Worldscape Workbook—Gearing Up Red Sonja, Part 2: Finishing Touches

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The first issue of Dynamite's Pathfinder Worldscape sword & sorcery crossover event hits comic stands NEXT Wednesday, and I couldn't be more excited! As the series author, I had a chance to push the series at New York Comic Con this weekend, and it was fantastic talking to so many comics fans eager to see how the big event plays out! I signed a bunch of Pathfinder comics at the Dynamite booth in my first-ever comic signing, and I'd like to thank all of the Pathfinder fans who made it such a fun and welcoming experience.

Before I get into this week's Worldscape Workbook, I want to remind everybody that I will be appearing live at 7:00 PM at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 19th, to celebrate the official release of Pathfinder Worldscape #1. If you're local to LA (or so fanatical you're pricing flights right now), I can't wait to see you at the event and chat about Worldscape, Pathfinder, Starfinder, or whatever else you have on your mind.

Can't make it to Meltdown next Wednesday? Can't make it to a comic store at all? Don't despair! You can preorder issue #1 right here on paizo.com. Or, to make sure you never miss a single issue, sign up for a Pathfinder Comics Ongoing Subscription!

Each issue of Pathfinder Worldscape comes with a bonus RPG appendix that translates some of Dynamite's most important characters to the official Pathfinder RPG rules. The first issue presents game stats for Red Sonja, the famous "She-Devil with a Sword" who has served as fantasy's most ass-kicking female protagonist since her comics debut in the early 1970s. Over the last several weeks, I've used this Worldscape Workbook column to detail my thoughts on translating Red Sonja's stories to the Pathfinder rules. I'll continue with other characters in the series—Tars Tarkas, Tarzan, John Carter, etc.—in weeks to come, but I've still got at least two more columns to cover before I'm done with Sonja.

Next week I'll reveal an overview of Red Sonja's much-anticipated "sword-devil" archetype, which allows rangers to swap out a bunch of their abilities to be more effective combatants while wearing no armor. (I mentioned in comments recently that with the Barsooman "warlord" archetype and probably a "lord of the jungle" archetype yet to come, Pathfinder Worldscape will be the "Catcher in the Rye" of no-armor martial archetypes.) Before I get to that, though, we've got a bit more ground to cover in terms of how I chose Red Sonja's equipment.

To recap previous blogs in the series, I first decided that Red Sonja's trademark "chainmail bikini" isn't armor at all. I then tried to figure out a way that her two armbands might be important original magic items before deciding, ultimately, to make them bracers of armor +4.

Recalling the simple list of Red Sonja's standard adventuring gear from last week's Worldscape Workbook, I knew that Red Sonja needed, at the very least, a longsword, a throwing dagger, and a shortbow. While the origin story that ultimately led me to determine Sonja was a ranger focused largely on her skill with a bow, that story was weighted toward Sonja's rural upbringing as a chieftain's daughter in the rugged Hyrkanian Steppes. In the modern day of the series, she's far more often depicted wielding swords and fighting in melee rather than at range. Yes, she often has a shortbow, and yes, she's very, very good with it, but a sword is definitely her primary weapon. They don't call her the "She-Devil with a Shortbow," after all. So the shortbow was in, to be sure, but I knew I needed to put the focus on melee weapons.

I knew that the sword-devil archetype I was designing would allow Sonja, eventually, at least, to choose multiple ranger combat styles. Because I wanted to build Sonja using the Core Rulebook primarily, rather than choose from the large number of ranger combat styles we've published over numerous books, that meant choosing between archery and two-weapon combat. Given that archery seemed like a secondary focus for Red Sonja, I decided to go with two-weapon fighting, even though Sonja is most-often depicted wielding a single longsword in the 18 Gail Simone-written issues I used as my primary inspiration for her game statistics. I also read dozens of other Red Sonja comics while writing Pathfinder Worldscape, and many of them depict Sonja with two weapons—most commonly a longsword and a short sword, but also occasionally a mace, an axe, or even a morning star. It wasn't a perfect solution given the source material, but I liked a Sonja who is better with swords than bows, so I'm confident it was the right decision. She'll get the archery combat style at 11th level, so it'll all balance out in the end.

Additionally, choosing the two-weapon combat style gave her access to Two-Weapon Defense as a bonus feat, which allows her an additional +1 shield bonus to Armor Class. Even with the armor-assisting archetype to come, Sonja needs all the help she can get in the AC department.

Sonja's swords themselves posed a bit of a problem. Unlike many fantasy heroes, Red Sonja doesn't have "a" singularly important blade with a unique name and history. The shape of Sonja's sword often depends on which illustrator is drawing her, and seems to be more a matter of artist preference than any attempt to hew toward a particular specific object. She most frequently wields a longsword with a sort of upward-turned half-moon hilt, but even this appears and disappears depending on her adventure. Further, while Red Sonja is definitely a formidable warrior and it's easy to assume that her blades carry a bit of magic in the Pathfinder RPG sense, they don't burst into flame, or talk to her, or float alongside her, or really do anything else to distinguish them from other swords.

I therefore decided to give her swords a simple enhancement bonus, +2 in the case of her primary longsword and +1 in the case of her short sword. I made her shortbow a +1 composite shortbow (+2 Str), allowing her to add the +2 bonus granted by her 14 Strength to give her added damage with ranged attacks.

All of that allowed me just under 3,000 gp left of her gear budget, which I dedicated to an item that allowed me to make sense of one of the most confounding elements of Red Sonja's skimpy armor—boots of the winterlands. I can buy that Red Sonja survives combats wearing next to nothing because her near nudity distracts her opponents (the "explanation" most often given within the comics themselves). I can buy that Red Sonja is such a skilled warrior she doesn't even need to wear armor.

I can't buy that she can survive in the winter wilderness wearing a metal bathing suit.

Boots of the winterlands allow Red Sonja to travel across snow at normal speeds (her enemies constantly curse her speed, so that works), but most importantly for my purposes, the boots warm the wearer as if protected by an endure elements spell.

Both of the illustrations accompanying this blog are by Jenny Frison, one of my favorite Red Sonja cover artists. I've liked both of these covers for a long time, but with boots of the winterlands, I no longer need to worry about how unrealistic it is every time we see her in cold weather.

A minor victory, to be sure. There will, I hope, be many more to come.

Check back at this space next Wednesday for a full overview of Red Sonja's sword-devil archetype, and check your local comic store on that very same day (October 19th) to grab your very own copy of Pathfinder Worldscape #1. Alternatively, start your Ongoing Pathfinder Comics Subscription today to make sure you never miss a single issue.

And if you're in the Los Angeles area, I'll see you next Wednesday at Meltdown Comics!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher