[OOC] Dragon Age: Origins (Remix)

[Too Old 4 This]

Automaton said
What skills can I put for a golem?. I was going to use some stuff from shale, magically wise but...I dunno

...well they were dwarves mostly casteless. Shouldn't be an issue. Shale was an oddball because writers can not make a paragraph without falling back on an amnesia plot device.

[Automaton]

Working on Cs now, I hope its to your liking

[PerniciousIntent]

I should have a finished CS today

[BlueBravado]

I understand that I am very late on the matter but I would really like to fill any spot that enables me to join the party and kill things.

[PerniciousIntent]

I based her 'calling' spells off of the ranger abilities, so i figured they would all be ritual spells. And in my opinion, I think concentration is a necessary skill for mages. But that's just me. >> I feel like magic is so fickle and dangerous that mages who don't have the necessary concentration don't do so well in battle(loud, bloody, painful and otherwise distracting). But again, that's my opinion. I don't mind keeping it if only for the lore of my character. -shrug- I will change the knack to something more useful though.
Changed her advantage cause yeah, an animal companion not only makes sense but probably makes her walking around alone safer plus pets are cool.

Without further ado! :D

Name: Serina Mahariel

Race: Elf

Nationality/Birthplace: Dalish; Southereastern Ferelden

Attributes:

• Perceptive
• Quick
• Durable

Appearance: Standing at a slight 5'3" and weighing only 109 lbs, Serina is a proper example of her svelte race. Her shoulders and hips are the exact opposite of broad and when she walks it is as though she is on air. Her hair is long and black, which she typically keeps down and out of her eyes with a circlet. Her eyes are deep and dark brown, the color of sap drawn from mesquite trees as Tamlen always told her. Her skin is pale but she doesn't burn in the sunlight.

Reference Picture

Background: Born to star-crossed lovers, her father already dead and mother having lost her spirit with him, Serina was raised mostly by a woman named Ashalle, Serina was a apprentice hunter along with all her peers in her youth, laughing and swinging wooden swords and shooting blunted arrows, and her life was normal for someone of her place. She was a perceptive and curious child, but not rudely so, and was well liked by both her elders and peers. She was sweet and caring, and always respectful.

The first time she showed she took after her father and held the Gift was when she was 11 years old, while playing in the snowy taiga of the southern most point of the Brecilian Forest. While exploring, she heard a loud screech and saw something fall out of a tree. Going to investigate, she saw that an owl's nest had fallen from its perch. In the nook created by the overturned nest, a single gray owl chick sat shivering and staring at her with wide eyes. Feeling bad, she picked it up and cradled it, nuzzling it to her chest and feeling warm blood. The chick had been injured in the fall, and the mother had anticipated that and abandoned it. Crying because of her young, soft heart, Serina carried the chicklet to camp, steps growing heavier each time, and then presented it to Ashalle. When questioned how she got a live owlet, she tried to explain it was injured, but she saw that it had not a scratch. After a few days of investigation, it was discovered that Serina had the Gift. She kept the owlet, naming it Mercury for its color, and has not parted with it since.

After the discovery, Serina began training under Keeper Marethari and beside a younger Merrill. She held an innate skill for conjuring, and learned quickly and eagerly. The more she learned, the more she wanted to know. She, as well as a good majority of Dalish if not all, held a profound interest in any and all of her people's lore, and grew excited to learn more about them. Throughout her youth, she was close with her friends Merrill and Tamlen.

Her training persisted to her last days with her People. While patrolling, her and her friend Tamlen came across a band of humans who claimed to have come from a cave nearby. Having known the area and no cave, they decided to investigate. They found an ancient Elven artifact, but it had been corrupted by the darkspawn taint. She was saved by Duncan, Commander of the Gray Wardens in Ferelden, Unfortunately, Tamlen's body was not found and he was presumed dead. Even though Serina made it out alive, she was not unharmed. Infected with the taint, she now must become a Gray Warden just to live. She still mourns her friends death, and the loss of her clan, but most of all she realized that her life was no longer her own. She awaits her Joining in Ostagar.

