"Don't be good, be good for something. A moral person is better than a righteous person."
"Screw the rules, it's the right thing to do."
"The Last War was futile. The stupidity and selfishness of the Five Nations are unfathomable. That no one stood up and said 'enough' is deplorable. Not even me."
Goal (what) To find peace in my soul after the loss of my brother.
Motivation (why) The world lost my brother, and they have me instead. I have to at least try.
Seed (originating thought) His brother went to Metrol on Asher's suggestion.
Embodiment War-torn hero Scholar-adventurer motivated by Survival from the horrors of the Last War he wants to Escape.
The spiritualist seeks the occult and esoteric truth about life, death, and the passage beyond, using their phantom as a guide and tool. The connection with their phantom allows them to harness the powers of life and death, thought and nightmare, shadow, and revelation.
The haunted is a dangerous breed of spellcasters bound to temperamental and unpredictable phantoms that leech power from their spiritualists.
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==DEFENSE==
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Defense +2, touch +2, flat-footed +0 (+2 Dex)
Hit Points 19/19 (1d8) Vigor 19/19 Wound Points 11/11 (Threshold 11)
DR 0/- damage 0 non-lethal damage 0
Clobbered 5 Massive damage 11 Stabilize 11%
Staggered at 0, dying from -1 to -22 MaxDex 0 ACP 0 ASF 0% F/R/W 2/2/4
Defensive abilities Weaknesses
• –2 penalty on saving throws against the distraction ability of swarms.
• –2 penalty on saving throws against mind-affecting effects.
• –2 on concentration checks.
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==OFFENSE==
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Speed 30 ft. (6 squares) (8 counts) Melee
• Dagger +2, 1d4+1 (19/x2) PS 10 ft.
Ranged Space 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.
Special attacks Spiritualist spells(CL 1st; concentration +3)
1st level (2/day)
• Cure Light Wounds (ಲಘು ಗಾಯಗಳನ್ನು ಗುಣಪಡಿಸಿ) - When laying your hand upon a living creature, you channel positive energy that cures 1d8 points of damage +1 point per caster level (maximum +5).
• Mage Armor (ಮಂತ್ರವಾದಿ ರಕ್ಷಾಕವಚ) - An invisible but tangible field of force surrounds the subject of a mage armor spell, providing a +4 armor bonus to AC.
Knacks (at will)
• Bleed (ينزف) (DC 12) - You cause a living creature that is below 0 hit points but stabilized to resume dying. Upon casting this spell, you target a living creature that has -1 or fewer hit points. That creature begins dying, taking 1 point of damage per round. The creature can be stabilized later normally. This spell causes a creature that is dying to take 1 point of damage.
• Detect Magic (જાદુ શોધો) - You detect magical auras.
• Light (আলো) - This spell causes a touched object to glow like a torch, shedding normal light in a 20-foot radius from the point touched, and increasing the light level for an additional 20 feet by one step, up to normal light (darkness becomes dim light, and dim light becomes normal light). In an area of normal or bright light, this spell has no effect. The effect is immobile, but it can be cast on a movable object. You can only have one light spell active at any one time. If you cast this spell while another casting is still in effect, the previous casting is dispelled. If you make this spell permanent (through permanency or a similar effect), it does not count against this limit. Light can be used to counter or dispel any darkness spell of equal or lower spell level.
• Read Magic (જાદુ વાંચો) - You can decipher magical inscriptions on objects – books, scrolls, weapons, and the like – that would otherwise be unintelligible.
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==ABILITIES==
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Str 12 (+1), Dex 15 (+2), Con 11 (+0), Int 12 (+1), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 12 (+1)
Bab +0, CMB +2, CMD +3
Feats
• Agile Maneuvers - You’ve learned to use your quickness in place of brute force when performing combat maneuvers.
• Armor Proficiency, Light - You are skilled at wearing light armors.
• Phantom Fighter - Your phantom is a deadly foe of incorporeal adversaries.
• Simple Weapon Proficiency & kukris, saps, and scythes - You are trained in the use of basic weapons.
• Skill Focus (Knowledge [arcana]) - You are educated in the field of study of the arcane and can answer both simple and complex questions about ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, constructs, dragons, and magical beasts.
