caleb widogast

APPLICATION

Player Name/Handle: Kelly
Plurk Handle: tinybro
Preferred pronouns (optional): she/her/whatever, not picky
Player Status: Current Player
Other characters: Nagisa Kaworu
Invited by: N/A

Character Name: Caleb Widogast
Fandom: Critical Role campaign 2
Character Journal: katzenprinz
OU, AU, CRAU, Canon OC, or OC? OU
Canon point: End of campaign 2, pre-epilogue
Age: 33
PB: N/A

SETTING BACKGROUND

Critical Role is a D&D 5e game that takes place in Matthew Mercer's homebrew world of Exandria. The setting is generally traditional D&D-level fantasy, though firearms are a recent development in terms of technology. The second campaign focuses on the continent of Wildemount, where the Dwendalian Empire has long been in conflict with the Kryn Dynasty. Caleb is a member of the Mighty Nein, a band of assholes that fell in together by happenstance and become decent (even good) people over the course of various adventures, from circus-based detective work to brokering peace in the war to saving the world from a sentient bodyhorror city of flesh.

PERSONALITY
Caleb Widogast is, in a sense, an echo of the young man he once was. His current self seems primarily melancholy and and reserved and weighed down by a great deal of baggage, but there are times where that weight slips off a bit. There are moments of levity and mischief. He's obviously a brilliant wizard with a genuine passion for learning and experimentation, and that passionate nature extends to everything he loves. He'll talk a person's ear off about why cats are the best. Exciting new books have him dancing with excitement. And for his friends, he'll go to great lengths to give them small bits of happiness or kill anything that might harm them.

Caleb is no stranger to killing. He has plenty of blood on his hands, and while self-defense is justifiable, there's still plenty he can't forgive himself for. Being groomed as a spy-assassin taught him many things – how to weaponize his natural eloquence and charisma, how to be decisive and cutthroat, and yes, how to kill without question no matter the target. He's done things he hates himself for, and while the self-loathing never fades completely, he's too practical to not take advantage of those skills when needed. Pragmatism usually wins out when the pressure is on, and he can compartmentalize like a champ when his personal baggage might get in the way of what needs to be done.

And though he can dredge up that old self from time to time, oftentimes the rougher years since then are more obvious. It's been a long while since he had an episode, but he has a trauma response to certain things that leaves him catatonic. He's slow to trust new people, and though not necessarily shy, these days he dislikes being the center of attention. There was a time when he looked out for himself before anything else, staying with the group only for the safety of it while ready to cut and run at any moment, but now he works harder than anyone to keep them all safe and together, clinging to the only thing he has left resembling family. He'll make some ballsy plays when it hot water, but in the quieter moments he tends to be careful and methodical. He has great capacity for empathy, especially for people he can see some shade of himself in. In general, he's mellowed, an ember compared to the full blaze it seems like he used to be.

And somehow, despite all the self-loathing, he has a great deal of confidence in his abilities. He's not so full of himself that he won't accept help, even in magical matters, but he sets himself to tasks with the assurance that anything is possible. Nothing is beyond him if he works at it long and hard enough. Having to give up on something is the greatest frustration there is. It's a stubborn sort of determination, one that can spark him to a proper rage in the right circumstances.

As a young man, Caleb was ambitious, and all the time since and the experiences he's had have more sharpened and redirected than energy than truly smothered it. For a time he seemed hellbent on revenge, but now he thinks more long-term. He'd do anything to keep what he went through from happening to any more children, and he's on a path to tear down the most powerful people in the Empire for that sake. It's a fitting ending note for the journey and development he's had. And the most apt depiction of that is his transition from the school of Evocation, focused on destructive magics, to Trasmutation, with its focus on altering reality – he's no longer someone that fixated on power, but instead someone who wants to change the world.

CANON POWERS
As a 16th level wizard, Caleb knows at least 41 spells. That is too many to list out here. The full list is available here under the "Wizard Spells" header. I can expand on any/all of them if desired, I just didn't wanna hit y'all with a massive list of spells and individual descriptions unless you really wanted to slog through it all.

tl;dr Caleb's magic is very versatile, but he does have a bit of a lean towards fire-based and transmutation spells.

POWER SELECTION

POWER TYPE
Magic

FREEBIE POWERS
High intelligence – not AI/supercomputer level, of course, but his Intelligence stat is maxed out.

GAME POWERS
Magic: Adept

• Fireball: A small fireball that can burn a single enemy or set a structure/object on fire.


• Polymorph: Can transform a creature (self, ally, or enemy) into a small beast for up to an hour. Unwilling creatures can potentially resist the transformation via willpower. Transformed creatures retain their personality and intent, but their physical and mental abilities are limited to what the beast form is capable of – for example, someone turned into a mouse would still be hostile to anyone it was fighting, but can't speak, might struggle with higher level thinking, and is only as fast and strong as a normal mouse.


• Shield: Briefly creates a weak barrier to deflect physical attacks for about six seconds.

ABILITIES

• Keen Mind: Caleb has an excellent memory and ability to keep track of time and direction. He can aways tell which direction is north, what time is it, and he can recall anything he's seen or heard in the last month.


• Can speak Common (aka English), Zemnian (aka German), Sylvan and Celestial


• Highly intelligent and perceptive

SAMPLES

Prose Sample
TDM threads

ADDITIONAL INFO
Caleb has on his person a spellbook, a book of unsent letters, a pouch of spell components, thin Elven chainmail, and a few small nonmagical trinkets like a little turtle statue and a thong belonging to his best friend's husband. Let's say his backpack didn't come with him so I don't have to account for the rest of his inventory, and that any magic items he was wearing won't be functioning.