[DND] Character Concept - WAR D&D: Witch Elf

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog article about building a character for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons based on Robert E. Howard's character, Solomon Kane.  As I built the character, I realized that it could also pretty closely simulate a Witch Hunter from EA Mythic's Warhammer Online (WAR).  I had so much fun doing that article that I decided I'd try doing a character concept article for all 24 classes in WAR.

A little background info first: WAR really only has 12 different classes, but the opposing faction mirrors those 12 classes for a total of 24.  In this article, I intend to build a D&D4e character that could feasibly stand in for the Witch Hunter's mirror class: the dark elves' Witch Elf.

From the Witch Elf description page:

A Witch Elf can be an unstoppable force of death and destruction under the proper circumstances. By picking their targets carefully, the Witch Elf can win a fight in a short amount of time. A Witch Elf prefers to rapidly close with lightly armored targets, where their wicked poisons can find exposed flesh. Using a combination of rapid attacks, the Witch Elf works herself up into a Frenzy to execute powerful attacks that will stop most opponents dead in their tracks. When facing a heavily armored foe, the Witch Elf relies on her agility to survive long enough to pick apart her opponent's defenses and opening him up to a savage death blow.

• Lightly armored and agile, capable of closing long distances rapidly
• Wields long sacrificial daggers coated in deadly poisons
• Armor is adorned with razor sharp hooks, and wickedly barbed metal plates

With this in mind, I decided to focus on these main themes:

• lightly armored
• long, deadly daggers
• speed and agility
• strong bursts of damage
• poison attacks

Thanks to a little help from Dragon Magazine issue 373, I think my Witch Elf turned out pretty well.  Read on for all the bloody, eviscerated details.

[DND] Character Concept - Solomon Kane

Honestly, I didn't know anything about Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane until last summer at San Diego Comic-Con. I happened to catch the tail end of the Solomon Kane movie preview panel because I wanted to see some other programming happening later on in the same room. When they played the trailer for the film (which apparently never got a distributor for a U.S. release), it enthralled me instantly.

You see, back then, I played more than my fair share of Warhammer Online. The imagery of Solomon Kane in the movie reminded me very much of the Witch Hunters in that world, which I also found fascinating.  Naturally, I immediately want to put such imagery into game terms, so I decided to translate this idea into a D&D character.

To start off, I wanted to identify a few core themes and characteristics that I deemed most vital to the character:

• devout piety
• singular focus on seeking out and punishing evil
• expert swordsmanship
• flintlock pistols
• pimp hats

In D&D4e terms, the religious aspect of the character led me to the Divine power source, while the swordsmanship and pistol aspects sounded more like a Martial discipline. To get as close to the source character as possible, I decided I would have to build the concept character as either a Multiclass or a Hybrid. I built one of each, and I go into excruciating detail about them below. So let's get down to it.