Flaw: Tazwell's magic only works when he sings or plays music.
10 minute Background:
Step 1: Write 5 background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind. 5 is just a minimum...more elements are encouraged!
[1] Tazwell is an orphan. His parents were apparently Riftwardens that disappeared on a secret mission in the World Wound. He was raised in Kenabres by a married couple who are both minor wizards.
[2] While obviously magically talented, Tazwell rejected formal schooling at a young age and snuck off to entertain himself and others. It had been thought that he would follow in his parent’s footsteps, but he rejected any of these plans.
[3] Although he is popular and charismatic, Taz lacks self confidence and seeks the praise of others to overcome his self doubt.
[4] Tazwell is magically gifted, but the magic he casts is always tied to music he performs. When he casts spells they are always tied to either singing or playing music on his guitar.
[5] Much to his foster-parents disappointment, Taz has spent the last couple of years running the streets with a group of street toughs. He has become fairly skilled with a rapier, but the fighting has always been practice and theoretical. He has never killed anyone with his rapier although he is very good with it.
[6] Tazwell’s most prized possession is a masterwork guitar with silver strings. He carries it on a sling over his back, protected from the weather by a cloak.
Step 2: List at least two goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.
[1] Tazwell wants to be famous. He needs the adoration of the crowd. That’s the only thing that matters to him. The bigger and grander the audience, the better.
[2] I’d like to see Tazwell create a magical guitar that he uses to blast bad guys with sonic attacks.
[3] It would be cool if there was a ‘Devil went down to Georgia’ musical duel with a demon in his career.
Step 3: List at least two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet.
[1] Tazwell doesn’t know it, but his mother is still alive in the World Wound.
[2] Tazwell has always had a crush on Sannymeade, the elf that taught him how to play the guitar.
Step 4: Describe at least three people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
[1] Tazwell’s parents are Goodyear and Constance Bellweather. They are minor wizards in Kenabres. They have raised him for the last twenty years. They tried to encourage him to study magic, but he just wanted to run the streets and try to be popular.
[2] Sannymeade Raindell is a beautiful elven guitarist and songwriter in Kenabres that taught Tazwell how to play the guitar. She plays in the court in Kenabres and at noble’s palaces.
[3] Case Orthwal is a young Riftwarden in Kenabres. He has always disliked Tazwell. He resents how much effort the organization went through to try to recruit Tazwell and put him on the same path as his parents. Case is jealous of Tazwell’s looks and talent and would like nothing better than to humiliate him publicly.
Step 5: Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
[1] Tazwell’s most traumatic memory is being booed off a stage when he screwed up a performance at a noble’s party five years ago.
[2] Tazwell tries to act like he is (or is going to be) a famous rock star. He dresses in nice clothes with a floppy hat and fancy cloak. He’s got great hair that he wears in a long ponytail.
[3] Tazwell won his guitar in a bet on a duel. He wagered all of his possessions on himself and was barely able to win the duel. If he had lost, he would have been broke and humiliated. Instead, he bet it all and won. Someday his luck will run out.
At first Tazwell grins at Telye's declaration as if waiting for a punchline.
As it becomes apparent she's serious about her nephew's troubles he pulls his feet down off the table to listen to her story with his full concentration.
"We've gone out on the road for less important reasons than family. Of course I'm with you."
"We'll need to try to gather some information on how to track these agents of this queen in order to find a way to reach this place."
Tazwell glides into the bar as if he owns the place.
These were his people, his fans after all.
He bows as a few people cry out and applaud, but as he straightens up to look for his companions he grimaces for just a moment. There just wasn't as much applause as there used to be.
I assume that Damon really wants to be in combat making full attacks.
There are a couple (3?) of us that can cast Dimension Door. I assume you would want us to move you at the start of combats? That'll mean delaying until our initiative at the start of combat if you roll higher.
The bad news is that Tazwell doesn't have Inspire Courage.
The good news (for a couple of party members at least) is that Dweomercraft is a +3 bonus on caster level checks, concentration checks, and attack rolls with spells and spell-like abilities. Again, if I can start the performance before you roll spell resistance, then I'll buff your roll.
Tazwell is an aging musician who is starting to lose his grasp on fame, he desperately wants/needs one more triumph. He dresses foppishly and plays the part of a consummate rock-star.
