Coldforged Characters: Ter’ina, Thraxian Champion
Once a month, I take a look at some of the legendary individuals in the Coldeforged setting, both their stat block and what I wanted to do with them, and their background and history. The last two were still around, but this time, I have someone from the past, the Uniter of the Tribes, the Thraxian Champion, the Blade of Takannas, Ter’ina the Half-orc Paladin of the god of fire!
Ter’ina, The Unifier
Ter’ina was one of the first half-orc I had as a player in my games, she may have been the first, but my memories are hazy. Her player decided that she wanted to be a Paladin, which wasn’t allowed under the rules we were using. As many players did at the time, we simply hand-waved the issue and went about playing.
The orcs in Coldforged worshiped Evalrun, the god of earth, caves, and greed. This felt strange to Ter’ina, and she went searching for answers. The orcs didn’t match their patron god, who was cold, calculating, greedy and miserable. Through her time adventuring, she came across a shrine and an oracle, and received a vision of the truth, her hunch was true all along! Takannas, a deity of war, fire, passion, and zeal was the creator of the orcish races! This diety better matched the orcs place in the world, their temperament, and their path. She knew that she must spread the word and convince her fellows to forsake the cold and bitter earth deity, one which better suited the dwarven mindset, and embrace the blazing powers of Takannas.
While she started with any group of Thraxians that would listen in her home region of Tyndaria, it was never enough. Though her following grew, she knew that there would be consequences if she stayed in Tyndaria. She went north, to Thrax itself, to spread the word of Takannas.
Some within Thrax swiftly embraced her teachings, feeling its rightness within their beings, but many did not. Some, even, rebelled and fought against Ter’ina and the tribes that had converted. There were a number of battles, though most were small, and the Thraxians now refer to the time as The Unification. Ter’ina became the leader of a massive war host that spread throughout the forest and was able to begin building relationships with other kingdoms.
Sadly, this ended as swiftly as it began, with the second Lichwar forcing Ter’ina’s hand, and taking her life, though she spared Thrax from what could have been a terrible fate. Though a good portion of the Thraxians who’d converted slipped back into their ways with Evalrun, both religions were now embraced on an equal footing, with Takannas now provided shrine space alongside the old deity. Her mark remains on the Thraxians to this day, who pilgrimage every three years to the site of her heroic death to choose their leaders.
Stats and Crunch
Ter’ina was a difficult character to create, because she has the feeling of both Wanderer and Craven, without being as teamwork focused as Craven or as overtly powerful as Wanderer. Still, I think I hit the zealous paladin feel, while also making her a significant melee threat. It was, however, much easier to make her character than it was in the past, with Orc Paladins now being a fairly common occurrence.
Terina is a Tough nut to crack, with a magical armor (Firefury Armor) and a shield (Sanctum) along with a bastard sword from previous editions (Ardor). Her AC is high due to this and gets higher when you consider the effect of Ardor on those who fail the wisdom save against it.
The armor, and also her devotion to Takannas, provide her with resistance to fire, but she is also the pinnacle of defiance, an individual who simply refuses to die. Stalwart is an awkward rule, but it gets across the idea I am going for. This is definitely a rule I am going to work on as the book continues.
Her devotion to Takannas as a paladin is represented in a number of places, and the first one here is True Devotion. This is definitely a beefed-up version that includes magical paralyzation and sleep, as well as the minor side of protection from evil that is always active for a Devotion Paladin.
Relentless blows is simply a suped-up version of half of the Great Weapon Master feat, just to allow her to cleave through armies with ease, but also at a CR 17, if she is fighting the PC’s, its unlikely to be more than an additional attack. It’s a much stronger flavor in a fight than actual utility.
Her Actions are pretty simple, to be honest. She has the standard attacks for high-level characters, 3 with the main weapon and an additional with her off weapon, Sanctum. Each one has its own ability, and they are both fairly powerful. Ardor will potentially make Ter’ina much more difficult to hit, and sanctum will absolutely take someone out of the fight.
As an expression of Takannas great will, Holy rage is an ability to show his favor on Ter’ina as a champion of his and of the Thraxians. The holy fire will both inflict damage against those who dare to attack, and increases her damage with Ardor, though not with the shield specifically.
Aggressive isn’t anything fancy, simply the Orc ability from the base game, and her last ability, Retaliate, allows her to use her reaction to grant allies additional moves or attacks, as is needed.
I think that Ter’ina represents the pinnacle of Orcish Paladinhood in Coldforged, though it is a shame she has fallen and I won’t be able to use her in the future.
