Skip to content
CharGen Icon
CreatePricing

Shi Jin

NPCs
Half-elf · Bard (College of Lore) · Level 10

Shi Jin

Artist, cartographer, and traveling performer
AC15
HP66/66
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

At the table

Voice

Her voice is clear and breath-supported, with the slight dry rasp of someone who spends long hours playing and speaking over crowds. She places consonants like small markers on a map and lets pauses carry meaning. In calm conversation she uses precise metaphors; when danger arrives, the metaphors vanish and her directions become clipped, physical, and immediate.

She speaks in a clear, measured voice shaped by breath control and years of listening for echoes. Her words have clean consonants and carefully placed pauses; she often uses spatial or musical comparisons, but can switch to plain, brisk instructions when danger is near. When angered, she becomes more direct and pointed rather than softer.

Speech patterns

She describes routes as intervals, then checks whether her listener understood the practical instruction.
She asks where a sound seemed to come from before asking who made it.
When she catches herself using an obscure musical comparison, she offers a blunt translation without embarrassment.
Under pressure, her sentences become shorter and more concrete, as though she is counting beats.

How to play them

Shi Jin approaches strangers with patient curiosity and prefers to understand how they navigate a place before asking what they want. She answers practical questions directly, but resists being treated as a weapon or a novelty. Trust grows when people admit what they cannot perceive; pressure or demands for a demonstration make her withdraw.

Goal

Find the missing plans of the winter market district, learn who altered them, and make amends to the people harmed by the fire without letting the truth be buried again.

Motivation

She wants to make perception more trustworthy, not less, and to use her art to preserve the truth of places whose stories have been manipulated.

Secret · GM only

Appearance

Shi Jin has a willowy, almost spectral presence, but there is nothing fragile in the way she occupies a room. Her loose, pale-silver hair lies in smooth, cool strands over her shoulders, catching light like brushed pewter. Her gray-blue eyes track thresholds, corners, and the gaps between people before they settle on a face. She moves in measured half-turns, as if testing the room's rhythm before committing to a path. The unexpected thing is her hands: the pads of her fingers are faintly ridged and glossy from years of flute practice, and she unconsciously taps the ridges in patterns against her thumb. People often leave an encounter with her remembering that gentle, exact tapping more clearly than her face.

Clothing

She wears layered, long gowns inspired by Korean medieval silhouettes, in muted gray, cream, and ink-blue. A light cloak fastens at the shoulder with a plain silver clasp. Her sleeves are narrow enough not to catch on Elion, and her ornaments are restrained: small silver pieces that click softly when she moves.

Body language

She holds her shoulders relaxed and her head slightly angled, as if listening past the immediate conversation. Her thumb taps the ridges on her flute-playing fingers in small measured patterns. When she is certain of a route, she steps without hesitation; when she is uncertain, she turns her head in short, precise increments.

Height
5 feet 7 inches
Build
Lean and long-limbed, with the balanced posture of someone accustomed to standing for hours while painting or playing.
Eyes
Gray-blue
Hair
Light silver
Skin
Pale ivory with a cool, faintly rosy undertone
Age
Twenty-seven
Gender
Female
Size
Medium

Distinguishing features

Her pale hair has a cool metallic sheen in lamplight, though it is soft and ordinary to the touch.
Her flute-callused fingertips have faint glossy ridges, and she taps those ridges against her thumb without noticing.
She routinely turns her head toward a doorway a fraction before someone enters it, having learned to recognize the room's changing echoes.

Personality

13 traits and drives

Shi Jin is curious enough to take apart an assumption and compassionate enough to notice who gets hurt by the pieces. In a calm mood she is wry, attentive, and willing to let silence do its work; under pressure she becomes brisk and exacting, correcting people as if a wrong word could become a wrong turn. She loves the freedom of reshaping perception but distrusts the ease with which that freedom can become coercion.

Alignment
Neutral good

Quirks

She taps the ridges on her flute-callused fingertips against her thumb in patterns that change with her mood.
She turns cups and bowls until their handles face what she considers the room's most useful direction.
She pauses at thresholds to listen for the way the room answers her breathing.
When giving directions, she may briefly point to an empty patch of air where she hears the route's imagined note.
She sometimes draws a tiny doorway in the margin of a page whenever a conversation reaches an impasse.

