Two characters remain for our Warhammer party*, and the two remaining races to choose from are both elves. High elves are next on the list, so let's have a look at their starting package.
High Elves are supposed to be super-sophisticated and ultra-civilized and so forth. They are noted for composure, which grants them a free Focus talent at generation; for erudition, which lets them start play with the Education skill for free; and for being the chosen of the divine mother Isha, which allows them to train discipline, intuition or observation as though they were career skills. In addition, they have night vision of the same type as dwarves. They also start with boosts to Agility and Intelligence, and have 20 creation points. They are less hardy than Men or Dwarves, however, with a base Wound Threshold of 8.
With these factors in mind (more or less), I turn to the career deck so see what jobs the fates might bring this elf's way. Once again, only one of my first three draws is an eligible career: Mercenary. Initiate and Barber-Surgeon get discarded, to be replaced by Soldier and Boatman, which are both eligible. At this point I still haven't scrapped the human Coachman idea, so Boatman goes by the wayside yet again. Soldier and Mercenary are very similar in style, so I compare the details to see which fits better. The first privileges Toughness, the second Strength, and both have Willpower as their second primary characteristic. Both have riding as well as ranged and melee weapon skills on their career list, but the Soldier has Discipline** and Leadership whereas the Merc has Guile and Athletics. There's a good case to be made for either, but I'm warming more to Soldier, so that's my choice.
The Soldier's keywords are Basic, Combat, Military, and Specialist. As noted, its primary characteristics are Toughness and Willpower, and its career skills are Ballistic Skill, Discipline, Leadership, Ride, and Weapon Skill. The starting Stance track contains two green Conservative tiles and two red Reckless tiles, and the career has one Talent slot each for a Tactic and a Reputation. The Soldier's special ability allows them to recover 1 point each of Fatigue and Stress during each Rally step in the combat sequence.
(I'm already seeing this character as an officer sent by wise heads in Ulthuan to keep an eye on Hildebrand and provide intelligence on the boy's visions.)
So let's spend some creation points. The career-based Toughness and Willpower boosts mean that before any investments I've got a 3 in everything but Strength and Fellowship, which is a challenge because i'll need the former for melee combat and the latter for Leadership and diplomacy. Six points gets me to threes across the board. Four more to bring Fellowship up to 4, that's half my allotment. I think I'll stop there and spend the rest on skills, talents, actions and wealth.
A 2-point investment in Wealth gets me to Comfortable, which should be good enough: 2 sets of decent clothes, a satchel or rucksack, a few minor items to be determined, a hand weapon, and two gold coins, plus my military-issue gear of a suit of scale armor, another hand weapon, and a shield. That's going to exceed my Encumbrance, though, so I'm going to leave out one hand weapon and just carry a longsword.
My Skill options include Discipline, Intuition, Observation, Ballistic Skill, Leadership, Ride, and Weapon Skill. I'm spending three points, so I can train 4 of those and add two specializations. I have to take Leadership; it's the main reason I picked Soldier over Mercenary. I'll need Weapon Skill as well; somebody's got to be the muscle in this group, and I've got average Strength so I need to boost that with skill. I'll want Intuition or Observation for my functions as a liaison-spy; I opt for Observation. That leaves one, and it's a difficult call; most of these are already covered elsewhere in the party. Discipline seems like the most appropriate of the lot, since our hero's going to have to keep her head amid conflicting pressures. For specializations I'll take hand weapons under Weapon Skill and politician under Leadership, since the role is more diplomatic than strictly military.
Five points left and two categories. It's permitted to have more Talents than slots, but only two can be active at one time. I'll try that out here, spending three points on three Talents and two on Action cards. One Reputation, one Tactic, and one more from either group. As a High Elf, I'm also entitled to a free Focus talent, but I don't have a slot for it on my career card, though apparently I can slot it on the Party sheet (when we get one) and use it for the group as a whole. I don't see a lot of great Reputation options, but there are good ones; I like Confident, which I can tap to negate two Bane results on an Intelligence, Willpower, or Fellowship roll, and Resourceful, which I can tap to add an Expertise die to an Intelligence check. In the Tactics deck I'm most attracted to Flanking Maneuver, which lets me add a Fortune die to my and my allies' melee attacks when we gang up on an enemy. I can swap out Talents freely during story-mode play, or through a Maneuver during encounter play, but I can't swap out tapped Talents so I need to gauge correctly which Reputation I'm going to want to lean on before I use it. (I'm sure this problem would come up eventually, since gaining Talents is part of the advancement process.) For the floating Focus talent I take Keen Eyes, which adds a Fortune die to Observation checks involving vision.
Now on to Action cards. As ever, I get the usual array of basic Action cards: Block, Dodge, Guarded Position, Melee Attack, Parry, Perform a Stunt, and Ranged Attack. My last two creation points buy three more.There aren't a lot of leadership-based actions, but I can take Exploit Opening, which gives my allies various in-combat opportunities based on the die results. Setup Strike is a good melee action, opening up an enemy for someone else's attack. Sword and Board lets me use Block a little more frequently.
A quick review of my Stance track shows a balanced line of two conservative and two reckless tiles.
Finally, we move on to background and give our High Elven junior officer a name. Using the same generator that brought me Birzad Stoutcask, I note that in contacts with outsiders High Elves seem to use a first name and an epithet; I also note that I don't really like the personal names the generator is offering me. I settle on Kheiveha the Patient, with her high-elven arrogance tempered by a diplomatic posture (and junior status in her organization).
Kheiveha the Patient, rank 1 Soldier (High Elf)
Wound Threshold: 11
Characteristics (trained skills and specializations):
Strength: 3 (Weapon Skill 1 (hand weapons))
Toughness: 3
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 3 (Observation 1)
Willpower: 3 (Discipline 1)
Fellowship: 4 (Leadership 1 (politician))
Advanced Skills (specializations):
Education 0
Special Abilities:
Night Vision (racial): -2 Misfortune dice on checks made in low-light or darkness.
Soldier (career): Recover 1 fatigue and 1 stress during each Rally step in combat.
Confident (reputation): Tap to negate two Bane results on an Intelligence, Willpower, or Fellowship check.
Resourceful (reputation): Tap to add one Expertise die to an Intelligence check.
Flanking Maneuver (tactic): When engaged with one or more allies against an enemy, add one Fortune die to each member's melee attacks against said enemy.
Keen Eyes (focus): add a Fortune die to Observation checks involving vision.
Stance Track: Two conservative, two reckless
Equipment: Ulthuan scale armor, kite shield, longsword, two suit clothing, rucksack, note paper, ink.
Money: 2 gold coins
Encumbrance: Limit 15, carrying 14
Action Deck: Block, Dodge, Exploit Opening, Guarded Position, Melee Attack, Parry, Perform a Stunt, Ranged Attack, Setup Strike, Sword and Board
*The core set actually recommends a three-character party as the optimum, and the box set's accessories are geared toward that standard, but I want to use all four races and I don't have to worry about running out of any given type of card here in Hypothetical Land.
**Which is also available through my racial background, I realize, but I'm still drawn to the image of the well-trained regular soldier over the allegedly more unruly mercenary.
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