Plug And Play - Rene Artis, Witch Hunter

We're rolling out a new feature, Plug And Play. Inspired by the fantastic series Heroes on Demand at the GSA (do yourself a favor and click on that link. Go ahead, I'll wait.), these posts will have a short narrative to pair with a mechanical build of some kind. Each of these characters/items/scenarios/NPCs are designed to be, as the title suggests, dropped right into your existing game.

Here's the first one, a character for Fantasy Craft:

-------------------------------------------------------------

The Beady-Eyed Man sat at the bar, warming his frigid hands with a hot cup of juniper tea. He stared into the cup, deep in thought, and clumsily stirred in two more spoonfuls of honey.

The Ruddy Woman shambled up to the bar, setting her broad-brimmed hat aside. “A cup of ale, good sir,” she asked, pulling two heavy coins from her vest pocket and setting them down. “Something warm for my board, as well – I’m famished.” She continued to pull off the layers of wet traveling gear she wore, and noticed the Beady-Eyed Man nearby. “You look like I feel friend, colder than a headstone.”

The Beady-Eyed Man snapped out of his deliberation now that she addressed him. ‘Where did she come from’ he thought, panicking. ‘Why is she talking to me?’ Reflexively, he turned to look at the door, as if to be sure she came through it. ‘Stupid!’ he thought, and turned back around hoping she didn't notice.

Misinterpreting his glance at the door, the Ruddy Woman replied: “Yes, still quite cold and rainy out there!” Ale in hand, she moved down the bar and sat down next to the Beady-Eyed Man, which caused him much visible discomfort. “Oh, honey – great idea!” She reached across his body to fetch the jar of honey, and dropped a spoonful into her mug. Irritated, he began to croak out a protest, but the Ruddy Woman placed her hand on his wrist, smiled warmly, and reassured him. “No need to say anything honey – Oh! See what I did there? – I completely understand.”

Confused, the Beady-Eyed Man attempted to pull his wrist away, but she pinned it to the bar with surprising strength. “Funny” she said, stirring the honey into her ale with one hand while pinning his wrist with the other. “One thing I've learned in my line of work is that the recently deceased have a hard time tasting sweet things.” She turned to look at his pallid face, her pale green eyes hard behind a jovial face. “It certainly doesn't mask the taste of human flesh, does it Sergei?”

With an inhuman strength he didn't know he had, Sergei ripped his arm free from the insufferable woman. He tried to plead with her to let him be, but the words only came out as a horrific snarl. Frustrated and panicked, he spun about and scrambled to the door. ‘I didn't want to kill him', he tried to say as he fled – 'I was hungry! Had to eat!’ His legs, growing more torpid by the day, failed him, and he crashed onto the warm tavern door.

He pulled – willed himself forward to escape, dragging his heavy body. He didn't hear the Ruddy Woman come up behind him until it was too late. Sergei didn't feel the curved blade enter the base of his skull and before everything went black, he heard: “I apologize sweetie, I failed to introduce myself before. My name is Rene, and I’m a witch hunter.”
-----------------------------------------------------

Rene Artis

Vigilant Human Adept Scout 1

STR 12 +1
DEX 14 +2
CON 12 +1
INT 10 +0
WIS 16 +3
CHA 14 +2

Vitality: 10 / Wounds: 12
Defense: 12
Initiative: +3 roll twice

Fort: +3
Ref: +7
Will: +3

Lifestyle: +2 (Panache 2, Prudence 0) – earns 20s income, saves 15%
Appearance: +2
Legend: +0
Renown: 0

Melee Attack (Sabre): +2, Damage 1d10+1, Crit 19, Error 1, Cavalry, Finesse
Ranged Attack (Light Crossbow): +3, Damage 1d6 (bolt), Crit 19, Error 1, AP2, Load 5, Range 50 ft x 6

VIGILANT:

• Abilities: +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence
• Base Speed: 30 ft.
• Always Ready: You may always act during surprise rounds.
• Enlightened Notice: Your maximum Notice rank increases to your Career Level + 5. 
• Lightning Reflexes: You gain the Lightning Reflexes feat.

ADEPT:

• Bonus Feat: Magehunter
• Free Hint: Once per session, you may request a free hint from the GM. If he refuses, you gain 1 bonus action die.
• Heroism: You gain a +1 bonus with all attack and skill checks you make during Dramatic scenes.
• Practiced Search: If you spend an action die to boost a Search check and it still fails, you gain the die back after the action is resolved.
• Turning: Once per combat you may Turn characters of the Undead Type.

SCOUT:

• Trailblazer: Once per scene as a free action, you may temporarily grant your teammates 1 of your Terrain feats until the end of the scene.
• Stalker: Each time you fail a Survival or Tactics check and don’t suffer an error, you still succeed as long as the check DC (or your opponent’s check result) is equal to or less than your Class Level + 20

FEATS:

• Lightning Reflexes: Your base Reflex save bonus increases by +3. You may also roll twice when making Initiative checks, keeping the result you prefer.
• Magehunter (bonus feat): When you score a threat with an attack or skill check against a character with 1 or more Spellcasting ranks, it costs you 1 fewer action dice to activate it as a critical. You also gain Spell Defense equal to 10 + your Career Level + your Charisma modifier.
• Basic Skill Mastery (Investigator): You gain a +2 insight bonus and a threat range of 19–20 with Investigate and Search.

SKILLS:
Acrobatics +2
Athletics +1
Blend +4
Bluff +2
Crafting +0
Disguise +2
Haggle +3
Impress +2
Intimidate +3
Investigate +9 (Crit 19)
Medicine +2
Notice +9
Prestidigitation +2
Resolve +3
Ride +2
Search +2 (Crit 19)
Sense Motive +5
Sneak +4
Survival +5
Tactics +2

PROFICIENCIES:
Edged Proficiency
Bow Forte (+1 with Bows

TRICKS:
Mix-Up: Once per round, when the character hasn't taken the Trip action during the last 3 rounds, she may take it and gain a +3 morale bonus with the first attack or skill check it requires.

INTERESTS:
Native Language
Study: Homeland
Study: Etiquette
Study: History