Pathfinder: Saga of Fate/Severus Pentai

''"Through recorded history, we can learn from the mistakes of our ancestors, and be inspired by their triumphs." ''~ Severus Pentai, 4739 AR

Severus Pentai is a half-elven sorcerer who is descended from naga. He draws upon the power of his serpentine bloodline for battle. He is also an aspiring Pathfinder Chronicler, and can rally his allies with heroic tales.

 Difficulty Rating:  **

Profile
Race: Half-Elf (Ulfen human ethnicity)

Class: Sorcerer/Pathfinder Chronicler

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Date of Birth: 8th Calistril, 4720 AR (February 8th)

Place of Birth: New Stetven, Brevoy

Age: 24 (human equivalent of about 18)

Height: 6'3"

Weight: 125 lbs.

Eye Color: Green

Hair Color: White

Backstory
Severus Pentai was born in the middle of the first Inner Sea War (which took place before the events of Saga of Fate). His father was a human soldier from Brevoy, while his mother was an elven cleric. The two met when Severus's mother was sent from Kyonin to Brevoy, which was under seige by the demon king Solomon Aomahr and in desperate need of healers. Severus's father supposedly fell in battle before Severus was born, but his mother stayed in Brevoy to continue tending to the wounded. Even after the war, Severus's mother remained in Brevoy to raise him with her newfound love, another elven cleric who had come to Brevoy with her.

Once Severus reached his teenage years, his mother told him about his bloodline that dated back several generations, the bloodline of the naga. From that point onward, Severus began teaching himself how to channel the power of that bloodline.

Severus delighted in listening to the skalds that would visit his village and was very interested in the adventures that they spoke about. Severus developed a passion for storytelling and began telling stories he read about in books at the local tavern, which eventually caught the eye of a member of the Pathfinder Society, who suggested that he try to join.

Severus now had two goals: master the power of his bloodline and join the Pathfinder Society.

Unfortunately, his progress was halted when an evil and powerful elven fire elementalist named Darien came to Brevoy and established his base of operations in a large tower not far from Severus's village. Darien used an army of fire elementals to take over Severus's village and would use the people there for magical experiments (which often resulted in the subjects being burned to death).

After enduring several months of Darien's oppressive regime, Severus had enough. He used his newly developed public speaking skills to attempt a revolt against Darien. The rebels were not strong enough to overthrow Darien, however. Darien punished Severus for leading this rebellion by sending him to a mining prison in the Five Kings Mountains (which was ruled by an equally oppressive leader).

Personality
Severus's defining trait is his inspiring charisma. He would prefer not to run away from a fight, but he sees no shame in retreat if it's the best strategic possibility. Severus hates tyranny of any kind, and the stories he prefers to tell are those of brave freedom fighters who fight against all odds for what they think is right. In addition, Severus is quite well-learned, given all of the reading required for his training as a Pathfinder Chronicler. Severus's greatest shortcoming is his insecurity about his appearance. Severus wears a scarf and smoked goggles to cover up his facial features that are a byproduct of his serpentine heritage.

Appearance
Being a half-elf, Severus has semi-pointed ears and is somewhat attractive. His hair is midlength and white. Due to his serpentine heritage, he possesses green, serpent-like eyes. In order to look more normal, Severus prefers to wear smoked goggles which make it difficult for others to see his eyes. He also has serpent-like fangs, so he wears a scarf over his face not only to help him endure the cold weather of his homeland, but also to make sure no one sees his fangs when he talks. For clothes, Severus wears a large brown fur coat with green accents.

Starting Ability Scores

 *  Strength:  8
 *  Dexterity:  12
 *  Constitution:  14
 *  Intelligence:  15
 *  Wisdom:  10
 *  Charisma:  18

Melee Attack: Fang

 * 1)  Serpent Fang:  Severus bites an enemy with serpentine fangs.  This damage is based on Severus's strength score.
 * 2)  Deadly Venom:  Serpent Fang deals an amount of extra poison damage that is based on Severus's constitution score.
 * 3)  Lingering Venom:  The extra poison damage lingers once per second for three seconds after Serpent Fang hits an enemy.
 * 4)  Consuming Venom:  Any instance of lingering poison the target might have is not removed if Severus hits the target with Serpent Fang again before the duration expires, meaning lingering poison damage stacks.

Alternate Attack: Acid

 * 1) Acid Splash: Severus flings a small projectile made of acid in front of him, which drops off a moderate distance from Severus's position.  This damage is based Severus's charisma score.
 * 2) Acid Arrow: The attack's range no longer has a drop off and can hit enemies a screen width away.
 * 3)  Corrosion:  Every second after this attack hits, the enemy takes the same amount of acid damage from the initial attack again, but the damage is reduced by 25% each time until it reaches zero.
 * 4)  Acid Grenade:  The acid now deals splash damage equal to 50% of the damage dealt by a direct hit.  Corrosion applies to this splash damage as well.

