Crossing Borders, Part 2

(Read part 1 here.)

Before I dig into the hearty stew of Pathfinder, I’m going to enjoy an amuse-bouche of Shadowdark. Let’s say Garregwen, my wood elf Battle Master, is a level 4 crawler, just out of the novice stage. I’ll assign her stats in proportion to her D&D ability score modifiers, with a 14 in Strength so that she has at least one score that high. But it’s against the Shadowdark ethos to choose a crawler’s talents (unless you happen to roll a 12), so it’ll be interesting to see what the dice give her. She’s an elf, a fighter and a former soldier, of course, but chaotic good doesn’t map easily onto the lawful/neutral/chaotic schema of Shadowdark. I’m going to call her neutral.

The elf talent Farsight does nothing to help any of Garregwen’s usual modes of attack, save one: She’ll be throwing a lot more hand axes in the Shadowdark than she does under other systems. Also, it’s amusing to note that as a level 4 neutral fighter, she’s known far and wide as a bandit. It might have been better for her to be known as a barbarian, but this path is the one she’s trodden, and there are worse things than being misperceived.

Her first talent roll, at level 1, is +2 to Strength, Dexterity or Constitution. I’ll give her the points in Dex. Her second, at level 3, is the exact same thing; this time, I’ll increase her Con. Now her stat contour looks even more like that of her D&D incarnation.

Uh-oh, problem: There’s no glaive on the Shadowdark weapon list! Well, the easiest solution is to give her a warhammer and simply call it a glaive. It’s a two-handed weapon that deals 1d10 damage, which seems like a fair enough stand-in for any polearm. Similarly, her hand axes can be reskinned daggers, minus the finesse property.

As far as armor goes, it’s practically impossible for a starting crawler to have chainmail, so by necessity, Garregwen starts off with leather. However, she’s a woman of few needs, and self-protection is at the top of that short list, so it stands to reason that she’ll have saved up her first 60 gp of earnings to buy chainmail. (If she could net another 240 gp by the time she reached level 4, she’d upgrade that to mithril, but I don’t want to make any far-fetched assumptions.)

Garregwen

Str 14 (+2), Dex 13 (+1), Con 13 (+1), Int 9 (−1), W 10 (+0), Ch 8 (−1)

Ancestry Elf
Class Fighter
Level 4
HP 19
AC 14 (chainmail)

Title Bandit
Alignment N
Background Soldier
Deity Gede

Attacks

Glaive (2H) +5, 1d10 + 3
Shortsword +2, 1d6
Hand axe (Th) +2/+3, 1d4

Talents

Farsight. +1 bonus to ranged weapon attacks.

Grit. ADV on Dexterity checks to overcome an opposing force.

Hauler. +1 gear slot.

Languages. Common, Elvish, Sylvan.

Weapon Mastery. +3 to ATK and DMG with glaive.

Shadowdark is a game about one thing: retrieving valuables from dangerous places. All I need to know about Garregwen, the Shadowdark character sheet tells me, is what she can do to help accomplish that. Her title, alignment, background and deity are merely ribbons to pin to that. Shadowdark is utterly indifferent to any other story I might want to tell about her. Her standout trait is that she gets +3 to attack and damage with her primary weapon. Man … talk about being reduced to your job description.

OK, now for the grand undertaking: Pathfinder. I’ve already got a clear idea of what I’m going for, so let’s see how close I can get.

Garregwen’s ancestry will be Woodland Elf, which lets her move half her Speed on a success and at full Speed on a critical success when climbing trees or vines. I don’t think she’ll be doing much of that; it’s beneath her dignity. She also gets a 1st-level ancestry feat, and while Unwavering Mien holds some appeal, I think Nimble Elf, which increases her speed by 5 feet, is the more appropriate choice for a fearless, no-nonsense fighter in excellent physical condition. I’ll put her free attribute boost into Constitution, to erase her attribute flaw. (First Cypher, now Pathfinder—what is it with these toothpick elves?) The most fitting background for her is Warrior, and I’ll put her attribute boosts from that into Strength and Constitution.

As a fighter, she’ll get a boost to Strength plus four more free boosts, which I’ll put in Strength, Dex, Con and Wisdom. Her attribute contour looks a lot like it does in D&D, other than her Strength being higher. Excellent.

