Help with the Gorgon Please

[Magian]

Hi,

I request some other's inputs on this matter. In my campaign I am widdling out my version of the Gorgon.

Here is what I have so far, The Gorgon is not a wizard of 16th level because his domain power is only 90 from the RP generated section from the books.

My questions are, if I chose to have the Gorgon become a wizard would this be plausible? (What I mean is would he allow himself to be taught by another? Is he capable of casting spells with those big ass claws? Does this unbalance the campaign if he does this?) Also with a 100+ bloodline considering if he becomes a wizard his domain power would go sky high meaning I would have to make a bloodline strength for him, so what would you suggest this be? So far I have calculated it to be between 101-265, what do you think? (those are min and max figures so don't get upset)

[Temujin]

My Gorgon is a not a mage, I prefer the Blood Enemies version of Raesene. The Gorgon is frightening enough as a level 25 fighter with all those big powers and items without needing to add him enough levels as a mage to make him on par with Aelies. Besides, there's enough fighter/mage awnsheghs on the continent already, with the Manslayer, the Raven(my personal favorite), the Serpent... As far as the bloodline goes, I used to rate him at 120.

[Lawgiver]

Mr. Magian,

I can't believe you would even consider giving the Gorgon magic-user abilities. Do your players really need a more challenging opponent? The Gorgon can pretty much romp and stomp across any battle field slaying whomever he wishes.

If you must give the Gorgon access to magical power, give him a lieutenant. But please don't ruin the Gorgon by having him rely on magic.

[warlord_nabron]

I go with the Gorgon exactly as Rich Baker wrote him; Fighter 25/Mage 16, and would say stripping him of his wizard class is what's not plausible.

In my campaign, he spends a LOT of his regency maintaining a massive network of ley lines -- 75 RP maintenance/Domain Turn for 36 hook-ups and crossing 39 borders. Since his vassals have very low bloodlines (a 2 for Markazor's regent, a 5 for Mur-Kilad's, and a 17 for Kiergard's), he can't make up the difference by tribute even if he squeezes them for every RP their realms generate (not that he wouldn't hit them up for every single RP he could).

As far as his bloodline score goes, we know that he has 2 Minor and 6 Great abilities while and the best "spread" he could have as a normal mortal would be 1 Minor, 2 Major, and 4 Great abilities. I used this as a pretext (back when I prepared the Gorgon for play) to add two more bloodline score "brackets," one at 115 (which improved his single Major to Great) and another at 155 (which gave him another Great). I currently have his score at 160-something, and keep his RP accumulation near 200. He's only rarely spent RP to increase his bloodline strength -- it's just so much easier to run someone like Razzik Fangrabber through the heart for another point of bloodline strength than it is to save up the requisite number of RP.

I expanded his guild holdings, placed trade routes, set his taxes at severe (no need to fear rebellions, so why not?), and empty his vassals' treasuries into his own maintain his standing army. His 200+ GB treasury can muster a lot of anything he wants if he needs to, and he has a few fortresses located around his domain, particularly Sideath. I figure he might be paranoid enough to have a back-up set of ley lines connecting to key points, but haven't bothered to map them (or start charging for their maintenance).

[Magian]

Sorry for backtracking a bit but I am sure others may do this. Originally I thought the Gorgon was a W16 also, but then someone brought to my attention that why then does he not just conquer Anuire at will? He could simply teleport in and take all the regents bloodlines, and who would stop him?

This could be countered by the lack of teleport spell or teleport wards or dangers of shadow world trapping a teleporter.

Then I looked at the domain power written in the Ruins of Empire book and it showed he generates only 90 RP per turn. I did his hidden holdings in Markazor and Mur-Kilad and this would enable him to be close to 90 domain power meaning his bloodline supercedes his total holdings and provinces. If he was a wizard then the book would show him generating 100+ RP by default not 90. This is what made up my mind after about 6 months of looking at this argument.

I really appreciate your judgement and gauging methods of how you came up with the Gorgon's bloodline str and I will look at this myself now since I hadn't thought of looking at it that way before. Mainly because I allow regents to instead of increasing a bloodling str by spending +1 rp to their strength to get a roll chance at gaining a new blood ability when they are at true strength so this mislead me from this way of looking at it. Thanks

[warlord_nabron]

Well, why don't the Serpent, the Raven, and the Magian do the same thing (teleport around Cerilia slaying regents). I mean, if you reason it would be that easy for the Gorgon to be able to do this, why isn't it that easy for rest of them (since there is no perception that they are not wizards)?

[Magian]

I am just saying this argument was brought to me, not that I thought of it of my own.

[Lawgiver]

Because even though most of them are evil they are "noble".

Plus people who have enemies that stoop this low or behave like this have sucky campaigns in whihc the PCs are worms compared to these demi-god like beings and the fun of the game is lost and so are the number of players....

The person who came up with the idea had a great idea (if you are evil are sedistic) but they are missing the point of the game.

[Lord Eldred]

None of them can be everywhere at once. They may be able to bring havoc across Cerilia but they could never be able to control all of it. Also while one was away from their domain, another would sweep in and take it over!

[Sivar Windlass]

Does he have one? Aciles (is that the name for it?) heal! There is a hint in Ruins of Empire that the Gorgon cant leave his realm. Dont remember where, and I dont want to bother to search for it now!

But there is one thing that bothers me, why didnt he become a god? Because he wanted to best his brothers. So he was still on earth, and grew his realm. But the gods did not want this huge power running loose so the bound him to the land! He cant leave his realm. It infuriates him! BUt there is a plan, he can move in his vassal realms so he must make all of Anurie a vassal realms. So if he expands his realm then he can walk freely!

What do ya think about this idea?