Fantasy Hero Characters

[Super Squirrel]

I have some fantasy hero characters from some playtesting I did for FH. The characters actually turned out quite good considering I prefer 25+25 games.

 

My wife created a fae that is miniscule with Invisibility to Group Sight Always on. She has little combat she can do now but her ability to help the group is monumental and her comic relief potential is not lacking either.

 

One of the players did an interesting twist. He created a farmer who has minor priest abilities. He can call rain after 6 hours of prayer and he can bless crops.

 

Another player went with a simple archer concept.

 

I created a tavern chef who is extremely good from a crossbow. Nothing better to stopping a brawl in a tavern then being able to send a crossbow bolt inches away from a person's ear as a warning shot.

 

So,, what kind of Fantasy Hero characters have you seen?

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Fantasy Hero Characters

 

Originally posted by Super Squirrel

 

My wife created a fae that is miniscule with Invisibility to Group Sight Always on. She has little combat she can do now but her ability to help the group is monumental and her comic relief potential is not lacking either.

 

That sounds like Una from Legend

 

 

So,, what kind of Fantasy Hero characters have you seen?

 

Hmmm, lets see.

 

A "Dispaced" samurai who's entire village was transported from Sengoku era Japan to a high mana world complete with Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Trolls etc.

 

An Avian-type humanoid female with high magic potential and the ability to shift to a Succubus-like form (this was an accidental change unknown to the base character...she just had periods of "black-out" whenever the change occurred)

 

A Wood-Elven Ranger/Scout/Ninja. Good at sneaking and Martial Arts.

 

My personal favorite characters of my own creation: A pair of Twins. One is a Ranger (the male twin) the other a Magic User (the female twin). Unfortunately, the men of their family were all cursed with Lycanthropy, so the Ranger was a were-wolf. Of course, his sister had Animal Handler: Wolves to deal with him when he changed. She also had the ability to change into a Hawk, but was in complete and utter control over the ability to shift form. The Ranger was always getting into trouble because he was easy to anger, and when so angered, would often shift to his Half-wolf form in the middle of a villiage, which would then start the villagers to hunting the "demon". She would end up having to use magic to bail him out and cover their escape.

Boy they were certainly fun to play with...

Note that these characters were originaly created for the game Rolemaster and the boy's Lycanthropy and the girls ability to change into a Hawk form were the results of completely random rolls. No I wasn't copying from the film Ladyhawk as many of my friends accused me...I just liked the pair so much, I re-created them in Hero.

[Tempuswolf]

In Fantasy Hero for 4th Ed, there was a sample campaign setting The Western Shores. Among the races was a race of catmen. My character Rogalio Arkona was a catman raised by a wealthy merchant family in Irolo. A wealthy, but infertile, couple longed for children and took a pilgrimage to the high temple of a fertility goddess. The seer told the woman that her prayers would be answered and "before she set foot in her home again, she would be with child." The Arkonas had a long, arduous trip back; it seemed that they might never reach home again, let alone become parents. Although they were happy to return to their bustling home town, there was little cause for joy as the wife was almost certainly not pregnant. As they passed the square where Panteran slaves were routinely bought and sold, they heard the mewling of an infant. The wife found the child and instantly bonded to the Panteran kit. The husband, not being a fool knew the social stigma that would attach to fostering a Panteran, at first tried to dissuade his wife's sentimentality, but due to his good nature could not deny his wife's "blessing." The Arkona's wealth and status bought Rogalio's way into Irolian merchant sociey as a Merchant Prince Puss-In-Boots.

[MarkusDark]

I have only played one game of Fantasy Hero and in it played two characters in the course of things.

 

My first one was a 12 year old son of a tailor who happened to go, on a dare, to a haunted battleground and spend the night. He witnessed the battle and when he awoke from his hiding spot in a hollowed out tree, he found a dagger next to him. The dagger granted him the ability to attack Desolidified creature but that was it.

 

The second was an individual who was a 'bird hunter' - he went out and collected rare birds for rich buyers. He had clinging but didn't really know he did, he just thought he was a great climber. He never 'walked up a wall' but he was able to climb a cavern wall up, along the ceiling and then back down again.

 

The character I am waiting to create is one I had always wanted to play. A thief character who stole something from the fae in order to grant himself a bit of magical abilities to help with his work. However, he is now hounded by one farie who seems to pop up at the most inopportune times. Finally deciding that the headache isn't worth the bonuses, he tries to get rid of the item but it seems to be magically bound to him. So half of his adventures now are trying to find a way to get rid of the ring and the annoying lil dit over his shoulder.

