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maeamian · 6 years

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Some D&D theorycrafting for y’all, since unearthed arcana came out with a playable centaur I wanted to take a look at the mounted combatant/sentinel combo in that context. It’s probably gonna be a bit wordy so here’s a cut underneath which it is (sorry mobile users):

So my current dude is a dwarven druid, and one of the interesting paths you can take with the moon druid is specing into full time mount duties for a qualified rider, but the key to that long term is the rider taking mounted combatant and the druid taking sentinel. The rider gets advantage on attacks against creatures smaller than their mount, which is pretty nice, and can force attacks directed at the mount to instead be directed at them. The mount meanwhile gets an improved evasion where they take half spell damage on failed saves and none on successful ones. Sentinel meanwhile gives you an attack of opportunity against creatures who attack your allies and hitting with an AoO means their speed for the turn becomes 0.

A rider with mounted combatant provides a huge amount of frontline survivability to an otherwise squishy mount, which in the druid’s case means fewer burnt wild shapes and better damage output, but for a centaur it means you can put a normally squishy character on the frontline with a much more limited risk than usual, since mounted combatant provides good cover against both attack and spell damage, excepting pretty much the no save spells like magic missile. It’s not quite as good for the rider here as it is for the druid who has access to very big shapes while a centaur is gonna be the same size barring an enlarge spell. Sentinel in a mounted target meanwhile means that your rider is constantly drawing attacks meant for you which in turn means you get to use your attack of opportunity every single turn and it has the added bonus of forcing lockdown by setting that target’s speed to 0, it’s helpful not essential if we don’t go a class that uses attack damage, but if we go this route we do want to keep an eye on our AoOs.

Basically what we want from this is a rider who can be the target of a lot of attacks without dying from it as well as crowd control options, your traditional tank essentially, and a centaur who can output a lot of damage or some other form of utility and take advantage of frontline positioning that they might otherwise die super hard in. What follows is a quick overview of the 12 classes and where they might fit in in all of this:

Barbarian: Raging barbarians can output a lot of damage per weapon attack, meaning that your AoO is gonna get decent value, and since barding is pricy the unarmored defense could help in the early game, but the huge hit pool is a bit redundant with the damage avoidance you’ve got. Those hitpoints make it good for a rider who will be taking more hits than usual and should armor themselves accordingly, but none of the paths really offer the combat synergy that other later options will. Overall Barb is a great frontline class, but it isn’t going to really benefit from either side of this combo.

Bard: This one’s pretty funny to imagine, consider a decked out knight charging you down on a horse whose head is a human with a fuckin’ hammered dulcimer and rage in their eyes. With the college of Valor it’s also fairly plausible, it gives you the proficiencies you need to stay safe at later levels in shields and armor and it also gives you the ability to use inspiration to improve your rider’s AC which they’ll be thankful for. The College of Swords (Xanathar’s) also offers some interesting options for combining attacks with your bardic inspiration to get some neat effects as well as some improved damage as a baseline. Not the strongest choice here, IMO, but there’s a lot to work with mechanically and concept wise.

Cleric: Clerics are generally already known for being able to kick it on the frontline without having to worry too much, so they don’t need the extra survivability as much. Clerics have access to a powerful selection of buffs and healing spells that are nice to have on hand up front, which is why they tend to be there even with their generally lower HP. The life domain is an obvious choice and makes you very good at healing and buffing, but overall I think it loses value by not being able to do other things and I don’t think it takes advantage of the combo. The War domain offers that utility in combat and provides some very nice buffs as a constant on your spell list. The Grave domain (Xan’s) offers some interesting combo options including cursing them to take double damage from your rider and turning crits against them into normal hits. Solid choice for our centaur, and there’s some excellent RP options with your rider if they’re a Pally, and an interesting choice for a rider if you’re looking to get a bit more support from that portion of the combo

Druid: Druids have a lot of spells that work good at the front like gust and vine whip, but generally want to stay back due to their prohibition on having good AC, since you’re not taking the hits you don’t need the AC, so Land druid and their stronger spell casting focus may be the way to go here. The circle of dreams (X’s) is also a good option with healing, rest protection and later on combat teleportation which you can use to get space in which to charge. The circle of shephards lets you overwhelm the front with summoned creatures and change battles with powerful totem effects to your allies. A lot of the best druid spells require concentration which means you’ll need to grab war caster too, which is a solid pickup for any caster on this list. A solid centaur choice too, but in many ways redundant.

Fighter: This is the first of our rider choices, a protection fighter lets you impose disadvantage on attacks that you don’t chose to soak, and of course fighters can put together some of the highest AC in the game, and the battlemaster archetype has some very powerful combo moves in its maneuvers, for instance pushing attack plus sentinel can strand a frontline enemy in the backline for a turn letting you charge into the backline and mess it up, while trip+sentinel lets you keep an enemy prone by leaving them without movement speed to stand up with. Cavalier (X) seems like it would be good for a mounted combatant, but ends up being fairly redundant or else unhelpful for the play style this combo encourages, since your mount won’t be taking many hits. Fighter is a very strong option for the rider, and a bit less definied in characterization than our other major rider options.

