Kalaton, Half elf swordsman

[leons1701]

Kalaton: Half-Elf Swordsman

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Kalaton Ancestry: Human Heritage: Half-Elf Background: Warrior Class: Rogue Level: 1 XP: 0/1000 Age: 30 Gender: Male Height: 5' 10” Weight: 200 lbs. Eyes: Dark Brown Skin: Lightly tanned Hair: Very Dark Brown Faith: Edict: Defend the weak, stand up to bullies, encourage community bonds Anathema: claim noble birth makes one better, allow oppression to continue unopposed, fight for no good reason.

Abilities Ability | Modifier STR: 18 | +4 DEX: 14 | +2 CON: 14 | +2 INT: 10 | +3 WIS: 12 | +2 CHA: 10 | +0 Hit Points: 18 Hit Dice: d8 Armor Class: 18 Size: Medium Speed: 30 ft Senses: low-light vision Perception: +6 Fort Save: +5 Ref Save: +7 Will Save: +6

Artist: unknown

 

 

"The sword isn't the solution to every problem, but it does a pretty good job on the problems made by men with swords."

 

"I'm not one of your fancy duelists. I don't care about perfect technique or an honorable and fair fight. If I draw my blade, it's cause someone or something needs to be dead and I intend to make it happen any way I can."

 

Appearance

Slightly taller than average and well muscled without being bulky, Kalaton is the sort who tends to capture attention without even trying. It doesn't hurt that he is generally considered handsome, at least by most humans. Too bad he doesn't care at all about that. At the fancy party, he's the guy still dressed for crawling about the woods standing over there in the corner trying to figure out how soon he can leave without being too offensive. Not that he really minds being offensive, he'd just rather save it for when he finds it necessary. He is much more at home in small groups, particularly ones where he knows everyone already.

 

His gear is well cared for but also clearly worn, it's doubtful he was the first owner of anything down to his boots. Even his prized curveblade has clearly been well used, though the blade is a pristine testament to the skill of the smith that forged it, the long hilt is worn and stained with sweat. The overall look is that of a somewhat down on his luck warrior, a fair enough assessment.

 

 

Personality

Direct and to the point. Kalaton is a commoner, a simple soldier and sometime hunter and scout, he has no time for your fancy airs and honeyed words. He is most at home in the woods or a small town or village, cities don't frighten him but they DO often confuse him in ways the woods don't. Though quite capable of shocking levels of immediate and direct violence, Kalaton is at heart a peaceful soul, he has little use for the swaggering posturing of so many warriors and none for conventional concepts of "honor". There is no insult that could force him to fight, words are simply meaningless noise when coming from someone you have no respect for. Were someone he did respect to insult him, he would be far more concerned about why than taking revenge for the presumed slight.

As a simple commoner, Kalaton has no use for nobles, nor does he believe that an accident of birth can make one a better or worse person. He is simply never going to accept the idea that something your grandfather did has any real effect on who and what you are today. An earned title would be a different matter of course, personal deeds can be worthy of respect, though too strident a demand for it calls into question ones supposed worth.

Kalaton doesn't consider himself a religious man, he does what he does and whether the gods approve or not matters little to him. He respects most gods, especially those of protection or community. Erastil is a favorite, though he thinks most of Old Deadeye's followers try to keep their communities together by making everyone too much alike. If he were to learn of the Keepers of the Hearth Pantheon, he would consider that pantheon near perfect.

 

Background

Kalaton grew up in a small town on the fringes of Brevoy, in the foothills of the Golushkin mountains. Black Valley, so named because the dark rocks along the valley walls and the dark, brooding blackwood trees give the undeveloped parts of the valley a dark and somewhat mysterious air, is famous for nothing, few people more than a few days travel have ever heard of it. The population is mostly half elven, with almost all the rest being human, most of the long time residents are the member of four large interrelated clans as are most of the smaller villages and individual holdings in the surrounding region. Kalaton's family was moderately prosperous, his father was a carpenter and also part of the generally informal Town Watch whose main job was making sure nobody got too rowdy at the several Trade Fairs held through the year. His mother was a skilled seamstress, between the two of them they could easily support their family and Kalaton grew up as a fairly normal child of any small town might.

