Book of Fire - Prologue 01

Two, was to play the long game. There was a trend in RPG game mechanics called "Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards". Basically, that physical classes like fighters and thieves would be good at swinging a sword or whatever, but it didn't compared to the explosive growth in power offered by becoming adept at magic. Classes like Wizard and Cleric would start out relatively weak compared to buff melee classes, but in the long term they were much, much more powerful.

I had briefly considered the possibility at this point that this was a dream or some kind of hallucination, but I dismissed that out of hand. Pascal had one thing right, and there were few consequences to buying into a dream while it happened. So I'd go all-in on his wager, because if I did turn out to be in a coma dream or something I might as well have fun.

So with reckless abandon, I uttered the first of my choices.

"I'd like to be Human."

The was a soft pulse of light. While other races could have great advantages- spell immunities, low light vision, the ability to sense secret doors and so on- they didn't have the versatility and power of a basic Human. Humans usually received strong customizable advantages, as an incentive to play the race. I didn't fully know the system under which we'd be playing, to keeping myself in a versatile position before committing to anything was the best bet.

"I see, I see. So, do you have a class already in mind? You can be a Fighter, Thief...."

"I would like to be a Mage. Specifically, someone specialized ion Transmutation magic."

When going for ultimate power, Mage was the only real choice.

Fighters were reliable in combat and, in some cases, eventually gathered vast armies, but a mage could emulate almost everything even the most skilled mundane warrior could ever hope to achieve. Thieves had their specialized skills and burst damage dealing but a Mage eventually did all of those things better anyway with spells.

Clerics did catch my attention- slightly weaker spells in exchange for decent fighting ability, turning undead and most important, easy access to healing magic, possibly the only such magic in the game. But, you also got tied to a religion, and this puppy angel hasn't said anything yet about the setting of my Heaven, so I don't know what gods (or dogs, for that matter) would be available. I might only find a crappy religion, that lets you use only lassos in combat or something. Also, having had the truth of Dog revealed to me, I don't know if I could honestly worship something else....

As for specializing in Transmutation, it was a matter of simple math. Transmutation was all about changing the properties of things, including living beings. I would get far more mileage out of buffing my harem of allies than I would from confronting my enemies head-on myself, plus I could do that from a safe distance. The big disadvantage here was that I was doubling down on my low HP. But if I survived that, and I am very confident with my superior powergaming ability, not even the sky would be my limit.

"Ooh, very decisive! And your starting alignment?"

"Neutral Good." In reality, my intentions were probably closer to Neutral Evil, but if puppy-angel is asking I'd rather not attract unnecessary attention from Paladins.

"Okay, now it's time to roll for your HP!"

This was it.

This would determine if my gamble paid off. A die appeared on the glass table before me, the soft light glinting off it's pyramidial edges. Time to roll the dice!

The small... plastic? Glass? Ceramic?...die bounced across the table.

One.

One. Single. Lousy. Hit Point.