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tigerkirby215 · 3 years

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5e Vex, the Gloomiest build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Horace “Hozure” Hsu. Made for Riot Games.)

Writing this build in a dark room late at night, super tired and stuff... Stuck inside cause of this dumb virus... AFKing in TFT for a Prestige skin like a tryhard... It’s kinda aesthetic, ya know?

GOALS

Another person to kill... Shadow? Can you handle it? - You don’t need best friends: you’ve got your Shadow. He’s the only cool one, because he’s basically you.

Ugh. Can we get some rain clouds in here? - No one likes a debbie downer, but everyone loves a good scare!

Man, walking suuuucks - Nowadays even the anti-dash champion needs a resetting dash. “Do the thing, Shadow.”

RACE

I could make Vex a Harengon to justify her rabbit ears, but she doesn’t really do much “jumping.” That, and I didn’t buy Wild Beyond the Witchlight. So Halfling still works good enough for a yordle. Your Dexterity increases by 2, and while your movement speed goes down to 25 you have Halfling Nimbleness to move through people who are bigger than you. You’re also “Brave” for advantage against fears (when you hang around the Shadow Isles stuff really isn’t that scary) and of course have good ol’ yordle Lucky to reroll Nat 1s.

Halflings are normally pretty cheerful but Ghostwise Halflings are perfectly dark. You’d normally increase your Wisdom by 1 but I’d recommend increasing your Constitution instead. But I mean, it’s not a big deal if you take Wisdom instead. It is only +1. You also get Silent Speech to keep to team chat with 30 foot telepathy. I mean, they have to understand your languages but at least you don’t have to tell everyone what you’re talking about. And oh yeah you obviously speak Common and Halfling.

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - Turns out when you don’t release any new yordles for (wait it’s been 5 years since Kled was released? Holy shit) people end up wanting them.

14; DEXTERITY - Just because you don’t like walking doesn’t mean you’re slow.

13; CONSTITUTION - Imagine dying like a normie.

12; WISDOM - Vex isn’t sad because she’s pessimistic. She’s just realistic.

10; INTELLIGENCE - You’re too cool for school. (And I needed everything else more.)

8; STRENGTH - Ughhh I don’t wanna lift heavy stuff! I’m tired...

BACKGROUND

I guess you’re technically a Haunted One, even if the black mist is the best thing that ever happened to you. You get proficiency in Arcana and Survival as well as two language of your choice to talk to your "allies.” (I guess one of them has to be exotic or whatever.) (I’d personally pick Sylvan as the language of yordles and whatever language the majority of your party knows as your second choice, but that’s just me.)

The thing that sucks about having a Heart of Darkness is that everyone keeps trying to help you, thinking that your sadness (and the living shadow on your back) is something to be fixed. I mean, at least you can get the NPC normies to help you, as long as you don’t spook ‘em. “No doctors! I told you: being sad makes me happy.”

(Artwork by @ToggleD0wnFall on Twitter.)

THE BUILD

or whatever...

LEVEL 1 - SORCERER 1

Starting as a Sorcerer for saving throws and stuff. Also proficiency in Intimidation and... Persuasion, I guess? Look, persuading people that you’re fine “no really” is a skill too.

I wonder what Sorcerous Origin we’ll pick... If only there was one based entirely on shadows and darkness... Oh hey Shadow Magic. As a Shadow Sorcerer you get Eyes of the Dark for 120 feet of Darkvision to see with your dumb Halfling eyes, and Strength of the Grave which will let Shadow take a hit for you. (As long as you make a good Charisma save.)

But of course the main appeal of a Sorcerer is the Spellcasting. You can learn 4 cantrips from the Sorcerer list and two level spells: For cantrips Mage Hand will let Shadow pick things up for you, Mind Sliver and Sword Burst will keep loud people off you both up close and from afar, and Prestidigitation will let you do all sorts of normie yordle magic. As for leveled spells Shield and Mage Armor are both kinda mandatory for some Personal Space.

LEVEL 2 - WARLOCK 1

What? Did you really think we wouldn’t get at least some support from adults? Work for that cool gloomy dude Viego and make a pack with The Undead. That’s because Undead are super dark and morbid and have a Form of Dread: as a bonus action you can turn on your Doom and Gloom for 1 minute. You get some temporary hit points, fear people when you hit them, and are immune to fears yourself. You can transform a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

You also get Pact Magic, which is different from normie Spellcasting because you get the cool stuff done with just a Short Rest. Anyways you can learn two cantrips from the Warlock list like Minor Illusion to have Shadow trick some normies and Eldritch Blast to Eldritch while you Blast. You can also grab some first level Warlock spells like Hex to mark people you don’t like, and Arms of Hadar if you really need your Personal Space.

LEVEL 3 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get their Eldritch Invocations for extra stuff that you don’t have to put effort into. While Armor of Shadows does exist it’s honestly better for you to cast Mage Armor with a spell slot, so with that being said take Agonizing Blast to agonize while you blast and Eldritch Mind so you can keep your concentration around annoying people.

You can also learn another spell like Hellish Rebuke, because people just keep barging into your Personal Space!

LEVEL 4 - SORCERER 2

Now that you can agonize your blasts it’s time to go back to Sorcerer. Second level Sorcerers get a Font of Magic for Sorcery Points which currently don’t do much other than give you more spell slots. You can turn your Warlock slots into Sorcery points though, which is good because they come back on a Short Rest but the rest of your magic does not.

You can also cast another spell like Earth Tremor, to slow people down with Looming Darkness and sunder the land with your edginess.

LEVEL 5 - SORCERER 3

Third level Sorcerers finally get Metamagic! Empowered Spell will allow you to maximize your damage and retain your role as an artillery mage. Alternatively if you want to guarantee fears in your foes take Heightened Spell to give them disadvantage to resist Shadow’s influence.

If you want Shadow to stick around then Dust Devil will swirl around for quite awhile. Alternatively Shadow (Magic) also teaches you Darkness for free, and you can cast it with 2 Sorcery Points to see through it! Your friends can’t see through it, but you can team up with Shadow for some powerful combos when you can see them but they can’t see you!

(Artwork by @jpdiasarts on Twitter.)

LEVEL 6 - SORCERER 4

4th level Sorcerers get the first of many Ability Score Improvements, but I can’t take Fey Touched every time for Flash. That, and we won’t give into basic yordle society. So let’s get value out of our Halfling race with the Second Chance feat. Along with +1 to your Charisma you can also use your reaction to make an enemy you can see attacking you reroll their attack roll, potentially making them miss.

Don’t use this against an attack that you can Shield against, but if someone gets a really good roll you can use this to get your Personal Space back! You can only use this once per combat though (it comes back when you roll for initiative!) so make sure to use it when it matters to keep your spell slots in check.

Oh and you can also learn another spell, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Shocking Grasp will help you push people away if they get too close (folk tend to react poorly when zapped by a tazer!) As for leveled spells Web will keep foes from dashing around, and is also pretty flammable. Huhn; wonder if that’ll be useful.

LEVEL 7 - SORCERER 5

5th level Sorcerers get gifts from the Ruined Queen Tasha in the form of Magical Guidance. You can use a Sorcery point to reroll a d20 if needed, potentially squeezing a success out. Don’t use this all the time (even if Warlock slots means you’ll have plenty of Sorcery points to spare) but this can be very useful in an emergency!

You can also learn third level spells and hey: Fireball may be a normie spell, but it’s still pretty effective. It’s maybe a bit too flashy to be Looming Darkness but it’s a good source of AoE damage which isn’t as loud and annoying as Shatter.

LEVEL 8 - SORCERER 6

All this time being a Shadow Sorcerer and Shadow hasn’t even done anything for us! Well how about you go out there and get some work done, Shadow? For 3 Sorcery points you can summon a Hound of Ill Omen to target a foe within 120 feet of you.

Shadow is basically a Dire Wolf except he’s Medium, has temp HP equal to half your Sorcerer level, can move through stuff (but takes damage if he ends his turn in stuff), and automatically chases whoever you told him to go for. Shadow will appear 30 feet away from the person you told him to get, and will chase after him like I said. All he’ll really do is attack the target you told him to though; he won’t even opportunity attack unless it’s the person you told him to chase. But if Shadow’s near someone they have disadvantage on their saving throws, which is pretty cool. (Unfortunately it’s only against spells, not your Form of Dread.)

Speaking of saving throws: Slow is a really great way to keep normies from running around doing annoying stuff. And you don’t have to hit Shadow with it which is pretty cool.

(Artwork by @Lauriquess on Twitter.)

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 3

Third level Warlocks get to choose their Pact Boon: if you want a really small Shadow go for Pact of the Chain, and if you want your cool necklace go for Pact of the Talisman, but we’ll be going for Pact of the Tome because you’re mostly a spellcaster really. (And we definitely don’t have enough cantrips.)

You get a Book of Shadows (See? Books can be cool!) with three cantrips: take Thaumaturgy to be extra spooky, Vicious Mockery for some sick teenage burns, and Sapping Sting to make normies fall over when you fear them. Some might say that 10 total cantrips by level 9 is a bit overkill but look on the dark side: you’ve now got a cantrip for basically every type of saving throw in case you can’t hit with Eldritch Blast!

Honestly none of the Pact Boons are particularly important for Vex so I picked the one that made the most sense. Feel free to take something more practical since 10 cantrips is admittedly overkill.

Oh and you can learn more Warlock spells, so now it’s time to finally take Misty Step. For Flash!

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement: getting more Charisma for better spellcasting is probably a good idea.

You can also learn another spell, and hey look another cantrip. For your cantrip even if more damage options are kinda overkill by this point Chill Touch inflicts Grievous Wounds, which might be useful. You can also grab another second level spell and Blindness / Deafness (which is on the Undead list) is far more useful than any of the other normie options you’d have at this level anyways.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation, and even if you’ve got a resetting dash you’re still a squishy mage. So grab Tomb of Levistus for Zhonya's Hourglass.

You can also grab third level Warlock spells now! Remember how I took Fireball and complained that it wasn’t a good replica of Looming Darkness? Well Hunger of Hadar takes your Concentration but it’s a lot edgier!

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 6

6th level Undead Warlocks have become Grave Touched by the mist, and can make mist of their own! Along with being able survive without eating, drinking, or breathing you can turn any of your damage into necrotic damage. If you’re in your Form of Dread however you can add one extra damage die to whatever you’re using to get people to buzz off, adding to that morbid and macabre aesthetic.

You can also add another spell and if you’re bored with Shadow being a wolf how about you make them a Summon Shadowspawn? Weaponize your Fury, Despair, or Fear (I’d honestly recommend Fury since it has good synergy with your Dreadful Aspect) and work together with Shadow to deal with all your annoying foes! I’d also suggest replacing Hellish Rebuke with Counterspell, because even if the former fits better the latter is way more useful.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuestling. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks can finally activate Shadow Surge. Relentless Hex lets you mark a foe with Hex and then dash to them. And technically you can move Hex around after the fact to reset your dashes! And while you’re at it you may as well grab Dimension Door for Summoner Teleport.

You could also upgrade Summon Shadowspawn to Summon Aberration if you so desire, but Summon Shadowspawn is more than strong enough and far more fun and thematic.

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 8

Another Ability Score Improvement. Yay. Cap off your Charisma for the best spellcasting you can get out of Shadow. You can also learn another spell, but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 9

9th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation: even if it’s kinda ineffective Ascendant Step is still pretty useful to have Shadow carry you around. I mean yeah it’s slow but not that much slower than walking for you, and Shadow can lift you up in the air. “Shadow; carry me...”

You can also learn 5th level spells. If one guy’s being particularly annoying Negative Energy Flood can get them to shut up and work for you. Alternatively if you want more Personal Space Antilife Shell is on the Undead List and will make sure normies keep faaaaar away.

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 10

Are you ever so sick of everything that you just want to explode? Necrotic Husk has two benefits: for one you’re resistant to Necrotic damage, and immune while in your Form of Dread because being around Viego for so long means you’re used to his work.

But additionally when you are reduced to 0 hit points you can use your reaction to drop to 1 hit point instead and cause your body to explode! Each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you takes 2d10 + your warlock level in Necrotic damage. You do gain 1 level of exhaustion after using this, and after using it once you can’t do so again until you finish 1d4 long rests. So I’d perhaps use Strength of the Grave first unless you really need to lash out.

I hope you weren’t expecting more spells because you aren’t getting them from Warlock: just a cantrip. By this point we’ve honestly got far too many cantrips so I dunno maybe just grab Prestidigitation again and swap it out from Sorcerer when you get the chance.

(Artwork by @DukkoArt on Twitter.)

LEVEL 17 - SORCERER 7

Finally back to our yordle roots: 7th level Sorcerers get 4th level spells like Storm Sphere for a sphere of darkness and angst. But I mean the real benefit is that you get more Sorcery points let’s be real.

Oh and you can swap out Prestidigitation for Gust I guess. Spooky winds and stuff. Either this level or next level depending on your DM.

LEVEL 18 - SORCERER 8

Your last Ability Score Improvement... You’re gonna have to ask: what’s more important to me? More Metamagic, or more Eldritch Invocations? If Metamagic is to your liking take Metamagic Adept for Careful Spell and Distant Spell along with two more Sorcery points to use on them. If you like Eldritch Invocations though Eldritch Adept has a ton of options as a level 10 Warlock. I won’t tell you what invocation to take (they’re all great boosts but none of them shout out at me as something you should prioritize) as there are plenty of options to make your own Vex now that they’re all grown up.

I can at least tell you what spell to take: none of them! Wait until next level!

Oh and you can swap out Prestidigitation for Gust I guess.

LEVEL 19 - SORCERER 9

9th level Sorcerers can learn 5th level spells which means you’ve finally caught up to your Warlock slots. And look at that: the good wish Tasha gave you one last way to weaponize Shadow. Bigby’s Hand does a bunch of cool stuff and is pretty much the ultimate way to make Shadow crush some normies. (Most literally.) Alternatively if you want to borrow from Viego Enervation will let you heal from the mist and also do some damage. Great if you’re stuck in a corner with a bunch of annoying normies.

LEVEL 20 - SORCERER 10

Our final level is the 10th level of Sorcerer for one last spell, one last cantrip, and one last metamagic option! For your metamagic it’s honestly about time you take Quickened Spell to up your DPS. For your cantrip take Mold Earth to dig holes in the sand and brood. And as for your leveled spell? Honestly I just like Synaptic Static, and there isn’t much else I want anyways.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

We’re all doomed. But you’re more doomed - 5th level spells pack more than enough punch, and you’ve got plenty of them. Warlock slots will always be at your fingertips, and Sorcery points give you plenty of flexibility too!

I can feel it: someone’s happy over there! - Along with giving you a temporary hitpoint shield Form of Dread puts a nice bit of CC on all your abilities. Keep enemies scared and sad with tons of Doom and Gloom!

Ugh. Stop copying me Shadow! - Hounds of Ill Omen are cool. Summon Shadowspawn is also cool. Bigby’s Hand is especially cool. And hey: even your lower level Concentration spells like Hex? They’re pretty cool too.

CONS

Ughhhhhhhhhh this is gonna take foreeeever! - You’ve got limited fumes, even for a coffeelock. Form of Dread has limited uses and there’s only so much spell slot melting you can do to get your magic back.

I’m dancing... Happy? - You’ve got a really boring set of really normie skills... and if you’re playing Vex the way she’s meant to be played you’re probably not going to use any of them except for Intimidation.

Yup; the glass is half empty - Half your levels are Sorcerer levels, meaning you’re squishy. You’ve also got Mage Armor on which guess what: also means you’re squishy. People who hit teenagers sure are lame but it’s really not hard to Power Word Kill you.

But I guess you’re pretty cool overall. Shadow’s an alright partner and you can spread Ruination even without Viego. Trudge around and get people to frown for once. There’s nothing wrong with being sad, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting the world to be sad. But do try to at least be happy out of character, because we play games to have fun. I mean, who’d play a video game that just makes you depressed and angry?

(Artwork by @AzzylumArt on Twitter.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Vex #vex league of legends #Vex #yordle #shadow isles #dnd warlock #dnd sorcerer #shadow #meh #whatever #I dunno what to tag this

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #66: Anne Bonny & Mary Read

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the legendary pirate duo, Bonny and Read! (Bonny’s the tall one.) You might think making two characters fit on one sheet would be difficult. One might even call it... a wilde proposition.

Check out the breakdown below the cut, or the build sheet over here!

Race and Background

Despite her height, Mary Read is a Human, and we’re going straight to the point with the variant rules. This gives you two points to put into stats of your choice- put it all on Dexterity. You also get an extra skill proficiency -Deception will help you talk your way into more treasure- and a feat. The Sharpshooter feat lets you ignore all but full cover on ranged attacks, and you can attack at long distance without disadvantage. The big draw is that you can subtract 5 from your attack roll to add 10 to the damage. Your rifle is bigger than you are, so it’s gotta pack a punch.

The two of you are, of course, Pirates, giving you proficiency with Athletics, Perception, Navigator’s Tools, and Water Vehicles. You’re not able to control the weather like Drake, but you’re no slouch at the wheel.

Stats

Dexterity is your highest score-your damage comes from there, your AC comes from there, your multiclassing minimum is there, it’s a good ability. Your Constitution is next-you don’t get seasick easily. Third is Charisma-you’re not that big, but everyone’s scary when they’re pointing a sword at your throat and a gun at your head. Your Wisdom isn’t bad-you need to be able to see the land before you run into it. We don’t need Intelligence and we really don’t need Strength, so they’re lowest.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: We’re starting with fighter instead of rogue to grab our best weapons and to get Bonny into the build as fast as possible. At first level, you get proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as two fighter skills. You’re a part of History, and you don’t play nice, so pick up Intimidation as well.

First level fighters get a Fighting Style, we spent our starting feat on Bonny, so now it’s Read’s turn. Grab Dueling to add 2 to all one-handed weapon damage rolls when you’re only wielding that weapon. You can also use your bonus action on a Second Wind, healing 1d10+your fighter level. You’re covered, so don’t worry about taking a break.

Mary’s got a Scimitar, while Anne is wielding at Heavy Crossbow. Feel free to use either one for now, your friend’s not showing up for a couple levels.

2. Fighter 2: At second level you get an Action Surge, giving you an extra action once per short rest. You’re two people, you should have two actions.

