#four arcane four divine four martial

[the-world-annealing]

Twelve classes to remix and replace the current ones (you know what system I'm talking about)

The Occultist is the most scholarly of the classes; your typical delver into Things Not Meant To Be Known. The mechanical heart of the class is knowledge gathering (this is the guy with all the lore skills) and divinations (with some necromancy and conjuration on the list); combat strategies range from raising legions of undead, to crafting a big golem bodyguard, to summoning fiends: much like 5e's cleric this class derives a lot of its identity from the subclass you pick.

The Conduit is your basic charisma-based arcane blaster, but with constitution elevated to a secondary stat. Energy spells, telekinetic thrusts, light, darkness, your odd bit of summoning or planar travel. Subclasses don't denote origin, but specialization: a trio of conduits whose power derives from an efreet, a devil, and a red dragon might all choose to specialize in pyromancy (giving actual fire-themed utility abilities, as opposed to 'uh spells of this type do more damage') and get their origin represented as a lower-key low-level feature more like the warlock's pact boon.

The Witch specializes in enchantment and nature-flavored magic, with a side order of potion brewing, protective charms, and of course a familiar. All very subtle, with that feel enhanced further by mechanics to suppress verbal and somatic components while casting spells. Intelligence-based, with wisdom secondary. With traditional druid and ranger gone, this is actually the place where all the animal-befriending stuff goes too.

And on the flip side, The Harlequin is all about big, flashy effects. Illusions are this class's bread and butter, but so are shields of force, teleportation, levitation; basically stage magicians as a class, with 'visible, external magic' as their hat. They get all the social skills on their list, as well as some performance-based features (merely casting a visible spell can already count as a 'performance'), and are charisma-primary, but don't get the bard's plethora of enchantments: their skills with people is based in mundane showmanship.

The Priest is the default divine caster with status removal and holy blasting and such, given some more identity via a 'ceremony' mechanic where appropriately god-honoring deeds and rituals get rewarded with minor mechanical boons (with a focus on increasing exploration-pillar utility). The nature domain is fine now that it's not competing as heavily with our druid-replacement, but 'war clerics' were a silly idea eating into conceptual space that paladins filled just fine. Medium armor, maces, crossbows, the deity's favored weapon as part of an effort to make deity choice matter more.

The Vessel is a dexterity-primary wisdom-secondary class that incorporates all those parts of the monk, rogue, barbarian and cleric that no longer have a home class. Lightly armored or even unarmored, reckless damage-focused combat style, limited casting, can grant partial control of their body to a possessing celestial/demon/devil/etc to increase combat prowess. Transformation is largely limited to surface-level features (and glowing eyes, of course) but unlocks a lot of new mental and spiritual abilities as well as heightened pain tolerance (represented as temporary HP). That last thing is good because possessors tend to drive your body as if it's stolen (which, y'know).

The Shifter is the druid except focused on the shapeshifting that makes druids unique, starting with humanoids or animals and eventually escalating to big monsters and strange chimeras. Minimal divine casting, maybe some heals or buffs, but none of this 'master of many forms AND friend to beast and plant AND capable of dropping a tsunami on you' that leaves druids way too broad to properly balance. Explicitly tie the fluff to the natural shapeshifting abilities of things like fey and werewolves, rather than ambiguous 'nature spirits' that no setting ever dares to commit to. Constitution-primary (lack of armor balances out the high HP), wisdom-secondary.

The Sworn is your typical holy warrior type: heavy armor, big god-powered weapon, defender of the weak etc etc I'm not even gonna pretend this is more than a paladin with minor touchups. Vows are more mechanically relevant; I don't want to bring back 3.5's ever-present threat of falling and losing everything, but the binder class from that same edition might be a good place to look for inspiration; small restrictions with small penalties for violating them, but lots of flavor.

The Scoundrel is the rogue, except it no longer needs to accommodate every single martial concept that involves being useful out of combat. Things like lockpicking, browbeating, and sneaking still go here, but if you want to play a detective or manipulative nobleman then this is no longer your best bet. In return, the class gets a more varied array of combat tricks than 'backstab, backstab, cunning action to gain advantage and uhh backstab again'.

The Expert, to make the pitch in a single sentence, is the class that tries to make skills and tools useful inside of combat. Strong intelligence focus, perhaps with the ability to use it for attacks/damage/AC, lots of little skill-related tricks to pull inside and out of combat. Ideally, gets unique uses for skills that other classes can't simply imitate by maxing out their modifier. This is also where characters who are first and foremost defined by their skill at alchemy/crafting/cooking find a place. The closest approximation in an actual edition might be 3.5's classic factotum/exemplar builds?

The Warlord is a solid warrior who also gets attack-granting, clever little positioning-based benefits, and yes, nonmagical inspiration-based healing. Intelligence is a secondary stat alongside charisma, and this class has unique abilities catered to situational analysis (where would I hide a secret entrance to this dungeon? when will that dragon return to its roost? what patron does the barkeep seem most afraid of?). Also some social skills and mounted combat stuff here.

Finally, The Weaponmaster is the game finally admitting you should be allowed to do cool things with a sword. Lots of weapon-specific paths with unique abilities: if you've ever had the thought "I wish I could make a viable whip fighter" or "I wonder if anyone made handaxes work", the weaponmaster presumably has something to offer. Incorporates some of the monk's enlightenment/transcendence seeking, and gets to pull anime nonsense at least on the level of 3.5's warblade and crusader. Gets features that are actually relevant during the social/exploration pillars, but still flavored as weapon mastery.

#four arcane four divine four martial #because that's kinda how 5e did it and also i like symmetry #d&d 5e #d&d #ttrpg design #ttrpgs #dungeons and dragons #dungeons and dragons 5th edition

[tlaquetzqui]

The four basic D&D class-groups (arcane, divine, martial, stealth) as themes from movies.

Arcane (exploration, mortals becoming better than they were through learning):

Divine (good vs. evil, standing for something greater than oneself):

Martial (fighting for what’s right no matter the cost):

Stealth (victory by sneaking and tactics):

Bonus, some enemy/adventure types.

