Guardian of Death
(Sample Diablo 3 witch-doctor) (Part #3 - Appendices)
Context
This is the third part of the profile. And thus meant to be read right after the first and second part, yes ?
The sequence goes :
- Guardian of Death part 1 – Diablo context.
- Guardian of Death part 2 – Diablo III events.
- Guardian of Death part 3 – Appendices.
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Description
Seynameh seems to be in her mid-30s. By Earth standards she would be of Western African heritage, perhaps Fon or Yoruba .
Normally, she wears a short floaty skirt and a halter top. Since she lives in a stiflingly hot and humid climate.
Upon reaching Aranoch she had an ensemble made to travel in more temperate climes. These are tough clothes, with a top-shelf pair of Aranoch hiking boots, a tunic of the finest Xian silk, elaborate Kehjistani armour plates to protect her arms and shoulders, lightly armoured trousers made of the strongest Westmarch leather… Apparently, the Nephalem also has epic shopping skills.
The Mask
Guardian of Death wears a ritual, unique mask. She made it herself using the bones of the spirits of dead angels and demons. This thing is as heavy as if it were made of steel, and no normal person could wear it.
It has no “magical power” per se. But this elaborate, outrageously Kirbyesque mask is a symbol of office. It’s a bit like the star badge of a heroic sheriff in an old Western, or Superman’s “S” shield. Or writeups.org’s “W” shield.
Spirits can readily tell that she’s Nephalem. But with the mask, even the thickest know-nothing animal spirit will realise that they are in presence of Guardian of Death.
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Personality
Guardian of Death is wise, calm, smart and kind. Her knowledge is vast, her spirit powerful. And though she’s not one for lengthy speechifying, her people skills are excellent. She’s a proficient priest and life adviser, as well as a good listener.
She is otherwise a guarded person. Seynameh seldom speaks about herself or her work. She has a super-busy schedule, and what she does is incomprehensible. It’s like being a cutting edge quantum physicist, struggling with conundrums where few people on Earth can even understand what the matter is.
Guardian of Death is benign and helpful. She is held back by arcane rules about the afterlife, but in everyday matters she sees little reason not to be quietly nice.
This is impressive when one considers that she’s a reclusive immortal wizard with big-time responsibilities, spending a lot of her time in bizarre dimensions . None of that is known to encourage caring and empathy. Trust me on this.
In some ways she’s like a school caregiver for little children. She likes these kids and there are bright and interesting ones, but they’ll soon move on and there are too many.
Low-flash, high-impact
Seynameh is quietly confident. She never brags and seldom acts flashy. This leads to most assuming that she’s just some random savage. Some people may have heard of the dreaded witch-doctors of the Umbaru, though.
Even those who realise she is Nephalem tend to assume that she’s from a later, near-Human generation.
Howbeit, during the Diablo III and Reaper of Souls crises, Guardian of Death becomes an important factor holding up the morale of Human armies. When desperate soldiers getting overrun by demonic hordes see her, they cheer and fight with renewed courage.
For they know that the enemy is now doomed.
Quotes
“Does the Angel of Death hope to grow powerful enough to face me by hiding like a rat in this castle ?”
“Their darkness grows. Their torment should end.” (raises her hand which starts crackling with energy) “It should end *now*.”
(Crouching and touching the stone) “There is a deep sickness here. The bones beneath this tomb scream of madness and betrayal. But it can be healed.”
“I overflow with blessings.”
Marvel Universe History
In the MU, Guardian of Death with her Kirbyesque mask would likely be an Eternal. Which also matches fairly well with her being a Nephalem.
Since in Diablo III she’s a one-woman army, she could be a recluse (like the Forgotten One) who mixes sophisticated cosmic power with high-level magic. She would have close ties with Death, making her a natural enemy of Thanos.
Her abilities would have to be recast as something more cosmic though. Which might mean ditching the pets and making her more Thanos-like, and/or more Adam Warlock-like.
