Background, Character, Special Gear

[Zyraen]

Background, Character, Special Gear

Background

Your characters are not nobodies. At the very least, you are elite veterans and seasoned officers (or equivalent). On the higher end, you could be someone of great importance and station, or maybe formerly so, until the elves came and made it irrelevant.

Each of you have at least one but possibly all of following
- something you want to protect and hold dear, even at cost of your own life
- something important lost to you, and that you want to avenge, no matter what
- something terrible or regretful you experienced, that you dont want to let anyone else experience, or that makes you want to redeem yourself or find an end to it all
- a sense of displacement and loss amidst the end of the sun, perhaps that all you have known and measured yourself by is lost and past, and your time is over

It may help to write your background out as if you were human, possibly drawing from your own deepest fears or insecurities in real life, and then decide your race later.

Don't forget to update your virtues and vices accordingly.

Focus on background before deciding your character and class concept. This is a gritty fantasy of an already grim world sliding past the brink into what seems to be eternal darkness.

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Level and Gold
- Starting Level : 6
- Starting Gold : 2000 gp worth of items (about the norm for an L9 character). You will probably not have significant use for gold during the adventure, so it is good to spend as much as you can.
- In addition, you may gain any ONE of the following
A) Either a Rank 3 or Rank 4 Signature ability. You still need the Prerequisites for it.
B) +1 to all attack rolls, damage rolls, all defenses.
C) 6 UP worth of Champion Features and Champion Feats. These do not stack with Deadly Slayer nor Mighty Protector.

This is in view that your characters are approximately Level 11 or so, but some are probably new to UB and it might be too many options to work with.
Some of you might be new to the system and may find the gold and extra option daunting, so don't worry just leave it to me.

Consumables
The following Consumables are available for purchase before you all leave for your mission, utilising your gold as required.
L5 Healing Potion (120gp): Expend a Reserve and gain Reserve Value HP
L5 Resistance Potion (120gp, only Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Necrotic): Expend a Reserve. You gain Resist 5 to a specific damage type until end of encounter, or until you drink another Resistance Potion. The damage type is chosen when the potion is created.
L7 Invisibility Potion (300gp): You become invisible until ENT or until you attack.
L9 Recovery Potion (500gp): Expend a Reserve and either gain Reserve Value HP plus Pri Trait HP, or make a saving throw with a bonus equal to your Pri Trait.

Willpower (WP)
- You do not regain WP, once spent it is gone.
- WP might be awarded for RP in accordance to prewritten Virtues & Vices. If WP is maxed, it becomes Temp WP which must be spent by end of the next session after the one it was awarded
- Press On takes 2 WP instead of 1 (as you do not regain 1 WP on resting)
- If a character willingly goes to sacrifice himself, he gets a chance to give a final speech (more like peptalk since pressed for time). If he does well enough, and the others respond appropriately, everyone gets 1 WP back after the character has met his end.

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Special Gear

In addition to the following, you start with following without needing to worry about gold
Note that if the item does not indicate "each", it means the resource is shared among all the players.

- each of you has all mundane gear, such as armor, swords, enough rations, etc backpack

- 1 Cure Salve each. The Salve needs time to apply over your body, and can only be used when resting. It restores HP equal to your Reserve value, but does not require you to spend a Reserve

- 1 Rift Band each, which looks like a simple silver bracelet around your wrist, but cannot be removed (without chopping off your hand). The user may activate it as a free action when he loses consciousness. The Rift Band consumes his flesh, body and bone to fuel its power, as it opens up a rift to another world, which takes 6-12 seconds to fully consume the user. The rift lasts for 1 minute and sucks all creatures/objects within 10 squares (ie 50') into it, and also distorts teleports within its range, before it closes. It is meant as a desperate distraction to buy time for others to flee, although only effective in confined areas, and also as a final consolation to the characters that their bodies will not be reanimated as undead slave of the elves.
A character with a Rift Band can use a swift action to activate the Rift Band worn by an adjacent dead or unconscious character (OOC consent required if unconscious)

- 2 Protection from Undead potions. When used, the drinker is treated as invisible to all undead. This effect ends if the drinker make an attack, takes or interacts with an object that is not already invisible, or for 1 scene / 5 minutes.

