A work in process, I am getting there!
"I am Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith. I will survive. At any cost."Darth BaneHuman Ardent 1/Human Paragon 3/Ardent 1/Psionic Swiftblade 9Medium Humanoid [Psionic]Hit Dice: 11d6+3d8+74 (141)
Initiative: +18 (+2 dex, +2 luck, +2 unnamed, +5 insight, +7 Arcane reflexes)
Speed: 40ft (8 squares)
Armor Class: 37
Touch: 16
Flat-footed: 34
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+22
Attack: +25/+20/+15 (lightsaber, 3d8+1)
Full Attack: +25/+20/+15 (lightsaber, 3d8+1)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Qualities: Adaptive learning, Arcane reflexes, Assume psionic mantle (3), Blurred alacrity, Damage reduction 20/-, Diligent rapidity, Evasive celerity, Fast healing 5, Faster ability damage healing (1 point/10 min), Fortified hustle, Perpetual options, Sudden casting, Swift surge (+2/10ft/+1d6)
Saves: Fort 12
Refl 16
Will 22
Abilities: STR 30 (10)
DEX 14 (2)
CON 20 (4)
INT 14 (2)
WIS 24 (6)
CHA 10 (0)
Skills: Autohypnosis, 12 (1) Bluff 5 (5), Concentration 18 (12), Diplomacy 7 (5), Intimidate 7 (5), Jump 36 (16), Knowledge (arcana) 19 (9), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 11 (1), Knowledge (local) 19 (9), Knowledge (nature) 16 (6), Knowledge (religion) 19 (9), Knowledge (the planes) 19 (9), Spellcraft 8 (6), Tumble 9 (5), Use magic device 1 (1)
Skill trick: Collector of Stories
Traits: Absent-minded
Feats: Able learner, Battle jump, Bounding assault (B), Exotic weapon proficiency (lightsaber), Expeditious dodge, Knowledge devotion, Leap attack, Mobility, Power attack, Practiced manifester, Spring attack (B), Weapon focus (lightsaber) (B)
Flaws: Murky-eyed, Shaky
Environment:Organization: Solitary (unique, affiliated with the Order of the Sith Lords) or with a bunch of evil player characters
Challenge Rating: 14
Alignment: Lawful Evil (Sith as hell)
Languages Spoken:Level Adjustment: Possessions: Spoiler down there.
Mantles:Primary:
-Conflict, Deception
Secondary:
-Force
-Conflict: 1. Vigor (replaces Metaphysical weapon), 2. Prowess 2. Psionic Lion's charge, 3. Psionic Haste (replaces Dimension slide), 3. Body purification, 5. Psychic crush, 5. Graft weapon, 7. Mind blank, personal (added), 7. Moment of prescience, psionic, 8. Spirit of war
-Deception: 1. Charm, psionic, 2. Cloud mind, 3. Sense danger (replaces Concealing amorpha), 3. False sensory input, 3.Touchsight, 5. True seeing, psionic (added) 7. Fate of one, 8. Bend reality, 8. Hypercognition (added)
-Force: 1. Force screen, 1. Deflection field, 2. Energy missile (replaces Concussion blast), 3. Telekinetic force, 3. Ethereal volley, 4. Telekinetic maneuver, 6. Psychometry, 6. Overland flight (added to mimic Force flight, which is slow and clumsy) 9. Tornado blast
Powers known, 219 power points a day:1: Charm, psionic, Force screen, Vigor
2: Energy missile, Lion's charge, psionic, Prowess
3: Body purification, Haste, psionic, Telekinetic force, Touchsight
4: Telekinetic maneuver
5: True seeing, psionic
6: Overland flight, psionic, Psychometry
7: Fate of one
8:
9:
Character background and flavour: Before his ascension to his current lofty position, Darth Bane was but a lowly miner in a faraway country. There he toiled, subjugated by a brutal feodal lord and his greed. Due to his massive frame and exceptional strength, Bane should have been the perfect miner, but he had also been blessed with keen wits and extraordinary intellect, not to mention insatiable ambition. However, even he needed a push from destiny before he could fulfill his goal and escape the duty he was shackled to by a massive debt accumulated by his drunken father.
The precious little free time the miners had was usually spent in the only tavern of the small thorpe the miners inhabited. For Bane the tavern was a paradoxical entity; it had indebted his father and, by extension, him, forcing them to slavery, but it also provided him with opportunities of winning money from drunken gamble and stood as the only escape from his miserable life. Fittingly, it was the events that took place in that very tavern that would both emancipate and doom Bane for the rest of his life. A small contingency of the lord's men occasionally came to supervise the mining process and when they did they usually spent most of the time gambling rather than looking after their liege's investments. On one day Bane decided to take what was rightfully his, the fruits of his work, from these men. Naturally he could not simply steal it or loot it from the corpses, for such a course of action would have resulted in severe penalties. Instead he used his gifts, cunning, secrecy and patience and took on his adversaries in a game of cards.
