Percy de Rolo—Human Gunslinger

After finally catching up on Critical Role, and getting swamped with university work, I've finally finished the first of what I hope to be another good series of characters. I've had to basically learn all of 5th edition D&D and how all of the systems and monsters interact. For the little bit of magic referenced in this write-up, I use my own Savage 5e D&D magic system (for the sake of accuracy), which is heavily inspired by Zadmar's Savage Vancian Magic.

Spoilers for Critical Role (Episodes 1–89) below

Name: Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III
Race: Human
Experience: 130 (Legendary)
Agility d10; Smarts d12; Spirit d8; Strength d6; Vigor d8
Pace 6; Parry 5; Charisma 2; Toughness 8 (2)
Hindrances: Arrogant, Bad Eyes (m), Enemy (Orthax), Loyal.
Edges: Accurate Attack (Shooting), Dead Shot, Elan, Gunsmith, Hip-Shooting, Jack-of-All-Trades, Magic Initiate (Warlock), Marksman, Musketeer, Noble, Quick, Quick Draw.
Skills: Boating d4, Fighting d6, Knowledge (Engineering) d8, Knowledge (History) d6, Knowledge (Metallurgy) d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Repair d8, Shooting d12, Stealth d6.
Cantrips: Become friends; minor illusion.
Novice Spells (1/day): Curse.
Languages: Common, Celestial, Elvish.
Inventory: Boots of Spider Climbing (1 hour), Cabal's Ruin [Attunement] (+2 to resist magical effects; when affected by a spell, the character may spend a benny (if used against a damaging spell, this also counts as a free Soak roll) to swallow the spell and gain 2 charges per Spell Rank up to 10: every 2 charges spent adds +1 electric damage on a physical attack), Dragontooth Necklace (pulses when allies with other necklaces from this set are Incapacitated), Earring of Whisper, Glasses, Gloves of Missile Snaring [Attunement] (Ranged Defender Edge), Gunsmith's Tools, Mithril Chain Shirt (Armor +2, torso only), Bad News (10/20/40, 2d8, Min Str d6, 2 action reload) with Scope (negates 2 points of ranged penalties) and an enchanted "flashlight" opal, Diplomacy (Vigor roll or Incapacitated; Vigor every round to recover, burns out with a 1 on the Fighting die), Dragonslayer Longsword [Attunement] (Str+d8+1, Fighting rolls +1, additional +4 damage vs dragons), Retort (5/10/20, 2d6+1, 4 shots, blackpowder revolver, 2 actions to reload per barrel), Animus [Attunement] (5/10/20, 2d6+3, 6 shots, blackpowder revolver, 2 actions to reload per barrel, user is Shaken with a 1 on the Shooting die).

Percy's backstory is best relayed through the character biography Taliesin (Percy's player) wrote, which preceded the early episodes of Critical Role:

"Percy was the third child of seven children, born to a noble family who lived far to the north in the ancient castle of Whitestone. With so many siblings to share the burdens of lordship, Percy turned his attention to the sciences, engineering, and naturalism.

One day, a mysterious couple, named Lord and Lady Briarwood, came to court. During a feast held in their honour, the Briarwoods violently took control of the castle, killing or imprisoning everyone who would stand in their way.

Percy awoke chained in the dungeon, only to be freed by his younger sister. Together they fled, chased by the Briarwoods' men. As they ran, Percy's sister took several arrows to the chest and fell. Percy kept running, eventually jumping into a freezing river and floating unconscious to freedom. He did not remember waking up on a fishing boat. He barely remembered the next two years, as he slowly made his way as far south as possible.

Then one night, Percy had a dream. A roaring cloud of smoke offered him vengeance against those who destroyed his family. When he awoke, Percy began to design his first gun."

Percy was rescued by the rest of the party of Vox Machina from a prison cell in Stillben after he attempted to murder a woman named Anna Ripley, who was connected to the Briarwoods. Since then, he has traveled with them, fighting trolls, dragons, demons, dread lords, beholders, and other vile monstrosities with his family.

After leading an uprising in Whitestone and assassinating the Briarwoods with the assistance of his friends, Vox Machina returned to the capital of Emon to witness the attack of the Chroma Conclave, and subsequently set out to dismantle the Conclave piece-by-piece. After nearly a month and a half of nonstop conflict, uprisings, alliances, worldly travel, and vestige hunting, the party only recently put down the last of the Chroma Conclave. Now, they journey forward as the heroes of the land.

Percival is an extremely talented engineer and inventor, building up bizarre and unique gadgets from a taser glove to inventing the first firearms (of which he is quite proficient). However, his inspiration for the latter appears to have been the product of a shadow demon named Orthax, who also granted Percy limited magical abilities—Orthax has since been banished, having possessed Ripley before Vox Machina murdered her to avenge Percy after his first "death."

Percy is also a self-professed nerd, having deeply studied history and engineering, as well as dabbling in just about everything. While his intellect can sometimes go to his head, deep down he is a kind soul who would do anything to help his friends.

