Character du Jour: Theros Cordellian, the Godsthief

The greying sergeant scratched his head while the merchant raved. Last night, his store had been raided. This in itself wasn’t unusual, especially with the trollwar making generally honest men turn to illegal activities just to survive. What was odd was how little was taken.

While the merchant wrung his hands and moaned that the gods themselves had deserted him, his staff busied themselves taking stock of the losses. A scribe patiently tallied their findings, cross-referencing everything with the last months’ figures.

His calculations complete, the scribe lowered his quill.

"10%. Exactly 10%, and not a sou more."

Theros Cordellian is a Godsthief, a rare and secretive calling that specializes in taking the church’s tithe from those who do not give it willingly. He carries out his work with professional detachment, working as secretively as possible so as not to embarrass his targets. The church gains what is rightfully theirs by law and proclamation, and the parishioner often receives a quiet visit from the local clergy, suggesting that the "theft" was natural justice due to their immoral greed.

In the end, everyone wins.

Occasionally, Theros is called for more unusual duties, assisting in the church’s investigation of rumours regarding lost tombs, relics and the like. In those times, he joins an adventuring troupe as a relic hunter on orders from the church. In return, he asks for nothing more than a fair share, plus the safe return of any holy relics they may find.

Dirty little secret: Theros answers to Prelate Maliss, a vile man who passes none of Theros’ recovered tithes back to the church of Erathis, and has built up considerable wealth and power as a result. And if he is ever found out, he has a ready-made fall guy….

Notes: Theros is a 3rd level hybrid Rogue/Cleric. That’s one awesome combination – a one-man adventuring party who can stab you in the back one round then heal you the next. He is a professional burglar who firmly believes that what he is doing is right. He feels no compassion for his victims at all – in fact, he considers it is they who are the god’s thieves, not him. They’ve kept what rightly belongs to the church. He’s just putting it back.

One day though, he will steal the wrong 10% from the wrong person.

Love this character. He’s a one-man disaster action movie, all waiting to happen.

Here’s his character sheet, all ready to play. I dig his Lullaby Mace!

If forced to fight, his favoured tactic is to clasp his Holy Symbol of Good Fortune and use his Gaze of Defiance against his opponent from a distance, invoking the Good Fortune at the same time. This gives him +2 to his next attack as well as a  +1 bonus to his allies against the same target (+3 if he attacks Theros back). Follow that up by moving if necessary then spending an Action Point for a Setup Strike, pretty much guaranteeing Sneak Attack damage next round. Follow up by using Stunning Blade Leap (a total of +11 to hit!) with his Lullaby Mace to send the poor mook to Sleep. Or dead.

That’s a total damage over two rounds of 5d8+2d6+11 with allies at +1 to hit and the poor bozo Slowed and well on the way to unconsciousness. Not too shabby for a fun, story focused, non-optimized rogue with a mace.

Of course, he’s burned through all his Dailies in just two rounds, but doing it just once is worth the look on the other player’s faces :D