Specialization Concept - Entropic Brawler

[Meribson]

So the BBEG for the campaign I'm building is a bandit-king saarebas who's introduction outside of a cage involves him crushing a Comte's skull with one hand after beating one templar to death using another as a bludgeoning weapon. It later occurred to me that a specialization based off of the Arcane Warrior but focused on unarmed fighting mixed with entropy magic could make for a really fun character to play. Their fighting style would be extremely vicious, combining debuffs and life draining magics with brutal unarmed strikes, trips, and disarms. I imagine that practitioners of this specialization would be labeled maleficarum regardless of their actual thoughts on blood magic.

A good example I think would be a more Qunari filled version of the Mak'gora from the 2016 Warcraft movie.

Thoughts?

[WamblingWombat]

Sounds like a fun choice for the BBEG. Documenting the specialization as a part of his background sounds fine to me but I'd personally pass on opening it up to general use. Adds to the mystery if the mechanics aren't known.

[PlatinumWarlock]

Not doubting that it's a neat concept, but it seems to be quite the deviation from the typical view of Dragon Age mages, especially Qunari saarebas.
More power to you if you could make it work, but I'm not sure it's something that I'd put into one of my games.

[Meribson]

Writing this on my phone during my work break, so going to be brief.

Tal-Saarebas, the BBEG, developed the style prior to escaping the Qun. He was captured by an Orlesian Comte who showed him off at a Harvest Ball prior to the Templars arriving to take him to a Circle.

Templars come, he gets loose, makes his way into the Emerald Graves, takes over a group of bandits, begins consolidating the bandits in the region under his banner. A few mages under his banner he trains, some survive the campaign, teach other apostates, new specialization available in future campaigns.

[PlatinumWarlock]

Writing this on my phone during my work break, so going to be brief.

Tal-Saarebas, the BBEG, developed the style prior to escaping the Qun. He was captured by an Orlesian Comte who showed him off at a Harvest Ball prior to the Templars arriving to take him to a Circle.

Templars come, he gets loose, makes his way into the Emerald Graves, takes over a group of bandits, begins consolidating the bandits in the region under his banner. A few mages under his banner he trains, some survive the campaign, teach other apostates, new specialization available in future campaigns.

I mean, that's neat and makes for a good story, but it just seems to be at odds with some of the extant setting material.

In lore, saarebas are typically kept shackled and chained, with their mouths sewn shut. I mean, the name literally translates to "Dangerous Thing". How would a saarebas learn martial arts, much less learn them at the same time as a whole new magical style, without anyone in the Qun batting an eye?

And, concurrent with that, how does this guy become dangerous enough to elude the Qun, but still manage to get captured by a random Orlesian noble? Further, why would they take a Qunari to a Circle--an arm of the Andrastian Chantry that has been at odds with the Qun for centuries? By that token, why would the noble call the templars in the first place, if he's keeping the qunari as a show-piece?

Again, it's a neat idea and I'm not disputing that at all; it just seems like the aim here is "cool thing" over "Dragon Age thing".