River Tam is basically a GMPC. Give her whatever levels you like, but she always rolls high enough to hit and has sufficient AC and HP to survive anything. She also has max ranks in whatever skills are appropriate at the moment.
[not trying to be too snarky, but characters in TV/movies/books don't have to follow the same rules as PCs :) ]
Yah, i'm fairly certain she has simply ridiculous dex and wisdom, and some crazy ability to have most skills key off this.
If I had to give her a class, it'd start with monk, though.
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"Kirthfinder" monk, for sure -- especially since the ki powers are essentially psionic. It's a slam dunk.
A version of the Rage Prophet that doesn't suck *nod*
Win.
And just to contribute to the conversation: she also has two-handed weapon feat, so maybe a level in fighter. Also, gunslinger. And maybe druid because she walks around barefoot a lot.
I don't know... i can't shake the feeling that you're making fun of us...
Martial artist monk master of many styles using ki-rin style to get attack bonuses off of her obscene intelligence score and snake style not to get hit.
Oracle/Monk
It's an interesting question, but I think using the standard class mechanic is the wrong way to go. Follow me down Pet Theory Boulevard for a moment. Unlike most movie/comic telepaths who are sort of limited to reading thoughts, River seems to be using wide-spectrum clairsentience of which telepathy is almost a mere side effect. She reminds me of the Marvel comics superhero Echo - in the presence of an expert, she can simply tap that expertise for her own uses (on top of using 0.5-second prescience to make attackers look like chumps). Standing near Jayne, for instance, allows her to "read" his skills (not that River would want to read Jayne's skill set, but I get the impression she doesn't have much of a choice, poor thing.)
Now - how to interpret that in Pathfinder, I don't know. Closest I can think of are the detect thoughts abilities of the rakshasa and the doppelganger... although this is more extreme, less controlled.
Yeah, that was my thought as well.
A custom class that has the ability to borrow combat skills from people around them with very high mental stats.
She a Ranger/Inquisitor with favored enemy: yes and bane: your face.
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She has 20 levels of the Mary Sue class.
(YMMV)
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I would drop Int a bit and up Wis, with the caviate that she has some serious ability score damage long term. I would probably also drop the Con fairly low and raise the Cha, (she is amazingly hot, really social even when (or maybe because) she is crazy, and can turn a phrase, and her eyes, . . .
Also, she picked up at least one level of Cleric from rearranging Shepherd's Bible. :) (Iori)
Stabbing Jayne says Paladin to me. :)
I can see Oracle, but I'd almost want to go either Cleric of Adept.
Not Psionic.
A dash of Barbarian with a special Gestalt/split personality thing for Chaotic Monk at the same time.
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I would drop Int a bit and up Wis, with the caviate that she has some serious ability score damage long term. I would probably also drop the Con fairly low and raise the Cha, (she is amazingly hot, really social even when (or maybe because) she is crazy, and can turn a phrase, and her eyes, . . .
Also, she picked up at least one level of Cleric from rearranging Shepherd's Bible. :) (Iori)
Stabbing Jayne says Paladin to me. :)
I can see Oracle, but I'd almost want to go either Cleric of Adept.
Not Psionic.A dash of Barbarian with a special Gestalt/split personality thing for Chaotic Monk at the same time.
She actually has very high intelligence (maybe even Int 21) and average to high wisdom (her forward thinking instincts and tactical judgement are high) - its her charisma that is greatly reduced (perhaps as low as 3 - thanks to what the government has done to her brain) incapacitating her ability to know what is appropriate behavior around others though with medication and better treatment she improves to about 6-8 charisma.
She has what looks like an ability to sustain long combat cycles... based on the amount of time she can spend in combat in the film. This is likely a high Constitution.
Presteige Class - Battledancer: Str 9, Int 21, Wis 18, Dex 18, Con 13, Cha 3 (6-8 when sane and stable). skills & Feats: 2 Weapon fighting (Reaver Cleaver/Reaver Cleaver), Animal instincts, alertness, Knowledge (Lore/Nobility/Secrets of the Government)...what ever else.
Psionic Ability - ESP (surface thought Reader - think of this as an ESP spell permanently enchanted onto her brain)
She's a monk/Thrallherd
Everyone on Serenity is her minion, they just don't know it. ;-)
She's psionic, for sure.
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Str- 10~14. She's not weak, but most of her combat prowess relies on agility and technique.
Dex- 16~20. She's extremely agile and capable of highly difficulty maneuvers with ease.
Con- 10~14. She's tough as nails, but not impossible to drop; you just have to actually HIT her. Good luck with that.
Int- 20+. Simon's speech about her smarts (and the childhood flashback) alone make this credible. She easily rolled 18 and put her Human bonus in this. I suspect she'd drop the Level boosts in Dex, though.