Standard Ability: Inspire

 * 1)  Inspire Resilience:  Severus tells an inspirational tale of heroes that overcame powerful foes, improving his allies' as well as his own armor by a percentage that is determined by Severus's charisma score.  This ability takes 2 seconds to execute and lasts for 10 seconds.
 * 2)  Inspire Will:  Inspire now buffs magic resistance in addition to armor.
 * 3)  Long Story Short:  Inspire now takes 1 second to execute and lasts for 15 seconds.

Advanced Ability: Summon Reptilian

 * 1)  Summon Lesser Reptilian:  Severus calls on a snake to aid him in battle.  The better Severus's charisma when summoning it, the better its stats will be and the longer it will stay on the battlefield.  The snake will bite enemies with its venomous fangs.
 * 2)  Summon Reptilian:  Once Conjure Reptilian is upgraded, the player is given a choice to summon either a more powerful snake, or a crocodile.  To choose which one to summon, the player must hold the advanced ability button (rather than simply press it) and press either the alternate attack button (for the snake) or the standard ability button (for the crocodile).  The crocodile has a powerful bite attack that can stagger and inflict bleed on enemies.  The upgraded snake increases in size and gets a constrict attack that allows it to prevent lesser enemies from attacking and moving while also dealing damage to them, and the poison damage from its bite is improved.
 * 3)  Summon Greater Reptilian:  Adds a third option for summoning, a Tyrannosaurus, which is summoned by holding the advanced ability button and pressing the super ability button.  The tyrannosaurus's attacks don't have any special effects like the crocodile and snake do, but it makes up for this by having overall better stats than both.  The constrictor snake is improved to an anaconda, increasing its size, improving its poison damage, and giving it the chance to swallow an enemy whole that is human size or smaller and not a boss or miniboss.  It can only do this once per summon.  The crocodile becomes a dire crocodile, increasing its size and improving the stagger time and bleed damage inflicted by its bite attack.  In addition, when it bites an enemy, there is a chance it will grab the enemy in its jaws, shake them around a bit, and fling them across the screen.

Super Ability: Serpentine Transformation

 * 1)  Serpent Form:  Severus turns into a large serpent.  In this form, Severus's movement speed is increased, and his ability set is changed.  By pressing the melee attack button, Severus delivers a powerful venomous bite.  By pressing the alternate attack button, Severus spins around and whips enemies around him with his tail.  Holding this button lets Severus constrict a non-boss enemy that is human-sized or smaller.  These attacks deal more damage than Severus's normal attacks, but are still influenced by Severus's ability scores.  The amount of time this ability lasts is affected by Severus's charisma score.
 * 2)  Greater Serpent Form:  Severus's serpent form increases in size, and Severus gains a breath weapon that lets him shoot a line of acid out of his mouth at enemies, which can be used by pressing the standard ability button.  The amount of damage dealt by this attack is influenced by Severus's constitution score.
 * 3)  Naga Form:  Severus transforms into a Guardian Naga.  His size does not increase, but the breath weapon is more powerful and deals electricity damage in addition to acid damage.  Severus gets two new abilities to use in this form.  The first is an ability that buffs the armor of Severus and his allies by 100% as long as the player holds the advanced ability button, although Severus cannot attack while doing so.  The second is a powerful beam of light that deals an immense amount of damage, but causes the duration timer on Naga Form to speed up as long as the player holds down the super ability button to use it.

Gear: Enchanted Coat

 * 1)  Novice Enchanted Coat:  15% resistance to magic damage
 * 2) Apprentice Enchanted Coat: 25% resistance to magic damage.  Adds more magical charms to the coat.
 * 3)  Adept Enchanted Coat:  35% resistance to magic damage.  Replaces the wool cap with a hood.
 * 4)  Master Enchanted Coat:  50% resistance to magic damage.  Adds a fur cloak to the outfit.

Passive: Serpent Blood

 * 1)  Scaly Armor:  Severus gains an armor bonus that is influenced by his charisma score.
 * 2)  Corrosion Resistant:  Severus resists damage from acid-based attacks by 2% times his charisma score.  This resistance stacks with magic resistance granted by his equipment when determining resistance to magic attacks.
 * 3)  Venom Resistant:  Severus has a chance of not being poisoned that is equal to 2% times his charisma score.  If Severus does become poisoned, the poison lasts a percentage shorter that is equal to this same amount.
 * 4)  True Reptilian:  Resistance to acid damage, chance of not being poisoned, and poison time reduction from previous upgrades to this ability are all improved to 3% times Severus's charisma score.