3. Fighter 3: For your subclass, we’re going with Wildemount’s premier fighter class, Echo Knight. As an echo knight, you can Manifest Echo as a bonus action. Echoes are translucent copies of yourself, but feel free to make it a little taller. You can move the echo up to 30′ on your turn without using an action, but you have to end the turn with it within 30′ of you or it gets destroyed. When you attack, you can replace your attack with the echo’s, and you can make attacks of opportunity from the echo’s space with your reaction. Also, as a bonus action you can switch places with your echo for 15′ of movement.

Echo Knights can also Unleash Incarnation- when you take the attack action, your echo can make a free melee attack a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier per long rest. For this build, Mary Read is the character and Anne Bonny is the echo, but feel free to swap it up if you want to use this feature.

4. Fighter 4: Use your first ASI to become Resilient, rounding up your Dexterity and becoming proficient in dexterity saves.

5. Fighter 5: Now that you have an Extra Attack, the two of you can each attack once per turn without using your Action Surge. With the action surge, Read can attack three times, and Bonny once.

6. Rogue 1: We’re switching over to rogue now for some proper piracy. When you multiclass into rogue, you get proficiency in one rogue skill- Sleight of Hand is easy when you always have a partner to distract the mark.

First level rogues also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Perception and Sleight of Hand. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, after all. You also learn how to make a Sneak Attack, letting you add 1d6 to a damage roll if the attack is made with a finesse or ranged weapon (look at that, both of your weapons fit), and you have advantage or another friendly creature next to the target. I’m not sure if you being next to a creature would count for Bonny’s shot RAW, but I’d count it. As one last bonus, all rogues know Thieves’ Cant, a secret language of rogues.

7. Rogue 2: You can now use a Cunning Action, hiding, disengaging, or dashing with your bonus action. You’re wearing padded leather at best- don’t push your luck with big enemies.

8. Rogue 3: At third level, you become a Swashbuckler. Your Fancy Footwork lets you prevent attacks of opportunity from creatures you’ve attacked with a melee weapon. Your Rakish Audacity adds your charisma modifier to your initiative, and you can make sneak attacks against any creature if you’re fighting them one on one in melee range. If they’re within melee range you can also just shoot them, but the additional option is nice. Speaking of, your sneak attack increases to 2d6.

9. Rogue 4: Use this ASI to max out your Dexterity for the best aim, damage, and AC you can get.

10. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues get an Uncanny Dodge, reacting to halve an attack’s damage. Bonny only has 1 HP, but you’ve got more- protect it. Your sneak attack also become 3d6.

11. Rogue 6: Use your second round of Expertise to work with your Thieves’ Tools and Athletics for stronger sea legs.

12. Rogue 7: You and Bonny now have Evasion. When either of you make a dexterity save to half an effect’s damage, you take none of it on a success and half on a failure. Considering one of you has 1 HP, that’s a big relief.

13. Fighter 6: Use your next ASI to bump up your Wisdom for better spell saves.

14. Fighter 7: Seventh level echo knights can make Echo Avatars, spending an action to see and hear through your echo’s senses instead of your own. This lasts up to 10 minutes, and they can move up to 1,000′ away while this is active. You may act like you’re attached to the hip, but you’re technically two separate people.

15. Rogue 8: Use your next ASI to bump up your charisma for a bigger initiative boost and better panache next level.

16. Rogue 9: Ninth level swashbucklers get that Panache thing I was talking about last level, letting you spend a bonus action to make a contested persuasion check versus another creature’s insight check. If they fail and are hostile, they have disadvantage on attacking creatures that aren’t you, and can’t make attacks of opportunity against you. This lasts one minute, or until your duel is interrupted. If they’re not hostile, they’re charmed for up to a minute or until they’re harmed by your allies. Also, your sneak attack hits the highest it’s going to get at 5d6.

17. Fighter 8: Bump up your Constitution using your last ASI for a lot of health. Remember, constitution applies to health retroactively, so you’re getting an extra 17 HP here.

18. Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed save once per long rest. I’d save this for death saves, but Bonny’s dexterity saves are life or death for her, so just follow your gut.

19. Fighter 10: Tenth level echo knights can make a Shadow Martyr out of their echo. If Bonny is within 5′ of another creature getting attacked, you can use your reaction to direct the attack at her instead, once per short rest. Her AC is 20 at this point, so she’s probably a better tank than some of the squishier party members. Also it’s way cheaper to revive her.

20. Fighter 11: With our capstone level, you get another Extra Attack. Now you can attack three to six times per turn! Just remember Bonny’s gun still has the loading property, so you’ll have to do the heavy lifting here. Though if you really wanted that extra shot for whatever reason, you might be able to fire once, then make another Bonny to replace the old one and fire again with your new rifle.

Pros:

Being two people is really useful, especially if you use it to eke out sneak attacks you couldn’t get otherwise.

One of the echo knight’s biggest weaknesses is area of effect spells like fireball, since their echo is guaranteed to take damage. Mixing it up with a rogue’s Evasion negates that weakness, and make Bonny a much stronger echo.

Combining a Fighter’s HP with a Rogue’s damage avoidance means you’re pretty tough, with almost 200 HP, reactions to halve damage, and the ability to ignore some big spells, you can stay in the fight for a long time.

Cons:

The same can’t be said for Bonny, though. She still only has 1 HP, and eventually an attack is going to get through her AC. Fighters don’t use their Bonus Action that much, but rogues do, so rebuilding Bonny will slow you down a bit.

Also, that big bonus to Bonny’s toughness doesn’t come until level 12, or 10 if you really speed towards it. That’s at the upper end of what most games go to, so you won’t have long to enjoy it.

Ranged fighters don’t want to go into battle. Melee fighters do. You’re both. That means Bonny gets dragged along with you into the thick of things; not an ideal relationship.

Next up: Did somebody call for a white mage?

#D&D 5e #Fate Grand Order #fgo #Anne Bonny #Mary Read #Fate and Phantasms

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 4 years

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How To Get Into DnD in 10-ish Easy-ish Steps

Cates here. I just wanted to add my thoughts about joining or starting a DnD game for the first time, as someone who’s been there, done that, and still can’t calculate Rogue Sneak Attack damage to save her life. It can definitely be intimidating entering the world of DnD, but for me the best thing about DnD is running around with a group of people who would literally take a sword in the gut for you. Find a supportive and welcoming group (or start one!) and you’ll be fine.

(Note the “easy-ish” modifier in the title. If you’re a hardcore DnDer who thinks that 5e is a travesty and we all should have stuck to 3.5e, or if you’re the kind of person who gets annoyed about DnD suddenly being “mainstream” and “popular”…chances are some of what I’m about to say will make your eyeballs twitch.)

1. Use other media as a way into understanding DnD. My absolute number one recommendation would be to see or read the play She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. Not only is it a beautiful send-up to nerd culture in general and DnD in particular but because the main character is playing DnD for the first time, it actually provides a decent overview of the mechanics of the game. Another entry point is, of course, Stranger Things—the first season in particular establishes a pretty solid picture of what playing DnD is like.

2. From there, find a podcast, YouTube channel, or similar where a group plays DnD, and watch to get a sense of how things work. Film Reroll is fun but that’s GURPS, a different system than DnD. The Adventure Zone is another good one. By far the most popular is Critical Role. I personally don’t care for Critical Role (put away your torches and stink bombs, please,) but it seems to work for other people.

3. Purchase (or check out from your local library,) the DnD Player’s Guide, 5th Edition. (The most current edition.)

4. Now that you have a sense of how DnD works, find a game. Bug mentioned some good avenues, like comments sections on Podcasts. To that I’d add check out Reddit subs, Facebook groups, and your local game store if you’re lucky enough to have one. Most game stores have resources for finding parties or even host games at the stores themselves.

5. Another option: get together a group of friends, form a party, and stumble your way through one of the early level adventures. If no one wants to DM, do what my second party* does and rotate DMs. We each take turns running an adventure, and while each of us does so our character is off on another quest/on vacation/bringing goblin corpses back to life/etc. Ideally, you’ll have at least one person in the group who has some experience with DnD, but if you don’t…so what? The internet is an endless bounty of information. Some of it is even accurate!

*As opposed to the one I’m in with Bug where I’m the permanent DM.

6. Figure out what you want from a game of DnD. Are you there for the complicated character backstories? Does the complex system(s) of magic fascinate you? Do you want to be like Legolas from LotR, or like River from Firefly, or like the Incredible Hulk? This will help you get a sense of the kind of character you’d like to play. Some people will wildly disagree with me, but here’s my rough-and-tumble ten second mini guide to figuring out your class as a first time player.

Want to be the smooth talker, the one who gets info from the local bartender? Be a bard, or a rogue who leans into Charisma instead of Dexterity.

Want to be really useful/involved in combat situations? Be a barbarian.

Want to use magic? Be a cleric. Your team will thank you. If you want a more “hardcore” magic class, go with sorcerer over warlock or wizard.

Want to come up with unusual solutions to specific problems? Be a druid.

Want to be sneaky? Be a rogue or a ranger.

Want to be some combination of the above/figure it out as you go? Be a fighter. Fighters get overlooked as a class because they seem so generic, but that’s actually the advantage of playing one. It’s so broad you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, taking on just about any of the roles I listed above.

7. Keep in mind that to set your party up for success you’re going to want at least one of each of the following: a healer, a magic user, a ranged (long-distance) fighter, a tank, and a talker. Now, this doesn’t mean you need a party of five, because one character can take on multiple roles. For instance, in the game where I DM, mine and Bug’s brother plays a character who is the party’s main talker and their main magic user. We also have a healer who can be a tank when needed. Basically I just wouldn’t recommend that you have a party consisting of a wizard, a sorcerer, and a warlock, or a fighter, a barbarian, and a monk. Cover different areas of expertise and you’ll have a happy and harmonious party that actually stands a chance of surviving their first combat.

8. Resist the urge to use unusual races or classes for your first game. Trust me when I say that you’ll have so many other things you need to work out, sorting through a class or race that isn’t clearly outlined in 5e is a headache you don’t need. More to the point, it’s a headache that your DM doesn’t need. The amount of work that goes into figuring out how to give an unusual class or race a good combat experience (ie, one that doesn’t kill them and one where they don’t kill all the enemies with a snap of their fingers) is a ton of work…and that’s only one aspect. If you really want to be unique, look at the subclasses and subraces. There are some delightfully strange varieties in there.

9. Similarly, for the love of the Ellimist make sure everyone is clear on the goal of your standard game of DnD: you are a party of adventurers. For the game to work, you need to, for whatever reason, work together. Keeping a whole bunch of secrets from your party, excessively lying to your party, and going against the party’s goals are all ways to make the game waaaaaaayyyyyy less fun for everyone involved. This doesn’t mean that you have to be an open book, but keep in mind that is a COLLABORATIVE, not COMPETITIVE, game. Save the trickery and theft and all for the monsters your party will fight. For instance, in my first game I played a gnome who was disguising himself as a woman because he was on the run from a sorcerer who’d kept him enslaved. He lied about his gender and his name and was vague about his backstory, but he didn’t tell any lies that were aimed at getting a leg up on his party members. Eventually as they bonded he came to trust them and revealed his past, and the party helped him disguise himself as an elderly dwarf so they could take down the sorcerer (it made sense in context : ). Tl;dr: work with your party, not against them.

a. For all my “well, but in my party…” friends, if your game features a bunch of cutthroats all trying to assassinate each other, or if your character was secretly planning on murdering another player’s character for Reasons, that’s fine. All I’m saying is don’t do it in your first game, or you’ll never get off the ground.

10. Within reason, ignore the minutiae. Don’t worry too much about money, food, or how much weight you’re carrying. (At this point I’m assuming some of my hardcore DnDers’ eyes are popping out of their heads.) Again, note that I said within reason: this doesn’t mean that you can take whatever kind of weapon or armor that you want, and you shouldn’t have a never-ending supply of arrows, nor should you be able to purchase that super rare artifact. But if you focus too much on this stuff, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone (yourself included) invested in the game. If this sort of hyper realism appeals to you, add it in after a few sessions. But give yourself a break at the start and don’t roleplay every afternoon tea.

Remember, a good DnD game is a game that you enjoy playing. A good DnD party is one in which the characters AND the players respect each other. Don’t metaphorically or literally split the party, and you’ll be fine.

#dnd #asks #answers #there ain't no party like a dnd party #dungeons and dragons #d&d #rpg #tabletop games #dnd 5e #nothing to do with animorphs #text post #beta takes the box

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wearesorcerer · 4 years

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[5e] Metamagic

’Kay, I don’t think I’m going to restart my spell level series just yet. The more I look at the 5e Sorcerer, the more I think it’s turned into the red-headed stepchild of the classes, which makes me a sad panda.

And you thought I was just going to stick to the South Park reference. For shame!

The key to making Sorcerer work is to select the right Metamagics.¹ You don’t get this until third level, which IMHO is a bit silly for your signature, differentiating ability, but it’s probably that way because everyone would pick Twinned Spell (dungeon crawls) or Subtle Spell (any campaign, but especially intrigue). By third level, you’ll probably have found a niche in your casting:

Beguiler (favoring debuffs -- spells that target enemies with debilitating effects. Most debuffs on this list are crowd control effects [alter how the enemies move and behave], rather than ones that apply other types of disadvantages to them. I figured I’d invoke Beguiler-senpai because she needs some love [seriously, go follow @wearebeguiler], but I’d be remiss if I did not also invoke @we-are-illusionists [also -senpai])

Blaster (damage)

Environmentalist (;P more crowd control, but focuses on spells that don’t target creatures and instead alter terrain, visibility, and such)

Utilitarian (divinations, movement spells, etc. -- anything to overcome obstacles. Also includes the few buffs [support spells] on the list)

Jack-of-All-Trades (hybrid)

Each method is going to want different metamagics, so I’ll note which ones help which best. Bear in mind that you only get four metamagic options unless you take Metamagic Adept (Unearthed Arcana 2020: Feats; +2 metamagic options, +2 sorcery points), if you’re even allowed to. This will be a hard decision: all of the core metamagic options are fine, so you might find yourself stuck.

Careful: Cha mod creatures automatically succeed at their saving throws against your spells (1 SP). Although you might initially think “fling fireballs everywhere!”, most damaging AoEs still deal half damage on successful saves. This is more for crowd control effects or AoE debuffs. Beguiler, Environmentalist

Distant: Add 30 ft. to the range of touch spells or double range of ranged spells (1 SP). Anyone would like this. However, whether you should take it depends on which spells you take and the sort of campaign you’re in (e.g., mass battles on open fields vs. tight dungeon corridors). Any

Elemental (UA: Class Feature Variants): Change a spell’s damage type from one of the five elemental energy types to another -- acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder (1 SP). A blaster taking this will benefit from getting to concentrate on things like shape, range, and damage dice over resistances. However, other styles with fewer attack spells (e.g., Jack-of-All-Trades) will benefit more because they’re less able to get around resistances. Jack-of-All-Trades/any

Empowered: Reroll Cha mod damage dice; must take the new rolls (1 SP). Obviously for blasters. You should save this for higher levels when you have large dice pools, particularly ones that exceed your Cha mod so you can keep any good rolls and not feel like you’re wasting the sorcery point. Blaster

Extended: Double the duration (cap: 24 hours) of spells that ordinarily last one minute or longer (1 SP). This is not a combat metamagic (1 minute = 10 rounds), so it’s best used with spells that you’ll take through an entire dungeon or want to have ongoing through the day. You’re mainly looking at the Enchantment, Illusion, and Transmutation schools, plus an assortment of Divinations. You might get more mileage re: spell schools out of it if you have spells from other classes’ lists. Beguiler, Utilitarian

Heightened: Give one target of one of your spells disadvantage on its first saving throw (3 SP). The wording implies that this is useful to blasters, which it kinda is, but not as much as others. It’s mainly for debuffs that only allow one save. Beguiler

Quickened: Cast spell as a bonus action if normally it’s be 1 action or less (2 SP). While you could decide to cast magic missile and fireball in the same round, this is mainly for things like casting a spell and then making an escape with dimension door or comboing based on your choice of spells. Regardless, extra actions are good for anyone. Environmentalist, Utilitarian, Jack-of-All-Trades; any

Seeking (UA: Class Feature Variants): Ignore half- or three-fourths cover when casting a spell with a Dex save or an attack roll (1 SP). Blasters? In dungeons? Are you mad? Wait, no, you’re basic. I gotta say, for a game that’s all about being in rooms with furniture and such, I have not once in twenty years had a DM use the rules for cover. I dunno why, it makes sense to use; maybe it’s just not the first thing you think of when you don’t see it before you. Blaster

Subtle: Cast without verbal or somatic components (1 SP). Useful! This is great for stealth, for reducing agg, and ignoring anti-caster bondage. (You’d think Sorcerers would be kinkier...) A good second choice in any campaign and everyone’s first choice in an intrigue-focused one. Also likely the first choice for the Environmentalist, being passive-aggressive. Environmentalist/any

Twinned: Single-target spell (at the level it’s cast) gains a second target (SP = spell level [min. 1]). With few exceptions, a blaster will mainly find this useful for cantrips, as most damage-dealing spells on the Sorcerer list affect multiple targets. Beguilers will get more use out of this, as they won’t have to spend higher spell slots for standard augmented effects. A Jack-of-All-Trades would benefit from both options, making them that much more viable. Beguiler, Blaster, Jack-of-All-Trades

Unerring (UA: Class Feature Variants): Reroll spell’s missed attack roll, must take reroll; can use other metamagics with it (2 SP). This is for when you’re desperate enough in combat that it needs to end right now, but it hasn’t. Like, you’re going to miss, but it’s unlikely that you’re going to want to use this every time you miss (even if it only cost one SP). Think of it as a panic button and the inverse of Empowered. Blaster, Jack-of-All-Trades; any

¹ This is a bit strange for me, coming from 3.x, as spontaneous casters were the worst at metamagic. However, 5e’s metamagic works like 3.x metapsionics (substitute “you must expend your psionic focus” with “you can’t use more than one metamagic effect at once” -- same thing, more arbitrary) and I’m quite familiar with that.

#5e #metamagic

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hellyeahheroes · 4 years

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Building Molly Hayes in D&D 5e

So I noticed that I have now one build more for DC than I have for Marvel so how about we build something straightforward and easy and yet very fun to play? How about one little girl who really can beat everyone up?

Since I follow the blueprint set by Tulok the Barbarian, we need to establish our Goals for this build. First of all, we need to punch like a true Bruiser, someone worthy the title Princess Powerful. Second, we need to be as hard to kill as someone whose creator forced into the contract a clause she will never be killed or maimed. And finally, we need to do that while being able to fool people into thinking we’re just a harmless little girl, so they won’t realize the problem before it is too late.