 

But I'll haveta find a good Fantasy Hero game and GM for it.

[Talon]

I guess I've played a lot of low fantasy, so my characters seem less unique than a lot of these examples. My favorite was Jessit, daughter of the (deceased) Guildmaster of the local Thieves' Guild. An accomplished fighter, she also had the keys to her father's secret hideout (a concealed base with several hidden entrances).

[Killer Shrike]

I ran many Fantasy HERO Campaigns over the course of 4 years, and played in one as well. The campaigns were High Magic / High Fantasy (started at 125 but went up into the low 500's for epic characters -- PCs were usually in the 200-300 band), so the experience was a bit different than the 50 + 50 games some of you reference.

 

My 2 PCs in the campaign I played in were Jasper Maskelyne, a specialist Transmuter with the personality of a hard-core over the top hard nosed Paladin ("NO CONCILIATION WITH EVIL!" was his most quoted phrase whenever the rest of the group, who were all pretty 'morally flexible' wanted to make a deal with the opposition or walk away from a bad scene.); he was a heavy hitting WOP (Wizard of Power)

 

 

The other was Jaram Glaive, a "Concerned Citizen", wanted in several cities. His good qualities included outright cowardice, larcenous habits, and a tendency to avoid the utterance of truthful statements. He was based loosely on the little thief in the second Conan movie, mostly the voice. Of course his craven attitude was all a calculating ruse intended to make everyone underestimate and discount him. When he actually joined into a combat, which only happened twice in all the sessions he was in (he would always opt to hide and "cower" while everyone else fought), because it was clear that if he didnt take a hand his own life would be endangered, he was hell on wheels with daggers of any kind (a nasty HKA with a big Variable Advantage). Both times it caught everyone by surprise His other most significant ability was a Sense Traps 360 and a continuous Dispel vs traps, RSR, IIRC.

[Shaddakim]

Re: Fantasy Hero Characters

 

Originally posted by Super Squirrel

I have some fantasy hero characters from some playtesting I did for FH. The characters actually turned out quite good considering I prefer 25+25 games.

 

 

So,, what kind of Fantasy Hero characters have you seen?

 

While I am currently running a 75+50 game right now, I have greatly enjoyed some 25+25 games I've been involved in as pick-up games.

 

The last one I ran was a FH game for three players when we had a weekend to kill. The players discussed what they wanted to play and built their characters to work together. Thus was born Doctor Zimbabwe's Travelling Side Show and Freak. The characters were:

 

Doctor Zimbabwe - owner of the wagon and the show, he used a broken magic item he found to create images to wow the yokels.

 

"Slick" - a rather disreputable individual who was good with knives. He juggled knives and provided security.

 

Hobart - not too bright, but an excellent singer with a head he could break glass over. He was the freak. Sort of a young Elvis to Doctor Zimbabwe's Colonel.

 

Ah, the memories...

[Lord Mhoram]

In my years long transworld fantasy game the PCs & major NPCs.... Epic High Fantasy. Character started on 100+100

 

Edison. Cyberpunk street samurai/intrusion expert. Male. Fell in love with magic- the first time he felt he belonged somewhere was when he got his first connection to the ambient magic field.

 

Elizabeth. Otherwise known simply as "the Doc" Female old west doctor. Had done work with some Chinese and Indians, and as a result tended mystic and had some Gung Fu training. Ended up a healer and a really naster person with a sword.

 

Becky. A low powered superhero with light powers, and a minibrick.

 

A native half elf - minor utility mage and really nasty with a staff. Trained Aeolian for combat.

 

Aeoliean - A native. Young elven bard, who joined the group after they started to get famous to chronicle thier adventures.

 

Sheck Stonebone - A gnome, in the mythical sense. Earth mage and ended up with a magical amulet that let him change into a gargoyle.

 

Starbright. Female Giantess fighter.

[Chris Goodwin]

Some I have played that stood out:

 

• Subbei, a ninja (I was 16, what can I say?) in a Bushido FH game. (The GM was a Japanese history buff, so the character ended up being more like a historical ninja than a guy whose purpose is to flip out and kill people.)
   
  
• Jotaro Godutsu, samurai, in the sequel to the above campaign
   
  
• A shugenja whose name I don't recall, in the abovementioned sequel
   
  
• Myself, in the "October Game", a crossworlds game where we played ourselves. I transformed into a ki-rin (yeah, from the AD&D1 Monster Manual). I ended up being the combat monster of the group. (Two edition translations have caused the character to end up at something like 450 points, where it was 300ish before.)
   