Personality: Serina is a pleasant young woman, who is kind and understanding but also practical and calculating. On a personal basis, she is quick to help others with a smile and negated payment, but she knows that she can't save everyone and there are more important matters than the safety of every single peasant. She is one who believes the end can justify the mean, but she is always thinking of the best way to handle any situation. She works well with others, as long as they are not too greedy. She is strongly opposed to any and all racism toward elves, and while she tries her hardest to keep their main goals in mind, plights that involve her race grab her attention without fail.

Skills:

• Stealth
• Survival(Forest)
• Herbalism
• Acrobatics
• Concentration
• Reach Weapons Training

Knack:
Naturalist - Survival subset. Growing up in the sundry forests of southeastern Fereldan, she has basic survival skills in all environments. She grew up in deciduous forests, other various woodlands, alpine forests, taiga, coniferous forests, and even grassland environments. Having had such diverse survival skills be essential for her upbringing, she has bonuses to survival in all environments. She is mainly accustomed to forest survival, and least accustomed to desert environments.

Spells:

• *Heal - "The caster causes flesh to knit miraculously, instantly healing an ally by a moderate amount."
• *Mind Blast - "The caster projects a wave of telekinetic force that stuns enemies caught in the sphere."

Unique Spell Line: Call Nature

The caster can call forth the vanguard of the earth and keep them under her call. The animals all appear as if spirit versions of the live thing, ethereal, wispy, and glowing softly with eerie light. They each have abilities, and all attacks done by the animals is accompanied by spirit damage relating to the amount of damage dealt, which is different per summon. One one summon can be in existence at a particular time. All conjuring spells are ritual spells except the first spell, Call Hare.

• *Call Hare - The conjurer calls forth a spirit hare as a familiar. The hare can use stealth, the success rate of which depends on the skill of the mage controlling the summon, and can go quite a long distance from the caster while other summons cannot. The hare can travel 5 miles from the caster at the acquisition of the spell, but the distance increase with the caster's level. The hare can also carry small items. The hare has little health and cannot attack.


• Call Dire Wolf - The caster brings to bear a mighty gray wolf to protect her from her enemies. The wolf, which is usually about 4ft long and weighs 135 lbs,has a moderate amount of health, but a large pool of stamina. The wolf has two abilities at the spell's acquisition, lunge (the wolf spring at the target, locking its jaws somewhere and tearing), and menacing howl (a piercing yowl that frightens enemies, causing some to suffer defense penalties). At a certain level, the wolf gains the ability tackle (in with it lunges on a target, aiming for the throat).


• Call Sabertooth Tiger - The mage begets a powerfully muscled Sabertooth tiger to prowl among the ranks of her enemies and take down her strongest foes. The tiger has high health and moderate stamina with a high recharge rate, and starts with two abilities as well as the stealth skill. Its abilities are takedown (must be in stealth to activate; the tiger creeps up on an unsuspecting target and mauls them, instantly killing lower level enemies, or stunning higher level enemies) and charge (the 6 ft long, 500-lbs tiger sprints into enemy groups, cause them to break rank or flee for a short time). At a higher level, the tiger can use the skill eviscerate (the tiger mauls a targets midsection, killing any unarmored target regardless of level, and knocking down lightly armored opponents).


• Call Mammoth - The gifted summoner gives rise to an immense mammoth to wreak havoc on all who oppose her. If she chooses, she can conjure the beast so that when it comes into being it raises from under her, allowing her to ride it. The mammoth has a massive health pool and moderate stamina, but it has very slow stamina regeneration because of its size. The mammoth, which is 12 ft tall an weighs in at 7 short tons, has two starting abilities: trample (the elephant trumpets and barrels into groups of enemies, knocking some aside and stomping on others, killing lightly armored targets) and destroy (the pachyderm rears and places its front legs upon any large object that needs to be moved or destroyed, and does so by exerting the animal's massive power and weight against the object). At a higher level, the elephant gains the ability rampage (the beast goes berserk, trampling all around and screaming while tossing its head and obliterating anything not made of solid, grounded stone; if done while Serina is riding the animal, she gets tossed and can land right in the animal's path).

