When I started talking about Pathfinder for Savage Worlds I had a couple of inquiries on what characters looked like for the game. At the time, we had just been discussing schedule and maybe broad character ideas. We just recently earned our second advance after several months of actually getting the game going and I thought I would take a moment and share what a “low level” character looks like in this adaptation of the Pathfinder game.
Darius was born to a tribe of Shoanti under particularly poor auspices, the stars of Rovagug shining overhead. He was abandoned by his tribe and found the next day by merchants who were passing by and heard his cries. They took him to Sandpoint where he was placed in the care of the city and raised at the Turandarok Academy. He never really felt like he fit in when he was young and struggled to make friends. However, when the monk Enderaki Sorn came to Sandpoint Darius found something of a father figure, someone who seemed to understand the young man’s frustrations, listened, and pushed him to be better. Under his guidance, Darius began to accept his lot in life and grow more comfortable in town. He started to excel at his studies and even made some friends, even if he never quite outgrew his “angry young man” phase. It was on Enderaki’s recommendation that he managed to get hired on as a house guard at Valdemar Manor where he spent several years working until he was about 25.
After an attack on the manor left him injured and an artifact he was supposed to guard missing, he was summarily dismissed from his job. While recovering from the injury, he took on work at the docks as a fishmonger in order to keep a roof over his head at a flophouse and food in his belly. While he was still technically being paid a stipend by the Valdemars, it was small enough to be insulting. Over the years, he slipped further and further into his anger and general misanthropy as he felt his life circling the drain. His wound eventually healed, but it was never the same. And despite paying him a ridiculously small amount, the Valdemars refused to take him back on. And losing the artifact that was important to them meant that he was also persona non grata for any of the other families. He spent his days gutting and cleaning fish and his nights drinking and fighting. Enderaki Sorn passing away a few years later was just further insult to injury.
The Late Unpleasantness a few years later was almost a relief for him. Maybe Chopper would do him a favor and just end his misery. But that ended without incident for him and he continued to sink deeper. Eventually Father Zantus asked him for help building the new Cathedral and despite wanting to say no, he couldn’t help but agree to the man’s request. The work proved to be good for him and listening to Father Zantus preach gave him something to think about. And then on the eve of his 40th birthday, he finished work and looked up into the sky and was shocked at what he saw – the stars that had haunted him his entire life were not there. Instead, the constellation of Desna shone bright. Father Zantus saw it as well and interpreted it for Darius, saying that it was the goddess calling him to service and to action. He’s still not sure what that means exactly, but anything has to be better than what he’s been doing for the last 15 years.
Darius is a little bit of a different character than I usually play, someone a bit closer to my own age than the traditional “younger hero” that’s prevalent as a trope within fantasy roleplaying. As I said above, we’ve received two advances within the AP we’re running and Darius has started to hear Desna guiding his actions and leaned into embracing that, to the chagrin of our dwarven fighter who has his own reasons to distrust religious figures and organized religion in general. (Add to that one of our other party members actively channeling the power of Erastil and he’s definitely doing some sweating.) Increasing his Spirit to a d8 with my first advance opened up a lot of Edges that have it as a prerequisite. And Champion felt like a no brainer after our encounters with some monstrous abominations below the city of Sandpoint. But more importantly, the character sheet lets you take a brief look at some of the traditional Paladin abilities and how they were translated over to the Savage Worlds ruleset.
PDF Created through Savaged.us
Ben Erickson