DC Universe History
A DC equivalent of being a Nephalem would have her hail from the Third World – thus she would be an Old God from Godworld. She might have come in to help against Mageddon and then Gog, other Godworld survivors.
Or she could be a Vandal Savage-like immortal who kept busy running the conspiracy behind Aztek the Ultimate Man. When Aztek fell, she stepped in and took to wearing the helmet herself. She helps with the enormous damage Mageddon wrought, and prepares for the next prophesied menace left over from the Third World.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Guardian of Death
| Dex: 04 | Str: 04 | Bod: 06 | Motivation: Responsibility |
| Int: 12 | Wil: 16 | Min: 15 | Occupation: Guardian of Death |
| Inf: 13 | Aur: 16 | Spi: 13 | Wealth: 010 |
| Init: 031 | HP: 120 |
Powers:
Full vision: 03, Invulnerability: 10, Omni-Ability: 10, Regeneration: 04
Bonuses and Limitations:
Omni-Ability is limited to Diablo witch-doctor spells (-0).
Omni-Ability Power payload:
I haven’t computed the budget, but it usually produces :
- The Pets below.
- Curse field: Slow (EQ): 10, Enhance (EV): 01 (cap is 08), Force field (Self only): 01. All of these are Combined, have No Range, and are active throughout a Selective Area of Effect (1 AP radius).
- Chill of death: Charisma (Intimidation): 04, Snare: 04, Temperature control (Cold only): 03. All of these are Combined, have a Range of but 01, and are active throughout a Selective Area of Effect (1 AP radius).
- “Piranhado”: Stagger (Area of Effect 0 APs): 08, Attraction/Repulsion: 07. Attraction/Repulsion is Combined with Stagger, is Attraction Only, and has a Selective 1 AP Area of Effect. It thus Attracts enemies into the Stagger zone just before the Stagger takes effects. Both Powers have a Range of but 02 APs.
- Firebats jet – Flame project: 07 (Area of Effect 0 APs, Range is 02 APs), Combined with Force shield: 02.
Skills:
Accuracy (Snare): 07, Animals handling: 05, Artist (Mask-making, dancer, musician): 03, Evasion: 06, Occultist: 16, Weaponry (Melee)*: 05
Bonuses and Limitations:
Evasion is a Powered and Mystically-Linked Skill.
Advantages:
Area Knowledge (Unformed Lands), “Credentials” (Unformed Lands, Medium), Familiarity (Low-tech everyday maintenance stuff), Immortal, Languages (Common languages of Sanctuary, and a few others), Life Support (Need for food/sleep/drink reduced by 60%), Scholar (Transmigration, psychopomp work and related subjects).
Connections:
The Horadrim (High – this covers Deckard, Tyrael and Leah), Spirits of the Unformed Land (Low), the “support staff” (Covetous Shen, Myriam, Haedrig, etc.) (Low).
Drawbacks:
Authority Figure, Exile.
Note:
Guardian of Death has something akin to Mistrust toward orthodox Umbaru shamans, but it doesn’t affect her much. She also gains Local Hero and/or a Wanderer’s Connection at points, especially with the troops at Bastion Keep and with Westmarchers, but she’s too much of an outsider for it to last.
Rituals:
A bunch, but they’re too slow to be used in-game.
Equipment:
- MASK OF GUARDIAN OF DEATH [BODY 09].
- Wicked knife [BODY 05, Enhance (EV): 01 (Cap is 06), Descriptor: Piercing, Slashing].
Pet: “The dog”
| Dex: 03 | Str: 06 | Bod: 10 | Motivation: Serve & protect |
| Int: 01 | Wil: 01 | Min: 03 | Occupation: Beast |
| Inf: 02 | Aur: 00 | Spi: 02 | Wealth: N.A. |
| Init: 006 | HP: 000 |
Powers:
Analytical smell/Tracking scent: 07, Claws: 07, Growth: 02, Invulnerability: 10, Magic field (Self Only): 02, Regeneration: 04, Running: 05, Swimming: 03, Vampirism: 05
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Growth is Always On and Already Factored In.