Paragon: Master of Venom
Severus becomes a master of using his serpentine bloodline to poison and corrode his enemies. Whenever an enemy hits Severus with a melee attack, they take an amount of acid damage equal to Severus's charisma score. Poison delivered through Severus's Fang attack lasts twice as long. All poison and acid damage dealt by Severus and his summons is 25% greater.

Role
Severus is useful as an all-around utility character. His purpose in battle is not so much to deal large amounts of damage to his enemies, but to instead make the battle for them more difficult. He is able to inflict continuous poison and acid damage on his foes through his upgraded melee and alternate attacks, and he can use his Summon Reptilian ability to put pressure on them. His passive and gear bonuses allow him to go toe-to-toe with magic users. His first level passive coupled with his Inspire ability affecting himself provides him with decent resistance to physical threats.

General

 * "Alright, Severus. You can do this." - entering the game
 * "Behold their glory!" - using his Inspire standard ability
 * "Ssstand down or be dessstroyed!" - activating his Serpentine Transformation super ability
 * "I'd say that was a battle for the ages!" - Clearing a wave of enemies without any ally dropping below 50% health
 * "That could have gone better." - Clearing a wave of enemies after either an ally fell in battle or every party member dropped below 25% health at some point.
 * "I'm glad to see that my abilities as a sorcerer are improving." - Leveling up
 * "Valhalla...awaits." - Falling in battle
 * "Looks like I'm not dying today!" - being revived with a potion

With Ostarian (Act I only)

 * Severus: "Ostarian, you seem like the kind of person who has a very interesting story to tell. Would it be alright if we sat down and talked about it sometime?  It would really help me in pursuits as a Pathfinder Chronicler."
 * Ostarian: "No. It wouldn't be alright."
 * Severus: "Wh-why not?"
 * Ostarian: "Because my past is none of your business, that's why. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to the task at hand."

With Ostarian (Act IV and later)

 * Ostarian: "I would like to apologize for my behavior, Severus. You were only trying to be polite and I was nothing but rude to you."
 * Severus: "I can understand why you acted the way you did, Ostarian. Had I experienced what you went through, I don't think I would behave in the most cordial manner, either."
 * Ostarian: "That's good to hear. I would be glad to let you write about my story.  Besides, I want the whole Inner Sea to know that Hermea isn't as perfect as they think it is."
 * Severus: "I heard that Hermea strictly forbids entry to Pathfinder Chroniclers since they want to keep their customs a secret. Looks like that won't help them much."  

With Iolana (Act I only)

 * Severus: "So you consider yourself a sorcerer as well, hm? Smart choice. A magical bloodline is a useful tool."
 * Iolana: "Yes, I suppose so, though I still consider myself a priestess of Desna first and a sorceress second. Sorcery doesn't keep wounds closed, after all."
 * Severus: "And for that, we have you to thank."

With Iolana (Act IV and later)

 * Iolana: "Severus...I wish things could have been different between us."
 * Severus: "While I still don't completely understand what you see in Romulus, I've gotten over it."
 * Iolana: "Romulus may seem insufferable to you at times, but you have to believe me when I say that he is a good person at heart."
 * Severus: "Do you really think that, or do you just want to think that because you're the mother of his children?"
 * Iolana: "Do you really hate him, or do you just want to hate him because I chose him instead of you? I though I just heard you say that you've gotten over it!"
 * Severus: "You're right, and I'm sorry. I suppose I can admit that Romulus has become a better person since when I first met him.  I hope for your sake he has improved well enough to be the father of your children."
 * Iolana: "I'd very much like to believe he has."

With Tsun (Act I only)

 * Severus: "Damn, I can't believe I spilled ink on last week's notes. All that work, down the drain."
 * Tsun: "You know, Severus, I've been keeping some of my own notes on our adventures if you want to use those."
 * Severus: "Ah yes, I caught a glimpse at some of your notes. Though I appreciate the offer, I think I'll just go off of memory."
 * Tsun: "Really, what makes you say that?"
 * Severus: "Well, I could barely even read yours when I looked at them, for one."
 * Tsun: "...Fair enough."

With Tsun (Act IV and later)

 * Tsun: "Severus...I have a favor to ask of you."
 * Severus: "Of course, Tsun. Anything for a friend.  What do you want from me?"
 * Tsun: "For now this is just between you and me but...my loyalties to Absalom are...waning. I'm afraid I may one day act against them, and when that happens I know they will not hesitate to brand me as a villain."
 * Severus: "And you want me to use my credentials as a Pathfinder Chronicler to let the world know otherwise."
 * Tsun: "I know it seems like a bit much to ask-"
 * Severus: "Don't mention it. You can count on me to get it done."  

