Aradesh Gorewolf's page

Born as the daughter of the Orc Warlord Gorewolf, leader of the Severed Limb clan western of Belkzen hold, and one of his human slaves, Aradesh's life was never meant to be a peaceful one. What doomed her, however, was that she possesed exactly what he was looking for in an heir: an intellect far higher than the average orc, along with signs of his own brutal strength. Macabre signs, true, as this strength only manifested in her hair, which she could use as a weapon and did so to kill both rival siblings and others who thought her easy prey, but it was there. And that she was born with the starsign of Gorum on her shoulder was just icing on the cake.

As long as she could remember, she was apprenticed to a shaman named Gromthak. Per the usual measures of Orc teachings, training was brutal, with mistakes being punished by pain whereas successes were merely expected. While she eventually succeeded the challenges, both her father and teacher had been displeased when her spirit animal revealed itself to be a docile life spirit rabbit rather than a fierce destructive beast.
That, in turn, caused them to push her even harder towards violence, as if it were some flaw of her own that they could and had to remove. When she was twelve, she was expected to take part in her father's favorite torture executions of his war victims, where he had the shamans heal a prisoner as his limbs were systematically cut off, and the helpless remains then fed to his rabid pet wolves.

In the rare moments that she was able to visit her mother, whose health had been deteriorating rapidly, she spoke of another place, of one were this cruelty would be unheard of and people lived in harmony. It was her hometown of Trunau, which relied on the bonds and stength of the community to keep them safe from the Orcs, Giants and worse. That was whenever she didn't beg forgiveness for not being able to use her hopeknife fast enough.

When the time was scheduled to duel her oldest half-brother, Hirek, both her main ‘competitor’ but also one of the few siblings she liked, she knew she had to flee to save what was left of her sanity. All this death had indeed grated on her; whether it was simply contrary to her spirit's nature or her half-human one, she didn't know. She just couldn't stand it anymore. And whatever exact ‘deal’ that would bring ‘great glory to the clan’ her father had been planning with the giants of the Mindspin Mountains was one she didn't want any part in.

During a training outing with her teacher, she managed to put him to sleep with the very magic he taught her, then she stabbed him in the chest and left him for dead, fleeing. Eventually, she made it to Trunau, where she discovered that her human grandparents, the Fallit family, were still alive. Saddened by the new's of their daughter's death but grateful that part of her had survived in Aradesh, she was adopted and given the new name of Hannah Fallit. Her mother, Alicia’s, wayfinder was also passed on to her as a keepsake.

She since served with the predpominantly human and militia and the occasional dwarf instructors, aiding other refugees in reaching the village and protecting it against assaults from whatever threat came around.

In her off-time, she worked at the local apothecary of her grandmother and concocts potions and salves with the knowledge she learned from her shamanistic training. She also met her best friend, an apprentice herbalist named Aurelia there.

Unfortunately, this moment of peace didn’t last long, as a few months after her arrival, an alliance of orcs and numerous giants assaulted the only bastion of good and refuge in the orc nation. And while it had stood valiantly against orc raiders since the time of the Whispering Tyrant, the predominantly normal human defenders just had no answer to seemingly organized tribes of giants who could just smash through their fortifications and kill many with single swings of their weapons. Even worse, perhaps, was that she recognized the banners of her own clan amidst those of the Giants and knew what fate would await those who couldn’t use their own Hopeknives to end themselves fast enough.

Aradesh was extremely fortunate in that she had access to flight magic, barely managing to flee the fight that way despite her injuries, using the town’s natural rock formations to the southwest as a flight path where the attacking force had no reason to station forces.

Ashamed for being forced to flee, wondering whether it was her presence that had triggered this attack but also swearing revenge on the Giants and her tribe, she fled further southwest into Varisia, warning the settlements she crossed on the way for potential coming attacks from Giants and/or orcs.

In the end, she learned her mother’s wayfinder signified (once?) membership of the Pathfinders, and it was at their lodge in Magnimar that a venture captain named Sheila Heidmarch directed her towards someone who seemed to be recruiting a group of heroes who could strike back against this new Giant threat…

Being predominantly bound to a life spirit, Aradesh radiates health and has every aspect of her physique is subtly accentuated by a more vibrant than usual colour. Her recently cut ginger hair is brighter than the fiercest fire while her her eyes are a very light tint of skyblue and tusks a spotless ivory-white. By most non-orc hating humanoid standards, she is quite beautiful despite a plethora of scars here and there implying a harsh prior life. In fact, being very slender for a (half-)orc, she also doesn’t appear as outwardly threatening as her kindred might otherwise be. Her otherwise most notable physical features are her Gorum Tattoo on her shoulder and an old Wolf cloak as a reminder both of her duty to take revenge against her clan and her now probably dead mother.