• Skill Focus (Knowledge [local]) - You are educated in the field of study of the lands commonly inhabited by people of your race and can answer both simple and complex questions about legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, and humanoids.
• Spiritualist’s Call - Whenever you summon your phantom, it is more powerful for a brief period. Traits
• Victim of the Last War - The Last War was hardest on those who were least prepared for it.
• Lesser noble - You were born in the lowest part of the upper crust of Brelish society.
• Veteran of the Last War - You have been hardened by the horrors of the Last War.
• Classically-schooled - Your apprenticeship or early education was particularly focused on the direct application of magic. Flaws
• Insomniac - You have trouble achieving a full and restful sleep.
• Take charge - You try to take charge of situations, especially when someone else is in charge. Drawbacks
• Haunting Regret - When you were young, a relative with whom you had frequently quarreled passed away where his or her soul could not rest. Now, the unquiet spirit appears around you at inconvenient times, distracting you with regret for being unable to help.
• Recklessness - You have lost any fear of death or injury. So much so that you either have a death wish or believe you are invincible. Skills
• Heal +6 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +2 Wis)
• Knowledge (arcana) +8 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +1 Int, +3 Skill Focus)
• Knowledge (geography) +5 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +1 Int)
• Knowledge (history) +5 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +1 Int)
• Knowledge (local) +8 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +1 Int, +3 Skill Focus)
• Sense Motive +6 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +2 Wis)
• Spellcraft +5 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +1 Int)
• Use Magic Device +5 (+1 SP, +3 Trained, +1 Cha)
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==SPECIAL ABILITIES==
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• Agile Maneuvers - You add your Dexterity bonus to your Base Attack Bonus and size bonus when determining your Combat Maneuver Bonus (see Combat) instead of your Strength bonus.
• Armor Proficiency, Light - When you wear light armor, the Armor Check Penalty for that armor applies only to Dexterity- and Strength-based skill checks.
• Classically-schooled - You gain a +1 trait bonus on Spellcraft checks, and Spellcraft is always a class skill for you.
• Etheric Tether (Su) - Lose hp to prevent damage to phantom that would banish it to ethereal. Phantom must remain close when manifested or concentration is required.
• Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute - Finesse weapons use Dexterity on attack rolls.
• Haunting Regret - You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against the distraction ability of swarms and mind-affecting effects and on concentration checks.
• Hero Points - Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant an Advantage or Disadvantage.
• Insomniac - DC 15 Fortitude save to receive a regular night's sleep. If a disturbance wakes you while sleeping you must make an additional save to return to sleep. If you fail any of these checks you wake fatigued in the morning. If you are fatigued when attempting to sleep, you gain a +2 on your save. If you are exhausted you gain a +6 bonus instead. Comfortable conditions grant a +4 bonus on this save. Poor conditions make you suffer a -4 on your Save. Even if you sleep poorly, you still may prepare arcane spells after 8 hours of fitful rest.
• Lesser Noble - You gain a +1 trait bonus on Diplomacy and Knowledge (nobility) checks. In addition, your starting money is increased by 100 gp— your “birthright,” such as it is.
• Phantom (Shared Consciousness) - Phantom can manifest as a separate creature or provide bonuses while sharing your mind.
• Phantom Fighter - Your phantom’s natural weapons are treated as having the ghost touch property. In addition, when you cast a touch spell to be delivered by your phantom, you can modify the spell as if you possessed the Ectoplasmic Spell metamagic feat.
• Recklessness - You cannot use the withdrawal action and the Acrobatics DC to avoid provoking an attack of opportunity is the opponent's CMD plus 5, regardless of whether you go through their occupied squares or their threatened squares.
• Shared Consciousness (1/day) (Su) - Gain skill focuses and +4 vs. mind-affecting when not manifesting a phantom.
• Simple Weapon Proficiency - You make attack rolls with simple weapons, kukris, saps, and scythes without penalty.
• Skill Focus (Knowledge [aracana & local]) - You get a +3 bonus on all checks involving the chosen skill. If you have 10 or more ranks in that skill, this bonus increases to +6.
• Spiritualist’s Call (Strength) - Whenever you summon your phantom, you can give it a +2 enhancement bonus to its Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma. This bonus lasts for 10 minutes after the summoning ritual is complete.
• Veteran of the Last War - You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks and saving throws against fear.
