Iconic Characters: Merlin

Note: This is my first entry in what I hope to make an ongoing series of articles on this blog, where I take a character from popular fiction, myth, television, or film and translate it into the 4e ruleset. It seems like a fun project, and will hopefully be able to spark some inspiration on how to lift a character off the sheet and make it more than the sum of its power cards.

A lot of discussion was drummed up in the last little while by one of Wizard of the Coast's latest releases: Heroes of the Feywild came out in mid-November to what I thought was a bit of a negative reception. Twitter was alight with condemnations of the light-hearted and fairy-tale-like quality of the book. Particular hatred was heaped upon the Pixie race, an option that many criticized, and was even (jokingly, I hope) banned from some people's home games. That isn't to say that the book didn't have its supporters either. Many praised the book for its excellent fluff and extremely creative sidebars that gave the book a charm that stood out. For the most part, however, the online reaction seemed quite anti-Feywild, and the sourcebook became the butt of many jokes and jabs.

I received this book for Christmas from my brother, and I must say that I love it. I find the tone of the book to be consistent, well-written, and incredibly engaging, and some of the content in the book is better than any I've seen. As for the Pixie, though I can see why it does not appeal to some, I myself have had two players request a homebrew option for this in the past, and so I am quite happy to see it become an official race option.

But this isn't a review, so I'll get to the point. One of the classes in the book is the Witch. It's a new option for Wizards interested in exploring a more Primal vein of Arcane magic. What could be dismissed as a gimmick is in fact a well-designed class that hearkens back to some of the most ancient and respected magical archetypes of ancient legend. So I decided to, out of the joy of it, recreate one of these characters. While one could use the class to build a stereotypical "witch" (with green skin, warts, and a cat fetish), I wanted to show that this class represents what made magic cool to our ancient forefathers. That the ancient celtic legends and classical english literature combined with the modern 4e mechanic could make a playable Wizard who was mystical, interesting, and badass at the same time. That the most famous Wizard of all time wasn't a Mage: he was a Witch.

I made Merlin.

"I'm more badass than you."

Gandalf's great. Dumbledore's Delightful. But Merlin. That guy was the Wizard's Wizard. He was a Wizard before they had a word for Wizard. He was the first great magician of English lore, and I've always loved the guy. From "The Once and Future King" to the BBC television series to Disney's comical adaptation in "The Sword and the Stone", every time Merlin shows up he makes me smile. Even in that old Dungeons and Dragons tv series, where he made a brief appearance between shots of unarmed children, creepy gnome-looking guys, and Tiamat. 

Look out! It's Tiamat!

Merlin's so old school he sometimes spells his name wrong. I wanted to see how he would look as a 4e dnd character. In addition, I wanted to show that, while Heroes of the Feywild presented some great fluff options for your powers and character choices, it could also create a character who can kick ass and take names if s/he wants to. So, without further ado, I present my 4e treatment of Merlin, using powers almost exclusively from Heroes of the Feywild.


NOTE: This Merlin is level six, to give a good idea of how awesome this character is in its prime.

CLASS: Wizard (Witch), obviously. That's the point of the article. I went with the Full Moon Coven, because as threatening as Merlin is, he was always a good guy, so it seemed a little weird to pick Dark Moon Coven.

"Pull out that sword, or so help me..."

For his familiar, the choice was obvious. Owl. Not only does it give an extra 1d4 to perception and insight checks, it's also the form of Merlin's traditional familiar, Archimedes.

Roleplaying Archimedes is optional, but 

if you're not going to, make sure your

DM makes him as crotchety as possible.

RACE: Human. I guess if you wanted you could go with elf, or even half-elf, but I've always seen Merlin as human (though admittedly something more than). I went with the Bonus At-Will option, since for any kind of wizard more spells are always a good thing. For languages, I picked Draconic, since his backstory is usually associated with Dragons.

DETAILS: Male, Good. For Theme I selected Tuathan, since shapechanging is always a part of his mythos in one way or another. More on this later, however. For background, I picked Sage, since his ties to nature were a huge influence in "The Once and Future King." I picked a standard array of ability scores, buffing Intelligence, and moved on to...

SKILLS: Nature, for the same reason I picked Tuathan. Insight, because he has always understood people (which is how he knew Wart would make a good king). History. The guy is super old. Now, I know he is supposed to age backwards in some retellings, but he still seems like he'd know a thing or two. And that left Diplomacy and Dungeoneering. I picked Dungeoneering, since any talking he needs to do he can do through magic. This will be explained in the powers section, which brings us to: the Powers Section.

"Shhhhh. It's about to get really awesome."

CANTRIPS: Prestidigitation, Suggestion, and Chameleon's Mask. This last one is new to this sourcebook, and enables Merlin to use Arcana in place of Stealth once per encounter, "blending light and sound to make [him] almost invisible." Which is as awesome as it sounds. Suggestion is good at getting around the Diplomacy problem, once again substituting it for Arcana. And Prestidigitation fits really well with Merlin's persona, as he was always good with simple tricks and alterations of his environment.

