Alyat B'Sihir's page

Alyat B'Sihir
Female Rainkin Half-Orc Witch (Scarred Witch Doctor) 1
CN medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +2; Perception -1

DEFENSE
AC 12 touch 12, flat-footed 10
(+2 Dex; add +1 natural armor if Scarshield is active)
HP 9 (1d6+3)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +2 (+1 luck bonus from Sacred Tattoo; +4 on certain checks from Endurance)

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft. (light encumberance)
Ranged Dagger +2 (1d4/19-20x2); 10 ft OR
Blowgun +2 (1d2/20x2); 20 ft
Melee Morningstar +1 (1d8+1/20x2) OR
Dagger +1 (1d4+1/19-20x2)
Space 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.

STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 12
BAB +0, CMB +1, CMD 13

Traits
Buccaneer's Blood: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate and Profession (sailor) checks. In addition, you gain a one-time +1 trait bonus to your Disrepute and Infamy scores.
Mentored: Choose a single Craft, Perform, or Profession skill. You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with that skill. You also gain a +1 trait bonus when you aid another’s skill check with any skill.
Strong Swimmer: You gain a +2 trait bonus on all Swim checks, and can hold your breath for an extra 2 rounds when underwater.
Pride: When someone threatens, accuses, or challenges you, you take a –2 penalty on Diplomacy checks and Sense Motive checks involving that creature until the creature apologizes to you.

Feats
Racial Bonus Feat || Endurance: You gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks made to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion; Constitution checks made to continue running; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march; Constitution checks made to hold your breath; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst; Fortitude saves made to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments; and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation.

1st Lvl Feat: Extra Hex

Skills (2+Int) Craft (tattoo) +6; Heal -1/+1; Intimidate +2/+4; Profession (fortune-teller) +4; Profession (sailor) +0; Spellcraft +5; Swim +4 Extra ranks from FCB: 1

Languages Common, Orc, Polyglot

Combat Gear Dagger (4); Blowgun; Darts (10); Morningstar
Other Gear Backpack; Bedroll; Belt Pouch; Candles (10); Chalk (10); Flint and Steel; Ink; Ink Pen; Mess Kit; Pot; Soap; Spell Component Pouch; Trail Rations (5); Waterskin; Artisan's Tools (common); Waterproof Bag; Artisan's Outfit; Scarves; Blanket; Fortune-Teller's Deck (quality)
Wealth 32 gp, 5 sp, 10 cp

Carrying Capacity
Light Load: <50 lbs
Med Load: 51-100 lbs
Heavy Load: 101-150 lbs

Carried Weight: 37 lbs

Spells Stored by Familiar || Patron: Shadows

Cantrips:
Arcane Mark, Bleed, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Guidance, Light, Mending, Message, Putrefy Food and Drink, Read Magic, Resistance, Spark, Stabilize, Touch of Fatigue

1st-Level Spells:
Air Bubble; Blood Money; Burning Hands; Charm Person; Infernal Healing; Mage Armor

Alyat's features are overwhelmingly similar to those of her mother: her skin is a mottled dark green and covered in ritualistic scars and tattoos, her body is thick with muscle, and her eyes are just slightly sunken under her brow. She gets the dark brown of her irises from her father, as well as her coarse black hair.

Her ostentatious clothing is very like her father's as well: in the Bonuwat style, she dresses in billowy, flowing clothing with many vibrant colors and decorative trim. When not in use, her fetish mask is strapped across her back like others might carry a shield.

With Fetish Mask
Without Fetish Mask

Standard Racial Traits
Ability Score Racial Traits: Half-orc characters gain a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation to represent their varied nature.
Type: Half-orcs are Humanoid creatures with both the human and orc subtypes.
Size: Half-orcs are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Half-orcs have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Half-orcs begin play speaking Common and Orc. Half-orcs with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, and Goblin. Bastards of Golarion allows Rainkin Half-Orcs to choose Polyglot as a starting language.

Offense Racial Traits
Weapon Familiarity: Half-orcs are proficient with greataxes and falchions and treat any weapon with the word “orc” in its name as a martial weapon.

Senses Racial Traits
Darkvision: Half-orcs can see in the dark up to 60 feet.

Other Racial Traits
Orc Blood: Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.

Alternate Racial Traits
Sacred Tattoo: Many half-orcs decorate themselves with tattoos, piercings, and ritual scarification, which they consider sacred markings. Half-orcs with this racial trait gain a +1 luck bonus on all saving throws. This racial trait replaces orc ferocity.

Shaman's Apprentice: Only the most stalwart survive the years of harsh treatment that an apprenticeship to an orc shaman entails. Half-orcs with this trait gain Endurance as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces the intimidating trait.

Archetype: Scarred Witch Doctor
Favored Class Bonus:
Lvl 1: extra skill rank
Patron: Shadows
Familiar:
Fetish Mask: At 1st level, a scarred witch doctor forms a bond with a wooden mask. As she gains power, her connection to this mask causes it to grow ever more hideous and grotesque as it absorbs the weight of the self-induced pain that underlies her magic. Her spells derive from the insights her patron grants her while she's enduring the cuts, burns, and other sorts of mutilations she inflicts upon herself. Her fetish mask acts in all ways like a witch's familiar for the purpose of preparing and gaining spells. Rather than communing with a familiar to prepare spells each day, a scarred witch doctor hangs her mask on a wall, tree branch, or something similar and contemplates the agony it represents.