- Vampirism can be Combined with STR.
- Vampirism has Range, but only to “send” RAPs to heal Guardian of Death.
Drawbacks:
Distinct Appearance.
Pet: “The triplets”
| Dex: 05 | Str: 07 | Bod: 10 | Motivation: Serve & protect |
| Int: 02 | Wil: 01 | Min: 02 | Occupation: Helper, drummer. |
| Inf: 02 | Aur: 00 | Spi: 02 | Wealth: N.A. |
| Init: 009 | HP: 000 |
Powers:
Claws: 10, Energy absorption: 04, Growth: 01, Invulnerability: 10, Magic field (Self Only): 02, Regeneration: 05, Running: 05, Skin armour: 01, Temperature control: 04, Ultra-vision: 03
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Growth is Always On and Already Factored In.
- Temperature control has No Range, and can only be used to lower temperature.
Skills:
Artist (Drumming): 04
Drawbacks:
Distinct Appearance, MPR (they are massive, clumsy and none too observant – they break a lot of things, especially indoors).
Pet: Fetish fan club members
On average, four will be around during a fight.
| Dex: 04 | Str: 05 | Bod: 04 | Motivation: Psychopath |
| Int: 03 | Wil: 01 | Min: 05 | Occupation: Critter. |
| Inf: 02 | Aur: 01 | Spi: 05 | Wealth: 001 |
| Init: 009 | HP: 000 |
Powers:
Shrink: 02
Bonuses and Limitations:
Shrink is Always On and Already Factored In.
Skills:
Artist (Singer): 01, Weaponry (Melee)*: 04
Drawbacks:
Distinct Appearance, Serious Rage (becomes Catastrophic if deprived of their mask).
Equipment:
- BIG SCARY MASK [BODY 02].
- Butcher’s knife [BODY 05, Enhance (EV): 01 (Cap is 06), Descriptor: Piercing, Slashing].
Power scale
Though the events in D3 affect the entire local cosmology, the power level isn’t *necessarily* that high. Our normal approach is to establish a scale from the bottom up. And when doing so one notes that Human soldiers can, and do fight supernaturals.
Examples include the Bastion soldiers vs. the armies of Hell, or the Westmarch soldiers vs. the post-Urzael Reapers. They are going to take bad casualties, but they can win. This suggests that rank-and-file Demons and Angels aren’t that tough, which in turn means that the bosses and champions don’t have to have huge stats, etc..
Likewise, some heroic NPC soldiers are able to fight along with the Player Character for some time and survive. So decent stats plus Hero Points spending should be sufficient for these guys to endure the attacks being thrown around.
For non-combat scales, I simply went with the Mayfair numbers, as usual. Powerful mysticals have very high Mental and Mystical Attributes in DC Heroes, somewhat disconnected from the usual scale. So I based Seynameh on the Demon Etrigan for this aspect of the scale.
Design Notes
This isn’t based on a fully-optimised D3 build. Rather, that’s the character as she stood whilst starting the endgame (level 60+ GRs).
Some equipment to reach the target build was still missing. So alternatives (such as Firebats + Coils of the First Spider for survivability while waiting to get a Sacred Harvester, or a belt summoning Fetishes) were still in play.
As always, the DC Heroes stats are simplified and refactored. Frex the curse field is a mix of Soul Harvest + Languish, a level 25+ Bane of the Trapped gem, Lakumba’s Ornament Bracers, several aspects of Wall of Death, etc..
The Carnevil mask was only used as a cosmetic, except for a brief (and fun) Zunimassa stretch whilst levelling.
Source of Character: Inspired by a Diablo III Player Character.
Helper(s): Icy-veins.com for build guides.
Writeup completed on the 31st of October, 2018.