Outsiders and planar travel:

Uncivilized humanoids and survival:

Undead:

#rpg inspiration

[masterweaverx]

Part of the fun of these character builds is taking absolutely ridiculous characters and making them work in the context of D&D. So today I’ll be looking at Makuta Teridax, from Bionicle. That’s right, I’m expanding my palette a bit!

So Makuta Teridax is a Makuta. Which means he’s a shape-shifting robot with the elemental power of shadow, a unique shadow hand, a bit of telepathy, the ability to make Kraata and Rhakshi from himself... and, oh, fourty-two seperate Kraata Powers. Which he, himself, can also use. Also he has the mask of Shadows. Yeah, Bionicle was a wacky setting, all things told. Basically, we’re going to have to go Full Caster, with some unusual considerations.

Since we’re going Full Caster, that means we’ll be using the point buy system--all six stats start at 8, and you have 27 points to spend to up them, at a rate of 1 point for one improvement up to 13 and then 2 points per improvement after. That means upping a stat to 15 costs nine points total--and we’re going to be upping Intelligence and Wisdom to 15 to maximize our spell power. That leaves us nine points to split between Constitution and Charisma--five to Constitution, upping it to 13, because Constitution is both the ‘health’ and the ‘concentration’ stat, and 4 to Charisma, upping it to 12, because when a Makuta speaks, you listen. And Teridax is the leader of the Makuta...

Bionicle characters are biomechanical and you know what, so are Warforged! Yes I know the Makuta are actually living gas clouds in airtight armor but (1) they weren’t always that and (2) this is Flavor/Mechanics oriented, not accuracy oriented. Anyway, as an Envoy Warforged specifically, Teridax gets +1 to Constitution and +1 to two other stats--which are of course going to be Intelligence and Wisdom, since those are going to be our casting abilities.

All Warforged have Integrated Protection--instead of wearing armor, they can switch between ‘modes’ they’re proficient in every long rest, great for a shapeshifter. There’s also Warforged Resilience, which makes him immune to disease, resistant to poison, renders eating and drinking and even breathing unnecessary, and makes him impossible to put to sleep magically. Speaking of which he also has Sentry’s rest, which means on a long rest he just goes inert for six hours without going unconscious.

Envoy Warforged in particular have a few other advantages. Their Specialized Design gives them a Skill Proficiency and a Tool Proficiency, and since we’re not going to get it anywhere else Teridax is going to pick Intimidation and Thieves’ tools. And they have an Integrated Tool--they can select one tool they’re proficient with, and not only is it part of their body but they have expertise with it. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that the tool, in this case, is a Disguise Kit--because Teridax is going to get proficiency in disguise kits from his background.

And what background is that? Why, Charlatan, of course! Free with proficiencies in Deception, Sleight of Hand, Disguise Kits, and Forgery Kits. It also has the False Identity feature, allowing Makuta Teridax to take on another persona (like say, Turaga Dume), and have all the paperwork on hand to prove that, no really, he’s Turaga Dume! Pay no attention to that sphere in the corner. He’s also really great at forgery of documents.

And now comes the tricky bit: getting 42 Kraata powers, plus all the other abilities Teridax has, onto a spell list. Doing that meant I had to multiclass, pick specific subclasses for each class, allow each class to meet a minimum level, and amp two different stats to their max. It was incredibly tricky, but through some very, VERY careful selection, I pulled it off. Mostly. The Elasticity Kraata Power just couldn’t fit, sorry about that. But everything else, I packed in! Are you ready for this?

Three levels in Tempest Domain Cleric...

...then seventeen levels in Nature Theurgy Wizard.

Okay, so before I explain the subclasses, I’m going to go over the standard class abilities. Clerics have proficiency in light and medium armor, shields and simple weapons, and Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. They get two skill proficiencies--I chose History and persuasion--and at three levels their big thing is just... Channel Divinity. Which I’ll get to in a moment.

Wizards, on the other hand, get Arcane Recovery, which lets them regain spell slots on a short rest once per day up to a total of half their wizard level rounded up. That’s 9 points here, so you can get three third level spell slots, or a fourth and a fifth, or five first and two second... but you can’t get seventh, eighth, or ninth spell slots back, presumably for balance reasons. The Wizard class is also where we’ll get our four Ability Score Increases, for a total of eight points to spread among ability scores--and putting four each in Wisdom and Intelligence lets us have the MAXIMUM SPELL POWER for this combination. Trust me, preparing Spells is important for clerics, and for wizards.

So now let’s talk about the Tempest Domain. Teridax gets proficiency in Heavy Armor and Martial Weapons from it, as well as Wrath Of The Storm--which means if somebody rushes in and hits him, he can use a reaction to force the creature to make a dexterity saving throw or suffer 2d8 Lightning/Thunder damage. And he can do this five times per long rest. Of course, it also gives him a Channel Divinity option; once per rest, Teridax can either Turn Undead (making them run away from him in fear), Harness Divine Power (regaining a spell slot of first, second, or third level), or unleash the power of a Destructive Wave (automatically rolling maximum for Lightning or Thunder damage).

And now... Theurgy Wizard. What does it do, you might ask? Well, it basically hybridizes Cleric and Wizard classes. A Theurgy Wizard takes a Cleric Domain--in this case, Nature--and those spells are considered Wizard spells for purposes of what they can learn. They also get some of the Domain’s cleric benefits--not the eighth level one, or any weapon or armor proficiencies from the first level, but at level seventeen, they have everything else.

Including Channel Arcana, which is slightly different from Channel Divinity. For one thing, Teridax can do it twice per rest, instead of just once. For another, the options are either Divine Arcana, giving +2 to his next spell’s attack roll or save DC, or Charm Animals and Plants, which... charms animals and plants within 30 feet for up to a minute.

Acolyte of Nature means that Teridax has proficiency in Animal Handling and a single druid Cantrip, which we’ll get back to in a moment. Dampen Elements means that, as a reaction, he can give himself or anybody in 30 feet resistance to an attack that hit them if that attack did acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage--very useful in a world where a good portion of the population has elemental powers. And Master of Nature means that he can take a bonus action to tell critters that are charmed by his Channeled Arcana what to do on their next turn.

And now, at last, we get to the spells. BUT FIRST! Let’s calculate this all out. Since Clerics and Wizards are both full casters, Teridax has all the spell slots--4 first level slots, 3 second-through-fifth level slots each, 2 sixth and seventh level slots, and one slot for eighth and ninth levels.