Habits

When entering an unfamiliar space, she listens before looking for the nearest exit.
She tests a route by walking it once at an even pace, then once while tapping a different rhythm.
When tired, she forgets ordinary names but remembers the exact sound a person made when they first spoke.
She gives directions through comparisons to intervals, then translates them into ordinary terms if she notices confusion.

Traits · 3

She will patiently explain a difficult idea in several different ways, but has little patience for someone who refuses to listen.
She is moved by small acts of care and uncomfortable with grand declarations.
She enjoys clever misdirection in art, yet becomes severe when a person uses it to exploit the frightened.

Flaws · 3

She treats confusion as a problem that can be solved by better instruction, even when someone needs comfort first.
Her confidence in her own spatial awareness can make her slow to accept warnings from companions.
She withholds the full strength of her ability until she has mapped every possible consequence, sometimes losing the moment to act.

Fears · 3

That another frightened crowd will trust one of her false impressions and be hurt.
That the missing city plans will prove the winter fire was arranged, and that her family unknowingly helped conceal it.
That her sense of actual space will one day fail when she is exhausted or afraid.

Wants and needs · 4

Wants the truth about the winter market fire, even if it implicates someone she loves.
Needs Min to hear a full, unqualified apology rather than another explanation.
Wants her mother to understand that returning home is not the same as abandoning her work.
Needs companions who will tell her when her confidence in a space is misplaced.

Combat

AC 15 · HP 66 · 30 ft.

Shi Jin prefers to divide attention rather than inflict casualties. She begins with a control spell or Distorted Symphony, then uses Cutting Words to spoil a dangerous attack and keeps allies moving toward real cover. She uses hypnotic pattern or fear against groups, dissonant whispers to peel a threat away from an ally, and counterspell when an enemy mage threatens the party. She avoids melee and retreats along routes she has already mapped. Her illusions never physically obstruct a route, so she relies on allies to exploit the hesitation they create.

Shi Jin

Medium humanoid (half-elf), neutral good
Armor Class15
Hit Points66
Speed30 ft.
Level10
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsDexterityCharisma
SkillsArcanaDeceptionInvestigationPerceptionPerformancePersuasion
SensesDarkvision 60 ft.
Languages
Common,
Elvish
Bardic Inspiration (d10): Shi Jin can use a bonus action to inspire a creature within 60 feet that can hear her. The creature can add the die to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw within the next 10 minutes.
Song of Rest (d8): During a short rest, Shi Jin can use music or oration to help herself and friendly creatures regain an extra hit points when they spend Hit Dice.
Countercharm. Shi Jin can use an action to perform until the end of her next turn. She and friendly creatures within 30 feet have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed.
Cutting Words. As a reaction, Shi Jin can expend a Bardic Inspiration die to subtract its result from a creature's attack roll, ability check, or damage roll within 60 feet, after seeing the roll but before its effects are resolved.
Additional Magical Secrets. Shi Jin has learned counterspell and misty step from other traditions. These spells are included in her spell list.
Distorted Symphony (custom): Shi Jin's flute can lace the senses of creatures that hear it with spatially disorienting auditory and visual impressions. This is not teleportation or physical alteration. Her spatial illusions are magical effects and can be investigated against her spell save DC; they do not move creatures or objects.

