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[partybabysitter]

PLAYER INFO

Player: Jans
Age: 32
Invited by: Mods
Contact: discord: jans, cantito
Current Characters: Nope

CHARACTER INFO

Character: Xenk Yendar
Canon: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (post-movie)
Age: 120~130, thereabouts (looks 30s)

Background Information: Wiki link!

Personality:
1) Tell us about who your character is and what someone’s first impression would be upon meeting them.

• Xenk Yendar is an Oath of Devotion Paladin and the "babysitter npc" or "dnd tryhard" character in the movie. In a movie about scoundrels and rogues, corruption and betrayal, Xenk is just a simple man who fights evil for the side of good. His character exists as a foil to the rest of the party -- where the others are incompetent, Xenk is competent to the point of parody. Where the others try to keep things light or joke about things, Xenk is serious and has practically no sense of humor. First impressions of Xenk Yendar can be summed up pretty easily: he is the most paladin paladin to ever paladin. He's the quintessential Lawful Good archetype; a dashing, handsome hero who saves little old ladies from burning buildings and rescues baby tabaxi from the jaws of terrible beasts. This is all true and a part of who he is -- but he isn't just a Paladin. He's also a survivor of a great disaster, and the last surviving Thayan who managed to escape his home without being (totally) zombified by a lich. Can't be the archetypal hero without a cool, tragic backstory, after all. In essence, he's dialed up to 11 in the serious department, to the point where it's funny. Same with him being good at almost everything; it's meant to make everyone around him feel bad. He doesn't do any of this on purpose, it's just who he is.

2) What is a driving force your character has? What goals do they have, what motivates them, etc?

• Xenk is driven by his desire to do Good, and live out his Oath to the fullest. As an Oath of Devotion Paladin, he literally must follow the tenets of his Oath or he'll lose access to all of his magic. Honor, courage, compassion, honesty... these all come naturally for him, and he commits to them with absolute purpose. After fleeing the destruction of his home and the necrotic enslavement of his people, Xenk dedicated his life to traveling the world in search of a way to bring light in a world so marred by darkness. He's the kind of person who looks for goodness and honor in everyone he meets, and believes in people who might not even believe in themselves. While he was only a child when the Beckoning Death was unleashed on his home, he blames himself for lacking courage and allowing his family to be taken in by Szass Tam's evil magic. Thus, he makes the best use of his extended life by living out his Oath and saving as many people as he can. And maybe show people that Thayans aren't all evil! They just happen to all be mindless zombies (except him.)

3) What are their flaws as a character? What is something they've messed up, or have done that they regret?

• Xenk is so Lawful Good it's annoying. He's this honest, upstanding, paragon of virtue and justice and he's practically immortal and he tells people around him that they should be good people, that they should do good and live up to their ideals, and that good will always triumph over evil. In a world of real people, with moral grays and past mistakes, that spiel is really damn annoying. Which is to say, he's oftentimes inflexible, and has trouble understanding the way most people view things. He dislikes wordplay, sees most things literally (or at least at their most basic) and he's really a killjoy to most people. His devotion to his Oath leaves little room for compromise -- if he sees dishonesty, he is compelled to act. In DND terms, you'd have to kick him out of your party if you plan to lockpick a chest or steal anything, because he's the guy who would march up, front and center, and start expositing about why stealing is wrong and you shouldn't do that. Subterfuge, espionage or deceit are completely distasteful to him, and while he knows they are all tools that can be done for the greater good, he seeks no part in those plans. He's a bit of a blunt instrument, but he's also aware enough that he tries not to get involved in things that are outside his skillset.


• Xenk's greatest regret is being helpless in the face of the Beckoning Death, the curse that destroyed his home country of Thay. While he was only a child then, Xenk could only run in fear as the curse turned all those around him into mindless, undead monsters. It was all he could do to survive at the time, but to this day he regrets how he let his fear control him, and how his home was transformed into a necropolis. Though he survived, the necrotic spell still changed him -- leaving in a state of partial unlife, with a mark on his hairline as grim reminder of his past.

4) Optional: What is something unique and interesting about them, or what is a fun little tidbit that sets them apart from the crowd?