Clerics can prepare a number of spells equal to their level plus their Wisdom modifer--so 3+5--up to a level determined by their cleric level--in this case, up to second level. They also automatically have spells prepared from their domain, which don’t count toward the previous limit; while it’s only up to the level they can learn, it’s still an extra four spells.

Wizards, on the other hand, learn six spells at first level and two spells every level thereafter, so at level 17 that’s 38 spells. Granted, they only prepare their level plus their intelligence bonus a day, which is 22 spells from that 38 spell list, but hey! That’s on top of the 12 prepared spells of a cleric

And Teridax also has five Wizard Cantrips, 3 Cleric Cantrips, and 1 Druid Cantrip from Nature Theurgy. Which segues well into why I picked Nature Theurgy--I needed a LOT of wizard levels for most of these spells, but I also needed some Cleric levels for some spells wizards couldn’t get, and some Druid spells that neither class could get on their own. And most of the low-level spells I needed that come in a cleric domain actually are from the tempest domain, but the Nature domain has high-level spells from the druid list... hence, Nature Theurge.

So with all that said: The list below covers the spells Makuta Teridax has, and what abilities they correspond to. Spells from Cleric, Cleric Domain, or Druid List use Wisdom; Spells from Wizard or Wizard Theurgy list use Intelligence. The listed Cleric spells are considered always prepared; Teridax selects 22 of the listed Wizard and Theurgy spells every long rest.

The Makuta Power Shadow Hand has 2 component spells: Lightning Lure and Soul Cage. The Makuta Powers Project Voice Through Shadows and Telepathy have the same spell: Telepathy.

The Kraata Power Density Control has 2 component spells: Gaseous Form and Investiture of Stone. The Kraata Power Insect Control has 2 component spells: Infestation and Insect Plague. The Kraata Power Plant Control has 2 component spells: Plant Growth and Grasping Vine. The Kraata Power Rahi Control has 2 component spells: Animal Friendship and Dominate Beast. The Kraata Power Weather Control has 2 component spells: Control Weather and Fog Cloud.

The Kraata Power Stasis Field has 2 component spells: Hold Person and Hold Monster. The Kraata Power Teleportation has 2 component Spells: Misty Step and Teleportation.

The Kraata Powers Fire Resistence and Ice Resistance have the same spell: Protection from Energy. The Kraata Power Elasticity has no component spells, due to not really having a good match and most of its benefits being covered in other spells.

Cantrips: 5 from Wizard, 3 from Cleric, 1 from Druid for Nature Theurgy -Chill Touch [Wizard] --Shadow Blasts (MAKUTA) -Fire Bolt [Wizard] --Heat Vision (Kraata Power) -Infestation [Druid] --Insect Control (Kraata Power) -Lightning Lure [Wizard] --Shadow Hand (MAKUTA) -Mending [Cleric] --Forge Tools (MAKUTA) -Sacred Flame [Cleric] --Laser Vision (Kraata Power) -Thunderclap [Wizard] --Sonics (Kraata Power) -Thaumaturgy [Cleric] --Control world mechanics (MAKUTA) -True Strike [Wizard] [Concentration] --Accuracy (Kraata Power)

1st-4 Slots -Animal Friendship [Wizard Theurgy] --Rahi Control (Kraata Power) -Cause Fear [Wizard] [Concentration] --Fear (Kraata Power) -Command [Cleric] --Terrorize (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Cure Wounds [Cleric] --Quick Healing (Kraata Power) -Fog Cloud [Cleric Domain] [Concentration] --Weather Control (Kraata Power) -Inflict Wounds [Cleric] --Protosteel Armor (MAKUTA) -Ray of Sickness [Wizard] --Poison (Kraata Power) -Sense Emotion [Wizard] [Concentration] --Sense Moral Darkness (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Sleep [Wizard] --Sleep (Kraata Power) -Thunderwave [Cleric Domain] --Power Scream (Kraata Power) -Witch Bolt [Wizard] [Concentration] --Electricity (Kraata Power

2nd-3 Slots -Blindness/Deafness [Cleric] --Enshadow (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Crown of Madness [Wizard] [Concentration] --Anger (Kraata Power) -Darkness [Wizard] [Concentration] --Darkness (Kraata Power) -Detect Thoughts [Wizard] [Concentration] --Mind Reading (Kraata Power) -Enhance Ability [Cleric] [Concentration] --Adaptation (Kraata Power) -Gust of Wind [Cleric Domain] [Concentration] --Vacuum (Kraata Power) -Hold Person [Cleric] [Concentration] --Stasis Field (Kraata Power) -Immovable Object [Wizard] --Gravity (Kraata Power) -Invisibility [Wizard] [Concentration] --Chameleon (Kraata Power) -Locate Object [Cleric] [Concentration] --Sense through Shadows (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Misty Step [Wizard] --Teleportation (Kraata Power) -Shatter [Cleric Domain] --Fragmentation (Kraata Power) -Silence [Cleric] [Concentration] --Silence (Kraata Power) -Spider Climb [Wizard] [Concentration] --Magnetism (Kraata Power)

3rd-3 Slots -Gaseous Form [Wizard] [Concentration] --Density Control (Kraata Power) -Haste [Wizard] [Concentration] --Dodge (Kraata Power) -Major Image [Wizard] [Concentration] --Illusion (Kraata Power) -Melf's Minute Meteors [Wizard] [Concentration] --Plasma (Kraata Power) -Plant Growth [Wizard Theurgy] --Plant Control (Kraata Power) -Protection from Energy [Wizard] [Concentration] --Fire Resistance (Kraata Power) --Ice Resistance (Kraata Power) -Slow [Wizard] [Concentration] --Slow (Kraata Power) -Vampiric Touch [Wizard] [Concentration] --Hunger (Kraata Power)

4th-3 Slots -Confusion [Wizard] [Concentration] --Confusion (Kraata Power) -Dominate Beast [Wizard Theurgy] [Concentration] --Rahi Control (Kraata Power) -Grasping Vine [Wizard Theurgy] [Concentration] --Plant Control (Kraata Power) -Summon Greater Demon [Wizard] [Concentration] --Create Kraata/Rhakshi