Equipment:

• Dalish Robes - Robes that do little in way of physical protection, but mark her as one of the People.
• Elm Bark Staff - A staff made from the medicinal elm tree, it deals nature damage and helps to channel healing spells. It's a light weapon that can deal a nasty sting.
• Small Lyrium Potion x2
• Ruby Circlet - A piece of jewelry that once belonged to Mahariel's mother, it was given to her on her last day with the Sabrae Clan. It is worth a decent amount of money, but she keeps it well guarded.

Advantage:
Animal Companion - Great Gray Owl. One of the largest species of owl, Serina's companion, Mercury, in 30 inches in length and has an impressive five foot wingspan. She weighs 2 1/2 lbs. Mercury carries messages for Serina, acts as a familiar, letting Serina see through the bird's eyes, and helps in battle with aerial claw attacks and vicious bites.

Mercury

Specialization: N/A

Flaw:
Cultural Gap - Although understanding, Serina is new to the wold of humans. She doesn't know much about human lore, culture, religion, or other unifying themes of humankind. She does not understand certain speech mannerisms and she relies on her human comrades in the face of political issues. She doesn't always understand inflections or word play, and sometimes the way she words things confuses or offends people. It is hard for her to get far in populated places without help of someone who is used to streets. When left to fend for herself, it is not uncommon for her to make people upset over her inability to completely understand a situation that has cultural ties. She can also annoy people her her curious questioning on human culture.

[Too Old 4 This]

@Pernicious Looks really good. I like how you blend the unique backstory with existing content. I only see a couple small technical issues. One, you can only have three attributes. Using slashes and parantheses to add more is a little cheap :-P Pick just three. Don't worry when combined with your backstory I'll understand the context behind your choices. Two, combat style is for nonmages only. This is kind of a balance deal but you can choose to specialize in staff fighting later as your character advances (you can of course still have the general reach weapons skill).

So the spell line is good, but all the ones after summon hare need to be rites (ie they require concentration). Also I'm a little leery about introducing pachyderms because I've never heard them mentioned in the game and the presence of elephants could change world history (think Hannibal) and that is a degree of change I don't necessarily want. I'm going to allow it anyway because the spirit of the game is alteration, but I would recommend for the purpose of workload that you make it a mastodon so we can treat it as an extinct animal. That way it makes sense that they are no longer around but still present as spirits to be summoned (you could also take this route with the others if you wanted going for dire wolves and saber cats instead of wolf and tiger).

If you choose to go the path of introducing elephants into Thedas then I would require a write up to say exactly where they are and how they've figured in the world. Will there be elephants at Ostagar? Seems a good choice for breaking the darkspawn lines. Are they used by the Qun or by any other nation primarily? To what lands are they native?

[PerniciousIntent]

I didn't mean it as to take more than one attribute, I meant 'sharp' as the same term and included it to be consise. I added 'durable' because you said they should be adjectives, but put endurance too so to be clear as to what 'durable' had meant in context. I'll edit that out. (Please know I'm not trying to be defensive, I just wanted to explain my thinking because I promise I'm not just trying to cram as much power into her as I can. )
I'll definitely take the combat style out, especially because I had been worried about that in the first place. I dont mean for her to be a skillful fighter with it, more of a way to explain her staff's existance without giving away her magehood.
I had figured there would be elephants similar to Indian or Asian elephants in the Brecilian Forest, which live in environments with tigers and wolves in Chinese forests, and figured both places would be moderate forests that got quite cold in the winter. I'll change the summons though, because that seems to be the easiest way to go. Too lazy to write up a backstory for my elephant lol. xD And again, I had planned on the spells being rites, but I'll put that in their description.

