Jaylen

Jaylen Orgonney, younger brother of Kaylen Orgonney, has also known Venecia since childhood.  A capable, quiet, and well-spoken young man, Jaylen was as focused on the mind and magical arts as his sister was on nature, and Venecia was on righteousness.  His sister and he are both very wise – being descended from the Orgonney Seer – and where Jaylen is more dextrous and learned, his sister is sociable and strong. 

Desiring the power of magic above all else, Jaylen decided to pursue the clerical calling, attempting to learn within the sphere of worshipping Tempus.  In his travels north, Jaylen learned of the great priest Everard, and decided to come spend a year under his tutelage.  After several months, the word of troubles in Kuldahar led Everard to assign Jaylen to Hrothgar’s expedition, and give Jaylen the experience he needs.  While content to joint he existing band, Jaylen sent word to his sister Kaylen, and their friend Venecia, that their skills could be used. 

Though pleased with his priestly pursuits, Jaylen secretly aspires to join those more arcane of magic-users, Wizards.  It is his greatest hope to become a master of both spellcasting varieties, allowing him a range of magical abilities rarely seen in this age.  He has studied wizard spellbooks, and has aptitude for them; if the opportunity presents itself, he may leave his priesthood behind and take up the wizardly role. 

* I have no idea when to dual-class Jaylen.  Originally I was thinking immediately upon 2nd level – but now I’m thinking that letting him get to 3rd, and pick up Cure Moderate Wounds is worthwhile until Kaylen becomes a functional Druid.  The temptation is there to let Jaylen proceed to 5th, 7th, even 9th level before converting him to Wizard, and letting Callian take the full spellcaster role.  My main goal is to give Jaylen enough hit points and physical capability to make him decent in melee, and at least a touch of priestly magic to augment his mage capabilities.  With both a cleric and druid, and a bard to take on spellcasting, it is possible to use both priests in an offensive/healing casting combination. 

The Thief

Spivey Luckyfoot was born in Gullykin, and by the age of 10 was making a living on the streets of Baldur’s Gate.  He learned early that many poor suffer, while rich, bloated nobles enjoy the fruits of their labor; it defined him as something of a halfling Robin Hood, routinely stealing from those who would oppress, and giving to those in need.  Over time his reputation grew and it was harder for him to perform his acts of kindness and compassion.

He left Baldur’s Gate and spent some time in Waterdeep, doing minor tasks for the Thieves Guild there, until again the winds began blowing him ever further North.  Spivey found himself in Bryn Shander when the call came in for heroes to join Hrothgar’s group en route to Kuldahar.  He caught the next caravan to Easthaven, along with a strange Elf warrior he befriended, and is set to join Hrothgar’s coalition.

Kaylen Orgonney

Kaylen Orgonney is a childhood friend of Venecia Ashfell.  Like Venecia, she is strong, wise, and stunningly beautiful, and felt a strong pull in a spiritual direction since childhood.  Unlike her friend, however, Kaylen sought solace in nature, often staying in the forest overnight as a child.  Her parents would beat their servants for not being able to find her, but Kaylen was always safe; indeed, she felt more at peace in the woods than anywhere.

Kaylen respected Venecia’s love for all that was good and holy, but she did not share it; instead Kaylen sought to keep the pure balance that exists, between humans and nature, between good and evil.  The two best friends had a falling out over their differing beliefs, and Kaylen went to study with the druids of the wood while Venecia went to her paladin training. 

Kaylen enjoys the druid life and identifies with them, but in truth, she has the heart of a warrior.  Her brother Jaylen engages in the magical arts, and though Kaylen loves him, she wants to make sure her body is strong enough to support her lifetime of service preserving the balance.  Kaylen is voyaging on her own from the wood to Kuldahar, to meet with the ArchDruid and pledge her services in aiding their plight.  By fighting to protect Kuldahar, Kaylen hopes to begin her ascent into Druid life; she is already well versed in Druidic combat and weapons. 

