Amren Slyblade's page

(Alternate Racial) Fleet of Foot:Some halflings are quicker than their kin but less cautious. Halflings with this racial trait move at normal speed and have a base speed of 30 feet. This racial trait replaces slow speed and sure-footed.

(Alternate Racial)Underfoot: Halflings must train hard to effectively fight bigger opponents. Halflings with this racial trait gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC against foes larger than themselves and a +1 bonus on Reflex saving throws to avoid trample attacks. This racial trait replaces halfling luck.

(Campaign Trait)Caravan Guard: You recently hired on to Sandru’s caravan to serve as a guard, but the job, while it paid well, gave you little chance to scratch the adventuring itch, since the caravan never really ventured into dangerous territory. You understand why Sandru avoided the more dangerous routes, of course, but that didn’t help assuage your urge to seek adventure.
You’ve just told Sandru that you’re quitting the job in order to try your hand at adventuring—he seemed to understand, and even gave you some good tips on how best to survive potential challenges.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Survival checks, and Survival becomes a class skill for you.

Reactionary:You gain a +2 trait bonus on initiative checks.

Size: Halflings are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.

Fearless: Halflings receive a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws against fear. This bonus stacks with the bonus granted by halfling luck.

Weapon Familiarity: Halflings are proficient with slings and treat any weapon with the word “halfling” in its name as a martial weapon.

Keen Senses: Halflings receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.

Sneak Attack:If a rogue can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage.
The rogue's attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks her target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and increases by 1d6 every two rogue levels thereafter. Should the rogue score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks can count as sneak attacks only if the target is within 30 feet.
With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (like a sap, whip, or an unarmed strike), a rogue can make a sneak attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the usual –4 penalty.
The rogue must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. A rogue cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment.

Hidden Blade:A knife master adds 1/2 her level on Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal a light blade.
This ability replaces trapfinding.

Sneak Stab:A knife master focuses her ability to deal sneak attack damage with daggers and similar weapons to such a degree that she can deal more sneak attack damage with those weapons at the expense of sneak attacks with other weapons. When she makes a sneak attack with a dagger, kerambit, kukri, punching daggers, starknife, or swordbreaker dagger, she uses d8s to roll sneak attack damage instead of d6s. For sneak attacks with all other weapons, she uses d4s instead of d6s.
This ability is identical in all other ways to sneak attack, and supplements that ability.

Evasion:At 2nd level and higher, a rogue can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the rogue is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless rogue does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Blade Sens:At 3rd level, a knife master is so skilled in combat involving light blades that she gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made against her with light blades. This bonus increases by +1 for every three levels, to a maximum of +6 at 18th level. This ability replaces trap sense.

Amren grew up as part of an extremely diverse wandering gypsy tribe. It was mostly human craftsmen and women, but there was an entertaining group made of several elves, a gnome, and a trio of half orcs named Erma, Trac, and Urgrag. The group would set up a small circus type affair when the tribe was in a big city. The elves had a show of magic, the gnome a show of trained animals, but the trio of half orcs had a show of daring bladesmanship, and several choreographed battles.

It was with them that Amren was entranced, and watched them practice day after day as a child. His parents tried and tried to interest him in the life of a merchant, and the skills of carving scrimshaw, but it never worked. He dreamed of being a warrior, a valorous hero, and during his chores it was all he ever daydreamed about.

When he was old enough, he begged the half orcs to teach him, until after a few short months they finally relented. He was given a wooden sword, and was promptly used as a training dummy. He would go to bed every night, beaten senseless and bloodied to no end, but smiling. He learned that their way of fighting could never be his own, he was too small, too weak. He began to learn to use those attributes to his advantage. Speed, misdirection, and cunning were his allies. Distraction was his tool.

Though his fighting style that emerged was nothing like that of the valorous knight he always dreamed of being, he was proud of it. He never felt like a sneak, like a dishonorable warrior, though most of his tactics would be frowned upon by "honorable" fighters. He grew to realize that "honor" in a fight was an illusion; When your life was on the line, you did everything you could to win.

He joined their show, and became known as the Slyblade, and his feats of slight of hand and dizzying daggerwork amazed crowds far and wide for several years.

Eventually, though, it became not enough. The mock battles left him aching for a real fight, for a real adventure. The daydreams returned, sometimes while he trained and practiced for new show routines, and after losing focus so bad one day that he almost cut Ugrag's finger off, he realized it was time to start a new chapter in his life.

He left the group at the city of Sandpoint. He almost immediately discovered that being an adventurer meant being broke all the time. He got the occasional job hunting goblins, but that didn't get one very far. He eventually hired on working for a man named Sandru, applying his deadly skills with his daggers as a caravan guard. They baecame fast friends. They shared many loves, including good drinks and good tales. It became a running joke in Sandpoint that one of the city's main attractions were the stories you could hear in the Rusty Dragon when those two were in town.

He did well for himself for about a year, but one day, after returning to Sandpoint after a long trip to and from Magnimar, they started talking of times of the past, when Amren would be in the woods, alone, surviving on his own skills, exploring ancient ruins and fighting fell beasts, and he realized that he missed that life. He missed being an adventurer, even with all the drawbacks.

He told Sandru over a table full of empty pints of ale and mead that he needed to return to the adventuring life, and Sandru understood. He even gave Amren an extra paycheck to help get him on his way. He found the ranger Shalelu, and bade her show him where the lairs of goblins were, or old ruins to explore. He sold goblin ears to the sheriff, and when he found them in the ruins, ancient Thassilonian artifacts to the local mages.

It was on one of those trips into ancient ruins that strangest thing happened. He was deep below the surface of the earth, exploring an old sunken tower, when he found a vault. After hours of working the ancient lock, he finally opened it, only to find a strange, star like contraption in the grasp of a skeleton. Without thinking, he grasped the strange thing, and his mind was immediately assaulted by the soul of the wizard trapped within. In a battle for his physical body, he began to lose. The wizard was forcing his soul out, and meant to take the halfling's body for his own. As Amren floated above, he saw his body smirk, and start to walk away. Right as it took a step away from the halfling's horrifed, floating soul, a blast of soft light, and a million stars erupted into the room, along with a soft, beautiful feminine voice.

"This is not your time to fall, Amren Slyblade. You have a great destiny before you. Go forth, and begin your path to becoming my champion."

The wizard was cast out, and Amren was sucked back into his body. He left the ruined tower, and never spoke of the events to anyone, thinking no one would ever believe him anyway. He sold a few trinkets he found, and rented a room at the Rusty Dragon for a week.

It is there that he waits now, wondering what that voice meant, and most of all...

Why me?