5th-3 Slots -Hold Monster [Wizard] [Concentration] --Stasis Field (Kraata Power) -Insect Plague [Wizard Theurgy] [Concentration] --Insect Control (Kraata Power) -Passwall [Wizard] --Molecular Disruption (Kraata Power)

6th-2 Slots -Chain Lightning [Wizard] --Chain Lightning (Kraata Power) -Disintegrate [Wizard] --Disintegration (Kraata Power) -Investiture of Stone [Wizard] [Concentration] --Density Control (Kraata Power) -Soul Cage [Wizard] --Shadow Hand (MAKUTA)

7th-2 Slots -Teleportation [Wizard] --Teleportation (Kraata Power) -Whirlwind [Wizard] [Concentration] --Cyclone (Kraata Power)

8th-1 Slots -Control Weather [Wizard] [Concentration] --Weather Control (Kraata Power) -Telepathy [Wizard] --Project Voice Through Shadow (MAKUTA) --Telepathy (MAKUTA)

9th-1 Slots -Invulnerability [Wizard] [Concentration] --Limited Invulnerability (Kraata Power) -Shapechange [Wizard] [Concentration] --Shapeshifting (Kraata Power)

And I mean... LOOK AT THAT LIST OF SPELLS. It’s ridiculous. Bionicle is an amazing setting, sure, but this is insane! Even if Teridax burns through all his spells, he’s still got nine cantrips--NINE! With a lot of effects! That he can use to attack the petty heroes coming after him.

So yeah, that’s Makuta Teridax.

#Bionicle #Dungeons & Dragons #D&D 5E #Makuta Teridax #Character Build

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #139: Cleopatra

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra! She’s a Divine Soul Sorcerer for some Pharaoh flavoring, and a Battle Smith Artificer for a giant metal snake and vast material wealth from your empire.

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

Next up: Is it bad if the mad Vlad’s MAD or is a MAD mad Vlad just sad?

Race and Background

With the blood of the gods in your veins and the lack of restraint for your snake’s attacks, you make a good Scourge Aasimar. This gives you +1 Intelligence (thanks, Tasha) and +2 Charisma. You also get some Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, the Light cantrip, and Healing Hands. Once per long rest, you can touch a creature as an action, healing it a number of hit points equal to your level.

Like a lot of pharaohs, you’re a Noble at the very least, giving you proficiency with Persuasion, and we’re swapping history for Religion here.

Ability Scores

As a cunning negotiator and shrewd businesswoman, your Intelligence has to be pretty high. Your manifestation has also been affected by rumors of your effect on men, so Charisma is next. Your Wisdom is also pretty good, can’t be a businesswoman without a good insight check. Your Dexterity isn’t amazing, but knowing how to not die is useful. Your Constitution’s pretty bad, but we’re dumping Strength instead. You’ve got armies for that.

Class Levels

1. Artificer 1: I know artificers usually make their stuff, but hey, nobody said you couldn’t have a trade-based artificer. Your empire’s pretty big, finding a bag of holding won’t be that hard.

First level artificers get Magical Tinkering, letting you add minor magical effects to small objects, basically your version of prestidigitation. You also learn Spells that you can cast and prepare using your Intelligence.

When you start as an Artificer, you also get proficiency with Constitution and Intelligence saves, as well as History and Perception. 

You get some cantrips, like Message to sneak notes to your advisors, and Create Bonfire, because you’re the goddess of magic, you do what you want.

For first level spells, I’d suggest Cure Wounds to deal with your snake issues, Detect Magic to find the best deals on magic nonsense, and Feather Fall. Later on, that last one will be your giant flying snake breaking your fall, but feel free to use it earlier if necessary.

2. Sorcerer 1: First level divine sorcerers can learn Spells that use Charisma to cast. Thanks to your magical origin, you also know Divine Magic, giving you access to the cleric spell list and a freebie in Cure Wound. Hey, it frees up a prep slot. You’re also Favored by the Gods, letting you add 2d4 to a save or attack roll once per short rest. You’re a god, you do what you want.

For spells, Friends,  Thaumaturgy, Minor Illusion and Charm Person will be useful for navigating court, while Frostbite and Mage Armor will be much more helpful once things get busy.

3. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are Fonts of Magic, giving you a number of sorcery points per long rest equal to your sorcerer level. Your Radiant Consumption also kicks in this level, letting you spend an action to transform your self for a minute. While transformed, you shine with bright light for 10 feet and dim light for another 10, and at the end of each turn you deal half your level in radiant damage to everything around you. You also deal extra radiant damage once per turn to something you hit with an attack or spell equal to your entire level. You can do this once per long rest. Your snake ain’t too picky with what it hits, but it hits nonetheless. 

You also learn Comprehend Languages, because people tend to be more honest when they don’t know you understand them.

4. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get Metamagic, ways to customize their magic using sorcery points. Subtle Spell lets you cast magic without making it obvious, and Twinned Spell lets you make the most of your spell slots by basically casting a single-target spell twice over.

You also learn the spell Detect Thoughts. Strategy’s well and good, but nothing beats knowing your opponents’ next moves before they do.

5. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Increase to grab the Tough feat. Sorcerer hp dice are not your friend, but this spell will give you an extra +2 HP each level, retroactively too.

You also learn Dancing Lights for more holy nonsense, and Enhance Ability to do what you want, giving you (or target creature) advantage on one kind of ability check.

6. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers can use their sorcery points on some Magical Guidance to re-roll a failed ability check.  Once again, you do what you want.

For your last sorcerer spell, grab Bestow Curse for a little pre-mummification mummy magic. This is one of those “have fun with it” spells, so feel free to make it wild.

7. Artificer 2: With who you are out of the way, let’s get back to what you do. As a second level artificer you know how to trade for Infused Items, magic items you can make at the end of a long rest. You learn four now, but you can only use two at the same time. Enhanced Weapon will work well with next level’s features, but Enhanced Arcane Focus will make your magic stronger now. Mind Sharpener lets you keep your concentration when you get hit, and Bag of Holding is just really useful.

8. Artificer 3: As a Battle Smith, you are Battle Ready, giving you proficiency with martial weapons, and you can use your intelligence instead of strength when using a magical weapon. You also learn how to build your Steel Defender, a medium sized construct that uses your bonus action to command. It can attack creatures, or defend party members. Rules as written it has to have two or four legs, but snakes are cool, so I’d allow it. 

