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Old 12-09-2017, 12:33 PM   #1
martinl
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

"Dag, please let me assure you that you are indeed all the bard we need. I will admit we need some extra righteous soldiers to fill out the line on this quest, but half naked ballad singing barflies with toy weapons will not suffice."

"You've obviously never seen him use that thing Miriam. It might look a little light but it is a serious weapon. One he knows how to use, trust me."

"I never have and never will trust you – you're a bard - but I will listen. You say this guy-"

"-Funct, his name is Funct."

"... Seriously? As in DE-funct? Sweet gods." Miriam sighs. "OK Dag, as I said, you say this guy can fight, let's give him a chance to prove it. Show me what you got!"

...

"Sorry Dag, she talked like she could handle it"

"Don't worry my man, it looks like her helmet took most of it. She should be up again in a few minutes."

"I don't know man, I got her pretty good. And I think that's blood leaking out."

"Let me go get my dog."

"... what?"

Funct the Cursed
125-point Human Flailer
Funct is a guant, heavily scarred man of indeteminate age, ethnicity, and cleanliness, clad only in a filthy kilt and boots (also of indeteminate age, ethnicity, and cleanliness), carrying an unblazoned shield on a strap, two javelins, and a strange battered black metal flail of oddly delicate and antique construction. He usually hangs out in taverns, singing for his drinks and supper, but he's available for hire as a musician or warrior.

Rumor has it he's cursed though – on more than one occasion he has come back after multiple eye-witnesses swore he was killed. If he was unscathed, he'd probably be "the Lucky", but he is not really "all there" anymore. Outside of singing and fighting he has little interest and no focus, and he has bad case of the shakes. (His DX of 11 was clearly once considerably higher.) Only when he is fighting does he move "like he used to" - a graceful dancer in heavy boots, weaving his strange flail through the air like some homicidal acrobat's ribbon.

He is not an ideal henchman by any stretch – he loses things easily, is inattentive, easy to affect with mental magic, and he certainly can't be trusted on watch – but at the same time he is a solid fighter willing to take on any threat, and also a poor negotiator. (Make a merchant roll and reduce his fee by 5% per MOS, to a maximum of 50%.)


ST 15 [50]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 9 [-20]; HT 15 [50]
Damage 1d+2/3d-1; BL 45 lbs.; HP 15 [0]; Will 9 [0]; Per 9 [0]; FP 15 [0].
Basic Speed 6.00 [-10]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Move 6
Dodge 12 ; Parry 15 (Black Dinha's Flail); Block 13 (Shield)

Advantages
Combat Reflexes [15]
Tough Skin [6]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Rapid Healing [5]
Signature Gear (Black Dinha's Flail) [1]
Striking Strength 2 [10]
Weapon Bond (Black Dinha's Flail) 1

Disadvantages and Quirks
Absent Minded [-15]
Appearance, Unattractive [-4]
Odious Personal Habit (filthy) [-5]
Overconfidence (6) [-10]
Sense of Duty, Adventuring Companions [-5]
Skinny [-5]
Social Stigma, Cursed (-1 to rxns) [-5]

Absentmindedly sings ancient sad ballads that even the elves barely remember [-1]
Really good at forgetting, but drinks to forget more [-1]
Unintimidated by impending death and disaster [-1]
Isn't attached to worldly things aside from his flail [-1]
Kind to the weak [-1]

Skills
Brawling-11 [1]
Carousing-15 [1]
Flail-16 [24]
Hiking-14 [1]
Knife-11 [1]
Shield - 14 [8]
Singing - 15 [1]
Spear - 10 [1]
Stealth-10 [1]
Streetwise - 8 [1]
Thrown Weapon, Spear - 11 [1]

Equipment
$450, 30.65 lbs (No Encumberance)
Black Dinha's Flail (Balanced, Dwarven, Fine, Silver Coated Nunchaku) $260 4lbs.
- Skill 18, 3d cr (1), -4 to be parried, -2 to be blocked, knives/fencing cannot parry at all. This is a delicate metal flail (perhaps made for a noble's child?), heavily battered, blackened and worn. Use nunchaku base stats, double weight for metal
Boots, Stompy (Heavy Leather Foot Armor, Total DR4 on feet) $52, 4.2 lbs
Canteen. Full. 1 qt. Water. $10, 3lbs.
Coins. $14
Clothing. $0, 2lbs. Filthy linen kilt
Dagger (in boot): 1d imp (C) $20, 0.25 lb.
Medium Shield (DB2, 1d+2 cr (1)), $60,15 lb
Rations, Unidentifiable dried ... things? (2). $6, 2 lb.
Pouch (has coins, rations). $20, 0.2 lb
Javelin (2) Acc 3, 1d+3 imp, 22/37 $60, 4 lbs
Notes:
Funct is basically 120 points of melee with 3 points of utility and 2 points or characterization stapled awkwardly to the side. He won't be better in a fight than a knight or swashbuckler, but he'll be comparable with second string melee classes. Throw some armor on him (he'll wear it, but if you leave it with him he'll sell it for booze when he runs out of cash) and he gets even tougher. A solid combat henchman. Just don't make him responsible for anything.

His 9 will and NPC status means he's an ideal target for mind control from the DM's perspective.