Ability Scores: We Will be using the Standard Points Array - 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8. If you want to roll or use point-buy, go ahead but remember to keep your Strength high.

Strength: 14, your nicknames aren’t just for show.

Dexterity: 13, we will boost it in a moment

Constitution: 15, Molly can take as much as she can diss.

Intelligence: 8, it represents formal education and Molly has few years of a hole in that and even without it is still in her early teens so she had even less of it than many other characters we did.

Wisdom: 10, should be higher but we cannot have everything.

Charisma: 12, Molly is adorable aaaand much smarter than people give her.

Now for D&D version of species, Race. Molly is a mutant and last time I checked mutant considered themselves a separate species altogether. So we’ll go with Stout Halfling. Your size is small, to the point Halfling passing for a human child is a known thing in D&D. You get +2 to Dexterity and +1 to Constitution. You are Lucky, allowing you to reroll natural 1 on any attack roll, ability check or a saving throw. You can move through space of any creature larger than you, you have an advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage. You can speak Common and Halfling and your base speed is 25 feet.

Alternatives: If you want to play Molly Hernandez, who is not a mutant, pick up Variant Human and grab Lucky feat.

We will make Custom Background - pick up Deception and Acrobatics, any language that could be campaign relevant, artisan tool proficiency to play tuba and City Secrets feature from Urchin background.

Class Levels: First we will get us some punching. First level Fighter gains proficiency in all simple and martial weapons, Strength and Constitution saving throws and proficiency in two skills, I’d go for Insight and Athletics. You get to pick a Fighting Style, Unarmed Fighting makes your fist deal 1d6+ Yoru Strength Modifier damage instead of static 2, 1d8 if you use two hands at once. When you grapple a creature, you can deal them 1d4 damage whenever you hit them by a melee attack. You also get Second Wind, letting you once per short rest use your bonus action to regain 1d10+your Fighter level hit points.

2nd Level: Molly is known for wearing cute hats. But do you know what she doesn’t wear? An armor. Which is why we will quickly grab the first level of Barbarian for Unarmored Defense, letting you add your Constitution modifier to your Armor Class when you're not wearing armor. You also get to enter Rage, in which you have an advantage on Strength checks and saving throws, lets you add extra damage to attacks made while you rage and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage. You can enter it a limited number of times, it lasts 1 minute and ends if you decide to, lose consciousness or do not attack anything for one turn.

3rg Level: Fighter of 2nd Level gains Action Surge, letting you take extra action for a turn between every long or short rest.

4th Level: 3rd Level Fighters get to choose a martial archetype. Brute lets you add 1d4 to any damage you deal with a melee weapon you’re proficient with. Meaning now this little girl hits with her bare hands like a guy with a sword.

5th Level: 4th Level Fighter gets an Ability Score improvement, but we will pick a Feat. Second Chance is a Halfling feat that lets you once per battle force a creature to reroll an attack roll that would hit you. You also get to Increase your Dexterity by 1.

Alternative: If you build Molly Hernandez instead, either grab Tough for more HP or increase your Strength.

6th Level: On 5th Level Fighter gets an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice in a single attack action, four times with Action Surge. You can punch fast because you have the power of youth...wait, that’s from some manga.

7th Level: 2nd Level Barbarian gains Reckless Attack, letting you before the first attack decide to gain an advantage on melee attacks during this turn but at the cost of enemy attacks having an advantage against you during the next turn.

Unearthed Arcana also gives Barbarian Survival Instincts, letting Molly become proficient in Perception and Animal handling and doubling her proficiency bonus to these skills. Between Old Lace and psychic cat Rufus, Molly is pretty good with animals after all.

8th Level: 3rd Level Barbarian gets to enter a Primal Path. Path of the Zealot is lore-wise hard to fit, as it is a fanatical follower of the gods. But you can easily refluff it - Molly is so devoted to protecting her friends that it gives her outright fanatical empowerment. Or maybe ask your DM which god in their setting is a patron of friendship and found families.

You gain two features. Warrior of the Gods ensures that if you’d die and someone, say your goth surrogate mom, cast a spell restoring you to life, they do it without having to pay a, usually high, material price. The second feature, Divine Fury, makes Molly hit even harder. Now when you rage the first attack you hit with on each of your turns deals an extra 1d6 + half of your Barbarian level of radiant or necrotic damage.

9th Level: 4th Level Barbarian gets an Ability Score Improvement, boost up your Strength to hit even harder.

10th level: 5th level Barbarian is sadly a doozy because you get Extra attack you already got from Fighter. It sucks but they do not stack. Cheer yourself up by the fact you can now puch so well to make Punisher write it in his journal. And you get extra 10 feet of movement when you’re not wearing armor to cheer you up.

11th Level: 6th Level Zealot gets Fanatical Focus, letting you to once per rage (which at this level raises to four uses per long rest) reroll a failed saving throw while you rage. As with previous features that let you reroll things, you must accept the new result even if its worse.

12th Level: 6th Level Fighter gains another Ability Score Improvement, increase your Constitution for better AC and more Hit Points.

13th Level: 7th Level Brute gains Brutish Durability, which allows you to add 1d6 to any saving throw you make, and if it’s a Death Saving Throw and it would push you to or above 20, you treat the roll as a natural 20, making you automatically regain 1 hit point.

14th Level: 8th Level Fighter gets to round up Constitution with another Ability Score Improvement.

15th Level: 9th Level Fighter becomes Indominable, allowing you to once per long rest reroll a failed saving throw and accept the new roll, even if it's worse.

16th Level: 7th Level Barbarian gains Feral Instinct, giving you an advantage on Initiative rolls and letting you act as if you’re not surprised in case an enemy surprises you, but only if the first thing you do is enter Rage. Which is what you should do if X-Men show suddenly to kidnap you to their weird cult island.

17th Level: 8th Level Barbarian can increase Strength with our last Ability Score Improvement.

18th Level: 9th Level Barbarian gets Brutal Critical, allowing you on a critical hit roll one additional die of any type you use in an attack, and since you use multiple ones, you can pick the highest one.

19th Level: 10th Level Zealot can make a Zealous Presence, letting you once per long rest as a bonus action rally up your teammates in need, giving them an advantage on saving throws and attack rolls for their next turn.

20th Level: Our capstone is 11th level Barbarian, giving us Relentless Rage. If you are raging and drop to 0 hit points but not outright killed, you can succeed a DC 10 Constitution saving throw and drop to 1 hit point instead. Every time you use it between rests the DC increases by 5 and goes back to 10 after short or long rest.

Overview: Molly Hayes is a Stout Halfling Brute Fighter 9/Path of Zealot Barbarian 11, let us see how good this build is.

Pros: First of all, your damage from various sources can stack up to pretty decent damage. Second, you are ridiculously hard to put down, with over two hundred hit points, resistance to damage, multiple ways to succeed saving throws and even more to get yourself out of the death situation - Indominable, Fanatical Focus, brutish Durability - and Second Wind, you can stay in combat for a long time. Your AC is at 18, which is also decent. Finally, you get to reroll so much you really feel like someone who is contractually set up to not die.

Cons: You are not as strong as you could be, we didn’t round up Strength in the end. Molly is strong but not as much as guys like Colossus. You also don’t deal much in magic damage and many creatures will have resistances or immunities against your punches, so you better hope DM gives you something to make your fists magical. And finally, you're a bit of a one-trick pony, you just punch people and I know from experience playing someone who just hits can bore some players fast.

However, this is pretty in character. You’re still a kid, so you have still time to surpass powerhouses like Hulk. But in meanwhile remember to keep your found family safe and teach everyone this kid is not to be underestimated.

Alternatives: I was considering Rogue but it didn’t really work with it since Molly doesn’t use anything that can deal Sneak Attack. if you sacrifice that character bit, you can start as a Rogue to get better skills. Going up to 4 levels and picking Swashbuckler or Scout for an Archetype will combine well with Cunning Action to make you move on the battlefield with an energy an excited kid like Molly has.

- Admin

#Molly Hayes #Runaways #Molly Hernandez #Marvel #Dungeons & Dragons

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monstersdownthepath · 5 years

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Bonus Spotlight: Ahriman, the Shadow Across Creation

Neutral Evil Demigod of Destruction, Divs, and Nihilism

Domains: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil Subdomains: Catastrophe, Fear, Loss, Rage

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 12~13

Obedience: While praying to Ahriman, destroy something of monetary or sentimental value to another person, preferably in front of someone with a strong emotional connection to the item. Alternatively, willingly take 1 point of Constitution damage by flagellating yourself with a barbed lash as you pray to Ahriman. Benefit: Your true alignment becomes masked for 24 hours, or until you perform this Obedience again. Upon performing this Obedience, choose a particular alignment. You read as the chosen alignment to all forms of magical detection, and can fool both items and magic which respond to particular alignments.

just kidding about End of the World Month being over. It can’t be over, not until we talk about this world-ender.

Anyway THIS combo is very, very interesting! To my knowledge, Ahriman is one of the three deities in existence which allows you to mask your alignment, and unless I’m mistaken, is the only method in the game which does so for a full 24 hours without needing a spell slot. It’s not one that will give you an outright power boost like most benefits do, but it makes it much, MUCH harder for Good folk to sniff you out. Be careful, though, because your mask is so thorough and complete that you’re actually vulnerable to spells like Blasphemy and Dictum if you masquerade as alignments that those spells can hurt.

The mask can’t actually be dispelled, either, so anyone scrutinizing you can’t reveal your true alignment unless they keep you from performing your Obedience... But it also means you can’t just ‘pull off’ the mask to avoid being creamed by an alignment-reliant spell that gets hurled at you.

Speaking of the Obedience, though, this is a deceptively simple one to both perform and keep on the down-low. Flagellants are unusual--and often unwelcomed--but not unknown in many societies, and you don’t have to audibly pray to Ahriman as you beat yourself bloody. If you wanted to really push the illusion you could even do so publicly, chanting hymns to other gods as you scar yourself in “their name.” Whether you keep it secret or flaunt your status aloud, you may earn some sour looks, and perhaps you won’t be invited into polite company, but you won’t look evil. Just very, very odd.

The Constitution damage is annoying but not crippling as, say, Charon’s demand that you dull your mind every day, as 1 point of Con damage repairs itself the next time you rest.

The “primary” means of proving your devotion to Ahriman is also deceptively simple, depending on how hard you Murder Hobo your way through a given campaign. You may end up gathering a lot of possessions that mean a lot to other people, and the Obedience doesn’t indicate that they need to be sentimental to someone who’s still alive! So go ahead, shatter that bandit’s sword, which was gifted to him by his father! Destroy that sorcerer’s locket containing a memento of their one love! Desecrate and destroy that altar to Desna! Maybe even in front of the priests! Maybe not that last one if you’re among Good folk, though.

Unless you happen to be projecting a Chaotic Good aura and can convince them that the altar is somehow already desecrated and must be torn down...

It’s not a particularly hard Obedience to do, but it’s definitely finicky to keep doing. At least Ahriman gives you an out in the form of a blood sacrifice!

IMPORTANT NOTE: As Ahriman is neither a Horseman nor a Daemon Harbinger, you cannot take the Souldrinker prestige class to get Ahriman’s Boons early (without DM fiat). You must use the Evangelist, Exalted, or Sentinel prestige classes to get the Boons early, at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead of 12, 16, and 20.

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EVANGELIST

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Boon 1: Ahriman’s Word. Gain Command 3/day, Detect Thoughts 2/day, or Suggestion 1/day

Nice! Command is a decent Baby Save or Suck, and Suggestion is ALWAYS nice to see, but in my opinion the real utility star here is Detect Thoughts. Lock onto invisible foes, sniff out enemies through walls (some walls), read the minds of anyone who fails a Will save... It’s a pretty fun spell! Especially for finding out if anyone has sentimental attachment to any items in the area, so you can hoard them away for later Obediences.

Still, all three of these options are pretty good! Not particularly stellar, but useful.

Boon 2: Unassailable Conviction. 1/day, if you fail a Will save, you may immediately roll again and use the second result. If you succeed the second save, you receive a +2 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls for 1 hour.

This is actually a fairly weak Boon, all things considered... But it will absolutely, 100% save your life at some point. That morale bonus is actually you, the player, in real life breathing a sigh of relief as you wiggle out from under a Dominate, Feeblemind, or Imprisonment. Note that the ability only triggers if you already know you’ve failed the throw, so there’s no real chance of ‘wasting’ this ability preemptively.

The reroll itself is powerful enough that the morale bonus feels kind of unneeded.... But truth be told, despite its strength, when compared to other second Boons this is still pretty weak. You could have at least given it to your followers 2/day, Ahriman!

Boon 3: Force the Lie. 1/day, you may designate any point within 90ft of you to become shrouded by a 30ft mist of crackling black energy. You and other worshipers of Ahriman can see through this cloud with perfect clarity, but all others within the cloud treat it as Obscuring Mist. Creatures in the mist other than you must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit dice + your Charisma modifier) or have all luck, morale, or sacred bonuses they’re benefiting from twisted into a penalty so long as they remain inside the mist. This mist lingers for 1 round/hit dice you possess and cannot be dissipated by winds.

Evangelists of Ahriman just kind of get screwed, don’t they? Being able to drop cover for yourself or allies and screw up enemy ranged fighters is good, yes... But 1/day as a capstone ability? That’s really, really pathetic.

Morale bonuses are fairly common, sacred bonuses get thrown around like candy for Good-aligned folk, but both of them are less common than enhancement and alchemical bonuses, which are seen in more or less every fight with casters and martial characters using magic weapons. I won’t talk about luck bonuses, though; those are so rare I can only really think of two sources... Both of which apply to AC. Suddenly going from +2 AC to -2 AC is a pretty big deal, I’ll admit. Twisting huge benefits into penalties is more powerful than I’m giving credit for, I’ll admit, and the power to do that to everyone in a 30ft spread means that it’s likely more than one victim will suddenly be scrambled by it. I’m probably not valuing as high as I should be, despite the fact that high-level enemies often come pre-packaged with morale, luck, and sacred bonuses, or slap them on themselves if they know a battle is coming.

I probably am. It just seems pretty weak in a vacuum, and no ability operates in a vacuum. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits to this ability is the power to drop it directly onto yourself to grant yourself some impenetrable cover; you can see perfectly through it, but no one else can, and it can’t be blown away or otherwise removed. Amusingly, even against foes who aren’t running with any bonuses that Force the Lie twists around, you can still curse them by slapping your buffs onto them to have them turned to penalties. Just... pray that they fail the saving throw, or prepare to get yelled at by your team for buffing the enemy.

Alright, alright, sorry Ahriman. This ability isn’t that bad. I do like the touch that if you can convert the rest of the party to your nihilistic faith, they can see through the mist as well.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: Hamper the Righteous. Gain Protection From Good 3/day, Touch of Idiocy 2/day, or Bestow Curse 1/day.

Oof, Bestow Curse? That’s a real nice ability to have tucked away. It IS negated by a save, but it’s a Save or Suck that keeps on sucking with penalties that last permanently until removed. Being able to eternally deny a target half of all turns they’d otherwise take is painful, and if you’re the creative type, you can even whip up curses of your own to plague someone with! Perhaps every time they tell a truth, they have to spend the next 6 seconds screaming. Or maybe they cough up a spider every time they lie. Or maybe their hands twist any weapon they wield back onto themselves.

There’s a lot you can do with the creative freedom Bestow Curse offers.

However, if you’re not a fan of 1/days being negated by successful saves, how about Touch of Idiocy? Sure, it’s a touch-range spell, which I--a lover and player of squishy classes--tend to shy away from, but it offers no saving throw and docks 1d6 Int, Wis, or Cha off the target for 10 minutes/level. It’s unlikely to make much of a difference past level 10 or so... Unless you use it against creatures who have extremely low mental stats anyway, such as most humanoids. It’s a Save or Suck but without the save! Unless you roll a 1. But that’s why you can use it twice!

In an Evil campaign though, the one that really shines here is Protection From Good, a lengthy spell that shields you entirely from the natural attacks of Good-aligned creatures and gives you bonuses to resist the weapons and spells of Good-aligned people. If you’re not in an Evil campaign, or are just Evil vs Evil, then the other two options are much better (I’d personally run with Touch of Idiocy for the potential shutting down of melee people breathing down my neck), but Protection From Good is always a fantastic choice for the times when you plan to launch attacks on the good folk’s towns.

Boon 2: Pierce Obfuscation. You can see perfectly through darkness of any intensity, including that created by Deeper Darkness. 1/day, you may cast True Seeing as a spell-like ability.

You get Darkvision Except Beefier, so beefy that you can see even through the otherwise impenetrable Deeper Darkness. Even if something ELSE gets in your way, you can immediately invoke True Seeing on either yourself or another. Everyone should know the utility of True Seeing by now, hopefully; the power to pierce just about any illusion or magical distortions in the game, utterly ruining the ability for Illusionist casters to do anything fancy.

Still, despite its power and usefulness, this is also an incredibly boring ability. The only real flair you can give it is dropping Deeper Darkness onto yourself and being the only one who can actually see in it, which pairs well with the power to Sneak Attack, either your own (somehow), or by slapping True Seeing onto an ally who can.

Boon 3: Call For Ruin. Once per day, you may call you may call either 1d4+1 Ghawwas, 1d3 Shira, or 1 Sepid Div to your side. You gain telepathy out to 100ft with any Div you summon. They follow your commands perfectly for 1 round per hit dice you possess, but will not perform any action that’s overtly Good, and will not follow any order to save any mortal life aside from your own, and may vanish immediately out of indignity if told to do so.

As we’ll eventually see, this is a powerful ability! No creature on this list is below CR 10, with Ghawwas being amphibious, resilient and poisonous fighters, Shira being powerful front-line brawlers capable of creating their own concealing dust clouds on a whim, and Sepid wielding extremely spooky spell-likes like Disintegrate, Enervation, Hold Monster and Baleful Polymorph. In most situations, calling a Sepid to your side is the best option, as it possesses powerful utility spells, powerful blaster spells, powerful melee abilities, and the ability to Call Debris 3/day to blast everyone in a 40ft circle with 15d6 damage... but both of the other options have their uses.

Ghawwas can all use Hallucinatory Terrain 3/day to scramble the environment (which you or an ally can see through with True Seeng), and the Shira can hurl out Waves of Fatigue 3/day in between their full-attack actions. Shira make excellent tanks as well, granting themselves concealment with their Dusty Pelts until they can close in and rip enemy souls from their body with their Consume Essence. Ghawwas can deliver Strength-damaging poison with every bite attack they make, and in an underwater battle they boil the seas around them to weed out life incapable of handling the heat.