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As far as a purely Savage Worlds Percy goes, I would simply replace "Magic Initiate" with No Mercy (#nomercypercy), and change Cabal's Ruin to absorb Power Points on a 1:1 basis, and expending 2 adds +1 to Percy's next attack roll. Otherwise, Percy is already one of the characters most suited to Savage Worlds with the removal of his few spells.

He can fire off a few less shots per round, but that's balanced out by doing tons of damage (for a fantasy setting) and also more realistic—blackpowder weapons are not fast weapons and magazines weren't a thing for them until fairly recently.

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Now that I've finally caught up to Critical Role, I'm able to going to start pumping out Savaged Critical Role characters—and even Savaged D&D 5e characters on the whole if I found some interesting ones. Anyways, if you have any question, comments, or criticisms (either of the build or of D&D on the whole), let me know down below.
—DoctorBoson

Tiberius Stormwind—Draconic Sorcerer

So, I've been rather quiet here for the last few months on here. I've gotten some writer's block on the Savaging of things (currently flip-flopping between the posts on the Fighting skill and on Investigative skills), but while I've been procrastinating I've started watching Critical Role, a show where a bunch of professional voice actors play Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.

While I'm one of the last to enjoy the weird, overly complex magic rules, game-y and inorganic combat system, and fairly restrictive class system that runs to the core of D&D, this show is amazing, and the players are all amazing roleplayers. As such, I couldn't help getting sucked into the fun. And whenever that happens, I inevitably end up Savaging whatever I see as well.

I'm still catching up, on Episode 29 right now, but with the departure of Tiberius—Orion Acaba's character—from the adventures of Vox Machina, I figured he'd be worth writing up and posting, so the blog has some more content while I try and figure out how to continue my How To: Savage Everything series or procrastinate and update older characters instead.

While working on these characters, I used a hybrid between Zadmar's Savage Vancian Magic supplement, as well as my own Savage Dungeons and Dragons document that makes changes to several Edges, adds some new ones, and provides stats for the races found in D&D and Pathfinder. I won't be explaining how they work in the bio below, so you'll want to skim through those to get a good idea of what everything does.

Spoilers for Critical Role (Episodes 1–28 below)

Art by Mikandii

Name: Tiberius Stormwind
Race: Dragonborn
Experience: 70 (Heroic)
Agility d8; Smarts d6; Spirit d10; Strength d6; Vigor d8
Pace 6; Parry 5 (1); Charisma 0; Toughness 9 (2)
Hindrances: Arrogant, Bad Eyes (m), Big Mouth, Loyal, Outsider, Obligation (m—dragonborn clan), Vow (m—collect his artifacts)
Edges: Draconic Ancestry, Heroic Sorcerer, Size +1, Noble, Arcane Lineage, Dragon's Breath, Enchant Minor Items, Quickened Caster, Potent Caster
Skills: Fighting d4, Intimidation d8, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Arcana) d8, Knowledge (History) d6, Persuasion d8, Sorcery d12.
Power Points (Breath Attack only): 5
Cantrips: Control Flames, Light, Telekinetic Touch, Unerring Strike.
Novice Spells: Feather Fall, Glamour, Invisibility, Ray of Heat, Sphere of Silence.
Seasoned Spells: Combat Invisibility, Fireball, Flight, Obelisk of Stone, Rockskin.
Veteran Spells: Glacial Blast, Improved Dispel Magic, Telekinesis, Teleportation Circle.
Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarvish.
Inventory: Glasses, Cloak of Displacement (–2 to hit as long as you are not Shaken, Incapacitated, or restrained in any way), Circlet of Concentration (+2 to rolls for Concentration), Ring of Holding (1 additional Novice/Seasoned spell per day), Ring of Protection (Armor +2), Surge Blade (two-bladed spear—Str+d6, Parry +1, Reach 1, 2 hands), Earring of Whisper, Bottle of Infinite Air, Decanter of Endless Water, Deck of Illusions, Bag of Holding.
Bag of Holding: The Mending Wheel, 8× knife (Str+d4), mini-crossbow (6/12/24, 2d4, AP 1), 20× mini bolts, Immovable Rod (8,000 pound capacity; Strength –4 to move 2" per round), Scroll of Telescription, Dust of Illusion, vicious short sword (Str+d6, damage +1 on a raise), 20× wooden stakes, canteen, 35× mirrors, Wand of the War Mage (ignore up to 2 points of penalties for cover or called shots with spells).

Tiberius' backstory is best described in short order by the character bio provided by his player, which preceded the early episodes of Critical Role:

"Greetings and salutations. I am Tiberius Stormwind. I hail from a town called Ty'rex, located in the heart of Draconia, born from a politically respected family.

"At the age of 15, I succeeded in passing the Sorcerer's Rite, showing prodigy-like control of my magic. The judges and the Draconian high council were amazed at how powerful my spells were for how long I had been training. At 20 years old, I was the youngest appointed member of the magic guild in Draconian history. For the next few years, I almost went mad from the malaise of being a guild member, as it's rather boring.