Using it to soak Archimedes is, again, optional.

AT-WILLS: Beast Switch. In crunch terms, this power deals damage, slides the target, and knocks prone, while preventing opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn. In fluff terms? Your enemy "transforms into a small, frightened beast that runs in a wild panic before turning to its true shape." Merlin turns the big bad into a tiny little animal for a second. How awesome is that? And it turns out that it's something that this class is quite good at.

Breath of Night. Bending the night wind to his will seems like something Merlin should be good at. Better than Illusion magic, anyway, so I picked it over Winged Horde.

And last, but definitely not least...

Witch Bolt. Remember that spell Harry Potter does every time he meets Voldemort? Where a jet of light sprays out of his wand and latches onto Ralph Fiennes' spell? Well picture that, but replace "jet of light" with "stream of lightning" and "spell" with "face". This spell is ranged 5, and does a nice amount of lightning damage to the target. And on your next turn, if the target hasn't left the range of the spell, you can Sustain Standard it to deal damage again without an attack roll. You read that right. If your target doesn't move away, you hit it automatically. With 1d10 + Intelligence modifier damage. ZAP!!!

Not Pictured: Merlin.

See what I mean about this class kicking ass? And if you think that spell is awesome now, just you wait. I'll show all you min-maxers how to turn this spell to your greatest advantage.

ENCOUNTERS: Glorious Presence and Call the Night Winds. The first spell is the Coven spell option. Dark Moon Coven gives you a necrotic nethermancy spell, but this one seems a little more quote-unquote Good. Flash of light, and you're pushed. Hey allies, take some temporary hp! Call the Night Winds creates a nasty zone of cold that obscures and slows anybody who gets in its way. Primal power of nature, I tells ya.

DAILIES: Charm of Forbiddence. Here's where Merlin lets his hair down a little and acts scary. After taking some nasty damage, the enemy takes more if he hits you or your allies. Merlin looks after his own. And finally, one of my favourite spells in the book, Foe to Frog. This time, you change a creature into a Tiny beast until they save against it. Once again, this power would be perfect for a stereotypical Witch, when you consider Merlin's penchant for turning Arthur into small animals and letting him explore, this power makes perfect sense for Merlin. And who doesn't want to reduce some of the most terrifying dnd monsters to a small and humiliating level?

Take that, Tiamat.

Just don't overuse it, or your DM will kill you.

Utility: NOTE: For this one, I made what many would see as a bad decision: I picked two Level 2 Utility Powers instead of picking a Level 6 one. I wanted Merlin to be badass. But I also wanted him to be Merlin. So I made the sacrifice and picked the two Utility powers that seemed the most "Merlin" to me.

Tuathan Animal Shape: This power is an augment of the Tuathan Theme. It allows Merlin to transform himself into Tiny animals, something he was famous for in many classical versions of him. Even in the Disney version he could make himself into other animals, although there are no walruses in this Merlin's Wizard's Duel.

Or Viral Infections, incidentally.

The second level 2 cantrip I picked was Simple Animation. "At your command, an ordinary object springs to life and moves where you bid." Put simply, you make objects into your own moving servant. Just like that scene in the Disney Version.

"Higitus Figitus!"

People may criticize me for picking these powers for the fluff of them, but I've always seen Utility Powers as a fun way to add fluff to your character. And what could be more fun than these two? They also both have very useful in-game applications. So there.

FEATS: Active Familiar, because Archimedes always had a mind of his own. Battle Caster Defense, vital to being an effective spellcaster in and out of melee. Alchemist, because Merlin is skilled in all things magical. 

And finally for you min-maxers out there, Far Spell and Superior Implement Training (Rowan Wand). Do you know what that means? You remember that sweet Witch Bolt spell I raved about? Well guess what? Thanks to these two feats, that spells range just went from 5 squares to 9 squares. Meaning that if that monster doesn't go out of his way to avoid you, ZAP. And that's what this sourcebook makes possible. If that isn't a sweet combo then I don't know what is.

EQUIPMENT: Adventurer's Kit, Cloth Armor, Alchemy Case (for the feat), Writing Case, Candle, Dagger (just in case) and a Rowan Wand. You could go with a staff if you wanted to, but I went with Rowan Wand for the increased range. And I've always imagined him with a wand. So it's your choice.

Boom. Insta-Merlin.

I hope you've enjoyed this exercise! Please leave a comment if you'd like to see more of these, or if you found it obscenely long (which it kinda was), please let me know what you liked or what you'd toss. This is my first time, after all. 

Thanks, and happy gaming!

- Jacob

Disclaimer: No images or videos belong to me, I just borrowed them from Google. If anybody has a legal problem with it, please email me at InspiringRefrain@gmail.com and I can gladly take them down. Please don't sue me.