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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #41: Stheno

Welcome back to Fate and Phantasms, where we’re bringing every single servant in FGO to life in D&D 5e! Today we’re building the middlest gorgon sister, Eury- wait, no, wrong one. Today we’re building the oldest sister, Stheno! Stheno has a lot of similarities with her younger sister, but there’s still enough wiggle room to make her own build. Stheno’s a Bard/Sorcerer mix (Sord? Barcerer?) with, surprise surprise, an emphasis on charming foes.

As always, you can check out a spreadsheet for the build here, or read the level-by-level breakdown below the cut!

Race and Background

Like her sisters before her (after her? putting the eldest sister last is a weird design choice), Stheno is a Yuan-Ti Pureblood for the sake of the snake. This gives her +1 Intelligence and +2 Charisma. She also has Magic Resistance, giving her advantage on saves against magic and halving damage taken from magic, 60′ of Darkvision, Poison Immunity, and Innate Spellcasting which we’ll get to at the levels its relevant. Like Euryale, Stheno’s background is kind of a problem to make faithfully, as “Goddess” isn’t typically how adventurers get started. To fit with her personality, we’re also making Stheno a Charlatan, giving her proficiency in Deception and Sleight of Hand.

Stats

Charisma is going to be your highest stat, for obvious reasons. You also can’t prey on peoples’ insecurities if you don’t know what they are, so Wisdom is next. Your schemes rely more on magical manipulation that actual planning, but your physical stats are even worse, so Intelligence is next. After that is Dexterity, you’re not really nimble, but you’re kind of small so you’re harder to hit. After that is Constitution because I’m not dumping that no matter how weak you’re supposed to be. Finally, dump Strength. It’s not you, and we don’t need it anyway.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: You’re a pretty face that insists goofing off is somehow helping the party, and that’s a Bard to a T. First level bards get proficiency in Dexterity and Charisma Saves, as well as three skills of your choice: here, they’re Persuasion, Insight, and Performance. They also get Spellcasting based on their charisma, as well as Bardic Inspiration, d6 you can throw at people when they aren’t working hard enough for your benefit. They come back on long rests. As a Yuan-Ti, you also learn the Poison Spray cantrip and can cast Animal Friendship at will, as long as you’re targeting snakes thanks to your innate spellcasting. These spells, and others you get from innate spellcasting, also use charisma.

For spells, grab Friends and Vicious Mockery as cantrips. Vicious Mockery is the closest thing you’ll have to an attack for a good 14 levels, so you better practice acting haughty now. For proper spells, grab Bane to make life harder for your enemies and Heroism to make life easier for your friends. Friend. Sorry. Also, pick up Unearthly Chorus and Puppet from Unearthed Arcana. The former gives you background music that gives you advantage on performance checks, and you can use your bonus action while concentrating on the spell to try and charm creatures who can hear your music. The creature makes a charisma save, and on a failure becomes friendly for up to an hour after the music stops. You can make deception and persuasion checks against creatures made friendly this way with advantage. The latter forces one humanoid to make a constitution save, and on a fail you can make the creature move up to its speed in a direction you choose. You can also make them drop whatever they’re holding. Creatures immune to being charmed are also immune to this spell.

Bards are really frontloaded for abilities, and having to explain two UA spells didn’t help. Don’t worry, the rest of the levels will be shorter.

2. Bard 2: Second level bards become a Jack of All Trades, adding half their proficiency to ability checks they aren’t proficient in. You also get a Song of Rest, adding a d6 to healing being done during short rests. Grab Cure Wounds for your spell at this level. Nobody will call your build selfish! (Mostly because you won’t let them.)

3. Bard 3: You gain Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus with them. Your Deception and Persuasion are your strongest traits, so now they’re even better. Normally this would be due to your magical interference, but expertise is a much more efficient way of showing this. You also graduate from the College of Glamour like your sister, giving you a Mantle of Inspiration. You can spend an inspiration die to give a number of creatures equal to your charisma modifier 5 temporary hitpoints, and they can react to move up to their speed without causing attacks of opportunity. The number of THP you hand out increases by 3 at level 5, 10, and 15.

You also gain an Enthralling Performance. Once per short rest, you can perform for at least 1 minute, forcing a number of creatures equal to your charisma modifier to make a wisdom save. Creatures that fail are your loving slaves for up to an hour, or until you attack it or its allies. if the creature succeeds on its save, it doesn’t realize you tried to charm it.

Your innate spellcasting gives you another spell, Suggestion, that you can cast once per long rest. For your bard spell, grab Enhance Ability to help out your other self.

4. Bard 4: Use your first ASI to improve your Charisma for stronger spells. Also, pick up the Light cantrip to get proper lighting for your stage 4 art, and the Enthrall spell: you’re already the center of your own world, might as well be the center of someone else’s too.

5. Sorcerer 1: You may be a pretty face, but your magical power comes from your Divine Soul. This means the Spells you get from being a sorcerer can come from the sorcerer or cleric spell list, and in either case they use charisma for casting. You’re also Favored by the Gods, ironically, letting you add 2d4 to failed saving throws or attacks once per short rest. Grab Message to keep in touch with your sisters, Minor Illusion to mess with Medusa, and Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy for when you need some theatrics. For first level spells, grab Charm Person, which we shockingly hadn’t had yet, and Purify Food and Drink. Sure you can’t be poisoned anyway, but why put up with the insult?

6. Sorcerer 2: You become a Font of Magic, gaining a number of sorcery points equal to your sorcerer level. Right now they can only be used to make more spell slots, but you’ll get other uses for them in a bit. You can also now perform Ceremonies in your name, ranging from coming of age to marriage. I don’t normally tell people how to play their character, but please: don’t mix this with a charm spell, the rest of the party will think you’re creepy.

7. Sorcerer 3: You can now use those sorcery points from last level to perform Metamagic: ways to enhance your spells as you see fit. Grab Subtle Spell because taking over a person’s mind isn’t nearly as fun when they know it’s happening and Heightened Spell to eat up your DM’s legendary resistances.

Grab Blindness/Deafness because instant death spells aren’t available yet, so the suite of instant “no more fighting for you” spells are the best we have.

