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As she may be accompanying my pc's for a good long time, and her wisdom is far to ow for her to ever gain spells, I decided to convert Nadya to Open Gaming's Spell-less Ranger, here's her stat block as that Alternate Class, with the addition of Hallit as her missing starting language:
Nadya Petska
Female Human (Ulfen) Spell-Less Ranger 3
CG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 24 (3d10+3)
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +0
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee Dagger +5 (1d4+1/19-20/x2) and
. . Handaxe +3 (1d6+1/x3) and
. . Light pick +3 (1d4/x4)
Ranged Longbow, Comp. (Str +1) +5 (1d8+1/x3)
Special Attacks favored enemy (animals +2), stealth attack +1d6
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Statistics
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Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 14
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Point Blank Shot, Skill Focus (Survival), Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +2 (-2 jump), Bluff +2 (+4 vs. animals), Climb +2, Escape Artist -1, Fly -1, Handle Animal +6, Heal +5, Knowledge (geography) +7 (+9 vs. animals, +9 while in cold terrain), Knowledge (local) +4 (+6 vs. animals), Knowledge (nature) +7 (+9 vs. animals), Perception +5 (+7 vs. animals, +7 while in cold terrain), Ride +3, Sense Motive -1 (+1 vs. animals), Stealth +5 (+7 while in cold terrain), Survival +8 (+10 vs. animals, +10 while in cold terrain, +9 to track), Swim -2 Modifiers nature's healing
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald
SQ combat styles (two-weapon combat), favored terrain (cold +2), track, wild empathy
Combat Gear Potion of cure light wounds, Alchemist's fire (2), Oil (2); Other Gear Masterwork Studded leather armor, Arrows (20), Dagger, Handaxe, Light pick, Longbow, Comp. (Str +1), Snowshoes of northern pursuit (10 rounds/day), Backpack (empty), Bedroll, Blanket, winter, Flint and steel, Hooded lantern, Tindertwig (3), Trail rations (10), 36 GP, 27 SP, 41 CP
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Special Abilities
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Favored Enemy (Animals +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Favored Enemy (Animals).
Favored Terrain (Cold +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Favored Terrain (Cold).
Nature's Healing (Ex) Advanced healing
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Stealth Attack +1d6 +1d6 damage if you flank your target or your target is flat-footed. This works against favored enemies or when you are favored terrain.
Track +1 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.
Wild Empathy +5 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.
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Interesting observation. I hadn't noticed her low Wisdom.
I believe I will use either the Skirmisher or Trapper archetype to get around the spell issue.
Since she's a hunter, Trapper would make sense, though I think trapper and skirmisher both get things that depend on wisdom the same way spells do...
The Trapper still doesn't lose as much from a low Wis as a Vanilla Ranger does. I think that is a good call.
edit: Just double checked the Skirmisher as well & a low Wis has almost exactly the same effect on them. In either case, they will have a reduced # of uses of either traps or tricks, but they will still get some.
you guys are stressing over a non issue... 1) she's an NPC who cares if she gets everything thats comming to her
2) she'll be dead before level 4 in most campaigns.... mark my words.
Hey I'm just sittin' up here in the back bleachers with some peanuts...
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you guys are stressing over a non issue... 1) she's an NPC who cares if she gets everything thats comming to her
2) she'll be dead before level 4 in most campaigns.... mark my words.
She strikes me as similar to other 'main' NPC allies.
I guess it depends on the group. The one I'm taking into RoW tends to care deeply for such friendly NPCs and all-but insists on finding like-minded NPCs to bring with them on various stages of their adventure.
...Also NPCs like Nadya are great for use as pregenerated PCs with already-made tie-ins to the plot when a visiting player joins my table. I'd call her quite important indeed.
Bear trap fodder.
you guys are stressing over a non issue... 1) she's an NPC who cares if she gets everything thats comming to her
2) she'll be dead before level 4 in most campaigns.... mark my words.