You have two options on the curse:

1. It's just a rumor. HT 15 and rapid healing means that sometimes you survive traumatic brain injury with only severe side effects. Sometimes you survive it twice. This is the recommended option since it keeps focus on the PCs.

2. The rumor's are right, he's cursed. Funct's curse is basically this: he doesn't age, and if he dies, whatever happens to his body and the strange flail he carries, they eventually show up again, and end up together. Funct will have forgot a lot of things, and be shaky and weak (yank 30 points off his character sheet), but will otherwise seem his normal self and be unimpressed by the ordeal. More interestingly, other folks will tend to get more and more hazy on things that happend with Funct before his death. Stuff Funct did more than a few deaths ago is generally completely forgotten, outside of the times when he did something so noteworthy that it got written down, and even then that will get misfiled soon enough.

Funct doesn't talk about how he comes back, or why he seems magically linked to Black Dinha's Flail, or even who Black Dinha was. A sage who got curious once started combing old records for references to Funct, and determined that he'd been around, under various aliases, for at least 600 years. Unfortunately Funct was killed three times in three weeks as part of a noble feud and the forgetting effect of his curse led to the sage shelving his notes and never getting back to them. They're still there, misfiled in the magical cooking section of the wizard guild's library.

Magic will only determine that something very powerful is blocking any information spells from decoding the curse.

His curse is worth neither positive nor negative points as a henchman – from the player's perspective, being able to hire a similar, but less capable version of Funct again after he's been dissolved by a tourmalline ooze is not meaningfully different than hiring a new henchman entirely. If you want to use it for a PC, consider charging a few (5?) points for the "Can res at the cost of -30 CP no matter what happens to the body."

Use this option if you want to use Funct's story as part of the plot in your game, or if you are upgrading him to PC.
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Old 12-21-2017, 11:10 PM   #2
corwyn
 
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Default Re: Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

Interesting character, and I don't mind an interesting, cursed henchmen; it would make for an interesting plot hook, even if it's "just" a henchman.

I don't grok the parry though. Shouldn't it be 14?

8 (skill 16) +3 (base) +1 (CR) +2 (shield)
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Old 12-21-2017, 11:34 PM   #3
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Default Re: Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

Like a sad version of Minsc from Baldur's Gate.
He's the origin of the phrase, "Go for the eyes, Boo!"
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Old 12-22-2017, 05:45 AM   #4
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Default Re: Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

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Originally Posted by corwyn View Post
I don't grok the parry though. Shouldn't it be 14?

8 (skill 16) +3 (base) +1 (CR) +2 (shield)
I think effective skill level should be 18 because the base skill doesn't include +1 for Weapon Bond and +1 for Balanced.
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Old 12-22-2017, 06:34 AM   #5
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Default Re: Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

. . . though we normally leave shield DB out of listed defense scores because it won't always apply (say, when attacked from the wrong side, or before the shield is ready). None of the delvers I've presented here – or in the game or its supplements – has DB factored into active defenses.
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Old 12-22-2017, 07:22 AM   #6
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Default Re: Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

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Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
None of the delvers I've presented here – or in the game or its supplements – has DB factored into active defenses.
Does that apply to block scores as well? I can’t think of an instance where you could make a block and your shield wouldn’t be providing its DB.
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Old 12-22-2017, 07:44 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by Imbicatus View Post

Does that apply to block scores as well? I can’t think of an instance where you could make a block and your shield wouldn’t be providing its DB.
For consistency's sake, yes, that applies to Block as well. It's much clearer if all or no defenses have DB added. If only some do, people will start to wonder which ones do and which ones don't. But you are correct: It's extremely unlikely you'll ever be able to roll Block yet not get to add your shield's DB. (On the other hand, it isn't unlikely that you might change shields mid-adventure, especially if you find a magical one, or have your usual shield incinerated and end up resorting to a tiny one you grabbed off a dead goblin.)
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Old 12-22-2017, 01:03 PM   #8
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Default Re: Dag's Discount Henchmen: A Warrior

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(On the other hand, it isn't unlikely that you might change shields mid-adventure, especially if you find a magical one, or have your usual shield incinerated and end up resorting to a tiny one you grabbed off a dead goblin.)
Or you're in a Bar Brawl and have picked up a stool or chair in your off hand the GM says , "Just just use your Block at -2"...
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Old 12-22-2017, 03:20 PM   #9
corwyn
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalin View Post
I think effective skill level should be 18 because the base skill doesn't include +1 for Weapon Bond and +1 for Balanced.
I didn't think those applied to active defenses. WB explicitly says it adds to Effective skill, not base skill. However, now that I look closer, Balanced says skill, not base or effective, as does parry (both in exploits and Adventurers). Both of those could be more explicit if they are supposed to be effective skill.

Though, since Kromm has weighed in and hasn't mentioned this, I guess I'm wrong.
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Old 12-22-2017, 03:26 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Or you're in a Bar Brawl and have picked up a stool or chair in your off hand the GM says , "Just just use your Block at -2"...
For some math-phobic people, it's easier to add than subtract, even with small numbers. But more important, a lot of new people are not going to see subtle differences like that in a character sheet and we should probably try to be consistent with the format the game uses whenever possible to avoid confusion.
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