I'm going to post my oldest and most favorite MSH campaign character a character I started back in 1987 and continue to use to this day. NOTE- this background is done under my own NEW UNIVERSE campaign. It replaces the listed MSH rules on magic for an adaption of AD&D magic spell lists over to MSH format. It assumes that DR STRANGE was not part of the MSU. I'll explain some of those rules below, albeit I intend someday to post my AD&D spell list adaptions as a separate supplement.

NAME: Joe Solarte
HERO NAME: Joe Solarte
ORIGIN: Magic User
OCCUPATION: Master of the Tower of High Sorcery of Long Beach. Member of the Avengers, Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth Dimension
IDENTITY: Public
LEGAL STATUS: Citizen of USA, indicted for resisting the Mutant Registration Act of 1990 (later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush).
ALIASES: Spellbinder, The Gray Wizard, the Supreme Sorcerer
PLACE OF BIRTH: Oxnard, California
MARITAL STATUS: Male
KNOWN RELATIVES: Natalia (wife), two children (identities secret), involved in the past with Hera, Amora the Enchantress, Lorelei, Athena.
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Tower of High Sorcery of Long Beach, personal wizards tower in Cleveland National Forest, Avengers Mansion
PAST GROUP AFFILIATIONS: X-Men, Fantastic Four
PRESENT GROUP AFFILIATION: The Avengers (reservist).

DESCRIPTION
HEIGHT: 5'10
WEIGHT: 210
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Black
SKIN: Hispanic
AGE: 32

STATS
FIGHTING: EX-20
AGILITY: EX-20
STRENGTH: TY 6
ENDURANCE: EX-20
REASON: EX-20
INTUITION: AMZ-50
PSYCHE: UN 100

HEALTH: 66/ Physical Health 66/Mental Health 300 (house rule)
KARMA: 170
RESOURCES: TYP (avengers stipend)/ UN (Wizard's Stipend)
POPULARITY: AMZ 50

Known Powers-

MAGIC- Joe is a lifelong follower of magic, involving a lifetime of studies, tests, and other aurduos studies. As a result, Joe can tap and manipulate the inherent magical energy in the Marvel Universe with UNEARTHLY ability. Furthermore, as a "magi", Joe can attempt to cast any spell from any school of the AD&D Wizard Spell list as a power stunt with the set effects listed in the Player's Handbook (to include limitations of verbal, somatic, or material components). As befitting his rank Joe knows can memorize the following up to the following limits (8/8/7/7/6/6/5/5/4/4) of each level, from levels ZERO to LEVEL 9. See limitations below

Limited Serial Immortality- As long as Joe is Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth Dimension, Joe has limited serial immortality, in that while he is on the Earth Dimension. If he is "killed" in a physical sense, his body and spirit will reform and gather along the Wind's of Magic, that originate from the center of the Universe and will reform in the Vortex of Magic that is in the center of the universe. It is rumored that there are certain rites and rituals that can be used the consume the spirit of a Sorcerer Supreme and it is known that Sorcerer Supremes can be slain in other dimensions. Otherwise, the only known way a Sorcerer Supreme is known to die is by use of the Staff of Volans willingly.

STAFF OF VOLANS- composed of AMAZING str material, the Staff of Volans is the customary staff that can only be wielded by the Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth Dimension. Fully charge, it has 20 charges. It contains the following powers, which can be cast as a power stunt under MSH rules.
***Detect Magic, Enlarge, Hold Portal, continual light, Mage Armor, Mage Hand- these effects cost no charges and may be cast at will with INCREDIBLE effects.
***Dispel magic, Fireball, Ice Storm, Invistiblity, Knock, Lightning Bolt, Pass Wall, Pyrotechnics, Wall of Fire, Web - can be cast with 1 charge and requires a command word. All spells are considered to be of AMAZING effect.
***Summon Monsters, Plane Shift, Telekinesis, Whirlwind, Resist Magic- require a loud command word and cost 2 charges per casting.
***Can be used to Absorb Power with UNEARTHLY skill. Furthermore, any magic can be absorbed and whatever spell used to cast it, to recharge the staff.
***For 1 charge, the staff can be used to up the damage it does in melee combat for +1 cs of damage
***Retributive Strike- not to be used unless in the worst of circumstances, the Retributive Strike allows Joe, if needed to, to break the staff, releasing the energy in the staff in a single strike, often to fatal effects, as many of the former Sorcerer Supremes falling in this manner. If done, it allows Joe to do Class 5000 spell casting once, but Joe will also be killed in the process, becoming one with the Wind's of Magic in the universe (ie, he cannot come back save in spirit form to aid his successor). The Staff will reform when a new Sorcerer Supreme is selected.