With Romulus (Act I only)

 * Severus: "I really can't seem to understand what Iolana sees in you."
 * Romulus: "Maybe by charm? My dashing good looks?  My intelligence?  Just naming a few things."
 * Severus: "Well I know for certain that your massive ego isn't one of them."
 * Romulus: "Look, I can't help that she likes me better that you."
 * Severus: "You're despicable."

With Romulus (Act IV and later)

 * Severus: "Romulus, we need to talk."
 * Romulus: "Here we go..."
 * Severus: "This is exactly what I was going to talk to you about. How do you expect to be a father if you can't take anything seriously?"
 * Romulus: "Severus, it's not like that at all. The reason I was loathing having this conversation is because you can't seem to understand that I can change.  And I have.  Iolana has seen it.  Tsun has seen it.  Hell, even Ostarian's stubborn arse has seen it.  I don't understand why you still view me in the same light as when we first met, even after everything that's happened."
 * Severus: "I'm not denying that you've improved for the better, however slightly. What I'm concerned about is whether you've straightened yourself out enough to become a responsible parent."
 * Romulus: "I don't understand why you worry so much about Gaius and Ilindia's well-being. They aren't even your children.  Besides, Iolana does enough of that as it is."
 * Severus: "(muttering under his breath) Sometimes I feel the world would be much better off if they were mine."

With Lu Kong

 * Severus: "Your punches have so much power to them, just like the fabled Champions of Irori!"
 * Lu Kong: "Don't compare me to them."
 * Severus: "Why not? They're some of the greatest warriors in the Inner Sea!"
 * Lu Kong: "I may fight like a monk, but I reject everything they stand for. I am my own vanara."

With Raalnorg

 * Severus: "So Pavo tells me you come from a different continent that is mostly unknown here in Avistan."
 * Raalnorg: "And Ostarian tells me you like to ask questions."
 * Severus: "Yes, but it's all for a worthy cause. If you would just take some t-"
 * Raalnorg: "Listen, I was born on a boat. I couldn't tell you anything about where my race is from even if I wanted to."

With Hiroto

 * Severus: "You know, Hiroto, I know a thing or two about casting summoning spells. Perhaps I could become as good as you some day?"
 * Hiroto: "Don't count on it. I've been practicing summoning since I was a child.  How much have you put into it?"
 * Severus: "Well see, that's the thing. Being a sorcerer is all intuitive, you get better at it by finding the power within yourself."
 * Hiroto: "It must be nice having your magical ancestors do all the hard work of learning spells for you."
 * Solavoto: "It must be nice having an extraplanar being to do all the hard work of fighting for you."

With Hanji

 * Severus: "So I hear you got to study at the Magaambya. Is that school as wonderful of a place to learn as I've been hearing?"
 * Hanji: "My time at the Magaambya was the best time I've had in my entire life. So yes, I would say it's just as wonderful if not more than what you've been hearing."
 * Severus: "While I'm grateful that I have the blood of my ancestors to draw power from, sometimes I wish I could have the gratifying experience of learning magic for myself."

With Pavo

 * Pavo: "I'd be glad to sit down and tell you about my story, Severus, though would you mind making some, uh, omissions? I've done some things that are not...entirely...legal."
 * Severus: "The Pathfinder Society is not tied to any particular government, and neither am I. We have the right to choose not to disclose information with any authorities that might want you."
 * Pavo: "So Absalom doesn't have to know about how I dealt pesh to pay for my first ship?"
 * Severus: "On second thought, I think I'll just leave that part out."

With Helvar

 * Severus: "Growing up, my mother told me stories about the Inner Sea War. One such story that she heard from the other soldiers was about a man fighting for Lastwall who once fought off two dozen soldiers on his own."
 * Helvar: "Someone was counting? I sure as hell wasn't."
 * Severus: "So that was you and the legends were true?"
 * Helvar: "Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I just do what needs to be done.  I don't really focus on keeping track of my accomplishments.  I've lived for so long that I can't remember all of them anyway."

With Remus

 * Severus: "Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, now there's two of you."
 * Remus: "You don't care for my brother? Well, then you are going to love me."
 * Severus: "I take it you're being sarcastic and are even more insufferable than he is."
 * Remus: "You may take it however you like."

Trivia

 * Severus Pentai was one of the earliest characters ever created for the campaign Saga of Fate is based off of.
 * During Saga of Fate, it is implied (but never confirmed) that Brunnwald von Roth is Severus's father, and that Severus's father didn't actually die in the war.
 * While one might think that Severus's fur coat gives him resistance to cold damage, his reptilian blood makes him vulnerable to it, so the two cancel each other out.