“Drazi know Centauri lie. Not fooled by smiling hair. Drazi price not changed.”
System Notes
This is another one of the characters that tweaks expectations and isn’t a min-maxed build. The Drazi are best described as the scrappy and pugnacious scaly ones in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Statistically, they have a knock on their Intelligence but a good Charisma can make up for that. At the same time, the breadth the character will have as a trade off may prove to be useful in a long term campaign and in a setting like Babylon 5. Looking at our Ability rolls, there is no reason to use the 16 on Intelligence when it will be knocked down to 14 when a 15 knocked down to 13 will give the same level of bonus. Since Charisma is the other main Ability for Telepaths, I’ll focus there. After our Species boost for Strength and penalty for Intelligence, Tenilla’s Ability Scores are: Strength 14; Dexterity 12; Constitution 15; Intelligence 13; Wisdom 10; and Charisma 16.
The Drazi have a host of special abilities, like all species in the Babylon 5 game – They have tough scales so receive Damage Resistance 1 that will stack with any armor they have. The Drazi are all aggressive fighters honed through years of conflict based culture and receive the Brawler feat allowing them to do lethal damage and not just nonlethal damage with hand to hand combat. The flip side of that coin is that they have a penalty to any saves to avoid charging into combat. Scrappy and Pugnacious.
Like Stephen, Tenilla has a limited number of skill points even with a 15 Intelligence. As a Drazi, I think Intimidate is a useful skill to have maxed out and I will also add Telepathy and Concentration to that list to bolster Tenilla’s Telepathic abilities. The remainder of the skills are spread between Notice and a few Knowledge skills of other League cultures – to better understand how to bully them.
For feats, as a Telepath, there is only choice – Telepathy. To set the initial P-Rating, the Telepathy feat ahs you roll 2D4-2, and we got 4. The P Rating is important because the difference between your P-Rating and the Power of any Telepathic ability determines how much nonlethal damage you take pushing yourself to achieve it. At first level, Telepaths receive a bonus Telepathy feat, or you can use that to get an enhanced P-Rating, which I chose so the Tenilla can use certain pain inflicting Telepathic powers without any strain. She starts with a P Rating of 10!
For Influence, Tenilla has only 1D6 to start, and it is in League of Non-Aligned Worlds Political. A 3 is pretty much right where you would expect an ambassadorial attache to be at the start of her assignment.
Equipment isn’t that necessary as a Telepath, but a PPG, a little armor, and a somewhat hostile attitude all go together as part of the Drazi way.
Advancement Notes
Advancement in the d20/OGL system is a straightforward affair where saving throws, base attack bonuses, and skills all have improvements as the character levels. I kept Concentration, Intimidate, and Telepathy at their maximum ranks while providing a little enhancement to those Knowledge skills and Notice. The Telepathic class abilities is where it starts getting fun because Tenilla picks up Discipline Focus: Biokinetics reducing the strain for any of those Telepathic abilities used. At third level, Tenilla adds the Telepathic Feat: Adaptive Mind to remove the penalties for using Telepathy on alien races, like humans, and Combat Telepathy to maintain concentration in the middle of a fight. The Influence isn’t all that much of an increase, moving League Political to 5 and adding League Social of 2.
Character Notes
Tenilla was born to clutchmates who treated her in the usual Drazi fashion, that is with conflict and violence. She survived, though, and thrived, for which her clutchmates now benefit from the Drazi Freehold tax break for not killing their Telepathic sibling. The Drazi needed her, so many Telepaths had perished in the Dilgar war in 2230 that she had no choice in pursuing her future. While most female Drazi prefer a home life, ambition was cultivated in Tenilla by her parents, her school, and the Freehold itself so she would take her place to replenish the lost Telepaths.
This was not hard to do. Tenilla had the quintessential aggression of the Drazi coupled with a Telepath’s insight into motivations. The stories of the legendary Drazi, Shok of the Sky, seemed to come up around her more than other Drazi. She became quite interested in serving the Freehold. Hearing the thoughts and the acclaim that others would provide when she said this reinforced her loyalty and her ambition. The Drazi know that sometimes praise is all that is needed to sway a Telepath.
Her time in the military did not lead to being a soldier, but instead was quickly diverted to Military Intelligence and trained to recognize other League cultures. She never knew that there was anything else. She was Drazi and Drazi serve the Freehold. Loyalty is part of the Drazi like shiftlessness is in Humans or arrogance in the Minbari. A talent in Biokinetics is not unknown among the Drazi, and indeed is often preferred, but Tenilla also showed signs of possible Telekinetic gifts. Tenilla doesn’t know that she is being cultivated for this, to see whether it will manifest and to put her in a difficult position, a new assignment was given.
Ambassador Vizak was being sent to Babylon 5 to be part of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds assembly to sit with the other great powers of the galaxy. There is no better place to expose a Drazi Telepath to stress than between hundreds of other cultures and in a diplomatic role where the natural Drazi power is not always respected. Tenilla became a Diplomatic Attache. A listener and a speaker.
Tenilla is a Drazi rough around the edges, but is learning how to slide between the different species on Babylon 5. Her ability to scan the different aliens there has only increased as everyday she has an opportunity to overwhelm some other poor saps mental defenses. In Nakir’s, she has made connections with other residents of Babylon 5, equally out of place. While Durvoon and Stephen talk of war and conflict as if it is something thrust upon them, Tenilla knows only the Drazi way of conflict. In watching Vr’korl slide almost unnoticed across the station, Tenilla begins to understand how many will choose to avert their eyes, so at odds with the Drazi customs of honesty. In Nakir’s, she has her Bor’kaan, misses feeling the wind across her scales, and watches these other races fool themselves.
Tenilla was also a Green Drazi this cycle and doesn’t know how she feels about Commander Ivanova’s involvement, even though the rule against non-Drazi has not yet left committee after 800 years.
The future is bittersweet for Tenilla. The Freehold’s attempt to awaken Telekinetic power in her will succeed through her involvement in the coming War of Shadows. She does what Drazi do – barrel forward without fear and without reservation. She survives and awakens her Telekinetic power, but is put at odds with the rest of the Station as the Drazi Freehold struggles to improve its place in the galaxy and becomes more and more aggressive. It is her blood, her DNA and her children’s DNA that the Freehold will use as a template to try to create the Shokash, but that is a story for the future.
Nakir’s Zocalo Bar Happy Hour Drinking Society Here
Tenilla Drazi Telepath Sheet
BABYLON 5 and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Copyright © 2006 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. The Babylon 5 2d Edition game is subject to the OGL and was published by Mongoose Publishing.
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