"However, one day I happened upon a chamber, unused for quite some time. In the room were stacks of books and maps of the surrounding cities and areas around the known world. For months I would frequent the chamber, and learned of artifacts from legend. After a long period of research, I made a list of artifacts that caught my eye. I brought these findings to the high council and was told that all of the information in the chamber I had stumbled upon was either believed to be fiction, or unsolvable mysteries, and hence were lost forever. I found those answers to be unacceptable. 

"A year later I devised a ruse and managed to convince the city council to lend me support in me leaving Draconia on a mission of peace and diplomacy for the surrounding kingdoms. Going from town to town and making friends and allies, in and for the name of Draconia. Being a red dragonborn, I had quite the task on my hands in that respect, but that was exactly what I needed, so I could explore the world and find these artifacts, as I felt the truth was out there.

"Some may describe me as buffoonish, but I say poppycock to all that. I am much sharper than most give me credit for. I just don't... pay attention to things sometimes. I've also been known to be rather cunning, loyal, happy-go-lucky, and well, dangerous. I can't help but show my true scales every now and then. But overall, I think I'm quite friendly for a dragonborn."

Tiberius is a powerful—yet fairly absent-minded—dragonborn sorcerer, who joined the adventuring group Vox Machina (then known as Super High-Intensity Team—the name was later changed for obvious reasons) while on his journey to find the fabled artifacts in the lands outside of Draconia. He accompanied and risked his life with this group several times, and even acquiring one of his artifacts (the Mending Wheel) along the way—but trading away a "piece of his luck" for it. The meaning of this is of yet unclear.

He, along with Vox Machina, have faced demiliches, dragons, dark necromatic magics, demons, dread lords, even a beholder, and for all of their services for the land and to the kingdom of Emon, they were bestowed fame and a small castle called Greyskull Keep. It has been a long couple years for Vox Machina, and they continue to adventure and save as many as they can.

Tiberius, however, eventually leaves Vox Machina behind for yet unknown reasons, attempting to prepare further for the assault on the Briarwoods, the evil family that overthrew the family of one of his fellow party members, Percival.

Tiberius, as a sorcerer, has access to a rather "limited" (by d20 terms) selection of spells; he can cast up to 6 of each rank per day. While he can likely cast spells at Heroic rank as well, he has yet to utilize any of those, as he departed before he was able to acquire those levels of spells in his D&D iteration. He is an extremely fast and powerful caster, an exceptional talker, and far more intimidating than most might expect.

His young age and burial in work in the draconic magic guild, however, has done little to help his actual wisdom—while he plays up his buffoonishness to throw strangers off, some of it is simply hard-wired: he routinely speaks out of turn and says whatever comes to his mind, and tends to carry himself with an air of arrogance over his mastery of the magic arts. Deep down, however, he is deeply loyal to his friends, and he will easily and thoughtlessly risk everything to save his friends if they get into trouble.

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Just for giggles, I decided to make the character using the Savage Worlds powers system rather than Vancian magic, just for proof of concept to see if this would work to recognizably recreate the character. This is not an entirely accurate representation of the character—that's up above—but it is a far, far easier version to play and manage without dealing with "spell slots" and other poppycock.

Name: Tiberius Stormwind
Race: Dragonborn
Experience: 70 (Heroic)
Agility d8; Smarts d6; Spirit d10; Strength d6; Vigor d8
Pace 6; Parry 5 (1); Charisma 0; Toughness 9 (2)
Hindrances: Arrogant, Bad Eyes (m), Big Mouth, Loyal, Outsider, Obligation (m—dragonborn clan), Vow (m—collect his artifacts)
Edges: Arcane Background (Sorcery), Draconic Ancestry, Size +1, Charismatic, Dragon's Breath, Enchant Minor Items
Skills: Fighting d4, Intimidation d8, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Arcana) d8, Knowledge (History) d6, Persuasion d8, Sorcery d12.
Power Points (Breath Attack only): 5
Power Points: 15
Spells: Armor (stone skin), blast (fireball), dispel, fly, invisibility, light/obscure, telekinesis.
Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarvish.
Inventory: Glasses, Cloak of Shadows (–2 to hit), Cap of Concentration (+2 to rolls for Concentration), Ring of Protection (Armor +2), Ring of Storing (slow), Surge Blade (two-bladed spear—Str+d6, Parry +1, Reach 1, 2 hands), Earring of Whisper, Bottle of Infinite Air, Decanter of Endless Water, Deck of Illusions, Bag of Holding, Scroll of Blight (draining touch).
Bag of Holding: The Mending Wheel, 8× knife (Str+d4), mini-crossbow (6/12/24, 2d4, AP 1), 20× mini bolts, Immovable Rod (8,000 pound capacity; Strength –4 to move 2" per round), Scroll of Telescription, Dust of Illusion (disguise), vicious short sword (Str+d6+1), 20× wooden stakes, canteen, 35× mirrors, Wand of Mini-Fireballs (bolt).

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Hopefully I can continue to work on the characters of Vox Machina, and port them into Savage Worlds. One of my favorite things about the system is due to it's modularity, you can compare the capabilities of characters from any medium and setting to any others, and I definitely want to see how the party shapes up against the many, many other characters I've worked on—some of which are even voiced by the actors that created these D&D characters.