When wearing her fetish mask, a scarred witch doctor gains a +2 circumstance bonus on Heal and Intimidate checks and gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against effects that specifically cause pain or have the pain descriptor. If the mask is destroyed, the witch doctor can create another fetish mask (which almost immediately adopts the shocking appearance of the original) for the same price and time it takes a witch to replace a dead familiar.

At 5th level, the scarred witch doctor gains the ability to add magical abilities to her mask as if she had the Craft Wondrous Item feat.
Hexes:
Scarshield: At 1st level, a scarred witch doctor learns how to harden her mutilated skin, gaining an enhancement bonus to her natural armor bonus equal to 1/2 her class level (minimum +1). She can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her class level. These minutes do not need to be consecutive but she must spend them in 1-minute increments.
Evil Eye (Su):The witch can cause doubt to creep into the mind of a foe within 30 feet that she can see. The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (witch’s choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. A Will save reduces this to just 1 round. This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.

“Mtoto! I swear by the spirits, you were born with one foot in Mwangi and the other in the ocean,” Durra would claim, with feigned exasperation, when her daughter Alyat would arrive home late. The statement was hardly hyperbolic: Alyat’s father had taught her to swim at a very early age, and the little half-orc girl spent nearly as many of her waking hours in the water as out of it. It was time she treasured, as Mitabu’s work kept him away from their family home for months— sometimes years— on end. Alyat got in the habit of checking the horizon for the sails of his ship as she went about her chores, in the off-chance that her baba would be returning today.

Durra was a powerful wise-woman, a shaman of her orc tribe who specialized in driving out harmful spirits and conducting séances with the dead. Alyat was fascinated with the magical tattoos and scars that ringed her mother’s arms, crawling up her torso and adorning her face, and as soon as she was old enough, her mother took her on as an apprentice to learn the sacred art of ritual scarification. It would turn the stomach of an Avistani to see the harsh way Durra treated her pupil during their lessons: her fire-brazed dagger and cold needles would dip again and again into the young girl’s flesh, engraving wounds that called forth spirits of power and tattoos that granted powerful spells. At night she would lie awake, her skin stinging and body aching with exhaustion, shadows from the firelight dancing mockingly around her. Her only relief came from etching symbols of pain into a large slab of dark wood, and over time, these etchings began to create a frightening visage: a hideous face, frozen in tormented agony. Alyat found her budding magic strengthened after each lengthy session of carving; sensing a mysterious spirit in the mask, she kept it close as a totem.

It was during her training that she began to learn more about her father’s particular line of work. Mitabu was no mere sailor— he was a Free Captain, and his ship, The Silver Crescent, was infamous in the Shackles. Durra told her wide-eyed daughter many tales of Captain Mitabu’s daring escapes and clever traps, and the many small souvenirs her husband had kept for her, including the canine teeth of a vanquished captain and the shrunken head of his first mate.

Captain Mitabu never saw his daughter begin her training, nor did he ever see her become a full witch doctor in her own right. He was not at his wife’s side when she began to wither from old age, nor was he there to comfort Alyat when Durra passed away. Rumors from Bloodcove suggested the Crescent had been claimed by the Eternal Hurricane many years past, but Alyat has travelled to Port Peril eager to seek the truth— hopefully on a ship, for her mother’s tales only served to whet her thirst for life at sea.

Alyat is normally solemn and sincere, but resorts to insults or sarcasm when exasperated or frustrated. In her spare time, she attends to her mask and her finely-kept set of needles; she earns a small stipend by practicing her tattooing craft on local sailors. She does not shy away from bloodshed and is quite competent with blood sacrifice, but sees casual, needless killing as irreverent of the spirits the bodies contain.

While her magic is arcane in origin, Alyat is deeply reverent of the many spirits that inhabit this and other planes. An avid practitioner of juju, her chosen wendo are Adamde Baaka-- the Jungle Spirit-- and Donma Goko-- the Cliff Dweller. Their patron animals are the monkey and swallow-tailed gull, and she interprets the presence of these animals as signs of favor or warning from her wendo.

She acknowledges the deities of Golarion as very powerful spirits, and of them, holds Gozreh in the highest regard.

It is common for half-orcs in Golarion to be the result of orc-on-human violence; this is no accident, it is how the creators have intended that orcs be played. While I have no problem dealing with rape (and have had that atrocity as backstory for other characters), it's galling to me to suggest that 1/6 of the core character races have that as a defining feature.

So I've combed through several Paizo rulebooks to try to come up with something that suggests a different way for orcs and humans to interact. For brevity's sake, Alyat's backstory doesn't mention all the details, but feel free to ask for clarification on any part of the story. Suffice it to say that it is not stretching the imagination for a peaceful, stable union between a Bonuwat Mwangi pirate and his jungle-orc shaman wife.

Thank you for your time!