Eclipse – Gar Ashwood, Pathfinder/Dragonstar Soulmech Gunslinger-Detective

The boy’s poking about had been too clever, gone too far. Now, the corrosive power of the Black Sun was slowly and agonizingly devouring his life force. It was bonded to his soul; as long as life – or, for that matter, unlife – force linked him to the prime material, the Black Sun would feed upon it. Even death and resurrection would not break that bond.

Yet wealth and power are rarely entirely without resort. It might not be true life, but it was more than death – and so it was done.

As years passed, the alienation grew too great to bear. Gar sought his own way. The Ashwood clan provided him a stipend, and might call upon him at need – but their estates could no longer be his home.

Pathfinder Package Deal (Free).

Race: Android (Soulmech) (30 CP, +0 ECL). Racial Options: Adept Skills: Computer Use (+4 Racial), Knowledge/Local (+2 Racial), Perception (+4 Racial), Profession/Investigator (+2 Racial). Armored Frame/Finesse, bases bonus HP on Str instead of Con, Wired Reflexes/Augmented Bonus, adds (Int Mod) to (Dex Mod) for skill purposes. Profession/Investigator covers gathering, preserving, and analyzing evidence, getting along with the police and using their (and other public or library) records, basic surveillance, and using relevant sensory equipment. Computer Use is found in d20 Modern.

Basic Attributes: Str 16, Int 18 (20), Wis 14 (16), Con —, Dex 20, Chr 8 (3.5 32 Point Buy: Purchased: Str 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Con —, Dex 16, Chr 8. Pathfinder bonus to Dex, +2 Str and Int due to race).

Available Character Points: 72 (Level two base) +10 (Disadvantages; History, Unarmored, and Accursed/linked to the “Black Sun”) +4 (Duties to the Space Marines) +6 (Level one bonus Feat) = 92 CP, 20 SP due to Int.

Basic Abilities (38 CP):

• Hit Points: 14 (L1d8 (8), L2d8 (6), 8 CP) +6 (Str Mod x 2) +20 (Construct Size) = 40.
• Skill Points: 6 (Purchased, 6 CP) +20 (Int Mod x 5) = 26.
• BAB: +1 (6 CP), additional +1 Specialized in Guns (3 CP).
• Saves:
  • Fortitude: +0 (0 CP) +0 (Con) +1 (Mor) = +1
  • Reflex: +1 (3 CP) +5 (Dex) +1 (Mor) = +7
  • Will: +1 (3 CP) +3 (Wis) +1 (Mor) = +5
• Proficiencies: All Simple and Martial Weapons (9 CP).
• Initiative: +5 (Dex)
• Move: 30′
• Armor Class: 10 +5 (Dex) +4 (Ar) +4 (Sh) +3 (MA) = 26

Special Abilities (54 CP):

• Fast Learner, Specialized in Skills, Corrupted/simply keeps racial adept skills maximized (4 CP). For simplicity, I’ll presume this was purchased with disadvantage points at birth; that way there’s no math at all.
• Gun Fu (9 Mana) with Gun kata (24 CP).
• Clever Observer: Augmented Bonus, Add (Int Mod) to (Wis Mod) for Skill purposes (6 CP).
• Intuitive Detective: Occult Sense/Detect Importance, Specialized/only activates when the GM feels like having it do so, Corrupted/never reveals more than three items per use. Ashwood has a talent; every so often… some tiny overlooked item, or a particular clue, will just scream for his attention – and will invariably turn out to be important, if not vital (3 CP).
• Stipend/The Midas Touch. Has an income of 1200 CR/Month, starts with an extra 12,000 CR (mostly spent on improvements on his robotic body) (12 CP).
• Enthusiast, Specialized in Relics for 2 CP worth (3 CP).
• Create Relic, Specialized and Corrupted: One point relics only, only with enthusiast points, only for himself (2 CP).

Current Relics:

• Ring of Loki: Rite of Chi with +4 Bonus Uses and +1d6 (4) Mana, all Specialized/only for Rune Magic (3 CP each).
• Ring of Odin: Innate Enchantment (7000 GP value, 8 CP) and Immunity to the XP cost of activating the ring (Uncommon, Minor, Trivial, 1 CP). Innate Enchantments, all at Spell Level One, Caster Level One, Unlimited-Use Use-Activated, Personal Only (1400 Virtual Gold Each): Mage Armor, Shield, +3 competence bonus to Int-Based Skills, +2 Intelligence (Per Pathfinder grants Stealth at maximum), and Inspiring Word.
  • Oops – Editing glitch; 8400 GP value, 9 CP, was also supposed to include +2 Dex. Still a 1 CP relic though

Both handy, if not exactly overwhelming. 

