Character Challenge 2026 - 10 Days Late - Nodonn, Human, Fighter, 4th level

 I've always meant to do the #CharacterChalllenge. And I always miss it. For 2026, I am going to try to catch up with two posts a day. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.

As before, I stole Nodonn from a book. Nodonn Battlemaster is a lord from the book The Nonborn King, a part of the Many-Coloured Land Series. He is an alien, but I cast him as a human. His people, the Tanu, are the prototype for Elves. The link above goes to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Nodonn Human Fourth Level Fighter 

Strength: 15
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 33
Armor Class: 3 Ghosty Platemail 

GP: 12  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 20 Gems: None  

Spells: None 
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

The Ghosty Armor (Plate)
Two-Handed Sword
Dagger
Bow and 24 Arrows

Backpack:
6 Torches
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag

Aside from the Ghosty Armor, the other special thing about Nodonn is that he is a human with elf-like features. 

Ah, Ghosty equipment is diabolical. 

I'll do a full write-up later, but the basics are: it is hard to perceive. It bothers people. It imparts bonuses because people can't see it. 

This is not magical armor, but high-tech armor. When I run X2, Castle Amber, I will see how well it works out. I have a couple of plans to make it work, plus a few fallbacks because I don't want a passive item to cause too many saving throws. 

We will see. 

Character Challenge 2026 - 10 Days Late - Ana Khouri, Post Human, Fighter, 4th level

I've always meant to do the #CharacterChalllenge. And I always miss it. For 2026, I am going to try to catch up with two posts a day. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. 

Next topic: My campaign world is post-apocalyptic, so Ana Khouri is stolen from a series of science fiction novels, Revelation Space. This is a link to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Ana Khouri has travelled to the stars before returning home to Earth. She is thousands of years old, thanks to high-tech rejuvenation nanites and time dilation. She has been many things: spacer, soldier, mother, and assassin. 

Ana Khouri Fourth Level Fighter  

Strength: 15
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 11
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 8
Charisma: 12

Hit Points: 32
Armor Class: 4 Elven Chain  

GP: 34  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: None 
Languages: Common, Elvish, Halfling  

Equipment: 

Elven Chain Armor
The Ghosty Sword
Dagger
Bow and 24 Arrows

Backpack:
Lantern
4 flasks of oil
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations 
1 Flask of Brandy
Bedroll

Special Abilities: Infravision, Starlight Vision, Max Hit Points per level, effectively immortal.

The "character sheet" above is adapted from the ones that appear in BSOLO - Ghost of Lion Castle. 

Since she is a post-human, I wanted to give her some special abilities without making them overpowered. She receives max hit points per level due to her nanites, despite having a low Constitution. Ana receives no bonus hit points for her stats and has lost the hit points she had in her various past lives. 

The nanites also make her immune to the spells Slow and Haste, for better or worse. Her vision is incredible. She can see in the dark like a starlight scope or use infravision. It takes a round to switch. She might be momentarily blinded by a sudden change in light levels, but she is quick to adapt. 

As mentioned in a prior post, Ana probably started with 18 in every stat, but these are slowly falling, leaving her pretty average. She is not subject to aging in the normal sense. Ana is effectively immortal unless killed by something. Ana was once an Assassin, but that was so long ago that she has forgotten all of those skills. Besides, that was another world or two ago. She doesn't have access to those types of high-tech weapons anymore.

Ana Khouri does have one high-tech weapon: The Ghosty Sword. It is a +1 Vorpal long sword. It has one other trait: it is hard to look at or focus on, improving the wielder's AC by 1. I will post more about Ghosty equipment because several of these new characters have them. 

Ana Khouri's daughter and several husbands are presumably alive, someplace out there, just not on Earth. She hopes to see them again someday, but doesn't have the means to search the galaxy for them. As you can imagine, this fact has created several weird conversations with the normal people of Earth. She only brings it up when speaking to true friends, and rarely at that. This topic of conversation gives her a headache.