Not stressing, just discussing the possibilities.
1) What?
2) My campaigns are never like "most campaigns".
Or emergency PC when your character bites it in the first encounter of the night...
...Also NPCs like Nadya are great for use as pregenerated PCs with already-made tie-ins to the plot when a visiting player joins my table. I'd call her quite important indeed.
Yup yup. I've seen far too many AP NPCs dragged into the party upon PC death, even if it is often just for long enough to get a raise dead spell together, or to work a newly-arrived PC into the plot.
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She better get past 4th level. She is the party's guide in the second installment of the AP.
@ Pendergast: I'm confident my players would keep her alive...
@ Holt: nice work and good idea props to you
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This discussion prompted me to go back and check my notes for Nadya in my original turnover just to see if I could discern why we put her together the way we did. To understand the reasoning behind everything, I'll have to go into a few spoilers...
Some Behind-the-Scenes Insight:
First, the interesting thing is that I inherited (or claimed) the character of Nadya from Jim Groves while he was working on The Shackled Hut. His adventure outline called for a guide in the opening storyline to help the PCs make their way to Whitethrone. And my adventure outline had this trader the PCs would meet when they first step through the winter portal and start feezing to death in the blizzard conditions. That trader was supposed to be someone from Waldsby they could trust and who would provide shelter while helping them avoid the minions of the Pale Tower. In the early going, Jim and I chatted quite a bit about weaving together a few elements between our adventures. From our discussion, the idea of this trader/merchant actually being Nadya started to take form, because, who else would be better suited to know the best travel routes across Irrisen and how to deal with the extreme conditions?
At the same time, my write-up indicated I needed to put together two NPCs for the appendix in Snows of Summer. And yet, one of them was for the Black Rider...an NPC which would be short-lived in the adventure (i.e., he just serves as the primary quest giver) and whose stat-block would really never come into play. So, I proposed setting aside the Black Rider for an NPC write-up and replacing it with Nadya Petska instead. Jim was open to the idea and Rob gave us his blessing. So, I inherited Jim's initial mock-up for Nadya. He had built her as a 3rd level human ranger with stats of Str 15, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 13. I wanted to make Nadya a bit more focused on ranged combat (less strong and more dextrous) and I didn't like the idea of her having such a low Wisdom (because rangers need to track with Survival, have a decent Perception, and I wanted Nadya to have Sense Motive for her skills as a trader). What to do?
Well, I reshuffled a few things. My turnover for Nadya changed her into an expert 1/ranger 3, thereby giving her one additional ability score increase to add into the mix. I swapped around her base ability scores so she lined up as Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14. To me, those scores painted a broader picture of her as a bow-wielding ranger with her level in the expert NPC class helping to explain her career as a food merchant on Waldsby's behalf. So, what happened?
The final version of Nadya (which appears in the adventure) became a hybrid of both our visions. Rob stripped off the additional level in the expert NPC class and revised her statistics to Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 14. That necessitated a lot more changes to her skills, as well, because, without the expert class contributing to a wider range of class skills and more skill points, there wasn't enough to go around to retain things like Profession, Sense Motive, etc.
Now, none of these revelations explains why Jim, Rob, or I went with a low-Wisdom ranger to define Nadya. I can't speak for them, but I rationalized it this way. Since my version of her character included levels in the expert class, I imagined she'd be splitting time between that and her ranger levels. Plus, with a Wis 10, she'd still be able to pick up an ability score increase at 8th level and apply that to her Wisdom if she wanted to open spellcasting as a ranger. And, with rangers already have a rather slow spellcasting progression, she could keep enhancing it with future increases, if necessary. And that's assuming she even desired to keep raising her levels in ranger anyway...which wasn't something I necessarily felt she would do.
