Pathfinder: Saga of Fate/Whittaker

"I hear a lot of people call necromancy 'vile' and 'disrespectful'. I call it recycling.  Why bury or burn a perfectly good body when you could put it to good use?" ~ Whittaker, 4741 AR

Whittaker is a grippli gunslinger and cleric of the goddess Pharasma. He is assisted by a permanent undead he has created named Rotbeard, who wields an axe in battle.

Backstory
Whittaker hails from a small grippli tribe in the treetops deep in the Mwangi expanse. At the time, his name was Ziiglun. While living there, he joined a circle of clerics who worshipped Pharasma, the goddess of death. The circle created undead of creatures who met their end in the harsh jungles. They used these undead to protect their village from outside threats.

Creating undead is forbidden among Pharasma's other worshippers, however. When Mwangi human clerics of Pharasma discovered what these clerics were doing, they destroyed all of the undead as well as the necromancers that created them, except for Ziiglun who managed to escape.

Ziiglun ran far away from his village to escape the clerics, traveling all the way to the Shackles. Taking further steps to avoid being discovered, Ziiglun hid out in the sewers of Port Peril, the capital of the Shackles. Furthermore, he changed his name to a more human name, Whittaker, and always wore a hood that covered up the top half of his face whenever he had to go to the surface.

One day while Whittaker was sitting in the sewers, a dead body fell in front of him. Deciding he might need extra protection if Pharasma worshippers ever found his location, Whittaker created an undead skeleton of the body he found. However, Whittaker hadn't used his necromancy in a long time, and he made a minor mistake in the ritual. The resulting undead was somehow intelligent. Not only that, but he thought he was a notorious pirate captain in a past life. He called himself Rotbeard, as some sort of self-deprecation. Despite being intelligent, Rotbeard did everything Whittaker commanded him to do, as a typical undead would.

A while later, Whittaker found a seemingly broken pistol in the sewers. After some tinkering, Whittaker managed to make it work and started training with it so he had something to defend himself with other than his necromantic powers.

After a few years of living in the sewers, Whittaker figured the clerics probably forgot about him by now. Whittaker returned to the surface, and this time he was there to stay. In order to blend in with the people of Port Peril, Whittaker used a spell to make Rotbeard appear as a normal human, while Whittaker would cover himself up with robes. Whittaker pretended he was a child wearing robes while Rotbeard pretended to be his father.

On Rum Punch, an annual holiday in Port Peril, Whittaker and Rotbeard attended the festival in disguise. He received word that a pirate captain named Varossa Lanteri was looking to hire crew members. After hiding underground for so many years Whittaker wanted to get out and explore the vast ocean. Whittaker had Rotbeard apply to become a crew member and put in a good word for him. Rotbeard won over the captain through tales of his high seas adventures that he never actually had. They let Whittaker in when Rotbeard told them Whittaker was his sidekick and also really good with a firearm.

Once Whittaker and Rotbeard joined the crew, they met five adventurers who had also recently enlisted with Varossa's crew. Those five adventurers were Pavo Cripin, Hanji K'zotii, Hiroto Kituhara, Raalnorg Bomarg, and Lu Kong.

Personality
Whittaker is quiet and reserved. He doesn't really speak to other people that much. When he does, however, he can be quite sarcastic. In addition, he can be pretty deceptive when he wants to be, and can sound convincingly like a human child if needed.

Whittaker is also extremely paranoid, as shown by the many, many lengths that Whittaker took to cover his tracks as to not be found by the clergy of Pharasma.

Ultimately, Whittaker is not the kind of person who cares what other people think of him, like those who disapprove of his necromancy, unless they threaten his life. In that case, he cares immensely.

Appearance
As a grippli, Whittaker is a colorful humanoid frog who stands just over 2 feet. For clothing, Whittaker wears black robes that go down to the ground with a hood that covers the top half of his face, revealing only his green frog snout.

Starting Ability Scores

 *  Strength:  6
 *  Dexterity:  17
 *  Constitution:  10
 *  Defense:  8
 *  Magic:  18
 *  Willpower:  18

Abilities
Note: Whittaker begins every stage riding piggyback on his skeletal companion Robeard. While in this state, Rotbeard receives all physical damage and Whittaker receives all magical damage. For ability scores, Rotbeard has only four: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Defense. Whenever Whittaker's Magic score is improved, Rotbeard's Strength and Dexterity scores increase, and whenever Whittaker's Willpower score is improved, Rotbeard's Constitution and Defense scores increase. If Rotbeard is defeated, Whittaker must fight alone until he uses his super ability to revive him. The abilities of Whittaker with and without Rotbeard differ in a few ways, as noted below.

Basic Attack: Battleaxe/Ceremonial Dagger

 * While Rotbeard is summoned, Whittaker and Rotbeard's basic attack is Rotbeard swinging his axe at an enemy. This attack has moderately low attack speed, but also moderately high base damage.
 * If Rotbeard is defeated and Whittaker is fighting alone, this attack is replaced with a quick stab using his ceremonial dagger.

Alternate Attack: Flintlock Pistol

 * Whittaker fires a bullet from his flintlock pistol. This attack has high base damage but low attack speed because the pistol needs to be reloaded between shots.

Standard Ability: Healing Circle

 * Whittaker creates a circle of positive energy around him which heals himself and any allies within, but has no effect on Rotbeard.

Advanced Ability: Miasma Blast/Heal Rotbeard

 * Whittaker shoots a beam of dark energy that deals a large amount of dark magical damage in a straight line in front of him.
 * Alternatively, if the button for this ability is held while Rotbeard is summoned, Whittaker will instead heal Rotbeard.

Super Ability: Rotbeard the Mighty/Revive Rotbeard

 * Whittaker channels a large amount of profane energy into his undead companion, greatly increasing his size and buffing his strength and defense scores for a short period of time.
 * If Rotbeard has been defeated, this ability will instead revive him.

Passive 1: Divine Paranoia

 * Whittaker's dexterity score is treated as 60% higher when determining his dodge chance against attacks from religious enemies.

Passive 2: Undead Legion

 * Every time an enemy that isn't a boss or mini-boss is killed, there is a percent chance equal to half of Whittaker's magic score that the enemy will come back as a zombie that fights at Whittaker's side.  Zombies cannot be healed and remain on the battlefield until the end of the stage or they are slain.