• Victim of the Last War - You or your family suffered miserably. You gain a +2 trait bonus on attack rolls with improvised weapons.[/smaller]
Sin
• Sloth - Auto-succeed on a roll once per day if you rest ten hours rather than eight. To get 10 hours with Insomnia, you must succeed in a DC 17 Fortitude save at hour 8, or be woken. You still receive a full night's sleep if you don't get the extra 2 hours.
I think I know a guy...
• Brother Michah, the Wolf Hammer (Faiths of Eberron 101)
• Gwen portrow, Human Expert 1/ Soulknife 3 vagabond on the run from trouble in Thrane."Ogres can sweep your head right off your shoulders like knocking pumpkins off a fence. Didn't your mother teach you anything?"
• Yosiah Crint, Human Warpriest 3/Expert 1. "If you think any amount of weaponry and organization makes one lick of difference in the lowlands, you're sorely mistaken, friends! The jungle is too thick to see more than ten paces out, and Lowlanders know every rut, every exposed branch, every place a horse or man can trip and be chopped to pieces, even if by stone axes. The lucky ones survive that kind of battle, not the organized ones. No, it's best we remain content with what bounty we have, rather than risk lives taking more. Pigs get fed, men, while hogs get slaughtered. I'm quite content to be a piggy."
• Kaddok, male human Fighter (Viking) 2 from the north of the Lhazaar principalities. "My name is Kaddok, also called "Earth Smasher", of the Shundar-Quah. I hit things. Hard."
• Shamsiel, Male Aasimar Warlock 2. "A warm meal would be wonderful to get us started on our way!"
• Valenor Moonshadow, Half-elf Occultist 1. "We should be able to use the knowledge regarding the fake pearls too, shall we say...encourage the owner to close his doors. Better to lose out on a day's lunch than years' worth of profit."
Next level Slayer
Inspiration Talion, Drake. Luck is a currency.
Berserk button Dismissal of the loss of someone's loved ones. Callousness about the Last War.
Belief Sovereign Host
Goal Bring his brother peace.
Secret Has a lot of money he's never accessed (500 sovereigns).
TropesBorn lucky, My greatest failure
Unconcious belief "I am not perfect like my brother was. I will be safe and loved and forgiven when I am."
Ingrained defense survival pattern Escape into thought. Action is direct and almost impulsive. Explosive.
Childhood contributing environment Holds himself illogically responsible for his brother.
Approach to connection Withdraw by staying focused on personal performance.
Approach to feeling safe (Threat response) Action - Achieve (performs). I need to do something right now.
Relation to others Micromanage. Dismiss and handle it himself.
Common characteristics Adrenalin-junkie. Self-criticism.
Continuum Efficient to type A.
Decision making Over-analytical.
Avoids Isolation.
Relation with perfection Inaction.
Mis-labeled as OCD, ADHD, BiPolar.
Background, Personality, Description, and Memories in Ashes of Khyber:
“'Death is what the living carry with them.' My brother Roman was a writer. Yeah, that Roman Vance."Asher pulls on his cigar a moment, looking off into the distance. "He was so gifted. Despite the war, our mother was able to send him to Magdalen Abbey in Trieste, for schooling, on the southern side of Metrol. He would tell me the most amazing stories about 'The Swann Knight', 'The five-year siege of Manobrier', and,"Asher chuckles, shaking his head, "'The Traveler’s Love with one Lady Trent Meridal d’Cannith and their incredible adventures in the depths of Xen'Drik, the lost continent'. He wrote books for all three stories eventually, although you know the last one as "The Traveler’s many affairs". Which of course is the name it was published under.”
“I was conscripted by the Brelish military a little over...a decade ago now, when I was 17. I served in a unit specializing in fast tactical response. I was originally posted right next to Droamm, on the western coast, where we saw a little action. Mostly non-militant action, as we continued to assist with the removal of Brelish citizens from what is now Droaam. That was right around 987. I was lucky enough not to have anything like what they had in the north."Asher cracks his neck, taking another long pull on the cigar. He flexes his left hand, looking at it. "About three months before the fighting stopped I was knocked unconscious in an explosion. Still haven’t gotten back to the peak performance I was at. Still don't know what caused it.”