I know it's not the optimum build, but I tend to favor multiclassing for NPCs to better round out their character a bit. So, I also rationalized that if Nadya accompanied the PCs on the rest of their adventures, she might take levels in the fighter class to latch onto Weapon Specialization (composite longbow) and weapon training (bows). Or, she might pick up levels in bard to branch out into an arcane archer (maybe with assistance from some snowcaster elves to help combat the magic of the White Witches). Bottom line: I didn't necessarily envision Nadya remaining a ranger her entire career. In fact, leaving behind her role as a merchant and food importer crossing the icy plains of Irrisen on a regular basis would serve as the catalyst for her growth into something else.
If I get a chance (and provided anyone's interested), I'll post up the original version of Nadya at a later time when I have my files handy. It was my hope that having her be a 4 Hit Die character (even with an NPC class in the mix) would keep her more in line with the PCs if she journeyed with them throughout The Shackled Hut and the rest of the campaign. At the same time, her skill as an "expert" in survival and travel would be defined by the expert NPC class in a way that grounded her more fully in the Irrisen setting. Perhaps some of the ranger archetypes proposed here in this thread can still accomplish something similar.
A little more behind the scenes
More the point, I've been keeping my mouth shut about The Shackled Hut because we really did strive for internal continuity. That was a direct response to community feedback on the boards about how each chapter seems to be isolated and set apart from the one before. Not so in this case! I really tried to bridge these two chapters together in as much as you can with two different authors.
A community member recently pointed me at a long thread which discusses this issue extensively. That thread is a coincidence. Our discussions predate it. This concern about chapter continuity is not new. But the development cycle is easily six months, so you don't always see a response to a concern until the NEXT AP.
So yeah—Nadya is definitely in Chapter Two! And the possibility exists that she can become a long term ally of the party, or even an NPC you take with the Leadership feat. Her final fate, if you don't choose to discard her as fodder, is entirely in the PCs hands.
And she won't be the only such option that is presented. There are others who may wish, or could be persuaded, to go on the adventure of a lifetime.
But! Community, now that you know—when The Shackled Hut comes out please consider how it does and does not work. Whether you liked the continuity or not, how it might have been better, or please—if it absolutely rocks and you love it, please let's hear that too! And don't blame Neil, he did everything he could to help and set me up for success. It was up to me to pull it off. We'll see.
We asked for and graciously received this latitude in direct response to what you, the Community, have been asking for.
As a side note, Neil was awesome to work with, and my hats off to Rob for letting us try this experiment out. If Nadya's stat block gets under your skin, please feel free to adjust it. It's your game!
Thanks Neil and Jim, those are very interesting inside views!
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Here's the stat-block for Nadya from my original turnover...
Female human expert 1/ranger 3
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +4
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 29 (4 HD; 1d8+3d10+4)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +3
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee handaxe +4 (1d6+1/x3) or light pick +4 (1d4+1/x4) or dagger +4 (1d4+1/19-20)
Ranged composite shortbow +6 (1d8+1/x3) or dagger +6 (1d4+1/19-20)
Special Attacks favored enemy (giants +2)
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STATISTICS
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Str 12, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Endurance, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Self-Sufficient
Skills Acrobatics +4, Appraise +5, Bluff +7, Climb +5, Diplomacy +7, Disguise +6, Handle Animal +6, Heal +6, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (geography) +5, Knowledge (local) +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Linguistics +4, Perception +4, Profession (merchant) +5, Ride +7, Sense Motive +5, Stealth +8, Survival +8, Swim +5
Languages Common, Skald
SQ favored terrain (cold +2), track +1, wild empathy +4
Combat Gear alchemist's fire (2 flasks), potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear bedroll, cold-weather outfit, composite longbow (Str +1) with 20 arrows, dagger, flint and steel, handaxe, hooded lantern, light pick, masterwork backpack, masterwork studded leather, oil (2 flasks), rations (10 days), snowshoes of northern pursuit*, tindertwigs (3), traveler's outfit, waterskin, winter blanket, 36 gp, 27 sp, 41 cp.