[Automaton]

Obsidian

Name:Obsidian

Race:Golem

Nationality/Birthplace: Previously Dwarf, Orzammar

Attributes: Understanding,intimidating,reckless

Before the first blight there was a dwarf named Bredden,and he was born into the famous house Gaelic, a house that was famous for it's rune crafter's. Usually working with the kings men enchanting their weapons and armour. Another family, house Ooders were jealous of house Gaelics position. They decided to bring the rival family down a few pegs. They forged some documents that stated they were participating in a plot to overthrow the king. This did more than what it was supposed to.

Nobody in the family was spared, except for one, Bredden who was on deep roads expedition. When he got back he was apprehended. Set to be executed that very night. If it weren't for his friend Jurak, he was a nobleman's son who was with Bredden during the expedition. While Bredden stayed in his cell Jurak voted that Bredden be turned into a golem to repay his family's sentence by serving the king.

It was all set to happen, the golem making was almost complete.Jurak stole the control rod for his golem friend, they both escaped a few nights later. Jurak led Obsidian into a secluded forest area, he told the golem to stay there. Jurak dropped the control rod and fled into the surface world, leaving Obsidian to stand there. Many years later a human picked up the rod. He brought his new golem home to his mansion

The next few years for Obsidian were a blur to him, just wandering from town to town with his new master doing what ever his evil master wanted him to, watching many people get sold off to the highest bidder and not able to do nothing. Until one day he and his master were taking a stroll through the forest which came up on his masters land, it was quiet for the most part, until shouts and sounds of swords being drawn filled the air as a young girl was running towards Obsidian. She tackled the master, stealing the rod and then breaking it, she asked Obsidian to help her and he obliged, crushing the men. The girl was a Dalish elf, recently stolen from her clan and sold to some slavers, her name was Drashdy. They became great friends, Obsidian followed her until she would get back to her clan.

Once they reached her clan, Obsidian was immediately greeted by hostility, even the tale of how Obsidian saved her wasn't enough to allow him to stay. He had to leave, Obsidian fled into the forest near the camp,Drashdy would sometimes visit Obsidian when she was on patrol in the forests. One day Obsidian waited for her, but she never came. He went to see her instead, what he saw wasn't what he expected. The camp was in ruins, humans were in the clan square, with all the women of the clan. Obsidian charged in, there were many, and he stood a good chance against them, bust among them was a very experienced mage. He froze Obsidian there for a month. When the spell was over Obsidian did everything he could to try and pick up a trail. But he found nothing, he then remembered where he first met Drashdy, he headed there. On his travels he met a giant tree, this tree was wise, he wouldn't say his name just that he was a friend. The tree knew of him and his quest, the tree called his efforts fruitless, but Obsidian wouldn't give up. The tree pointed out that they were many and he was just one. The tree said he would help him. if the golem would let the tree teach him. Obsidian reluctantly agreed.

The trading was more mental than physical. He realized that he couldn't remember why he was a golem. He remembers the deep roads expedition he went on, and his childhood, the hearing of his execution. But then he just remembers waking up as a golem. The tree taught him that it was better not to remember, the past is the past it would say. After the many weeks of training the tree presented Obsidian with an amulet, the tree said that it was what he picked off the body of Drashdy after they executed then rest of her clan. Obsidian was furious with the tree, but could not crush the tree. He took the amulet, and wondered what he would do now?. The tree told him of a darkness that was approaching, and a taint that would sweep across the land, the tree told him his destiny was to go to the human built fortress of Ostagar, to help aid the humans.

The day he reached Ostagar he was greeted by hostility, but he then explained himself. he was allowed to stay to help against the blight but that was all.



Personality: Obsidian is a quiet golem, usually only talking when spoken too. Obsidian is also very polite and tries to solve things peacefully rather than violently. Obsidian does everything he can to help his friends, no matter what it is, he will usually help you if he feels the task isn't something evil that can hurt innocent people.

Skills: Speech, Unarmed combat,Survival (forest),Rune crafting,smithing and herbalism

Knack: armour runes, Obsidian has a knack for rune smithing, especially armour runes, he is exceptionally good at rune smithing, but armour runes are his water to his lime stone.