Ahriman is pretty generous with this power, though summoning fiends tends to make your obfuscated alignment impossible to hide any further. I wish summoning the Shira was more reliable (like 1d3+1 or something), but as I said before, getting 1 Sepid is often more powerful than getting lucky rolls on any of the others.

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: Break the Weak. Gain Inflict Light Wounds 3/day, Death Knell 2/day, or Dispel Magic 1/day.

‘Break the weak’ is right, because Inflict Light Wounds isn’t going to break anything above 3 or 4 hit dice. By the time you get it, it’s maybe useful to patch up any undead in the party or deliver a humiliating final blow to a particular enemy, but beyond that it’s likely not going to get brought out.

Death Knell I’ll forever harp on; it’s a spell with only one real, inflexible use, and it’s only a moderately good one. It deals a finishing blow and grants you a buff for doing so, but sacrificing your turn in the middle of pitched combat to use it can end with you getting walloped by the target’s allies. It is moderately more useful for the frontline Sentinel than a typical caster, though.

Dispel Magic, though, has a thousand and one uses. Getting rid of enemy buffs or glamours, shattering illusions, removing debuffs from an ally, breaking magic locks... It’s a good spell to just have available, even at 1/day.

Boon 2: Serpentine Lash. You gain Weapon Specialization (Whip) and Whip Mastery as bonus feats, even if you do not meet their prerequisites. Whips you wield take on the illusory appearance of a live serpent, and grant you a +2 on combat maneuver checks to trip opponents. If a whip you wield has a +1 enhancement bonus or higher, you may grant it the Dancing Weapon ability as a swift action. You may have your weapon animate for 6 rounds each day; they do not have to be consecutive.

This ability is deceptively useless. If you’re a whip-wielder by nature, you likely already have both Weapon Specialization and Whip Mastery by level 12, and if you don’t, what in god’s name is wrong with you? Did you just roll over and die whenever something with moderately thick skin came along?? Did you devote yourself only to disarming and tripping opponents for everyone else to deal with??? ... Alright that one sounds pretty cool, actually. But still, whips don’t deal lethal damage to their victims and don’t deal damage at all to enemies above certain armor bonuses if you don’t have Whip Mastery, and it can be taken as early as level 2. Waiting until level 12 (or 16 if you didn’t take the prestige class) to learn how to lethally wield a whip is agony.

However, if you’re NOT a whip specialist... That means that you’re unlikely to become one. Ahriman’s sacred weapon is the whip, so a Sentinel of Ahriman doesn’t have an excuse not to have one, but since you’re not specializing with a whip you’re unlikely to break it out in combat when the boring but practical swords, axes, and maces are available.

The Dancing quality is a pretty good enchantment to slap onto a weapon out of nowhere, essentially doubling the number of attacks you make each round, but whips aren’t exactly known for being devastating weapons, and the animated whip doesn’t have your Str/Dex bonus to go along with it and can’t use combat maneuvers, which is what whips are basically for. If you already have a +5 Super Duper Death Whip of Oblivion And Destruction, slapping Dancing onto it can be nice, but enchanted whips are difficult to justify creating and even harder to come by in the wild.

All in all this is a very, very disappointing Boon that more or less reads as “you get a +2 profane bonus to trip combat maneuvers when using a whip. Also, 6/day you can deal maybe 3d3+3 damage to an enemy as a swift action.”

Boon 3: Crush Opposition. 3/day, you may cause a corporeal enemy within 60ft of you to crackle with a black energy that attempts to crush them from every angle. They take 10 damage per hit die you possess, but may reduce this damage by half with a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit die + your Charisma modifier). Creatures killed by this damage are completely obliterated, all of their belongings falling to the ground. All individual items the creature was carrying at the time become cursed for 1 hour per hit die you possess, the curse blighting any nonevil creature holding, carrying, or wearing the item with a stacking -1 penalty on saving throws versus fear and insanity effects.

My jaw dropped when I saw this. This is a significantly beefier version of Szuriel and Trelmarixian’s third Exalted Boon, which respectively allow you to cast a nerfed Implosion, and a regular Implosion.

Implosion itself is a pretty nice spell, letting you put the squeeze on any corporeal target you can see (Constructs and Undead have no get-out-of-jail free card here), but its biggest weakness is that it can only target a particular creature once per cast, and it’s completely negated with a successful save. Not only will Crush Opposition’s saving throw typically be higher than Implosion’s (10 + 1/2 HD + Cha mod vs 10 + 9 + Spellcasting mod), but it still deals half damage even if they DO make their save.

At the time you get it, that means Crush Opposition will do a flat 160 damage to any victim you designate, and 80 damage even if they succeed. 80 will shave off maybe a sixth of a CR 16~20 enemy’s health bar and will outright kill most mooks the instant you hit them with it, letting you focus on the main boss more. Though this ability can only hit, at max, three targets a day... Well, Implosion can only hit a given target once per cast, but Crush Opposition can hit the same person three times. It’s a good trade-off, if you ask me.

The whole ‘all their items get cursed if they die’ bit is more of an amusing add-on than anything that could be potentially useful. Evil folk like you don’t tend to leave survivors that can reclaim the gear of their fallen allies... But maybe you’re not among Evil folk (which is impressive, considering that Good folk tend not to wield live snakes as weapons). Maybe you can convince your party that all that gear is really and truly cursed, but you can uncurse it for them! You’ll just... Hold onto all that loot for a while.

Not very feasible, given that you’ll likely have casters that can uncurse the stuff, but it’s still a potential roleplaying opportunity.

You can read more about him here.

#End of the World Month #body horror #Spiritual Spotlight #Sinister Spotlight #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

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vortexofdeduction · 7 years

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Dungeons, Dragons, and Neurodiversity

So it’s not surprising that D&D documentation says nothing in about mental illness. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from giving your character a mental illness for roleplay reasons (whether that’s to experience mental illness or to show other people what your illness is like. Side note: I say mental illness here since most things I list fall into that category, but technically I mean any kind of neurodiversity). However, I’ve been thinking that it would be really interesting to add some game mechanics for various mental illnesses. Note: these are obviously not Adventurer’s League legal, but feel free to use them in your homebrew games (credit would be nice, especially if you share my rules somewhere else). I included several well-known mental illnesses that I thought would work well in D&D. When I could, I tried to strike a balance between positive and negative features so that nothing is too game-breaking. Feel free to tweak as needed, and please provide feedback if you have suggestions of what to change and/or what to add. Under the cut is a list of mental illnesses and their mechanics, as well as the mechanics of coping mechanisms.

Overall things to consider:

How did your character get their disorder? Some people are just born that way, others are affected by mental illness as the result of physical or psychological trauma. Trauma in the world of DnD could be like trauma in our world (abuse, survivor guilt, etc.), but there is also potential for DnD themed trauma (mind-controlled and forced to harm loved ones, trapped in a dungeon for an excruciatingly long time, etc).

How does the disorder affect their personality? For example, people with anxiety disorders may be more anxious and nervous in general, and people with autism may talk a lot about their special interests.

What are their coping mechanisms? Coping mechanisms can can help temporarily ease the negative effects of mental illness. Players and DMs must discuss what coping mechanisms are appropriate to the character but also keep the game balanced. A few examples of positive coping mechanisms:

Medicine: can be bought from most stores in between campaigns (or any time the character can go to a store). Each disorder has its own medicine that diminishes all effects of your illness (positive and negative-- sorry that’s how medicine works) for a certain amount of time (usually one day) until the next dose is needed. However, it’s quite expensive and working as a freelance adventurer probably means you don’t have insurance to cover it. Also, there may be side effects. To be extra realistic, include a withdrawal mechanism which means you just can’t go on and off medication whenever you feel like it.

Meditation: spend a few minutes calming yourself in order to diminish negative effects of your illness. This cannot be done during combat (kind of hard to meditate when you and your friends are being attacked)

Support from friends: have one or more of your party members make a persuasion or performance check as they attempt to cheer you up. On a natural 1, your symptoms temporarily worsen. On a successful check (DM determines DC), the negative effects of your illness are diminished.

Some coping mechanisms are negative and thus have unpleasant side effects in addition to diminishing the negative effects of your illness. For example:

Self harm: make an attack roll against yourself using a melee weapon and take the damage you roll.

How do they feel about their mental illness? Do they hate it, have they gotten used to it and just come to accept it, do they think it makes them stronger, etc.

Do they have comorbid disorders? The more mental illnesses you add to one character, the more complicated it gets to keep track, so you probably don’t want more than 3. But hey, that’s between you and the DM.

OCD

The character may have one or more types of OCD permanently, and/or they may temporarily gain a type of OCD after certain situations. Suggested situations that may cause a character to have OCD: head trauma (waking up after being unconscious or dead), psychological trauma (e.g., watching a friend die), taking psychic damage. However it happens, the character gets an OCD type from the following list. The character may choose to make a wisdom save to try to resist. The first time it is DC 20. The DC decreases by 5 with each successful save and increases by 5 with each refusal to try to resist. (Players can decide whether their character is more likely to resist or to give in and whether the character knows what will be the effect of trying to resist.) The character no longer has that OCD type after the save DC is 0. If the save DC raises to something practically impossible (e.g., 35), the character may permananently have OCD, or the player may need to work with the DM to determine what can reduce the DC (perhaps look at the Coping Mechanisms section)

OCD types

Second-guessing: for every ability check, the player must make two rolls and take the second roll. This doesn’t apply in cases where the player has advantage or disadvantage.

Cleanliness: each time the character takes damage, they must spend their next turn in combat (or the next 5 minutes out of combat) cleaning themselves. No action, movement, or bonus action may be taken. The character also has advantage on perception or investigation checks related to "dirty" things (dirt, slime, blood, etc.)

Scrupulosity: the character is obsessively concerned with morality. The character switches to lawful alignment (good/neutral/evil stays the same) and must act according to a strict set of moral/religious rules. Clerics, paladins, and any other characters bound to an oath or a deity may become so concerned with upsetting their god or breaking their oath that their abilities related to their god or their oath (e.g., a cleric’s spells) may be less effective

Need to tell: the character has disadvantage on any deception checks and has a chance of blurting out information that should be kept secret.

Repeating: the character is compelled to repeat certain actions (DM determines which actions this affects). For example, the character may cross a bridge, feel like once wasn’t enough, and go back to the other side and cross the bridge again. To determine how many times an action is repeated, roll a die (DM determines which dice type).

Lucky/Unlucky numbers: roll two d20 dice (reroll if the number is 1 or 20). The first number is the lucky number; any ability rolls of this number automatically succeed as long as success is not impossible (e.g., a lucky number would succeed a DC 30 check to unlock a door, but fail at an attempt to pick a lock that cannot be picked). The second number is the unlucky number; any ability rolls of this number automatically fail (treat the roll as a natural 1).

Hypochondria: the DM picks a disease. The character now believes they have this disease. The symptoms are psychosomatic, but they do exist. The disease is not contagious. The disease can be cured by several successful persuasion checks from other party member(s) (follow the same decreasing DC rules as stated earlier for OCD types, but don’t increase the DC at any point) or any spell or potion that can cure a disease.

Counting: every time the character sees something countable (treasure, creatures, etc.), they are compelled to count. This could be time consuming and inconvenient. However, the character is better (faster and more accurate) at counting than someone without this type of OCD.

Autism

Poor social skills: the character's charisma score can be no higher than 5 which means the modifier is -3. Note: this does mean those points can be used for other attributes. The character also has disadvantage on any checks involving reading people (e.g., an insight check to tell if someone is lying)

Special interests: the character gains the equivalent of the ranger features Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer, and Fighting Style. Basically, choose an enemy, a terrain, and a fighting style and you are especially good when dealing with these things. For rangers with autism, the DM and player should work together to figure out appropriate features, either different ranger features or different autism features.

ADHD

Attention deficit: to maintain any sustained action (concentration spells, rituals, etc), the player must make a DC 10 wisdom save each turn of combat (or every few minutes out of combat) or lose focus. For players who can cast concentration spells, this replaces the DC 10 constitution save for concentration checks.

Hyperfocus: 3 times per long rest, the player may choose to take take two actions instead of one during a round of combat. After a short rest, one charge of this ability is regained.

Fidgeting: all that fidgeting around has gained the character a permanent +2 increase to their dexterity score.

Phobia

Fear: the character is afraid of a certain type of enemy (e.g., goblins), object (e.g., traps), type of magic (e.g., necromancy), or fighting style (e.g., archery). Whenever possible, the character will avoid the feared enemy or object or anything/anybody using the feared magic school or fighting style. The character will have disadvantage interacting with (using, attacking, etc.) the subject of their fear.

Knowledge: the character has advantage on any ability checks related to the object of their fear. For example, if the character is trying to identify a creature’s tracks, the DM may make another roll in secret and take the higher roll because the tracks are of the feared enemy.

PTSD

Traumatic memories: the rules for PTSD are similar to Phobia, except that the fear comes from a specific traumatic memory rather than an irrational fear. Also, a character with PTSD may have up to 5 triggers (taken from the categories mentioned in the Phobia section).

Flashback: instead of having disadvantage on interacting with one of their triggers, each time the character interacts with one of their triggers, roll a d4. On a 1 or 2, the character has a flashback. In combat, this takes up their turn. Out of combat, this simply means the action is not performed. Flashbacks cause characters to lose concentration.

Hypervigilance: while conscious, the character cannot be surprised.

Bipolar disorder

Mania: at certain times (DM’s choice, player’s choice, random dice rolls, or predetermined triggers decide when and how long mania occurs. DM decides which of these methods to go by.), the character goes into a manic state. During this state, the character may complete every action twice as fast. This applies to actions in combat, any out of combat actions that take a significant amount of time (e.g., ritual casting), and sleep (better than a trance; no “quiet time” needed, they can get right back to work). The character also has an elevated mood, meaning they have advantage on any saves against psychic damage and/or being charmed. They also have advantage on any saves against attempts to be demoralized (e.g., if an enemy tries to intimidate them). However, they are more reckless and thus have disadvantage on any ability checks involving dexterity or relating to impulse restraint.

Depression: immediately after the mania ends, the character enters a depressive state for the same length of time as the mania was. The low mood means they have disadvantage on any saves against psychic damage and/or being charmed. They also have disadvantage on any saves against attempts to be demoralized (e.g., if an enemy tries to intimidate them). For every turn in combat, first roll a d4. On a 1, the character focuses on past regrets and thus misses their whole turn. Before making an ability check, the character or another party member must motivate the character by making a wisdom save or a persuasion check, respectively. On a failed save/check, the character’s self confidence is too low to carry out the action. The character also needs twice as long to sleep.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Alters: create several different (but significantly different) character sheets, one for each alter (note: it is helpful to pick 4, 6, or 8 alter. More than that is a lot. If you choose a different number, you may need to make a table in which some alters are represented by more than one number). At time intervals as determined by the DM, roll a die to see which alter surfaces. (Optional rule: instead of choosing at random, have the player and DM discuss ahead of time which alter should surface when.) Use that alter’s character sheet. Apply the xp and loot gained from each session to all alter.

Schizophrenia

Hallucinations: at certain times (DM’s choice, player’s choice, random dice rolls, or predetermined triggers), the character experiences a hallucination. The DM rolls on a random encounter table (can be a regular random encounter table, or a table full of encounters that that specific character is likely to hallucinate). The character believes the hallucination is real and acts accordingly until either the hallucination finishes (after a predetermined amount of time) or the character succeeds on several wisdom checks to determine it is a hallucination (following a decreasing DC mechanism like with OCD).

Delusions: the character is living under one or more false beliefs, or delusions. These delusions have a significant impact on the character’s way of life, despite the fact that they are not true. Any attempts to convince the character that they are delusional will fail. However, the character may sometimes be convinced to act in opposition to their delusions.

Disordered: the character’s thought and speech patterns are often disordered and may be confusing to other people. The character has disadvantage on ability checks relating to attempts to communicate with others (persuasion, intimidation, etc).

#dnd #dnd 5e #d&d #dungeons and dragons #neurodiversity #mental illness

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lichlairs · 4 years

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Checkout our new post over at http://lichlair.com/arcane-tradition-of-psionics

UA: Arcane Tradition of Psionics

Wizard Charlie here… feeling attacked by Wizards of the Coast who just released the newest Unearthed Arcana and their three new subclasses and spells. In this article we will cover the most personal attack on my character…the Wizard’s new Arcane Tradition: Pisonics.

Arcane Tradition: Psionics

As someone who asked their professors if I could choose an arcane tradition in pisonics due to my telepathic abilities and was told “No Charlie that isn’t a thing”…I feel both personally attacked and quite frankly a little pissed that I was lied to! Let’s cover this stupidly awesome subclass and a few of the new spells that my professors told me would never exist!

2nd-level Pisonic Focus: Here we have a nice flavorful item that can be specialized to each character, it can be literally anything and it becomes a meaningful item to your character. This item becomes your focus not only becomes your focus but it also allows you to reroll 1s on psychic and force damage! Remember that Magic missile you got at level 1? That just become way more effective! “No Charlie that isn’t a thing”!

2nd-level Psionic Devotion: at 2nd level you can choose one of the three cantrips; Friends, Mage Hand, or Message and get it automatically added to your list of spells for free and they come with nice little upgrades to make them just a little more effective and psionic.

6th-level Thought Form: Hey guess what professor? People can astral project! What the hell! At this level you now can become an entity of pure energy and light for 10 minutes where you no longer have to use V, S, or M portions of spells! Your form can look like however you want it to! And to top it all off you gain resistance to psychic damage and to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non magical attacks! No big deal professor, it’s just everything I wanted! And I know what you’re thinking “I am sure you can just turn to this form once per long rest Charlie, don’t be so upset” well wrong! You can become this form a number of times up to your intelligence modifier! For me that is like 5 times! UGH!

10th-level Mental Discipline: You get to learn one of the spells; dominate person, scrying, or telekinesis and it is added to your spellbook. But wait there is more, you now can cast this spell once per long rest with no components and uses no spell slot. Here you go just have a casual awesome psychic spell! Thanks again professor!

10th-level Empowered Psionics: From now on when you deal force or psychic damage you can add your intelligence modifier to the damage against one of the targets, so… you know… dead… your enemy is just dead. That damage adds up much faster than you think.

