Realms Personalities : Selinah Varhast, Psychic Assassin
By Robert Wiese (Web)
Author's Note: Because psionics were used in the creation of this character, two versions of stats follow: a psionic version and a sorcerer version. I have tried to make them as similar as possible. In the description below, consider references to psionic powers to refer to sorcerous powers if you choose to use the sorcerer version. A brief description of her psionic powers follows the stat blocks. You can use her psionic powers without the Psionics Handbook if you have a mostly nonpsionic world. You won't have to worry about psionic combat in this instance, and the use of psionic powers is simple to work in. Each power has a cost that the user pays from a pool of power points. When she runs out of power points, she cannot manifest (use) any more psionic powers that day. Psionic power points return as sorcerer spell slots do.
Selinah Varhast was born in the city of Zhentil Keep. She was orphaned at birth and taken in by Night Fingers, leader of the mysterious Worms (an organization of thieves that served the ruling Lords of Zhentil Keep). She was brought up with little affection, since her adoptive mother wanted to raise her and train her to be the consummate assassin. Life was hard, but she learned her lessons and became a skilled thief at age 18. She had also become a skilled impersonator and an expert on poisons. At this time, a rival assassinated her adoptive mother, and Selinah fled her home to live in the streets, now hunted by the followers of this rival.
Soon after this, she joined a band of adventurers who were passing through and spent some years adventuring across Faerûn. She became even more skilled and more cold-blooded, and finally left her companions when a disagreement arose as to whether a certain official really needed to be killed to rescue a kidnapped merchant. During this period she unlocked the psychic potential within her.
Now on her own, she is happier than she has ever been. Selinah appears evil to the core, and she does love killing. However, she assists innocents if she can spare the time, just because they are not her targets. She also assists anyone who could hinder her targets so that she could bring additional confusion to the situation. Killing is the only thing she has ever known, and she is not good at anything else. She does not trust anyone, especially acquaintances, and frequently uses her psionic powers to see what they are thinking. She likes to work alone and only reluctantly accepts associates on her jobs. Because she was brought up to believe that people are to be used or killed, she has a predatory outlook and uses people up, both physically and mentally.
One of her "calling cards" is to warn a victim in advance and then kill him or her anyway despite whatever extra protection the victim has acquired. She does not do this all the time; if the target is already too dangerous, she uses as much secrecy as she can bring to bear. She usually arranges for her work to be blamed on a locally known assassin or thief or bully, both to hide her tracks and to cause this secondary victim trouble.
Selinah has no fear of prisons; with her psychic powers she has escaped from two already. She also does not fear death since she has arrangements in place to have herself restored to life should she be killed. An associate keeps an eye on her and recovers her body (he has had to do so only once so far) and takes it to a priest of Mask to whom Selinah pays a retainer for services (and future services).
Selinah is trim in build, and she has black hair and blue eyes. She is somewhat attractive but not strikingly so. (Even in the sorcerer version her high Charisma is not translated to physical beauty.) Her hair is showing strands of gray, but she stays fit and is aging very gracefully. She typically wears reds, blues, grays, blacks, and the darker shades of green. She never wears white or pale colors. She is never without a weapon, and she has a variety of tools to assist her in her work (outfit her with tools, mundane equipment, and poisons to suit your use of her in your campaign).
Psionic Version
Selinah Varhast: Female human Rog 4/Psion (Egoist) 6/Asn 2; CR 12; Medium-size humanoid; HD 4d6+8 plus 6d4+12 plus 2d6+4; hp 68; Init +10; Spd 60 ft.; AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 18; Atk +11/+6 melee (1d6+6/19-20, +1 frost short sword) and +11 melee (1d6+3/19-20, +1 frost short sword); or +11/+6 ranged (1d6/x3, shortbow); SA death attack, psionic combat modes, sneak attack +3d6; SQ +1 bonus on saves against poison, evasion, poison use, psicrystal (sneak), psionic power points 26, traps, uncanny dodge (Dex bonus to AC, can't be flanked); AL LE; SV Fort +5, Ref +13, Will +8; Str 20, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 14. Height: 5 ft. 7 in.
Skills and Feats: Autohypnosis* +12, Balance +6, Bluff +15, Climb +18, Craft (poisonmaking) +8, Diplomacy +4, Disable Device +11, Disguise +10, Gather Information +5, Hide +25, Intimidate +6, Jump +23, Listen +9, Move Silently +23, Search +9, Spot +6, Stabilize Self* +11, Tumble +15, Use Rope +9; Improved Initiative, Inertial Armor*, Rapid Metabolism*, Thug*, Two-Weapon Fighting.
Death Attack: Selinah can study an opponent undetected for three rounds, then make a successful melee sneak attack that causes damage. Opponent must make Fort save (DC 14) or dies.
Psionic Combat Modes: id insinuation, mind blast, mind thrust/empty mind, intellect fortress, mental barrier, thought shield.
Evasion (Ex): If exposed to any effect that normally allows a character to attempt a Reflex saving throw for half damage, Selinah takes no damage with a successful saving throw.
Poison Use: Selinah does not run the risk of poisoning herself when applying or making poisons.
Psicrystal: Selinah's psicrystal has the sneak personality. It also possesses the following traits and abilities: 8 Intelligence; sighted (can sense surroundings as a sighted, hearing person can; darkness and supernatural silence are irrelevant, but it cannot sense ethereal or invisible creatures; range 40 ft.); empathic link with Selinah to 1 mile range, communication limited to strong emotions; telepathic link with Selinah to 1 mile range, psicrystal knows all languages that Selinah knows; self-propulsion (psicrystal can grow ectoplasmic spidery legs for one day and move at 30 ft., climb 20 ft., if Selinah pays 1 power point).