You also learn your first specialty spells, Heroism and Shield, for more survivability. 

9. Artificer 4: Use this ASI to become a Martial Adept, giving you one superiority die (1d6) per short rest. You can use it in one of two ways- Commander’s Strike lets you ignore one of your attacks and your bonus action to let another creature attack as a reaction instead, adding the die to their damage. Alternatively, your Tactical Assessment adds the d6 to an Investigation, History, or Insight check you make instead.

10. Artificer 5: Fifth level battle smiths get an Extra Attack per attack action, and they can now cast second level spells. Your specialty spells are Branding Smite and Warding Bond, neither of which are particularly useful for Cleopatra. Instead I’d suggest Levitate to get the full Giant Metal Snake Coiling Around You effect, and Protection from Poison. As a noble, that’ll probably come in handy a lot.

11. Artificer 6: Sixth level artificers gain Expertise with all tool checks, doubling their proficiency. You’re royalty, you had a lot of free time. You also learn the Mending cantrip to heal your snake in a vain attempt to make it stop biting you, and you get two more infusions. Spell-Refueling Ring will help you recharge those spell slots/sorcery points, and the Eyes of Charming help you save on slots by using an item instead.

12. Artificer 7: By seventh level, your Flashes of Genius let you use your reaction to add your intelligence modifier to a check or save happening within 30 feet of you. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your intelligence modifier.

13. Artificer 8: Speaking of your intelligence, use this ASI to bump that up a bit for stronger spells, attacks, and more flashes of genius.

14. Artificer 9: At ninth level your Steel Defender grows even stronger, thanks to its Arcane Jolt. When you hit a creature, either with a magical weapon or your Uraeus Astrape, you can either a, deal extra force damage to it, or b, heal a nearby creature. You can do this once per turn, a number of times per long rest equal to your intelligence modifier.

You also get third level spell now! Your specialty spells are Aura of Vitality, leaning into your Isis-ness to heal people as a bonus action, and Conjure Barrage for when you’re fighting something that won’t stay put. You could also use Fly on your snake to give it some extra mobility, or Intellect Fortress to give long lasting resistance to psychic damage and advantage on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saves. You’re the queen, you do what you want.

15. Artificer 10: Tenth level artificers are Magic Item Adepts, letting you attune an additional magic item and crafting a common/uncommon item takes 1/4 the time and 1/2 the gold. 

You can also trade for two more infusions now. The Ring of Mind Shielding will protect your brain even more, making you immune to having your thoughts read, any sort of lie detection, or knowing your alignment/creature type. it also lets you possess the ring if you die while wearing it! You could also get the Cloak of Protection, giving you +1 AC and +1 to all your saves.

16. Artificer 11: At eleventh level you can make Spell-Storing Items, weapons or other hand-held items that can hold spells for other people to use. They store a 1st or second level spell to put in it at the end of a long rest, and then other creatures can cast that spell using the item a number of times equal to twice your intelligence modifier. It uses your intelligence, but the caster’s concentration. You can also only have one object used like this at a time.

17. Artificer 12: Use your last ASI to bring up your Charisma for stronger sorcery spells.

18. Artificer 13: At long last, you can use fourth level spells! Your specialties are Aura of Purity, protecting creatures around you from disease, poison, and status effects for the duration. You also learn Fire Shield, which gives you resistance to cold or fire damage, and deals damage to attackers of the opposite type. Again it’s not super in character, but you’re the god of magic, what do you care.

For additional spells, Fabricate and Stone Shape will let you construct great works over time, and Summon Construct will bring in another giant metal snake to make sure the first one doesn’t get too uppity.

19. Artificer 14: Fourteenth level artificers are Magic Item Savants, giving you yet another attunement slot and you can ignore all restrictions when using magic items.

You also learn Guidance as your last cantrip, and get your last infusions. The Bracers of Defense give you +2 AC, or the Ring of Protection can give you +1 AC and +1 to all your saves. Trying to get a Golden Rule going is tough when all your ability points got put into your soft stats.

20. Artificer 15: Our capstone level gives you Improved Defender, increasing the severity of your Arcane Jolt, making your snake just a bit tougher, and giving it a way of dealing damage while also protecting your party.

Pros:

Thanks to your divine favors, magical guidance, and flashes of insight, you’re awfully good at cheating the odds with your saves and checks. Basically, if you really need to get something done, you can do it.

With multiple people on the battlefield and a variety of goodies to hand out to your party, you are great at supporting your party. 

With your high intelligence and charisma, you can control social situations easily, especially when you mix in your mind-reading abilities.

Cons:

If you ever fall into an anti-magic zone/exist at low levels you’ll find your AC very lacking, especially given your HP. Basically, hope your snake helps out.

Speaking of your snake, using it and your radiant consumption at the same time makes things complicated. I know the flavor is your snake is hitting you, but really you’re hitting your snake, and it doesn’t get resistance like you do.

Our tiny multiclass into sorcerer gives you a lot of flexibility and stealth options, but it means you have limited sorcery points. Thankfully, your sorcerer features don’t bother with your points, so it’s not game breaking for you.

#Fate Grand Order #D&D 5e #FGO #Cleopatra #Fate and Phantasms #Sorcerer #Artificer

[arcticwaters]

i was looking through the mighty nein’s stats and i thought it would be interesting to see what possible choices the team has for multiclassing and what i think would be the most likely/interesting pick. (note, i’m aware that it’s unlikely most of them would multiclass, such as the two clerics who would miss out on automatic divine intervention, but this is just for fun.) gonna base these off of their current lvl 13 stats, and ignore the possibility of changes later, either from ability score improvements, or DM gifts.

beau

beau has access to: fighter, rogue, cleric, druid, artificer, ranger, wizard.

honestly any of these would work pretty well with beau, the only ones that i think she would balk at would be druid (i doubt marisha would dip into that again, plus beau doesn’t seem like the type) and wizard, because of her open distain for most of them. i doubt she has any desire in forming an intimate relationship with a god but cleric would be extremely interesting for her if she wanted to dabble in spellcasting. (knowledge domain?) she could use some range, so ranger wouldn’t be too bad. and artificer would be a great show of her smarts, but those tend to be a little more support, while beau prefers to get up in it. so i think the most likely choices for beau would be fighter or rogue.