8. Sorcerer 4: Use your ASI to maximize your Charisma and bump up your Dexterity as well. Grab Mending to fix up your dress for ascensions and Hold Person for another way to shut someone out of a fight.

9. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers get third level spells, including Bestow Curse. You’re so beautiful your foes have trouble fighting you! It’s mostly because you curse them, but you insist it’s the beauty thing.

10. Bard 5: Your inspiration dice improve to d8s, and you become a Font of Inspiration. Now you regain inspiration on short rests as well. Grab Fast Friends, because there’s no charm spell we’re not getting this time around. Like a lot of charm spells, this forces a wisdom save on one humanoid, and on a failure it will do whatever you ask of it as long as it’s in a friendly manner. Tasks that cause harm to it or goes against its nature allow the creature to make another save, and fighting the creature gives it advantage. Asking the creature t do something that will obviously kill it immediately ends the spell. Otherwise, it lasts for up to an hour with concentration, and the creature knows you charmed it afterwards.

11. Bard 6: You can now use a Countercharm to bring the rest of your party up to the level you’re on naturally as an action. You also learn to make a Mantle of Majesty from the college of glamour. You use a bonus action to transform yourself into an unearthly beauty and cast Command. For up to a minute while you’re concentrating on the mantle you can use your bonus action to cast command again, and creatures who are charmed by you have disadvantage on command saves. You can use this feature once per long rest.

For your spell, grab Enemies Abound, because frankly having only one way to cause damage to creatures is really boring. What are you, a fighter?

12. Bard 7: Seventh level bards get fourth level spells, and you get Charm Monster. Charming Asterios might seem tempting, but then Euryale will get on your case, and she has an actual weapon. Best to save it for Medusa then.

13. Bard 8: Odd numbers are terrible, and we might as well get something else for our troubles, so for this ASI take the Tasha’s feat Practiced Expert to add one to your Dexterity, gain proficiency in Animal Handling to connect with your dear sister, and gain expertise in Insight to find her insecurities even more easily.

For your spell this level, grab Confusion. Sure it’s a bit random, but you can hit a lot of creatures with it if they’re bunched together.

14. Bard 9: Your song of rest improves to a d8, and you get your first 5th level spell Dominate Person. Charming a person is nice, but sometimes you need a finer touch, you know?

15. Bard 10: At tenth level, your inspiration becomes a bunch of d10s, and you get another round of Expertise. You have three skills that haven’t been expertised yet and one of them is a joke, so enhance your Sleight of Hand and Performance skills. Finally, at this level you get Magical Secrets, two spells from any spell list. We’ve gotten a lot of charms, but not a lot of vampirism so far. Fix that with Vampiric Touch and Enervation. Also, grab Mage Hand so you don’t need Medusa to grab stuff off the top shelf. You’ll still use her to do that of course, but now you don’t need her to do it.

16. Bard 11: Grab Mass Suggestion as your first 6th level spell, because the only thing better than getting a small crowd to love you is making a large crowd love you.

17. Bard 12: For your last ASI, grab some extra Wisdom. No real reason for it, but the boost to your wisdom save is nice.

18. Bard 13: Your song of rest improves to a d10 as well. Also, grab your 7th level spell, Project Image. Why travel all the way to where you’re supposed to be charming people when you can just send an illusion instead? You can’t cast spells through it, but there’s no distance limit on your Enthralling Performance, so you’ve got a loophole.

19. Bard 14: You get another round of Magical Secrets and your final glamour bard feature Unbreakable Majesty. Once again, you can use your bonus action to transform into a more perfect version of yourself, and anything foolish enough to attack you needs to make a charisma save vs. your spell save. On a fail they can’t attack you, and must choose a new target. On a success, they can attack you this turn, but they have disadvantage on your spell saves next turn. You can use this feature once per short rest.

We’ve gotten more than enough charm spells to last a lifetime, so I think we can get a bit monstrous, as a treat. In real life mythology, Stheno was even more vicious than her sisters, so for your magical secrets grab Flesh to Stone because you’re still a gorgon after all and Tenser’s Transformation. It’s like a barbarian’s rage, but terrible because it’s attached to you. It even gives you a level of exhaustion after using it. Is this remotely canonical in FGO? Not really, but frankly she deserves to turn into a monster a little bit.

20. Bard 15: With your capstone level, your inspiration dice max out as d12s. You also get your 8th level spell Glibness, just in case you weren’t good enough at charisma rolls yet.

Pros: Metamagic and bard spells together is a very powerful combination. A lot of your charm spells effectively end a fight, and you can impose disadvantage on creatures giving you trouble more or less at will. Also, thanks to your vampirism and mantles, you’re slightly harder to kill than your 98 hp would suggest.

Cons: You have 98 HP. On top of that, most charms require concentration to function, meaning you’ll have to pick your targets carefully. Plenty of enemies also have immunity to being charmed, meaning you’ll spend most of the fight yelling at them while the rest of the party does the work. Finally, multiclassing unlocks a lot of power for you but it comes at the cost of not getting 9th level spells like Wish, and that’s always going to feel bad.

In a worst case scenario, you and the other you can always run off with your mantles of inspiration and let your big little sister take care of things. Don’t worry, she’s used to it by now.

Next up: An assassin with a very ironic NP name, all things considered.

#fgo #Fate Grand Order #DnD 5e #Stheno #Fate and Phantasms

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salavante · 5 years

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If you're still doing the OC asks, Patroklos?

So Pat is actually @saltineofswing‘s character, so I drew him, but Jacob filled out the questionnaire. And it’s super duper beefy - it’s pretty much an entire rundown of what the Threnghelleon muses are, how Patroklos operates, what his powerset and backstory is. So if you’re in the mood for some world building written by my better half and Co-DM, indulge. (My questionnaire for Wybjorn was filled out like five months ago, before Patroklos existed in the fiction, so I’ll take the opportunity now to say that I also am very into Pat and Wybie as a couple).