WAND OF CASTING- composed of Excellent material hardwood, the Wand of Casting gives Joe a +1 cs to all casting attempts that he uses with the wand. It also allows him to avoid any somatic requirement of a spell (hand gestures).

ROBE OF WIZARDRY- made of good material clothes, the Robe of Wizardy gives Joe EXCELLENT protection to fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic, toxins, disease.

SWORD OF SOLARTE- made of UN strength mithryll, Joe has forged the sword himself (with help from the dwarf smith Alaric the Mad of Asgard). The Sword of Solarte can be used to "dance". By that, Joe can throw the sword at an enemy or group of enemies. The Sword will then fight on it's own, without Joe's need to direct it, as if it had AMAZING fighting and MONSTROUS for multiple attacks. Joe can return the sword to his hand with a command word. The sword also ignores any phasing/astral/etheral form protection as well as ignoring any body armor or forcefield that is demonic or devilish in nature.

BROOM STICK OF FLYING- Joe own's a broomstick of flying. Made of good strength material, the broomstick can fly with EXCELLENT speed. Joe can up this to REMARKABLE, but will lose manuverability with it. The Broomstick can carry up to good strength loads on it without losing speed. It can generate INCREDIBLE intensity smoke behind it as it flies, the smoke sufficient to cover technological scanners like radar, and such (with INC intensity) or to skywrite letters. It can also perform the duties that the UNSEEN SERVANT spell can cast, in that it can clean a room.

POTION SATCHEL- Joe carries a satchel of potions with him, as well as a miniaturized alchemy set, that allows Joe to brew potions as needed if he has the proper recipe and ingredients.

SCROLL SATCHEL- Joe carries a small supply of spell scrolls on him at all times, usually 9, that allow him to cast a spell to set effect (see below). He also carries the spell components for those that require them in this satchel.

RING OF REGENERATION- Joe wears a ring of regeneration, which allows him to regenerate as with REMARKABLE ability.

CRYSTAL BALLS- Joe own two Crystal balls. Both are made of Typical material crystals. His larger, immovable one is located in his private Wizards Tower in the Cleveland National Forest, allows him to scry with UNEARTHLY ability and at CLASS 1000 range. His smaller, hand sized crystal ball, allows the same, save at AMAZING rank level and range.

WIZARD HAT- made of good strength material, when donned, Joe can use it to obscure his facial features of anyone observing him, either live or via scanner or video feed, with UNEARTHLY ability. Joe can turn this power on or off at will and does not harm him to use it.

LIMITATIONS- as a Magi, Joe must memorize his spell books every day in order to "recharge" his spell listings. All wizards need to this and then rest for 8 hours in order to fully recharge, and only a fully recharge can give Joe memorization of his highest level spells (start at the lowest level spells and work up to reach this). Any spell over requires the sacrifice of it's equivalent of both physical and mental health of the spell level against the caster's current score (for example, to cast a level 5 spell would require Joe to sacrifice 5 PH and 5 MH to cast). Joe appears on any magical detection device, and at GM's discretion, can also appear on mutant detection devices as well.

TALENTS- Martial Arts A, Weapon Master, Professional Skill- Wizardry, Education; Alchemy, Trance, Mesmerism/Hypnosis, Sleight of Hand, Resist Domination, Occult Lore, Mystic Background, fantastic creature Zoology, Mythology, Extra Dimensional Lore, Languages (english, spanish, latin, atlantean, greek, egyptian, asgardian, Shii-ar, Dragon),

Contacts- Joe is a reserve member of the Avengers. Joe is a member of the Orders of High Sorcery, a universal wide organization of spell users thru out the known universe. Joe is the master of the Tower of High Sorcery of Long Beach. At GM's discretion, Joe can be contacted by former deceased wizards to advice him. As Sorcerer Supreme, Joe would be required to attend any conclave involving the Elders of the Universe and such. Joe has been recognized as such by the God's of Olympus and Asgard.

Enemies- During Joe's life, he has been a sworn enemy of the DUNGEON MASTER (Martin Eugene); His adventures have brought Joe into direct conflict with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Dormamu, Fistandantillus, Loki, the Demon Princes Demogorgon, Orcus, Lolth, Jubilex, the Devil Counts Mephistopholes, Asmodeous, Tiamat, Set, the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, Darth Vader, Count Dracula and the Vampire Counts of Romania, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Undertaker, The Death Knight Lord Soth, and many, many others.