dueling fighting style to get an extra +2 damage (assuming her staffs count as one handed? i’m actually not sure. if not then great weapon fighting i guess.) second wind is good and action surge would be amazing on beau, basically giving her six attacks. martial archetype, battle master would be an interesting pair with her ki points.

rogue i feel would be best for beau if she wanted to go ranged (because i don’t know if staffs and fists are finesse) to get that sneak attack unless she’s willing to trade her bo for a shortsword, however you really can’t go wrong with cunning action and expertise. archetype i’d go with scout for skirmisher or swashbuckler for fancy footwork. honestly mixing and matching between rogue and fighter is great for up close melee fighters, like lvl 2 fighter for action surge, and lvl 5 rogue for uncanny dodge. beau would be great with uncanny dodge.

caduceus

cad has access to: bard, druid, fighter, monk, rogue, ranger, sorcerer, warlock.

cad is not a melee fighter, so the physical classes are out (tho monk!cad would be so funny, imagine cad being like “oh ok, time to square up”) and of the spell casting ones bard and druid are definitely the best options.

for the longest time before i watched c2 proper, i thought cad was a druid, and i’m genuinely surprised that he hasn’t multiclassed yet. everything about him screams druid. unfortunately, i don’t know enough about druids to know what set up would work the best for him, but i’d imagine forest or swamp land circle would be good. (spores sounds like it would be a good fit on paper, but cad is really averse to the undead, so that doesn’t quite line up.)

cad’s no singer, but if they got him another bone flute he’d be pretty set with bard. it’d be a really interesting choice for him, just a little more extra support in the form of bardic inspirations and countercharm. jack of all trades would also help off-set some of his more lack luster skills. for college i’d say either glamour, or valor. (valor has that cool feature where you can add inspiration to a damage roll or ac.)

caleb

caleb has access to: artificer, bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock.

i honestly have no clue what caleb would multi into if he wanted to. none of these options really fit him as a person. i could see him maybe going warlock if he’d gone down a much darker path but he doesn’t seem to care for higher power. really the only option of these that i think he might even consider is artificer, as it’s the only one that uses intelligence. but even that, not really. college of lore bard for cutting words and additional magical secrets?? eh.

tho i will say, with just one more point in dex, he could be a monk, and wouldn’t that be an interesting story beat for the empire siblings.

fjord

fjord has access to: barbarian, artificer, bard, fighter, sorcerer

since fjord already has two classes, it’s unlikely he’d desire to pile more on, especially since he just got a new homebrewed oath and he’ll likely want to get as much as he can out of it. but if he did, i’d say go for bard with that max charisma, or fighter.

honestly i just think it’d be really funny if he leaned back into the texas accent and all his bard songs were country. college of swords (dueling) or eloquence. bard gives him more variety of spells and some extra support. 

for fighter fighting style, go for dueling - unless he picked that for paladin, but i don’t think he did - defense, or protection. martial archetype, definitely eldritch knight for some bonus wizard spells.

jester

jester has access to: druid, fighter, monk, rogue, ranger, warlock.

i WAS gonna say “wild magic sorcerer” (various members of the team - who don’t seem to understand how clerics work - made a big point to be like “no jester the magic was always in you!” and it would be interesting if that ended up being true and she was a sorcerer.) but then i realized her charisma is just shy of enough, so i’m gonna say what literally everyone else has already said: warlock.

celestial. the moonweaver. i don’t really think more needs to be said on that, there’s some good metas about it already. (tho, i could also see her being an arcane trickster rogue, but i doubt that would happen because for one, laura already tried rogue with vex, and they already have veth. but if jester did want to try melee, that’s probably what she’d do.)

veth

veth has access to: artificer, wizard, fighter

while it would make total sense for veth to pick wizard, i feel like the arcane trickster part of her already covers that. honestly artificer would be the more interesting pick. i know sam already played an artificer, but so much of veth’s character already covers artificer, especially with how she tinkers around and makes things. it also gives her access to support spells, including cure wounds. honestly i just think it’d be so funny if the nein could ALL heal. (focusing so much on support and healing this campaign has really been the key to their successes honestly.)

veth has a lot of moments where she’s like “i don’t know what do, i can’t get sneak attack!” so having at least the option to heal or throw out a buff spell would up her choices whenever she feels stuck. support artificer spells like flaming sphere, faire fire, and grease can be clutch.

alchemist of course. it would just be such a great way to combine caleb and yeza’s influence on her.

i’ll also say fighter, with an archery fighting style for that +2 damage, extra attack, action surge, and second wind. really can’t go wrong with that. gunslinger fighter would also be super interesting, if matt allowed sam to replace guns with a crossbow, or if veth started using her gun more.

yasha

yasha has access to: fighter, rogue

yasha’s unfortunately low stats make her kind of a one trick pony of “hit things hard” especially since she should stay pure barbarian until lvl 15, where she will basically be unkillable. (plus at lvl 20 barbarians get a sweet ass boost to str and con.) but luckily, all three of these classes work really well together.

fighter: great weapon fighting so she can reroll those 1′s or 2′s, second wind so she can heal herself (that, if she already used up healing hands, pairs up great with rage beyond death and persistent rage. yasha would like, never ever die, never even get knocked out.) action surge for four attacks. martial archetype, go for either champion for that crit on 19, or battle master for those cool features.

rogue: barbarian/rogue has a ton of potential. she’d have to occasionally switch out her greatswords for some finesse such as shortswords and try out two handed fighting, but because she’s almost always fighting next to beau, she’ll get that sneak attack (tho also, wouldn’t going reckless automatically give her sneak attack too?) plus, finesse lets her use the str stat, so she should still be able to apply the rage bonus. there’s a ton of damage possibility here, along with the always good bonus of expertise for a skills buff (never roll a horrible stealth roll again, ashley johnson) and cunning action so she doesn’t have to choose between attacking or dashing/disengaging. plus, if she wants to sacrifice persistent rage, she could get uncanny dodge, allowing her to tank even more. she definitely should NOT do this, but she could also sacrifice rage beyond death to get evasion, letting her handle dex save spells better. like beau i’m gonna say scout for skirmisher or swashbuckler for fancy footwork.