Another way to look at Nadya is, she's an accidental ranger.
Organically people dont say: I have a high wisdom I would do we as a ranger!
According to her background, Nadya learned survival and dog sledding from her deceased husband. That might account for one level of ranger, tracking, hunting, survival, animal handling, trapping.
But when Nadya's husband bit the big one, she was forced into filling shoes she might not have otherwise done so... Adding extra levels of ranger, taking over for someone else who was always meant to do the job.
Ive always pictured "fighter" as a professional soldier and I don't see Nadya that way (according to background as written) or especially focused on bow. So specialized fighter wouldnt make much sense, nor would heavier armor proficiency.
As witten she's much less the archer than Neil envisioned, but a survivalist, and someone that makes due with what comes her way. If she continues on with the party, and gains levels... I see Horizon walker in her future. Horizon walker is kinda sucky for a Druid or a Ranger because there is no continuance of spell progression, but for a low Wis character who has made due with what life has given her... horizon walker would be perfect. It's almost kinda who she is already.
she needs to be 6th level before going into it. So she would take it on her 7th level.
Which means we are talking about 6 levels of ranger, or a single 1st level spell.
That's not titanically huge.
As a DM I would say save yourself the rewrite no need to min max an NPC to squeeze out every possibility.
If she's around and adds levels I think I will have her be a horizon walker.
alternatively, the Black Riders Mantle could get added to her as well (through being associated with the PCs for an extended period of time) the +2 stat boos could go to wisdom, and her fourth level bonus also to wisdom and poof, she can cast that massive magic spell at 5th level. YEEEE HAW.
But that's the two directions I would go in.
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I made her a rogue, since she's a Jill-of-all-trades, and meant to be the buffer between the PCs and Irrisen. I expanded her trade network a bit, too, and extended her capabilities as a smuggler. She now trades manufactured goods brought in through Riba to the Mammoth Lords across the Gullik, skirting around Ludovny through the goblin lands around Pjallarane’s Stone.
(I don't love you quite enough to make the statblock text all pretty, but I do love you enough to put it inside a spoiler tag.)
Nadya Petska CR 2
XP 600
Female Human (Ulfen) Rogue (Scout, Swashbuckler) 3
CG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 20 (3d8+3)
Fort +2 (+5 circumstance bonus vs. cold weather), Ref +5, Will +1; +1 morale bonus vs. fear
Defensive Abilities evasion; Resist daring +1
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee Shortsword +2 (1d6/19-20/x2)
Ranged Masterwork Composite longbow (Str +0) +5 (1d8/x3)
Special Attacks sneak attack +2d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats Cosmopolitan (Knowledge [nature], Survival), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Skills Acrobatics +4 (+0 jump), Appraise +7, Bluff +8, Climb +1, Diplomacy +8, Disable Device +5, Escape Artist -1, Fly -1, Handle Animal +6, Knowledge (geography) +2, Knowledge (local) +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Knowledge (nobility) +2, Perception +6, Profession (merchant) +6, Ride +3, Sense Motive +6, Sleight of Hand +3, Stealth +3, Survival +6, Swim +1
Languages Common, Goblin, Hallit, Skald, Sylvan
SQ rogue talents (getaway artist)
Combat Gear alchemist's fire (2 flasks), potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear masterwork reinforced leather armor, arrows (20), masterwork composite longbow (Str +0), shortsword, masterwork backpack (1 @ 5 lbs), bedroll, belt pouch, cold weather outfit, dagger, flint and steel, handaxe, hooded lantern, oil (2 flasks), rations (10 days), snowshoes of northern pursuit*, tindertwigs (3), masterwork thieves' tools, waterskin, winter blanket, 82 GP, 9 SP
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Special Abilities
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Cold weather outfit +5 Fort save vs. cold weather.