Full Name: Patroklos, Poetic Muse of the House of Camaraderie

Gender and Sexuality: Male, Bisexual

Pronouns: He/Him, but like with a couple of the other stranger members of the Threnghelen sphere of divines, probably wouldn’t be put off by They/Them

Ethnicity/Species: Patroklos is a Threnghelen Muse, a race of beings that were created by the Threnghelen Pantheon and tasked with bringing inspiration, hope, motivation, and sometimes madness to the mortals of Threnghelleon and its Dominion. The race of beings known as the Threnghelen Muse is assumed by all members of Threnghelen society (save a very select and clever few) to be some sort of lesser deity; in the same way the members of the Circle of Glory were born when Jovix Diocunigast first experienced various emotions and conceptualized various ideas, the Muses supposedly popped up when mortalkind began to conceptualize complex ideas.

This is not true.

The Muses are actually a strange race of ‘quasi-real’ beings from the Unknown that feed off of emotions and other similar existential experiences, which is hard to explain; they can’t manifest in the physical world and can only be seen by gods and other divine beings. They’re really more like tulpas than anything else. Threnghelleon has a series of Houses and Bloodlines into which the Muses are organized, based on the domain over which they hold sway (and therefore the things they feed on); the Bloodlines are Dramatic, Poetic, Sacred, Epic, and Tragic. The Houses are the House of Pain, the House of Conflict, the House of Camaraderie, the House of Love, the House of Lore (or ‘history’), the House of Innovation, and lastly the House of Fear. Muses of the Epic and Tragic bloodlines are naturally more powerful than the others due to Threnghelleon’s system of values, and Muses of the Sacred bloodline become more powerful when tasked by a divine being.

The Muses of the House of Fear are the oldest Muses on Threnghelleon... and are also the strangest and most powerful. They’re the ones responsible for creating the others, developing the lie about what their race actually is, and had some very interesting early influences on Threnghelleon. More about that another time.

Patroklos is, as mentioned above, the Poetic Muse of Camaraderie; he is Also, incidentally, the Sacred Muse of Camaraderie. It’s not super unusual for a Muse to have two domains, but Pat is a bit special because Sacred, Epic, and Tragic muses are rarely double-classed, so to speak. He also doesn’t know that he’s actually a descendent of an extradimensional eldritch thoughtform.

Birthplace and Birthdate: Some time in the early ages of Threnghelen mortal history, after the conveyance of a spark from the Flame of Kaer Rhûndor to mortalkind and before the Red Age that spiraled out of the Bloodbath of Warns. Like many other Muses, Patroklos was created when some of the members of the Circle of Glory had a ‘spark of inspiration’... in other words, the Muses of the House of Fear planted the idea in the heads of the Threnghelen pantheon. As far as the Gods know, the Muses were ‘crafted’ in a secret forge somewhere on the White Hill, aka purgatory. The truth is a lot weirder and more gross.

Guilty Pleasures: Patroklos is not a terribly guilty person. He is very Shakespearean (all of the Muses are, they’re kind of like a Shakespearean chorus) in his temperament and preferences, and has sort of a classical stage actor’s grace and manner. Patroklos is effectively a phantasm, a being that lives exclusively in the Veil who is unable to directly manifest on the Mortal Coil, and so he’s never experienced eating or drinking or sleeping or any of the things that flesh-and-blood critters require.

But, Patroklos is very fond of watching people; the Muses have nothing to do with their time besides watch people, and if that sounds creepy it very much is! Patroklos is very nosy, he likes to eavesdrop and is a bit of a gossip, and watches people he likes more than he probably should. Whenever Patroklos and Wybjorn talk, because it’s usually in a dream, Patroklos usually goes on one ‘You won’t remember this when you wake up, BUT’ tangent and gossips about stuff he shouldn’t. Patroklos likes to watch people living their lives and going about their day-to-day. It’s something he, as an incorporeal spirit, doesn’t get to experience, and so he lives vicariously through others.

Phobias: Dying! Patroklos is in kind of a precarious spot right now. Threnghelen Muses can be killed, it’s just very very hard to do – and not only that, you have to kill them not once but twice. First, a Muse must be killed, usually by a divine being or enchanted weapon. They then become a Choral Spectre, trapped in the Veil or the Astral Plane, and they slowly lose the ability to leech energy off of their associated domain. In this state, a Muse is not only vulnerable to all of the nightmarish beings in the Unknown (where thoughtforms are made as real as anything in the Unknown can get), but also slowly starves to death. Patroklos is Once-Dead after appearing to Ethem-Cailo in a dream and trying to convince him to return to a more righteous path, and Ethem-Cailo had a tantrum and accidentally ‘smashed’ Patroklos with Mjolnir. Now, Patroklos is trapped in the Unknown, hiding from both the Helmsman and the many ghosts, horrifying Leviathans, and other monsters that the Glorious Incandesca attracts as the Wild Hunt skips from dimension to dimension.

Patroklos is also deathly afraid of being forgotten, as most Muses are; this sort of ties into his fear of death, but a ‘Forgotten’ Muse will eventually become a Choral Spectre and die anyway. Patroklos and the other Muses of Camaraderie were mostly utilized by Ethem-Cailo during his glory days as the God of Aspiration, but Patroklos saw less and less play as time went on and Ethem-Cailo became more bitter and nasty until he stopped being called on by Ethem-Cailo at all. By the time the Wild Hunt rolled around most of the Muses went undirected by the Gods, doing whatever weird bullshit they wanted and inspiring mortals however they saw fit, and Patroklos was kind of seen as an oddball by his siblings because he never indulged that chaotic impulse and preferred to be summoned before meddling in the mortal world. As a result? Not a ton of friends.

What They Would Be Famous For: Patroklos is, as all beings in the Threnghelen Pantheon, revered by the mortals of Threnghelleon. Patroklos was one of the more popular Muses of the House of Camaraderie, especially before and after the Red Age, and had a couple of shrines devoted solely to him – an honor usually bestowed only upon Epic and Tragic Muses, and Muses that were direct children of one of the Circle of Glory. This is partially because of his frequent partnership with Ethem-Cailo; the two were very good friends, and Patroklos was the Muse responsible for helping him with the famous Squiring of Raske Callhand – an extremely famous championship boxer/wrestler and the first mortal to receive a favor from the gods.