  
• A winged folk whose name I don't recall, in a game run by Bob Greenwade
   
  
• Fast Freddy, a fake priest in a game of con men
   
  
• An assassin, in a game that 17 years later I still feel bad about having singlehandedly broken up
   
  
• An elemental mage in an Arabian Nights styled campaign
   
  
• Dominique the (title varies), a female wizard who was reasonably combat worthy in her own right but whose main purpose was powering up the warriors via an Aid spell, run in a Greyhawk based FH dungeon adventure
   
  
• Scores (okay, maybe a score or so) of characters I wrote up but never played
  

[Susano]

For those who have NINJA HERO, Torii Rinzo is an ex-PC.

[Le Schtroumpf]

75 + 75

A young Leonardo DaVinci wandering around in mythic Greece while trying to find someone who could pedal fast enough to power his time machine.

[Old Man]

My current character is a sorcerer whose fear of death has in some ways ruined his life. His obsession with living forever drew him into the practice of the only branch of magic that really deals with the subject--necromancy. Once a respected member of the near-nobility, he has pissed away his fortune and his reputation, and has now been driven to a life of "adventure" both by his obsession and by the revulsion of those who were once his friends. Ironically, his quest for eternal life is now very likely to result in an untimely demise.

 

For a while there was some good repartee between the misunderstood necromancer and a monk/cleric in the group. Sadly he got snuffed when I wasn't around, and I missed a really good roleplaying chance. Oh well.

[johnflang]

I have played in multiple fantasy hero games. Several based in Forgotten Realms, which include a dwarf that was raised by elves and a earth gensai.

 

My longest running character is Aaron Smithson who started as a 30 50 scout who knew a little magic from the college of sense and exploration. He is know a 400 point character who is the teams scout/skill guy. There are people on the the team better at me at certain skills (Mainly magic and with certain weapons) but with 2 overall skills and 3 levels with all skills anything I attempt I do well. He is also one of 2 orginal characters still active in the campaign. He started at 15 in now in his 20s with wife and child and quite the reputation.

[AlHazred]

I've played in a bunch of FH campaigns, and run several more. I always try to come up with characters with a hook, but some of my players are more original.

 

My longest-running FH character is a rogue who was based on Cugel the Clever from Jack Vance's Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga. I ended up having to change him because the GM thought he was too mercenary; 'tsokay, he turned out just fine.

 

I played a huge dumb fighter with a glandular deformity which caused him to have one level of Growth, Always On (4th Edition). He was fun; I don't think he ever figured out what was going on...

 

I play a wizard in a campaign on hiatus. He's an air mage who has traveled the world and is a little senile. His spellbooks were distributed to the winds before the party met him, so he's very scattered, with spells that resemble any of five or six different magic systems. On the other hand, his Area Effect (Line) Lightning Bolt found its mark in the last adventure.

 

Now, in a high fantasy game I ran, I told people to go nuts. Unfortunately, they created their characters independently of each other, so they didn't get along; however, I liked the creativity that was shown:

* A wizard of darkness/necromancy/demonology, who had been cast out by his order.

* His imp familiar who was secretly working for an opposing demonic patron.

* A feline (old FH) who had been raised to believe he was a wizard's familiar and was given demonic investments (basically, powers).

* A paladin with a holy sword and armor.

* A sacred assassin of the Church of Light, who was as jaded as they come.

* A mercenary who had been in an alchemical lab accident and was imbued with the power of Elemental Earth.

* A ranger devoted to the Old Faith, who had the power to change into animal shapes.

* A minotaur escaped slave.

 

You can see where the problems were, I hope...

[Shaddakim]

Originally posted by Old Man

My current character is a sorcerer whose fear of death has in some ways ruined his life. His obsession with living forever drew him into the practice of the only branch of magic that really deals with the subject--necromancy. Once a respected member of the near-nobility, he has pissed away his fortune and his reputation, and has now been driven to a life of "adventure" both by his obsession and by the revulsion of those who were once his friends. Ironically, his quest for eternal life is now very likely to result in an untimely demise.

 

Based on a PC alchemist in our group, we once determined that alchemists were necromancers in training based on the following evidence:

1) after clearing a towns graveyard of ghouls, he secured the right to live in their tunnels.

2) he bred rats and snakes together to act as guardians.

3) he defeated a dragon's armor with altered facial cream.

4) he created a set of magical robes that allowed him to remain concious and alert 24 hours a day (without eliminating the issues involved with long term sleep deprivation).

5) his name: Nekus

 

Very creepy character, but the player was a lot of fun to roleplay with. My character was much more mentally stable - he was a wizard who believed lightning would save the world...