Now to choose a 1st-level fighter feat. I can eliminate some of these off the bat: Double Slice doesn’t apply, because she wields only one weapon. Point Blank Stance is out, because she’s biased toward melee. Reactive Shield is pointless since she doesn’t carry a shield. She’s not a grappler, so forget Snagging Strike. Vicious Swing is inconsistent with her choice of weapon—halberds may be suitable for both swinging and thrusting, but glaives are chiefly a thrusting weapon. That leaves Combat Assessment, Exacting Strike and Sudden Charge. Combat Assessment is interesting, but I feel like the other two are more her style. In particular, I lean toward Exacting Strike, because I think a calm, efficient press suits her more than an energy-intensive flourish. It certainly fits in better with glaive fighting: You’ve gotta conserve your strength for that.

Finally, she gets proficiency in Acrobatics or Athletics—I choose the latter—and four other skills. This choice is actually tricky: Athletics and Intimidation are allotted already (I could have given her Acrobatics, but it’s not her style), and Perception is separate from skills in Pathfinder. Stealth and Survival are easy choices, but then what? Well, inspired by her proficiency with leatherworker's tools in D&D and her Weapon Crafter ability in Cypher, I can give her Crafting, but everything beyond that feels like a reach. Ultimately, I think I’ll settle on Deception, for one reason: access to the Feint action. That’s a staple of glaive tactics, and probably the only thing I’ll have her use it for.

After making sure she can afford her usual weapon and armor package—she can—there are lots of fiddly-widdly calculations to do, but no more crucial choices to be made at level 1. Now to level her up.

The 2nd-level fighter feat Sleek Reposition is intriguing, because it’s not only a press move but also specifically intended for use with a polearm. However, Lunge is also an excellent choice, and it feels more naturally glaive-like and less cinematic, so I think I’m going to go with Lunge. Skill feats … man, skill feats are ridiculous. The least ridiculous of them that are available to Garregwen are Assurance, Titan Wrestler (despite the name, tripping a larger creature is a good use to put a glaive to), Quick Repair, Lie to Me, Group Coercion, Quick Coercion and Terrain Expertise. (She has Intimidating Glare already, from her Warrior background.) Of these, I find Quick Repair and Lie to Me the least interesting. Piling on Intimidation abilities would be amusing, and it would give her a personality dimension beyond just fighting, but I think I’ve gotta go with Titan Wrestler. The name is goofy, but the actual stunt is cool.

For her 3rd-level general feat, I’ll give her Incredible Initiative, allowing her to get off the block that much quicker. I’ll also up her Intimidation proficiency to Expert. Fourth-level fighter feats include lots of flourishes, but if you ignore the name, Slam Down is a consummate glaive maneuver—and now, I think, is also the time to give her one of those entertaining Intimidation abilities. I’ll go with Quick Coercion.

Garregwen

Woodland Elf Warrior Fighter (4)

Perception +9, low-light vision
Languages Common, Elvish, Fey
Skills Athletics +9, Crafting +7, Deception +6, Intimidation +8, Lore: Warfare +7, Stealth +6, Survival +7
Str +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +0
Intimidating Glare You can Demoralize with a mere glare. When you do, Demoralize loses the auditory trait and gains the visual trait, and you don’t take a penalty if the creature doesn’t understand your language.
Quick Coercion You can bully others with just a few choice implications. You can Coerce a creature after 1 round of conversation instead of 1 minute. You still can’t Coerce a creature in the midst of combat, or without engaging in a conversation.

AC 21; Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +9
HP 54
Incredible Initiative You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative rolls.

Speed 35 ft.
Melee (1A) glaive +11 (deadly d8, forceful, reach 10 feet), Damage 1d8 + 3 slashing
Melee (1A) shortsword +11 (agile, finesse, versatile S), Damage 1d6 + 3 piercing
Melee (1A) hatchet +11 (agile, sweep), Damage 1d6 + 3 slashing
Ranged (1A) hatchet +11 (agile, thrown 10 feet), Damage 1d6 + 3 slashing

Class DC 19

Exacting Strike (1A) (press) You make a controlled follow-up attack, fully accounting for your momentum. Make a Strike. The Strike gains the following failure effect:
Failure This attack doesn’t count toward your multiple attack penalty.

Lunge (1A) Requirements You are wielding a melee weapon; Effect You attack an enemy at the edge of your reach. Make a Strike with a melee weapon, increasing your reach by 5 feet for that Strike. If the weapon has the disarm, shove, or trip trait, you can use the corresponding action instead of a Strike.

