Sunday, September 7, 2014

DM's Workshop: 5th Edition, part VI

This week, we took a look at the rogue class, and rebuilt two of the Handmaidens. Much like their BECMI counterparts, the 5th edition iterations of Jasna and Petra yield very different results, even though they are the same class.


Brought up in the streets of Threshold, Jasna's skills lean towards her getting what she needs to survive, whether it's a half-loaf from a merchant's stall, or a few silvers from the pouch of a passing adventurer. Small and weak though she is, Jasna uses her size and speed to her advantage in a fight. Despite being one of the Handmaidens who uses an edged weapon, she is reluctant to actually draw blood. The Player's Handbook was nice enough to include a feat that fits this sentiment perfectly, and rather than the "+1 to everything" that Humans get, the Variant rule was used in crafting Jasna, allowing her two "+1s," an extra skill, and a feat at first level.

I am hopeful that either the Monster Manual or DMG will have some guidelines for creating characters with somewhat monstrous origins (tiefling and draconian dragonborn aside). Until then, I have fudged in putting together the other half of the Handmaidens' thiefly duo.

Due to her young age, I have made the lycanthropic hybrid form as yet unavailable to Petra. Likewise, her damage resistances only function while she is in her were-form. For all intents and purposes, she is human while in humanoid form, though highly allergic to the touch of silver.

The closest fit to Petra's original background is the Guild Artisan. Being the small, nimble-fingered daughter of a woodcutter, Petra puts her talents to use in whittling pipes, flutes, and wooden figurines from cast-off scraps of her father's work. Another of the men in the woodcutter's camp buys these from the girl, reselling them in the Threshold marketplace.

Whittle-work is not enough to keep the girl out of trouble, though. In her pursuit of perfection and understanding how things work, she has has become quite adept in finding ways to foil locks and traps of many different kinds. While Jasna sees a lock as merely an obstacle to her curiosity, Petra couldn't care less about what might actually be on the other side of a door or inside a chest, so long as she can coax it open.

Part I: Fighters
Part II: Cleric
Part III: Sorcerer
Part IV: Warlock
Part V: Bard

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