(Editor’s note, I say D&D when I mean pathfinder as well because I’m like that)
Back in the heyday (what does that mean?) of this blog when it was read by as many as five people one request I got a couple times is for Ela’s character sheet. RPG people love character sheets. I never posted it for two reasons. One I couldn’t figure out how. Two, I kind of prefer to leave her exact stats a mystery. I’ve never understood why some people like having characters from books and movies they love statted out. Tanis was much cooler before I knew he was a 7th level ranger with 12 Dexterity.
One thing I can say is that her Bluff modifier reached silly proportions pretty quickly. It’s currently sitting at +37 which means by the book she can convince 99.99 percent of things with brains of even the most outlandish lies. I try to be a little reasonable with that. And that’s not even taking into account her once a day +20 bonus on top of that.
Most campaigns fall apart after the first 4-7 sessions. Those that make it past that first stage and last a good while seem to generally peter out around 12-15th level. Which is fine by me, I’m not into high level play. It’s interesting how quickly you can just make so that there’s little to no chance of failing at any skill check you want your character to be good at. I guess that’s good, no one likes it when their character fails all the time but it seems strange. One of my RPG buddies that prefers to play other systems than D&D has leveled the critique that at low levels you can’t do anything and once you get past that everything is too easy. He’s not entirely wrong. Just mostly.
In the last real campaign I played in (I’m currently playing in a roll20 campaign now but its gross 5th edition so it doesn’t count) I had a mythic charisma based character at high level. Ela’s Bluff is slightly better than his was. I’ve actually thought about having him turn up in this blog but that seemed a little too self-indulgent even for me.
A couple of people have asked how Ela manages to survive so many fights without being combat oriented. Her Sense Motive and Perception are not as crazy as her Bluff, but they’re high, and she has Phantom Thief Social Sense +5 on top of that so she’s unlikely to be taken by surprise. Innocent Façade, Another Day, and Like Smoke all make her pretty shifty and add to that the speed from her boots and her the effect of her ring and she’s pretty hard to catch, especially in an urban area.
In the early days she almost died several times, but after you reach a certain level you’re kind of hard to kill outside of dirty magic spells that kill you right off the bat. Paradoxically I think being a solo act helps survival too. In a normal D&D party once people start dropping you’re unlikely to run – you try to heal them or at least win so you can recover their bodies or whatnot. Leave no PC behind. If you’re alone there’s no real not to bail if things turn ugly.
A couple times Ela has gotten an invisibility magic item and I usually find a way to get it off her because it’s annoying. Sometimes people say that as a DM if you can’t handle invisibility and flying that’s because you suck. I do suck, what would be useful is some advice people who say that.
Anyway, here’s a magic item.
Saltwheel Family Cane
A slender walking stick made of strong gleaming blackthorn wood, the handle is sunsilver in the shape of a bird of prey and wide enough for a very large hand to grip comfortably.
Despite its apparent delicateness the cane can strike as a +1 Heavy Mace. Any aberration struck by the cane takes an additional 1d6 points of damage and becomes sickened for 1 round (no save).
While held the cane amplifies the wielders voice to carry as far as a mile away. This effect can penetrate the area of a silence spell. When the cane is in hand additionally the holder can cannot be detected or tracked with the scent ability or any other special senses that rely on acute smell.
The cane’s owner rolls twice to confirm critical hits against aberrations and keeps the higher roll.
The Errant Endeavors of Ela the Expert 