*Portrait lifted from http://www.paganspace.net/profile/LadyAnastasia.  IWD just offered no good female ones, and this one is perfect.

The Bard

Callian Cain is certainly a jack of all trades – trick fencer, musician, journalist, and magic-school flunkee.  His pickpocketing, however, has made his life less than peaceful, and he has had to leave his more comfortable Carnival experience behind.  While searching for the adventure that will make him famous, he overhead a group heading to Easthaven, and decided to join up with them (using his trick swordsman skills to make them believe he was more dangerous than he really is).   Callien is now spending several days ingratiating himself with Hrothgar, and furiously scribbling down the account of all that goes on during the preparation.

Callian is not afraid of magic – he was actually somewhat adept at using magical energies, and his mind wrapped itself around the history of all things magical – but occasionally something goes very wrong when he uses it.  He has tremendously poor common sense, and something of a problem with reality – but nonetheless is a capable swordsman and archer.  He hopes to return to spellcasting at some future date, but studying all those tomes and rituals is so boring.  Callian prefers to seek out fame and fortune, and then live gloriously (and luxuriously) while spreading the historical account of his party’s deeds.  He hopes the frozen north will yield just such an opportunity to restore his less than stellar reputation.

Rolf Durdin

Rolf Durdin is a fearsome dwarf.  He is rumored to have taken on entire groups of brigands by himself on the caravan trails, and is never one to compromise dealing out justice.  He usually works alone, as a caravan guard or hired mercenary; usually the sight of his bulging biceps and battleworn axe is enough to fend off would-be robbers.

Rolf met Venecia Ashfell in an out-of-the-way pub while taking a break from his caravan duties.  Venecia sat with him to avoid the gawking men, and challenged him to do something more worthwhile with his time.  Rolf respected her – at least, after she held her own in an arm-wrestling match.  She appears destined for greatness, and Rolf will do all he can to chop up those standing in the way. 

Rolf is tremendously loyal, and as good a warrior as they come.  He is not the most social creature, nor is he altogether tolerant; he despises magic, and generally mistrusts those of the shadier pursuits like Rogues.  He is hoping to keep the party to strong, stand-up warriors like himself and Venecia.

Party Member Spotlight: Paladin

The first character to be put in the party is, of course, the party leader.  Incredibly strong, unflinchingly brave, and good to the core, Venecia Ashfell is the daughter of a feudal lord outside Waterdeep.  Growing up with Kaylen in the farmlands and forests, Venecia displayed unparalleled prowess in physical feats, easily besting men much older in swordplay, feats of strength, and fleetness of foot.  Equally matching her physical prowess was her physical attractiveness – nearly every lord and noble, from the young to the very elderly, gazed upon Venecia hoping to take her hand.

For Venecia, however, the most compelling force was that of spreading good and righteousness.  From the age of ten she knew what she wanted to do with her physical assets, and it was bettering the world.  She trained in that most holy order of Paladins to prepare her body and spirit for a lifetime of serving good.  Now, at 22, Venecia is ready to embark on the quest that will grant her full acceptance in the order; after consulting her spiritual guides, it has been decided that she will voyage north to Kuldahar to aid the besieged city.  She is allowed an adventuring party, but has been warned to accept the help of those she might not otherwise consider under different circumstances. 

Venecia previously earned the respect of the dwarf Rolf Durdin, and he was the first companion she sought out.  She travels with Rolf to Easthaven, where she will meet with Kaylen Orgonney and her younger brother.

