In this post, I’ll draw up a second/professional level warrior for players to use when they don’t have a character ready to play. Characters get to buy one of each type of character element per level, so we will add two more attribute points, skill points, and perks in each section. In addition, the PC will get two hero points to spend at the beginning of each day.

The character concept is a fun mental exercise; just make suggestions about a character you think would be interesting to play. It’s pretty easy to tie your character elements, which you determine later, to your concept, and you can come back and change your concept at any time.

Character concept: As a young, nordic man, Borrus met the girl of his dreams when a rival clan came to his village to treat. When the girl and her clan departed, his father told him that no accord was reached, and only war would bring the two clans together again. So Borrus prepares for war in the tradition of the berserker, and he prepares to someday win the girl’s heart.

Now we’ll shape some parts of the character concept into a goal, flaw, and heroic feature for hero points.

Goal: to impress the god of war enough to earn his blessing and the heart of Borrus’s beloved.
Flaw: Borrus lost the use of an eye in a moment of weakness.
Hero points: a shout that channels the power of his ancestors to scare opponents.

Now that we know who the warrior is, we can pick out the remaining character elements with relative ease.

Of his three attributes, Physical is probably his strongest (12), as is common with warriors. Borrus’s spirit must be strong as a berserker, so his middle score goes to Metaphysical (10). That leaves Mental as his weakest score (8). We’ll add his two bonus points to Physical to model his focus on combat.

Attribute Scores: P 14, M 8, MP 10
Bonuses: P +2, M -1, MP 0

Several skills are useful to warriors, like Unarmed, Movement, and Parry, but Borrus has trained extensively with double axes, so we place both of his skill points in Armed.

Skills: armed 2

Since he doesn’t have Parry skill points and uses two axes, Borrus should take Dual Wielder for one of his perks to add a little defense to his combat technique. In addition, the Rage perk will let him add extra damage to an attack, which can resemble his temporary ability to go berserk.

Perks: dual wielder, rage

Warriors live and die by their gear (monks less so), to we’ll give Borrus some quality weaponry and armor. Two axes and the best armor that (villager) vikings can craft. A backup hand axe will replace Borrus’s first axe if he needs to throw it. His armor isn’t more than metal placed over leather, so it’s a little clunky and reduces his Physical score by 2 points.

Gear: battle axe d8, hand axe d4 (x2), viking armor d6 (pp2)

The berserker is ready for war. He can use Hero Points to shout at enemies before battle and reduce their number. His hand axe is light enough to keep readied, but he’ll have to ready his battle axe when combat ensues, and use Rage to end enemies quickly. The readied hand axe can be used to Parry if necessary, or it can be thrown at Short range enemies who keep their distance or as a precursor to charging. Finally, Borrus can regain hero points by suffering poor outcomes (Cons) due to his monocular vision.

Character sheet:

Borrus the axes-wielding berserker level 2
Character concept: As a young, nordic man, Borrus met the girl of his dreams when a rival clan came to his village to treat. When the girl and her clan departed, his father told him that no accord was reached, and only war would bring the two clans together again. So Borrus prepares for war in the tradition of the berserker, and he prepares to someday win the girl’s heart.
Goal: impress the god of war
Flaw: one-eyed
Hero points: shout can scare away opponents
P 12 (14), M 8, MP 10
Skills: armed 2
Perks: dual wielder, rage
Gear: hand axe d4, battle axe d8, viking armor d6 (pp2)