Harlock's page

Not so much a running gag as a walking joke was one of the players in a Dark Sun campaign I ran in college. His first character was an elven preserver/thief/cleric of air who was generally a selfish so-and-so who was out for number one...except on those occasions when he would suddenly remember that he was a cleric, by golly, and would ask "may I help you, my son?" We started calling him the MPD elf. Well, he lost his character sheet, so he switched to one of the backups on his character tree.

This was the half-giant fighter. Now I have no complaints about the job he did imitating his chosen...umm...imprintee? Is that a word? Anyway, the problem I had with his behavior is that he decided to imprint on the one character (the defiler) who was doing his darnedest to _avoid_ attention! Well, he lost his character sheet, so he switched to one of the backups on his character tree.

This was the human rogue with a 20 strength and more daggers than Hanse Shadowspawn. Who encountered the party at a little after midnight in the back alleys of Tyr. Who proceeded to shadow one of the PCs, but didn't bother with the hide/move silently rolls, so he was noticed by the Nightwatch. Who, in the ensuing conversation, insisted that he was carrying all the daggers because he was afraid for his life in this lawless part of the city (mind you, the guy's built like a brick wall...comes from having a 20 strength, don'cha know) and generally carried on in such pitifully inept fashion that he had one of the other players literally rolling on the floor laughing. The Nightwatch let him go because they figured anybody _that_ dumb couldn't be a _successful_ thief. Well, he lost his character sheet, so he switched to one of the backups on his character tree. (Are we beginning to see a pattern, here?)

This was Bernice, the cleric of fire. It should be noted that I'm almost sure Bernice wasn't originally on his character tree, and I'm pretty sure the thief wasn't, either. From what I remember, all four of the original character tree had been lost by the time knife boy was created. At any rate, Bernice was a gender-bender who was played so incredibly gender-neutrally that we nicknamed her Bernie and kept calling her "him." He probably would've lost that character sheet, too, if the school year hadn't ended, ending the campaign.

Okay, I have a question for YOU then, Mr. Wizard. If moths can't bite, then how do they keep eating my sweaters? Do they lurk in the closet with tiny little tools and whittle away the threads when the door is shut? Unless they exude some sort of acid that only affects cloth, this aspect just stumps me.

Well, technically, it's the caterpillars (larvae) that eat the wool, not the moths. I don't know that wool moths actually eat *anything* during the adult stage of their life-cycle. IIRC, they basically come out of their cocoons, fly around a bit, mate, fly around a bit more, and die.

We have the "tank". A dwarf who likes nothing more than to wade into the thick of the fight with his bastard sword and slice and hack things.

We have the range specialist. Arrows, arrows, arrows, then take up the blade when things get too close.

We have the "man in motion". Or rather had. He died through no fault of his own. :-) but his style was that of the lightly armoured, tumble and dart abou, looking for the best position to get in one good hit, then dart about again.

Which of these fo you all prefer, and am I missing any?

Well, there's a variant of the "man in motion" who darts about setting up flanks and the like, but is more valued for his ability to screw up the *opponent's* tactics with Improved Disarm, Improved Trip and the like. That's what my primary LG character does at the moment (well, he has Improved Grapple rather than Improved Trip, but I digress) and despite his limited hit points, he has a remarkable tendency to come out of fights in one piece.

One sample round, as a f'rinstance: "I charge the archer and attempt to disarm him." Dice roll. "OK, he's disarmed. On his turn, he reaches down to pick up his bow." "I trip him." Dice roll. "OK, he's prone. He swings his fist at you." "From prone?" "Yes." "All right, I stab him with my rapier." "Do you still have AoO's left?" "Yep." Dice roll. "OK, he collapses before he hits you."

I'm going to have some *real* fun when he hits 9th level and picks up Elusive Target! :)