History- Joe was a 10 year old boy growing up in Anaheim, California, when he and his friends were attending an annual carnival in the Anaheim Marketplace. Joe wandered away from his group, when he 'discovered' a strange vendor and a strange tent. The Vendor informed Joe that only very, very special people could find his tent and asked Joe to please look at his wares. Joe did, and was able to read some of the strange books of magic that the vendor had for sale. The Vendor offered Joe an entire "Starting Wizards Kit", which included over 30 books, an starting alchemy set, scroll paper, inks, feathers, and garb for a young wizardling. Amused, Joe purchased these items. The Vendor asked Joe to come back in a year to see how much more he would need.

Joe took these items home, mostly out of curiousity, and began his research, and discovered that the spells in these books actually worked. Joe spent the entire summer of 1987 in full study of these books, and by early September, Joe was able to not only learn all the spells listed in the books, but also was able to even create a wizard's costume for himself, and even a flying broom stick, a long with brewing many potions. Realizing that the gang activity in Anaheim, CA was getting out of hand, Joe determined that he would use these powers to fight street crime in Anaheim.

Calling himself 'the Grey Wizard', Joe began to fight street gang activity in Anaheim, as well as in most of Orange and Los Angeles County. It was during these times that he began running into very minor demons and devils, as well as secret enclaves of demon and devil worshippers in the county. Rooting them out was difficult to do, as Joe initially did not want to garner public attention.

But that was thwarted, when the villain THE DUNGEON MASTER, a kid that also went to Joe's school whom had been a long time rival of his, was selected by the forces of Chaos. Dungeon Master had been building a small army of genetically spawned Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, and Ogres, and led a massive attack upon DisneyLand, capturing it, and holding the entire park and it's guests hostage. Seeing this transpire on TV, Joe was determined to try to stop him. In this, Joe would find himself joined by, for the first time publicly, the other super hero's of the world- Iron Man, Thor, The Green Lantern, SuperBoy, and Donkey Kong. Combined as a team, the youngsters were able to defeat the Dungeon Master's army and their minions, saving the park and becoming instant national hero's. Dubbed "The Avengers", Joe began a delicate balancing act, of balancing out the need to fight crime and counter the ever rising tidal wave of both conventional and super-human criminals in the US at the time, but also to counter the growing in balance in the Umbra (the spiritual shield that protects earth from extra dimensional threats) but also in the need to continue his studies both as a kid and his growing studies as a wizard.

In 1991, Joe has had continued to progress in his magical power, Joe was contacted by three wizards, the first ones that Joe had encountered. he was told he had reached the point where he had to travel to the Orders of High Sorcery's Tower of Wayreath, which would be found when he was genuinely read, to begin his formal studies to take the TEST, a magical trial that is so taxing that most magic-users fail and die, but that those that succeed would become Wizards. Joe accepted this, but to the chagrin of the magical community, Joe was able to find the Tower almost too naturally (something that many magic users spend their entire lives looking for). Entering, Joe was supposed to be offered an apprenticeship to one of the many powerful masters of magic at the tower. But one night, Joe inadvertently entered the Test Chamber, where his Test began. During Joe's test, he was confronted by the previous Masters of the Tower, whom told them that they had been following his progress and told him how he was going to be Sorcerer Supreme someday. Joe was given the Staff of Volans, the legendary symbol of those whom would someday become Sorcerer Supreme. Joe took his test, and despite the intervention of the ancient sorcerer Fistandantillus, Joe passed and emerged from the Vortex of Magic in the center of the universe wearing the Grey Robes, marking him a Magi, one of the rarest in the universe.

With Joe's ascending to this position, the first Sorcerer Supreme designate in almost 10,000 years, it also caused the Winds of Magic to intensify on Earth. No sooner had Joe returned to earth, then did he find that the ancient dragon goddess, Tiamat, had appeared on Earth, and had begun a war against humanity with the Dragon War (and aided by much of the former Soviet Union). After a prolonged campaign, Joe and the Avengers were able to defeat Tiamat, destroying her portal at the ruins of the ancient Temple of Atlantis. With this, one of the trials required to become Sorcerer Supreme, Joe was formally endowed by the 15 Masters of the Tower's of High Sorcery spread thru out the universe, with the title of Sorcerer Supreme.

Joe, with the sanctioning of the US Government, was able to rebuild the old Tower of Atlantis in Los Angeles, and designated the Tower of High Sorcery of Los Angeles. Joe reigned as the Tower's acting Master of the Tower, until a formal Master of the Tower was finally found and the Tower in full service, so that Joe could step down and continue his magical studies.