• Xenk takes almost everything literally, which you would think would make him easy to mess with. However, since he's over a century old, chances are he's actually heard most of the jabs and jokes people make about him. Rather than engage with them, he plays the "the only thing my sleeve is my arm," card and reacts to wordplay with either deflection or disinterest. Why say something that you wouldn't mean? Why would anyone lie? From a logical standpoint, he knows that not everyone shares his way of thinking, but also he thinks everything would be better if people just said what they meant and shared their feelings openly. He's also good at just about everything he does, but it's played for laughs to overstate the rest of the cast's incompetence, so I'll play it down and give him a few flaws here and there to round him out. He's also got darkvision thanks to his curse, which is where I'm getting the fact that he's got more side-effects to his curse than just aging slowly. Also he's just Like This:
  

Abilities & Inventory: Canon abilities from DND Beyond: Image here!

• Oath of Devotion - Like all paladins, Xenk's magic stems from his Oath, specifically the Oath of Devotion. This is a promise sworn to a god of justice (I've chosen Tyr for him) which gives the paladin access to all kinds of magic, in exchange for upholding certain oaths and living in accordance to that Oath. Should Xenk ever act in opposition of his Oath, it will break, leaving him powerless. In such a case, he'd have to either reinstate his Oath and beg his god for clemency, or choose to completely oppose his oath and become an Oathbreaker. The former is way more likely than the latter for him.
• Aura of Protection - Xenk and his allies within 10 feet of him have advantage on saving throws.
• Cleansing Touch - Xenk touches a creature within 5 feet of himself. The target magically regains 27 (6d8) hit points and gains the benefit of a lesser restoration spell. (He can cure basic ailments, in other words.)
• Daggersword - A longsword that can be split into a dagger and shortsword, with the words "Neither virtue nor blade shall break" etched in Celestial on the blade.
• Halfplate armor and cape - his armor, gauntlets, greaves, etc. Xenk's armor is described by Regé-Jean Page as being extremely hard to move in, with his cape making it very hard to maneuver, but luckily Xenk is blessed by the magic of cinema DND to never falter or have issues with his less than utilitarian armor.
• Legacy of Thay - Not a power in the official sense, Xenk is shown to have a few abilities thanks to surviving the Beckoning Death. These include: darkvision (he's able to see in the dark, though colors are muted to gray), superior hearing, along with things like heightened reflexes, increased endurance and faster healing. He can also detect undead by smelling them from afar, a bit like a bloodhound. He's also good at languages and is largely immortal. While his immortality isn't delved into in the movie, I err more on the side of "came back wrong" for him, since his curse is necrotic in nature. He can't grow back limbs or anything like that, but he's kind of a half-zombie, so you could probably stitch him back together if he lost a foot or something. This also means Xenk's blood is a little dead, and he probably doesn't need to breathe if he really didn't want to. He should be both handsome and upstanding, but also unsettling and a little off. No one should be this perfect.


Since he's classed as an NPC, Xenk is assumed but doesn't necessarily have all of the skills a level 10 Paladin would. This doesn't make a ton of sense for playing him in RP, so if it's OK, I plan to supplement his skills to what a level 10 Paladin could have (erring on the side of his NPC sheet for Saving Throws.) If this isn't OK, I can totally nerf it! There are actually more spells but I don't want to give him Revivify or anything gamebreaking so I plan to keep the selection in that character sheet. But basically, as a PC Paladin, Xenk can heal, and he can smite, and he can do dramatic paladin shit, so long as he keeps to his Oath. (And any of his Control spells, like Command or Compelled Duel would only be used with player permission, of course!)

ARMADA SELECTION

Did I mention that Xenk is the most paladin Paladin who's ever paladin'd? I like the thought of him joining up, unintentionally outshining people and generally just working hard at continuing his honorable lifestyle in a world unlike his own. He's a simple guy with simple needs who believes in authority and lawfulness and could grow to be the most obnoxious, kind drill-sergeant the Paladins have ever had. He's not one for politics, but he lives to serve all the same. It's all about doing the right thing for him.

In Corsair he'd just be hilarious and insist that they stop pillaging and stealing, it would be the worst thing ever for him so that's not a bad option either. But realistically, it's Paladin all the way for him.

SAMPLE

Test Drive Sample: Top-Level

Questions: None outside of DND stuff, which I want to clarify that I'll apply to RP for flavor and fun, never to supersede anybody's choices or anything like that. Also since Xenk's curse isn't completely defined I am doing some headcanoning there, so I hope that's OK! I can tone it down if it's a little much. Let me know if you guys have any questions or anything!! I'm super excited to play pirates.