The next Tales of 13th Age adventure in part features adventures on the high seas so it got us thinking about creating a playable pirate character. We created this character at level 2 so that anyone participating in 13th Age organized play could pick him up – a pre-gen character of comical sorts. Whether any new players joining our adventures in upcoming weeks will pick him is yet to be seen, but we had a lot of fun creating him regardless!
Update – To clarify: All of the pre-gen characters we hand our to players have the name, background, icon relationships, one unique thing, and so forth left blank so players can make a character uniquely their own. Because we had so much fun with this character concept we decided to share him here as a whole. If you stripped away his backgrounds and everything to be a true pre-gen rogue he wouldn’t be much of a pirate and we wished to show how a pirate could be constructed using character mechanics. Think of this more like a sample character. Customize and change things as you wish!
Without further delay, may we present… Captain Danziker, The Disgraceful Knave.
Captain Danziker, The Disgraceful Knave
Human Rogue 2
Appearance
Will someone please give this man a bath?! Disheveled, stubby faced, reeks of rum even when he’s not loaded to the gunwales.
Gear
Light leathers, old faded pirate clothing and a Captains’ hat. The only thing of value is a sharp cutlass and flask of grog.
Backgrounds
+5 Swindler. Quick on his feet and a damn good cutpurse. Knows the best places to get some coin, if you don’t need to be honest about it. He’s a man made for the likes of Shadow Port. (See talent: Thievery)
+4 Captain! If one can still call themselves a Captain still after the Emperor “stole” his ship and locked up his crew. He reckons he can be fixing that little situation smartly, if he can just get some more gold.
+2 Escape artist. Knows the ropes… literally. The best there is at getting out of a tight situation. Escaped capital punishment in Axis when the rest of his crew was taken into custody.
+2 Keen eyesight. Any proper pirate believes that piercing their ears with precious metals improves their eyesight. Captain Danziker has spent years indulging in the practice. His ears are littered with silver and gold. This is similar to a background in tracking, but he does not always know what he is looking for… probably has something to do with the ale.
One Unique Thing
Carries around a treasure map that he claims leads to the treasure of Captain Blackwreath, a pirate of legend who once braved the Iron Seas.
Icon Relationships
The Prince of Shadows 1 (positive)
Captain Danziker is well known as a disgraceful knave for a reason. Boasts he even sold his plunder to the Prince himself. That is, until he lost his ship…
Lich King 1 (complicated)
Made a bargain with the Lich King for safe harbor and passage around Necropolis. Has yet to pay his debt.
The Emperor 1 (negative)
Pirates are not loved by the Emperor who works to keep the Midland Sea safe, especially ones that plundered the coast all the way from Azure Bay to New Port.
Stats
Str 12 + 1, Dex 18 +4, Con 12 +1, Int 8 -1, Wis 12 +1, Cha 16 +3
Initiative +6, AC 16, PD 15, MD 13, HP 28, Recovery 8 x 2d8 + 1
Basic Attack
Melee Weapon (2d8 shortsword)
Ranged Weapon (2d4 throwing daggers)
At-will melee attack
Attack: d20 roll + 6 (DexMod + Level) vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 4
Miss: 2 (Damage equal to class level)
At-will ranged attack
Attack: d20 roll + 6 (DexMod + Level) vs. AC
Hit: 2d4 + 4
Miss: 2 (Damage equal to class level)
Racial Ability –
Quick to Fight
At the start of each battle, roll initiative twice and choose the result you want.
Rogue Class Features –
Momentum
Certain attacks require momentum to function.
You gain momentum by hitting an enemy with an attack and lose momentum when you are hit by an attack.
The default is that you can use momentum powers without losing momentum, but a few powers specify that you must spend your momentum to use them. You don’t have to use attacks that require momentum against the foe you hit to gain that momentum.
Momentum powers that do not require you to spend your momentum are generally classified as interrupt actions. You can only use one interrupt action a round, which keeps your momentum powers from dominating the battle.