14th-level Thought Travel: Now when you become your super badass thought form you gain a flying speed and you just hover…. just because…. you’re just a badass! You would think that was cool enough right? Wrong! You can also now move through creatures and objects! Sure they are treated as difficult terrain but that still is just so freaking cool!

Psionic Spells: You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. I am so mad at my professors right now that I can not see straight. So let’s just do a rapid fire spell coverage.

Ego Whip: 4th level spell, make someone suffer disadvantage on everything AND they can’t cast spells!?!? Are you freaking kidding me here?? I would have loved this against my evil ex teachers!

ID Insinuation: 1st level spell, Incapacitate a creature and do 1d12 psychic damage to them at the end of each of their turns. That would have been great against several dragons I had to fight!

Intellect Fortress: 5th level spell, Advantage on all saving throws for 10 minutes and if someone within 30 ft fails a saving throw you can use a reaction to let them reroll. Oh no big deal I am just a support wizard that loves to look out for her friends! “That doesn’t exist” they said!

Mental Barrier: 2nd level spell, as a reaction you can make a wall of repetitive thoughts to give yourself advantage on the mental saving throws and gain resistance to psychic damage. Mind Flayers beware!

Mind Sliver: Cantrip, 1d6 psychic damage to a target that fails the saving throw and it gives them a negative 1d4 to the next saving throw before the end of your next turn. This cantrip does two things; 1 it sets you up for the next spell and 2 for someone who constantly misses her spell attacks, a saving throw cantrip like this is ideal for a telepath.

Mind Thrust: 2nd level, BONUS ACTION attack that deals 3d6 psychic damage and causes the creatures to only be able to dash and disengage. I am…actually speechless. A bonus action spell? I am so angry. I need this in my spellbook right now! In fact I need this 3 weeks ago! This is frankly the best spell for me. Combine this with the cantrip and guess what happens when you cast it with a bigger spell slot? You can target another person. I’m done, I am actually done.

Psionic Blast: 3rd level spell, 30 ft cone that deals force damage, pushes the targets back 20 ft, and knocks them prone. I would like to take this moment to resign and give up my spellbook and all the years I wasted as an enchantment wizard. Bye now, everyone have a wonderful day, I am going now. I know nothing and I wasted all my years of training as a wizard.

Psychic Crush: 6th level spell, 12d6 psychic damage and the single target is stunned for 1 minute with the chance to keep repeating the saving throw or remain stunned. I think I have gone numb now. This spell is everything I ever wanted in all my life. Wait I am a 15th level enchantment wizard! If I cast this spell I can target a second creature! You know what, maybe I don’t have to give up my wizarding career after all.

Thought Shield: 2nd level, for 8 hours the chosen target can’t have their mind read or detected and they have advantage on any saving throw that tries to determine if they are telling the truth. I can see this spell helping out your friendly barbarian when going against those pesky mind control enemies.

All in all, I love this entire subclass and spell list. I am mad at WotC for not giving me this a few years ago. I need to be this ASAP thank you very much. Now if you will excuse me I need to go talk to a 20th level wizard with the wish spell. Have a good day everyone. Keep up the good work D&D.

#dnd #dnd5e #dndbeyond #dungeons and dragons #Unearthed Arcana #Lich's Lab #News

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waynekelton · 4 years

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The Best Games Like Diablo for Android & iOS

Diablo. It’s one of the most popular, successful, and beloved gaming franchises in the world. The very first entry came out in 1996 and it and its two successors defined the huge hack-and-slash action-RPG genre that exists today. The franchise is known for its story-driven campaign, fast-paced combat, diverse class options, and deep skill trees. Diablo III is the very model of a comprehensive gear system that allows for some serious min-maxing along with ample end-game content for gamers who don't mind the grind.

Here's what you can play in the meantime while you wait...

The Best Mobile Games Like Diablo

Book of Demons

Barbearian

Battleheart 2

Crashlands

Titan Quest

Bastion

Eternium

Diablo Immortal

This list was originally mean't to serve as a way to fill that Diablo hole in your life, but we've known for a while now that an official Diablo spin-off game is coming to mobile called Diablo: Immortal. It was announced at BlizzCon 2018 to a very mixed reaction. Nothing further was heard about it till BlizzCon 2019, where Blizzard announced some new content for the beta. It's still not got an official release window - maybe 2020, if we're lucky? But the company don't appear to be in any rush to get this to market

Book of Demons

Developer: Thing Trunk Platform: iPad Only Price: $4.99

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The Diablo influence is clear in this ARPG newcomer, but the packaing is a bit more light-hearted. Set in the 'paperverse', your character and the world are rendered as paper-people, wonderfully illustrated, and not as fragile as one might think. The dungeons are procedurally generated and loot comes in the form of item cards that you can find and equip, even mid-battle if you feel like you've chosen the wrong thing.

You start off as a warrior, but you can also unlock the Rogue and a Wizard as well. It can feel a little repetitive and automated at times, but thoughtful design decisions help to maintain interest. Each character has their own signature cards and three levels of difficulty the game certainly warrants replaying even after completing your first eight-hour run through. Read our review for more details.

Barbearian

Developer: Kimmo Lahtinen Platform: iOS Universal Price: $8.99

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2018 has seen the release of a couple games that have earned a place on this list and Barbearian is foremost among them. Barbearian features frenetic fights against death-defying odds, a combat style that is very reminiscent of Diablo III. You charge into and through huge hordes of enemies and send their lifeless bodies flying in every direction. These fast-paced battles are about where the similarities end. The game follows a story but is driven by its action and does not have the quest lines associated with standard RPGs. Nevertheless, it's a heck-of-a-lot-of fun and I got over fifteen hours of entertainment out of completing all of the content. I gave it five stars in my review and recommend you check it out for a lot more on why Barbearian is great.

Battleheart 2

Developer: Mika Mobile Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $3.99

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Also new this year, Battleheart 2 picks up where the original Battleheart game left off seven years ago. It features real-time combat where you control up to four characters, chosen from a variety of options, in a series of battles to gain loot and experience. As you level up you unlock new skills and talents to enhance those skills. There's also a variety of gear and four different slots in which to equip it. This creates some opportunity for Diablo-like min-maxing. Battleheart 2, unlike its predecessor, offers a co-operative mode for up to four players along with an Arena mode where you face down wave after wave of enemies to see how far you can get.

This is simplified version of Diablo III's rift system. An unintentional game mode has also arisen: AFK (away from keyboard) Arena. Astute min-maxers have realized that Cyrus, the necromancer, raises skeletons from the dead that automatically lock onto and attack the nearest enemy without any player intervention. An optimized Cyrus can go deep into the Arena without any help from the player. If that doesn't speak to the spirit of Diablo III, I'm not sure what does.

Crashlands

Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $6.99

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Crashlands is a survive/craft/explore game where you play as an intergalactic UPS driver who crashed on an alien world. You must figure out how to survive and get yourself, and your precious packages, off the planet and on your way. What does Crashlands have to do with Diablo? It's the combat and gear. Pretty much everything you come across is looking to kill you and it is best to wheel around and shake and bake, all the while attacking with your homemade arsenal of weaponry. Even more similar is the game's surprisingly expansive gear system. Flux, the game's main character, rocks a primary weapon, four secondary devices (bombs, flamethrowers, freeze rays, that kind of thing), four trinkets that provide various bonuses, and four armor pieces.

All of this equipment provides bonuses to damage, critical hits, move speed and more along with providing special abilities like life drain, stunning your target, and a whole lot more. She also has the power of Juicemancy at her disposal, which allows you to optimize your gear by upgrading it and rerolling stats until you get the stats you want. Crashlands is a fantastic game and merges the exploration and crafting of Minecraft with the combat and gear optimization of Diablo III.

Titan Quest

Developer: Dot Emu Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $6.99

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For those looking for the traditional RPG quests and storyline, Titan Quest is the most Diablo-like you can get on a tablet. It started on the PC as an attempt to replicate the success of Diablo II and was later ported to iOS and Android. Set in the ancient, pre-Roman world it also has solid loot acquisition—there are over 1200 items which can be enhanced with runes. There are also diverse skill trees, called masteries, from which you pick two. The masteries essentially decide your class and provide some great variation, customizability, and high replay value to the game. The mobile version of the game has had plenty of issues—including frame rate and saved game issues—but it is still one of the better Diablo-like titles.

Bastion

Developer: Supergiant Games Platform: iOS Universal Price: $4.99

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Action RPGs are frequently known less for story and ambiance than, well, the action. Bastion, the debut title from Supergiant Games, is different. Bastion’s story—set after the Calamity, a devastating event that shattered the city of Caelondia—is amazing. You play as the Kid; a survivor skilled in the ways of the new, violent world. The Kid meets a man named Rucks who directs efforts to collect the cores that once fuelled Caelondia and rebuild a bit of what was lost. Rucks also serves as the game’s outstanding narrator, who gives both play-by-play and color commentary on the Kid’s every action and every mistake. Bastion’s soundtrack is perfect, and its graphics are still impressive after all these years. The action is fast-paced and chaotic very much like the Diablo games. There are various weapons from which to choose, though gear plays a smaller role in Bastion. This is definitely the game for you if you value the action and production values of Diablo over its loot and min/maxability.

Rogue Wizards

Developer: Spellbind Studios Platform: iOS Universal Price: Free ($5 Gem Drops x 2 IAP recommended)

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If you're looking for dungeon-delving action and gear optimization of Diablo III without the real-time pressure, Rogue Wizards is the perfect game for you. It features a great deal of variation in gear and slots in which to equip it, a town with upgradeable shops from which to buy and sell, and even a Treasure Goblin. Rogue Wizards feature a strong storyline, but the turn-based combat is king. Once you've completed the quests, there's still plenty to do in the game's Gauntlet mode, a high-score chasing dungeon where you see just how far you can go.

The game is free-to-play and the monetization is easy to ignore if so desired, though I recommend the "Gem Drops x 2" IAP which brings progression in line with the premium Steam version. I’ve already written quite a bit about the Rogue Wizards, and its monetization, and you can check out my five-star review and game guide for more.

Eternium

Developer: Making Fun, Inc. Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: Free (with IAP)

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One of the closest games to Diablo III on mobile is Eternium. You play as an adventurer—a mage, warrior, or bounty hunter—on a quest to stop Ragadam, an ancient evil, from bringing an apocalyptic plan to fruition. The adventure hops between multiple planets in the universe and you’ll face dragons, aliens and more deadly creatures. You collect companions as you go to help you face the increasingly dangerous foes in your path. Both you and your companions will gain new and varied powers as you level, which you cast by drawing symbols on the battlefield.

Gear is a huge consideration in Eternium, and there is a ton of it. As in Diablo, you can equip something on nearly every major body part and each piece of gear has several attributes that enhance your abilities. The game also features gems, which can be combined into even better gems and slotted into items for bonuses. Eternium even duplicates Diablo’s features that allow you to add sockets to equipment that doesn’t have it, collect sets of gear, and reroll an attribute for an item.

Eternium is a free-to-play game and uses gems as its primary currency. The game is well balanced, you don’t need to buy gems in order to play but can do so to unlock certain quality-of-life options faster. I spent $5 to get an additional companion slot earlier and more character storage space, for example. You can watch optional ads for more gems and there is a setting to turn them off entirely for those who want to avoid the temptation.

The campaign is extensive and Eternium also includes a series of special “trials”, think rifts from Diablo. Gameplay is good but nowhere near as great as Blizzard's series. That’s a high bar to clear, however, and Eternium will definitely scratch the itch on your mobile device.

What would your list of favourite Diablo-like games look like? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Games Like Diablo for Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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tigerkirby215 · 3 years

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5e Poppy, the Keeper of the Hammer build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Joshua “HUGEnFAST” Brian Smith and Jason Chan. Made for Riot Games.)

Uh so basically I played Poppy for the first time like last month. And I really enjoyed her. So here’s a Poppy build I’m writing a month in advance. I know Doran’s & Dragons have done a Poppy build but again our views differ slightly and while I think their build is good (and I got some inspiration from it) I’d like to put my own spin on the build too!

By the way check out their Kayn build! To this day my Kayn build is still one of my favorite builds (I just really like Horizon Walker ngl lol) and their build takes it in a similar yet unique direction.

GOALS

Shieldy~ - Poppy may just be a yordle with a hammer but she’s also got a shield to chuck at people.

You; sit - We’ll need stuns and slows to hold the line against legions of foes.

No getting through me - We’ll need to be able to hold the line and annoy any and every champion with a dash.

RACE

Poppy is a yordle which means holy shit I get to use something other than Variant Human. We’ll be going with a Stout Halfling for Poppy to give her some sturdiness as well as some yordle magic. You’d normally get a +2 to Dexterity but thanks to Tasha’s we can put that +2 into Strength instead. You also get +1 to Constitution thanks to your subrace, as well as Stout Resilience for advantage against poisons and resistance to poison damage.

As a Halfling you are Brave for advantage against being frightened, and have Halfling Nimbleness to move through the spaces of creatures that are one size larger than you (which considering that you’re Small is most creatures.) But of course the main appeal of Halflings is their Lucky trait, letting you reroll Natural 1s as the light of both Demacia and Bandle City guides you.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - You swing a hammer that’s about the same size as your body which the strongest men (and women) in Demacia can’t lift.

14; CHARISMA - Poppy is a cute little bean. So cute in fact that not even Vayne will shoot her; and Vayne shoots everyone! (Daily reminder that Vayne sucks and Vayne mains suck #FuckVayne)

13; CONSTITUTION - Poppy is a tank and along with the +1 from our race this will give us a nice health buffer.

12; DEXTERITY - Poppy isn’t the most mobile in-game but she still needs to be able to quickly bodycheck people into walls.

10; WISDOM - Poppy is a little daft and far too humble for her own good, still searching for the legendary hero to wield the mighty hammer.

8; INTELLIGENCE - The hammer which she still doesn’t realize can only be swung by the legendary hero, despite the fact that she swings the hammer around constantly.

BACKGROUND

Officially Poppy wanders around Demacia searching for the one true hero. But unofficially she was trained by captain Orlon as a Demacian Soldier. Thing is neither of the skills really fit Poppy (well Intimidation doesn’t, and we’ll be getting Athletics from other sources) so take Persuasion and Survival to get folk to try out your hammer, or to survive long nights alone on the roads of Demacia. You can keep the Land Vehicles and Gaming Set proficiencies though! (Though Smith’s Tools might also fit if you want to be Blacksmith Poppy.)

Of course your Military Rank will still help. Demacian soldiers recognize your heroic deeds (c’mon guys really it was nothing) and are willing to lend you some military supplies if needed, or let you wander around their camps looking for someone who can pick up your hammer.

(Artwork by Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Starting off as a Fighter to be a simple, practical yordle. Fighters get two skills from the Fighter list: take Insight and Perception to search far and wide for that legendary hero.

You get a Fighting Style at level 1, and I am actually going to suggest Superior Technique from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. This will give you a d6 Combat Superiority die to use on a single chosen maneuver from the Battlemaster subclass. Anyways take Quick Toss to chuck your Iron Ambassador as a Bonus Action.

My recommendation for Poppy’s “shield” would be to ask your DM if you can get a Javelin that does bludgeoning damage, since the Javelin can be thrown slightly further than the other weapons. If they say no a Light Hammer works fine for bludgeoning damage, though you’re going to have to deal with the fact that Light Hammers cost 2 gold for some godawful reason. Or you could just accept that Javelins are going to do piercing damage because damage types really don’t matter much in 5e.

Also as far as your choice of weapons Poppy technically wields her hammer in both hands but as a Halfling you can’t use Heavy weapons effectively. (I’d consider Orion’s Hammer more of a Maul than anything.) Since you’re forced to use regular weapons anyways you may as well wield a Warhammer in one hand for a d8 of damage and a shield in the other for +2 AC. If you really want to bring the hurt feel free to actually chuck your shield at the enemy and then swing that Versatile weapon with a d10 hit die instead!

And finally for some lane sustain Second Wind will let you sip from your refillable potion to heal for a d10 plus your Fighter level.

LEVEL 2 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge, letting them give 110% so you can make sure to get Orion’s hammer into the right hands. Basically you can take another action and bonk your foes twice!

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 3

3rd level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and if you want to smack people into walls then Battlemaster is for you! (Which yeah: that’s why we took Superior Technique for more maneuver die!) Anyways Battlemasters are Students of War and while I’d love to honor the legendary hero Tulok the Barbrarian by talking Calligrapher’s Tools Poppy does have her Blacksmith skin so Smith’s Tools make more sense. If you didn’t get them from your background anyways.

But of course the main feature of the Battlemaster is their Combat Superiority: you have four five (yay Fighting Style!) Combat Superiority die to use on a variety of Maneuvers. You have Quick Toss still of course but you now get three more options. For stuns and slows of any sort Trip Attack will let you knock people over. If you want to knock people into walls first (or more realistically off a cliff) then Pushing Attack will let you bodycheck them with your small yordle body to send them a full 15 feet back! And if you want to set up for your teammates to be heroes then Distracting Strike will keep eyes locked on you so your allies can hit the enemy with advantage.

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 4

4th level Fighters get an Ability Score Improvement. We’re going to fix our Strength as well as a lot of other things thanks to the Squat Nimbleness feat. Along with the +1 to Strength your walking speed increases by 5 feet (Poppy may be immobile but that’s no reason not to move 30 feet), you get proficiency in Athletics (see told you we would!) and you have advantage to escape grapples.

LEVEL 5 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack, so you can hit them with both the left and right side of the hammer! And if they’re still up? Action Surge to hit them two more times! "Well, that wasn't the hero."

LEVEL 6 - FIGHTER 6

Ability Score increases are nice. Feats are nicer; take the Sentinel feat to stop foes from running away with your Steadfast Presence. Put simply: enemies can’t dash move away (even if they Disengage) as your opportunity attack will reduce their movement to 0. And if they hit one of your friends you can whack them right back!

(Artwork by Pan Chengwei. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 7 - PALADIN 1

Hope you didn’t think the character that can swing a magic hammer so hard you’re sent to the opposite side of the map wouldn’t have magic! First level Paladins get Divine Sense to help search for legendary Celestial heroes or evil Fiends and Undead, who are probably being fought by heroes! You also get Lay on Hands for some refill pot healing that you can share with your friends.

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 2

Second level Paladins get to choose their Fighting Style. To armor up we’ll be going for good ol’ Defense for +1 to AC.

