Heroes of Freeport: Janica Flamefist

One of the distinguishing features of D&D Third Edition artwork was the use of iconic characters--examples of typical members of a given class or race. Besides giving a more unified look to the game's' artwork, these characters also appeared in examples of play in the rules, and served as pregenerated characters for many adventures. The Pathfinder RPG has its own stable of iconic characters, created for the same purposes. Versions of these iconic characters at 1st, 7th, and 12th level, along with some backstory and favorite tactics can be found in the Pathfinder SRD and in the NPC Codex.

Green Ronin used this idea in their Freeport setting. The four pregenerated characters in Death in Freeport (who I've converted to a number of other systems in this blog) appear in other illustrations for that book, and other products since then. The Pathfinder edition of Freeport: The City of Adventure (FCA) makes use of this idea as well, presenting portraits of iconic characters for the freebooter, monster slayer, and noble classes as well as many of the new archetypes. Earlier this week, Green Ronin provided some additional background about one of these new characters, in a blog post titled, "Ronin Round Table: Heroes of Freeport: Janica Flamefist." That article gives no statistics for Janica, so I have taken the liberty of devising a 1st-level stat block for her, so that she can be used as a PC for "The Ironjack Legacy" (in FCA) or Return to Freeport Part One: Curse of the Brine Witch, both of which are designed for 1st-level.. (Design notes follow the stat block.)

*****

JANICA FLAMEFIST (CR 1/2)

XP 200
Female azhari monster slayer 1 (FCA 356, 370)
LN Medium outsider (native)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6

Defense
AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +3; +2 vs. fire spells and spell-likes
Weaknesses vulnerability to cold

Offense
Speed 20 ft. (base 30 ft.)
Melee falchion +3 (2d4+3/18-20)
Ranged light crossbow +1 (1d8/19-20)
Special Attacks turn undead (1/day, DC 11)

Statistics
Str 15, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 12
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 13
Feats Power Attack
Skills Acrobatics -2, Climb +4, Knowledge (religuion) +5, Knowledge (all others, for monster lore), Perception +6. Survival +5 6 to get along in the wild); Racial Modifiers +2 Acrobatics, +2 Climb, +2 Profession (sailor)
Languages Azharan, Common, Draconic
Traits frontier-forged, tactician (Utlimate Campaign)
SQ might of the efreet (1/day), monster lore (+0), monster specialist (novice undead slayer)
Combat Gear holy water; Other Gear scale mail, falchion, light crossbow and 10 bolts, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, trail ratuons (5 days), traveler's outfit, waterskin, whetstone, wooden holy symbol (Eternal Flame), 61 gp

*****

When building Janica, I tried to embody her race and class as best I could. I used the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) for her stats for simplicity's sake. Her background indicates that undead are her chosen foe; the "Flamefist" epithet refers to the visual manifestation of her turn undead ability 

A first level character cannot afford masterwork weapons, so sadly, her uncle's blade has no unusual qualities. The "Heroes of Freeport" blog post is unclear about whether this falchion is supposed to be azhari-sized or efreet-sized. I chose to have it be her own size, also for simplicity, and so that she's not stealing the schtick of the iconic Pathfinder barbarian Amiri, who wields a Large greatsword.

At higher levels, Janica will continue to train as an undead slayer, but will eventually branch out into other creature types depending on what other monsters she faces during her career.

I'm hoping that we'll see similar write-ups for other characters, such as the freebooter featured on the cover and page 365. If and when we do, I will almost certainly devise stat blocks for them, too--unless Green Ronin beats me to it.