Sneak Attack
Once per round when you make a rogue melee weapon attack against an enemy engaged with one or more of your allies, you can deal +1d6 damage if your attack hits.
Adventurer Feat: Your Sneak Attack talent also works the first round of combat against enemies with a lower initiative than you.
Trap Sense
Even rogues whose backgrounds don’t have anything to do with noticing, avoiding, or disarming traps have a unique knack for dealing with traps.
If a rogue’s skill check involving a trap is a natural even failure, the rogue can reroll the skill check once. If a trap’s attack roll against a rogue is a natural odd roll, the rogue can force the trap to reroll the attack once.
Talents –
Swashbuckle
Once per battle as a quick action, you can spend your momentum to pull off a daring stunt the likes of which others could scarcely conceive. You’ll probably want to make an attack as part of the stunt, and that’s alright, but you’ll need to roll normally for the attack. The fun is doing something outrageous like dodging between the legs of giants, vaulting on a 12-foot pole over the heads of onrushing orcs, or cutting open bags of flour just in time to make them go poof and daze several foes for a round.
Thievery
You have the Thief background at its full possible bonus of +5, without having to spend your normal background points on it.
Adventurer Feat: Regardless of your level, you gain the bonus power thief’s strike in addition to your normal number of powers.
Smooth Talk
Once per day, convince your GM with an amazing line of patter while you are using social skills to speak or interact with NPCs associated with a particular icon. If the GM is convinced by your patter, roll a normal save (11+). If you succeed, for the rest of the day you can function as if you have a 2-point positive relationship with the icon who seems to be in play. Thanks to your amazing gift of gab, for a short time, it’s more or less true. (Note that these points replace any points you normally have with the icon rather than adding to them.) Failure on the Smooth Talk save generally arouses suspicions.
Rogue Powers –
Evasive Strike
Melee attack
At-Will
Target: One enemy
Attack: d20 roll + 6 (DexMod + Level) vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 4, and you can pop free from the target.
Miss: 2 (Damage equal to class level)
Deadly Thrust
Melee attack
At-Will
Target: One staggered enemy
Attack: d20 roll + 7 (DexMod + StrMod + Level) vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 4
Miss: 2 (Damage equal to class level)
Roll With It
Momentum power
At-Will
Interrupt action; requires momentum
Trigger: A melee attack that targets AC hits you.
Effect: You take half damage from that attack.
Adventurer Feat: The power also triggers on an attack against PD.
Sure Cut
Melee attack
At-Will
Special: You must have momentum and be able to deal your Sneak Attack damage to the target if you hit.
Target: One enemy
Attack: d20 roll + 6 (DexMod + Level) vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 4
Miss: Deal your Sneak Attack damage + 2 (Damage equal to class level).
Tumbling Strike
Melee attack
At-Will
Always: You gain a +5 bonus to all disengage checks you make this turn. You can also move to engage an enemy, make this attack against it, and then use a quick action to attempt to disengage from it (the quick action disengage lets you move again if you succeed).
Attack: d20 roll + 6 (DexMod + Level) vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 4
Miss: 2 (Damage equal to class level)
Thief’s Strike
Note: Power granted from Thievery adventurer feat.
Melee attack
At-Will
Target: One enemy
Attack: d20 roll + 6 (DexMod + Level) vs. PD
Hit: Half of 2d8 + 4, and roll a normal save. If you succeed, you can pickpocket an item from the target that they are not holding. If you succeed by 5 or more, the target doesn’t realize you pickpocketed them.
Miss: No damage / effect.
Note to GMs – Grant small reward if player stays in character and talks like a pirate for the duration of the game. Arrr!
We hope you all enjoy this character as much as we enjoyed creating it! After our session 3 recap next week we’ll share some more pre-gen characters with custom one-page character sheets. Stay tuned! 🙂
(Sarah) (Ben)
Tales of 13th Age 