About Collie ShepherdTo-Dos: Check for Uncommons/Rares Appearance Collie stands a bit over five feet, her plump form belying a powerful, muscular build. Her shoulder-length white hair is fluffy and soft like sheep's wool. She usually dresses in simple greens and browns, favoring long skirts and midriff-baring tops, with a small collection of collars and chokers. Her smile is tranquil and difficult to break, and she speaks with an easygoing drawl. Though she doesn't smoke, Collie likes to chew an old pipe. When in her beast form, weighty ram horns curl around velvety sheeplike ears, her face shape shifts very subtly, and her lower body morphs to trot upon a pair of dainty sheep hooves. Major Actions
Ranged Strike: composite shortbow +6 (Deadly d10, Propulsive, Range 60 ft.), Damage 1d6+1 P Trip: +1 potency shepherd's crook +11 (Wolf Fang) Misc Maneuvers: trip/grapple/shove +10; Assurance 17 Battle Medicine: Medicine +8, DC 15 (2d8 healing, or 4d8 on a crit) Spells:
Focus Spells wild shape
It costs 1 Focus Point to cast a focus spell, and you start with a focus pool of 1 Focus Point. You refill your focus pool during your daily preparations, and you can regain 1 Focus Point by spending 10 minutes using the Refocus activity to commune with local nature spirits or otherwise tend to the wilderness in a way befitting your order. Cantrips (5) guidance, protect companion, stabilize, scatter scree, tanglefoot 1st Level (3) heal, protector tree, feather fall 2nd Level (2) longstrider, enlarge Collie prepares her spells during her early morning routine, assembling special combinations of herbs, flowers, and other natural esoterica for each spell she plans to cast. Core Statblock:
CN Female Medium Beastkin Human Druid 3
Perceptionᴱ +10 AC 19; Max HP 41 Languages Common, Goblin, Druidic Background Field Medic Skills Acrobatics +6, Athleticsᴱ +10, Lore: Druids +6, Lore: Warfare +6, Medicine +8, Nature +8, Survival +8 Str +3, Dex +1, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +0 Items +1 potency Capacity/GP Breakdown shepherd's crook (2nd, Bulk 2), composite shortbow (14 gp, Bulk 1), arrows (1 sp, Bulk L), ordinary clothing (2*1 sp, Bulk 2*L), collar & leash (2 sp), hide armor (2 gp, Bulk 2), dog treats (1 cp), dog feed (1 cp), healer's tools (5 gp, Bulk 1), book of pressed flowers (1 gp, Bulk L), herb bundles, old pipe, cloak of feline rest (1st, Bulk L), plague mask (1st), wolf fang (4 gp) Capacity: 4.5/8 Total GP Spent: 22.52/25 1st-level items: 2/2 (cloak of feline rest, plague mask) 2nd-level item: 1/1 (shepherd's crook) Standard Actions Offensive (Strike, Trip, Command an Animal), Defensive (Parry, Tumble), Supportive (Battle Medicine, Guidance, Aid, Recall Knowledge) Common Action Sets "Full Attack" (Strike, Parry, Assurance Trip), "Maneuver" (Trip, Command Wynarn to flank, Strike) Ancestry Feats General Training: Fast Recovery Skill Feats Battle Medicineᴮ, Assurance: Athletics Class Feats Animal Companionᴮ, Order Explorer: Wild, Wild Shapeᴮ Archetype Feats Fighter Dedication General Feats Shield Blockᴮ, Fast Recoveryᴮ, Toughness Misc Specials Change Shape, Wild Empathy, Backstory:
Okay, so this's just gonna, what, record what I'm saying? Well, that's neat. Yeah, so, right. My story. Here goes.
