I’m currently involved in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with a bunch of friends. We play once a week, using Skype and join.me. My character is a halfling sorcerer by the name of Gigas. Here are my character notes for him.
Gigas is descended through his mother, Megan, from a long line of halfling sorcerers. His family had historically been friends with a bronze dragon who lived nearby, and were well respected in the community. Gigas continued the friendship with the dragon, who taught him the art of crafting seemingly normal items with inherent magical powers. He had, at the time, a lizard familiar, and was a proper halfling; a part of the community, not particularly interested in adventure or traveling far from his fellow halflings. His town was prosperous and safe, and he had no desire to leave it. [Feat: Craft Wondrous Item. Gigas was originally Lawful Good.]
All of that changed the day the dragon disappeared, and the zombies attacked. Much of his town was destroyed by the zombie uprising, and many halflings, including both of his parents, were turned into zombies before being destroyed. Fortunately, a band of adventurers seeking the dragon happened by and defeated the undead. Gigas led the adventurers to the dragon’s cave, seeking his aid, but the dragon was gone. The adventurers went off in search of him, leaing Gigas behind.
Gigas changed that day. He decided that the quiet life, even a quiet life supplimented with magic, was a waste. There were things in the world you could never be ready for unless you experienced them firsthand. And perhaps more importantly, the ordered life Gigas had known was completely swept aside by the destruction of his home. So he decided to leave his homeland and travel across the sea, to a faraway land. And he never did find out what became of the adventurers who had saved him, nor of the bronze dragon. [Gigas alignment changed to Chaotic Good.]
On the day Gigas’ parents were killed, his town was destroyed, and his dragon friend disappeared, the shock of these events was enough to break his magical connection with his familiar. A bard, who was travelling on the ship across the sea with him, told him stories of other sorcerers to whom this had happened after a great shock. He explained that, in every one of these stories, the mage involved had to come to terms with what they had experienced before their familiars would return from them. But Gigas was unwilling to accept what the undead had done. Instead, he asked the bard to teach him the secret of channeling positive energy via arcane magic. Gigas poured a lot of effort into learning this secret, not so that he could heal people, but so that the next time he met an undead, he could kill it. Of course, he soon found his new skill in demand for curative purposes. [Gigas casts Cure spells, but cannot summon a familiar.]
When Gigas arrived in the land of Magellan, he fell in almost immediately with a small band of adventurers. They were Tony, the bard; Johnny Smollen, the dwarven rogue; Marshall, the wizard and artificer; and Erange, the elven ranger with a pet elephant named Eph. Gigas and Johnny Smollen shared as many drinks together as battles, and became close friends. Gigas once had a lot of respect for Marshall, a fellow arcanist. But he has since lost much of that respect, ever since Marshall gave up much of his magic in favor of his childlike obsession with his mechanical toys, forsaking the thrill of adventure to spend time in camp, tinkering. Gigas thinks Tony is good company just for his fascinating variety of stories and his thrilling oration, although he privately thinks Tony is a bit useless in combat, and is also not sure whether Tony likes him at all.
Gigas is particularly gregarious, as he believes that almost every sort of person in the world has some wisdom about it. The only people he really ever disliked were evildoers, those who tried to harm him and his friends (a crime he does not easily forgive), and Erange the elf, who he found incredibly irritating. Truth be told, it wasn’t her fault that she happened to be abysmally stupid. Still, Gigas considered her a liability, as she had a habit of rushing into combat and getting in the way of his spells. He had a habit of “accidentally” hitting her with his destructive magics, and once shot a Fireball at her in retalliation for hugging him. When she died in the gladiator’s arena, Gigas mourned for about three seconds. In retrospect, though, he actually finds that he still doesn’t really miss her at all.
Gigas much prefers the newest member of the party, Hazel the half-drow. Although, he does wish she would get along better with his friend Johnny Smollen. Gigas has gone so far as to slip him a love potion in her presence, in an attempt to bring this about. In general, though he finds Hazel a much more pleasant traveling companion, and a much more worthy ally. As for the latest edition to the group, Bane the fighter, Gigas doesn’t have much respect for him. The halfling doesn’t dislike him, but he has come to think of the ex-gladiator as something of a lackey.
Gigas’ usual attitude towards combat is cautious and survivalist. This makes him a bit overeager to recommend a retreat, a trait others may mistake for cowardice. But in fact, he’s very coolheaded in battle, hard to unnerve or frighten. Only two things really get under his skin. The first is the feeling that he’s out (or nearly out) of magical power, which evokes a fear reaction in him that most halflings would consider outright panic. The second is the undead. He won’t admit that he’s after vengeance for his parents, even to himself. He knows that the zombies who attacked his town are all destroyed. Nevertheless, he abandons his cautious attitude whenever undead are involved, even putting himself in danger to destroy them. The vicious, undead bane dagger he has recently acquired is a perfect match for this attitude of his; he will more than happily wade into melee, and even accept harm to himself, in order to destroy undead.
Gigas, once provoked, is hard to cool down. He’s more than happy to use diplomacy or trickery to talk his way out of a fight, and does so if it seems feasible. But, once attacked, he will usually try and destroy his enemies, even if there remains a way to come to some kind of truce. This can get him into trouble if, for example, his party and another attack each other, each thinking the other to be evil. It takes a lot of convincing, once battle is joined, to make Gigas call off his offensive.
As a novice sorcerer, Gigas was originally interested in subtle spells, mostly enchantments and illusions. [Feat: Silent Spell.] But, as time went on and he saw more and more battles, he came to the conclusion that there was simply no substitute for the sheer destruction of evocation spells, and has since practiced with them until he became incredibly proficient at their use. [Feat: Spell Focus (evocation).] Most recently he has traveled to the lands of the north, where he encountered a large number of demons, the first foes he had faced with a significant resistance to his magic. Through his observations both of the demons, and a certain spell-resistant being he met in those lands, he has learned how to partially overcome this resistance through slight alterations to his technique. [Feat: Spell Penetration.] As Gigas went on further adventures, he has relearned the arts of illusion, but he has also honed his destructive spell casting to the point where he can cast two spells at once, greatly improving his firepower. [Feat: Twin Spell.]
Like many halflings, Gigas feels most comfortable around beings of around his height. Hence, in his current adventuring party, his closest friend is the dwarf Johnny Smollen, and he had previously felt close to Terry the halfling, a member of a different adventuring group. (He particularly likes Terry’s name, and thinks that he may name his own son Terry someday.) One of Gigas’ early wondrous item crafting projects with the bronze dragon was a belt that allowed him to either double or halve his own size, as he wished; originally for use in social situations, he has since found that it is particularly handy when he needs to wield a bigger weapon or present a smaller target in combat. [Gigas has a custom item: the Belt of Size Scaling.]
Gigas also enjoys alcohol, like many halflings, and while he’s never spilled any secrets while drunk, he has embarrassed himself on occasion. He once apologized drunkenly to Erange for having drunkely fireballed her earlier. And once, before even arriving at Magellan, he offered to marry a lovely, halfling woman. In a bar. Who was actually a gnome. Whose husband was also in the bar. And was skilled with the broadsword. And who promised to kill Gigas should they ever meet again. [Gigas wears a hat of disguise at almost all times.]
Gigas has enchanted himself with a permanent Resistance spell, and a permanent Tongues spell. He still enjoys taunting foes, regardless of their race, in Halfling.
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