Sidekicks & Sidequests

Building a world, one character at a time.

Degen Hardt

  1. This is a character that Jacob Prince plays in a Pathfinder campaign that he is adapting into an NPC.
  2. What is this character’s name? - Degen Hardt
  3. What is their ancestry (i.e. human, elf, dwarf, halfling, etc)? - Human. Raised from the age of four in a monastery that is a melting pot of other races.
  4. What is your job or role (i.e. farmer, hierling/mercenary, shopowner, bandit, etc)? - Monk. Estranged from his monastery that practiced extreme fasting.
  5. How old are you? - 19.
  6. Describe your physical appearance. - He is heavily influenced by Kenshiro from the Fist of the North Star manga/anime series. He is 6'5" and muscular, built like a tank. Most likely still wearing his orange gui from the monastery or common clothes. Peak physical shape despite his choice to eat gluttonously when he has the ability to do so.
  7. Describe yourself with 3 adjectives. - Focused, Driven, Hungry
  8. What is a valuable item/piece of lore/secret that this character possesses? Or do they value an ideal/concept or particular person (i.e. family member, guild member, honor, justice, love etc.) - Degen always has a ration (a piece of hardtack/ a biscuit) in his back pocket at all times.
  9. What is a particular quest you would be willing to recruit or hire the player characters to go do? - Convince Maat to leave Degen alone and that Degen has no desire to return to the monastery. You may have to persuade or intimidate Maat or even fight him, but DON'T kill him.
  10. What would be their reward for succeeding? - If Degen has money, he will give the players his money; he has no attachment to it. Otherwise, as long as he is well-fed with good food, and the party acts in ways that align with his Lawful ways (or until the party decides to dismiss him), Degen Hardt will join the party as a hierling/follower.
  11. What would be the consequence of failure or refusing the call? - If the players refuse the call, Degen will continue to wander the area, avoiding Maat. If the players fail to convince Maat to leave Degen alone, Degen will continue to be flighty and not stay in one place to long, it might be hard to have a relationship with him -- perhaps this leads to an inevitable confrontation between the two monks. If the players side with Maat and attempt to convince Degen to return to the monastery, while Degen can be spoken with from someone who is persuasive, he might become confrontational or try to avoid you from now on; he DOES NOT want to return to the monastery. If you KILL Maat and report to Degen, he will fight everyone in the party with the intent of knocking everyone unconscious and fleeing. If you continue to encounter Degen (and Maat was killed as an accident/you are remorseful), like before, it will take some convincing in order to have him interact with you again. If you are murder hobos, then any repeat encounters will result in fights that might escalate into Degen actually killing characters.

Optional Questions - not required

  • What are the goals and motivations of your character? - To live a life with a more fulfilling life, namely with food. If his problems were dealt with (stable source of food, Maat leaves him alone, the world is at peace), then Degen would be happy to settle down, find love, raise a family, work out, meditate, etc. -- but this is a pretty IF...
  • How do these affect your general personality? - He can sometimes be talked into doing things he wouldn't normally do, but because of his god and how Irori's Law works, if he does not remain Lawful, he will lose his monk powers.
  • How do you normally interact with your family/friends/peers? With your enemies/rivals? With people who work for you/report to you? With player characters? - In general, he is stoic and a man of few words. His preferred communication style is grunts. However, he can speak more eloquently if needed.
  • Do you have a particular accent or language? Any idiosyncrasies in how you act and speak? - Degen speaks Common, since the monastery was a melting pot of species and the monks having various accents. He developed a neutral-sounding accent for Common. Again, he is terse and prefers to grunt or not speak.
  • What impact have you made on the world? How have you shaped the local area? - Due to his nomadic lifestyle, If he has made an impact dealing with bandit gangs or other problems, he hasn't taken credit for them. People speak of him like an urban legend, although you can find him and recruit him (with food!)
  • Do you have any current problems that prevent you from being a bigger player on the stage? - His insatiable appetite and Maat constantly following are the reasons why he is constantly wandering.