Continuing Party Thoughts

Okay, some additional notes:

• Paladin girl will most likely be large swords, not great swords.  Two of the best swords in the game (so I hear via youtube) are large swords.  Also, as a front line fighter, I want her to be carrying a shield (there are two magical ones, after all) and get her AC down to the negatives fast.  The dwarf will have resistance and high con, but the Paladin should have the lowest AC in the party to be able to avoid damage. 
• This leaves someone that must pick up great swords.  And if I’m sticking with wizard-druid-bard-theif, that means Bard uses Great Swords.  Fine for me – that and Bow.  But he can’t cast magic while armored, argh. 
• Dwarf could double up, Axes and Great Swords…but then I’d have to choose one for grand mastery…better to have the Paladin spend her points on Great Sword, since she can’t grand-master anything. 
• Druid is hard to dual-class to because of the CHA requirement. This guide (although meant for BG) points out the needs.  My something/Druid would have to have 15 in his first class prime requisite, 17 in both Wisdom and Charisma, and be True Neutral to boot.  It also rules out my potentially awesome Ranger/Druid combo (I think the Good Alignment did that, meatball).  However, I’ve read up more on the Druid awesomeness in IWD, and indeed they do seem to be the way to go. 

No new ideas on the thief.  He has to be a decent fighter, so thief/illusionist is out.  Thief/cleric, fighter/thief still on the table.  So current plan is:

1. Human Paladin, large swords/shield?
2. Dwarf fighter, axes/crossbow?  Then I lose strength bonus…just throwing axes?
3. half-elf Bard, great swords/bows?  And spears to round it out.  Unless Druids can use spears.
4. Fighter->Druid, specializing in two Druid weapons before making the switch…
5. Thief, halfling
6. Cleric->Mage, still thinking Transmuter

So my biggest weaknesses are

• Armor restrictions for 4 party members (!) Bard tops out at Chain, thief at Leather, Druid at hide/leather, wizard at nothing.  So all the plate mails and all that can only go to two folks.
• No third warrior, at least not with any decent armor or weapon.  I need a Coran/Kivan type for this group, deadly at range and decent up close.  I got nothing.  😦

Proficiency Spread:

• Great Swords
• Axes
• Bows
• Long Swords
• Short Swords
• Spears
• Halberds
• Crossbows
• Flails
• Maces
• Slings/missle (darts)
• Staff
• Daggers

Character Names:

Venecia Ashfell
Kaylen Orgonney
Alendra Oren
Rolf Durdin
Spivey
Abellius Araway
Elandil
Kellius
Jaylen Orgonney
Callien Cain

Party Setup

Being about halfway through Baldur’s Gate, my mind cannot help but wander to the next game, Icewind Dale.  IWD, as it is commonly abbreviated, drops many aspects of Baldur’s Gate, like the FedEx quests, NPC collecting/side quests, and most of the role-play puzzles and pieces.  It’s more of a straight hack-and-slash type, with faster leveling up and higher character cielings.

Icewind Dale allows you to create 6 characters from scratch, which gives you much more freedom, choice, and control than you had in BG (although BG does allow a multiplayer option where you can create all PCs, but that’s a ton less fun).  From there, the two games play pretty similarly; same interface, same spell animations, etc.  Both are in the Black Isle Advanced Dungeons and Dragons PC role-playing game category, after all (or BIAD&DPCRPG, as I like to abbreviate it).

So from my earlier BIAD&DPCRPG shopping spree, I have installed Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale II, along with the updates, Heart of Winter expansion, and Trials of the Luremaster add-on.  Right away this is a positive, because in EastHaven you are allowed to buy these fantastic things – potion bags, scroll case, and gem case!  Never again the problem of 16 inventory slots….oh happy day.

So anyway, we’re onto the happy party making.  IWD is nice enough to come with a decent selection of player portraits (which are not all NPC duplicates, thank you), and a decent soundset selection (6 more with HoW installation).  I supplement this with a fine selection of Icewind Dale portraits online, and make a few of my own from other game art.  So I have 6 characters, which can look like 100 different photos, sound like 42 different soundsets, and be a tremendous range of race/class/multi-class/dual-class options.  The sky is the limit…and yet, it’s not enough.

There are tons of guides online for character creation, like the usual Gamespot and IGN, but the best of them is, as with BG, Dan Simpson’s massive walkthrough.  This incredible text file even includes OTHER people’s ideas for party creation – it goes from balances, to power-gaming abuse of dual-classing, to fighting the whole game witha 3-character party.  We’re going to use a little bit from each one of these to make my perfect, master party.