Assassin Spells/Day: (2; save DC 12 + spell level).
Assassin Spellbook: 1st -- change self, detect poison, ghost sound, low-light vision*, obscuring mist, silent portal, spider climb.
Psionic Powers (26 power points; save d20 + key ability modifier + power level): 0 -- burst, catfall, elfsight, far hand, telempathic projection; 1st -- compression, conceal thoughts, dissipating touch; 2nd -- chameleon, detect thoughts; 3rd -- ectoplasmic form.
Possessions: Pair of +1 frost short swords, cloak of elvenkind, boots of elvenkind, boots of striding and springing, gloves of Dexterity +2.
Sorcerer Version
Selinah Varhast: Female human Rog 4/Sor 6/Asn 2; CR 12; Medium-size humanoid; HD 4d6+8 plus 6d4+12 plus 2d6+4; hp 68; Init +10; Spd 60 ft.; AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 14; Atk +9/+4 melee (1d6+4/19-20, +1 frost short sword) and +9 melee (1d6+2/19-20, +1 frost short sword), or +11/+6 ranged (1d6/x3, shortbow); SA death attack, sneak attack +3d6; SQ +1 bonus on saves against poison, evasion, poison use, traps, uncanny dodge (Dex bonus to AC, can't be flanked); AL LE; SV Fort +5, Ref +13, Will +8; Str 16, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18. Height: 5 ft. 7 in.
Skills and Feats: Craft (alchemy) +11, Balance +6, Bluff +19, Climb +10, Craft (poisonmaking) +17, Diplomacy +6, Disable Device +11, Disguise +12, Gather Information +6, Hide +25, Intimidate +8, Jump +5, Listen +9, Move Silently +23, Search +9, Spellcraft +5, Spot +6, Tumble +12, Use Rope +9; Extend Spell, Improved Initiative, Street Smart*, Thug*, Two-Weapon Fighting.
Death Attack: Selinah can study an opponent undetected for three rounds, then make a successful melee sneak attack that causes damage. Opponent must make Fort save (DC 14) or dies.
Evasion (Ex): If exposed to any effect that normally allows a character to attempt a Reflex saving throw for half damage, Selinah takes no damage with a successful saving throw.
Poison Use: Selinah does not run the risk of poisoning herself when applying or making poisons.
Assassin Spells/Day: (2; save DC 12 + spell level).
Assassin Spellbook: 1st -- change self, detect poison, ghost sound, low-light vision*, obscuring mist, spider climb.
Sorcerer Spells Known (6/7/6/4; save DC 14 + spell level): 0 -- acid splash*, daze, detect magic, mage hand, open/close, prestidigitation, silent portal*; 1st -- corrosive grasp*, mage armor, magic missile, reduce; 2nd -- alter self, detect thoughts; 3rd -- gaseous form.
Possessions: Pair of +1 frost short swords, cloak of elvenkind, boots of elvenkind, boots of striding and springing, gloves of Dexterity +2.
*Nonstandard Rules
Autohypnosis (Wis; trained only; psion/psychic warrior only): Can attempt different tasks. Resist Fear: In response to a fear effect, you can make an Autohypnosis check (DC 15) the next round. Success grants you another saving throw with a +4 morale bonus. Memorize: You can try to memorize long strings of information. Success (DC 13) allows you to memorize writing that fills one parchment (about 800 words, though it does not have to be a language you understand). You always retain the knowledge, but have to make another Autohypnosis check to recall it. Multiple checks allow additional passages to be memorized. Ignore Caltrop Wound: Successful check (DC 13) allows you to ignore the movement penalty for a caltrop wound for 10 minutes. Tolerate Poison: Successful check (poison's DC) grants you a +4 morale bonus on your saving throw to resist the poison's secondary damage. Willpower: If reduced to 0 hit points, a successful check (DC 15) allows you to take a normal action without taking a point of damage. You must make a check for each strenuous action.
Stabilize Self: (Con; trained only; psion/psychic warrior only): If you have negative hit points, and are losing hit points because you are not stabilized, you can substitute a Stabilize Self check (DC 15) for the first normal stabilization roll to become stable. If you succeed, you stabilize. If you fail, you make normal stabilization checks on all subsequent checks.
Street Smart: +2 Bluff and Gather Information checks.
Thug: +2 Initiative, +2 Intimidate checks.
Acid Splash: You fire a small orb of acid, succeed at ranged touch attack to hit. The orb does 1d3 points of damage. Close range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels).
Corrosive Grasp: Your hand becomes coated with a thick layer of acid that does not harm you or your equipment. A melee touch attack with the hand causes 1d6+1 points of acid damage. You may use this attack once per caster level. If you grapple, you can deal this damage in addition to other damage.
Low-Light Vision: This spell grants low-light vision to subject touched for 1 hour per caster level. Subject retains ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
Silent Portal: This cantrip negates the sound of opening and closing a single portal (door, window, gate, drawer, chest lid, and so on). The spell covers only the normal sounds, not sounds of breaking the portal in with force. Magic portals are not affected by this spell. In the case of magic or intelligent portals, spell resistance and Will save applies. Close range (25 ft + 5 ft./2 levels), lasts one hour per caster level (D).