written by Jonathan Long

Human Characters

Non-Magic Users

Coup De Grace: Your instinct for killing has made you highly efficient. If you strike an opponent and do enough damage to bring them down to one Body Point, you may declare a coup de grace and finish them off instantly without rolling any dice. Your opponent has no defense.

Skullduggery: Your knowledge of poisons allows you to gain the upper hand in combat. Once per scenario you may declare your weapon as being poisonous. For the next 3 turns, any creature hurt by your weapon will continue to lose 1 Body Point per round until death. There is no antidote.

Death Blow: You have the ability to put all your skill into an attack. At any time, you may add 2 defense die to your attack roll, but it removes those 2 dice from your defense that turn.

Berserk: You have the blood of berserkers in you. Once per game you may go berserk. This will add 2 dice, in attack and defense, to your roll until you can no longer "see" a monster. "Death Blow" cannot be used while you are berserk.

Bounty Paid: You are a paid soldier for the kingdom. You are paid a bounty on each character you kill. You must make the killing blow, and escape the dungeon to collect your bounty.

Tracking: You have the ability to track others. You are always the last character to move during a turn. Additionally, instead of rolling the movement dice, you move up to the same number of spaces as the character who rolled the highest movement total this turn. The decision to track instead of rolling must be made by you before you roll.

Animal Empathy: The Druid is connected with all forms of life. As such, he/she may influence animalistic creatures. The Druid has influence over: Orc Kin (Greenskins), Reptiles, Natural Spirits (excluding the Dryad), and Crossbreeds. The Druid rolls one combat die for each Mind Point (4), and the monster defends by doing likewise. The results are as follows: 1-2 hits = Doesn't attack; 3+ hits = wanders away. The influence only lasts two turns, unless the monster either moves out of the line of sight of all the characters, or if the monster is attacked.

Familiar: The Druid travels with a familiar which may move with the Druid, or may move independently. The familiar may only move with the Druid if: a) the familiar starts his/her turn on the same space as the Druid; b) the familiar ends his/her turn on the same space as the Druid. The Druid may "pick up" the familiar and move with it if the Druid moves past (and actually steps on) the space occupied by the familiar. Note: Picking up the familiar is not considered an action, and does not interrupt the turn. To "pick up" the familiar, the Druid rolls 1D6. If the Druid rolls an even number, the familiar is "picked up" and may now move with the Druid. If the Druid rolls an odd number, the "pick up" is unsuccessful, and the Druid may continue his/her turn as normal. Note: Lesser and Intermediate Familiars never set off traps, they either fly over them or are to light or light-footed to set them off.

Action: The only "action" the familiar may perform alone is attack. Any other actions performed by the familiar (searching, etc.) must be done as a unit, i.e. the familiar may search for traps, in as so much as it is assumed that the Druid is searching for traps through the familiar. Thus, only one action is performed. Other than set "actions", a familiar may perform any function that any other character can, such as opening doors and looking around. (If a Lesser or Intermediate Familiar opens a door or looks down a corridor, the monsters within may not attack until they are in the Line Of Sight of an actual character, because they do not see the familiar as a threat.)

Attacking: The familiar may attack and defend independently of the Druid, or the two may work as a unit. The familiar also may attack regularly, or may use its special attack. The technical specifications of the familiars may be found here. If the familiar and the Druid attack together, you simply add their combat die together and roll them as one. If they are defending as a unit, you add their combined defend die and subtract one, with the familiar taking every third point of damage. Keep in mind, however, that these specs will change as the Druid changes weapons and familiars. For example, a Druid fighting with a Broadsword and a Lesser Familiar will attack with 5 dice, while fighting with a Dagger and a Greater Familiar will attack with 5 dice also.

Influence: The familiar is mentally connected with the Druid. This connection spans an eight space radius. If the Druid or the familiar moves out of range, the influence is broken, and the familiar moves under Zargon's control and command, although the Familiar will never attack the Druid. The familiar's Mind Points are also reduced to one. To re-establish the link, they must first be back in range with each other. The Druid then rolls 1D6. If the Druid rolls an even number, the link is re-established. If not, the rolls fails and the turn continues as normal. Re-establishment of the link IS considered an action. If the familiar wanders off the board, dies, or the Druid somehow loses his/her familiar, the Druid must wait until the next game to gain another, or pick up a Giant Rat if one is available. The Druid starts each game with a familiar.

Special Attack: Each familiar is endowed with its own special attack and or special abilities. These can be found here.

Fierce Loyalty: Your loyalty to the king has instilled a sense of great purpose in you. When fighting orc-kin, who are the greatest enemies of your land, you may roll an additional attack die.
King's Champion: You act as the Champion of the King. He has given you a token, that, when shown to merchants, will give you discounts on weapons, armor, etc. You may equip only yourself, and may not 'lend' equipment to others.

Pole arm Mastery: The Lancer can use any pole arm (halberd, spear, lance...) at +1 Attack die.
Impale: When using a pole arm, the Lancer can make an impale attack through an adjacent target. Target must defend 2 hits with its normal defend dice, or it will be automatically killed. If there is a character in the space behind the target it gets attacked normally. This skill can be used three times per scenario.

Weapon Mastery: You fight with two weapons, using your primary to attack and your secondary to parry. You also have the option to attack twice instead of parrying, however, when you do this, you lose an equal number of combat die in defense.
Unrestricted Weapon Use: You may use *ANY* weapon, even if it is designed for a different character, as long as the character it was designed for was human or humanoid.

Sharp Eyes: Your remarkable training and vision allow you to see any traps within 5 spaces (Line of Sight) of you when you end your move. You do not detect traps when moving, or in mid move.
Tactical Genius: Your understanding of tactics enables you to maximize your party's chances of doing the most possible damage to the enemy. If you are 1st to enter a room, no monsters may react until after your next turn.

Sneaky: Your profession requires that you be quick and silent. The benefit is that you can sneak past spaces with monsters. By rolling anything but a black shield per each monster, you may ignor monsters in your path.
Backstab: the thief may attempt to sneak up an enemy and perform a backstab. To do so, he must roll one combat die. If he is sneaking from behind, he must NOT roll a black shield. If sneaking from the side, he must roll a white shield. If he is sneaking from the front side of the enemy, he must roll a black shield. If the thief successfully sneaks up to an enemy and attacks, then the enemy may not defend.

FOOTNOTES

*(1) The only change to the Assassin is that I saw the assassin as a hired hitman who will work for whoever has the best price. Not really evil, not really good, so I made him neutral. I also raised the body points up to 6.

*(2) No changes.

*(3) I got rid of the starting armor (told ya so!), and changed the starting weapon to shortsword (crossbow is too powerful to start with, I think). This lowered the starting stats from A-3 D-3 to A-2 D-2.

*(4) Well, I had a Knight character before I ever saw Mr. Frazer's "Royal Guardsman", but that aside, the only difference is the starting weapon (from "any" to Broadsword), the starting armor ("any" to "none"), and the "King's Champion" (Free armor and weaponry? Who are you playing with?)

*(5) This character was created by Karnov, and is an variation on his "Dragoon".

*(6) The Rouge was shamelessly stolen from Karnov's page.

*(7) The only change is I upped the natural defend. Survival skills.

*(8) The changes I made in the thief were to 1) make him Neutral (I don't like evil characters), 2) change his abilities; I threw out "Light Fingered" where he could steal things, and I changed "Sneaky" to an ability allowing him to move past monsters. Also, thanks to the "Tolltaker", I actually have a HeroQuest thief with the backstab ability!

Humans
Characters