Additionally, Patroklos was one of the main Muses who helped Ethem-Cailo to develop the Art of Bardic Knowledge ability, by which an individual can tap into the poetic narrative of a ‘real-world’ event and verbally convey it with a magical visual accompaniment. The other involved Muses – the twin children of Awnrah, Feste and Fidele, Epic and Tragic muses of House Lore – were plenty helpful and ostensibly more powerful than Patroklos, but Patroklos put in the most time and effort on the project, who really wanted to bring Ethem-Cailo’s vision to life. As a result, he is usually cited as one of the primary creators of the art, even to this day.

What They Would Be Arrested For: Trespassing, evading/resisting arrest. Probably can’t get ARRESTED for this per se, but he might be the type of person who could get in hot legal water for breach of nondisclosure contract.

OC You Ship Them With: Wybjorn, full stop. Patroklos had a thing for Ethem-Cailo way back in the day, an unspoken crush that he never acted on and then squashed when Ethem-Cailo began so aggressively and pointedly denying his attraction to men after the Raske Callhand Fiasco. He never really got over it, even when Ethem-Cailo joined the Wild Hunt and started becoming a shittier and shittier person; Patroklos sees Wybjorn as another chance to connect with an old friend, in a way, and Wybjorn has a lot of the best aspects of Ethem-Cailo that made them such good friends in the first place. When Wybjorn tells Jovix-Cailo that Jovix-Cailo is the one who ‘stole his life’, and not the other way around, Patroklos is one of the things included in that umbrella. Now that Wybjorn is free of Ethem-Cailo’s influence and is developing into his own person, Patroklos can reforge a relationship with a person he has missed dearly, and who has in turn missed him just as much.

Patroklos also risked his life to bring Wybjorn back from the boundary to the White Hill after Jovix-Cailo almost killed him in the massive battle at the end of the Hunt, painstakingly breaking into the afterlife to drag Wybjorn’s soul away from death like some kind of super-romantic Orpheus and Eurydice bullshit. As seen in this illustration. If Patroklos had been noticed by Yawg-Cherogmoth, Keeper of Souls and guardian of the afterlife, he would have been exorcised with extreme prejudice.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Ethem-Cailo killed him, on accident, in a dream – which as described above has actual consequences for a Muse. But aside from that, Patroklos spent a LOT of time hiding from the Helmsman and other gods who could see into the Veil or the Astral Plane; if the Helmsman had caught a whiff of Patroklos skulking about in the Unknown while the Incandesca traveled from dimension to dimension, he probably would have pulled Patroklos apart just for funzies. Wybjorn was also genuinely concerned that Corvicarius, the Head Bitch In Charge God Of The Unknown Everywhere on Road-Prime, might just squash Patroklos like a bug for having rode in with the Wild Hunt and being a foreign being. Corvicarius assured Wybjorn that, especially because Patroklos helped save Wybjorn, Patroklos was safe so long as he didn’t fuck around with anything too important.

Favorite Book/Movie Genre: Anything with an extremely strong through-line of friendship and camaraderie. Patroklos enjoys a good romance as much as the next person, but he just loves it when two characters have that Unbreakable Bond and don’t need to have a romantic tryst in order to validate their relationship or dedicate their lives to one another. It’s literally the equivalent of fine dining to him.

Least Favorite Book/Movie Cliche: When someone is only providing love, friendship, and support with a clear sexual or romantic motivation. That shit is scummy. He also doesn’t like when one person has a painful crush on their best friend, but lets it go untended and then dies or loses their chance and has to live with the heartbreak. That one just hits kinda close to home.

Talents and/or Powers: The Muses all have a really peculiar selection of powers, and Patroklos is no exception. Most of the Muses’ powers are more suited to subterfuge and manipulation, and don’t really lend themselves to an out-and-out fight.

For starters, Patroklos’s natural state is one of invisibility and intangibility; if Patroklos somehow makes his way into a physical body he’ll lose his ability to become invisible, but the ability to become intangible is one he’ll never lose. Even then, he’ll still be very talented in the art of astral projection.

As a Muse of the House of Camaraderie, Patroklos has an affinity for ‘inspiring’ others in ways that bolster friendships and forge bonds. Individuals may find, while Patroklos is around, that diplomacy becomes much easier to achieve, group infighting is at a minimum, and compromise becomes easy. He is good at soothing tense situations and his suggestions, as they pertain to building positive bonds/smoothing over aggression/stabilizing relationships, are supernaturally difficult to ignore. But that’s not all he can do – it’s just what he prefers to do. All Threnghelen Muses are capable of, effectively, performing inceptions on people; planting a seed of an idea in someone’s mind, so seamlessly and flawlessly that they can’t distinguish it from their own idea, is the truest and most sinister power of a Threnghelen Muse, and Patroklos has used this power to his advantage and the advantage of Ethem-Cailo liberally in the halcyon days of Threnghelleon’s society. A Muse’s silver (golden) tongue is nothing to underestimate. At their most powerful they could even ‘inspire’ oh, I don’t know, the most powerful and Glorious god in the universe...

Otherwise, Patroklos has a minor ability to manipulate certain probabilities; he can influence events to maximize the amount of ‘camaraderie’ that is displayed by the individuals involved, such as altering the path of a bullet just enough to keep someone from dying in the act of sacrificing themselves for another, or ensuring that a strike made to avenge or protect a fallen comrade hits true. He could influence the ease with which someone rushing to the aide of a friend or loved one arrives at their destination, or keep someone with ill intentions (or bad timing!) from screwing up a tender moment between friends by impeding their progress. This power is relatively weak and can be easily superseded by more powerful divine domains – such as Glory’s ability to never lose, or Derog’s influence on the outcome of a conflict, or Ethem-Cailo’s ability to ensure someone achieves their aspirations. But this particular ability skyrockets in effectiveness when he is tasked by a divine being... which is why he and Wybjorn/Ethem-Cailo made such a good team.

Patroklos is capable of appearing to people in dreams and, while doing so, can control their level of lucidity and what they do or don’t remember about what occurs while he’s visiting – as I mentioned earlier, he starts a lot of really catty gossip digressions with ‘You won’t remember I said this when you wake up, BUT–‘.