Why nothing for our weapon? - Depending on your choice of Poppy you’re either going to be running your hammer two-handed or swing it with one hand. In either case either the Great Weapon Fighting or Dueling fighting style would help. But since I designed this build with the intent of you swapping between stances and the fact that Great Weapon Fighting kinda sucks as a fighting style I didn’t want to take a Fighting Style that would restrict how you use your hammer. Put simply Superior Technique does far more for us as a Fighter, and Defense is universally useful while the other Fighting Styles are somewhat situational.

With explanations out of the way you also get Spellcasting. You can prepare a number of spells equal to half your Paladin level (rounded down; IE you can prepare a new spell every 2 levels) plus your Charisma modifier.

Compelled Duel will be another way to keep enemies in your Steadfast Presence.

Shield of Faith will serve as, well, your shield. Pop it on top of a shield to really stack up that AC!

Thunderous Smite will serve as another way to bring the hammer down on your foes, knocking them back and knocking them prone.

Of course you could just ignore all that in favor of Divine Smite, letting you bring down the hammer to do 2d8 Radiant damage, plus an additional 1d8 Radiant per spell slot above 1st level. If the enemy is an Undead or Fiend, the might of Demacia will let you do an additional d8 of damage!

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 3

Third level Paladins get to choose their Sacred Oath: to be the tank that your team needs go for the Oath of Redemption as you seek to redeem yourself to your friend’s last wishes. Redemption Paladins get the Sanctuary spell to keep an ally safe from being dove onto, and Sleep. "I could really go for a nap."

The main feature of a Paladin Oath is their Channel Divinity of which you have two: your first one Emissary of Peace will let you put on your kindest smile for +5 to Persuasion checks for 10 minutes. Alternatively if a friend is hit you can hit that foe right back with Rebuke the Violent! You use your reaction to force a Wisdom save on the enemy who hit your ally or smack them with Radiant damage equal to the damage they dealt! And if they succeed? Well they still take half damage! This ability has no damage cap so you can smite a dragon with your hammer after it breathes fire on your allies! Just remember that this doesn’t work on yourself, so be sure to put others ahead of yourself... but maybe still stand in the frontline...

You also get Divine Health, because no legendary hero is going to want to talk to you if you have the sniffles!

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get an Ability Score Improvement that we’re going to ignore in favor of yet another Feat! The Charger feet will let you Dash and knock someone into a wall, doing extra damage with your hammer and knocking an enemy back.

You can also prepare another spell but we’re going to wait for...

(Artwork by Shuohan Zhou. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins get an Extra Attack... which you already have. Well you’re no legendary four-attacks-per-turn hero after all; just a yordle with a hammer.

You do get second level smites spells though! Redemption Paladins get Calm Emotions to... calm emotions, and Hold Person to keep an enemy stunned for your allies to fight! You can also prepare the good ol’ Aid spell to make both you and your allies tankier, as your Steadfast Presence bolsters everyone in the party.

LEVEL 12 - PALADIN 6

6th level Paladins are Stubborn to a Fault, getting Aura of Protection for some passive magic resistance. You and allies within 10 feet of you get to boost their saving throws by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier. Unfortunately that Charisma modifier is only a +2 at the moment but it still helps!

You can also prepare another spell at this level: Warding Bond was added to the Paladin spell list thanks to Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and it will let you make a Knight’s Vow to keep your allies safe.

LEVEL 13 - PALADIN 7

7th level Redemption Paladins get Aura of the Guardian. If an ally within 10 feet takes damage you can use your reaction to take the damage for them instead. You don’t take any of the additional effects and this damage can’t be reduced in any ways. Honestly if locked in a melee it might be a better idea to just use Sentinel instead, but if an ally gets shot by an arrow you can stand in front of them to take the shot for them... You might have to jump a bit if they’re tall though.

LEVEL 14 - PALADIN 8

Hey look at that an Ability Score Improvement! We’re not going to be taking feats and will actually just increase our Strength by 2 to finally swing that hammer full-force!

You can also prepare your final spell at this level at least until you get more Charisma, so grab Lesser Restoration to Cleanse in a pinch. Is Lesser Restoration a little underwhelming by total level 14? No! Because paralysis will always be a danger. "Not like this!"

(Artwork by Rudy Siswanto. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 7

Back over to good ol’ Fighterland. 7th level Battlemasters can tell if someone’s hero material thanks to Know Your Enemy. If you spend a minute studying someone you can learn a variety of features about them, such as if they can lift your hammer. (Spoiler: they can’t.)

7th level of Fighter also means some more Maneuvers and this time we’ll be going into Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for some of the new maneuvers from that book. Brace will let you opportunity attack when an enemy comes up to you, basically. (Might be good to hold onto your reaction for Sentinel or other things however.) And while it might be a bit late to try for grapples Grappling Strike will let you use your Athletics proficiency and high Strength score to grab some people! Even if your ability to grab people is limited because of your size who knows? Your DM might let you ride on them if they try to run away from you! I’d allow it to make grappling more viable for small creatures.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 8

8th level Fighters get more Ability Score Improvements and with our Strength maxed out let’s finally put some points in Charisma. This will give you more Paladin spells don’t forget, so go back to your Paladin spell list and prepare a new one!

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 9

Level 9 Fighters are also Stubborn to a Fault, with Indomitable letting them reroll a failed saving throw once per Long Rest. With Aura of Protection you’ve honestly got a good chance on just about any save with perhaps the exception of Intelligence.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Battlemasters see their Improved Combat Superiority die increase to a d10 for more some more damage as you swing that hammer around!

You also get more Maneuvers whenever you get new Battlemaster features: to keep enemies focusing the tank instead of your allies grab Goading Attack, because Menacing Attack doesn’t fit Poppy. If you’re swinging at an enemy with high AC however Precision Strike will make sure the hammer ends up somewhere squishy.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 11

11th level Fighters truly learn how to swing their hammer with a third Extra Attack, or six if you Action Surge! "The hammer does most of the work, I just swing it."

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 12

12th level Fighters get our final Ability Score Improvement, and I’ll leave it up to you: more Charisma means stronger Paladin features, but the Tough feat will give you a 40 HP boost at the end of the build.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Careful, this packs a wallop - Smites and Maneuvers on three hammer swings means that you can really bring the smack.

If you're waiting for me to give up, you might be here awhile - Wow who would’ve guessed the character build to be tanky would be tanky? High AC (21 with basic Plate and a Shield, 23 with Shield of Faith) and good health, even without too heavy of an investment in Constitution.

Who knew there were so many heroes? - You’re also a very good team player, holding the line and sacrificing yourself for your allies.

CONS

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, uh... hammer! - Dump stats are never fun. Low INT hurts even with Aura of Protection.

That's okay; I'm playing the long game - Feats are fun and all but so are good stats. I’m just saying Charger is a nice feat but so is a good Aura of Protection.

I sure do a lot of walking - All your abilities run on limited resources, and while thankfully the vast majority of them come back on a Short Rest your limited spell slots only come back after a proper sleep. You’ve gotta spend your mana effectively so you don’t caught without a hammer.

But for a simple gall with a not-so-simple hammer you can do everything you need to find that hero. Keep it polished and make sure nothing gets dented until you find the light that Demacia needs to wield your friend’s final gift! Just make sure you avoid any fields with lollipops; they have eyes I tell you...

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

#dnd #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Poppy #hammer #dnd fighter #dnd paladin

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #53: Asterios

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re building Asterios, a truly a-maze-ing character. Asterios is a Totem Barbarian/ Brute Fighter mix, an expert in fighting and traveling underground.

Check out the build level by level below the cut, or look at the summary over here.

Race and Background

There’s a surprising number of races available for the aspiring minotaur and minotaur adjacent player. For this build we’re grabbing the Minotaur from Planeshift: Amonkhet. I know they’re technically ram-headed, but you can always fix that in post. This race gives Asterios +2 Strength and +1 Constitution and a Natural Weapon, horns that can deal 1d6 plus your strength modifier in bludgeoning damage as an unarmed attack. He also has Relentless Endurance, letting him drop to 1 HP instead of zero once per long rest if he isn’t killed outright. His Savage Attacks let him add an extra die to critical damage, and he’s Menacing, giving him proficiency in Intimidation. So yeah, this is pretty much Berserker: The Race.

For Asterios’ background, we’ll be modifying the Outlander background a bit. Grab Athletics and Survival as normal, but instead of the normal feature we’re getting Deep Delver from Out of the Abyss, letting Asterios retrace his steps in underground passages and forage in caves.

Stats

Strength is going to be your highest stat: those axes aren’t just for show. Constitution is your second highest; neither are those scars. Third is your Wisdom: it’s unusually high for a berserker; you’re great at finding your way in a maze, and picking out the noises of anyone trapped with you. Fourth is Dexterity, it’s just not something we particularly need. You’re nice enough, but people don’t really get the chance to know you thanks to your low Charisma. Finally, dump Intelligence. You lived in a maze your entire life, and now you’re stuck with a Madness Enhancement too.

Class Levels

1. Barbarian 1: Yeah I know, shocking. First level barbarians get Rage, letting you enter a state of madness as a bonus action, gaining advantage on strength checks and saves, a damage bonus to strength based weapon attacks, and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can’t cast or concentrate on spells for the duration, which is 1 minute, if you’re knocked unconscious, or if you fail to take damage or attack a hostile within a round. Your rages recharge on long rests.

You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC based on your Dexterity and Constitution while not wearing armor.

When starting as a barbarian, you get proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as two barbarian skills. You’re already part animal, so Animal Handling is an easy pick, and hunting down prey in a maze requires pretty good Perception.

For your weapon, we’re going with Battleaxes. We would’ve gone bigger, but we need some dual wielding, and we’re already cutting it close with these. Use one for now, we’ll take care of it later.

2. Barbarian 2: Now that your weaponry is fully online, lets get good with it. Second level barbarians can perform a Reckless Attack, gaining advantage on all attacks for one turn at the cost of all attacks targeting you getting advantage for a turn as well. You also get a Danger Sense, granting advantage on dexterity saves against effects you can see.

3. Barbarian 3: Third level barbarians set down their primal path. Totem barbarians become a Spirit Seeker, letting them cast Beast Sense and Speak with Animals as rituals. It isn’t canon compliant, but you are 50% animal anyway, so why not?

You also get a Totem Spirit at this level. The closest thing to a bull on the totem list is an elk, but you could also make an argument for the Bear totem, which is why we’re going with that one. While raging, you resist all damage except for psychic damage. People go into your labyrinth expecting to deal extra damage to you because of your class, so lets flip that on its head and really make them work for it.

4. Barbarian 4: Use your first ASI to grab the Dual Wielder feat, letting you dual wield weapons even if they don’t have the light attribute. Your axes? Definitely not light. You also get +1 AC while dual wielding weapons.

5. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians get an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice as an action. This means you can attack three times a turn with your bonus action. We don’t even have enough hits to match your buster brave chain yet, but we’ll get there.

6. Fighter 1: First level fighters get a Fighting Style. Two-Weapon Fighting lets you add your ability modifier to offhand attacks, perfect for the giant bull-man with his hands full. Second Wind lets you spend a bonus action to heal yourself. You don’t really have a healing factor of your own, but we can say Guda used a command spell.

7. Fighter 2: You can now Action Surge once per short rest, adding an extra action to your turn. If you think hitting people is good, you should try hitting them more, it’s awesome. For those of you keeping track at home, we’re now packing five hits in a single turn.

8. Fighter 3: Third level fighters pick their archetype. Straight from the Unearthed Arcana: Three Subclasses, the Brute gains Brute Force when they take the subclass. Currently, you can add 1d4 to any damage roll you make with weapons you’re proficient with. It’s not particularly strong yet, but it’ll grow in time.

9. Fighter 4: Use your next ASI to grab Keen Mind. This feat’s mostly for flavor, but knowing what direction north is can come in handy in areas with no point of reference, like underground.

10. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack, but sadly this doesn’t stack with your barbarian Extra Attack. After this one they will.

11. Fighter 6: Odd numbers give me hives, so use this ASI to round out your Strength and Constitution for more health, AC, damage, and accuracy.

12. Fighter 7: Seventh level brutes have Brutish Durability, letting you add 1d6 to all saving throws you make, all the time. If this is a death saving throw, and this would cause the total to go over 20, it acts as though you rolled a 20 instead. You don’t go down easy, and keeping you down is even harder.

13. Fighter 8: Maximize your Strength with this next ASI for more accuracy and damage.

14. Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed saving throw once per long rest. I’m not entirely sure if that includes the d6 from brutish durability; just keep it consistent to minimize DM headaches.

15. Fighter 10: At tenth level, your Brute Force increases to 1d6, and you gain an Additional Fighting Style. Blind Fighting means you don’t have disadvantage on attacks against creatures you can’t see. One problem with minotaurs: they don’t have darkvision.

16. Barbarian 6: Sixth level Totem Warriors gain an Aspect of the Beast. At this level, the Wolf totem lets you track at a fast pace while traveling, and move stealthily at a normal pace. Depending on how big your labyrinth is, travel rules might come into play, so this can help you track down anyone who wanders in without letting them catch on.

17. Fighter 11: Eleventh level fighters get another Extra Attack at each action. Now you do four attacks per turn, and seven if you use your action surge.

18. Fighter 12: Use your next ASI to increase your Constitution for more health and AC.

19. Fighter 13: Thirteenth level fighters get a second use of Indomitable per long rest. I’d save them for your death saves, you’re pretty good at those already.

20. Fighter 14: Use your last ASI to get the Charger feat. If you dash as your main action, you can use your bonus action to make one weapon attack or shove a creature. If you move 10′ in a straight line first, you can add 5 to the damage roll or push the target 10′ away when you shove. Honestly, you could really do most of this already with your offhand weapon, but I felt bad that I picked the one Minotaur race without a charge ability.

Pros

It’s really nothing you haven’t seen on the other berserker builds by now.

You hit really hard. Your normal attacks are almost as strong as a regular person’s critical, and your critical hits are almost at full barbarian level. Add to that the fact that you’re making four attacks per turn on a normal round, and you’re dishing out a lot of damage.

You’re also really hard to kill. The bear totem makes your 200 and change HP go a long way, your Durability makes your saves just a bit easier to make, and even makes you more likely to pull through on death saves.

You’re really good at fighting and tracking creatures in subterranean areas. You’d think that would be a niche subject, but half this game’s title is “Dungeons”, so I think you’re set. You always know your way, and you don’t need a light source to beat down monsters.

Cons

Like a lot of berserkers, you struggle with ranged and magical damage, unless your DM is generous with magic axes. This means high-level enemies can still be more of a threat than you’d like.

Your low scores in Dexterity and Wisdom mean you’re weak in some of the most important saves in the game. Your d6 and indomitable can help a bit, but if the enemy puts a lot of pressure on this, you won’t last long.

Next up: We’re going back to Roma!

#Fate Grand Order #Fate and Phantasms #Asterios #D&D 5e #fgo

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #47 Heracles

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re finishing off the Fate Stay/Night servants and starting on the berserkers with Heracles! This mountain of a man is could have easily been a pure Barbarian, but I went with one level of sorcerer for some extra defenses and mobility.

Check out the build’s summary here, or read the complete breakdown below the cut!

Race and Background

Heracles is half god, so being an Aasimar is pretty obvious. However, your stepmom really doesn’t like you, and that Madness Enhancement took a toll on your noggin, so you’re more of a Fallen Aasimar. You get +1 Strength and +2 Charisma, 60′ of Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands to heal a creature by your level (use this on yourself for a healing factor), and the Light Bearer feature, allowing you to cast the Light cantrip with your Charisma.

Heracles lived a very storied life, but we already know Jason’s going to show up eventuall, so let’s focus on his Argonaut days. Heracles is a Marine, giving him proficiency in Athletics and Survival. The Steady feat lets Heracles move twice as long at a normal pace before making a forced march, and he can always find a safe route to bring a boat to shore, if such a route exists. I’m not sure if they ever mention the argonaut’s exact roles on the boat, but picturing the berserker as the Argo’s navigator is hilarious.

Stats

Your highest stat is Strength: you are the strongest in the world after all. After that is Constitution, you’re very good at not dying, and your health will help with that. You have mad hops, so Dexterity is going to be third. (I know strength is the jumping stat in D&D, but it feels dexterity-ish.) You aren’t that charming, but you are absolutely terrifying, so next is Charisma. After that is Wisdom and Intelligence. You’ll see this is a running theme in berserkers.

Class Levels

1. Barbarian 1: Shocking no one, you’re a barbarian. At first level, you have proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Intimidation and Animal Handling. A giant, screaming slab of meat is scary for most people, and a good portion of your labors involved dealing with animals in one way or another.

Barbarians can Rage, giving them all sorts of strength-based advantages and resistance to basic physical attacks as long as you avoid heavy armor. Speaking of armor, you also get Unarmored Defense at this level, granting you a boosted AC based on your dexterity and constitution.

2. Sorcerer 1: Switching classes for the first and only time, first level sorcerers gain their Sorcerous Origin. You are a Divine Soul sorcerer, meaning that despite the family drama, you’re Favored by the Gods. This gives you an extra spell, (Cure Wounds for a stronger healing factor) the ability to pick spells from both the sorcerer and cleric lists, and once per short rest you can add 2d4 to a failed save or attack throw. This is super important for you because your wisdom is low, and it’s not getting any higher. The only thing worse than a barely controllable mountain of rage helping you is a barely controllable mountain of rage that isn’t helping you.

For spells, grab Resistance for further save enhancement, Thaumaturgy to save your vocal chords while screaming, Booming Blade and Lightning Lure as gifts from dear old dad, Jump for some extra mobility, and Protection from Evil and Good to maybe get your stepmom off your back.

3. Barbarian 2: Second level barbarians get Reckless Attack, giving yourself advantage for a turn in exchange for giving anyone hitting you advantage until your next turn. When your skin’s that tough, you don’t really care about leaving an opening. Your Danger Sense gives you advantage on dex saves against effects you can see. It’s more like you’re tough enough to shrug off whatever’s hitting you than you actually dodging.

Third level Aasimar also get a Necrotic Shroud, an action that transforms you into a monstrous form for a minute. Creatures near you need to make a charisma save or become frightened, and once per turn you can add necrotic damage equal to your level to an attack.

4. Barbarian 3: Third level barbarians set down their Primal Path. The path of the zealot gives you Divine Fury, letting you add 1d6 plus half your barbarian level in radiant damage to your first hit each turn. Even like this, there’s still a bit of divinity in you. You also become a Warrior of the Gods; resurrections spells don’t require material components to work on you. We haven’t reached the point where your immortality kicks in yet, but this will keep you alive until we get there.

