Josephine Frostwhisper - Character Sheet and Bio

[Rhifox]

((following is both a complete character sheet (first post) as well as a summarized biography of Josephine's background (second post). Just because you learn something about my character OOCly by reading this doesn't mean you can go and use that knowledge ICly, of course))

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JOSEPHINE “FROSTWHISPER” CARANOS

Female human Rog2/Nec10/PlM1/Red4: CR17; Medium-sized humanoid (human); HD 2d6 plus 15d4; HP 83; Init +3; Spd 30 ft; AC 18 (touch 15, flat-footed 15); Atk +11/+6 melee (1d3/20 x2, unarmed); SA Sneak attack +1d6, SQ Bone skin1, evasion, familiar, Red Wizard abilities, trapfinding; SR 10; AL LE; SV Fort 6, Ref 12, Will 14; Str 10, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 23, Wis 10, Cha 15. Height 5 ft. 4 in.

Skills and Feats: Appraise +4, Bluff +9, Concentration +24, Craft Alchemy +6, Craft Armor +6, Craft Trap +6, Craft Weapon +6, Diplomacy +9, Disable Device +13, Hide +16, Intimidate +7, Listen +8, Lore +18, Move Silently +16, Open Lock +10, Parry +13, Search +13, Set Trap +7, Spellcraft +27, Spot +8, Survival +5, Taunt +2, Tumble +14, Use Magic Device +6, Able Learner, Empower Spell, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Penetration, Mother Cyst2, Spellcasting Prodigy, Scribe Scroll, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (Necromancy), Tattoo Focus (Necromancy)3, Weapon Finesse, Wild Child.

Special Qualities: Red Wizard Abilities: Enhanced specialization (Necromancy) +1, Specialist defense (Necromancy) +2, Spell power +2.

Wizard Spells per Day: 4/7/7/8/6/5/5/4/2. Base DC = 16 + spell level, 18 + spell level for necromancy spells. Caster level 17th.

Spellbook: 0—acid splash, arcane mark, daze, dancing lights, detect magic, disrupt undead*, flare, light, mage hand, mending, message, minor freeze, open/close, preserve organ*, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue*; 1st—alarm, animate rope, bestow wound, burning hands, cause fear*, charm person, chill touch*, color spray, endure elements, enlarge person, erase, expeditious retreat, disguise self, feather fall, float, glaze lock, lesser shivering touch*, grease, jump, Leomund’s invisible umbrella, low light vision, mage armor, magic missile, magic weapon, mount, necrotic awareness*, Nybor’s gentle reminder, obscuring mist, protection from alignment, ray of enfeeblement*, reduce person, shield, shocking grasp, sleep, Snilloc’s snowball, snowdrift, stupor, summon component, summon creature I, Tenser’s floating disc, ventriloquism; 2nd—alter self, arcane lock, balagarn’s iron horn, bear’s endurance, blindness/deafness, blindsight, bone chill*, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, cloud of bewilderment, combust, command undead*, continual flame, crystalline memories, darkness, death armor*, decastave, eagle’s splendor, false life*, familiar pocket, fireburst, fog cloud, fox’s cunning, Gedlee’s electric loop, ghostly visage, ghoul touch*, gust of wind, heat leech, ice darts, icicle, knock, lesser dispel, levitate, Melf’s acid arrow, mirror image, necrotic cyst*, necrotic scrying*, obscure object, obscuring snow, owl’s wisdom, protection from arrows, resist energy, scare*, scorching ray, slow consumption*, spider climb, summon creature II, Tasha’s hideous laughter, torrent of tears, web, whispering wind, zone of glacial cold; 3rd—arctic haze, bothersome babble, deceptive fa?ade, deep slumber, dispel magic, displacement, drown, control temperature, crack ice, fireball, flame arrow, gaseous form, gentle repose*, halt undead*, haste, heroism, hold person, illusory script, improved mage armor, keen edge, Leomund’s tiny hut, lightning bolt, love’s pain, magic circle against alignment, necrotic bloat*, nondetection, phantom steed, protection from energy, rage, shivering touch*, slow, speak with dead*, spiderskin, suggestion, summon creature III, vampiric touch*, water breathing; 4th—animate dead*, aspect of icy hunter, bestow curse, charm monster, confusion, contagion*, crushing despair, elemental shield, enervation*, Evard’s black tentacles, fear*, greater invisibility, ice storm, ice web, Isaac’s lesser missile storm, lesser geas, lesser globe of invulnerability, lesser spell breach, mindfrost*, necrotic domination*, phantasmal killer, polymorph self, remove curse, stone shape, stoneskin, summon creature IV, wall of coldfire, wall of fire, wall of ice; 5th—blight*, boreal wind, break enchantment, call forth the beast, cloudkill, cone of cold, dismissal, dominate person, dream, firebrand, flesh to ice, greater fireburst, ice shape, ice to flesh, Leomund’s secret chest, lesser mindblank, necrotic burst*, lesser spell mantle, magic jar*, nightmare, permanency, sending, stop heart*, symbol of pain*, telekinesis, watchware, waves of fatigue*; 6th—antimagic field, create undead*, disintegrate, entomb, extract water elemental, greater dispel magic, greater heroism, guards and wards, heartfreeze*, Isaac’s greater missile storm, mass contagion*, Otiluke’s freezing sphere, planar binding, Rary’s arcane conversion, stone to flesh, Tenser’s transformation; 7th—avasculate*, Bigby’s grasping hand, delayed blast fireball, Drawmij’s instant summons, energy immunity, finger of death*, Mordenkainen’s sword.
*These spells belong to the school of Necromancy, which is this character’s specialty. Prohibited schools: Divination, Illusion.

