What have I learnt in building this villain? Primarily, that the nature of the 6d6 Hellenic setting means that any antagonist is going to be much more complex than just a villain. The setting is founded on the competing goals of both gods and mortals, not a battle between defined good and evil. Our villain is in opposition to our heroes because of her ideals and her fears rather than alignment to a moral code. Such complexity is a more fertile ground for the stories we hope you will play in the setting. Link to previous parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
For an epilogue to this series of posts, I’ve put together a character sheet for Iola
Iola is an Agent of Deimos and Phobos so she has the realm of Fear and the skill Scare, with which she can inflict the fear status effect on targets.
As recommended in the setting, the easiest way to create a faun character is to use the Herbivore path. For life advantages she has Horns and Stubborn. The abilities Alert, Kick, Sprint and Tough Hide give her offensive and defensive options. To expand on these, the Peltast path matches her preferred skirmish role. From this path I’ve taken quite a few advantages as these will form the core of her combat capability. Thus: Speed and Dodge to aid resistance, Retreat and Discipline to stay out of melee range and finally Harry and Ranged Expertise to increase her throwing range and make potential attacks.
But our villain is more complex than simply a combat character. Iola’s a Leader of her allies and a Priest of Deimos and Phobos. With Diplomacy, Encourage and Inspire she’s able to add buffs to her allies. Oratory from Priest will help with this. Her other advantages from this path are Devotion, Divine Favour, Rites, Seer and Willpower, advantages that will enable her to more directly call for the aid of her patron gods and perhaps even summon them.
Spending 150 character points and 12 meta points to extra recoup and free resists (Speed, Dodge and Willpower) results in a powerful character. Not so powerful that they would be able to overwhelm a group by themselves, but one strong enough with allies to provide a serious threat.
I hope you’ve found this character building exercise at least interesting. Comments on the final build of the character are welcome.
Image Credit – Horns at Longji Rice Terraces by Claire Backhouse – CC BY-ND 2.0