Character creation challenge day 29

 Day 29

System: B/X

Desired class: Elf (alternate: magic-user)

Ability scores rolled: 15, 12, 9, 12, 3, 9

Starting gold: 160 gp

Yikes, a natural 3! And in probably the worst possible spot, too. Well, let's see what we can make of this. There's no room for adjustment with these abilities, so I'll have to use them as-is. A d6 for hit points comes up 4, which is adjusted down to 1. Is this a character or an ice sculpture? A d12 for starting spell comes up 11, sleep, which definitely helps.

Indirion Star-shadow, 1st level elf

Strength 15 (+1 to melee attacks and damage and opening doors)

Intelligence 12

Wisdom 9

Dexterity 12

Constitution 3 (-3 hp per die)

Charisma 9

AC 2       Hit points: 1            Alignment: Neutral

Plate armor, shield, spear, short bow, 20 arrows, backpack, standard rations, 2 water skins, mirror, wolfsbane, rope, 24 gp left.

Spell: sleep

Height: 5'2"        Weight: 95 lbs.        Age: 59

Strong, but sickly and lacking endurance, Indirion laments his frailty. Adventure is his way of coping, either living to the fullest despite his fragile health or ending his miserable life as gloriously as possible. Unusual for an elf, he is taciturn and grim in his outlook.

This may be the only character I've rolled up during this challenge whose viability I doubt, and he highlights one of the few real flaws in B/X D&D as I see it. Hit points are far too important to a character's survival to be crushed under a penalty so out of proportion to the die. A penalty of -3 is a big enough deal on a d20, being 15% of the die's range. Against a d6, it's a full 50% burden, producing an average of only 1.5 points per die, assuming no roll reduced to less than 1. And if your hit die is a d4, you get only 1 hp per level, full stop, no need to roll at all.