Heroes on Demand – Sigurd, Human Swashbuckler

Artist unknown. All rights reserved.

Sigurd was born in a small, sleepy fishing village and he learned from an early age that he was expected to follow the family business, and while he did the work without complaint, he yearned for more. When his parents were taken by disease, he saw his opportunity. He sold what few possessions his family owned and struck out towards the city where he found work on the docks, eventually finding a job on board a larger sailing ship where he did his best to learn the life of a sailor. This let him see the world as the ships sailed to different ports and forced him to learn many new skills. But the one he was not expecting to take to as well as he did was practice with the blade. He had a natural bravado that paired with his physical ability and he quickly became the best duelist on the ship, surpassing even the sailor that taught him. He used his skills to earn some additional coin when they pulled into port, and the ship offered him a speedy getaway when those same skills got him in trouble.

But even this came crashing down when Captain Merrill Lutkin of The Goose, an ally and partner on a voyage, betrayed his ship and left them wrecked for a bigger cut of the treasure. Sigurd managed to make his way back to civilization with a blade on his hip and a desire for revenge. Now he just needs a ship of his own. The Gander has a nice ring to it…

Design Notes: This character was created while watching the first episode of Idle Champions Presents The Unfair Seas. My head was firmly on pirates and the sea. And so Sigurd was born. He’s a pretty straightforward character in regards to his build, but could be a very fun character to bring to life at the table and has lots of different ways he could be developed. In the spirit of other swashbuckling heroes he likes to engage his opponents in daring sword fights instead of skulking in dark alleyways. Piercer gives him some options in combat, and the extra die of critical damage just lets him do more burst damage when he crits with a sneak attack. Adding some fighter levels to the mix would get him some extra attacks to go fishing for critical hits more often. And Battlemaster lets him further define his fighting style. He also has reason to swear an Oath of Vengeance against Captain Lutkin and The Goose. Or maybe a different kind of being offers him power to complete his vengeance in exchange for a favor…

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Ben Erickson

Contributing Writer for d20 Radio
Mild mannered fraud analyst by day, incorrigible system tinker monkey by night, Ben has taken a strong interest in roleplaying games since grade school, especially when it comes to creation and world building. After being introduced to the idea through the Final Fantasy series and kit-bashing together several games with younger brother and friends in his earliest years to help tell their stories, he was introduced to the official world of tabletop roleplaying games through the boxed introductory set of West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game before moving into Dungeons and Dragons.