Possessions: Josephine’s Red Wizard garb (AC +1, intelligence +4, concentration +4, spellcraft +4, SR 10 and grants 3rd-level wizard spell slot), circlet of the arcane (concentration +1, diplomacy -1, intimdate -1, spellcraft +1 and grants 1st-level wizard spell slot), dark art spiked boots (AC +1, SV ref +1, concentration +2, spellcraft +2), gloves of the dark arts (5/- resistance to magic,vulnerability to acid and cold 5%, bonus hitpoints +9), ring of fortitude +1, ring of nine lives (grants 11th-level heal 9 charges), scarab of protection +1, rod of frost, Red Wizard cloak, staff of unseen defenses (concentration +2, spellcraft +2, and grants 3rd-level invisibility 9 charges), symbol of Bane, stein of cosmic grace, gravedigger’s shovel, Dust pipe, unrefined Dust, Dust cakes, Drow slave collar, scrolls (bestow curse, dominate person, expeditious retreat, hold person, lesser spell mantle, remove curse), potions (cure serious wounds, cure light wounds).

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1 Bone Skin is treated in a different manner than its actual description for Josephine. For mechanics purposes, it is the feat used to indicate the following personal house rule I use specific for her character:

Josephine does not carry a hitpoint total as other characters do. Not an adventurer in the slightest and very pain intolerant, a single stabbing wound is enough to render her heavily wounded. Due to this, only the last 6 HP of her hitpoint total are considered to be true physical damage for purposes of fatal damage.

Josephine instead possesses a constant light 'shield' around her person at all times. This skin-tight invisible aura is a manifestation of necromantic magical will and is controlled by her subconscious focus. This shield prevents otherwise fatal blows from impacting her, but is a constant mental drain. Each time she is struck in melee by fatal damage, the shield weakens, and her mental exhaustion increases. Subdual damage uses her current hitpoints and does not take the shield into account (therefore, the shield will not stop a punch).

This shield is necromantic in nature as it acts as sort of a 'nine lives' mechanic, preventing otherwise fatal attacks from harming her while ignoring non-fatal damage. Due to draining her mind instead of physically harming her body, if the game indicates her as 'injured' or any other such title due to hitpoints, she will instead appear exhausted, a bit pale, and weak, but will not possess any physical wounds or bleeding (unless the damage was taken by subdual means). Potions and healing will reinvigorate her mind.

Subdual damage and mental exhaustion stack. If a fist-fight renders her at 'badly wounded', then her mental exhaustion will also be 'heavily drained' and the shield will be much weaker against fatal damage. If 'heavily drained' from using the shield, she will use only her current hitpoints, rather than full hitpoint total, if engaged in a fist fight or other subdual damage situation.

((The purpose of this shield is to allow me to continue to play a character who is afraid of death and pain, but can still take a few sword blows in combat. For me, a sword is a sword no matter who is using it. Despite being level 14, a level 1 goblin stabbing Josephine would be realistically enough to mortally wound her. The shield allows me to take the blow like other, tougher adventurers, instead of being killed by it. It also means that if someone emotes stabbing me with a dagger, I can realistically go 'oh shit, I got stabbed, that's bad', instead of going 'lol, dagger only does 1d4 damage and I have 70 hitpoints, that doesn't hurt))

2 Mother Cyst is not in-game. It is listed in her feats due to the fact that it is required in order to use Necromantic Cyst related spells.

3 Tattoo Focus is not in-game. It is listed in her feats due to the fact that it is realistically required for the Red Wizard class.

[Rhifox]

Born a slave in Thay, the Mulan girl known as Josephine Caranos was never destined for anything important. Though not in as horrible of a situation as other slaves of Thay, the house servant as she was could still only look forward to a lifetime of servitude that would only end with her death.