Columbine Shepherd, of the Eldeen Reaches. Friends call me Collie. Well, most people call me Collie. Ma, Pa, my folks were shepherds. Now, shepherds, the whole job is pushing people around who don't know what's good for them, but you try pushing a shepherd around and you don't know what's good for you. Ma and Pa hated Breland, didn't trust Aundair, and thought the Silver Flame was a devil's heart in a jar. That's the kind of people they were. Kind of people we were, growing up. No gods, no kings, just the land and the land's law. Loyal to the Wardens of the Wood as anyone you'd meet. You shoulda seen how they lit up when they realized I had the Gift. So, I signed on to be schooled in druidcraft. Left home. I was ten. And at the time, the Wardens were pretty desperate for magic-users. Not a lot of mages in the Reaches, see. All you got there is druids, and a druid's not as good as a wizard, but she's sure as sugar better than nothing. I went for schooling; what I got was drafted. They barely even learned me my letters, but they taught me how to--how to burn people alive, how to catch someone in vines so the archers can fill them with arrows, how to use magic over wood and rust to twist a warforged's body into scrapmetal. Those were the priorities. I learned a lot. *laughs* ... Learned a lot about my teachers, too. Greensingers, Ashborn, Children of Winter--anyone could be a teacher back then. Not a lot of oversight on what they taught us. Not a lot of room to make friends, either. Hm? Oh, right. Yeah, I think I was sixteen when they shipped me out for an outpost by Silver Lake. Skeleton crew of old fossils. The next-youngest guy there was in his forties. That was a weird time to realize I was a girl. Sure as sugar got me my own room, though. *cough* Okay, so, second year. Disease hits the outpost. I'm young, sleeping separate, no friends. I shrug it off pretty fast. A quarter of the soldiers died. We lost both our senior druids. Our reinforcements keep getting delayed, so now it's just me, our new Chief Mystic Officer. Most of the men are under blankets or under dirt. Winter rolls around, and suddenly we're snowed in. You remember that winter? Bad time, especially in the Reaches. We're getting pushed around by bandits--Aundair soldiers with nothing better to do who figured they could stroll in and take whatever they pleased--and it's pretty much up to me and, ah, maybe five guys to stop them. Plus Ivy. I probably wouldn't have made it without her, but that's a messy subject. Let's just say my, uh, my track record in picking partners isn't so good. When you spend too much of your life alone, it gets mighty hard to say no to people who wanna be around you. Reinforcements finally came next spring, five months late. I get kept on, still the outpost's only druid, having 'distinguished myself through my acts of valor'. Like all those men died just to test my mettle. *laughs* Oh, I was mighty proud of it at the time, though, sugar. The next couple years, things heat up in the war, and our outpost finally sees some real action. I guess I made a good account of myself. I kept my people alive. It was almost my fifth year when the Last War ended and I finally got relieved of duty. I thought I'd be happy. I guess I was. I went back to my folks' fields. Found out my folks had died and left the farm to my big brother, my big sis had deserted the Wardens and signed on with House Deneith, and my little brother had run off with a Sharn baker or some-such. None of them were speaking to each other anymore. Just to me. I get back to sheep herding, try to ground myself. It mostly works. Only I don't sleep well. I get nerves when it's too cold, or when I'm hungry, or when there's no one around me. Get in a couple more bad breakups. Can't sleep right. And I keep getting in fights. Shepherds don't like feeling pushed around, and ex-soldiers know how to do something about it. So, I wind up leaving home. Taking up odd jobs. Caravan guard, guide, bounty hunter once or twice. When I heard y'all were asking about me, I figured I'd save you the trouble of tracking me down. I didn't expect you to need my--what's that you called it? My psycho-profile? But I guess you heard about that Cannith guy I decked last year and had to make sure. That one was on him. The fella shoved a barmaid and kicked my dog. I don't have anything against House Cannith aside from that, though. Anyways, yeah. 'War hero' isn't the term I'd use. I'm a medic, I know the wilds, and I can fight. But I got my people through the Winter of 593 simply 'cause they were counting on me. That's the other thing about shepherds. You get used to a lot of lives hanging on you doing your job right. Your aching back's a luxury they can't afford. So, do I get the job? GM Hooks:
Ivy the Necromancer. Collie has extremely bad judgment when it comes to who she falls for, and her long list is streaked with red flags she chose to ignore. Most notable is Ivy, who dwelt in the village near Collie's outpost. Ivy was shy, but had a magnetism to her Collie was quickly caught up in. Ivy was smart, and critical of authority, and willing to challenge Collie's brainwashed upbringing directly. Ivy was also a low-level devotee of the Blood of Vol. This should have bothered Collie more, but Collie was starved for company her own age and information from the outside world. She denied it as long as she could, then made excuses, tried to shrug it off as not being such a big deal. The relationship eventually fell apart under the grips of their competing loyalties, but they've gotten back together a few times since.
Ivy could be an antagonist, an ally, a scandal, or someone who needs rescuing. If Collie's ties to someone like Ivy were outed to the wrong people, it could seriously upend her standing among the Wardens. Druidic Factions
War Buddies and Old Enemies
Family
Misc Flavor:
Collie's old pipe belonged to her dad, given to her when she left so she'd "never forget where she came from". She chews it to try to ground herself.
Collie's dog was named Wynarn by her Pa as a nationalist jab at Aundair's ruler. Wynarn is, like, a billion years old. He's a happy old sheepdog who went through almost as much as Collie during the Last War. Collie likes pressing flowers and dreaming up imaginary plants and animals. |
