Magnus Burnsides

"I'll be having my body back, you undead fuck."

Magnus Hyphen Terry "The Hammer" Burnsides is a player character in The Balance Arc campaign controlled by Travis McElroy. He is a human fighter who was trained in rogue skills by Carey Fangbattle during the third Lunar Interlude. He has a lawful good alignment with a history of carpentry. He once made a pretty awesome chair, impressing the entire town and becoming a folk hero. Helping with this are his roots as "common folk" and his rustic charm. Magnus is a "man of action" who believes that "thinking is for other people."

Early Life
Magnus's introduction to being a 'protector' was defending a mongrel dog from three bullies and being beaten up to protect the dog, allowing it to escape. This solidified his need to defend those that are weaker than him.

The Eleventh Hour
When going through his past memories with June, he encounters a long stretch of static in his memories. This is the time period of Magnus being part of the Red Robes.

Raven's Roost
Five years before his adventure with Merle and Taako began, Magnus leads a revolt against Mad Governor Kalen. When the city of Raven's Roost had been founded, people stood behind Kalen, but Kalen saw his power as endless and had become corrupt. In retaliation, Magnus gathered people together and defeated Kalen and his soldiers in battle. Unfortunately, Kalen managed to escape and was subsequently forgotten about in the months to pass.

After the rebellion, Magnus worked in Hammer and Tongs, the pride of the Craftsman Corridor in Raven's Roost. His mentor and blacksmith/general craftsman, Steven Waxmen, had taken Magnus in after a promising apprenticeship. Magnus worked on a black oak rocking chair with a lavender polish imbued into it, that he would submit to the Continental Craftsmen Showcase that took place in Neverwinter, a ten days drive from Raven's Roost. Julia, Steven's daughter, and Magnus's new bride entered the shop, talked as they usually did, and brought Magnus out to the cart that she had prepared for him. Magnus left with his rocking chair for the showcase, after shaking Steven's hand and kissing Julia and telling her he loved her.

Two days into his travel to Neverwinter, Kalen returned to Raven's Roost, with an "If I can't have this city, no one can" mentality, and bombed the support column for the Craftsmen Corridor. 76 people were killed, including Julia and Steven. Hammer and Tongs were destroyed, and in the time it took Magnus to return to Raven's Roost, the town had evacuated, due to fear of a repeat attack.

As a result of his past he has no fear of death and looks forward to meeting Julia again in the afterlife.

Here There Be Gerblins
After Taako is knocked out by Magic Brian during a magical wizard duel in Wave Echo Cave, Magnus saves Taako's life with a healing potion, and in the process unknowingly imparts upon Taako the knowledge of the word "cheese."

Epilogue
After defeating The Hunger, Magnus moves back to the remains of Raven's Roost and starts a school/company known as Hammer and Tails, where he trains people to protect others and does dog training (specializing in service dogs and Scottish deerhounds). He adopts a Scottish deerhound which he names Johann.

Magnus eventually dies peacefully of old age, surrounded by his friends from the IPRE, Carey, Killian, and Angus while holding his wife's wedding ring. He is guided to the Astral Plane by Kravitz where he meets Julia again; they stay together on an island in a cottage that she built for them.

Powers and Abilities

 * Rustic Hospitality: Magnus is beloved by the common people, who will shield him from his enemies and give him food and shelter when needed.
 * Master Carpenter: His test to become a Master Carpenter involved building a really good chair, which he named SitBoy 1 (unless his numbering system began prior to becoming a Master Carpenter).

