Kron Darkbow's stats

After mentioning D&D and gaming in another post, someone e-mailed me and asked me about the characters in my novels. First, she wanted to know if any of my characters were from role-playing sessions. Second, she wanted to know what their stats were.

The answer to the first question is ... yes, some of them are from role playing games, but none of them are from Dungeons and Dragons. Some friends of mine and I play an old game called Dragonquest, which has not been published in more than 20 years. Dragonquest is quite different from traditional D&D, but the modern 3.5 version of D&D has a few things more similar with Dragonquest.

To further this along, none of my stories come from role playing sessions. Many a role playing session would make a lousy story, and many editors and some writers seem to frown on using anything from roleplaying in a short story or novel. So, I try to keep my plots, and as much about my characters as possible, distinctly distant from role playing.

Now, to go along with her second question, after some careful thought (while moving boxes and boxes and boxes), I thought I'd provide some potential D&D stats from some of my characters. Today I'll start with Kron Darkbow. These basic stats represent about where he would be at the beginning of the first novel in my trilogy.

Kron Darkbow
2nd level Monk, 4th level Rogue, 4th level Ranger, 4th level Fighter
STR 16
DEX 18
INT 15
WIS 14
CON 15
CHA 13
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Age: 25

Kron's preferred melee weapon is his fists. In a big fight, he will break out a bastard sword (also known as a hand-and-a-half), which he prefers over other swords because he can use it in either one or two hands. His preferred distance weapon is a longbow. Kron also usually has a couple of daggers hidden away somewhere on himself. Besides those basic weapons, Kron also sometimes carries some specialty weapons, mainly small throwing darts and grenados (yes, grenados do just what you think they will but they're not easy to come by).

Kron dresses all in black, and I mean ALL in black. The metal bits of his clothes, buttons and buckles and the like, have even been painted or smoked a dull black. All parts of his weapons, including the blades, have been painted or smoked a dull black. No, Kron does not wear black because it's hip or cool. He wears black to make it more difficult to see him at night. And because during daylight all that black tends to unsettle other folks, though it can make him stand out.

As for Kron's mental processes, that's easy. Just think of Batman (especially Frank Miller's Batman) in a seedy world of magic similar to Thieves' World or maybe Lankhmar.