Dungeons & Dragons

The Mighty Thor

Thrin the Brave

The following stats represent the final incarnation of Thrins 1st/2nd Edition years. Third edition stats for Thrin will appear in the Immortals Handbook. Note that the number of attacks in our campaign was capped at 4 (even back in 1st Edition) with 3/2 offhand at 30th and 2/1 offhand at 60th for cavaliers (x10 the level the attacks would increase for the primary hand). Base Thac0 was capped at -10 and unlike the official rules there was no cap to Armour Class.

Editors note: I'll update the magic items as soon as I find the character sheet again which seems to have temporarily got itself lost amidst the deluge of paper.

THRIN (god of swordsmanship, patron of cavaliers)

Lesser God

ARMOR CLASS: -26 (-31 using Redeemers Defender ability)
MOVE: 12"
HIT POINTS: 399
NO. OF ATTACKS: 6 (4+2)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2d12 (+14)
SPECIAL ATTACKS:
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to magic sword special abilities.
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 162%
SIZE: M (6'8")
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good
WORSHIPPER'S ALIGN: Any Non-Evil
SYMBOL: Crossed Swords
CLERIC/DRUID: 28th-level Cleric
FIGHTER: 62nd-level Cavalier
MAGIC USER/ILLUSIONIST: 27th-level Magic User (28th-level with Ioun Stone)
THIEF/ASSASSIN: Nil
MONK/BARD: Nil
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
S: 25 (+7, +14) I: 21 W: 25 D: 25 C: 25 CH: 20

(Personal) Magic Items:

- "Avenger": (a.k.a. The Sword of Thrin) Intelligent +3 Longsword of Sharpness (Base damage increased to 2d12).

- "Redeemer": Intelligent +5 Longsword Defender/Sharpness/Sunblade (Base Damage increased to 2d12).

- Dragon Scale Armour (forged from a Great Wyrm Albino Dragon), Base AC -7.

- Amulet of Dragon Warding:

- Ring of Protection +6, Scarab of Protection (24 Charges), Ring of Vampiric Regeneration, Gloves of Missile Snaring, Helm of Brilliance, Stone of Good Luck, Necklace of Adaptation, Bracers of Archery, Phylactery of Long Years, Talisman of Pure Good (3 Charges), Periapt vs. Poison, Horn of Blasting, Cloak of Protection +5, Brooch of Shielding (100 Charges), Bag of Holding (1000lb capacity), Rod of Security (40 Charges), Ioun Stone (+1 Level), Ioun Stone (Absorb up to 8th-level spells, 72 Charges), Gem of Insight, Oil of Sharpness (3 uses).

The greatest player character ever? Probably wishful thinking on my part.

The most powerful player character ever? Possibly, though I would doubt it.

The ultimate warrior, who has never known defeat? Okay I'm rambling.

The facts. Thrin was a character I roleplayed fairly from 3rd-level to 117th-level (Lesser Deity) over a period of about 9 years. I emphasise the fair aspect, because many people can claim to have played more powerful PCs but few will have roleplayed them fairly all the way from such lowly beginnings.

To understand how such a character is born, we first have to go back to before the character was even created.

1988. I was playing in an AD&D campaign in school, we gamed every lunchtime and pretty much any other time we could muster, sometimes even during class. I should add the campaign was a player killer, to the extent that surviving a week without rolling up a new character was a rarity. Not that the campaign was ever unfair, simply that there was a machiavellian aspect to proceedings and the DM (Simon Newman) never pulled his punches, all dice rolls in the open, no fudging. However being dropped into the meat grinder week after week has a way of toughening you. Mechanically you become more proficient, tactically you become more adept. Eventually you arrive at a place where you start to push back. I thought I now had a great character (A pregenerated 4th-level Ranger, with 18/94 strength and a giant slaying sword) that would stand the tests of time. Sadly that wasn't to be, I think he lasted one day before he was assassinated by a dark elf (one of the other PCs no less). I think after that disappointment, I decided to roll up the next character with a steely determination. I poured over the classes and rules in general, and settled upon an Elven Cavalier. The stats were excellent and I actually rolled 18/00 strength (in front of the DM no less, although Simon doesn't remember that part...but I do) - an auspicious start. 16 to both constitution and dexterity. 13 to wisdom. 11 to both charisma and intelligence. The name was an amalgam of two names I had seen in one of Games Workshops Citadel Miniatures catalogue, and sounded suitably elfin. The brave moniker was in response to the Cavalier class rules of conduct.

Chapter One: Thrin - The Early Years (ie. Low Level Gaming)

Back in the day, Thrin was reckless. Looking back, I sometimes question what I was thinking when I would single handedly (if the situation arose) charge armies. The second facet of the character was that he was powerful. In retrospect some of this was undoubtedly due to the prior revolving door of player characters. So many new characters had been created that there was a stockpile of magic items amongst the current roster of PCs. So even though the campaign was never drenched in magic items (blood yes, items no), they had inevitably built up over the months. If I recollect correctly, Thrin had an Armour Class of -10 at 6th-level (Full Platemail +2, Cloak of Protection +3, Dexterity 16, Ring of Protection +3, Boots of Striding and Springing) which I am sure was slightly above the norm. But nevertheless this was a cutthroat campaign.

Part One: The Quickling Incident

One of the first memorable adventures (or rather the furthest back I can remember with the exception of that Nehwon adventure where the tower came alive at the end) involved the PCs taking on a large force of Mind Flayers in the underdark. I think we realised early on that we were out of our depth in this one. It should also be noted that one of the other PCs (Jonathan Cresswell) was playing a Gold Dragon at the time, but those of you who remember 1st Edition will know that Dragons were fairly wimpish back then (except en masse...I'll come back to that in some later stories). Luckily the caves were rather large and able to accomodate the dragon for a reason that would become clear in the near future.The second point of note was that it was the first instance I can recall where Simon threw one of his own creations at us; in this case a mutant created by the illithids...sort of like a mini Tarrasque if you will. Simon had been smiling (never a good sign) and dropping hints that this was a very tough foe (when he starts ad libbing the monster noises its a sure sign to get the hell out of Dodge). I think we engaged the beast for a round and took a severe beating in the process. Cavaliers don't retreat but given the completely hopeless situation the concession was made that under the circumstances it wouldn't be against the code of conduct to live to fight another day. But there was two problems. The monster was like greased lightning and Thrin was in full platemail when he needed a pair of Nike Air. Secondly, it was already right on us. I suggested the Gold Dragon Wall of the Ice the chamber and give us time to escape, but the monster was going through it like butter and we weren't going to make it. With a rush of blood to the head, the Gold Dragon decided to stay and slug it out with the monster. A noble sacrifice but unfortunately in vain. As the already wounded Dragon proved nothing more than a momentary distraction. Only one thing for it. The Wizard would have to polymorph Thrin into something fast...how about a Quickling I suggested. Okay says Simon, roll the system shock check (With Constitution 16 Thrin had a 96% chance to be okay; if I recall correctly). Of course I just happened to roll 97. DOH!

The Wizard bundled Thrins body into a bag and was able to make good her escape. However this incident also heralded my hatred of making resurrection and system shock rolls as no matter how narrow the chances of failure I always seemed to be able to roll them. However this time, fortunately Thrin was able to be resurrected, next time he would not be so lucky.

Next. The early years continues with Part Two: Where does he get those wonderful toys!?