Around this time, with the magical barrier that shielded Earth from extra dimensional threats failing, Joe was fought in several prolonged campaigns against these extra dimensional threats. Joe helped defeat the undersea adversary the Sahugin race and helped the Atlantean people throw off the bondage to these unholy creatures and re-established Atlantis. Joe and the Avengers defeated an attempted invasion by the Egyptian Pantheon of God's into Africa.

Joe also was consistently involved during these times with the Avengers, aiding them in many major campaigns, against the rise of Latveria and it's new ruler, Doctor Doom. The rise of the Vampire Counts of Romania also occurred during this time. As well as international emergencies and alien incursions by the Kree, Skrull, and Shi'Ar races.

In 1991, Joe was asked to appear in Washington DC by the US Government. Agent Gyrich, believing that the entire magical threat, was actually an inborn mutant power, attempted to subdue Joe and his apprentices under the auspices of the Mutant Registration Act. Joe was barely able to escape, but when he returned to the Tower of High Sorcery of LA, it too was under attack, as the US Government and the UN had agreed that the Tower somehow was bringing the magical catastrophe's upon the world. After a pitched battle, Joe was forced to order the Tower to be destroyed and reformed in the Antartica region, in order to prevent it's fall, as there were things in the tower that were too powerful for mortals to withstand. The Tower was publicly destroyed and the Orders of Magic on earth publicly disbanded, although magical studies continued in secret. After many legal challenges, Joe was able to negotiate a treaty with the US, eventually leading up to the "Orders of High Sorcery" treaty signed between the Orders of Magic and the US. Joe was pardoned for his role in the conflict by outgoing president Bush in 1993.

Around this time, Joe was contacted by the greek queen of the gods, Hera. Despite warnings from his apprentices, Joe began a relationship with her, that also brought him into conflict with his Avengers team-mate, Thor (whom Hera was also secretly seeing). This resulted in a major chism in the Avengers, prompting both Thor and Joe to leave the group for a time. It was later revealed that this was an act of manipulation on Hera's part, as she actually needed the conflict in order to ensure that the upcoming war of the Heavens took place.

The War of Heavens took place when many pantheons of gods on earth materialized, with the intent that there could only be one set on Earth. The Gods of Olympus vs the Gods of Asgard vs the Gods of the Aztecs and more materialized, and Joe was forced to return to save his world. During the conflict, Joe was able to forge an alliance with Athena, whom granted Joe the knowledge he needed to recast a new ritual that would affect Earth's position via the Winds of Magic that ran from the center of the universe. This ritual actually increased the ambience of magic on earth but also allowed the previous 'imortality' of many of the deity's to end as well as their untouchable sanctuaries. This rite also lowered the ability of most to tap magic at all, with previous powerful spell users seeing their powers dramatically reduced and in some in some cases, eliminated. The Avengers then led a vicious counter offensive, that when it was done left most of these deity's realms with little choice but to shunt their realms back into pocket dimensions farther away from Earth, making their realms more difficult to return to Earth. This was done, although several gods and goddesses were able to form a new pantheon on Mount Olympus, that publicly had Hera as the new Queen of these gods.

Unknown to Joe, this was all in the machinations of his old adversary, the Dungeon Master. With this ritual enacted, it placed the voids of the Abyss as the new barrier between Earth and these pocket dimensions, allowing him to bring about the opening of the Portal, that would allow a demonic invasion of Earth. For his efforts, the Dungeon Master was granted dominion of the 455th layer of the Abyss and raised to demon-prince status as his reward.

Also during these times, Joe did on a limited basis saw romantically the daughter of Hera and Athena, Diana of Themiscarya, whom eventually would join the Avengers.

In 1996, the conflict between the Shi-Ar and Kree Empires continued to involve Earth, prompting Joe to join a task force of Avengers led by Captain America to try to resolve this.

In 1998, the Galactic Empire became aware of Earth and that several Jedi Knights were also on earth. A task force led by Darth Vader was sent, and Earth, led by the Avengers, were able to drive off the Empire's incursion into Earth. Joe in his role as Sorcerer Supreme was able to warn the Emperor Palpatine from entering this galaxy.

In 2002, Joe would marry one of his apprentices, Natalia of the Shi-Ar race. Joe largely continued to his magical research and studies, acting as an advisor and mentor to many superhero's since then.

Because of the earlier treaty, those wizards whom followed the Tenets of High Sorcery were not subjected to the Metahuman Registration Act of 2005. Joe publicly made the case that because of the many safeguards that the Orders places upon magic, that it complied with the act. While it was clear that during the campaign, that Captain America's faction was clearly receiving magical aide, Joe has denied he had anything to do with this, and that his focus was on magical threats.