Combat style (nonmages only): HIS GIANT ROCK FIST. So over sized weapons really.

Equipment: A neckless that the tree elder gav to him.

Advantages: One With Nature: Being frozen in the forest for so long, then living with a giant tree for a long time has made his presence known in nature, this giving extra bonuses when fighting in forests. When he is in neeyd the ancient Dalish amulet glows a bright green which empowers him.(just think of him doing extra nature damage).

Specialization: Magic Golem. I dunno...

Flaw(s): heat: since he is made of rock extreme heat can be fatal because he will begin to melt. His size, being his size he has many blind spots, mostly behind him. Also he isn't very sneaky

[Too Old 4 This]

BlueBravado said
I understand that I am very late on the matter but I would really like to fill any spot that enables me to join the party and kill things.

No your fine. We still need more players.

[Automaton]

I'm gonna sit here with my novel of a bio, I apologyze.

[Too Old 4 This]

PerniciousIntent said I had figured there would be elephants similar to Indian or Asian elephants in the Brecilian Forest, which live in environments with tigers and wolves in Chinese forests, and figured both places would be moderate forests that got quite cold in the winter. I'll change the summons though, because that seems to be the easiest way to go. Too lazy to write up a backstory for my elephant lol. xD And again, I had planned on the spells being rites, but I'll put that in their description.

That's fine, just know that you don't have to. Your Brecilian Forest idea is workable, its just your workload not mine because its your change :-P

Have you considered adding a summon Hala to the spell line? Seems an obvious choice for a Dalish and a useful utility spell.

[Too Old 4 This]

Automaton said
I'm gonna sit here with my novel of a bio, I apologyze.

No it's fine. The character is good. Watch your grammar though. There's enough mistakes there that it set off my alarm bells but the writing is good so I'm guessing you were just excited or in a rush when you worked it out. The only issues are minor and one is my fault. I edited the skills section since you made the character. You now get six skills instead of five and you need to specify the environment for your survival skill for example survival (subterranean) or survival (forest). The biggest issue is time. The last golems were forged not long after THE FIRST BLIGHT. That is a long long long time ago and I do not get the sense of that many centuries passing in your background. Seems like a few decades at most. The easy way to solve this is to just increase the amount of time he was frozen in the forest, but you might have to do some research on the elves of that time. I don't even think the Dalish were around back then as it was before the exalted marches. I might be wrong. Regardless you'll need to brush up on your history for this particular character.

[Automaton]

Wow, thanks for the compliment XD. I'm operating from a tablet and it doesn't have much in the way of grammar checking. I will fix those errors now.

[Automaton]

Edited.

[Too Old 4 This]

@All We now have enough characters that I can safely say game will happen, but it's still a minimum. Hopefully we can get a couple more. I will also keep recruiting open throughout the game as picking up allies along the way is natural to the flow of the story.

[Automaton]

Alright :D.

[Wired]

I love the characters!

[Wired]

Oh, Too, who will you be playing?

[Too Old 4 This]

Wired said
Oh, Too, who will you be playing?

I don't play characters in my own games unless I'm REALLY desperate for players. I may need to NPC some allies such as Morrigan or Alistair if no one decides to play them, but I don't like to get emotionally attached to characters as the GM. RP is most fun for me when it is player driven because then I don't really know where things will go. This makes it more exciting. If I play a character then I have a say in PC decisions and this makes things less exciting.

[Wired]

Too Old 4 This said
I don't play characters in my own games unless I'm REALLY desperate for players. I may need to NPC some allies such as Morrigan or Alistair if no one decides to play them, but I don't like to get emotionally attached to characters as the GM. RP is most fun for me when it is player driven because then I don't really know where things will go. This makes it more exciting. If I play a character then I have a say in PC decisions and this makes things less exciting.

Huh, very interesting. I've never been in an RP where the GM hasn't had a specific character. This will be fun. :D