Others would attribute it to luck, but against all odds, Bane won and he knew it was not simply a coincidence. He knew what cards would be turned, what cards the other players held and most of all, he knew he would win. Not used to losing, the lord's men did not take their losses lightly and swore revenge on Bane, who used all the willpower he had to restrain himself from attacking his agitators. His foes did not show the same courtesy, but ambushed him as he was leaving the tavern, hoping he would be easy prey before superior numbers. But years of brawling and working in the mines had made Bane a formidable foe for anyone to face and soon one of the assailants fell down dead. Bane knew his old life was over and he escaped as fast as and as far as he could.
Bane was conscripted to the army of an evil empire ruled by magicians calling themselves the Sith. They claimed they could tap an omnipresent entity called the Force to bring their enemies low and they were in a state of constant war against another faction, the Jedi, who were the polar opposites of the Sith. The Jedi relied on calmness and serenity, while the Sith fueled their powers with rage and passion. Most of the world saw their eternal conflict as a philosophical battle fought between uncontrollable fanatics. Bane saw the Jedi as imposing chains of obedience upon others much like his former lord had done and thus he took delight in destroying their troops and taking part in their downfall.
His path was not to be that of a regular soldier, however. A Sith Lord called Kopecz took note of his abilities and offered him a position as an apprentice. Should he accept, he would be taught in the ways of the Force, but should he refuse, he would be court-martialed and brutally executed. This was, of course, no choice at all. Bane spent the following months keenly studying the various aspects of the Force, learning to increase his physical might, manipulate objects and minds alike as well as strike down his foes making tremendous progress and surpassing all the other apprentices. However, Bane started realising that the Sith were fakes, they were simply looking to impose chains of another sort on him and he could not accept such a fate. So he defected to learn the ancient secrets of the Sith on his own to make him powerful enough to destroy those who would defile the original Sith ideology.
Even with all his might, he knew he was no match for the entire Sith army and thus he needed a plan. He decided to cheat the Sith into destroying each other in an ancient ritual. Pretending to regret running away from the Sith, he gave Lord Kaan, the de facto leader of the Sith army a gift, an ancient scroll describing a powerful, yet extremely dangerous ritual known as the thought bomb. Pulling strings Bane got the Jedi and Sith to do precisely what he wanted and soon the Sith were on the run trying to evade their enemies while hiding in caverns near the battlefields of Ruusan. In these caves Lord Kaan decided to decimate the Jedi, trusting that the Sith would be strong enough to survive the thought bomb. But Bane knew they could not survive, after all, it was him who edited the scroll and removed the parts telling how to protect the casters from the ritual. So Bane escaped the battlefield reveling in the fact that the Sith were finally gone, all but him.
Now Darth Bane lives and travels alone. He is on a quest to rebuild the Sith from the scratch, but for that he needs an apprentice, someone strong in the Force and devouted to the dark side. Darth Bane, the only surviving Dark Lord of the Sith now stands as the ultimate representative of the dark side, the master of ancient arts all but lost to the rest of the world. Due to his unique command of the dark side of the Force, Bane keeps his true identity secret and regularly refers to his capabilities as standard magic. After all, should he be discovered, the entire Sith ideology would be eradicated...
Bane is a hulking brute of a man. Two metres in height and easily more than a hundred kilograms of solid muscle, he is an intimidating sight to behold. His head is utterly bald and his fierce eyes are devoid of all compassion making him even more frightening. Like the Sith before him, he prefers dark cloaks and robes that do not hinder his movements. For such a large man, Bane is surprisingly nimble and his affinity to the Force makes him faster than most other creatures. However, even though he covers most of his body with loose-fitting garments, he cannot fully hide his muscular build. Only the most perceptive people realise that some of his mass comes from the extremely rare symbiotic crustaceans attached to most part of his body. Beneath his robes lies a layer of dozens of small living organisms that provide him with constant protection beyond the range of regular armours. In addition, these tiny parasites feed upon his dark side energies and fuel his range in combat situation giving him astonishing endurance, physical might and regenerative abilities.
As one might expect, Bane uses his size, strength and ferocity as his main tools of battle. His weapon, the lightsaber, is a tremendously complicated mechanical device and the art of building lightsabers is only known by the Jedi and, of course, him. When ignited, a crimson beam of energy is emitted from the curved hilt of his lightsaber, a beam capable of cutting through almost any material and causing extreme damage to anything it touches. In combat Bane is does not hesitate, but uses his astonishing speed to close in on his opponents and calling on the Force for extra prowess, he quickly overpowers his foes. Fighting Bane is like trying to push away a tidal wave, his attack is like a force of nature and should combat become necessary, he does not back out.