- 2 halves of a Portal Sigil in brittle stone. When the two halves are joined over an already established teleportation circle, such as might possibly be in an elven base, it takes 30 seconds to activate, after which both stones are consumed and all creatures in the teleport circle immediately arrive at the location designated by the Portal Sigil, which is presumably somewhere not far from where the survivors will relocate to. However, this means it is imperative the elves do NOT get both halves of the Portal Sigil, lest they discover the new location of the survivors. Likewise, it is expected that two party members will hold on to one half each, and if the other party member is lost or captured, the other may destroy his half (takes a standard action to destroy the Portal Sigil)

[Zyraen]

Racial Bonuses
- note all adventurers and trained personnel (soldiers, constables, thieves etc) have low light vision

- choose +1 Fort, Ref or Will. Alternatively, you may replace this with Darkvision 10
- choose one from below (that should make sense for your race/training) or ask the GM for further options

Ample Reserves : You gain +4 HP to your Reserve value. This bonus does not stack with Feats.

Combat Readiness: You gain +2 bonus to Initiative.

Saving Throws
Note these are against SE effects
a) +5 Save against Charm
b) +5 Save against Fear
c) +5 Save against Illusion
d) +5 Save against Poison
e) +2 Save when making Stabilise Saves
f) +2 Save when saving against Ongoing Damage
g) +2 Save against effects that Daze, Stun or Dominate
h) +2 Save against effects that Immobilise, Restrain, or Slow
i) +1 to All Saving Throws

Situational Checks : You gain one of following
a) +5 to Athletics Checks to Climb or Jump
b) +5 to Performance Checks to appear as (a different Race of same size as you)
c) +2 to all Escape Checks (ie Acrobatics and Athletics)
d) You are always treated as having a Running Start when Jumping.

Stand Fast : You ignore 1 square of forced Movement (pull, push, slide). When an Attack would knock you prone, you can make a Saving Throw to avoid falling prone.

Resistance : Choose from Acid, Lightning, Fire, Cold, Psychic, Radiant, Necrotic, Poison. You gain Resist 5 to that type of damage. This increases by 5 at Levels 11, 21. You cannot choose a Resistance of the same type as your Vulnerability.

Oversized : You can use Weapons that are one Dice-size larger. For avoidance of doubt, your Fist (as with Unarmed Combatant) counts as a weapon, but improvised weapons are not affected.

Surefooted Shift : You ignore Difficult Terrain when Shifting.

Terrainwalk : You ignore Difficult Terrain that is due to
a) Forestwalk : forest, trees, underbrush, natural growth
b) Icewalk : ice, snow, tundra, slippery surfaces
c) Earthwalk : rubble, uneven stone, ruins, earth
d) Swampwalk : bog, mud, shallow water, wading

Darkvision: You have Darkvision 10.

Nimble: You gain +2 Racial bonus against Opportunity Attacks

Bloody Resilience : You gain 5 THP when Bloodied. This increases by 5 at Levels 11,21,31.

[Zyraen]

For reference...

Rift Band (1/Lifetime)
Swift
Effect: At the start of your next turn, even if you are unconscious or dead, decide if you wish it to partially activate or fully activate the Rift Band, then make a saving throw. If you pass, your desired outcome occurs. If you fail, the other outcome occurs.
- Partial Activation: A Rift becomes active within Burst 4 of you (moving with you if you move), and all creatures other than you, starting in or entering the Rift are attacked at +11 vs Fortitude (unconscious creatures are automatically hit), on a hit they are sucked into the Rift. You are dazed, slowed and lose half your max HP (cannot be reduced by any means), and if you fall unconscious due to damage you are sucked into the rift. The next turn the Rift becomes fully activated.
- Full Activation: If you are still alive, you die and are sucked into the Rift. Even if you are already dead/not in play, the Rift expands to Burst 10 of your original square and all creatures starting in or entering the Rift are sucked into it automatically. It remains open for 10 rounds ie 1 min.

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As usual, you can still activate it as free/no action if you knocked unconscious (or if some effect kills you directly without knocking unconscious). You can also use a swift to activate the Rift Band on an adjacent unconscious or dead character (OOC permission required if the character is unconscious)