When it comes to stuff that doesn’t have to do with his House or Bloodlines, Patroklos is an incredibly powerful teleporter – he can teleport almost indefinite ranges across spacetime and, more impressively, interdimensionally. Patroklos teleported from The Veil outside of Road Prime all the way to the Threnghelen afterlife without making a pit-stop in the Threnghelen mortal coil, which is an extremely difficult and precision jump that he was able to pull off (there and back, in fact) intuitively, without assistance, and without screwing up.

(Fun fact: when a Threnghelen muse teleports, their body goes first, and their eyes and teeth go last – so for a moment as their body fades away like a ghost, their giant golden eyes and teeth remain hanging in midair before they, too, disappear.)

Patroklos is technically a race of being native to the Unknown, and not hailing from any particular planar cluster; as a result he has an innate knowledge of how to travel in the Unknown. Which might not sound very impressive, but consider: the Unknown is a literal nonsense place, where the laws of physics conditionally rely on the perception of the individuals moving through it. The Unknown works off of dream logic and is endless. If you get lost in the Unknown, you are doomed to wander aimlessly forever until you forget who you are, where you came from, and what you were doing in the first place. So, the ability to intuitively find your way in the Unknown is an absolute necessity to traversing it.

Touching on the above, Patroklos can also just... make people get lost. He discovered this ability while hiding from monsters in the Unknown. You could be standing in your front yard and walk to the mailbox... and then you’d find yourself saddled with the unsettling horizontal vertigo of not knowing where you are or where to go, and wander the perimeter of your lawn for an hour and a half until the fugue state wore off and everything was suddenly familiar again.

Patroklos is also a talented shapeshifter, capable of transforming into a near-flawless imitation of any person that he has seen before, regardless of how much taller or shorter they are (within reason); he can also mimic voices so long as he’s heard them, and although it’s not part of the power set Patroklos is a naturally gifted mimic – he’s good at picking up body language, verbal and physical tics, and mannerisms, and that’s just a personal trait of his. The one problem with his powers: no matter who he changes into, his insides will always be made of gold. This is an ability that didn’t see much play back when the Muses were confined to Threnghelleon, but out in the Unknown any advantage is an advantage. Patroklos does have a ‘True Form’, additionally; it’s something rather terrifying, to the point that Patroklos explicitly told Wybjorn not to look at him while he tore his way into the White Hill to save his soul from crossing over. Based on the horrific ripping, grinding, and clicking noises, Wybjorn gauged later that obeying this request was the right choice.

(We’re almost done here, I promise, but I’m a perfectionist with this stuff.)

As long as Patroklos is in a spectral form, he is actually capable of possessing a mortal or a weak enough divine being or manifested spirit. It’s a difficult thing to maintain, and he can’t do any of his other tricks while possessing someone, but even in his current state it’s very doable.

LASTLY, Patroklos is one of the best in the game at utilizing Bardic Knowledge. By invoking Bardic Knowledge, Patroklos is capable of tapping into the ‘narrative’ of an event, a conflict, or the history of a person/place/thing. In this way Patroklos has a sort of limited omniscience; he can ‘feel out’ how things are going to go, or why things have happened, especially as it pertains to interpersonal conflict between friends. Like a lot of stuff that is related to or touched by the Unknown, Patroklos is very good at Knowing Things He Shouldn’t as a general sense, but it has a lot to do with the choral element of his being and his Bardic Knowledge – the narrator needs to know a lot of what is going on, and when Patroklos inhabits the role of the Unseen Narrator he can grasp the narrative in a very complete way, even if he isn’t completely omniscient. This is also helped by his ability to invisibly watch people from the Veil and his ability to move from place to place almost instantaneously.

Why Someone Might Love Them: Patroklos is unfalteringly loyal, has a great (if slightly strange) sense of humor, and is extremely supportive and optimistic. He’s really FUNNY. He’s got a rapier wit and has a very complex grasp of wordplay and humor. He’s very charming and crafty, but he is not very pretentious or self-inflated and is quite humble. In familiar company he’s boisterous and fun-loving, even if he’s a little shy around new people. He’s very good at conveying information and loves to tell stories. Patroklos has big theatre kid energy, he’s very dramatic and playful. He tends to be very earnest, is open with his feelings, and listens very well, but he’s not blunt and does his best to phrase things positively instead of negatively.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: Patroklos is a HUGE gossip. A detrimentally huge gossip. Although I think he could keep his lip zipped if somebody told him some kind of huge secret I think he would have a really hard time keeping it to himself. Patroklos usually gets away with this because he can make people forget the stuff he tells them but that’s only when he’s invaded somebody’s dreams. The downside to him having a very open and earnest personality is that he doesn’t hide his feelings well, which can be problematic if he’s also too shy or humble or nervous to voice an issue he has. He’s kind of noisy, which can rub people the wrong way – not everybody has a high tolerance for loud and high-energy people. He also goes through moods where he can be very eldritch and strange, displaying his fickle and fae nature and doing weird shit just to amuse himself (‘Here, hold this’, he says apropos of nothing, and pulls a live centipede out of his coat and hands it to you). He is absolutely the type of person who points and laughs when somebody does something dumb or embarrassing and wouldn’t be above talking circles around someone because It’s Funny.

How They Change: Patroklos has gotten quieter, for sure. He’s matured a lot after his ordeals in the Unknown, and although he hasn’t lost his goofy side he has become much more mild-mannered and melancholy. He’s also taken quite a hit to his bravery; I wouldn’t call him a coward, but he’s become much more practical and keen to avoid fights, for obvious reasons. When he lived on Threnghelleon he was very immersed in their culture, and since being trapped in the Unknown his strange side has really taken over. Patroklos doesn’t really miss his home, although he does miss some of his siblings and the people he was friends with. Overall, though, Patroklos is a very new character; I only created him about halfway through the campaign when we were kinda fishing for more content to stretch it out with. How he’s going to change is largely contingent on how he’s treated and what happens to him; Wybjorn is going to go on a very romantic quest to figure out a way to return him to life, so I’m sure that will also have an effect on him.