Slam Down (2A) (flourish) You make an attack to knock a foe off balance, then follow up immediately with a sweep to topple them. Make a melee Strike. If it hits and deals damage, you can attempt an Athletics check to Trip the creature you hit. If you’re wielding a two-handed melee weapon, you can ignore Trip’s requirement that you have a hand free. Both attacks count toward your multiple attack penalty, but the penalty doesn’t increase until after you’ve made both of them.

Titan Wrestler You can attempt to Disarm, Grapple, Reposition, Shove or Trip creatures up to two sizes larger than you, or up to three sizes larger than you if you’re legendary in Athletics.

Man, that is a lot of work to import a character who’s already extremely well developed in my head. It took me two hours—far longer than it took in any other system—and I’m not sure I could have done it even that fast without the help of the website Pathbuilder2e.com. On the one hand, Pathfinder presents a delicious menu of very specific things a PC might be able to do. On the other hand, this menu comes with side orders of dense reading and decision paralysis. It offers you a vast array of things you’ll have no interest whatsoever in doing, from which you must pick out the handful of things you are interested in. What’s more, I’m not sure that even the options I ultimately chose are more exciting to me than the maneuvers encapsulated in the phrases “Distracting Strike” and “Trip Attack,” or than simply knowing that my glaive gives me an asset to melee defense and that I can distract a target for a round by using the Swipe ability.

What this character sheet tells me is that nothing about Garregwen matters, particularly, except for what she can do—what kinds of tasks she can roll a die to succeed or fail at, how good she is at those tasks, and what specific tricks she has up her sleeve. It’s a level of crunch, of fastidious specificity, that I thought I’d left behind with GURPS. In fact, I think GURPS may be less fastidiously specific.

Hmmmm.

I wonder …

[goes to the Deep Stacks]

Garregwen

Point total: 180

ST 12 [20]
DX 12 [40]
IQ 11 [20]
HT 12 [20]

HP 12
Will 11
Per 13 [10]
FP 12
Basic Lift 29
Damage thr 1d − 1, sw 1d + 2
Basic Speed 7 [20]
Basic Move 7
Dodge 10

Advantages and Perks

Extended Lifespan 3 [6]
Fearlessness 1 [2]
Night Vision 4 [4]
Weapon Master (Glaive) [20]

Disadvantages and Quirks

Deserter (Reputation −4 with former unit) [−6]
Sense of Duty (Companions) [−5]

Skills

Axe (Thrown) 13 (DX + 1) [2]
Bow 11 (DX − 1) [1]
Intimidation 10 (Will − 1) [1]
Jumping 12 (DX + 0) [1]
Leadership 10 (IQ − 1) [1]
Polearm 14 (DX + 2) [8]
Running 12 (HT + 0) [2]
Shortsword 12 (DX + 0) [2]
Soldier/TL4 10 (IQ − 1) [1]
Stealth 11 (DX − 1) [1]
Survival 12 (Per − 1) [1]
Tactics 12 (IQ + 1) [8]

Hand Weapons

Glaive (sw + 5 cut, reach 2, 3, parry 0U, requires two hands and becomes unready after attacking or thr + 5 imp, reach 1–3, parry 0U, requires two hands; requires Ready maneuver to change Reach)
Shortsword (Damage sw cut, reach 1, parry 0 or thr imp, reach 1, parry 0)

Ranged Weapons

Hatchet (sw cut, acc 1, range ×1.5/×2.5, RoF 1, shots T(1), Bulk −2)

Except for budgeting my point spending—skimming for appropriate advantages, disadvantages and skills was a cinch, but then I had to mark each one as a “must have,” “should have” or “nice to have” to decide which ones to put points into—that was significantly easier than creating Garregwen in Pathfinder. Also, her personality does show through in spots, in her Fearlessness and Sense of Duty traits and even in Extended Lifespan, which I’m not sure needed to cost 6 points, but whatever. There’s also the weirdness of treating a glaive as an impaling weapon—it totally isn’t—but I think that’s an artifact of the game’s disparate treatment of cutting damage and impaling damage after armor defense rating is subtracted. Mostly, though, what we see here is a constellation of skills and a brisk movement speed arrayed around the 20-point Weapon Master advantage, which dramatically increases the damage she can deal with her glaive, given her above-average but not particularly remarkable Strength.

Next: jumping genre.