Neal Litherland

You've been kidnapped, thrown into a dark room, and your hands are cuffed behind you. You can hear your nameless, faceless abductors through the thin walls laughing at your predicament. We've all been there a time or two, but if you have a very specific set of rather simple skills it won't take long for you to turn the tables on your would-be captors. They won't know what hit them... if, that is, you know how to get out of your restraints.

George Washington, his name reverberates in the halls of America's schools, and the man has become a legend. He was the first president, one of the primary founding fathers, and his face adorns both our money, and several of our major national landmarks. What we tend to gloss over, though, is the fact that George was a stone-cold badass. A man who preferred the sound of bullets slicing past his head to silence, and who regularly stood in front of hundreds of his enemies' guns with shoulders back and chest out, Washington was a man who led from the vanguard. If you've been looking for a solid build for a general that can lead by example, this guide should get you started.

Up until the 1960s when you thought of Christian activists and protesters, certain images came to mind. Volunteers in soup kitchens trying to help the homeless, marchers asking for civil rights and women's suffrage, and if you went back even further, those who demanded humane treatment for society's outcasts, according to NPR. Before that, Christian activists were the men and women who deeply desired an end to slavery. After the 1970s, though, that tune changed. In the post-Vietnam era, Christian activists started staging more aggressive protests. They traded in, turning the other cheek for fire and brimstone, and with every generation the rhetoric grew more intractable, fearful, and hate-filled. This was the rise of the Christian Right, which has driven policies like opposition to civil rights for LGBTQ+ people, the restriction of abortion, and other attempts to combine their faith with the law of the land.

Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, is one of the most memorable politicians we've had in our history. Part of that has to do with his history of achievements in the White House, and how he shaped the very nature of the executive branch, and part of it is because his mug is on the $20 bill, which is the default for ATMs. However, if you've ever looked down at that scarred, sour face and wondered about that man, rest assured he was one of the most violent, vengeful, and balls-out homicidal men we've yet to elect to the office of the president. And, if you've been wondering how to bring that sort of crazed warrior-ruler combination to your game, here's a Pathfinder conversion guide to get you started.

Captain Jack Sparrow is probably the most famous fictional pirate seen in generations, pushing infamous figures like Captain Blood and Treasure Island's Captain Flint right out of the limelight. While the drunken antics and wild shenanigans of the crazed captain have become iconic to Johnny Depp's portfolio, fans have been asking for years whether a character that creative (and downright strange) could really be spun out of whole cloth.

Abraham Lincoln was many things; a statesman, a lawyer, a commander-in-chief, a father, and thus far the only President of the United States to fight a civil war. We all know Lincoln the great emancipator, and the president who was taken from a nation before his work was fully done. The man most of us don't know, because for some reason it isn't in our history books, is the bare-knuckle brawler with superhuman strength who cracked skulls and served booze long before he was ever a sitting member of the nation's government. For those of you who'd like to bring the younger, wild-eyed Abe to your table and carve a path to leadership and governance with careful words and a big damn ax, then this Pathfinder character build ought to get you started.