Rowan portrait by Jessica Kuczynski
Download Character Sheet: Rowan Character Sheet
You can find the other premade characters here.
Who Rowan Is
Player:
Name Pronunciation: ROW-uhn
Gender: Nonbinary.
Manner: A facade of seriousness with excitability underneath.
Goal: To study unusual magic.
Backstory: Rowan grew up in a research outpost in a remote area. Their parents were part of a small team that was studying unusual magical phenomena. From a young age magic has fascinated them, and their goal is to become a magical researcher like their parents. Now they have completed their training and are just starting out on their own. They can’t wait for their first mission.
Witchcraft: Their connection to magic has always been through nature. Witchcraft has given Rowan the opportunity to explore this connection through specific mystical practices, such as healing others, animal transformations, bonding with a familiar, and divination.
Behavior: They are excitable and effusive, but they try to put on a front of seriousness and intellectualism. This is obviously a facade and their excitement regularly breaks through.
Prosthetic Foot: Rowan was born without a hind left foot. They have been using prosthetic feet their whole life and currently have two different designs. One is a regular prosthesis for daily use and the other is designed for running. More details on these prostheses are given in the “Equipment Rowan Has” section.
Lady the Hawk: Lady is Rowan’s familiar. She is a red-tailed hawk with a rufous tail, dark brown back, red-brown head, and cream-colored belly that is streaked with red-brown. She is inquisitive and alert, staring intently at anything that attracts her attention.
Appearance: Rowan is a centaur that is just under seven feet tall, with an androgynous, willowy build. Their horse body has a vibrant red coat that shades to black on their legs, while their human torso has pale skin with strong red undertones. Rowan has a long face framed by flowing black hair that matches their long flowing tail. On their hind left leg is a black prosthetic foot made of wood, leather, and molded resin. They are wearing an intricately knitted blue dress that has an elegant rope and diamond pattern. On their shoulder is a red-tailed hawk perched on sturdy leather pad.
Relationships:
What Rowan Can Do
Class: Druid.
Body #: 3
Mind #: 5
Species: Centaur.
Species Trait—Additional Limbs (Four Legs): You can move more quickly than a two legged person of the same size and ability. In addition, your additional legs help you keep your footing. This means that you are considered prepared when doing tasks that involve staying upright or keeping your footing, such as moving over a slippery surface without falling.
Physical Defense—Shield: You are trained to use a shield for physical defense. This can be any type of shield from your culture. You own a shield and you can use this training any time that you are holding it. However your shield requires one hand to use, so you cannot do any two-handed tasks while using it. In addition, your shield can be taken away by disarming attacks.
Mental Defense—Protective Outfit: You are trained to use a special protective outfit for mental defense and you can use this training any time that you are wearing it. However you are unable to sleep in this outfit (perhaps it is too delicate or lumpy to sleep in), and it takes a significant amount of time to put on. For Rowan this is a set of protective patterns knitted into their dress.
Body Skills:
Combat Skills
Unarmed Fighting (Unarmed actions like punching, kicking, tripping, and wrestling)
Melee Combat (Using melee weapons like swords, spears, and axes)
Ranged Combat (Using ranged weapons like bows and throwing daggers)
Strength Skills
✔ Athletics (Strength and endurance activities like running, jumping, and throwing)
Climbing (Climbing up and down trees, rocks, and other steep surfaces)
✔ Flying (Doing complex maneuvers and flying in difficult conditions)
Riding (Caring for and riding mounts)
✔ Swimming (Doing complex maneuvers and swimming in difficult conditions)
Dexterity Skills
Acrobatics (Feats of agility, balance, and flexibility)
Manual Dexterity (Picking locks, disabling traps, pick-pocketing, etc.)
Mobility (Using agility and flexibility to keep moving)
Stealth (Hiding, moving silently, and generally being sneaky)
Mind Skills:
Knowledge Skills
✔ Arcana (Magical knowledge)
Culture (Religions, customs, languages, and history)
✔ Nature (Knowing about animals, plants, weather, geography, and physiology)
Technology (The basics of math, engineering, and crafting)
Social Skills
✔ Communicating with Animals (Communication and interaction with animals)
Deception (Misleading others)
Diplomacy (Honest communication)
Intimidation (Using fear and awe to get cooperation)
Performance (Getting and holding people’s attention, disguises)
Awareness Skills
Insight (Reading people and assessing social situations)
✔ Perception (Noticing subtle things in your environment)
✔ Survival (Navigating and sustaining life in different environments, first aid)
Natural Connection—Words: You connect to nature through words, such as poetry, chanting, or singing. In order to cast spells, you must be able to express these words in a language you know. Verbal words must be audible and signed words must be visible.
