Character Creation Corner - OD&D (3LBB) - Seraphina Duskblade

 

The first set of characters I'll be making are for Original Dungeons & Dragons, using only the original '3 Little Brown Books,' though I have them in the form of last year's 'Big Red Book.' I'll get to characters using the supplements, and probably some magazine or third party content later.

Ability Scores

I rolled characters using 3d6 in order, keeping 8 out of 12 sets of rolls. Today, I'm covering roll #7. Similar to the previous entry, based on this character's ability scores, I decided to make this character a (human) Fighter. Although for our first two characters I determined gender by rolling 2d4, one pink and one blue, and taking the higher die, this is our second human Fighter. Since the first was male, this human Fighter will be female. Since I don't have a setting yet, I used the Name Generator at capitalizemytitle.com, and got 'Seraphina Duskblade.'


The rolls were: Strength 11, Intelligence 11, Wisdom 8, Constitution 14, Dexterity 12, Charisma 9. Starting Gold is also 3d6, multiplied by 10, and Seraphina gets to start with 90gp. Although both Strength and Intelligence were tied for highest Prime Requisite, Fighter was chosen. Overlap on Fighter and Cleric are always desirable.

Original D&D contains a mechanic for adjusting scores, allowing one to subtract from the Prime Requisites of the unchosen classes to enhance the chosen Prime Requisites on a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 basis. While it's not stated in the original books, I've seen and heard it mentioned elsewhere that such methods cannot reduce the score being dropped below 9. Neither Seraphina's Intelligence nor Wisdom were high enough to sacrifice 3 points to pump Strength by 1. And, had I gone with Magic-User, Strength, for some reason, can only pump Wisdom (3 for 1), not Intelligence.


Ability Scores in OD&D don't have a lot of different rolls and modifiers associated with them. Our Strength of 11 has no effect either positive or negative for us. Our Intelligence of 11 gives Seraphina one extra language. Wisdom of 8 has no effect, though if we had been crazy enough to pick Cleric here, we would have gotten a minus 10% on XP earned. Constitution of 14 sadly does not affect our Hit Die rolls (though one more point would have). Constitution '+1 or 2' (13 or 14) just says 'Will withstand adversity.' This appears just above Constitution 9-12, which gives a 60-90% 'chance of survival' - something which is only lightly explained, but which I interpret as being what we would later call 'System Shock.' The language of the line for our score, and the place just above 90%, I interpret to mean we have a 100% chance on our 'system shock' rolls. Dexterity of 12 does not give us a bonus or penalty to missile attacks. Finally, 9 Charisma gives us a maximum # of Hirelings of 3, and no modifier to Loyalty Base.

Other Character Choices and Rolls

I chose the alignment of 'Lawful' for all 8 characters. Alignment is not well defined in this edition, but one interpretation I've seen more than once is that Alignment for OD&D is less about individual character morality and more about what side the character supports in a great cosmic struggle between the forces of order and chaos.

All (3) character classes in the original release have a Hit Die of D6, with 'Veterans' - level 1 Fighters, getting 1HD+1. Seraphina rolled a 4, giving our second Fighter a starting HP of 5. For Languages, all characters get 'Common,' and their Alignment language. Seraphina also is entitled to a bonus language, for which I picked Elf. For Saving Throws, a Veteran (level 1 Fighter) gets 12 vs. Death Ray or Poison, 13 vs. Wands (including Polymorph or Paralyzation), 14 vs. Stone (Petrification), 15 vs. Dragon Breath, and 16 vs. Staves and Spells.

Equipment

Seraphina rolled 90gp, with 21gp remaining after shopping. For armor, we picked Chainmail and a Shield (giving us an AC of 4.)  The weapon I chose was Sword. The rest of our equipment includes some Standard Rations, a Backpack, a Rope, a Waterskin, a Large Sack, a Small Sack, 6 Torches, 12 Iron Spikes, and 3 Stakes and a Mallet. All this equipment puts us at 780GP Encumbrance, putting us just inside Heavy Foot movement rate of 90'.

Putting it All Together

We can expand on this later when we start detailing our setting, but all these numbers and rolls can start to give us an idea of what Seraphina Duskblade is like. A Strength of 11 is average - Seraphina is not the strongest, or the best equipped. Intelligence of 11 is enough for a bonus language, so she's definitely smarter than she lets on.  A Wisdom of 8 is just below average - I picture her being a bit of a hothead, which puts some people off. 90 starting gold would be the low end of average, and we just had Kaelen as a town resident, so I'm thinking Seraphina comes from a border farm. Her Constitution of 14 reflects the rigor of that life. Her Dexterity is also good, at the high end of average at 12. Her life on the farm likely involved a lot of running and climbing in the surrounding woods, and probably defending the animals or farm on occasion with a bow or sling. Finally, inexperience at dealing with others outside of her family and their few and distant neighbors, along with the aforementioned brashness, reflect her Charisma at the bottom of average, 9.

Seraphina's quite eager and excited to be off the farm, finally starting an adventure like the tales she's heard at festivals or from wandering storytellers, but she'll have to be careful her hotheadedness doesn't get her in trouble, or that her brashness doesn't lead her to bite off more than she can chew in combat.

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