Fighter

 * Fighting Style
 * Protection Fighter: While wielding a shield, Magnus can impose disadvantage on attack rolls against characters within 5 feet.
 * Second Wind: Magnus has a limited well of stamina that he can draw on to protect himself from harm. On Magnus' turn, he can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + his fighter level. Once he uses this feature, Magnus must finish a short or long rest before he can use it again.
 * Action Surge: Magnus can push himself beyond his normal limits for a moment. On Magnus' turn, he can take one additional action on top of his regular action and a possible bonus action.
 * Martial Archetype: Battle Master
 * Maneuvers
 * Commander's Strike - When Magnus takes the Attack action on his turn, he can forgo one of his attacks and use a bonus action to direct one of his companions to strike.
 * Disarming Attack - When Magnus hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend one superiority die to attempt to disarm the target, forcing it to drop one item of his choice that it’s holding.
 * Goading Attack - When Magnus hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend one superiority die to attempt to goad the target into attacking him.
 * Parry - When another creature damages Magnus with a melee attack, he can use his reaction and expend one superiority die to reduce the damage by the number he rolls on his superiority die + his Dexterity modifier.
 * Riposte - When a creature misses Magnus with a melee attack, he can use his reaction and expend one superiority die to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.
 * Precision Strike - When Magnus makes a weapon attack roll against a creature, he can expend one superiority die to add it to the roll.
 * Know Your Enemy: If Magnus spends at least one minute observing or interacting with a creature outside combat, he can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to his own.
 * Extra Attack: Magnus can attack three times instead of once, whenever he takes the Attack action on his turn.
 * Indomitable: Magnus can reroll a saving throw that he fails. If he does so, he must use the new roll, and he can't use this feature again until he finishes a long rest.


 * Expertise: Magnus chooses two of their skill proficiencies or one of his skill proficiencies and his proficiency with thieves’ tools. Magnus' proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check he makes that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.
 * Stealth Attack: When attacking with advantage while using a finesse weapon or a ranged weapon, Magnus adds 1d6 damage on the attack.
 * Thieves' Cant: During Magnus' rogue training, he learned thieves’ cant, a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows him to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. Only another creature that knows thieves cant understands such messages.
 * Cunning Action: Once per turn, Magnus can take a bonus action and either dash, disengage or hide.

Feats

 * Dual Wielder: Magnus mastered fighting with two weapons, gaining the following benefits:
 * He gains a +1 bonus to AC while he is wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand.
 * He can use two-weapon fighting even when the one-handed melee weapons he is wielding aren’t light.
 * He can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when he would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

Proficiencies

 * Vehicle Proficiency
 * Animal Proficiency
 * Lever Proficiency
 * Severing Arms Proficiency: Those poor robots.
 * Everything

Other

 * Ambidexterity

Items
Items both currently owned and lost by Magnus throughout the show.

Current Items
These are items currently within Magnus's possession as of the most recent episode.

Former Items
These are items which were lost or given away.

(Magnus takes care of his things.)

Official Outfits
Usually, Magnus is dressed as a typical human fighter.

Known Physical Traits
Disclaimer: The McElroys do not consider their versions of their characters any more "canon" than anyone else's - there is no obligation to stick to these in fanart, so please do not be rude to people for ignoring these traits.

Unconscious Count
Magnus has only been knocked unconscious 2 times.
 * 1) Knocked unconscious after jumping off a moving train in episode 16. (Yet still managed to have normal conversations with other characters afterwards, even before being healed; most likely just because Travis wasn't paying attention.)
 * 2) Knocked unconscious by Final John in Ep. 69, before being revived by Pan.

Death Count
Magnus has died a total of 33 times.
 * 1) While traveling through other planes as a Red Robe, Magnus died 19 times without crossing over to the Astral Plane. Here are some known ways he has died:
 * 2) Killed on The Animal Kingdom by The Hunger.
 * 3) Killed on The Mushroom Kingdom by deadly spores.
 * 4) Killed by the Justices in the 65th cycle.
 * 5) Magnus died a total of 11 times during the events of The Eleventh Hour.
 * 6) Magnus temporarily had his soul knocked out of his body by the Animus Bell during the events of The Suffering Game. He got better.
 * 7) Magnus was killed in his Mannequin body by The Hunger in Ep. 59. He got better from that too.
 * 8) Some time after defeating The Hunger, he dies of old age. This time it sticks.