“When the Day of – when it happened, I was on a ship in Kraken Bay. I’d gone AWOL the night before and found myself a pretty Valenar woman who liked it rough. They’re still trying to punish me for that. Going AWOL, not the woman. Like that matters anymore. Like any of it matters. I was so tired of the war, the fighting, the hatred. She and I stayed up, and I read her passages from his book, 'A Forgery of Love'."Asher smiles wistfully. "A stupid romance about two warforged on opposite sides of the war discovering each other and falling in love, before facing each other in battle in Starilaskur. It was never published.”
“We...we woke to silence. That's not what I dream about. In my dreams, there is screaming. Constant, pained...horrified...screaming. No. We woke to silence. It was so much worse. The shoreline was just...gray. Silent.""Asher takes a shuddering breath, his cigar no longer smoking, forgotten in his hand. "My brother was in Metrol, I guess. I don’t know. It was...it was my idea for him to go. To Metrol. Where he...he’s not dead. He once wrote 'I carry death with me, like a dark memory I have yet to experience, like a deep depression over what might happen.' I carry my brother with me. He is beyond death.”
Personality Asher likes the comforts in life but feels guilty having them. Why should he have it when his brother cannot? Very survivor's guilt. For him, being true to one's self is the most important. Being genuine. "I don't care what you believe, believe in something. I don't care what you stand for, stand for something. I don't care what you vote for - vote." He is a true believer in Breland's power of democracy. He does not like roughing it, or towns that lack certain amenities. He can be quite rude, which stems from a hatred of himself.
Description Asher has dark brown straight hair, shaved on the sides, and his eyes are like green moss. He has scars running across his face from the explosion. His body is lean and strong. He sports a stylish short beard.
Asher Vance is a Brelish human of 27. He grew up a son of a minor noble in the Blackcaps in northern Breland - not well off, but comfortable. His father's family was an ancient Elder tree, signifying the roots and the pedigree of the house. Asher took that symbol and turned the tree upside-down to represent the fact that he believes the family is old and "dead" in this new world, and that he is adrift from it; a part unseen.
He cares less about rules than individuals and values others over himself. (NG alignment). He has the sides of his head shaved, and his hair is braided down the center of his head and hangs about nine inches off the back in a leather wrap. His phantom appeared on the Day of Mourning. He is wanted by military leaders in Darguun who still want retribution for his unit's actions during the war. He is wanted by some over-zealous Brelish leaders for desertion, and he is wanted by the Valenar woman.
“After a hundred years of fighting, any idiot could see that the whole war was pointless.”
—Dania ir’Vran, a human fighter
The travails of the Last War largely define Khorvaire, which is just as true of its adventurers. You fought on the front lines of the Last War. You killed a great many enemy soldiers, and you carry plenty of scars—on your body and on your soul.
Adventuring: You adventure because you can’t think of anything else to do. You joined the army as soon as you were old enough and never learned a peacetime trade. After years spent in war, you can’t just go back to your place of birth and learn to be a "blacksmith". Your home might not even be there anymore. Adventuring seems like the only option left to you, and it offers the opportunity to continue using the skills you learned on the battlefield. As a member of an adventuring party, you have a sense of belonging and companionship. You have a steady source of wealth, more than enough to live comfortably. You have some sense of purpose and meaning in your life. You’ve made a reasonable approximation of the one thing you want and can never again have: a home where you belong.
Personality: The war savaged your soul far worse than it could ever hurt your body, and you remain bitterly wounded. Your life is a contradiction. Violence sickens you. You saw so much death and mutilation in the course of the war that you had to steel yourself to it; still, you can never shake the waves of disgust that course through you when violence is necessary. But you live by violence, and you’re not sure you know how to give it up.
Behavior: You abhor the discipline of military life. You rise early in the morning because of PTSD. You practice weapon drills because it is a distraction from your intrusive thoughts. You like to know the chain of command in your adventuring party and prefer clear orders about the standard operating procedure. Even if some chaotic part of your belief system chafes at these disciplines, a larger part of you relies on them to give meaning and structure to every day.
Language: Yours is the language of combat. You have a rich vocabulary to describe the maneuvers of the battlefield and various aspects of your daily life. You speak of base camps and rations, of reconnaissance and sabotage. To some extent, just like your practice of military discipline, using military terminology helps to keep your life ordered in your mind. This is contrasted with the poetry that you speak of your brother.