-Point buy: 50 points
- STR: 18 (16 points)
- DEX: 10 (2 points)
- CON: 15 (8 points)
- INT: 14 (6 points)
- WIS: 18 (16 points)
- CHA: 10 (2 points)
Level up and Human Paragon bonuses: +2 STR from Human Paragon, +2 to WIS from levels, +1 CON from levels
STR 20, DEX 10, CON 16, INT 14, WIS 20, CHA 10
-Human Paragon skills chosen: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Iajitsu focus, Intimidate, Jump, Sense motive, Spot, Tumble, Use magic device
Skill point usage:
Ardent: 5x4=20 points (Concentration 4, Knowledge: Arcana, Local, Nature, Religion 4)
Human Paragon: 7x3=21 points (Jump 4, Concentration 5, Knowledge: the Planes 2, Knowledge Arcana, Local, Nature, Religion 6, UMD 1, Tumble 1
Ardent: 5x1=5 points (Concentration 6, Jump 5, Knowledge Arcana, Nature, Local 7)
Swiftblade: 7x9 points=63 points Concentration 14, Jump 16, Tumble 5, Knowledge Arcana, Nature, Local 9, Knowledge Dungeoneering 1, Religion 9, the Planes 6, Bluff 5, Intimidate 5, Diplomacy 5, Spellcraft 6
Wealth, 150k:
-Ability boosters: Gloves of Dexterity +4 (16k), Amulet of Health +4 (20k)/Natural armour +1, Belt of Giant Strength +4/Battle (28k), Periapt of Wisdom +4 (16k)
-Weaponry: +1 Insightful Valorous Lightsaber with Lesser Crystal of Return (17k with the crystal)
-Utility: Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (8k), Handy haversack (2k), Sandals of the vagabond (4k), masterwork tools for Autohypnosis (0.05k), masterwork tool for concentration (0.05k), masterwork tool for jump (0.05k), Goggles of night, Greater Ring of Jumping (10k), tools for six knowledges (0.3k), tools for UMD (0.05k)
-Defenses: Ring of Deflection +2/Sustenance (11k), Cloak of Resistance +3/Vagabond (18k), Ironhorn extractx20 (0.5k), Orbalisk armour
142.95k used
Orbalisk armor: Armor bonus +10, fast healing 5, faster ability healing (1/10 min), DR 10/-
Charge calculations:
-BAB +12: Power attack on charge, Battle jump, Leap attack and Valorous PA return 5:1 --> +60 dmg. 3d8x3+3 (enchantment) --> 9d8+69 --> 9d8+69+3d6 (Swiftblade bonus) --> 9d8+72+3d6 (Haste bonus)
-AB: +12 (+1 enchantment, +7 STR, +1 Haste, +2 charge, +1 Weapon focus)+Knowledge devotion X
Calculations revisited:
Power attack:
+12x3 (two-handed+Leap attack) --> 36
36x3 (Battle jump+Valorous) --> 108
3d8x3 (Valorous+Battle jump) --> 9d8
Knowledge devotion: 2x3 (Valorous+Battle jump) --> 6
1x3 (Valorous+Battle jump) --> 3
+1d6 (SB)
108+9d8+6+3+1d6 --> 117+9d8+1d6
7x3 --> 21x3 --> 63 --> 63+9d8+1d6
2x3 --> 6x3 --> 18 --> 18+9d8+1d6
Fluff behind the weapon: For centuries the Sith have wielded lightsabers to bring woe to their enemies and strike fear to the hearts of those who would stand in their way. When Bane was introduced to the Sith Academy of Korriban, he was surprised to see no student was allowed to have a lightsaber and he would have to earn the right to bear one.
Months passed as Bane toiled in the academy amidst omnipresent violence and intrigue. However, he never stopped pursuing greater power. He pushed on, determined to make himself the one true Sith. The first big step on this path was defeating the top apprentice of the academy and thus receiving the right to own a lightsaber, that was given to him by Kas'im, the Blademaster of the Sith Academy. It was not his physical strength that destroyed his enemy, it was his cunning. He wore his opponent out, never giving him a real chance of victory and only when he felt ready, did he strike the telling blow.
His struggle to become the one to save the Sith continued only weeks later as he escaped the academy to pursue knowledge forgotten to the Sith of his time. This trip would prove his final test for he was to face an opponent who was more dangerous than anything he had ever fought, his old mentor Kas'im. Bane's determination and raw power eventually proved too much to Kas'im as well and Bane realised there was no Sith capable of stopping him.
Ironically, Kas'im's defeat revealed the truth behind the Blademaster's teachings; Bane's lightsaber was more than a weapon. His lightsaber was the focal point of his abilities, an extension of his body and a tool for channeling the dark side. It was truly his weapon...
Starting point: +1 lightsaber.
Least: Extend power 3/day. Up to third level powers.
Least: Weapon enhancement, Valorous. Uses two slots.
Least: Comprehend languages.
Least: Magical cipher.
Least: Telekinetic
Lesser: Cunning.
Lesser: Weapon enhancement, Warning.
Lesser: See invisibility. Uses two slots.
Lost abilities: Skill check penalty of -2, -12 hitpoints. Permanent losses.