really is a shame her wis is so low, cuz man i’d love to see her try out monk.

just for fun, i’ll do molly too. i only have his lvl 5 stats to go on, but i’m going to assume that by lvl 13, he would’ve focused on raising his already good dex or getting better con (or perhaps take some more feats, like veth) and any other stat under 13 at the time probably would’ve stayed that way.

molly has access to: fighter, rogue, cleric, druid, ranger

cleric (moonweaver) would’ve been really interesting, but i don’t quite have a handle on molly’s character to know if this is something that would’ve fit him. (and there’re a ton of cleric domains, i don’t kno the ins and outs of them all.) he also didn’t seem all that interested in getting some range. so i’m gonna say the best fit for molly going based on his build and fighting style is rogue

molly already used finesse weapons, so getting up in there for some sneak attack would be an easy fit. molly had access to two attacks, so being able to dash on a bonus action to get up to any just-out-of-reach target so he wouldn’t have to waste that action would be very useful. along with being able to attack twice and then disengage. archetype, probably assassin.

i’ll also be basic and say any character who has access to extra attack(s) can’t hurt dipping into fighter just for that sweet sweet action surge. (i currently play a fighter, so i’m a little biased.)

beau, fjord, and veth could also take blood hunter if they wanted. (caleb is one point shy in dex, and jester and yasha in intelligence, but they could too in theory by the grace of the dm.) i don’t know enough about the blood hunter class to know if this is something that would fit them, but considering where the plot is going, it could make for an interesting story beat.

#critical role #the mighty nein #d&d classes

[theworldbrewery]

multiclass your... DRUID!!

Druid is a tough one, because the key with multiclassing is to be sure that whatever early levels you take are worth not getting/putting off the next level in your class and, let’s be fair, druids at mid-to-high levels can become insanely powerful. 

Your Druid Circle can play a role to some degree, but most importantly, how you multiclass is dependent on whether you play your druid in a casting-focused or wild-shape-focused way. Because of that, it’s much harder to break the options up into good or bad. Instead, we’re just taking them as they come.

Druid + Barbarian

A druid multiclassing into barbarian has this really key advantage: you can be wild-shaped and rage at the SAME TIME! As a beast, you make melee weapon attacks, mostly relying on Strength, which means you can gain all the benefits of rage and reckless attacking. As a bonus, your unarmored defense from the barbarian will carry over to your beast form. However, if you aren’t really a wild-shape kinda druid, this multiclass isn’t going to work nearly as well for you, as barbarians can’t cast or concentrate on a spell while raging. 

Druid + Bard

This combination will be nicer for you if you’re casting-primary, because the best benefits of the bard are only valuable if you’re able to speak and cast spells. You’ll get extra spell options, bonus cantrips and first-level spell slots, and best of all, that Bardic Inspiration and Jack-of-All-Trades. While you can certainly use these (and Song of Rest!) irrespective of your wild-shape or casting preferences, you’ll get the best use out of this multiclass if you’re already leaning more on spells than shapeshifting.

Druid + Cleric

Like bards, clerics are best for you by way of bonus spellcasting, but this is with a twist--you’ll also get to pick your subclass at first level and immediately gain the associated perks. Most of these perks can be used even while wild-shaped, but they’re limited in capacity--at early levels, you only get to use it once per long or short rest. The best part of this multiclass is that you only need to have a good Wisdom score to do it well--which you should already have, being a Druid.

Druid + Fighter

Let me level with you: this one isn’t really ideal for either wild-shapers or casters. The fighter’s Action Surge will let you cast another spell on your turn every once in a while, which can be clutch, and the Second Wind can help keep you standing. Some druids might make good use of that fighting style, so it’s not unlikely as a choice. But if you’re a wild-shape fan, your fighting style will be functionally useless because they require holding shields or using weapons with certain qualities, not all melee weapons, so your claws and bites don’t count. You can definitely make this work, but it’s probably not worth the sacrifice of your next level in druid. 

Druid + Monk

This one depends on a DM ruling. Definitely don’t do this without discussing with the DM, I would say. Here’s the deal: depending on whether or not your group considers natural attacks from claws/bites to be unarmed strikes, you could technically pull off using Flurry of Blows to make unarmed strikes while wild-shaped. If it works, you can make the most of the Martial Arts feature as well. Besides that, you can employ the Unarmed Defense and Unarmed Movement features to great effect regardless of whether you’re a caster or a wild-shape user, and ki points in general are nice to have for your bonus action. The DM’s discretion is really key for making this better than other options, though.

Druid + Paladin

If you’ve got the charisma and the strength scores to back up your choice? It’s a good option for a druid who wants to get into the hitting of things. You can blow a high-level slot on a smite, should you so choose, but you’ll also be able to use paladin slots on druid spells, take a fighting style that suits your interests, and use Lay on Hands for triage when too many people need healing at once (remember you can’t cast Cure Wounds and Healing Word in the same turn, so using Lay on Hands actually works in your favor for a nasty moment) Alternatively, you can use your Smites to wild success while wild-shaped, as bites and claw attacks are considered melee weapon attacks and are up for grabs for a Divine Smite--though not a smiting spell.

Druid + Ranger

The Ranger skillset is going to work to your advantage here. You can cast ranger spells using your druid slots and vice versa, and although you don’t get any cantrips, you can get perks that make your druid more skilled. It’s best not to rely on the ranger for much in the way of casting or wild-shape enhancements, but it’s potentially worth it in the role-play or exploration-play sense. Still, if you’re a wild-shape-er, this won’t do much for you, so I advise steering clear.

Druid + Rogue

Rogue multi-classes are always strong, but this one...it’s not such a big deal compared to other options. You have that cunning action and sneak attack, but nothing about the rogue at early levels really suits a druid. It’s not going to harm you, and it’s a feasible option, but it’s nothing special either. Best for if you wild-shape and want to use cunning actions to enhance your tactics.

Druid + Sorcerer

Time for your decent charisma to carry you through to a strong casting position! Right off the bat you’ll get four cantrips and two new spell slots, plus at second level you’ll be accumulating sorcery points. Now, metamagic is usually worth it if you progress to third level, but regardless, spending sorcery points to buy more spell slots is another great option! Furthermore, you’ll get the first benefit of your sorcerous origin right away. I don’t recommend this one for wild-shapers, since sorcery is all-casting all the time.

