January 2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 1: Horatio Harrow, A Sturdy Ally For Fabula Ultima

I'll be participating in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge over the next month, and we'll start out by examining several iterations of the same character for Fabula Ultima.  The game lends itself to diverse character builds even at the default starting point of level 5, and we'll also be looking at what the same PC might look like with some experience under his belt, all the way up to the current 50 level cap.

The most important part of any character is their identity, not their mechanics, so I'll open with that:

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Horatio Harrow

Horatio was a journeyman smith before leaving his remarkably dull home town in search of adventure.  He's a great hulking lout, but good-natured and smarter than he might appear at first.  His fighting style is crude but enthusiastic and he's quick to throw himself in the way of threats to less durable allies.  Horatio was the oldest of eight siblings and is good at mentoring others during downtime.  He also carries a travelling forge and smith's tools with him as well, and happily plays armorer for his comrades, helping maintain and repair their weapons and armor when he's not crafting something new.

Description:  Tall, muscular, and almost absurdly broad-shouldered young man with nut-brown skin, short, tightly curled black hair, and glittering brown eyes.  He usually wears the best armor he can lay his hands on (or make for himself) and carries a pair of hefty bucklers crafted to look like stylized fists engraved with spell-breaking runes.  His voice is a deep baritone and he couldn't carry a tune with a wheelbarrow.

Gender: Male     Age: 24     Height: 6'2"     Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black     Skin: Nut-brown     Build: Powerfully Muscled

Traits:

• Identity:  A Travelling Smith Looking For Adventure
• Theme:  Thrill Seeker
• Origin:  Old Crossing, The Most Boring Town On the Western Frontier

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The elements above will remain the same throughout the various starting builds, while the more crunchy mechanical elements will vary.  Today's build is a fairly standard "shield-puncher" Guardian at its core, designed to fill a protective role in an adventuring party.

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Level: 5

Fury 2 (+5 HP, access to Martial Melee Weapons & Martial Armor)

• Frenzy - Your Accuracy Checks with brawling, dagger, flail, and thrown weapons trigger a Critical Success if both dice show the same number (and the Check is not a fumble).
• Provoke 1 - You may use an action and spend 5 MP to perform an opposed [MIG + WLP] Check with a bonus equal to your SL in Provoke against a creature you can see - describe how you taunt them!  If you succeed, the target suffers enraged and is compelled to focus their attention on you (their attacks and offensive spells must include you as a target).  This compulsion lasts until you fall unconscious or leave the scene, if the creature is no longer enraged, or if they are successfully provoked by someone else.    

Guardian 2 (+5 HP, access to Martial Armor & Martial Shields)

• Dual Shieldbearer - You may now equip a shield in your main hand slot.  As long as you have two shields equipped you gain the benefits of both and may treat them as a combined two-handed brawling weapon with the following stats:  Twin Shields  Accuracy [MIG + MIG] Damage [HR+5 physical]  Deals extra damage equal to your SL in Defensive Mastery.
• Protect - When another creature is threatened by an attack, spell, or other danger, you may take their place (any Checks that are part of the danger are performed against you; you may choose to use this skill before or after the Checks have been made).  If the danger already affected you, it affects you twice (resolve each instance separately); you also cannot protect multiple creatures against the same danger.  If you use this Skill during a conflict, you cannot use it again until the start of your next turn.

Weapon Master 1 (+5 HP, access to Martial Melee Weapons & Martial Shields)

• Counterattack - After an enemy hits or misses you with a melee attack, if the result of their Accuracy Check was an even number, you may perform a free attack against that enemy (after their attack has been fully resolved).  This must be a melee attack and must have only that enemy as its only target; treat your High Roll (HR) as zero when calculating damage dealt by your attack.

Quirk:  

Big Bro (Natural Fantasy Atlas) - Gain 3 Camp Activity options, use two per Rest (or the same one twice) but you must chose two different targets.  Options:  Camp Forge, Combat Lesson, Planning

Attributes:

Dexterity d6

Insight d8

Might d10

Willpower d8

Hit Points 70

Mind Points 45

Inventory Points 6

Defense 15

Magic Defense 12

Fabula Points 3

Starting Gear:  Bronze Plate (DEF 11, MDEF -), 2 x Runic Shields (+2 DEF, +2 MDEF each), 90 zenit

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The skill and gear combination above results in extremely tough defenses and high durability, which will be put to the test by drawing attacks onto himself using a combination of Provoke and Protect.  Damage output is very low to start with, although Horatio should be able to land some free hits with Counterattack to help make up for it a bit, and Frenzy means he'll be more accurate than it first appears as well as landing a lot more Critical Hits (and therefore Opportunities) than most PCs with similar die pools.  In some ways the low damage output is a help - he sacrifices less giving up a turn to Provoke or throw a mana potion to a caster with an Inventory action than someone harder-hitting would, and can still use Protect and Counterattack to hopefully inflict some damage while doing so.  Obviously you'll want to use Protect when a foe is making a melee attack and rolls evens whenever you can, especially if they roll high enough to hit an ally but not breach your own tank-like armor.

Significant weaknesses include a serious inability to deal with flying enemies on his own, and he's generally going to be terrible at ranged attacks or doing anything agile or stealthy, at least outside of aiding in group actions.  He's also dependent on others for healing, although that huge HP pool should last a while.

Outside of conflicts, his Quirk can be a fairly major boon for the party as a whole, letting him steadily repair and upgrade gear as needed while also handing out a hefty one-shot bonus to another PC (possibly even two of them if he isn't forging) either in or out of a fight.  If the game as a whole is using the camp activity rules he may need to coordinate with others about what specific options each PC chooses, but Horatio probably merits first choice for at least a couple of them due to his Quirk.

Early advances should probably be focused on ranking up Guardian's Defensive Mastery skill (improving both durability and the base damage of his shields) but throwing levels into Weaponmaster's Melee Skill Mastery and Fury's Provoke to improve success rates on Checks can't hurt either.