In actual fights, her hair grows to several times her own length and is directed as a stabbing weapon of sorts, after which she cuts off the bloody ends afterwards. The very real force and sharpness of it easily compensate for her lack of physical strength. Her former orc shaman teacher once theorized that this hair drained her of her normal strength, and that this was why she was otherwise quite weak.

As for her personality, Aradesh is still getting used to living in more civilized society and its new rules of behavior. The right of the strongest is still fresh on her mind, and she tends to be overly direct and brutally honest in her opinions. However, she is fiercely protective of the new family and friends she lost, would do anything to anything to save them if she learned any were still alive.

Aradesh is a full divine caster with a focus on healing and a combination of debuffing/support/crowd control as well, and fights mainly through her hexes. She can heal lots of hit points and ability damage each day through her healer’s hands + skill unlock (heal) feats and channel energy. However, through her prehensile hair hex, she can actually deal okay melee damage if it comes down to it (her hair is treated as a limb with reach 10 and a str score equal to her wisdom, currently 22, and hits for 1d3 + 10, so it’s not that much, but it’s something!).

As an unsworn shaman, she gets one hex less than a normal shaman and delayed progression on her spirit abilities (= ‘domains’), but she can pick a witch *or* shaman hex at level 1, 4 and 8 etc instead of just shaman ones, and can change them each day for what the party needs. She normally picks at least both Flight and prehensile hair. I stayed away from the slumber hex for now as that is technically a spammable willsave or die vs a high DC (even worse with ability focus: slumber hex) and I wouldn’t select that unless specifically given permission by the GM.

If healing isn’t needed, she prefers to fight from the air with flight hex or with the overland flight spell, and uses said hexes and spells to debuff or crowd control her enemies. She can realistically kill enemies by herself even without slumber by debuffing their willsave, paralyzing a target with hold person/monster or an equivalent and then using her hair for a coup de grace. Which, for a healer, I find a pretty awesome way to fight!

The arcane enlightenment hex allows her to take up to three arcane spells of level 1 to 3 to add to her list. These will be mirror image and two others - which ones she takes depend on the rest of the party and their wants/needs. Choices like create pit and/or glitterdust, haste and slow and such make for good choices. Her feats below are one possible option and focus on Slow and Haste. Aradesh also has access to whatever cleric spells the party wants – as a part human, she can add one cleric spell of a lower than her maximal spell level to her shaman list on each level-up through her favored class bonus.

Finally, her familiar is pretty decent at most knowledge checks.

Aradesh Gorewolf
Half-orc shaman (unsworn shaman) 10 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 35, 112)
NG Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +23

Alternate half-orc racial traits: Sacred Tattoo (+1 luck bonus to saving throws, replaces ferocity) Shaman's apprentice (Gain endurance feat, lose intimidating), Fey ThoughtsDangerous Youth (Perception and Sense motive are class skills, replaces weapon familiarity)

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Defense
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AC 19, touch 11, flat-footed 18 (+8 armor, +1 Dex)
hp 73 (10d8+20)
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +19
Defensive Abilities Endurance, Sacred Tattoo.
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft (Flight: 60 ft)
Melee hair +16 (1d3+10)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 4/day (DC 18, 5d6), minor spirit hexes (flight[APG], misfortune[APG], prehensile hair[UM]), cackle/chant*, evil eye, arcane enlightenment).

*From item: cackling witch's bloose. Requires GM approval for shaman.

Shaman Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th; concentration +16)
. . At will—feather fall (self only), fly (self only)
. . 1/day—levitate (self only)

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Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 22, Cha 16

Base Atk: BAB +7, rest assumes prehensile hair active: +14; CMB +12; CMD 17

Feats Selective channel, healer’s hands, incredible healer, heighten spell, preferred spell (slow). Alertness (through familiar).

Traits Fate's favored, magical lineage (slow)

Skills Diplomacy +16, Fly +6**, Craft alchemy +14, Heal +23, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Knowledge (planes) +14, Perception +23*, Profession (herbalist) +19, Sense Motive +14*, Spellcraft +9, Survival +10 (+12 to avoid becoming lost), Swim -2;

*Assumes familiar is within reach of her for alertness.
**When using the flight hex, Fly is actually +15, since the hex works as fly which adds good maneuverability (+4) and 1/2 caster level (+5) on all fly checks.

-background skills: Profession: herbalist and craft alchemy.