Why You Love Them: Patroklos is just a lot of fun! He’s kind of swashbuckling and dramatic – all the Muses are named after Shakespeare characters, and I did it on purpose to inform the kind of feel I wanted them to have. They’re kind of meant to evoke that strange, ethereal, fun weirdness that some of that old theatre stuff is so rife with. I also really enjoy playing around with his weird-ass powers and his nebulous, lovecraftian undertones and behaviors. Patroklos is also a really cool character to bounce Wybjorn off of, he brings out certain qualities in Wybjorn that I think are a bit underplayed when Wybjorn is in other situations where he’s not the main character and provides a very interesting pathos to play around with between these two ancient beings that, in some ways, have wrapped all the way back around again to young men.

#solrika

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #29: Marie Antoinette

Whassup, my homies? Today we’re building the OG meme queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Marie is a 100% Glamour Bard who focuses on healing the party, summoning knights to protect her, and charming anyone who doesn’t fit in the first two categories. As always, a spreadsheet for this build can be found here, and there’s a level-by-level breakdown under the cut!

Race & Background

This should come as no surprise by now, but you are Human, giving you +1 in every stat. Calling you a Noble is a bit of an understatement, but it gives you proficiency with History and Persuasion, thanks to your tutors and privilege.

Stats

You’re so charming, knights literally materialize to protect you. So yeah, your Charisma is pretty high. Second highest is your Intelligence: you had plenty of time to study as a child. You’re graceful, and good on horseback, both of which require Dexterity. After that is Constitution; You’re not all that tough, but we’d be raising it for concentration checks anyway. Then Strength; you’re just kind of average, because it’s not like you have to do the heavy lifting anyway. Finally, dump Wisdom, that “Let them eat cake” thing is the ultimate example of not reading the room, and nobody is going to let you live that down.

Class Levels

1. As a bard, you start with three skill proficiencies of your choice. Grab Animal Handling and Acrobatics for some horseback training, and Arcana to represent another portion of your tutelage. You are also proficient in Dexterity and Charisma saves. At first level, you get Spellcasting using Charisma as your ability, and Bardic Inspiration, d6s you can hand out like candy to the rest of your party to help with their d20 rolls. You have a number of these dice equal to your charisma modifier, and regain them on long rests.

For cantrips, grab Friends for your winsome personality and Mending in case your dress gets scuffed up while adventuring. Your first level spells are Animal Friendship to make you a true disney princess, Charm Person and Sense Emotion to make you a people person, and Cure Wounds to patch up your knights in shining armor.

2. Second level bards learn a Song of Rest, adding a d6 to the healing done on short rests, and Jack of All Trades, adding half your proficiency to non-proficient checks. You may be a flighty princess, but you had a wide array of studies. This level, grab Heroism to further enhance your protectors.

3. When you become a Glamour bard, you gain a Mantle of Inspiration, letting you spend a bonus action and inspiration to give a number of creatures up to your charisma modifier within 60′ of you 5 temporary hit points and a reaction to move up to their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

You also can put on an Enthralling Performance, where performing for a minute lets you charm a number of creatures equal to your charisma modifier who watched the entire performance if they fail a wisdom save. These creatures will speak highly of you, and protect you from harm, but won’t get violent unless already predisposed to doing so. You can use this once per short rest.

Third level bards also get Expertise, doubling your proficiency in two skills (Persuasion and Animal Handling).

Finally, for your first 2nd level spell, grab Suggestion, because everyone loves your suggestions anyway. Just make sure to keep them reasonable this time.

4. Use your first ASI to become a Tandem Tactician. This unearthed arcana feat allows you to Help as a bonus action, and helping an ally attack has an extra 10′ attached to its range. You can also help two people, as long as they’re attacking the same creature. Now those fine gentlemen helping you out will feel extra supported, and you don’t have to be as close to the bloodshed!

For spells, grab Prestidigitation and Calm Emotions. You’re normally good at calming people down, barring that one time.

5. At fifth level, your Mantle of Inspiration improves, giving 8 temporary HP to creatures, and you Inspiration dice become d8s. You also become a Font of Inspiration, regaining inspiration dice on short rests instead of long rests.

You also gain your first knight at this level, thanks to the spell Summon Fey Spirit. This spell summons a small satyr, dryad, or elf with a certain disposition (Deceitful, Joyful, or Furious). The spirit comes complete with a sword and the ability to short-range teleport around the battlefield, along with a bonus effect depending on its mood. Deceitful fey can cover a square in magical darkness, Joyful fey can try to charm a creature, and Furious fey gain advantage on an attack roll after teleporting. The summoned spirit’s HP, AC, Attacks per turn, and attack damage all scale with the spell level used to summon it.

6. Sixth level bards gain Countercharm, letting you spend an action to give your allies advantage on charm saves. You also gain a Mantle of Majesty, letting you cast Command as a bonus action for a minute at the cost of your concentration. Creatures you’ve charmed automatically fail Command’s saving throw. You can use this feature once per long rest.

For this level’s spell, pick up Hypnotic Pattern for another charm that doesn’t work with Mantle of Majesty.

7. Seventh level bards get 4th level spells, and yours is Confusion, making it harder for the enemy to stand against your champion.

8. Use your next ASI to improve your Charisma for better spells, charms, and more inspiration. Grab Dimension Door to help you keep up with that fey knight you’ve got running around.

9. At ninth level, your Song of Rest is upgraded to use d8s, and you get 5th level spells. Nab Animate Objects so you can now make multiple DIY knights at will.

10. Tenth level bards can use d10s as inspiration dice, and get another round of Expertise. This time around pick Arcana and History for your favored subjects.

At tenth level, bards get Magical Secrets instead of their normal spell, gaining two spells from any spell list. Grab Conjure Woodland Beings to tip the action economy even further in your favor with more fey knights. Suggested summons can be found in the build’s spreadsheet that was linked above the cut.

Also, congratulations! You’re finally going to get your horse! You’re probably going to use the stats of a warhorse for this, but it’s also made of glass, so talk with your DM about whether Find Steed of Find Greater Steed would apply here. You also get a cantrip this level, so grab Minor Illusion.

11. Eleventh level bards get 6th level spells, and you’re grabbing Mass Suggestion to help calm down, say, an angry mob, for example.

12. You get another ASI, and since you’ve gained a couple summoning spells now, let’s enhance them with the War Caster feat. You now have advantage on concentration saves, and perform spells with somatic components even when your hands are full of weapons, and you can cast a spell as an opportunity attack, as long as you only target the creature that provoked it.