Raised in the City of a Thousand Temples, Bezantur, Josephine was exposed early on to the rich culture of Thay. A vast cosmopolitan area of religion, marketing, artwork, magic, and more, the port city of Bezantur was Thay’s largest and, after the successful business of the Guild of Foreign Trade’s Enclaves, its richest one. Josephine’s master, a Red Wizard working for the Guild of Foreign Trade, lived a decadent life filled of relaxation and pleasure. The man grew lax, fat, and lazy, and Josephine found herself able to move around in secret amongst his mansion, stumbling upon his spellbooks and arcane materials that he had begun to abandon in favor of mundane economic pursuits. It was only appropriate, then, that his rivals took advantage of his laxity, killing the wizard. Though these rivals sought his slaves for their own, Josephine instead went into hiding, stealing away with her master’s former spellbooks and arcane lore, and eventually changing her surname.

Though Josephine went into hiding in Bezantur for a time, making her way through thievery and scavenging, fear of being re-enslaved eventually drove her away from the city, stowing away aboard a foreign merchant ship. This precedent stayed with her, and she ended up drifting along for several years, staying in a city or town only so long as it took for the law to catch up with her before fleeing again for places beyond her reputation.

All throughout this time she took magic to heart, using her master’s former spellbooks as a stepping-stone to tap into her potential. She actively sought out magical items, magic books, and friends who knew magic who could teach her how to manipulate it. Despite having no formal training, Josephine eventually managed to understand the basics, mainly out of a driven curiosity resulting from boredom, and gradually grew in her ability to manipulate the energies of the Weave.

Of course, to the would-be disdain of most other wizards if they knew, Josephine took to necromancy as her specialization. While usually sickened by disease and rot rather than having any kind of perverse interest in it like other necromancers, she had become drawn to the school in order to learn to extend and preserve her own short, fragile life. She had always been afraid of death, living on the streets and away from any consolidated religion kept her from developing the same knowledge of the afterlife that many others knew, and instead she imagined her own ideas of what death was like—the end of existence, of perception, of the ability to perceive. This fear of death was also in part due to her fear of the gods, particularly of Bane, whom she came to venerate out of fear, rather than respect. To her, appeasement was a better strategy than fighting, and she was afraid that Bane would eventually come to triumph over the other gods, thus following him was far safer than following the other gods.

Along with necromancy, Josephine also took towards an interest in Evocation, particularly spells of the cold element. Stemming from her transitory nature, of a life most often spent alone, the cold represented that sense of loss and the hopelessness of existence to her, where, despite how much she wanted to be loved and wanted, ultimately she knew she had to stay withdrawn. She knew she would always outlast any companions she ever had, either by leaving them behind, or, if her studies in necromancy became fruitful, outlasting them in age. The cold represented acceptance of that bleak outlook. It was a fitting counterpart to necromancy—where negative energy drained light and life to fuel itself, cold drained heat and numbed the mind and body to feelings.

Josephine has spent the last few years of her life drifting from city to city, meeting contacts and friends and quickly losing touch with them as she moved on once again, usually to escape the law or unsavory individuals. She is short, thin, and somewhat drawn, appearing exhausted and disheveled, yet is still rather attractive, using makeup, potions, or magic to improve her appearance where possible. Her skin is tan but cold to the touch and her short red hair is coarse, and often uncombed and messy. Since coming to Sundren and becoming a Red Wizard at the Enclave in Aquor, she has acquired black tattoos running down her back and the sides of her arms, and around her thighs and calves. She worships Bane out of fear as her patron deity, but has closeness in belief with Shar and Auril, and venerates Ilmater in desire for comfort and relief from the downtrodden life she leads.

Josephine maintains a constant persona of exhaustion and moodiness, and is quick to anger when things go wrong or over insults against her. At all other times, she keeps a sycophantic attitude, preferring to please everyone around her and do what they say, especially those who have real control over her in some manner. She keeps this attitude even if the people she is trying to please hate her, and is quick to place the blame for a sour relationship on herself rather than the other person. She is a perfectionist when surrounded by social situations, however, and treats them as a competition at all times. Any time she is given the chance to show off and be the best, she will either prove it if she knows she can, or hide from it altogether and lash out at herself for failing if she knows she can’t. She prefers that other people do not see her as weak even though she knows she is, and prefers to work on her own problems by herself. Though she rarely does actually fix her own problems, and indeed rarely tries at all, she would rather fail on her own than succeed with the help of others.

Josephine spends much of her time indulging in drugs, reading, studying magic, sleeping, or otherwise distracting herself as much as possible. She believes that her life is worthless yet is fearful of death, and so simply exists rather than actually lives, drifting from one hobby and distraction to another to keep from having to deal with the thoughts of her own fears and failures.