Daring +1 (Ex) +1 save vs. fear.
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Getaway Artist (Ex) +2 bonus on driving checks.
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into melee.
Sneak Attack +2d6 +2d6 damage if you flank your target or your target is flat-footed.
I suspect a lot of views that her stats are "too low" comes from 1st and 2nd ed. players, who rightfully saw any stat below a 15 as a waste. If Nadya was a 2nd edition character, translating her bonuses to stats would give her the following: Str 17, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 9, Wis 6. Chr 14. Which are actually fairly decent stats! Insufficient for Ranger, but still a viable character. ;)
BTW, I thought Arcane Archer was only allowed for elves and half-elves?
I just tweaked Nadya as an Irrisseni crowhunter (People of the North) ranger (skirmisher), switching out Weapon Finesse for Far Shot to focus more on archery.
Assuming she stays on with the party, the plan for my eventual game would be to advance her as a barbarian. Because RAGE and, eventually, witch-hunter.
Ironically, I'm actually playing Nadya in Reign of Winter after my original character died. Well, I am playing a character that is now barely recognizable as Nadya... She has had a long and twisted storyline. It's been a lot of fun playing a character whose backstory I didn't come up with.
-She was magically transformed into a near-immortal herald by a contingency trap left behind by Baba Yaga
-She had all of her memories of her past life ripped away and replaced with memories of being raised as a winter witch by a certain NPC in book 3
-However, she was allowed to keep the knowledge that her memories are fake, so she knows her whole life is a lie
-She acquired a familiar and a... cohort... in book 4. Hints for people who have played book four: She found the familiar sitting on a tree stump, and the cohort is the younger brother of a certain evil general.
-Most recently, she got lost in the Dimension of Dreams during a sidequest the GM came up with, went insane, wandered the plateau of Leng for 400 years, before finally being snatched up by Nyarlathotep (who appeared to her as a black-haired man dressed in denim and surrounded by crows, of course). Old Nyarly revealed that he had been her witch's Patron but now she was getting a new Patron. He then gave her the Necronomicon and sent her back in time to save the rest of her party from an encounter they couldn't beat without her. We haven't reached that encounter yet and I still have no idea why an Outer God is helping me...
Nadya has actually gone through four distinct builds so far.
*She was originally Ranger 4 with the trapper archetype (the GM noticed her low Wisdom, too)
*After becoming a herald she lost some ranger levels and became an Aegis, getting up to Ranger 2/Aegis 7 (her astral armor was made of ice)
*After being mind-ripped she lost the last of her ranger levels and gained some witch levels, reaching Aegis 3/Witch 3/homebrew gish class 8
*And finally after going crazy and "finding herself" again on the Plateau, she has become pure witch. She is currently Witch 16 (winter witch archetype)
Personally I don't see what the big deal about her not having spells is. She is not lessened significantly by not having magic. Indeed, you don't see people claiming Belkar from Order of the Stick is an inferior character because his wisdom is too low to use magic.
I actually have a player who does not want to play any class with spellcasting abilities because of the extra complexity and level of choice that comes with those spells. I have considered in the past a spellless Ranger and may suggest to her for her next campaign she could play a Ranger or Paladin with too low a Wisdom for spellcasting. It would ease her into things, I suspect.
(And I've another player who is fairly new to D&D and Pathfinder and was herself overwhelmed by the amount of choice she had for her 1st level Ranger spells. So this isn't just one player - some people prefer the less "complex" classes in which they don't have a wide range of options for spells and the like.)
Last, she's an NPC. Even if she becomes a cohort... I don't see the lack of spells as a significant weakness. It can even be overcome by eventually acquiring a Headband of Wisdom +4 or +6 for her, if you really think she needs spells.
MaxAstro: Sounds like an interesting story you've got going!
Tangent: It's not that not getting spells is a bad thing, it's just that if she isn't able to, she might as well trade the feature for something she can use, if not very well.