About Carduus the BemournedStatistics:
Male Human Oracle of Life 2
NG Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +0; Senses Perception +3 ------------------------------ DEFENSE ------------------------------ AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +0 dex, +1 shield) hp 22 (8@1st + 5 HD + 4 Con + 2 Favored Class) Fort +2*", Ref +0", Will +5^" *+6 vs disease ^+7 vs emotion and fear effects "add +2 vs death effects ------------------------------ OFFENSE ------------------------------ Speed 30 ft. Melee Ranged
Drawbacks. Feats Skills - Adventuring (8 points; 4 class/level + 0 INT)
Skills - Background (4 points; 2/level)
ACP -2 applies to these skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Fly, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Swim. Languages Common, Goblin, Elven Special Abilities:
------------------------------------------ SPECIAL ABILITIES - ORACLE ------------------------------------------ Life Mystery. Handle Animal, Knowledge Nature, and Survival are class skills. Bonus Spells: detect undead (2nd), lesser restoration (4th), neutralize poison (6th), restoration (8th), breath of life (10th), heal (12th), greater restoration (14th), mass heal (16th), true resurrection (18th). Revelations:
Curse: Wasting. Carduus's body is slowly rotting away.
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Ability Score Racial Traits: Human characters gain a +2 racial bonus to one ability score; Carduus has taken a +2 Charisma. Despite the damage it has done to his appearance, Carduus's wasting curse has only served to amplify his personality. Bonus Feat: Humans select one extra feat at 1st level; Carduus has chosen Selective Channeling. After discovering the healing effect of his life-force, the reluctant mercenary mastered it's release, allowing him to choose not only when he releases it but who it affects when he does so. Heart of the Wilderness: Humans raised in the wild learn the hard way that only the strong survive. They gain a racial bonus equal to half their character level on Survival checks. They also gain a +5 racial bonus on Constitution checks to stabilize when dying and add half their character level to their Constitution score when determining the negative hit point total necessary to kill them. This racial trait replaces skilled. Carduus's mysterious infancy and subsequent childhood subsistence farming both toughened him and taught him how to live off the land.
Spells:
------------------------------ Spells ------------------------------ 0th (at will) create water, enhanced diplomacy, light, purify food and drink 1st (5/day; save DC 15) cure light wounds, detect undead, sanctuary, shield of faith
Gear/Possessions:
------------------------------ GEAR/POSSESSIONS ------------------------------ Carrying Capacity Light 0-33 lb. Medium 34-67 lb. Heavy 68-100 lb. Current Load Carried 31 lb. Money PP 40 / GP 19 / SP 4 / CP 9
Chain shirt (+4 armor, +4 max Dex, -2 ACP, 20% AF, 30’ Spd, 25#)
Background:
Carduus was raised by a lone farmer who claimed that he’d found him as an infant sleeping in a thistle bush, and the two eked out a living in the wilderness of Breland, keeping themselves to themselves. Showing a knack for working with animals rather than the land, as a child Carduus would care for his father’s livestock – chickens, pigs, sheep, and plowhorse. Though he did what his father told him, it bothered him greatly that all his efforts eventually led to the slaughter of the animals in his care, save for the horse. ”That’s just the way the world works,” his father would tell him.
One day at 12 years of age Carduus was kidnapped while out looking for an escaped sheep. He was taken and impressed into service by an unscrupulous mercenary band, at first tending to their camp and their horses. After demonstrating an ability to cure several steeds of niggling ailments, however, the Captain of the company promoted him to medic, and he trained under the band’s physician. He did what he was told, but it bothered him greatly that all his efforts eventually led to the slaughter of the men in his care, save for the Captain. ”That’s just the way the world works,” the physician would tell him. He served the mercenary company for 8 years until their last battle. Skirmishing at the Cyrean border, Carduus was there on the Day of Mourning when the entire nation detonated not 10 yards away from him. Carduus himself was spared death and rendered unconscious, and when he awoke a day later he found himself just inside what is now known as the Mournland. He stumbled back out into the world, and could find no sign of survivors from his company, nor of the Captain. He decided to make his way back to his childhood home, along the way he discovering he had a horrible malady: his body seemed to be rotting away while his very life-force was bleeding out from him. When he returned home he discovered the farm had been razed years ago, with no sign of his father nor the plowhorse. The next several years wandering from city to city proved that his affliction was as incurable as the Mournland itself. Unable to make a “normal” living due to his condition, which repels both sentients and base animals, he has made his way to Sharn to find work as a mercenary, the only field he knows to be as ugly as he is, telling himself ”That’s just the way the world works.”
Personality & Appearance:
Carduus’s outward demeanor is as prickly as the thistle he is named after. His life has made him quite pessimistic; he believes that the universe is as uncaring and amoral as those who inhabit it, and that both grind down anyone and anything that tries to make it a better place. That said, he tries to help out others when he feels doing so won’t expose him to too much risk of loss. While the world may be a horrible place, and may have turned him into a horrible thing, his resentment towards it won’t allow him to give up completely and let it win.
Carduus’s appearance is troubling to behold, his body nearing emaciation and his flesh riddled with bruises, lesions, and worse; for this reason, he usually wears bandages to obscure his face and hands. His chain shirt is well-used but in good repair, while his buckler appears brand new. A worn knapsack hangs across his body from his right shoulder.
Crunchy Thoughts:
Lvl 3: Life Link revelation; deadeye's lore or burning disarm; Endurance feat or Extra Revelation (Energy Body) feat. |