Joe has returned on many occasions however when the Avengers needed him. He aided the Avengers against incursions by Darkside, in constant conflicts with the Masters of Evil, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and many, many other foes. The DungeonMaster continues to be a thorn in his side as well.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2010 09:21PM by GmJoeSolarte.

Quote

CRYSTAL BALLS- Joe owns two Crystal balls.

All that power but I see a swift kick to the groin is Joe's weakness just like any other man

Seriously, AWESOME character man! Love the AD&D spells list blend; don't know too many ol' school gamers who don't know that Player's Handbook by heart (the new ed. stuff these days makes me vomit in my mouth).

The history write up is great too (Disneyland invasion lol); I take it this is a recap of all Solarte's real-life/game session adventures to-date? Good stuff.

Relic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CRYSTAL BALLS- Joe owns two Crystal balls.
>
> All that power but I see a swift kick to the groin
> is Joe's weakness just like any other man
>
> Seriously, AWESOME character man! Love the AD&D
> spells list blend; don't know too many ol' school
> gamers who don't know that Player's Handbook by
> heart (the new ed. stuff these days makes me vomit
> in my mouth).
>
> The history write up is great too (Disneyland
> invasion lol); I take it this is a recap of all
> Solarte's real-life/game session adventures
> to-date? Good stuff.

Thank you. I more or less recapped about 23 years of active play with this character, which reflects a lot of individual missions where I was playing alone and my brother GM'd vs the times I GM'd a group of 5 or 6 players.

the key to the AD&D spell list is that at first attempt, it is like a power stunt. You use the casting ability vs the difficulty of the spell (Zero Level- Typical Intensity/LV 1- Good/LV-2 EX/LV-3 REM/LV-4 INC/LV-5 AMZ/LV-6 MON/ LV 7-UN/ LV-8 SHX/ LV-9- SH-Y).

After that it was about looking at a spell's description and accurately translating it to MSU format. For example, Magic Missile spell means you generate 1 missile per level. Typical shooting damage that auto-hits, but you do roll to see if you can get a stun or kill roll.

That sort of thing.

Great write up man. loved the character. Keep up the good work, lol.
we love to see new characters on here!

I left out a part and it is more applicable now, where during the part where the US government turned on the Orders of High Sorcery, that I was offered membership into the Hellfire Club. I joined it's public fascade initially, not thinking it was anything more then a meeting place for business and political interests. However, as the campaign intensified, I was offered membership into the Inner Circle as a Black Bishop initially but I had too many problems with Sebastian Shaw and Selene, ultimately opting to back Emma Frost's white faction instead.

The disney land caper was great, interesting the way others worlds unfold seems like you has a fun time like I did with my old character slugger/Sentinal, grats on the build sir

Thanks. We had done solo adventures prior to that, where we individually were out, fighting crime on our own, and doing our damndest to keep our existence secret. But the DisneyLand siege was done where there was no going in secret, where the villains were public about what they had done and we needed to go in publicly to stop them, and thus were revealed to the world as super heroes.

I actually did a direct cross over, where in D&D my brother's beloved Dwarven Barbarian character along with his halfling bard sidekick, well, I did it in our "Galactus Cross over". Galactus had come to earth and in our first engagement, he soundly defeated us. We were trying to determine how to win it, when my character realized that in one of his old legends books, about a character named The Legendary Warrior from thousands upon thousands of years ago, and the story how he traveled thru space and time to defeat the "World Eater-Titan" and how the few images of it, seemed to describe Galactus being defeated by the Legendary Warrior. I had done a mission to set it up in D&D, where at the end of an adventure, a GATE spell opened, and pulled against his will this Dwarf Warrior, whom was immediately followed in by the halfling before the Gate closed. The other PC's wanted him back and in just a few moments after, a Gate opened almost as soon as the other gate closed. Tumbling out came the Dwarf and Halfling, only I said they came out wearing clothing that they could not recognize and were initially screaming in a language none of them understood. When they came too, they were so covered in rum and beer that the D&D characters assumed they were drunk and could not remember the quest.

I did that about two weeks before I did the Galactus crossover, where when SpellBinder did the Gate spell and summoned the Legendary Warrior, my brother was stunned when it turned out to be his dwarf character.

very nice , yeah cross overs were great the best villains me and my bud battled for some odd reason were home brew or spider man characters. some how we always managed to beat them with team work and making them so mad they would always make mistakes. We actually played out training sessions. Cudos joe.

Just like sharing my adventures with other players and judges out there, in case any of you see anything you want to 'borrow' into your own campaigns.