*Edit* There was one little detail in the linework of the face that started to bother me the night after I posted it. That detail just looked out of place with the other linework and eventually started driving me crazy so I removed it. In my most recent edit I finally fixed the shield. I had a total brainfart about how the handle is positioned and it had been bothering me for months. I also just redid the shading. It had been bothering me for a while and I was mulling over ordering a print so I decided to clean the shading up a bit.

*More Edit* In addition to redoing the shield (again) It was bothering me that the lineart was too pixelated so I redid the lines. While doing so I decided to redo the eyes, fix the plate on her right leg, and repaint things since I have a new brush that looks good for hair. I made the terrible mistake of printing a copy of this pic to post in my cubicle so things just started bothering me.

*More Edit Part D'eux* The eyes were bugging me so I redid the makeup, changed the pupil size and light on the eyes.

*Even More Edit* Eyes still bugging me, so I went back to a modified version of the original.

Spurred in part by my discussion of armor with who is apparently as big a medieval gear geek as I am I decided to depict one of my more heavily armored LFR (D&D 4E organized play) characters in more pragmatic and historically accurate armor while accomplishing something that medieval armor never did, flatter the female form (find any old picture of Joan of Arc or any movie version where the armor was in any way flattering, I challenge you). I also wanted to do a different style of shoulder pads than I normally do. The lower torso armor is completely not historic but then no period armors would allow a knight to bend over since they all had solid plates past the navel.

She's one of my many vaguely French looking female characters with short dark hair and light eyes in armor but I decided that she should actually sound French (why not, I had German, Russian, Chinese, Irish, Scottish, English, and Australian accented characters already). Additionally, I figured she should be pushy. She started off more diplomatic but very quickly began to just intimidate the heck out of people. I got such a kick out of cowing big burly men with an 11 Strength, slightly built, woman under 6ft in height that she just started throwing her (proverbial) weight around all the time. Now she completely acts the self-important noble and has demanded apologies from burgomasters and the heads of merchant consortiums... and gotten them. She is benevolent and offers aid to those in need who cannot help themselves without asking payment but she's left large thuggish demi-human men crying in the fetal position without lifting a hand to them. When shopping for deities I decided to go with the Red Knight (a.k.a. the Lady of Tactics), who is a demi-god under the War god Tempus. Given her high Intelligence, Knightly demeanor, and breadth of knowledge Marjolein would fit nicely as a worshiper of the Red Knight.

Now as to the build, Marjolein was built initially do accomplish one goal. Namely, "kite a paladin mark with at-will attacks". For her mark to mean anything I had to go Charismadin but they can't make ranged basic attacks so I hybridized her with Bard (which also hits off of Charisma) and gave her an encounter heal to make up for the daily heals she was losing while making making it to where she actually had no secondary stat. Being a human Paladin/Bard Hybrid with Paladin Armor Proficiency left her with about the highest armor and non armored defenses of any character I've ever built so I decided to capitalize on this by giving her a ranged and melee at will attack that gives a -2 to attack rolls so that her foes could attack her monstrous defenses at a penalty or attack allies at a -4 and take automatic damage galore. Later, as I began to use her to babysit parties without leaders or defenders or to supplement both I decided to multiclass her with Resourceful Warlord to increase her leader qualities and making her a Paladin/Bard/Warlord. With a Preservation Shield, Stirring Shout, Virtue, and Unicorn's Charge in addition to her Majestic Word I've seen her out heal other leaders in fights and she has gone through whole fights without being hit a single time while being targeted by more than one monster every round. More than that, her fairly balanced stats and Bard of all Trades feat mean that she can assist in basically any skill and she even managed to make a DC23 Thievery check, despite having no dexterity bonus.



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