| Race |
Tiefling Craftsman 1 | hp 8 | Init +3, Perception +1 | AC 13/T 13/FF 10 | CMD 13 | Fort +2 Ref +4 Will +1 |
| Alignment |
NE |
About The Pox
THE POX OF PHLAN
NE Tiefling Craftsman
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +1
==DEFENSIVE ABILITIES==
AC 13 T 13 FF 10 (Dex +3) | CMD 13
hp 8 (1d6+2)
Fort +2 (Base 0 + Con 2); Ref +4 (Base 1 + Dex 3); Will +1 (Base 0 + Wis 1)
Resist Cold 5 Electricity 5 Fire 5
==OFFENSIVE ABILITIES==
BAB +0, CMB +0
Melee Dagger -4 (1d4)
Ranged Dagger -1 (1d4)
SLA: darkness 1/day
Prehensile Tail: Many tieflings have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. This racial trait replaces fiendish sorcery.
==STATISTICS AND OTHER ABILITIES==
Str 10, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 10
(25 Point Buy. +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha)
=Feats=
Street Smart: +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive Checks
=Traits=
Omen: (Faith) You are the harbinger of some future event. Whether this event bodes good or ill, you exude an ominous presence. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you. Once per day, you may attempt to demoralize an opponent as a swift action.
Fiend Blood: (Racial) The blood of fiends taints your line, manifesting physically, though it may be barely noticeable. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (planes) checks, and it is always a class skill for you.
=Skills and Skill Related Abilities=
(6 + 4 Int, + 2 kit ranks in Craft (*) + 2 background skills (**))
Appraise +8 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class)
Bluff +3 (1 rank + 0 Cha + 2 race)
Handle Animal +1 (1 rank + 0 Cha)
Intimidate +7 (1 rank + 0 Cha + 3 class + 1 trait +2 feat)
Craft (alchemy) +8 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class)
Craft (clothing)** +8 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class)
Craft (stoneworking)* +8 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class)
Craft (woodworking)* +8 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class)
Knowledge (arcana) +5 (1 rank + 4 Int)
Knowledge (engineering)** +8 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class)
Knowledge (planes) +9 (1 rank + 4 Int + 3 class + 1 trait)
Sense Motive +4 (1 rank + 1 Wis + 2 feat)
Spellcraft +5 (1 rank + 4 Int)
Stealth +6 (1 rank + 3 Dex + 2 race)
Skilled: (+2 to Stealth and Bluff)
==GEAR==
=Worn=
Traveler's Outfit
Cloak with Tail Pocket
=Sheathed on belt=
Dagger (1 lb)
=Equipped/Carried=
Masterwork Backpack (4 lbs)
Belt pouch (1/2 lb)
Familiar satchel (6 lbs)
Waterskin (full) (4 lbs)
=In Masterwork Backpack=
Traveler's Any-Tool (2 lb)
Candle x9
Chalk x9
Chalkboard (2 lbs)
Gear maintenance kit (2 lbs)
Grooming kit (2 lbs)
Mess kit (1 lb)
String (1/2 lb)
Spell Component Pouch
Journal (1 lb)
Scrivener's Kit (1 lb)
Ink
=In Belt Pouch=
Sewing Needle
Thread (1/2 lb)
2 potions cure light wounds
2 flasks of acid (2 lb/1 ea)
=In Familiar Satchel=
Longtooth the Rat (1 lb)
=Stowed in Caravan=
Artisan's Outfit
Artisan's Tools (stoneworking) (5 lbs)
Bedroll (5 lbs)
Portable Alchemists' Lab (20 lbs), stored on wheeled cart (5 lb)
33 gp 8 sp 3 cp
Load carried: 31.5 lbs; Max light load 38 lbs (with mwk backpack)
==DESCRIPTION==
=Background=
Upon seeing his ratlike tail and gaunt, marred body, Pox was abandoned by his parents to an orphanage in New Phlan. The orphanage's records note his name as Terix Mendaev, but he was called “the Pox of Phlan” by most who knew him, some for his looks, some for his strange, dark habits. Despite his sickly looks, Pox quickly grew hale--he was not ever going to be powerfully built, but was tougher than he looked by far. The orphanage trained its young wards to work, and early on he learned to mend clothes and fix simple furniture. While sometimes he seemed to truly enjoy building things, he other times would be overcome by a perverse desire at to break what he had just built or repaired. He would alternately re-repair the broken item or leave it as it was, picking through its remains almost lovingly and declaring it “beautiful.” His only friend in the orphanage was a rat that he fed (sometimes of his own blood if he had no other food), which did not flee in fear from him like most small animals did.