5. Barbarian 4: Your first ASI is going to boost your Constitution, for more health, AC, and concentration.

6. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians gain an Extra Attack, letting you make one more attack with each attack action. Your NP adds a couple more in, but we’ll take what we can get. Your Fast Movement also gives you 10′ of extra movement when not wearing heavy armor. You can only jump as far as your normal movement limit, so this will help you make some truly impressive leaps. Or just chase down the poor bastard who’s threatening Ilya.

7. Barbarian 6: The zealot’s Fanatical Focus lets you reroll a failed save while raging, once per rage. The only saves you’re really good at are strength and constitution, so we’ll take whatever we can get.

8. Barbarian 7: Your Feral Instinct gives you advantage on initiative rolls, and you can rage at the start of combat to ignore being surprised. You’re not the one who gets attacked, you’re the one who does the attacking.

9. Barbarian 8: Use your next ASI for more Strength. To be the strongest in the world, you have to be the strongest you can be.

10. Barbarian 9: Your Brutal Critical adds an extra die when you deal critical damage to a creature. You’ve got a big sword, let’s make it even bigger.

11. Barbarian 10: Your Zealous Presence lets you inspire other party members as well. Once per long rest you can use your bonus action to give 10 other creatures advantage on attacks and saves until your next turn. You’re so good at not dying, you can even help other people avoid doing so.

12. Barbarian 11: Your guts finally kicks in at this level. Relentless Rage prevents you from dropping to 0 HP if you make a DC 10 Constitution save. on a success, you don’t die, and the save’s DC increases by 5 until you take a break. Appropriately enough, with your current Constitution you can pull this off three times per rest, meaning you’ve gone from no bond CE to one bond CE in a single level.

13. Barbarian 12: At twelfth level, max out your Strength. If you want to get even stronger, I’d suggest convincing your DM to let you start worshiping Iroas. Or Ares, if you want to keep it in the family.

14. Barbarian 13: Thirteenth level barbarians gain a second bonus die for their Brutal Critical. You might think about switching to a greataxe at this point to take the most advantage of your extra dice. Consistency is good, being able to crush your enemies in a single blow is better.

15. Barbarian 14: Congratulations! You aren’t killed when you die now! Your Rage Beyond Death lets you put off unconsciousness and death until the end of your rage. Now your ability to survive only depends on how much hitting you can fit into one minute.

16. Barbarian 15: Remember what I just said about hitting? Now it’s not a problem. Your Persistent Rage means your rage doesn’t stop until you choose to. You can now survive a full minute after you die, no strings attached.

17. Barbarian 16: We’re switching things up for this penultimate ASI. Grab the Tough feat for 34 extra HP now, and another two extra HP each time you level up. You have a lot of not dying options, but discretion is the better part of valor.

18. Barbarian 17: Your Brutal Critical increases to an extra third die when you crit. This shouldn’t surprise you by now, but you hitting people really, really hurts. If the stars align (or you’re working with Merlin), you might be able to put some weaker servants in the ground with a single turn’s worth of crits by this point.

19. Barbarian 18: You are the strongest in the world, and it’s time to start acting like it. Your Indomitable Might means that every strength check you make always turns out to be at least your Strength Score, i.e. 20. Unlike reliable talent, this affects the total, not just the roll. A 20 every time is still really good though. Maybe now you’ll be able to open that jar of pickles Ilya’s been complaining about.

20. Barbarian 19: Your capstone level leaves you with one last ASI. Grab some more Constitution for more health and a higher chance at passing your Relentless Rage saves.

Pros: I’m not sure if you noticed that thing I said at level 18, but you deal a lot of damage when you swing that big chunk of metal around. You’re also really hard to kill: You have a ton of HP to chew through, and even when you die, you don’t die, and when you do die, it still takes about a minute to properly kick in. You’d think that toughness and damage would put you in Mighty Glacier territory, but on top of all that you’re not slow either. You’re just a bit faster than most people, and you have Jump to boost you into places you wouldn’t think you could reach. Anything that has to get within sword’s reach of you to fight you is pretty screwed.

Cons: Anything that can stay out of your reach can completely screw you over though. Your longest range attack is Lightning Lure, and that only has a range of 15′. Also, your mental saves are terrible, and there’s only so much your features can protect you from in one go.

Finally, that one sorcerer level we took for extra save power also means you’re technically not the strongest you could be. The final level of barbarian would have given you an additional 4 points to strength and constitution. You don’t do too many attacks in one go, so the strength isn’t the end of the world, and the extra health would give you even more longevity.

However, I stand by the sorcerer multiclass. The extra points on your saves can be applied to your weak points, rather than just focused on things you’re already good at, and you can enjoy the benefit at level 2, rather than 20. You does your best work between 0 and 1 HP anyway.

Overall, this build and what you want to do with it are simple: just hit the red until they’re dead, and everything will work out fine. Also: don’t let Jason talk you into doing anything.

Next up: It’s a lovely morning in Camelot, and you are a horrible knight.

#fate grand order #fgo #Heracles #dnd 5e #Fate and Phantasms

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #31: Medea

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re building the Witch of Deceit Medea in DnD 5e! In this build, Medea’s going to be an Abjuration Wizard to power up her counterspells to act in the place of Rule Breaker. You can restrict your counterspells and dispel magics to melee range if you really want to play to character, but I don’t think I can overstate how much harder you’ll be making it for yourself.

As always, a spreadsheet for the build can be found here, and a level-by-level breakdown can be found below the cut.

Race and Background

As the daughter of King Aeetes, calling Medea a Noble is actually a bit of an understatement. Regardless, she has proficiency in History and Persuasion because of this, which works out great for you. It’s also nice that Medea’s background was so easy to pin down, because her race certainly wasn’t. She’s a human, but with gods in her direct ancestry which would make her an Aasimar, and of course, just look at those ears. In this case, we’re going to make her a High Elf, giving her 60′ of Darkvision, proficiency with Perception, advantage against being charmed with your Fey Ancestry, the ability to Trance instead of sleep, and an extra Cantrip from the wizard spell list. Grab Fire Bolt for some firepower early on. High elves also get +2 to Dexterity and +1 to Intelligence.

Ability Scores

Put your highest score in Intelligence; Medea’s been trained by the best witch in the game, and she’s a quick study. After that is Charisma; she’s the witch of deceit for a reason. Butter up your enemies and sink that dagger into their back. Speaking of daggers, Rule Breaker is a pretty good one, and to make sure it can actually hit its mark, she’ll need some Dexterity. After that is Constitution; she’s not that tough, but she has spent a long time on that dumb boat, so at least she’s learned not to get seasick. Put your second lowest score into Wisdom (she did trust Jason, of all people), and dump Strength Because Wizard. Strength is for fools who can’t throw lightning around.

Class Levels

1. We’re starting this build with a level in Wizard. We’re also ending this build with Wizard. It’s Wizard all the way down, is what I’m saying. First level wizards have an Arcane Recovery, letting Medea regain spell slots of fifth level or lower with a combined level of half her level on a short rest, and now that I’ve said level so many times its stopped looking like a word. Wizards also get two skill proficiencies, and Medea’s are Arcana and Religion, because those were the same thing during the age of gods. She also has proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves.

Finally, Wizards get spells. A lot of spells. At first level, they get three Cantrips and six first level spells, and then they get two more spells each level. Because Medea is an actual caster, unlike most of the other servants up to this point, we can get a little freeform with her spell list. I’ll mention all the spells I’d personally give her, but I’ll only be putting the very useful or very in character spells in bold from here on out. For cantrips, grab Lightning Lure, Minor Illusion, and Message. For first level spells, grab Absorb Elements, Mage Armor, Witch Bolt, Magic Missile, Disguise Self, and Burning Hands.

2. At second level, Medea becomes a member of the School of Abjuration, making her an Abjuration Savant (reducing the cost and time to copy abjuration spells by half), and she learns how to make an Arcane Ward, a magical barrier that is created when casting an abjuration spell that will take some hits for her, like some kind of shiny yellow sweater. Medea also learns Alarm and Cause Fear, because sometimes you just don’t want to be bothered.

3. At third level, Medea unlocks second level spells, including Arcane Lock and Detect Thoughts. It’s much easier to scheme when you literally know what everyone’s thinking, so of course that’s what she’ll do.

4. Use Medea’s first ASI to make her into a War Caster. This feat will give her advantage on concentration saves (not useful yet), the ability to perform somatic spells while holding a weapon (very useful for RP reasons in a level), and cast spells as an attack of opportunity instead of hitting the fleeing creature. Magic is Medea’s weapon of choice, and now that’s just a bit more literal.

For spells, grab Dancing Lights, Maximillian’s Earthen Grasp (it’s not quite skeletons bursting out of the ground, but we’re getting there), and Nystul’s Magic Aura. This spell is just really useful for someone who needs to hide out while plotting their revenge. You can hide magical items, prevent your own mind from being read, or even trick paladins into thinking Jason is secretly a fiend. The possibilities are endless.

5. A fifth level, Medea finally gets access to third level spells, including the vaunted Counterspell and Dispel Magic. Technically these two have further ranges than 5′, but if you want to stay in character you better make Medea stab whatever she’s countering first. No guarantees that she’ll survive staying in character, though.

6. Sixth level Abjuration wizards get a Projected Ward, letting Medea throw her fancy yellow sweater to other party members to protect them as well. Medea can’t target the golden fleece in FGO, but I’d like to think she’s mellowed out in the three years since the game began and got a bit more generous.

She also gets Nondetection for more sneakiness and Animate Dead for some skeletons to throw into the meat grinder that is frontline combat.

7. Seventh level wizards have fourth level spells, and Medea’s grabbing Polymorph (her aunt’s freaking Circe, after all) and Tiny Servant. Miniatures are her passion, and bringing them to life to enact her fantasies of torturing Jason is a totally healthy hobby, don’t worry about it.

8. Medea’s second ASI can get thrown towards her Intelligence for more spells and a stronger fleece. It turns out smarts are important for a wizard, wild huh?

Grab Banishment and Bestow Curse this level, and have fun coming up with effects to throw at people.

9. Ninth level wizards get fifth level spells. Medea gets Animate Objects for more fun with dolls and Danse Macabre. The danse doesn’t last as long as Animate dead, but you can pull it off mid combat, bringing it closer in line with Medea’s battle animations.

10. At tenth level, abjuration wizards Improve their Abjuration, so now Medea adds her proficiency bonus to ability checks caused by abjuration spells like counterspell. Rule Breaker still isn’t at its full potential yet, but it’s getting stronger.

11. Eleventh level wizards gain sixth level spells, and Medea gets Guards and Wards to set up your ultimate workshop and True Seeing.

12. Use Medea’s next ASI to turn her into a Mage Slayer. She can now use her reaction to make a melee attack against creatures casting spells, so if you somehow got your hands on a Rule Breaker in game, she can now use it for its intended purpose. Also, when Medea damages a creature it has disadvantage on its concentration save, and Medea has advantage on saves against spells cast within 5′ of her.

For spells, Medea picks up Chain Lightning, adding electricity to her repetoire, and Fabricate to make figure sculpting a snap.

13. At 13th level, Medea gains access to seventh level spells and grabs Symbol and Teleport.

14. As an abjuration wizard, Medea gets her final subclass bonus at fourteenth level, granting her Spell Resistance. Medea now has advantage on saves against spells, and resists damage from spells as well.

For spells this level, Medea grabs Locate Creature and Dimension Door.

15. At this level Medea accesses eighth level spells and grabs Antipathy/Sympathy and Antimagic Field. Flavorwise, this is Medea going absolutely ham with Rule Breaker, breaking down all magic in 10 feet of her. This is what peak performance looks like. Spells? Gone. Enchantments? Suppressed. Summons? Sayonara.

16. Medea’s next ASI is going to max out her Intelligence for extra spell damage, spell saves, and a fluffier golden fleece. For spells, she grabs Clone and Dominate Person.

17. Medea finally has access to ninth level spells, giving her plenty of magic to play with. At this level she grabs Imprisonment (for when she finally gets a hold of Jason) and Invulnerability.

18. Eighteenth level wizards gain Spell Mastery, letting her cast a 1st and 2nd level spell for free as long as they’re prepared. I’d pick Disguise Self and Nystul’s Magic Aura for extra scheming, but your pick isn’t set in stone, so go with whatever fits your campaign the best. Medea also grabs two new spells, Wish and Create Undead. The latter may be stepping on the toes of Animate Undead a bit, but the added variety may be useful. Or it might not be; again, that’s why the spell’s name isn’t in bold.

19. Medea’s last ASI will make her a Piercer, adding 1 to her dexterity, and giving her extra abilities when using piercing weapons. Once per turn, you can reroll one die if the attack deals piercing damage, and critical hits that deal piercing damage add an extra die.

For spells, grab Forcecage and Power Word Pain.

20. Medea’s capstone level gives her Signature Spells, two 3rd level spells that she can cast once per short rest for free. Of course in this build we’re going with Counterspell and Dispel Magic to maximize Rule Breaker’s uptime. For her final spells, grab Soul Cage and Aganazzar’s Scorcher.

Pros: Medea may be a squishy caster, but thanks to her ward her effective HP pool is bumped up from Wizard to the lofty heights of Bards, and she more or less heals herself with each counterspell she casts. Her focus on abjuration makes her the bane of other wizards’ existences, and because she’s a caster, her spell list is a lot more flexible than previous builds.

Cons: I can’t overstate how badly melee weapons and wizards mix. Also, while you’re terrifying for casters to deal with, counterspell does nothing against barbarians, so pick your fights wisely. Just stay away from any adventuring groups led by Jason, and you should be fine.

#fgo #fate grand order #dnd 5e #Medea #Fate and Phantasms

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Servant #1: Mash Kyrielight

The very first servant we’ll be working on is Best Kouhai Mash. For this build we’ll be focusing on defense, for obvious reasons. Any Mash worth her salt needs to be able to shrug off at least one NP without flinching, and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing under the cut.

Edit: Her character sheet can be found here! Can’t believe this didn’t have a link before.

Stats:

First, we’ll start with the standard stat array, that is to say 15,14,13,12,10, and 8. You can roll if you want to, but make sure you have enough to multiclass.

We’ll put the highest score into Intelligence. Mash has been personally raised by some of the best casters in the business, she’s a smart cookie.

Next is Charisma. Mash is an eternal ray of sunshine, and everyone knows it.

Third is Strength. Mash isn’t incredibly powerful, but she is swinging around a shield larger than she is. That’s gotta count for something.

We’ll follow that with Wisdom. Mash doesn’t have a lot of worldly experience, but she’s a quick learner.

After that we have Dexterity. Mash can get her shield where it needs to go, you don’t need much more than that.

Constitution is our dump stat. Despite her HP, Mash is canonically pretty frail. Fortunately we’ll have armor to make up for that.

Race/Background:

Sadly, Eternal Ray of Sunshine is not an official race yet, so we’ll have to stick with human for the time being. This means you get +1 to every stat.

For Background, Mash’s childhood fits the Cloistered Scholar pretty well, giving her proficiencies in History and Arcana.

Class Levels:

1. Fighter 1. It turns out a character all about alternating between hitting people and hiding behind a giant slab of metal is a fighter, who’d’ve thunk it? At 1st level, Mash has proficiency in all armor and weapons, as well as Strength and Constitution saves. Mash also will receive proficiency in Athletics and Perception. Her protective stance needs to be unbreakable, and those glasses aren’t just for show.

1st level fighters get a fighting style, obviously we’re going with protection, because that’s what Mash does. As long as her friends are within 5′ of her, Mash can now impose disadvantage on anyone attacking them. It’s like Wall of Snowflakes, but better because it doesn’t have a 5 turn cooldown.

Mash also gets a Second Wind, letting her heal herself mid battle. It’s not exactly what we’re looking for, but we’re not going to complain about it.

2. Fighter 2. Mash gets an Action Surge, giving her an extra action.

3. Fighter 3. Mash becomes a Battle Master, giving her access to Combat Superiority Maneuvers. Mash fights smarter, not harder. She starts off with three maneuvers and four superiority dice. For maneuvers, I recommend Commander’s Strike, Goading Attack, and Maneuvering Attack. Commander’s strike lets your friends attack instead of you, which is good because you should be focusing on defense anyway. Goading attack again works like Shield of Rousing Revolution, keeping the heat on you and not your friends. Maneuvering Attack lets you help your friends friends escape from anything that gets past you.

Mash also gains Student of War, because everyone needs a hobby.

4. Fighter 4. At 4th level, fighters get their first of many Ability Score Improvements. This time around Mash is trading that in for the feat Tavern Brawler. This feat increases Mash’s Constitution by 1, giving her a pretty sizable health boost (the constitution modifier works retroactively, so she gains 4 hp). It also gives her proficiency with improvised weapons, which her shield is. She’ll only do 1d4 per attack, but that’s okay; attacking isn’t really her forte anyway. This feat also lets you grapple an opponent after hitting them, just in case you really don’t want them going anywhere.

5. Fighter 5. Mash gets another attack each turn, letting her do a little bit more to help her senpai.

6. Fighter 6. Another Ability Score Improvement that will be traded in for a feat, this time Mash is becoming a Heavy Armor Master, increasing her strength so she can wear the heaviest armors in the game and reducing all nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage by 3. Mash’s hit points are as precious as she is, so we need to keep them around as much as possible.

7. Fighter 7. Mash gains another superiority die and two maneuvers of her choice. I suggest Evasive Footwork and Distracting Strike. The former makes you even harder to hit with opportunity attacks, while the latter can be used to give your friends advantage against whatever you’re hitting. You may not do much damage, but the two berserkers behind you certainly can. Mash also learns how to Know Your Enemy. Now she can spend 1 minute out of combat going on gamepress to learn about a creature’s stats.

8. Fighter 8. Another ASI, another feat. Now Mash is getting Tough, giving her 2 hp per level, and an additional 2 hp every time she levels up from here on out.

9. Paladin 1. We’re taking a quick detour into Paladinville to pick up a few spells, but we won’t stay here for long.

1st level paladins also get Divine Sense, letting you notice enemy servants closing in just before battle starts (servants count as celestial, right?). They also get Lay on Hands, giving Mash the option to heal her allies as well. That’s 100% not accurate, but it’s a necessary sin here. Besides, I doubt Mash would mind too much.

10. Paladin 2. You gain a second Fighting Style this level, so grab Defense for an extra bump to your AC. You also get Divine Smite. You won’t be attacking that often, but the extra damage is appreciated.