 

In many ways, it was all his uncle's fault. Uncle Laveric wasn't technically his "uncle", the relationship was somewhat more distant and complicated than that, but most of the children in Kalaton's clan called him that, he was a figure of fascination, one of the few folks from Black Valley to not only venture out into the wider world for a significant time, but to also come back. Laveric was a rather dashing figure, closer to their elven roots than most of the clan and a skilled swordsman, a skill he picked up while guarding caravans through the River Kingdoms and beyond. He didn't say all that much about his adventures, but then, he didn't really have to, the more adventurous of the children would have hung on his every word anyhow. Kalaton in particular caught his attention, both from his near obsession with Laveric's tales and his noticeable physical gifts. It started innocently enough, Laveric teaching Kalaton just enough to handle himself in the usual childhood rough and tumble fights, but it soon branched out into actually teaching him the way of the sword. Kalaton drank up what training he could get and constantly wanted more. Laveric was a good teacher though, he made sure Kalaton learned more than just the sword or physical training, he also did his best to teach him when not to use the sword. Fortunately, Kalaton was never hot headed by nature and took to that part of the training even better than Laveric or his parents might have hoped. Unfortunately, he was still a young man with a young man's passions and less than perfect control of them.

It was of course, all about a girl. Later, Kalaton was never able to decide, did Elvina just enjoy having two men courting her or could she truly not decide between Kalaton and his friend Aklin? Kalaton's parents had died that spring of the Red Fever, as had quite a few other locals, leaving him in a bit of a bind. He had never entered any official apprenticeship, but Laveric's friendship with a number of local hunters had lead to him tagging along with them and since the hunters had no official guild, he was now generally considered one of them. But hunting was neither a particularly prestigious or prosperous occupation and Kalaton was seriously considering leaving Black Valley to follow in Laveric's footsteps as a caravan guard. But one thing held him back, a pair of dark eyes that sparkled with laughter. Elvina was not widely considered the most beautiful girl in town which just showed how stupid most of the young men were in Kalaton's obviously superior judgement. The only flaw he could ever find in her was that she spent just as much time with his friend Aklin as she did with him. Or was it more? Tension between the two friends grew, eventually words were exchanged and then, a moment later, Aklin was bleeding on the ground. Just a broken nose and a black eye, but Kalaton was ashamed of how quickly he had lost his temper. Aklin was a good man, clever and funny and no match for the bigger, faster, better trained Kalaton and they'd both known that. Watching Elvina escort Aklin away, Kalaton knew he was the real loser of that fight. Fortunately, wiser heads gave counsel, apologies were made and friendships mostly repaired, but the incident and the thought of seeing the couple together for years to come cemented Kalaton's decision to leave. He stayed just long enough for the wedding, (having made up her mind, Elvina wasted no time) and then set out to see the world.

The last year has been instructional to say the least. Black Valley was always a peaceful place, it did not take long to learn that Brevoy and its neighbors were mostly not. One trip to the River Kingdoms was enough, though bandits never struck the merchants he hired on with, he heard plenty of tales, most of them even true. Having made his way back to Restov, he has heard about the plans to set up bands of heroes in the Stolen Lands, which sounds like it might be interesting and certainly worth trying.

[leons1701]

Pathbuilder link

On additional rules:

1: Kingdom building etc. seems kind of the point, shame to leave it out. That said, if it becomes too much, dropping those rules is better than dropping the whole game.

2: The CRPG companions are interesting and all that, but I've played that game already. While I wouldn't mind seeing them as background characters, I think actually trying to integrate them into the group might be more work than it's worth. Up to you though, not a deal breaker either way.

3: Meh. The camping rules aren't bad, I'm just not sure they add anything worth the extra effort. Hardly a make or break part of the game. I wouldn't mind a chance to actually see them in play first. (The cooking part of the rules is the biggest departure from standard PF2 and the thing I have the most reservations about.)

[leons1701]

Some notes:

Plan is for Mauler Dedication (weird choice for a Rogue, I know) and eventually some Fighter and/or Scout. Build predates Remaster rules, but that doesn't seem to have much effect, some things changed but nothing actually becomes illegal or changes the numbers that I could find. Mentioned only because I suspect most PF2 games will eventually drift into using Remaster over time. Currently Kalaton is built as a most or less wilderness oriented character because that seems the easiest sort to add to a Kingmaker group. However, if we end up with a surfeit of wild types and no city folk, I can easily swap a few skills, change his hometown to something just outside Restov and make him more of an urban type with only minimal background and personality changes.

[Phntm888]

Looks good. I'll mark you as Complete.

[Phntm888]

@leons1701 Looking over your sheet again, I noticed you have 2 Ancestry feats listed. I'm not using the Ancestral Paragon rules, so you'll have to remove one of them.

[leons1701]

Oops, sorry, completely forgot that option was even on. What happens when you rework an old application. No big, Nimble Elf goes away.

[Phntm888]

I kind of figured that was the case, but wanted to let you know.