Skills from familiar Linguistics + 8, spellcraft +15, Knowledge: Engineering/Nobility/Geography/planes: +11, Knowledge: Arcana/Religion/nature/Dungeoneering/history: +16. Knowledge: local +20.

Racial Modifiers

Languages Common, Orc, Giant.
SQ monstrous insight, orc blood, spirit animal

Combat Gear lesser reach metamagic rod[APG]; Other Gear +2 mithral breastplate, belt of physical might +2 (Dex, Con), cloak of resistance +3, headband of inspired wisdom +4, pink and green sphere ioun stone (+2 cha, and +1 will when socketed in wayfinder), wayfinder[ISWG], Cackling Witch's bloose (grants use of cackle hex), coldiron dagger (hopeknife), handy haversack x1, Wand of Heightened awareness (50 charges).

Mundane gear
Potion sponge with potion of air bubble x1 and touch of the sea x1, 7 x tanglefoot bag (350 g), 2 x potion of keep watch (100 g), cold weather outfit, backpack, 37 g of basic travelling supplies (tent, rations, bedroll, backpack, rope with grappling hook, lantern and oil flasks, spare dagger) and spare change, scroll of suppress charms and compulsions x 1 (125 g), scroll of remove fear x 1(25 g), scroll of compr. langauges x 2 50 g, scroll of remove blindness 375 g, scroll of obscuring mist x 2 50 g, scroll of remove paralysis x1 125 g, 1 x masterwork tool; Erastil holy symbol (+2 heal, only when treating deadly wounds via healer's hands feat) (50 g), 225 g for other items.

Familiar

Snow hare named Tyche, always inactive and in Aradesh’ backpack. Grants +4 initiative and the alertness feat to Aradesh while within her reach.

-Her familiar has the sage archetype and can speak to offer advice to her, in addition to getting below bonuses on knowledge checks.
-His intelligence is score is (5+ master’s level), currently 15, and gets 2 extra skill ranks per level along with half his level added to all knowledge checks from his archetype.
-He can speak to Aradesh, but not others, though he can understand common, orc and giant.

-He has a total of 50 skill points.
-3 in linguistics: common, orc, giant.
-10 in spellcraft = +15.
-1 rank in K. Engineering/nobility/geography/planes = +11.
-5 ranks in other knowledges except K: local. = +16.
-9 Ranks in K. Locak = +20.

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Spells
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Below list is if persistant spell as a metamagic feat is allowed. Minor changes otherwise; she instead takes the confusion hex instead of this metamagic feat.

Prepared spells (Sample list, using mirror image, spiked pit and slow as extra spells)

Level 1 (6+1:): Entangle x 1, Sanctuary x1, Protection from evil x1, Obscuring mist x1, Shield of faith x 2.

Level 2 (6+1): Mirror image x 2, hold person x2, Barkskin x 2.

Level 3 (5+1): Spiked pit x 2, communal resist energy x1, dispel magic x 1, shield of darkness x 1.

Level 4 (5+1): Blessing of fervor x 2, freedom of movement x 1, divine power x 1, heightened daylight x1.

Level 5 (3+1): Hunter's blessing x1, Feast on Fear x 1, true seeing x1.

**: Preferred spell: Slow: Any spell of level 3 or higher can be spontaneously cast to Slow. Can add metamagic feats to this cast by raising the spellslot used, without increasing the casting time.

Spirit magic (='domain slots') for Life spirit and Lore spirit
. . 5th—; breath of life[S] (DC 21) or contact other plane[S]
. . 4th—; legend lore[S] or restoration[S]
. . 3rd—; locate object[S] or neutralize poison[S]
. . 2nd—; lesser restoration[S] or tongues[S]
1st-; remove sickness[S] or Identify [S]

Spirits (currently) Life, Lore

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Special Abilities
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Arcane Familiar Nearby You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).

Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Misfortune (2 rounds, DC 21) (Su) Foe in 30 ft must take the lower of 2d20 for rolls (Will neg).
Monstrous Insight (6/day) (Su) As a standard action, attempt know check to ID monster and gain +2 to att & AC vs. that foe.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.

Prehensile Hair (10/day) (Su) The witch can instantly cause her hair (or even her eyebrows) to grow up to 10 feet long or to shrink to its normal length, and can manipulate her hair as if it were a limb with a Strength score equal to her Intelligence score. Her hair has reach 10.

Shaman Channel Positive Energy 5d6 (4/day, DC 18) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.

Speak with Animals (Ex) Your familiar can communicate with animals similar to itself.

Speak with Familiar (Ex) You can communicate verbally with your familiar.

Spirit Animal If spirit animal is slain, cannot use spirit magic or prepare new spells.

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