Spells

Dissonant Whispers (level 1, enchantment). A cutting phrase assaults one creature's mind. It takes psychic damage and must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it uses its reaction, if available, to move as far as its speed allows away from Shi Jin. The spell has no effect on a creature that cannot hear her or is immune to being charmed.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter (level 1, enchantment). A creature Shi Jin can see makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it is charmed for the duration; while charmed this way, its speed becomes 0 and it is incapacitated. The effect ends if it takes damage or another creature uses an action to shake it awake.
Minor Illusion (level 1, illusion). Shi Jin creates an illusory sound or image within range that lasts up to 1 minute. Physical interaction reveals the image as an illusion; a creature can use an action to examine it and make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against her spell save DC.
Hypnotic Pattern (level 3, illusion). Up to three creatures Shi Jin can see make Wisdom saving throws. On a failure, a creature is charmed for the duration. While charmed, it is incapacitated and has a speed of 0. The effect ends for a creature if it takes damage or another creature uses an action to shake it.
Counterspell (level 3, abjuration). Shi Jin interrupts a creature in the process of casting a spell. If the spell is 3rd level or lower, it fails automatically. If it is 4th level or higher, she makes a Charisma ability check with a DC of 10 + the spell's level; on a success, the spell fails.
Phantasmal Force (level 2, illusion). Shi Jin creates a phantasmal image that takes root in one creature's mind. The target makes an Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, it perceives a harmful illusion and takes psychic damage per round while Shi Jin maintains concentration, up to 1 minute. The target can use its action to examine the illusion and attempt to end the effect.
Misty Step (level 2, conjuration). Shi Jin and up to five willing creatures she can see teleport up to 30 feet to unoccupied spaces they can see.
Major Image (level 3, illusion). Shi Jin creates a sound or image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion can include sound, smell, and other sensory effects. Physical interaction reveals it to be an illusion; a creature can use an action to examine it and make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against her spell save DC.
Fear (level 3, illusion). Shi Jin projects a phantom image so dreadful that each creature in a 30-foot cone must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature drops whatever it is holding and becomes frightened for the duration. A frightened creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.
Mirror Image (level 2, illusion). Shi Jin creates an illusory duplicate of herself in an unoccupied space she can see within 30 feet. The duplicate lasts for up to 1 minute with concentration. As a bonus action, she can move it up to 30 feet. Attacks against her may target the duplicate instead, as determined by the spell.
Charm Person (level 1, enchantment). Shi Jin magically influences a humanoid it can see within range. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw, with advantage if Shi Jin or her companions are fighting it. On a failure, it is charmed for up to 1 hour or until Shi Jin or her companions harm it.
Suggestion (level 2, enchantment). Shi Jin attempts to charm a humanoid she can see within range. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw, with advantage if Shi Jin or her companions are fighting it. On a failure, it is charmed for up to 8 hours and regards Shi Jin as a friendly acquaintance.
Augury (level 2, divination). Shi Jin makes a quick, intuitive leap about a person, object, or place she can see within range. She receives a truthful short impression about a specific course of action that might occur within 30 minutes, as determined by the DM.
Darkness (level 2, evocation). Shi Jin creates a 20-foot-radius sphere of magical darkness within range. Darkvision cannot see through it. If the point chosen is on an object she holds or one that is not being worn or carried, the darkness moves with that object.
Hallucinatory Terrain (level 4, illusion). Shi Jin creates an illusory terrain over natural terrain in a 150-foot cube. The illusion includes sound, smell, and other sensory effects and lasts for 24 hours. Physical interaction reveals the illusion; a creature can use an action to examine it and make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against her spell save DC.
Dominate Person (level 4, enchantment). Shi Jin attempts to charm a humanoid she can see within range. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw, with advantage if Shi Jin or her companions are fighting it. On a failure, it is charmed for up to 24 hours. It regards Shi Jin as a trusted friend and may defend her, but will not obey obviously harmful commands.
Phantasmal Killer (level 4, illusion). Shi Jin creates a phantasmal killer visible only to one creature she can see within range. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it is frightened and takes psychic damage at the end of each of its turns while the effect persists, repeating the save at the end of each turn.
Bigby's Hand (level 5, evocation). Shi Jin creates a visible spectral hand in an unoccupied space within range. As an action, she can move it up to 60 feet and use it to manipulate objects or make a spell attack against a creature within 5 feet of it, dealing force damage on a hit.
Suggestion (level 2, enchantment). Shi Jin plants a suggestion in the mind of a creature that can hear and understand her. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it pursues a course of action she describes for up to 8 hours, provided it does not appear obviously harmful to it.

