Grunda, Dwarf wizard, age 20 ST 12, DX 11, IQ 9, MA 10 Talents: Crossbow, Literacy, Missile Weapons Spells: Aid, Fire, Staff Languages: Common, Dwarvish Weapon: Staff holly maul (1d+2), steel light crossbow (2d; adjDX 12), untalented silver dagger (1d-1; 1d+1 HTH) Attacks and Damage: Punch (1d-2)
| Equipment | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Staff holly maul | $20 | 5.0# |
| steel light crossbow | $50 | 6.0# |
| 20 silver quarrels | $200 | 1.0# |
| silver dagger | $100 | 0.2# |
| Apprentice field clothing | $50 | - |
| Belt pouch | $5 | 0.5# |
| Backpack | $40 | 4.0# |
| 4 days rations | $20 | 4.0# |
| 2 waterskins | $4 | 4.0# |
| 3 healing potions | $450 | 0.6# |
| 4 gold, 20 silver, 10 copper coins | $61 | 0.35# |
| Total | $1,000 | 25.65# |
Grunda aspires to be treated as a "real wizard", and is a fully paid up guild member and everything. She has been (rather unjustly, as "yet another clumsy dwarf") blamed for wizard lab accidents and so has become an adventuring apprentice for hire, but at least this pays twice as much as a lab job (her base guild wage is $25, doubled for field work, then add $25 in coin or equivalent for apprentice level living expenses for a total of $75/week.) Grunda will insist on getting paid up front for the expected length of adventure and will have these funds deposited into her guild account rather than carrying them on her.
Grunda can pick up another 22 pounds of gear before becoming encumbered enough to be penalized for swimming (other than lacking the talent to do so). She can carry up to 96 pounds before losing MA, and 144 pounds before hitting a DX penalty on land. In spite of this dwarven advantage, Grunda refuses to be treated as a beast of burden and will insist that the party bring a mule to pull their cart (even though she's better at it than the animal is). She also won't carry ferrous loot that would spoil her (very very limited) spellcasting. When the hypocrisy of her steel crossbow is pointed out to her she'll reply that this is only to take one shot at the start of melee then will be dropped so she can act as a proper wizard. This loophole can be haggled into her carrying up to (4 x 2 x 12 = 96 pounds) of ferrous gear in a bag over her shoulder, but this will be dropped to the ground on the first round of combat as she readies a weapon. She will carry non-ferrous loot in her backpack, but if the party makes this routine she'll start haggling for a share of the loot for herself.
Grunda currently takes a full turn to reload after each shot, so her natural experience progression is to add another 2 points of DX to make a shot per turn. Even at her starting level her base Missile Weapon talent makes her a semi-decent sniper. A 100 yard shot gives her -5 DX for the range, +1 for Missile Weapons, +2 DX for bracing the crossbow, and another +2 for two turns aiming, for a final adjDX of 11, which is a 62.5% chance to hit a non-dodging target.
The maul does the same damage as a quarterstaff (without needing the talent) and can apply staff zaps to targets who Defend, or are not harmed by mundane wooden sticks.
The dagger is only for HTH, and even untalented is expected to hit (DX 11 +4 /4d) 66.44% of the time for an average of 3 hits/turn, vs her fist (DX 11 +4/3d) hitting 95.37% of the time for an average of only 1.6 hits/turn, and the advantage for the blade is even greater against targets that have some armor on them, such as wolves. Should she encounter a very fine enchanted silver dagger early on then she might be tempted to learn the Knife talent and Staff the blade.
| Total XP | Expected progression |
|---|---|
| 200 XP | Raise DX to 13, now makes one crossbow shot per turn. Likely to have a silver crossbow by this point. |
| 400 XP | Raise DX to 14, and wear cloth or water armor. |
| 700 XP | Raise DX to 15, and likely to have a magic item, such as a Stone Flesh ring. |
| 1300 XP | Raise IQ to 10. Grunda now starts carrying scrolls. |
| 2300 XP | Raise IQ to 11. Grunda should have a wizard's chest and a few magic items. |
| 2800 XP | Grunda learns another spell, most likely Illusion. She will add spells, mana (after Staff II), and some talents from now on. |
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