Ryder Koss's page

Ryder Koss is a Human Sorcerer of the Maestro bloodline, though he has no knowledge of his lineage that has brought him these powers. He grew up poor within the impoverished side of the Korvosan population, but he makes ends meet by performing for the wealthy in well-to-do establishments in the affluent parts of Korvosa. He's lived in Korvosa all his life, yet he finds the by-the-rules attitude of Korvosa rather stifling. He's made some money on the side doing small tasks for some of the organized crime in Korvosa. He doesn't see too much harm in a little criminal activity to make ends meet, in particular if it's at the expense of the wealthy, who he both admires, and is also disgusted by. This criminal activity got him in over his head when he agreed to do some "work" for Gaedren Lamm. One small job led to another, until Ryder was asked to poison a man's children because that man would not pay a debt to Gaedren. Ryder could not go through with it, and as punishment, he was beaten to within an inch of his life by Gaedren's thugs. Ryder never worked for Gaedren again. He left that behind him and lived his life day to day, trying to earn a fair living and trying to stay away from Gaedren's influence; until he met up with others via the will of Zellara (a Harrower, who along with the others, had also been wronged by Gaedren). Ryder and the others banded together and brought their own justice upon Gaedren. Now, Ryder and his companions work with the Korvosan Guard, striving to bring stability to a city in turmoil.

Ryder had always frequented a Harrower for readings, and since aquiring a Harrow Deck that contains the consciousness of Zellara, he is now interested in becoming a Harrower himself.

At 1st level, you can use the sound of your voice to lull a target creature into taking no action. This ability acts as the daze spell, except it is language-dependent, has a duration of 1 round, and affects a living creature whose Hit Dice do not exceed your sorcerer level. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier (=7/day).

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to use a Perform skill to cause one or more creatures to become fascinated with you. This acts as the fascinate bardic perform ability, except the save DC is 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your Charisma bonus (=10+1+4=15@3L), and it lasts 1 round/level (3). You may use this ability once per day at 3rd level, twice per day at 8th level, three times per day at 13th level, and four times per day at 18th level.

Once per day, you may draw a card from a Harrow deck you own. At any one time for the rest of that day, you may apply a +2 bonus on any d20 roll modified by the card’s suit. 1d6: 1=Str, 2=Dex, 3=Con, 4=Int, 5=Wis, 6=Cha

Ryder's performance skill is a combination of percussion, singing, and comedy. The percussion is ad-hoc, without any traditional instrument (think Stomp), the singing isn't all that great, but put them together with a little comedic flair, and it's not a bad act.

On day 1 of the book, Zellara performed a Harrowing, and each of Ryder, Ralof, and Loris earned 3 harrow points from the Dexterity suit, which can be used as follows until gone:
Dexterity Rerolls: Spend a Harrow Point to reroll any one Initiative check, Reflex save, attack roll modified by Dexterity, or Dexterity-based skill check. You must choose to make the reroll before knowing the result, and you must abide by the new result (although if you have additional Harrow Points remaining, you can use them to attempt additional rerolls).
Dodge Bonus: Spend a Harrow Point to gain a +1 Dodge bonus to your Armor Class for one encounter. You can spend up to 3 Harrow Points per encounter to increase your Armor Class in this manner.
Speed Increase: Spend a Harrow Point to increase your base speed by 10 feet for one encounter—you cannot spend multiple Harrow Points to increase your speed multiple times in one encounter.