13. Your song of rest becomes a d10, and you start gaining 7th level spells! Grab Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, allowing you to adventure in the manor you’re accustomed to.

14. Fourteenth level glamour bards have an Unbreakable Majesty, canonically making you even prettier. You can also spend a bonus action to become even more beautiful for 1 minute, forcing would-be attackers to make a charisma save or be forced to attack another creature. If they succeed, they have disadvantage on saves against your spells on your next turn. You can use this feature once per short rest.

You also gain more Magical Secrets, so grab Conjure Fey, and Planar Ally, the one summon spell that doesn’t require concentration, only exorbitant amounts of cash! The former lets you summon a fey creature or beast of CR 6 or lower. The creature will obey your commands as long as they don’t break its alignment. If concentration is broken, the summoned creature may turn on you. The latter spell has you call up God to send you a celestial to help you out; you can even request a specific creature if you know its name, but that’s up to the DM. You don’t “control” the creature, but you can ask it to do something for you in exchange for money. You probably shouldn’t cast this one in an Adventurer’s League game though, because the creature takes a share of experience points.

15. At fifteenth level, your bardic inspiration becomes a d12, and you learn how to cheat at charisma checks thanks to your new spell, Glibness. While under its effect, every charisma check you make is guaranteed a roll of at least 15, and magic can’t tell if you’re lying.

16. Use your next ASI to become Resilient in Constitution saves. You get +1 to your constitution, and are proficient in those saving throws. These count as Concentration saves, so you’re now very good at keeping your knights around and not trying to kill you.

17. Your song of rest improves to a d12, and you gain a 9th level spell! Grab Power Word Heal to be able to fully heal any one creature you touch, and even bring them up from being prone as a reaction.

18. For your last round of Magical Secrets, grab Mass Heal to help your entire party (plus whatever else you have flying around the field), and Regenerate for healing over time.

19. Use your last ASI to improve your Dexterity for more AC, and maybe better swordplay if you really need it.

20. At your capstone level, you have Superior Inspiration, allowing you to regain one die of inspiration at the start of combat if you don’t have any left.

Pros: Like all bards, you’re great outside of combat, and thanks to your summons, you don’t have to work that hard inside of combat either. Thanks to you a) being on a horse and b) being able to teleport, it’s also really hard for enemies to go after you, too.

Cons: Your summon spells, buffs, and charms all require concentration, so you’ll have to be selective about what you cast. Some DMs also don’t like adding things into initiative after battle has begun, so a character whose main fighting style is exactly that might be an issue: as with most characters, talk with your DM before committing to it. Also, having almost not focus on your own fighting ability means if you end up separated from the party and run out of magic, you’re kind of screwed. So keep yourself surrounded by an entourage, keep any comments about your subjects’ diets to yourself, and things should go well.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #Marie antoinette #Fate and Phantasms

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #15: Euryale

Welcome back to Fate and Phantasms, where we’re bringing every single servant in FGO to life in D&D 5e! Today we’re building the middlest gorgon sister, Euryale! For this build, we have three goals in mind:

Siren Song- You’ve got to have plenty of options for controlling and charming your enemies.

Core of the Goddess- You need to be able to avoid being charmed yourself.

Eye of the Euryale- You need to be able to fire arrows that not only deal a lot of damage, but can debuff the enemy when the party needs it.

As usual, we’ll be going into detail about this build below the cut, but if you want a faster rundown you can check out the spreadsheet over here.

Race and Background

You’re straight up divinity; none of this “half” or “two thirds” nonsense. Unfortunately, D&D doesn’t have a goddess option, but they do have one better- let’s make you a Yuan-Ti Pureblood. This option gives you many, many bonuses, including +2 to Charisma, +1 to Intelligence, Magic Resistance, which means you have advantage on all saving throws involving spells, 60′ of Darkvision, Poison Immunity, the Poison Spray cantrip, and the ability to cast Animal Friendship at will for no cost, but only on snakes.

Sadly D&D also failed to include a goddess background, so we’ll go with Charlatan. It doesn’t really match up with your actual background, but it is generally how you operate, so it’s not far off the mark. This gives you proficiencies with Deception, Sleight of Hand, and the Disguise and Forgery Kits.

Stats

For this build we’re using the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but feel free to roll, as long as you keep multiclassing in mind. With that being said, put your highest stat into Charisma, for obvious reasons, then Intelligence, because you’re good at scheming.”. Next is Dexterity, which needs to be at least a 13 immediately for multiclassing, accept no substitutions. After that is Wisdom, which is this high mostly because we need to keep your physical stats low to fit your status as “one of the weakest beings in the entire world”. After that is Constitution because we’re not evil, and dump Strength since we won’t need that anyway.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: Starting out as a bard gives you proficiency in Dexterity and Charisma saves, as well as three skills of your choice. Grab Insight, Persuasion and Perception to make reading the room a bit easier. At first level you also get Bardic Inspiration, letting you give d6s to your friends to add a bit to a save, check, or attack roll of their choosing. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your charisma modifier between long rests. You also also get your first spells. Grab Friends and Vicious Mockery as your cantrips. The only thing you’re better at than making people think you like them is making people think you don’t like them. For first level spells, grab Charm Person and Sense Emotion to add a magical flair to your soft skills, Heroism to help out your knight(s) in shining armor, and Sleep in case that knight thing doesn’t work out.

2. Bard 2: You become a Jack of All Trades, so you can add half your proficiency to ability checks you aren’t proficient in. You also gain a Song of Rest, adding 1d6 more healing to anyone using their hit dice. In the interest of healing, also pick up Healing Word as this level’s spell. Make sure you pick really insulting words, so your party isn’t sure whether they should thank you or not.

