This post is probably one of the easiest to write as in all my years of gaming one character stands out head and shoulders above them all: Garvine of Shadowdale.

Garvine was a second edition AD&D character created using the excellent Chronomancer source book.  This was back in the day when the game was awash with new character classes and  by TSR it was 100% official and it was a tricky thing for a dungeonmaster to turn down.  If you hadn’t already guessed the Chronomancer was a magic user who could manipulate time, so spells like Haste were available at second level rather than third.

One event irked the DM at the time, we had all fallen a long way down a shaft and while he was calculating falling damage I announced I was casting a spell which enabled me to cancel the previous game round; then as we were about to open the door again into the shaft I declared I had a bad feeling about the move and cast Feather Fall which caused us to descend to the bottom unharmed.

Armed with a Wand of Lightning, Oil of Impact and his battle cry of “swingy-swingy-clonk” before hitting his foes with a quarterstaff I had lots of fun playing him.  His partner in crime was Einar the one-eyed Viking warrior and together they had several exciting adventures.  When Garvine retired from play he was 12th level; I have never had a character reach such a high level since then.