Stat'ing Up Sybil

I have decided that Sybil is the new Magic-User to join the party. In this post, I generated her stats using the OSE NPC Generator. As I promised, I would be flipping her stats to put that 7 in Wisdom. This is to slightly counteract the ring of 4 wishes. She isn't wise to be devious. 

As I did for all other randomly generated characters, I rerolled any stat of 11 or under. If I were able to beat the original score, it would be increased. If I did not beat that score, it stayed the same. Here is what I got: 

STR: 11 (unchanged, I rolled lower.)
INT: 13 (no reroll)
WIS:  7 (unchanged, as I decided I wanted this score.)
DEX: 14 (was 7)
CON: 10 (was 9)
CHR: 13 (was 9)

That seemed fair. She is quick and quick-witted, and good with people, but perhaps naive. 

As the ring of 4 wishes, which is completely ridiculous on the surface for a second-level character, I used OSR Solo to adjudicate the wishes. This is modified by my general rules of thumb for wishes in my campaign. 

In the generic, rings of wishes are much more limited in their ability to suborn wishes, at the same time as being mechanically resistant to harming anyone. Magic rings don't have agency. 

If I deem a wish to be out of bounds, a magic ring gets physically hot. It will not operate for a time, at least for that person. I decide how long and for whom. It does not waste a wish because the last wish causes the ring to stop being magic. Magic rings have enough agency not to destroy themselves needlessly. I also have a tradition that all rings of wishes are white gold and transform into lead rings when expended. Click the link to see a scenario where that happens. 

Should a wish be granted by a creature, these rules of thumb go right out the window. Creatures do have agency and agendas. For example, a god or demon may desire to bring certain people back to life and may twist a badly worded wish to do as THEY desire. The key bit is that the wish is the expression of their power, which may benefit the PC's. 

Anyway, I already determined one wish was "A Magic Dog!" I made that wish #4. The wishes were: 

1. A copy of all of her father's adventuring equipment. 
2. A magic dagger or shortsword that is almost exactly like Sting from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Click the link to see Sting in action on YouTube. 
3. A doubling of Sybil's current powers and abilities. 
4. A Magic Frickin' Dog!

The first wish is pretty good; she wished for a copy of her father's items. That would prevent harming her father. If this were worded in other ways, it could cause her father to lose the use of his equipment or maybe cause Sybil to inherit his stuff after he dies. That second possibility could be useless if he has a long life, or worse, it causes his death, so she inherited his stuff. 

I hate it when a wish would cause a paradox. If her father were already dead, she would have his stuff through inheritance, so why would she wish for this? I try to avoid that at all costs with wishes. It's also a good reason not to hose PCs in with the worst possible outcomes of wishes. 

The second wish is meta. I would expect and accept this from a player character. Sting-like swords are cool and do exist in my campaign, so I'd let it go. 

The third wish is well-worded to prevent it from being meta while also being something I would expect from a PC. 

OSR Solo has a great likelihood table that goes beyond yes and no. You can click this link to buy a copy at DriveThruRPG. I personally like the physical books, but there is also a PDF for less.  

For the first wish, she rolled a 6. That is "yes and...". This is an excellent result and grants more than the equipment she knew about. She also has a copy of her father's spell book and magic robes. I decided there is a limitation on the spell book. It contains spells she doesn't know and can't read yet. 

I rolled a 4 for the second wish. That is a flat yes. She has a +1 dagger or small shortsword. It does 1d4+1 and glows in the presence of goblinoids and giant spiders. That is basically Sting in a nutshell. 

Were I dealing with a PC who made this wish, I would troll them. "Funny, your dad has a sword just like it. It's a shame you wished for his equipment but not his weapons." 

For the third wish, "double my power," I rolled a 3, which is "yes but..." There is a hindrance to this wish. This is really straightforward for this wish. She has doubled her power, from level 2 to level 4. BUT, she didn't gain the experience. She has all of the benefits and abilities of a 4th-level Magic-User in all ways, but won't gain any more power until she has the experience points to reach 5th level. Painful, but easily implementable. I don't like wishes that cause paperwork. 

Where she really won was in hit points, which are simply doubled. I give max hit points for the first level, and require a roll for higher levels, rerolling ones. Sybil has 16 hp as she rolled a 4 for her second level. The character generator shows a lower HP value, but I did reroll everyone else's hit points to drop ones and include max hit points at level 1.  

The Magic Dog is crazy and fun. I decided to ask a series of questions:

• Is it really magic? The result was "yes". 
• Is it a Blink Dog? "No". 
• Is it a Hell Hound? "No, and..." it is afraid of Hell Hounds. This choice of modifier is easy and natural. Everyone is afraid of Hell Hounds. 
• Can it talk? "Yes... but". If I did this to PC, I would again troll them by saying the dog speaks in a Scottish brogue... and only understands you if YOU speak in a Scottish brogue. This doesn't make sense in this context of a text-only experience, so I'll let that one go. At a table full of players, it would be funny.  

I stopped asking questions at 4. Four wishes allows for 4 questions. It looks good enough to me. 

In doing this exercise, I also determined something else about Sybil. She might be neutral as she sees Blink Dogs and Hell Hounds as attractive and useful. Her father also imparted some lore about his time adventuring and is encouraging of her. 

OSR Solo is really handy book for off-the-cuff items.