He has spent time adventuring with the company, but only to gain experience and power to keep himself in the limelight. It’s the time between adventures, singing songs that tell of their victories and accomplishments that really drive him.
His most prized possession is a Musical Staff which takes the form of a mithril-stringed guitar. He crafted it himself.
Taz is worried that his life has been wasted and that he really doesn’t have a legacy. This drives a sense of insecurity. He is, no-doubt, one of the greatest musicians on Golarion, but championship or accolades seem to satisfy him. He’ll keep pushing to accomplish more as he chases a sense of accomplishment.
While he’s an accomplished fighter, magician, and musician, Tazwell thinks he doesn’t measure up to the accomplishments of his colleagues.
Goals:
2) Goals
Use Legato of the Infernal Bargain to summon and influence an inter-planar creature.
Talk his way through an encounter by fast-talking/charm and using bluff / diplomacy.
Secrets:
3) Secrets
Tazwell never talks about it, especially with his adventuring companions, but he is plagued by nightmares that foreshadow his death. He assumes his colleagues would think this is bad luck.
Twenty years ago, during a romantic fling between adventures with Dyrianna of House Avenstar ( the Head Hetaera of Calistria and Consul of the Courtesan's Guild in Absalom), Tazwell fathered a child. The girl is becoming a young adult and he has no knowledge of her existence.
People:
4) People
Etrenne Rylwynn, the master of strings at the White Grotto bardic college in Absalom taught Tazwell to play thirty years ago. Tazwell is secretly afraid of having to settle down and teach because he can’t keep up in the world anymore. They are still friendly, but both consider themselves to be better musicians than the other.
A few years ago, Tazwell spent time in Cheliax on a musical tour between adventures. Even though he is the furthest thing from an opera diva, he was well received in the city. When he played at the palace, he flirted with the young Queen Abrogail II. While he was sensible enough to avoid any royal entanglements, he had far too much wine to drink one night and got himself almost in too deep. He realized a little too late that the courtier he had been wooing all evening was the Contessa Lrilatha, the Erinyes sent by Asmodeus to aid in the monarch’s instruction. After one night with the Contessa, Taz found himself magically escaping the city the next day. He desperately hopes the devil doesn’t remember him.
Five years back, Tazwell came into compromising information concerning the identity of the Harlequin, the Guild Master of the Forthright Men (the thieves guild of Absalom). After a nasty incident involving a handful of hired killers, Taz brokered a deal in which he exchanged his silence and help in procuring the combination to the safe in the headquarters of a wealthy merchant’s brokerage owned by a lonely, elderly widow, for a promise of safe conduct in Absalom.
memories:
5) Key Memories:
Tazwell reveled in two standing ovations at the Opera in Egorian, showing up the traditional operatic singers and dazzling the crowd with his singing and guitar.
The companions stood down a ferocious blue dragon named Damsazzle a few years back. During that fight, Taz’s confidence was at it’s highest and he performed perfectly, blasting the beast with spell, song, and blade. It feels like the peak of his career. He is desperate to regain that feeling. He took a collection of blue sapphire’s from the beast’s hoard and had them set in silver inlay on his guitar.
Tazwell’s greatest song was based on the companion’s experience a decade back when they descended beneath the waves to visit a sunken kingdom of mermen beneath the inner sea. His ‘Ballad of the Black Sea’ tell the tale of when the group formed an alliance with the mer-king and together with his forces defeated an evil sahuagin priest determined to unleash earthquakes and tidal waves upon the shore. The amulet of armor that the bard carries with him hangs from a cord braided from strands of hair from the mer-king’s daughter’s beautiful head.
Tazwell stikes a minor chord on his guitar and begins a dark, melancholy song.
He is playing the Fugue de Rue d'Auseil masterpiece, which provides a barrier against aberrations, outsiders, and undead.
perform stringed:1d20 + 34 ⇒ (11) + 34 = 45
He creates a hemispherical barrier up to 45 feet in radius that prevents the undead from approaching. If they're already closer than that, he makes the circle smaller so it doesn't touch any of the hoar spirits to begin with.
Folks, I will be traveling to southeast asia over the next two weeks, returning home around the first of December. I anticipate limited connectivity and long days/nights exploring.
