Jossi the Juggler, juggling

The Lore

Jossi gets a mention in the description of the city of Tyr in the Campaign Setting book, and a full writeup here. She’s a member of Tyr’s Eyes, which was originally a group of beggars, street performers and thieves who banded together for mutual support. Nowadays they also act as a kind of freelance spy agency, keeping an eye on what goes on in the city both to improve their own chances of survival and to sell the juiciest gossip to whoever has the money to pay for it.

Jossi is known as a street performer, doing a pretty impressive routine on the markets of Tyr. She supplements her income with theft and information broketing. I think both books’ emphasis on her might mean they intend Jossi to be the PC’s first point of contact with Tyr’s Eyes during your typical campaign.

The Numbers

Jossi is an elf, though her speed is only 6 and they forgot to add her low-light vision. After so many sorcerer-kings, it’s interesting to find a plain old Level 4 Skirmisher with 55 HP in the Personages of Athas section.

She fights with the same Daggers she uses in her juggling act, and her Juggling Slash technique lets her target Reflex instead of AC, deal the same damage as a basic attack, slide the target 2 squares, and shift 2 squares. This is at-will, making her very annoying to fight. On any turn where Jossi shifts as a move action, she also gains a bit of bonus damage courtesy of her Fancy Footwork.

As soon as she realizes the odds are against her, Jossi will try to escape. Distracting Toss helps with this: when someone makes a melee attack against her, the can shift her speed as a reaction to reach any square on the map that has any amount of cover or concealment, and then make a Stealth test with a +5 bonus (total +16) to become hidden.

Encounters and Final Impressions

Mildly interesting, I guess. Jossi is clearly more on the “possible ally” than on the “enemy” side of the balance, so unless the PCs go out of their way to be assholes or to antagonize Tyr’s Eyes, they won’t be fighting her. If that ends up happening, though, Jossi will not be alone. You should assemble a team of the many “low-Heroic street scum” stat blocks available here and in other books to act as the fellow Eyes members who come to her aid.

It could be interesting to have Jossi as an active ally in one or more fights, using these stats. Juggling Slash has hilarious synergy with what PC rogues can do, and Distracting Toss is a good way to quickly leave the fight in case her HP starts to run low.