Wis- 4~8. I believe THIS is what was damaged so badly by the invasive brain conditioning and surgery. She may have extraordinary mental capacity, but has issue determining what is the right/wrong or "appropriate" thing to do. Her amazing tactical skills seem to come from her advanced understanding of the world through the sciences more than anything else. "It's like she just took a glance, did the math in her head, and shot..." (paraphrased.)
Cha- 10~14. She's pretty and capable of holding a conversation when her mental damage isn't messing with it (which is something that I think should be a conditional/temporary penalty she takes)
Two words: Dervish Dancer. :)
"Kirthfinder" monk, for sure -- especially since the ki powers are essentially psionic. It's a slam dunk.
Can a Kirthfinder monk be chaotic evil?
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She's psionic, for sure.
At most, I would say she has the 3E Feat that let non-Psionics (Wild Talent?)have a minor psionic capacity, but she's definetly not Psionic past that.
I think PF wise, I'm going to change my answer to Divine Magus of Irori, with a little Monk and Barbarian.
I still also am not sure about the low Wisdom. For one she sees and understands things much better than others, much faster, and has fantastic empathy and instincts, which all indicate a high Wis (before and after). She is explained as being very smart, but Wisdom is also a mental stat with Int, and we really do not see much of her mental capacity, though have a lot of examaples of her Will saves and intuition. Her brother says she is smarter than him, but that could mean a lot of things, and there isn't a lot of evidence in the shows whole 8 episode or so to know more precisely what that all means. So again, I'm thinking more around 16-18s in both Int and Wis.
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Str 12, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 22, Wis 22, Cha 4 (12)
Alternate Barbarian from Unearthed Arcana that gave a Frenzy (+4 Str, +2 AC and Reflex, +1 attack)
Maybe give her a Will Power score of 3, using the 2nd Edition rules for Caramon's alcoholism, but instead to determine if her Charisma is 4 or 12.
She has such high Wisdom because she is extremely perceptive and intuitive.
Her "sane" Charisma is relatively high because she is able to take on different characters (Dyson native, Serenity the Ship, etc.).
She's smart and intuitive, so she knows what's going on and what to do when something is going on, but has little self control, so often does the wrong thing when something is going on.
And she probably has some kind of psychic template....
Can a Kirthfinder monk be chaotic evil?
Alignment is totally optional for most mortals other than paladins and others who are deeply devoted to a specific deity or cause; it can be recorded as a measure of convenience, for players for whom it is helpful. Only Outsiders such as demons, etc. — creatures that embody cosmic principles — have alignments in an absolute sense (fey are also automatically chaotic). For purposes of adjudicating spells like holy smite, most mortals are treated as “neutral.” Detect evil, when used on normal creatures, will detect actively evil thoughts, but not absolute alignment.
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I had a PC in our Kingmaker game that was modeled after River Tam. Mikli was Bar/Rog, using the variant Frenzy instead of Rage. She was pure Dex, had low Wis but pretty high Int, moderate Str, and Con. Her Cha was higher as she had this "way" about her that both unnerved and attracted people.
As far as a straight conversion? I don't think you could with going higher than 15-16th level. River was just too badass.
Always thought River was interesting and just plain...fun. She wasn't a sexy-in-leathers, she was a young, terrified girl that just got...
...really weird.
I'm not sure how she could be made in DnD. Though, with the way the movie turned out, I almost want to say 'DM Fiat.'
No, I enjoyed the movie--I just felt JW wanted to give fans a closure, and he did it quickly. Given the time constraints, and the uncertainty of it ever becoming a series again, it's understandable.
It just kicked in the gut in some senses, and I'll always have that sense of her as that cannonball that 'suddenly happened.' Unavoidable? Probably. Just doesn't change the gut feeling.
And I like River.
There were also few other characters that I could name that got so many people so interested in small female terrors as heroes. ...who weren't covered in leather, with half that weight in their...
...ahem.
It was fun. :)
Nope, River is super psionic. She walks around and reads people's intentions perfectly, and without hesitation.
River is my Iconic Wilder.
Great power, but no training or control. Her powers are mainly Telepathic and Clairsentient, but she definitely has Animal Affinity to boost her physical abilities when needed, and throw in Skate and Body Equilibrium and you have her apparent super-dexterity.
Anybody have the Serenity RPG? It's a Cortex based game from Margaret Weis Productions. There's a free d20 / Cortex conversion guide. Backwards engineer her from that and you'd pretty much have the "official" version. Despite my fetish for Firefly / Serenity I haven't picked up the Serenity RPG yet... which is a good use for some BN gift certificates I've been hanging on to. I don't buy PF from bookstores :) Off to BN.com I go...
There were also few other characters that I could name that got so many people so interested in small female terrors as heroes. ...who weren't covered in leather, with half that weight in their......ahem.