Monk: Monks are the quintessential wants to be upfront and doesn’t want to get hit class, and combos alright with your extant hoof attacks, for the first four levels your unarmed strikes are a die better than they would be, but that’s a problem regular monks can solve with a monk weapon. Even the baseline options for spending ki can do you a lot of good, the disengage bonus action can prep charges and extra attacks are nothing to sneeze at. The way of the open fist offers even more melee options as well as bonuses to your flurry of blows. Way of the shadow offers solid ambush options if your party is more built for opening bursts, as well as movement options. A very strong centaur candidate, but miss this class for your rider.

Paladin: Now here’s a fuckin class for the rider. the 6th level aura of protection improves the already excellent spell protection from mounted combatant by adding the rider’s cha bonus to saves vs spells, the healing options and high AC let the Pally kick it up front and soak those nasty shots intended for his centaur friend. Oath of the Ancients is a strong choice here with good buffs added to the spell list and can use the channel divinity to cast a targeted entangling vines. Oath of conquest (X) has powerful combat options especially for lockdown, but not everyone wants to play that character style and I get why. A generous interpretation of the Find Steed spell gives you some nice combo bonuses allowing the paladin to target the mount with self-only spells, nice if your GM allows it, but don’t be shocked if they don’t. One of the go to choices for a rider

Ranger: ,The Hunter archetype offers some really powerful combat options, especially for someone who doesn’t have to worry too much about getting hit. Monster Slayer (X) has some really strong options for dealing extra damage and punishing strong targets as well as locking down the backline once you truck your way into it. Strong choice for the centaur.

Rogue: Sneak attack reads “You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.” If you’ve got a rider you’ve always got an ally within 5 feet of your target. This is very good to get every single round. The rogue’s evasion feature is wasted here, but a your cunning action can let you zip around the battle field really fucking shit up. None of the thief archetypes really offers too much, although the thief’s second story work seems to negate the one major drawback of the centaur: garbage climbing skills. Swashbuckler (X) seems to be the only option that actively benefits the play style, but the rogue’s base kit is very strong in this anyhow so all of the archetypes are going to be somewhat viable. Alternatively, this is an interesting option for a rider who gets that sneak attack advantage and can wrangle a rather high AC out of dexterity. A great choice for our centaur and a maverick choice for the rider

Sorcerer/Wizard: WotC tried to separate these two more, but essentially these are both backline casters and have no place on the front line even in the context of this combo, they’re good to support it especially benefiting from spells like flaming sphere that hurt opponents who stay in the same place a lot, a useful member of this party perhaps but not someone who should be involved as the rider or the mount

Warlock: is pretty similar to the above, but offers one somewhat interesting frontline option in the Pact of the Blade, particularly down the Fiend path. Their play style is to get hit and deal out massive retribution through hexes and curses, so in this context you’d want them as the rider more than as a mount. That means you’re going to want a more supportive class like cleric on the mount to make sure that as they’re taking in the hits they’re also staying up. The hexblade version might work for your centaur

A few generic notes if you’re considering this route: First, the strength of the feat combo runs on AoOs so you want to be careful about things that use your reaction to do things other than hit. Secondly, since this feat is best applied on single strong targets, you’ll want to make sure you or your parties have some strong AoE options to deal with larger groups of enemies

Anyhow, this has been one person’s thoughts about an fun D&D roleplaying thing you can do and how to make it mechanically powerful, by no means am I an expert except that I’ve thought about this sort of thing a lot. It definitely has the opportunity for a very cool interpersonal dynamic for the two of you in addition to some of the best single target lockdown available in the game.

#Dungeons and Dragons #Unearthed Arcana #I'm open to discussion and suggestions on the topic if you have other thoughts

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fullmetalirin · 6 years

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Fullmetal Alchemist OG: Episode 10

The flashback is over, but the filler is not.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 10: "The Phantom Thief"

After exposing Cornello in Lior as a fraud, the Elrics are on their way back to report to Mustang about the incident. They stop at the town of Aquroya where Ed gets treated for a stomach bug. That's where he and Al meets a kind and patient nurse who reminds Al of their mother. After being discharged from the hospital, Ed gets caught up in the manhunt for a talented cat burglar named Psiren, who uses her skills as an alchemist to repeatedly fool the local police. It turns out the cat burglar is the nurse and she convinces them she's stealing to raise money to prevent the hospital from being torn down. It soon becomes apparent she's not giving the money to the hospital after it gets demolished (and she repeats the same excuse with two other buildings). Al gives her the benefit of the doubt because he saw how kind she was and they find out she does help the city in an indirect way; she draws in tourists. Ed finally manages to catch her and Al isn't necessarily happy about it. In the end, the crafty Psiren escapes police custody.

