Virago WP

Note: My rants are long on this one but they are broken up into separate paragraphs so if you want backstory, or art related stuff, you can just skip down past the game mechanics and character concept stuff.

Here is one of the last defenders I built for LFR, Virago. After making two fighters, two paladins, a warden, a swordmage, and a couple of hybrid defenders I figured it was time to do the Psionic Defender. I went with a half-elf Speed of Thought Battlemind with Group in Motion so that every time she plays a module with enemy controllers, the party breaks the mandatory "Burst 1 Formation" the instant we roll initiative rather than after the controller drops two encounter powers and an action point on the entire party on initiative count 28+. My Psion is hilarious (though I would probably never draw him). I have a couple of monks. I also did an Ardent but I probably won't draw her till I get a few more modules under her belt (but I do now officially have an active LFR character for every class of leader in the entire game a feat which probably has more to do with the fact that nobody wants to "jump on the cleric grenade", than my preference in classes (I love battlefield control powers more than anything).

I never could wrap my mind around the idea of a Psionic character without intelligence (this one is Constitution and Charisma). I finally settled on seeing her as a daydreamer whose mind was opened to the Far Realm through the world of dreams. Essentially she visualizes things and warps reality around her. In trying to describe a defender with almost no Strength but high Con and Cha I generally describe her as looking "very healthy". To me, a high con like that suggests somebody with a monstrous metabolism and a build with large bones to potentially hang a lot of mass on. I also figure she would be kind of person would be always hungry yet never build fat or muscle, have a high threshold of pain, the attention span of a squirrel, a healthy shiny look, and probably a record of never having been sick.

Her name I came across browsing wikipedia for a life related Latin word for a name for my Warden, Cuilwen. Virago, is generally a term used for woman warriors, it seems to convey a sort of masculine life energy in a woman. I figured it would be fitting for a female defender who seems to have "more balls than brains".

For her backstory I decided to have her the child of a Human Tymantherian soldier and an Elven adventurer. Her mother was a flake who left her father before he knew she was pregnant and a few months later he finds twins left at his doorstep. The boy was brilliant but sickly and the girl was very healthy but could only stay still while daydreaming. Because of the boy's weak heart and ungainly appearance, their father charged Virago to protect her brother (as she got his share of the physical ability).

At some point she wandered off beyond the wall and her brother went with her (since she lacks the good sense the gods gave to a pidgeon) and they got attacked by monsters. She first manifested her Psionic abilities trying to protect her twin from danger but failed to save him in the end. You could say that when she left home a few years later it was to find the strength to do for others what she could not to for her brother, but that would be to discount the wanderlust in her blood. But the incident did make her somewhat more hesitant to lead. She is, after all, both ignorant and foolhardy. But what do you expect from somebody who meets challenges head on before knowing what they are.

In terms of the picture, I'm not particularly happy with how the face turned out. It didn't ink as well as I had hoped, it vectorized even worse, and even after fiddling with it in photoshop it never quite ended up where I wanted it. Its a pretty mediocre piece but I figured I'd finish it anyways as I work my way towards drawing all my female LFR characters (I've felt no compunction to draw any of my male ones, except for Gotthelm who I have never managed to draw right in the last couple of years).

D&D, LFR, etc are property of Wizards of the Coast or their respective copyright holders.