Trivia

 * The posters Magnus hangs in his room in the Bureau of Balance are "a Jess the Beheader poster and a tour poster for Fantasy Dave Matthews Band."
 * During the Live in Austin show, Travis made it clear that Magnus is a big Barenaked Ladies fan.
 * Magnus carries with him a knife once owned by his grandfather that he uses to carve a duck in Episode 64 and to blind a rhinoceros in Episode 67. He also gave it to Angus McDonald during the battle with The Hunger. Episode 68.
 * Magnus is an only child. He is glad to have found Merle and Taako, and considers Angus to be a little brother.
 * Magnus does not have anxiety.
 * Magnus is afraid of spiders, has "no" weaknesses (except to said spiders), and is allergic to sulfa-based medications.
 * Magnus is completely uninterested in romance after the death of his wife.
 * Magnus' favorite candy is Turkish Delights.
 * Magnus has 8 homemade "Big Dog" tee shirts.
 * Magnus is a mead guy.
 * Magnus was approx. 20 years old when the IPRE began their mission.
 * Magnus was approx. 20 years old when he saw his homeworld consumed by the hunger.
 * Beauty and the Beast is the Disney movie that made Magnus cry the most. Fantasy Seinfeld is his favorite sitcom. He would love everything HGTV, including Property Brothers. He would probably be a big Green Lantern fan. His favorite podcast would be Can I Pet Your Dog.
 * He would see getting bitten by a fantasy werewolf as a net positive. Magnus thinks the Gelatinous Cube is cute and "so squishy."
 * Magnus would take a fantasy bullet for Taako or Merle "in a heartbeat."
 * Magnus is 1000% #TeamBigDog
 * Magnus can lift 3 other members of the Bureau of Balance on a good day. Despite this, he doesn't really train, he's a naturally burly boy. That said, if Magnus were in the Olympics, he'd be best at "shotput, javelin, [and] weightlifting."
 * Magnus names all the chairs he makes like so: "SitBoy 1, SitBoy 2, SitBoy 3," etc.
 * Magnus took a potion so he would never have to maintain his facial hair. It tasted like licorice.
 * Magnus gets jealous of Merle and Taako's magic "ALL THE TIME," but he's able to channel his anger into flexing, which calms him down. If he could steal a magical spell, it would probably be something that would let him fly.
 * Response to question "Magnus fuck, marry, kill between Taako, Merle, and Upsy?": "He'd Marry Taako and Merle. He'd kill Upsy. He wouldn't 'F' anyone. Not his style."
 * Magnus would never get rid of Rail Splitter.
 * Magnus doesn't have tattoos, just scars.
 * If Magnus had a theme song, it would be this.
 * Magnus does not comfortably give up merchandising.
 * According to himself, Magnus has a "beautiful, large-dicked body." On the contrary, Clint McElroy claimed that "it looks like I've [Magnus had] been swimming" while the Trés Horny Boys had their bodies switched. Travis stated that claims that Magnus has a small penis are "uncanonical."
 * In a Periscope livestream on 2/11/17, Travis stated that Magnus has taken baking lessons from Taako.
 * Magnus has phantasthma, or "fantasy asthma".
 * Magnus coaches the Tesseralia Losers, a pee-wee league for a sport called rebound (a sport that is a combination of football and basketball). He gets the Losers to state, changes their name to the Tesseralia Winners, and crushes their opponents the Magic Town Bullies in the big game (Ep. 63).

- Ep. 20, after some vines allegedly ate Magnus's penis off
 * Magnus is the first of the IPRE to die in the past and in the last cycle. (Ep. 69).
 * He appears as a guest star in Dice, Camera, Action
 * In Campaign 5: Graduation, the character Rainer states that a master carpenter built her chair. Travis headcanons that this master carpenter was Magnus, though he stresses that this is non-canonical, and just an Easter Egg he included for himself.
 * He is Aubrey Little's favorite podcast character, and she dresses as him for Halloween in The Adventure Zone: Amnesty Halloween Special!