Ed is grumpy about reporting back to Mustang, and turns over a joker card as he says his name. Ha! The anime is good at subtle visual gags like that.

We get a flashback to Liore and the fake stone. Justified, as it actually has been a lot of episodes since then.

Al insists they did a lot of good even if the stone was a bust, but Ed doesn't care.

Al urges Ed not to stop at the town, but once again Ed ignores him. Ed flippantly jokes that they might find something about the Stone so it won't be a wasted trip.

Ed's sleeve slips, and a bunch of aces fall out. So that's how he won all the card games! Hilarity.

And we cut to this episode's villain using cards as weapons! Ah, clever!

Psiren appears to trigger an alchemic glyph remotely, which doesn't seem kosher.

Ed cleans the mud off himself with alchemy. It appears to just disappear. It's possible he did the "stop at breaking it down" trick, but he seems surprised to learn that later, so that's doubtful.

Ed is stuffing his face during the interrogation. Al leaves his bowl untouched. When he's done, he takes Al's bowls too. I'm loving this gag.

When Ed gets sick, Al makes a crack about if it's from eating too much. OMG. I think the writers love the gag as much as I do.

And when the inspector calls Ed back they give him an entire table of noodles oh my god XD

Ed sees Psiren as "yet another" way to use alchemy for evil, which is a good way to show he's been affected by everything he's seen so far. There's subtle continuity, even in these filler episodes.

Psiren makes a drop of water fall from the ceiling (or possibly phases it through), which then explodes into a smoke bomb. I presume it might be a condensed gas, similar to what Lyra did last episode.

Psiren turns her deck of cards into a sword. It later falls apart and we see the cards flap in the wind, so she must have been doing something to strengthen them. Given that she carries them on her, she probably stored some material to let her do this.

Ed tries to pin her and grabs her boob by accident. Nooot really necessary. It's not as bad as it could be, I suppose; both of them play it pretty maturely, and Psiren isn't phased at all. Still, it’s pretty tacky that this is the only reason Psiren is able to escape.

Psiren shoots cards at Ed with alchemy. Another technique that's just energy manipulation. I don't think I like that, even if it's much more within bounds than Lyra's technique – given the focus on materials, alchemy should be more chemistry than physics.

In the hospital, Ed sees Psiren use the sigil on her chest to manipulate a flower without touching it. DOES ALCHEMY NEED PHYSICAL CONTACT OR NOT??? I'm also not clear why she needs to reveal the sigil at all; she was obviously doing alchemy with it covered up before.

There's no "LOL am I interrupting something" line when Al barges in on them even though Psiren has her shirt undone. Thank you, show.

More water manipulation: Psiren slips a tendril of water under the door and uses it to unlock the door from inside. While there’s nothing technically disproving this can be done with alchemy -- Ed animated the statue in Liore, after all -- it still feels thematically off, more physics than chemistry.

Psiren acts like there's nothing she can do when they drop a metal cage on her. Uh, transmute it? Instead Ed has to do it. I guess we're left to assume she doesn't know any other alchemy than the extremely skilled and fine-control techniques she uses regularly?

Ed whines that every crook he meets wants to tell them they're not so different, but that was really only Tucker.

How did Ed get out of the river? We don't see him gaining any ground when he flails, and the automail ought to weigh him down.

We finish with Al criticizing Ed for turning Psiren in, calling him a hypocrite because he's bent the rules before too.

Psiren needs to trick the officers into unzipping her before she can use alchemy to escape. So yes, it has to be visible. And yes, she totally knows how to break out of confinement so the cage shouldn’t have slowed her down.

Conclusion

So, not great overall. The episode was really choppy and waffling, like it didn't know what it wanted to do. Psiren's whole femme fatale thing was also a little uncomfortable, but the characters, at least, handle it well: Ed never buys into it at all, and after the first time Psiren sounds like she's only doing it sarcastically. Unfortunately, I do still think she's sexualized to an unnecessary degree.

But I think that it's worth drawing a comparison to the Youswell episode here. The contrasting styles of the anime and manga are very blatant when you see these back-to-back. Where last episode was neat, this one was messy. The heroes aren't certain if they did the right thing, and neither are we. The villain cycles through multiple narratives – you think she's bad, then you think she's good, then she's bad again, then maybe she's good, and ultimately we're never sure. To really hammer it in, even her civilian identity wears costumes. This is a story about manipulation, mysteries, uncertainty, choices. Lies and truth.

It wasn't well-executed. It was a bit too messy. But you can see what they were going for, and what narrative they're cultivating.

Even the alchemy mechanics, though wonky, aren't wonky in the same way Lyra's were. Psiren's alchemy is clever, cunning, and varied, not a flashy show of power. Its only issue is how it conflicts with the established mechanics; I'd have no problem with it if this was a standalone story.

...Well, no problem except the stipulation she needs to strip to use her powers. She was clearly using alchemy with it covered like two scenes before that was established. It’s both creepy sexualization and a gaping plot hole.

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fma 2003 #liveblog

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