character: Celebros Thallien, Jungle Elf Shaman

After writing a setting document for my kitchen sink fantasy setting, I came to a conclusion that it would be a good idea to create some sample characters to explore the possibilities of all my Sorcery-based magic subsystems. This should help me see flaws, inconsistencies, and make tweaks. Today we have Celebros Thallien, a jungle elf shaman.

Jungle elves (an ethnicity of the wood elves) in the setting live in Sitaril - an isolated land polluted during a past biological war with the alien neogi. Jungle elves as an ethnicity are known to be adept at wilderness survival and poison use. In addition, their tribes usually live in old neogi ruins, so many jungle elves possess at least some knowledge of ultra-tech artifacts brought by the neogi in the ancient times.

The character is a shaman. In the setting, many of the spirits are quite tangible and able to interact with material beings, making Channeling and Medium much less useful. Spirits (undead, fey, elementals, some other beings) are still revered by the shamans, and this reverence grants them their powers. Mechanically, their powers work as following:

- Use Druidic Magic as the system.

- Remove the Limited Scope, Druidic, -10% limitation. The shaman’s magical scope covers not only the traditional druidic spells, but also spells that deal with spirits (for example, Sense Spirit, Bind Spirit, etc.) This expands the scope enough to justify the removal of the limitation.

- Apply the Pact, -10% limitation to the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage, to spells, but not to advantages granted by Buff spells. This limitation requires you to take a -10-point disadvantage that will represent your reverence of the spirits. This might be a major Vow, Disciplines of Faith, or Code of Honor. Should you transgress, your powers will be instantly revoked, but you can get them back by completing a minor quest.

- When rolling a critical failure on a casting roll, use the Spirit-Oriented Magic Table (GURPS Thaumatology, p. 260).

The character was created with adventures in mind and has only basic backstory. To be honest, I rarely get a chance to be a player, so my character-making skills need some work. I will consider this practice, and I'm sure many of you would be able to make something better.

One of the challenges I encountered during character generation was the restriction to TL 0 and Pyrophobia. I thought that this disadvantage is flavorful, but it is quite crippling.

Here's the character sheet in PNG and GCS-Compatible formats.

 SHAMANIC SPELLS USED FOR THE CHARACTER

Affect Spirits

Keywords: Buff.

Full Cost: 21 points.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Components: V, S.

Cost: 1 FP.

Casting Time: 1 second.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: 3 minutes.

This spell allows the subject to interact with incorporeal spirits as if they were solid. Any weapon the subject wields has the ability to harm spirits.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Affect Spirits, +120%; Costs 1 FP, -5%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; Nature, -20%; No Signature, +20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%) [21]. Notes: “Affect Spirits” is Blessed (Ghost Weapon; Nature, -20%) [12].

Forest Defense

Keywords: Buff.

Full Cost: 22 points.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Components: V, S.

Cost: 1 FP.

Casting Time: 1 second.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: Three minutes.

This spell animates plants near the subject to place themselves in harm’s way. This increases the subject’s DR, cumulative with that from actual armor, but only when the subject stands in a hex with some vegetation. DR is 2 in sparse vegetation, 3 in normal vegetation, 4 in dense vegetation, and 5 in impenetrable vegetation. See Density of Vegetation rules in GURPS Magic – Plant Spells, p. 6.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Forest Defense, +130%; Costs 1 FP, -5%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; Nature, -20%; No Signature, +20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%) [22]. Notes: “Forest Defense” is Damage Resistance 5 (Environmental, Vegetation, -40%; Force Field, +20%; Nature, -20%; Nuisance Effect, Strength is based on vegetation density, -10%) [13].

Sense Spirit

Keywords: Information.

Full Cost: 18 points or 23 points.

Casting Roll: Per. Use IQ for analysis.

Components: V, S.

Cost: 1 FP.

Casting Time: 1 second.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

After casting, the GM rolls against the sorcerer’s Per, with a penalty based on the distance to the nearest spirit, undead, or a similar supernatural entity. The basic (18-point) version of this spell takes standard range penalties. The improved (23-point) one uses long-distance modifiers. If successful, the caster knows the exact distance and direction to the spirit, and may make a follow-up IQ roll (at no penalty) to learn basic details about it (e.g., “it’s a ghost” or “it’s a dryad”).

The caster may, at the time of casting, limit the spell to a specific type of entity, or exclude a given type or any known spirits.

Statistics: Detect Spirits (Costs 1 FP, -5%; Nature, -20%; Precise, +100%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Selective Effect, +20%) [18]. The improved version adds Long-Range 1 (+50%) [+5].

Tangle Growth

Keywords: Area (Fixed).

Full Cost: 23 points.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Components: V, S.

Cost: 1 FP.

Casting Time: 1 second.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: 10 seconds.

You can direct existing vegetation to entangle and restrain everyone within an eight-yard-radius area. On land this requires nearby tree branches, vines, or tall grass; in the ocean it works if there’s dense seaweed. It requires a roll against Innate Attack (Gaze) plus Talent; if you miss, see Scatter (p. B414). The binding has ST 5 and lasts for 10 seconds, continuing to entangle new people who blunder into it. Those already caught grow more tightly entangled, with +1 to the ST of their bonds for each additional second they remain grappled.

Statistics: Binding 5 (Area Effect, 8 yards, +150%; Costs 1 FP, -5%; Environmental, Dense vegetation, -40%; Nature, -20%; Persistent, +40%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Underwater, +20%) [23].