3. Bard 3: You gain Expertise, doubling your proficiency bonus for two skills. Pick Deception and Persuasion to help you wrap men around your finger, even without magic. You also graduate from the College of Glamour, giving you a Mantle of Inspiration and an Enthralling Performance. The former lets you spend an Inspiration as a bonus action to make yourself even more beautiful. This gives a number of creatures up to your charisma modifier 5 temporary hit points, and they can each react to move up to their speed without provoking opportunity attacks. The HP gained increases to eight HP at five levels of bard, 11 HP at 10 levels, and 14 HP at 15 levels. Enthralling Performance makes your performances, well, more enthralling. After performing for at least a minute, you can force any number of creatures who witnessed your entire performance to make a wisdom save or be charmed by you. Those charmed idolize you and are willing to hinder those who oppose you, though they won’t become violent if they weren’t willing to fight for you before. The charm wears off after an hour, the charmed creature takes damage, or you attack it or one of its allies. There is no sign you tried to charm anyone if they succeed on their save, and you can use this feature once per short rest.

4. Fighter 1: Now that you’re well on your way to charming everything around you, lets focus on your bowplay. First level fighters have proficiency with Martial Weapons, so you can upgrade from a shortbow to a longbow if you want. You also gain Second Wind, which lets you use a bonus action to heal yourself equal to 1d10 + your fighter level once per short rest. You also gain a Fighting Style, pick Archery for +2 to ranged weapon attacks.

5. Fighter 2: You get an Action Surge; now you can get an additional action once per short rest.

6. Fighter 3: You become an Arcane Archer, giving you access to Arcane Archer Lore (proficiency in Arcana and Prestidigitation) and some Arcane Shot options, grab Beguiling Arrow and Enfeebling Arrow to mimic the effects of your noble phantasm, kinda. The former adds some Psychic damage and can charm the target with a wisdom save, while the latter adds Necrotic damage and halves the target’s weapon attacks with a constitution save. You can only use arcane shots once per turn, so you can’t stack them and get the full effect, and also don’t expect to be able to spam your NP, because you only get two uses per short rest.

7. Fighter 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round out your Dexterity for harder hits and Charisma for tougher saves.

8. Fighter 5: You gain an Extra Attack, giving you a second shot when you use the attack action.

9. Bard 4: Use your Ability Score Increase to max out your Charisma. For this level’s cantrip, grab Minor Illusion, and Suggestion for your spell. A build all about controlling people just got another charm spell, what a surprise.

10. Bard 5: Your inspiration dice become d8s, and you become a Font of Inspiration. Now your dice refill on short rests as well. For your spell, grab Hypnotic Pattern. You’re more of a audial charmer than a visual one, but a charm’s a charm.

11. Bard 6: You gain Countercharm, an ability nobody really uses which uses your action to give all friendly creatures within 30′ of you advantage against being charmed or frightened until the end of your next turn. I guess you could use an action surge to pop this and then immediately use an area of effect charm like hypnotic pattern. As a glamour bard you also gain a Mantle of Majesty, letting your cast Command for free as a bonus action, and making you appear as an unearthly beauty for a minute or until you lose concentration. During that minute you can continue to cast Command as a bonus action on each turn. Any creature you’ve charmed automatically fails the save for these Commands, and you can only use this feature once per long rest. You have a really high spell save and a lot of charms, so this shouldn’t be an issue, beyond concentration.

For your spell this turn, grab Dispel Magic for more protection from magical effects beyond charms and being frightened.

12. Bard 7: Not much happens at this level besides getting a 4th level spell. Grab Compulsion to keep the flow of battle from reaching you by literally forcing everyone you’re fighting to stay as far away from you as possible.

13. Bard 8: Use your Ability Score Improvement to power up your Dexterity for more damage. For your spell, grab Confusion. It’s kind of like compulsion if you want to roll more dice.

14. Bard 9: At this level your song of rest die becomes a d8, and you get 5th level spells. Grab Dominate Person for even more charming options.

15. Bard 10: At this level you get a inspiration buff, your dice becoming d10s, Expertise in two more skills (Insight for manipulation and Arcana because you’re literally a goddess), a new cantrip (Message), and Magical Secrets, two spells from any spell list. You’re the daughter of sea gods, so it’s time you acted like it. Grab Watery Sphere and Wall of Water for a bit of elemental flavoring and crowd control.

16. Bard 11: Not much happens here except for 6th level spells opening up for you. Grab Mass Suggestion for when you need to hold a crowd’s attention.

17. Bard 12: Use your last Ability Score Improvement to buff your Dexterity one last time.

18. Bard 13: Your song of rest becomes a d10. Grab Regenerate so you can grow back the rest of your body if you get chopped in half. (It’s snakes that can do that, right?)

19. Bard 14: As a glamour bard you gain Unbreakable Majesty, making you permanently more beautiful, and on the mechanical side gives you another minute long beauty buff as a bonus action, forcing any creature attacking you to make a charisma save against your spell save. On a failed save, it has to attack someone else within or waste its action. On a success, it can attack you that turn, but has disadvantage on any saves it makes against you next turn. Either it can’t hit you, or it will almost certainly be charmed by you next turn. Win win! This feature works once per short rest. You also gain more Magical Secrets. You’re a goddess and a gorgon, and it’s time you started acting like one. Grab Divine Word to riddle weaker creatures with status effects and force extraplanar threats back to their own world, and Flesh to Stone, because duh.

20. Bard 15: Your inspiration dice become d12s, and you gain 8th level spells! Grab Feeblemind to absolutely shatter some poor fool’s psyche. On a failed intelligence save, the target’s intelligence and charisma scores become 1. They can’t cast any spells, use magic items, or speak languages. Every 30 days the target can repeat its saving throw, but they have 1 int now and your spell save is maxed out, so it’s not going to happen.

Pros: This build has great social skills, and even if it didn’t you have plenty of spells to back yourself up. You don’t have a lot of health or AC, but you don’t need to be on the front lines to do damage, and have a great deal of control over battle position thanks to spells like Compulsion, Wall of Water and Watery Sphere.

Cons: A lot of your spells need concentration, and so does your Mantle of Majesty. Not only will this limit your ability to throw spells around, but your constitution isn’t great either, so you can lose your spells pretty easily. Your arcane arrows also aren’t as powerful as the rest of your build since their saves are based on your intelligence rather than charisma.

Just keep those townsfolk at your beck and call, stick to the background if a fight breaks out, maybe call for Asterios if things get too spicy, and you’ll be fine.

#fgo #fate grand order #Euryale #dnd #Fate and Phantasms

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