Merlin the Magician

[fdw3773]

This is a write-up for Merlin the Magician adapted from various Arthurian legends, films, and RPG write-ups for D&D. Included is the Hero Designer file and character sheet (5th Edition) in Microsoft Word.

Some design notes for your reference:

 

1) Most of what I read and watched depicted Merlin as a diviner and seer who works through others rather than actively commit direct action. The most common abilities portrayed were his divination to see into the future, ability to move through nature much faster than normal means (those traveling with him also moved faster as a result), and glamour magic (illusions). I increased the END cost for his glamour since he often needed to sleep for an extended amount of time to use that magic. He is not an archetypal high fantasy wizard who throws lightning bolts and fireballs in battle.

 

2) I adapted some of his abilities depicted in Romance of the Perilous Land RPG where Merlin is a druid and is able to summon forces of nature to strengthen others.

 

3) I definitely included his lust as a disadvantage, since it was his lust that got him duped into being imprisoned in a magical tree by the Lady of the Lake (Viviene) in order to get him to stop fawning after her. 😉

 

Enjoy!

[Michael Hopcroft]

One common trait associated with Merlin is that he knew what was going to happen in the future because he experienced time in reverse -- the future was his past and vice versa. It must have made it difficult to interact with people who were not used to dealing with him. What warnings he chose to give and which future events he was going to let unfold were largely up to his whim and what he believed would benefit his friends most. That may be a reason Merlin never warned his King about Lancelot or Mordred.

[Lord Liaden]

Note that the "time in reverse" interpretation of Merlin came from T.H. White's Arthurian fantasy novel, The Once and Future King, perpetuated by the Disney animated film version of the novel, The Sword in the Stone, and the musical play/movie Camelot also inspired by it. That concept is not from the Arthurian folk tales and later romances derived from them, like Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

[Rich McGee]

On 11/13/2023 at 11:51 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Note that the "time in reverse" interpretation of Merlin came from T.H. White's Arthurian fantasy novel, The Once and Future King, perpetuated by the Disney animated film version of the novel, The Sword in the Stone, and the musical play/movie Camelot also inspired by it.

It also raises all manner of deeply unpleasant practical questions about the mechanics of his birth and death, much like the Star Trek Animated episode the Counterclock Incident.  Even Alan Dean Foster couldn't salvage that mess, and was forced to turn it into a "just a cosmic entity messing with you" story when he adapted it in one of the Captain's Logs.   

 

Still, Merlin's shape-changer's duel with Madam Mim almost excuses all the problems.  Almost.