The Strange Bestiary
Wizard, prophet, seer of possible futures, and witness to the events of the past, Merlin is the son of an incubus and served as the advisor and companion to a famous, legendary king.
Some think he lies trapped by an evil sorceress in a forgotten cave, but that's mere facade. Merlin is as much a trickster as a wizard. His abilities to adopt different guises and see with the eyes of a prophet serve him well. Instead of being trapped, Merlin travels the recursions and the Strange itself, seeking to learn all he can about the true nature of reality. As powerful as Merlin is, he is no warrior. He takes any opportunity he finds to escape. Throughout a battle, he will try to convince his opponents to give up the fight and talk out the problem like reasonable people.
Motive: Manipulate events for profit, knowledge
Environment (the Strange | Magic): Anywhere
Health: 40
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (8 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short
Modifications: All tasks related to deception, disguise, interaction, and knowledge of arcane lore as level 9.
Combat: Merlin's magic staff is a special artifact that translates with him. When he makes a long-range attack with his staff or strikes someone with it, a spark of energy erupts from the end, inflicting damage to the target and, if Merlin wishes, to all creatures within short range of the target. Targets within immediate range of Merlin when they take damage are thrown out of immediate range.
In addition to his staff, the wizard knows several spells. When Merlin is first encountered, the GM should roll six times on the cypher list in the corebook (rerolling as desired). The result is the spells that Merlin has currently readied. He can use them once each round as an action (not just once, as is normally the case with cyphers). On a different day, Merlin might have the same spells or different ones at hand.
Merlin regenerates 1 point of health per round while his health is above 0. His magic always grants him some Armor, even when he's sleeping or unconscious.
Interaction: Always interested in what talented individuals might accomplish with a bit of direction, Merlin may offer to accompany the PCs on an expedition and lend advice and wisdom when needed, though his suggestions are usually cryptic and open to interpretation.
Use: The PCs encounter a young man seated on a stump who tells them several true things about who they are and where they came from. The young man is Merlin in disguise.
Loot: Merlin might be convinced to teach a character how to cast a spell. Treat this spell as a cypher in effect (single use, as normal), but one that doesn't count against a character's cypher limit.
GM Intrusion: Merlin anticipates an attack against him and turns a character's successful attack roll into a failed one, and the PC loses his next action due to confusion.
If you need the stats for a powerful wizard—perhaps to represent a named character from a
different popular franchise, for a recursion you’ve created by importing your fantasy campaign into
The Strange, or merely for a random NPC the characters meet while traveling through a recursion
that operates under the law of Magic—you can use Merlin’s statistics, given the customizable
nature of his spells.