Am I right in assuming you don't need Defender to be proficient with shields, but you do need it to be better than the average footsoldier with one?

Anyway, here's my sheet. I wound up having to take a fair number of negative points in order to get the Master ability I wanted so badly and still make a character who wasn't a one-trick pony. Let me know what sort of changes you need me to make.

[hider=Cormac Fifth-Chance][b]Cormac Fifth-Chance / Male / 37[/b]

[center][img]https://www.wesnoth.org/units/1.10/pics/core$images$portraits$humans$transparent$outlaw.png[/img][/center]

[b]Appearance[/b]

Cormac is a tall, scarred veteran who clearly has seen better days. He's missing the lower half of his right leg and has replaced it with a wooden one and walks with a noticeable limp. He's also missing a finger from his left hand. He cuts his curly auburn hair short and keeps his scruff in check as best he can. His scars, size, and steely face make him a rather imposing figure.

[b]Personality[/b]

More than one fellow has compared Cormac to a boar (and lost his teeth for it), but it would be better to call him an old crow. He has all the charm of a hog, certainly: he's rude and tends to frown and glare far more than he smiles. He has a habit of drinking himself into fits, too. However, he's a very patient, calculating man, and he's damned cunning, too. The trouble is he's also stubborn.

If proof of his intellect is needed, one need only look so far as Cormac's skill at construction. He has an eye for architecture, easily able to spot weak points in a building, and he knows how to shore up those weaknesses and how to exploit them. He just has a knack for knowing how to make sturdy tools and engines of war, too. In short: he's resourceful.

Cormac has an outlook on life that can be best summarized as world-weary, pragmatic, and pessimistic. He's been through roughly a dozen wars and has found himself missing a leg, a finger, and a goodly number of friends. He expects horrible things to happen around him, and often they do; yet despite his terrible luck he's somehow managed to survive constant warfare while his compatriots have fallen all around him. Cormac suspects Lady Luck is just toying with him.

Despite his rudeness and pessimism, Cormac is a calm and professional individual who can be depended on when fighting starts. If he's working alongside someone, it doesn't matter how often they argue, brawl, or hate each other: Cormac will fight for that man as if he were his brother. In battle, they [i]are[/i] kin. In battle, they [i]are[/i] brothers.

[b]Background[/b]

The Hundred Realms have ever been a bloody place, and Cormac knows that better than most folks. Born a serf along the southern coast, he saw his first battle at a young age when his master's holdings were invaded (and subsequently conquered) by a neighboring warlord. Said warlord then found himself conquered by one of [i]his[/i] neighbors, and that realm was then divided up by petty squabbles between [i]that[/i] lord's sons when he died of disease.

Needless to say, by the time he was sixteen Cormac had fought in a several battles between these would-be rulers. By the time those wars were over, he realized most of his friends were dead and that he'd actually fought against some of his neighbors. He realized, too, how expendable he was: he was an uneducated peasant youth and only had a lifetime of hard work ahead of him if he managed to survive the ceaseless bloodshed that choked the Realms. He reckoned it was better to get paid to fight than to fight for no thanks at all. So, Cormac fled his home and broke free of the shackles of serfdom.

It didn't take long for Cormac to join a band of mercenaries called the Cackling Coyotes. They were a rough lot of men, most of them deserters and runaway criminals, but they were disciplined as well. Cormac learned a lot more about fighting from them, especially such lessons as "Logistics wins battles more than skill" and "There's no such thing as fighting fair." It was also here that he first was introduced to the art of the siege: the Coyotes found themselves fighting alongside larger units rather frequently, and sieges are safer to conduct than battles. Cormac quickly showed a talent for the construction of siege weaponry and camp defenses, so he was apprenticed to the warband's chief engineer. When that man died, Cormac replaced him, and he did better than his tutor ever had.

Of course, nothing good lasts forever. Battles took toll on the Coyotes, and although a fair number of them retired before the worst came, the majority of them were scattered or killed in a disastrous battle against an enemy whose leader carried a relic tube that launched exploding darts that could kill a dozen men at once. The Coyotes were dissolved, and Cormac found himself missing a leg. That didn't stop him, however, and he went on to fight for a number of other mercenary companies.

Now, at the age of thirty-seven, Cormac is a highly experienced soldier whose ability to fashion palisades and the tools to break them is somewhat famous. He's been up and down the entirety of the coast of the Realms and has fought for more causes than he can remember and few that he actually felt were worth anything. He's called "Fifth-Chance" because he should have been dead five times over but somehow is still alive.

[b]Motivation[/b]

All Cormac has ever known is war and getting paid to fight it. Upon hearing of a great adventure to be had that would most certainly involve fighting and great reward, Cormac decided to volunteer for the job. Call it wanderlust or simple greed: the mercenary doesn't care. Cormac may not have the most noble of reasons to embark on this journey, but he's nevertheless present and ready to do his damnedest to get to one end of the world and back again.

[b]Equipment[/b]

Cormac has some good, thick linen clothes of brown and red hues, and he also has thick leather traveling boots. He wears padded cloth armor reinforced with metal rivets, a cheap and serviceable alternative to higher quality protection. He also has a black cloak and hood made of wool. On his right hand he wears a thick scaled gauntlet.

Cormac's chief weapon is a spiked two-handed mace that he uses as a walking stick outside of combat. He has a smaller mace as well, a weapon easily usable in one hand, and he also keeps a dagger tucked in his belt. A small buckler bounces against his hip when he's not using it.

More important than his weapons, though, are Cormac's tools. He keeps a few of them on his person: a hammer, a pouch of nails, and a few other useful crafting items, but the majority of his supplies are kept on his mule-drawn cart. On his cart he keeps his saw, his woodcutting axe, and a small anvil as well, not to mention spare chunks of metal. Oh, and keeps a sack of oats there as well.

Most importantly, Cormac keeps two bottles of good, hard whiskey on his person at all times.

[b]Traits[/b]

[b]Basic Weapons[/b] - You are skilled with the usage of less specialized weapons, such as knives, clubs and staffs. [color=green]+1[/color]
[b]Light Armors[/b] - You are comfortable in leather, chain and scale armors. [color=green]+1[/color]
[b]Imposing[/b] - You are good at intimidating others, due to size or some other factor. [color=green]+1[/color]
[b]Soldier[/b] - You have direct, firsthand experience fighting on the front lines of a battle. [color=green]+1[/color]
[b]Tall[/b] - You are of significantly imposing size. [color=green]+1[/color]
[b]Intelligent[/b] - You are naturally smart. [color=green]+2[/color]
[b]Craftsman -[/b] You can construct relatively complex tools and structures, given the time. [color=green]+3[/color]
[b]Master Siege Engineer[/b] - You have some particular talent in which you are an absolute expert. [color=green]+5[/color]
[b]Abrasive[/b] - You are rude, and generally disliked for it. [color=red]-1[/color]
[b]Ugly[/b] - You are not fair to look upon. [color=red]-1[/color]
[b]Drunkard -[/b] You have an alcohol dependency, and a tendency to get drunk obnoxiously and often. [color=red]-2[/color]
[b]Maimed[/b] - You are missing a limb. (Right leg, lower) [color=red]-4[/color]

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