It was fun. :)
Well, there was this one advanced series Terminator that... oh :D
This character sounds like she has the advanced Mary Sue template applied to her - holy crap.
This character sounds like she has the advanced Mary Sue template applied to her - holy crap.
Watch the series.
River is my Iconic Wilder.
Great power, but no training or control. Her powers are mainly Telepathic and Clairsentient, but she definitely has Animal Affinity to boost her physical abilities when needed, and throw in Skate and Body Equilibrium and you have her apparent super-dexterity.
This is probably as close as you could get in a PF sort of way.
She's also a fierce armed or unarmed fighter, a great shot, very stealthy, and seems to have permanent clairaudience/clairvoyance, somehow. Like Mal said, she knows things she shouldn't. You'd have to throw in some roguish and barbarian traits, too.
"Miranda!"
She was a hi-int, hi-dex teenager who got warped into something else that gets triggered at times. There's no close PF analogue to that character. Like someone suggested already, check out the Serenity game and try to get close that way.
I've re-watched Firefly a few times, but never considered it a "marathon". Marathons last longer. Alas.
Ouch
A highly optimized twf urban barbarian who dumped social skills and has a backstory to explain it.
She is really annoyed how much rp is in the campaign and how captain charisma keeps leaving her behind and going on side quests.
She also doesn't like how many advanced firearms the GM keeps giving to the OP gunslingers in the party.
Her favorite part of the campaign was:
I'm not sure about River, but I think everyone else has levels in gunslinger.
Also, recall Mal and Inara's sword lesson in "Shindig".
Mal has Power Attack, Inara has Weapon Finesse. :)
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From another thread, my Serenity crew:
Malcolm Reynolds - CG Human Monk (Martial Artist) 1/Gunslinger 6 - with Traits granting Diplomacy and Sense Motive as class skills. Very good stats, but not quite up to the Advanced Template or anything.
Zoe Washburne - LN Human Ranger (Urban Ranger) 6/Gunslinger 1 - Note that as a high gun setting, that'll get her Gun Training. In a flat fantasy setting switch her to bows and straight Ranger. Good stats, but not quite as good as, say, Mal's.
Hoban 'Wash' Washburne - CN Human Rogue (Driver) 7 - Because he is.
Inara Sera - N Human Bard (Geisha) 7. Dead simple to make, actually. Versatile Performances are Acting and Oratory (the second she takes her Geisha bonus on).
Jayne Cobb - CN Human Barbarian 2/Gunslinger 5 with something to give him Sense Motive as a class skill, low Charisma, and a surprisingly high Wisdom. Uses his Barbarian levels only in melee, to make him a solid switch-hitter.
Kaylee Frye - NG Human Sorcerer (Impossible Bloodline) 7, high Int and Charisma, and Cosmopolitan and Traits for additional skills (if anyone deserves the Affable Trait it's Kaylee). It fits with her being instinctually better with engineering than other people, and being the Item Crafter is as close to the ship's engineer as Pathfinder gets.
Simon Tam - LG Human Alchemist (Mindchemist/Chirugeon) 7 - Not quite perfect since he lacks demonstrated bomb usage, but very close otherwise.
Shepherd Derrial Book - LG Human Gunslinger 1/Rogue 6, based on some advice dealing with his backstory and having a ridiculous number of skills.
River Tam - CN Human Monk (Martial Artist) 1/Barbarian (Urban) 4/Sorcerer (Sage Bloodline) 4/Gunslinger 1. Has the Advanced Simple Template...because yeah. Low Charisma, high everything else. Also, clearly not sane in the least. Again, skip the Gunslinger level (for another of Barbarian) in settings where guns are uncommon. Or some Psionic class for 7-8 levels in there replacing Barbarian and Sorcerer...but I'm not familiar enough with Psionics to say which. Urban Druid with the Knowledge Domain is also possible as a replacement for the Sorcerer...the important part is lots of Detect Thoughts per day. I'd probably go sorcerer for Mage Armor, True Strike, and Shield, though.
Alignment-wise, I was tempted to make everyone but Jayne Good, but as much as they're relatively nice, most of them don't seem quite selfless enough for that. It's a judgment call, though.
Replace the level in Gunslinger with something else (probably whatever class they have) for everyone but Mal and maybe Jayne in adaptations in low gun settings (in a high Gun setting one level gives Gun Training and makes you notably dangerous with them, which is why they've almost all got such a level).
Sadly, River's by far the weakest of these and the one I'm least happy with...but she manages, I guess.
Constant Moment of Prescience ?
Anyone have any ideas how to put her into stats? I think Monk and maybe Oracle? I'm more focused on her melee side.
Annoying GMPC that you want to push off a cliff sounds about right.