Of course the big draw of this level is spellcasting. This level, Mash gets two 1st level spell slots and a couple spells she can cast using her charisma. The spells we’re focusing on here are Bless, Compelled Duel, and Shield of Faith. Bless and Shield of Faith can make our allies a bit better offensively or defensively, respectively, and Compelled Duel acts like a makeshift Shield of Rousing Revolution, forcing an enemy to turn its focus on you, and more importantly, your shield.

11. Paladin 3. As a 3rd level Paladin, Mash follows the Oath of the Crown, becoming the good knight of the realm we all knew she could be. This Oath gives her Command and Compelled Duel as oath spells, freeing up a slot in her prepared spell list for one of your choosing.

Mash can now Channel Divinity by issuing a Champion Challenge, forcing any number of creatures you choose within 30′ of you to make a wisdom save or prevent them from willingly moving 30′ away from you. She can also Turn the Tide, healing every creature you choose within 30′ of her for 1d6+her charisma modifier if they are bloodied.

As a bonus, Mash also gains Divine Health, rendering her immune to disease.

12. Fighter 9. Mash becomes Indomitable, letting her reroll a failed saving throw once per long rest. Chaldea didn’t raise no quitter.

13. Fighter 10. Mash’s superiority dice turn into d10s. She also gets two new Maneuvers, but at this point she’s already learned the supportive ones, so just pick your favorites.

14. Fighter 11. Mash gets another attack, bringing her up to three attacks per turn, or six when using action surge. Mash now legally qualifies as a monk.

15. Fighter 12. I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. Mash actually gets to keep the Ability Score Improvement this time, putting it into Constitution to improve her concentration and health.

16. Fighter 13. Mash gets another dose of Indomitable, letting her reroll two saves per long rest. Not even the end of the world is enough to get her down, so a stupid piece of plastic with a 1 on it doesn’t stand a chance.

17. Fighter 14. Another Ability Score Improvement for Mash to dump into Constitution. By now, between her AC, defensive abilities, and steadily growing health pool, Mash is becoming the tank she was born to be. She’s not at 14k health like in the game, but she’s doing her best and that’s what matters.

18. Fighter 15. Mash gets another two Maneuvers, a sixth Superiority Die, and becomes Relentless, regaining one superiority die at the start of combat if she had zero to begin with. This massive reduction in skill cooldown is very appreciated.

19. Fighter 16. Another Ability Score Improvement, this time improving Strength for slightly harder hits and Charisma for slightly better spells.

20. Fighter 17. Mash gets a second use of Action surge and a third use of Indomitable. By now swinging a shield the size of a human being is more of a light aerobic exercise than anything to Mash.

On the plus side, this build is very tanky, with high AC and HP, as well as plenty of ways to focus enemy fire on yourself to make the most use of it and help your teammates when something slips past. Using the default rolls Mash’s HP would reach just over 200 by level 20, but she can get as high as 300 HP with some very lucky rolls when leveling up.

The downside is most of your skills have very strict cooldowns. With only having 6 combat dice, 3 spell slots, and 1 channel divinity, it can be difficult for Mash to keep up with prolonged battles, even if the only thing she’s doing is tanking for everyone else.

Also, unless your DM is forgiving, you’ll still be doing 1d4 per attack all the way up to level 20, so you’ll have to rely on teammates to do most of the fighting for you.

Finally, while Mash off with her highest stat being useless and a very low constitution is very flavorful, it also makes her first couple of levels much more difficult than they need to be.

#fgo #fate grand order #mash kyrielight #fate and phantasms

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Ekko, the Boy who Shattered Time build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Ekko is a character who’s way better in the lore than in-game. An orphan with a heart of gold doesn’t translate well into this immortal bastard who bursts your entire team before pressing one button to instantly get all his health back. Regardless Ekko has a simple kit that makes him easy to adapt into the meta and very fun to play! And who doesn’t want to time travel?

GOALS

Don't blink! - Shattering time means that you can zip around in the blink of an eye.

I'll help you this time: duck - Batter up! Time stuns coming your way!

If you can’t make the most out of any given moment... - Then you don’t deserve a single extra second. Thankfully we’ll have a lot of chances to make the most out of every single second.

RACE

Ekko is a human but he’s very different from all the other kids in Zaun, making him a Variant Human. As a Variant Human you get a +1 increase to two skills of your choice: choose Dexterity and Wisdom to keep on your feet with your wits about you. You also learn a language and a skill of your choice: your language doesn’t matter much but for skills pick Perception to notice exactly how you can defeat your foe without too many rewinds.

But of course the main appeal of Variant Humans is the ability to get a Feat at level 1, and when it’s time to rewind look no further than the Lucky feat. You have 3 Luck points (or as I like to call them Rewind Die) that you can spend to roll an extra d20 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You can choose which d20 result you want to use after rolling your Rewind Die.

The best part about Lucky? You can use it against enemies too! If an enemy attacks you you can also roll to potentially make them miss! Remember that you only have 3 rewinds which only come back on a Long Rest, so use them wisely!

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Shattering time means you can zip around at the blink of an eye.

14; INTELLIGENCE - Ekko created a time travel machine, as well as many other inventions that would put the Pilties to shame.

13; WISDOM - Ekko stays in Zaun because he cares about the people.

12; CHARISMA - Ekko’s a good kid, as evidenced by how many skins he has.

10; CONSTITUTION - You can take a hit but you’re still primarily an assassin.

8; STRENGTH - You’re a kid who fights with nothing more than a bat. A magic clock bat, but not a heavy bat.

Feel free to swap Charisma and Constitution if you want more health but weaker RP.

BACKGROUND

Ekko is an Urchin but he doesn’t really fit the typical description (he has parents, for one), so I’m going to suggest changing it up some. Swap your proficiencies out for Acrobatics and Investigation to puzzle your way though defeating your foes, and your tools for Tinkerer’s Tools and Smith’s Tools to make your gadgets.

But your feature City Secrets still fits you perfectly, allowing you to easily make your way around the streets of Zaun without getting lost. I mean, you probably do get lost sometimes but your party doesn’t need to know that.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - WIZARD 1

Oh boy my favorite class that I have to spend way too long explaining! Regardless Wizard is the perfectly class for smart kids who use magical time-warping devices. You get proficiency in two skills from the Wizard list and I’d opt for Arcana for knowledge of your Z-Drive and History for knowledge of what happened. Because you were there!

As a Wizard you also get access to Spellcasting. You learn 3 cantrips from the Wizard list: Ray of Frost lets you toss out a Timewinder to slow and damage your foes, Mending will let you reverse any small damage an object may have received, and Message will let you coordinate in team chat. You also learn 6 spells at level 1 with Wizard, but you can prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus your Wizard level:

Absorb Elements will let you resist some incoming magic before returning it with Z-Drive Resonance.

Alarm will let you know that someone’s coming, or rather reverse time when they do arrive to give you time to prepare.

Detect Magic will help you figure out what any Hextech might do.

False Life can give you a Parallel Convergence shield.

Both Mage Armor and Shield will help you defend yourself and dodge attacks you wouldn’t otherwise be able to avoid.

Need a break from all that time warping? Arcane Recovery lets you recover spell slots equal to half your Wizard level, rounded up. Confused how it works? Read it yourself because I’m bad at explaining it.

LEVEL 2 - WIZARD 2

At level 2 you can choose your Arcane Tradition. Oh man if only there was a tradition dedicated specifically to time manipulation... oh wait Chronurgy Magic, which is automatically one of the better ones because it isn’t a school! Regardless Chronurgy Wizards get Temporal Awareness, letting them add their Intelligence modifier to Initiative rolls.

They can also turn back time with Chronal Shift! As a reaction you can force yourself or another creature to reroll an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. The target must use the result of the second roll, and you can choose to use the ability after knowing the original result. You can rewind twice per Long Rest but that should be more than enough to find the perfect way around a problem! (Especially with Lucky helping you as well!)

You can also add two more spells to your spell list: Gift of Alacrity is a Chronurgy-specific spell that lets you prepare to add a d8 to a creature’s initiative check, so you can make sure your initiator is the first in the fight! If you want to slow everyone down however Earth Tremor will force enemies in an area to make a Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone, and regardless of if they succeed or fail they’ll still be slowed by difficult terrain!

LEVEL 3 - RANGER 1

What? You didn’t think this was just a pure book nerd build, did you? Nah Ekko’s a special kid who knows Zaun like the back of his hand: sounds like a proper city Ranger! You get proficiency in one skill from the Ranger list when you multiclass, so grab Insight to know what people are going to do after they did it... before they did it!

Class Feature Variants is an Unearthed Arcana that’s soon going to be made official so I’m going to use Ranger features from that PDF instead. Deft Explorer lets you choose from one of three benefits: Roving lets you speed yourself up by 5 feet and also gives you a climbing speed to climb clock towers and a swimming speed to... swim. Favored Foe meanwhile lets you cast Hunter’s Mark a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier without using Concentration, for some more Z-Drive Resonance!

LEVEL 4 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get a Fighting Style and I figure now would be a good time to talk about Ekko’s weapon: he uses the clock needle of his as a bat most of the time but a club is a simple weapon that uses Strength and does very little damage. As a Ranger you have proficiency in martial weapons so I’m pretty sure that needle could be passed off as a short sword. Fight the short sword in your main hand and nothing in the other, or grab a shield just for the sake of the AC: regardless Dueling will make your sword do +2 damage.

You also get access to Spellcasting! Again! Check chapter 6 of the Player’s Handbook for information on how multiclassing between full casters and half casters works, but you get two first level Ranger spells: to dash in and strike an important target Zephyr Strike will let you avoid opportunity attacks and do an extra d8 damage on hit, letting you ride Z-Drive Resonance out with 30 more movement speed. If you want to stun a target for a beat down Ensnaring Strike will restrain them with vines. Time vines! Yeah...

LEVEL 5 - RANGER 3

Third level Rangers can choose their Ranger Conclave (or subclass as its otherwise known.) Time to up the Z-Drive with Horizon Walker! Horizon Walkers can Detect Portals within 1 mile of them but that’s not important. What’s important is that they have Planar Warrior, letting them use their Bonus Action to make their weapon do magic (Force) damage and deliver an extra d8 damage thanks to Z-Drive Resonance! (I’ve been mentioning that a lot, haven’t I?)

You also get Primal Awareness from the Class Feature Variants UA for the ability to cast Detect Magic and Speak with Animals once per Long Rest without using a spell slot. Think you’ve got enough magic? Well Horizon Walker Spells give you Protection from Evil and Good as a Ranger spell, and you can add one more spell to your list like Jump to Phase Dive across leaps and bounds... look level 1 Ranger spells suck give me a break! Take Cure Wounds if you want something more useful!

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 6 - RANGER 4

4th level Rangers get their first Ability Score Improvement: to keep elusive and hit hard with your bat shortsword get more Dexterity.

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 5

5th level Rangers get an Extra Attack, letting them attack twice when they use the Attack action. It should be mentioned that Planar Warrior will only make your first attack forceful while your second attack will do regular damage.

You can also learn second level Ranger spells like Pass Without a Trace. You’ve got all the time in the world to sneak around, and you’ve also got all the time in the world to figure out why the Ranger spell list sucks so much where you refuse to take Healing spells. At least you get access to Beast Sense and Locate Animals or Plants thanks to Primal Awareness, and Flash (I mean Misty Step) from your Horizon Walker Spells!

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 6

At 6th level you get another ability from Deft Explorer: Canny lets you learn one skill of your choice from a given list, and get Expertise in any of those skills that you know. (That isn’t quite how it works but that’s how I make it work for convenience's sake.) Expertise in Perception will let you spot any valuable junk in the Zaun trash heaps, and Stealth proficiency will help you get away with your loot! You also learn two languages which uhhh... just pick whatever really. You’ve got plenty of time to talk to people.

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 7

7th level Horizon Walkers can phase out of time with Ethereal Step, letting them cast Eternalness for a turn once per short or long rest. Not something that Ekko can normally do but you can accomplish a lot while messing with time.

Speaking of accomplishing a lot you get another spell: Darkvision will help your regular human eyes see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Wait...

LEVEL 10 - RANGER 8

8th level Rangers get another Ability Score Improvement: max out your Dexterity to be as quick as you can when striking down your foes. You also get Land’s Stride to move through difficult terrain without using extra movement, avoid taking damage from nonmagical plants, and have advantage against magical plants. How does a kid from Zaun know his way around dangerous plants? Well you had plenty of time to read up on botany.

(Artwork by Jason Chan, Senior Concept Artist at Riot Games)

LEVEL 11 - RANGER 9

9th level Rangers get access to third level spells. With Primal Awareness you learn Speak with Plants (look, I can’t justify everything in this build. D&D isn’t Runeterra), and as a Horizon Walker you get access to Haste! You can also find your ways around the dark streets of Zaun more easily thanks to the spell Daylight.

LEVEL 12 - RANGER 10

10th level Rangers can get the last feature from Deft Explorer: Tireless lets you spend an action to give yourself temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier. You can do this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Additionally your Exhaustion goes down by 1 every time you finish a Short or Long rest.

And while Hide in Plain Sight may make more sense for Ekko, Fade Away is just so much better. You can use your Bonus Action to turn invisible for a turn! Maybe you turned back time to the DOTA days when Shadow Blade was an item you build buy? Yeah I know DOTA.

LEVEL 13 - RANGER 11

11th level Horizon Walkers can finally Phase Dive with Distant Strike! When you take the Attack action, you can teleport up to 10 feet before each attack to an unoccupied space you can see. Additionally, if you attack at least two different creatures with the action, you can make a three hit combo against a third creature!

You can also learn another spell at this level, and while there are a lot of options to choose from I’d personally suggest some magic resistance. Protection from Energy will let you put on an Adaptive Helm to resist a certain type of elemental damage.

LEVEL 14 - RANGER 12

12th level Rangers get an Ability Score Improvement and since your Dexterity is maxed out now would be a good time to hit the books and increase your Intelligence!

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 15 - WIZARD 3

Hey remember when we took levels in Wizard way back at levels 1 and 2? Well third level Wizards can learn 2nd level Wizard spells! Blur will make it harder for an enemy to hit you unless they can sense where you really are, and if you want even more chances to turn back time Fortune’s Favor is a spell reserved to Chronurgy Wizards (and Graviturgy Wizards) that lets them give themselves or an ally some more time with an extra d20 to roll in case they’re in danger!

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get another Ability Score Improvement: more Intelligence will help with all the time manipulation.

You can also add another 2 spells to your spellbook, and you learn another cantrip! Sapping Sting is a Dunamancy-specific cantrip and it can make your opponent trip! If you want to be even harder to hit Mirror Image will let your time doubles do some distracting for you, and if you want to shake off the time police Nystul’s Magic Aura will make it easy to fool the Pilties.

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 5

5th level Wizards can learn third level spells: you can already speed up time with Haste but Slow will let you do the opposite to your foes! But if you want to Phase Dive around the battle field some more at risk of glitching out time Blink is the spell for you! "The timeline was already this broken when I found it. I swear."

LEVEL 18 - WIZARD 6

Isn’t it funny how it took this long to get Parallel Convergence’s stun? Momentary Stasis takes an action to force a large or smaller creature to make a Constitution save or be unable to move. The effect ends if they take damage or at the end of your next turn, but that should be plenty of time to either set up or run. You can do this a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier and regain all uses at the end of a Long Rest.

Speaking of stuns: Hold Person from second level will let you stun an enemy for quite awhile, and you can still hit them! But if you want to turn back your opponent’s spells? Good ol’ Counterspell.

LEVEL 19 - WIZARD 7

7th level Wizards can learn 4th level spells: to travel far and get out of danger Dimension Door will let you warp out of the way. If you want some protection from time warping around you Intellect Fortress is an Unearthed Arcana spell that gives resistance to psychic damage, as well as advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.

LEVEL 20 - WIZARD 8

Our capstone is the 8th level of Wizard for your last Ability Score Improvement: if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your time manipulation increase your Intelligence, but if you want more combat features from Ranger Wisdom will give you more charges for those abilities.

And you can grab your last two free Wizard spells. After this you’ll have to (gasp!) read! For some retributive damage Fire Shield will make you foes think twice about hitting you. But if you want to bring your foes back to the future look no further than Polymorph, to turn people into dinosaurs!

WHAT I DIDN’T USE

Just a quick mention of some of the options I didn’t use for this build, since I think that a lot of questions will be asked about them:

Echo Knight - Sort of the first thing you think of because... you know... Ekko Knight? But truth is that while Ekko gets a time clone for some of his abilities he doesn’t really use the clone to fight? If you want a time fighter that uses clones however I would suggest my Isaac build (Skullgirls)

Divination Wizard - Some people (especially those without Wildemount) might ask why I picked Chronurgy Wizard over Divination. I mean other than the fact that Chronurgy is literally the time Wizard? Well other than that it’s because while you can reverse time you don’t know the outcome of all fights. Adding intelligence to your Initiative also works to simulate Ekko’s speed.

Artificer - Ekko builds his own stuff but put bluntly none of the Artificers really fit his abilities. He doesn’t make potions, doesn’t have a robot dog, definitely doesn’t have a gun, and certainly doesn’t have an Iron Man suit. (That’s on Viktor!)

FINAL BUILD

PROS

This is how we say “hello” in Zaun - You aren’t exactly the most damaging combatant, but you have tons of tricks to up your DPS, all while keeping safe yourself.

Show me something new! - Investing in both mental stats means you’ve got some really good skills. 24 passive perception, anyone?

One more time! - Who would’ve guessed the ability to rewind time would be a lifesaver? Five rerolls per day, three of which you can pick the result from means that you should never be rolling bad. And you aren’t even a Halfling!

CONS

Good a time as any to act reckless - Double the spellcasters means that you can’t get the best of both stats. While it isn’t a big deal since most of your spells are buffs your low Wisdom score means that you won’t be able to use your Ranger features very often.

That worked in another timeline - Wizard levels and a neutral Constitution score means that your health is subpar to say the least. Rewinding won’t save you from Power Word Kill.

I need to rethink a couple things - In order to get Momentary Stasis we had to skip over Spectral Defense from Horizon Walker level 15. Truthfully while Momentary Stasis is nice for a stun you would’ve been far better off further honing your combat skills: the extra Rewinds from Chronurgy 2 was already more than enough of a boost.

But Zaunites know how to work with what they’ve got. Make the best out of a bad situation and use your wit to outsmart any foe! And maybe chat with the Rogues and the Fighters to see if they’d like some time to be Bards? If you move too fast it’ll be like moving in slow-mo.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

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