Usual Attacks:

• Blaster Pistol: +10/+10 (+2 BAB, +3 MA, +5 Dex, +1 Mor +1 Laser sight, -2 Rapid Shot), 3d8 (electrical) +1 (Mor), Crit 20/x2, range increment 100′, may inflict non-lethal damage if he wishes. Carries two; often uses one in each hand as a special effect for his Rapid Shot.
• Hand or Pistol Butt: +7 (+1 BAB, +3 MA, +3 Str), 1d4+3 (Str) +1 (Mor), Crit 20/x2. May inflict lethal or nonlethal damage.

Notable Equipment:

• Headband of Wisdom +2 (4000 Cr).

Body Upgrades (8200 Cr):

• Shock Absorber Legs (Pathfinder, Boots of the Cat, 1000 Cr).
• Tool Hand (Pathfinder, Traveler’s Any Tool, 250 Cr).
• Holoprojector (Hat of Disguise, 1800 Cr).
• Glowstone Infusor (Healing Belt, 750 Cr. +2 to Heal, 3 Charges / Day, 1/2/3 to touch-heal 2d8/3d8/4d8)
• Sensor Implants (Scout’s Headband, MIC 132, 3400 Cr) +2 to Spot (Perception in Pathfinder), 3 Charges/Day, 1 for 60 Darkvision for an hour, 2 for See Invisible for ten minutes, three for True Seeing for one minute).
• Magnetic Grip (MIC, Lesser Crystal of Return; draw gun as a free action, call it to hand from up to 30 feet away, 1000 Cr).

Automatically In-Class Skills: Profession, Craft, and his Adept Skills (Computer Use, Knowledge/Local, Perception).

Chosen In-Class Skills: Acrobatics, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Knowledge (Arcana, Engineering), Linguistics, Martial Art (Firestorm Ballet), Rune Magic (Divination and Technomancy), Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Stealth.

Rune Magic Skills: Divination (Mastery) and Divination (Casting), Technomancy (Mastery) and Technomancy (Casting): All Wisdom-based, effective totals each (+1 SP +2 Wis +5 Int +2 Competence (halved, rounded up) +1 Morale (halved, rounded up) +3 In-Class) = +14. Allows the production of effects of up to level three at casting level seven.

Firestorm Ballet Martial Art (11 Techniques Known): Attack 3, Defense 3, Combat Reflexes, Rapid Shot, Unarmed/Pistol Butt Kata, Inner Strength and Light Foot.

Skill	SP	Base	Stat	Bonuses	Class	Total
Computer Use	-*	5	+5	+3 (Com) +4 (Race) +1 (Mor)	+3	+21
Knowledge/Local	-*	5	+5	+3 (Com) +2 (Race) +1 (Mor)	+3	+19
Perception	-*	5	+8	+3 (Com) +4 (Race) +1 (Mor) +2 (Magic)	+3	+26
Profession/Investigator	-*	5	+7	+3 (Com) +2 (Race) +1 (Mor)	+3	+21
Acrobatics	4	4	+10	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+21
Disable Device	2	2	+10	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+19
Escape Artist	2	2	+10	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+19
Knowledge/Arcana	2	2	+5	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+14
Knowledge/Engineering	2	2	+5	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+14
Linguistics	2	2	+5	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+14
M. Art/Firestorm Ballet	5	5	+10	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+22
Sense Motive	2	2	+8	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+17
Spellcraft	2	2	+5	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+14
Stealth	3	3	+10	+3 (Com) +1 (Mor)	+3	+20
Disguise	—	—	-1	+5 (Int Boost Effect)	—	+4

*automatically maximized racial skill.

Minor Gear: Long coat, hat, boots, assorted straps and clips for other items, credstick, two flashbang grenades, datapad, two datachips, personal communicator, flare gun and flares, multiscanner, surveillance laser, multioptics goggles (low-light/IR/+3 flash/glare protection), four minicells.

Gar is pretty heavily optimized (primarily by focusing on exactly what the player wants him to be able to do and by using some of the abilities – such as Reality Editing/Gun Fu – that aren’t particularly level-dependent) since the game is offering a choice between Gestalt characters and Eclipse characters. If you don’t want to optimize so much (and it will get harder and harder to pull it off at higher levels as the brute-force “you get more stuff!” of Gestalt Builds becomes more and more apparent) you can also handle this by offering the Eclipse characters some extra points per level.

Gar also illustrates one of the things that can make Eclipse different from most d20 systems; an Eclipse character can start off very good at a particular specialty – but they will have done so by picking most of the available boosts for it that don’t depend on levels. Thus, rather than increasing notably in power for the first few levels after character creation they tend to extend the duration/number of uses of their existing abilities and to broaden their repertoires. Personally I prefer it that way; it lets the player experiment with their characters existing abilities and develop their own traits and strategies for awhile rather than giving them piles of new abilities before they’ve finished trying out what they started with.