He was frequently bullied by the other children; after one difficult day of torment when he was barely an adolescent, he cried out in rage, and the room filled with magical darkness. Blinding his tormentors while he could still see, he beat the bullies to death with his carpentry hammer. The orphanage caretaker was horrified to find him picking through the bullies remains, fascinated, much as he did with broken objects. From that moment he was exiled to repair the walls of Phlan. The ruins of Phlan struck him as deeply beautiful, the potential of what it had been and the loss reflected in the ruins equally compelling. While he mastered repair of wood and stone, he also sometimes sabotaged the work surreptitiously to see what would happen and to make things “prettier.” Sometimes accidents happened and fellow repairmen would die on the walls, but they just added to the art Pox was trying to create. Besides, most of the repairmen were exiled convicts and no one missed them. Letting them serve as the artwork they were part of was a fate they barely deserved, but such was Pox's kindness.
He was also fascinated by his own newfound capabilities and has tried to bring further magic forth, watching magic users at work when he could from a distance to try to understand magic better. He has yet to master it himself but this is one of his key goals. He tells himself, from half-remembered dreams, that he is either destined to build or destroy a new world--perhaps both. This is not necessarily true.
He fell asleep one day in a supply caravan and awoke in Zhentil Keep. Some would be horrified by this. He sees it as the next phase of his destiny.
=Personality=
Pox is strangely detached from others. He is not lacking in social skills, but he is entirely without warmth--and more notably, without empathy. He bears no specific malice toward any person unless they directly cause him harm, but he does not care whether anyone suffers, feels joy, lives, or dies. He understands other people as useful, allies to help lift heavy objects or help to pass the time, but feels no emotional attachment to them and has no issue discarding someone once their usefulness has passed. He experiences no lust and has little interest in pleasures of the flesh--if it involves connecting with a person even in the most rudimentary of ways, he just isn't interested. If he pays attention to any person for a long time, it is because they are interesting enough to jog his curiosity and imagination, believing he has something to learn. The only creature he at all feels truly connected to, however, is his pet rat Longtooth, who he kind of sees as an extension of himself, a mirror of his experiences.
His only passions are building and ruin. He finds ruined things as beautiful as newly built things, perhaps more so. He feels a longing he cannot describe when he sees a once-great edifice crumbling before him. He does not want to see it fall further, necessarily, nor to rebuild it. The view of potential and its loss fascinates him beyond words. He likes to orchestrate ruin as much as he enjoys crafting things, and doing all of this is an experiment in creating new art out of the emphemeral nature of civilization. All things come and go--he just wants to be part of the forces that orchestrate these inevitabilities.
=Appearance==
The Pox of Phlan's pale flesh is oddly scarred and pock-marked, from wounds or diseases he never had--but his appearance often makes others recoil in some instinctive fear of catching something. He is less gaunt than he was as a child, but still looks more like flaps of skin stretched across a skeleton than any healthy human being. He has only a few scraps of dark hair on his head, and sunken, yellowed eyes. All told, his worn and weary look belies a toughness, both from long hours at the walls of Phlan and a dogged will to persevere.
If his oddly eternally sickly look didn't suggest otherworldly influence, a rat-like tail sprouts from his backside, making his existence as a tiefling easy to discern. In spite of his ragged-looking flesh, he keeps his clothes and appearance clean and tidy. He is always toying with something in his hands, a tool, a bone, some bit of rubble in his hands. He carries his pet rat with him everywhere in a homemade basket with a shoulder strap.
==BUILD NOTES==
I decided to stick with vanilla tiefling stat-wise, but I see Pox as grimspawn, i.e., descended from daemons. His own parents were normal humans, the taint randomly showed up many generations on from a long past, and at least in my intent, irrelevant ancestor. (I have too often see people try to connect tiefling characters to a massively significant ancestor and I don’t really want to deal with that cliche.)
Aim is for Pox to take the witch class. My intent is as he explores the magic within his blood, magic use, and bonds with his pet rat (which for right now is just a pet with no special capabilities), he develops his witch abilities. Within the perspective of faerunian magic, he’d be a self-taught hedge mage, whose magic is backed by his demonic energies. With the craftsman start, I’m aiming for some item creation feats eventually, though that may change depending on what the story demands. Planning eventually on taking a cacodaemon as an improved familiar at level 7, which I see the rat slowly transforming into as he bonds with Pox, slowly growing more and more teeth. No other specific intent for build as of yet as it all depends on if I get in and what ends up working for the character and campaign.