Here are the things every party absolutely needs:

• Fighters – front line folks to do damage and ‘tank’
• Priest, to heal and use supportive magic
• Rogue, for hiding, scouting, lockpicking, trap finding/disarming

Here’s a list of what I actually want to have, all in this party:

• Leader with high charisma for party interactions – Paladin or Bard works, Paladin better for front line
• Wizard – preferably two (or one + bard)! – to cast spells, write magic – two helps ensure all spells are learnable.
• Druid, for the better selection of spells than clerics
• Fighter, for raw weapon specialization/grand mastery, high Con.  Probably Dwarf.
• Thief for the aforementioned skills, ranged attack, scouting and backstab – mainly traps
• Second line fighter, for ranged attack, spears, etc.

Proficiencies I’d like to assign:

• 2 for Great Swords, a common weapon in the game, and Bows when not using those
• One character with Axes, for 2-handed axe, battle axes, throwing axes – also using Crossbow.
• Blunt weapons – flail, mace, hammer for cleric
• Long swords
• Spears for the +5 spear – probably Bard, second line fighter
• Quarterstaffs/darts/slings for the Wizard (unless of course they are a fighter also)
• Someone stuck with short swords? 
• And of course someone using shields.  Probably the blunt weapons user, and maybe a fighter. 

This leads to a fairly secure roll-call for the front line characters:

1. Female Human Paladin – party spokesperson, front line fighter, some healing/magic later one.  Possible great-sword, or like BG, sword and shield. 
2. Male Dwarven fighter – my axe-wielder, crossbow man.  Huge Con and Strength.  Not bright.  (My Minsc?)

After this it starts getting difficult.  I’m thinking Bard, Druid, Thief, Mage – but that leaves me with little in the way of 2nd line fighters.  I want the Ranger’s two-attack dual-wield thing, and a great archer – given the amount of combat, a 3rd warrior type is just what the doctor ordered, and a Bard won’t cut it easily.  So let’s go over each option.

3) The Bard – this is a definite for me.  I don’t often get to go through these games with a Bard, and being that there’s little other way to get a 2nd line wizard spellcaster, a Bard is perfect.  Pickpocket skill so the Thief can worry bout traps, party-buffing, backup fighter/archer, and backup spellcaster – all in one!  Fantastic.  I am picturing Callien Cane as my bard, using longsword, spear, and bow, learning spells, and keeping the tales of the party’s deeds, with a certain amount of poetic license.  Downside – duplication of skills, from weapons to rogue to spells to high charisma. 

4) The Druid – again, I want a Druid.  Clerics like Branwen and Yeslick I used for all of BG, and Druids might make more interesting party members.  Human, elf, half-elf – whatever works.  I would start out as Fighter, if I did Human.  *If possible, this character would make a good dual-class option, starting out as fighter?  Ranger would be ideal.  Downside: True Neutral, weapon restrictions (possibly, how does this work with dual-class?), possibly worse spells than cleric? 

5) The Thief – I have a vision, again, of a halfling thief.  Now I could go with fighter/thief on this…lots of guides seem to recommend that.  But I don’t want my guy levels behind everyone else; with a thin front line, he’ll need higher XP as soon as possible.  Spivey is the halfling thief I was working with in my previous game attempt. Downside: multi-classing him with Fighter means slower leveling, less HPs.  Single-classing him means he has less to offer.  Hmmmm.

6) The Wizard – dark and brooding necromancer, power-hungry invoker, or lawful good transmuter?  Lots of options here.  There used to be an IWD cheat of sorts, using the Conjurer for no real spell loss.  No such luck anymore – HoW expansion remedies that.  So I have to choose some schools to lose.  *This character would make a great dual-class option, starting out as fighter, or – more interestingly – as a cleric…have access to some cleric spells, and be able to use hammers/flails etc instead of silly mage stuff.  Sounds…excellent.