Actions

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 () piercing damage. Shi Jin rarely draws the blade unless cornered.
Dissonant Whistle (custom). Ranged Spell Attack: to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 13 () psychic damage. On a hit, the target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
Distorted Symphony (custom). Shi Jin plays Elion and targets up to three creatures of her choice within 60 feet that can hear her. Each must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, until the end of Shi Jin's next turn, the creature's sense of direction and distance is scrambled: a visible path may seem to lead elsewhere, sounds seem to come from misleading directions, and near or distant features may appear wrongly placed. The effect does not change the target's location, block movement, or make an actual route impassable. A creature can use its action to make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against , ending the effect on itself on a success. This custom feature can be used twice per long rest.
Spellcasting. Shi Jin casts a spell using Charisma (spell save , to hit with spell attacks). She has 14 spell slots: four 1st-level, three 2nd-level, three 3rd-level, three 4th-level, and one 5th-level. She regains all expended slots on a long rest.

Reactions

Cutting Words. When a creature Shi Jin can hear within 60 feet makes an attack roll, ability check, or damage roll, she expends one Bardic Inspiration die and subtracts the result from that roll. She can use this after the roll is made but before its effects are resolved.

Services they sell

Creates detailed maps and visual studies of difficult or misleading locations.
Performs at gatherings, memorials, and private salons.
Can help a group identify sensory tricks, false approaches, and misleading sound cues.
Offers discreet consultation on how a crowd might perceive a space during an evacuation.

Rewards they can give

A carefully annotated route through a district whose apparent layout is unreliable.
A custom sound-map of a location, with notes on echo, sightlines, and likely hidden passages.
If the party earns her trust, Shi Jin can teach them how to recognize the sensory tells of her Distorted Symphony.

Equipment

  • Elion, The Last Echo (instrument)A well-maintained flute of dark, plain wood. It is an instrument and personal keepsake, not a magical item.
  • Shortsword (weapon)A compact blade worn discreetly at her belt.
  • Leather armor (armor)A light protective vest concealed beneath her outer gown.
  • Artist's portfolio (art supplies)A weatherproof portfolio containing charcoal, brushes, paper, and several unfinished spatial studies.
  • Working map (tool)A folded map marked with sound symbols and corrections in three different inks.

Possessions

Elion, The Last Echo
A portfolio of drawings and charcoal studies
A folded map covered in sound marks
A silver clasp inherited from her mother
A concealed leather armor vest
A small pouch of chalk and colored thread for marking routes

Background

Shi Jin grew up between her human father's map shop and her elven mother's work restoring painted screens. She learned to draw streets before she learned to read them, and her mother taught her that a room could be understood by its echoes as much as by its walls. At seventeen, she performed at a crowded winter market when a fire broke out in a narrow hall. In panic, she played a phrase that made the exits seem to shift. Her father found the real way out by following her flute's low note, but several others ran toward false doors and were injured. The event changed her music from a private art into a responsibility she could not put down. She now works as an itinerant artist and performer, making maps and sound pieces for the Beholders of the Ashes. Her mother, Sella, wants her home; her former teacher, Dae, believes her gift should be studied and controlled; and a survivor of the market fire, Min, has never forgiven her. Shi Jin is currently trying to locate a missing set of old city plans that may reveal which streets were deliberately altered before the fire.

Role in the story

A perceptive ally and artist whose ability can make a battlefield feel like a room with the wrong rhythm. Shi Jin can help the party navigate deceptive places, uncover altered records, or challenge their assumptions about what they see. Her past links her to a civic disaster that may have been deliberately engineered.

“At seventeen, she performed at a crowded winter market when a fire broke out in a narrow hall.”
From their background
Faction
Member and field artist of the Beholders of the Ashes, a group that preserves accounts of places and events others would rather erase.

Known connections

Sella, her elven mother, restores painted screens in the riverside district and sends Shi Jin unfinished panels with notes in the margins.
Dae, her former music tutor, taught her to listen for a room's returning echoes and now argues that her gift is too dangerous to practice without supervision.
Min, a market porter injured during the winter fire, knows Shi Jin's role in the confusion and refuses to accept her apologies.
The Beholders of the Ashes employ her to record places whose histories have been erased or deliberately misremembered.
Major secret · GM only
Minor secrets · GM only

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn Shi Jin into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.