Hey all, I love making builds, but for this one I shall take off my “I aim to play this character for a while” hat and put on my “this character needs to be a fun and powerful ally/enemy for the players” sombrero (I’ll glue on some horns to be a bit more Viking-like).
I went with the idea that Egil likes to get up close and personal. He likes to take things slow at first, build up some steam, get carried away and then SMASH. If players do decide to fight him, they’ll want to take him down quickly or put up a strong defense when he unleashes the big hits. The Norn can very easily scale Egil’s damage output during the fight to increase or decrease the threat that players are feeling.
Egil – Heroic Denizen
Level 18 – Troll Blood, and access to Skald, Galdr, and Grizzled Warrior tables
Essence 10 Destiny 4
I’m torn here. The build is more optimal with 3 Physical, 4 Mental, 3 Spiritual runes. Story-wise, Egil makes more sense with 4 Physical runes though. The two troll actives should not be assigned to Mental runes. Apples of Idun should probably be on a physical rune. I’d bind attack actives to spiritual runes and the blocks to physical runes.
Actives
Skald board
Apples of Idun
Lunging Attack
Versatile Combat Manoeuver
Imposing Barrier
Galdr board
Thundering Blow
Aggressive Assault
Rapid Recovery
Cleansing Block
Troll board
Troll SMASH
Smashing Stance
Passives
Troll board
Giant Size Egil is described as towering over most men…
Skald board
Tactical Advantage
Leaping Striker
Combat Awareness
Warrior of Song
Galdr board
Combat Manoeuvrability
Explosive Rune
Rune of Shielding
Rune of Blood
Rune of Reinforcement
Skills
Omens/Portents (He respects Aesir and Jotun as inspirations to mankind)
Intimidate
Drinking/Wenching x 2
Sense Motive x 2
Brawling x 2
Perception x 2
Let’s explain this build a little:
Egil is very competitive and he’s a dangerous fighter when he gets going. This build reflects his nature by offering some basic techniques, two build-up powers and a fun core “trick” combo. When Egil gets carried away, he really dishes out the damage and dominates a fight.
The Basics
Egil is pretty beefy and mobile. During upkeep he can move around and heals a little. He’s also larger than the average Viking and his nifty boots increase his mobility further when he’s singing. His runes and equipment offer pretty good PF, Parry and Evade values. Finally, Egil can block attacks from any direction without penalties.
Egil uses Imposing Barrier to change the layout of the battlefield. Some Norns may even have knockback convert to damage if you knock someone into or through a barrier.
He has two healing spells, one of which is a spellsong (more on Apples of Idun in the build-up powers) and the other, Rapid Recovery, changes his position in the initiative order.
Speaking of initiative, if Egil goes late in a round he can make great use of Versatile Combat Manoeuver and those Cannibalize meta tags. Versatile Combat Manoeuver is as described: versatile – Egil blocks if he needs to, or he just cracks someone’s skull. Cannibalize lets Egil re-use Runes that are already in play to make bigger rune chains – a very nasty effect for Parry-based fighters with Spellsongs.
Cleansing Block is there in case Egil needs to remove a condition effect. Use it!
The Build-up
Spellsong! There, I said it. The Open meta tag is one of the best build-up meta tags out there. It maintains a power and it lets Egil create bigger, badder effects the longer they stay in play. Luckily, Egil’s Spellsong is Apples of Idun, a powerful healing effect that triggers immediately (or during upkeep) and with the first move of the round. Advanced Norns should use Tactical Advantage first when Egil's near full health to avoid accidentally wasting the second heal effect of this song.
After he’s got a big rune chained Spellsong in play, Egil unleashes a Troll SMASH with a few Cannibalize metas to get a very heavy SMASH.
The second build-up power is Smashing Stance. This stance lets Egil send enemies flying. When Egil first draws this rune, he should hold onto it with a Mental rune until the end of his turn so that he can put it in play with as many Amplify tags as possible.
The core combo: Knockback, Combat Manoeuvrability, and Leaping Striker
Every single attack action knocks Egil’s target away from him by 1 or more hexes. Aggressive Assault and Thundering Blow are even better at this too. Try putting an Attack in contingency to trigger after someone moves next to him
If Norns wish to teach players to watch their surroundings, they should set the fight near a cliff... Oh right, intro saga. Never mind.
Because Egil sends them flying, he’ll generally have no adjacent foes when he tries to perform attack actions. Combat Manoeuvrability will provide him with lots of free weak moves. Try using a Lunging Attack with no adjacent foes (weak move, attack, weak move)!
Because he performs weak move actions before almost every attack, he’ll almost always get that Leaping Striker’s weaker +1 damage and +2 Pierce on his hits. Clever players should find ways to prevent Egil from moving around.
Speaking of damage boosts; Leaping Striker, Explosive Rune and Warrior of Song plus a good weapon let Egil really lay on the pain. These 3 powers can give up to +6 to Egil’s damage and they're pretty easy for a Norn to ramp up or down as needed.
For his skills, I went simple. They’re all useful and every one is hinted at in his story.
He enjoys a good party. He enjoys a good fight. He’s pretty observant. He watches out for omens and portents. He’s tough to deceive. He’s a little intimidating.
For equipment, try this:
Longsword DF 3, Reach 1, +2 Parry –this includes the Explosive Rune
Metal Shield +6 Parry –this includes the Rune of Shielding
Short Bow DF 1, Pierce 2, Range 10; just in case ~ every time I forget my ranged weapon, I regret it
Medium graceful armour +2 Parry and PF 2 –this includes the Rune of Reinforcement
Egil’s Boots Move +3 and Evade +1 while under Spellsong
Fox Fang necklace +1 Tracking
One last public service announcement: If there's a Mesmer in the player party, all bets are off. I'd sub out the Rune of Reinforcement for resistance to Possession!
Now we're doing the saga starter vignettes from Denizens of the North and the world is becoming such a sandbox of things to do. We the players are driving the story as we travel around Midgard looking for high adventure.