Ability #1—Healing and Restoration Magic: You can create magical healing effects that alleviate harm and improve ongoing conditions. Examples of things that you can do are mending wounds, curing poisons, removing curses, dispelling harmful mind- and emotion-altering magic, decreasing pain, reducing the intensity of symptoms, healing those diseases that can be healed by magic, and bringing people to optimal medication levels. Healing and Restoration Magic is used by rolling mind and you are trained in it.
Ability #2—Animal Magic: You can create magical effects that involve animals. There are two main ways to do this: connecting with animals and taking on animal abilities. Examples of ways that you can connect with animals are speaking with animals, calming animals, sensing where animals are, and calling animals to your aid. Possibilities for taking on animal abilities include both shapeshifting (turning into a specific animal) and partial transformations to gain specific animal traits. For example, you could have eagle vision, bioluminescence, wings, gills, claws, poisonous fangs, a keen sense of smell, echolocation, the ability to climb like a gecko, or the capacity to create webs. Animal Magic can also be used to sense, alter, and disrupt the Animal Magic of others. It is used by rolling mind and you are trained in it.
Ability #3—Divination: Momentary fragments of the past, present, and future come to you. If the game master wants, fragments will come to you at plot relevant moments. In addition, once per day, you can focus this ability on a specific question by taking ten minutes to concentrate on what you want to know. The exact divination method you use is up to you. For example, you could sketch random images, meditate, pray, journal, search through a relevant book, do a tarot reading, use a set of rune stones, or gaze into a fire.
This ability is used by rolling mind and you are trained in it. The fragments that come to you may express themselves through your chosen divination method or through sensory experiences, such as visions. These fragments can be realistic, dreamlike, continuous, jumbled, long, or short. Sometimes they are clear and helpful, but other times they are confusing and upsetting.
Keep in mind that the more significant and far-reaching your question is, the more ambiguous the fragments are going to be. For example, the connection between the fragments and your question may not be immediately apparent. This is important because it prevents Divination from spoiling the game by instantly solving big mysteries.
Ability #4—Familiar: You have formed a magical bond with Lady the red-tailed hawk. This is your familiar. The magic of your bond enhances your familiar’s mental abilities, including their capacity to understand, communicate, and problem solve. Your familiar acts independently, but if you treat her well, she will be helpful and loyal to you.
- Magical Bond: This bond allows you to speak telepathically with your familiar and perceive through her senses. You do not need to roll to do either of these things, but any time you perceive through Lady’s senses, you become unaware of your own physical surroundings.
- What Your Familiar Can Do: Your familiar can do anything that is physically possible for her body. She also understands how doors and windows work and can use simple tools. In addition, familiars can make plans and they have a basic understanding of magic.
- Training: Lady is trained in Flying, Manual Dexterity (with her beak and feet), Nature, Perception, and Survival. Her physical defense is Dodging and her mental defense is a Deflection.
- Body and Mind Numbers: Body 4 with Mind 4.
- Getting a Familiar to Cooperate: Because familiars are more independent, it can be a bit tricky convincing them to do what you want. If you are asking them to ignore a temptation or do something unpleasant, you need to roll Communicating with Animals to convince them to cooperate.
- Rolling: The dice roll for a familiar carrying out an action is handled separately from the actions of the character they are bonded to. Any time that a familiar attempts an action that has a meaningful chance of failure, make a dice roll using the familiar’s body or mind number and any applicable training, preparation, or help that they have.
Equipment Rowan Has
Special Item—Telepathic Lantern: This magically glowing lantern floats at a moderate speed through air or water. You have a telepathic link to it that allows you to control its movement, brightness, and color up to a mile away, though you do need to see it to have precise control over its movement.
Equipment for Abilities: You have all of the equipment needed to care for and handle your hawk familiar, including a leather shoulder pad, glove, and food.
Tools for Skills: First aid kit that is used for the Survival skill.
Defensive Equipment: Rowan has a shield.
Adaptive Devices: Rowan has two prosthetic feet. Their regular prosthesis works pretty well for most tasks, especially walking and standing, but they run significantly slower on it. Meanwhile their running prosthesis allows them to run quickly, but is less stable for walking and everyday tasks. In addition, walking on their running foot puts more stress on their joints and muscles, causing pain with extended use. Both prosthetic feet are made of materials that transform with them when Rowan uses magic to take on an animal form.
Standard Supplies:
- Everyday outfit
- Sturdy backpack
- Waterproof tarp
- Towel
- Bedroll
- Fire-starting kit
- Lantern with oil
- Portable cooking pot
- Wooden dishes and utensils
- Utility knife
- Waterskin
- Travel rations
- Rope
- Twine
- Chalk
- Soap
- One handful of coins