Druid + Warlock

This is a pretty bad multiclass for a druid that favors Wild-Shape, since even melee-oriented warlocks mostly gain perks with physical weapons. And even as a casting-focused druid, this isn’t as good as some other options. Warlocks have one or two first-level spell slots and two cantrips to offer you (though the scaled attacking of cantrips is nothing to sneeze at), and 2 eldritch invocations. The effects of your patron can be worth it, maybe not, depending on your play style, so don’t write it off completely, but overall, you can do better.

Druid + Wizard

This one, like the warlock before it, is just...fine. It’s fine. Wizards are classic glass cannons and they might be a lot of fun, but there’s not a lot going on there. The best the wizard can offer is additional spell slot recovery (like your druid recovery-on-a-short-rest ability), a handful of extra spells and cantrips, and the beginnings of an Arcane Tradition. It’s not suitable for a wild-shaping druid, though a primary caster druid can certainly make use of many of these abilities. It’s just that other multiclass options can do the same or better.

If you enjoy our work, consider supporting us on Ko-Fi! In our next post in this series we’re planning to look at multi-classing monks--a flexible class that you can take in many new directions.

#dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #rpgs #druid #multiclassing

[4dorks-1windmage-1shadow]

The Links as D&D Characters, Part 5: Shadow Link

Inspired by a question I saw on @hauntinghyrule ‘s blog. My character analysis and thoughts on what character class the boys would be if they were D&D characters, and why. Also! @atinybitweird has been drawing the boys D&D designs, and she’s doing really great! I’ll link to her posts on the individual analysis as well as reblog them here so look out for those : D

Green / Red / Blue / Vio / Vaati / FS Zelda

As a preface, there won’t be any doubles on classes except in the case of dual-classing, and in those cases the first class I talk about my justifications for will be the primary class (i.e. the class they would have chosen at level one). My choices will be based on the character theming and personalities, even though at a base level it would be easy to say “they’re all paladins, duh” because of the implied “holy knight chosen by the gods to eradicate evil” concept. For Shadow, there are plenty of shadowy-themed D&D subclasses to choose from. Kaenith mentioned Way of the Shadow Monk in his initial answer on his blog which is actually not a bad pick for him. However, I wouldn’t initially say that Monk is the class for Shadow, because he’s shown relying on magic much more than martial arts (like a Monk would) or even swordplay (like the other Links). He has a sword in the manga, but I think it’s mostly for show- a visual parallel to Link, who does use his sword to fight. This is just a small part of the big reason why I’ve chosen the particular classes and subclasses I have for Shadow, so lets look at the reason as a whole: Shadow’s origin, and how it ties well into the Sorcerer class.

The Four Swords manga and the Four Swords games don’t give us a lot of information about how Shadow Link was created (if he was born vs conjured like Dark Link) and also what exactly the Shadow Realm is. We never actually see the realm that Shadow came from (except for the Erune arc in the manga, and only a small town) so we have no idea if it is a true shadow version of Hyrule, like the Dark World/Lorule (if you believe they’re the same place) are. Furthermore we don’t see any evidence that there are others like Shadow Link, like we do with Lorule with Ravio being a parallel to Link and Hilda being a parallel to Princess Zelda. There’s nothing pointing to the idea that Shadow was born and raised the way a normal kid would be, and so the most logical conclusion canon-wise is that he was literally conjured from Link’s shadow. Magic would be weaved into every fiber of Shadow’s being, and we see this evidenced in the manga because he wields it naturally and easily against the Links. Sorcerers in D&D can be born as well as made, but the key thing that separates the magic sorcerers use from the magic used by wizards, bards, druids, clerics, and warlocks is that a sorcerers magic is innate, often carried through a bloodline or via transforming from the latent energy of a place. In this case, Shadow was literally made with the arcane magic he controls. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything introduced a Sorcerous Origin called Shadow Magic where the arcane magic is sourced from the Shadowfell (i.e. Shadow Realm for authenticity to Zelda), either through being exposed to and transformed by the energy of the place or from being descended from a denizen; neither of these situations are applicable to Shadow BUT I think being created from the source magic should and does count. The majority of Sorcerer abilities come from their Sorcerous Origin, but there are two features that all sorcerers regardless of origin gain that I think fit Shadow based on his story in the manga. Font of Magic and Metamagic can be linked to the Dark Mirror being Shadow’s source of life and magical power because of the abilities that Shadow is able to display while being linked to it. Font of Magic gives Shadow access to Sorcery Points, which he can spend to create new spell slots, or sacrifice spell slots to gain more sorcery points which effectively translates to giving himself more power to wield in battle. Metamagic lets him twist the magic of his spells to suit his own needs, using sorcery points to do so. It can let him double the range of spells, double the spells’ duration, potentially do more damage on a hit and target more than one opponent with a ranged spell that normally only targets one creature. I’m choosing to translate this as him getting a boost in power and flexibility that he normally wouldn’t have without the power of the Dark Mirror (though depending on your interpretation of post-manga shenanigans he could have these abilities anyway because of whatever method brought him back allowed him to have them). Back to Shadow Magic though. Thematically it makes the most sense: Shadow Link is created from shadow magic and thus is a Shadow Magic Sorcerer. But the abilities here are what we want to look at to see if it really fits. At 1st level, Shadow Magic gives Shadow a darkvision range of 120 feet, and the Strength of the Grave ability means he can charm his way out of death. That’s not entirely accurate- the actual text says he can take a Charisma saving throw and attempt to equal or exceed a target number equal to 5 + [amount of damage taken], and drop to 1 hit point instead of 0 if he succeeds. I think this makes sense- if he’s a shadow, he’d be able to slip out of battle or narrowly avoid life-threatening attacks just by the art of deception; this isn’t necessarily supported by the Sorcerer class itself, but if you mix the game canon into the manga canon, Shadow can technically clone himself and use those copies to his advantage. At 3rd level, he learns the Darkness spell without it counting against the amount of spells he knows, and he can cast it with either sorcery points or a spell slot (he can see through the effected area of the spell if he casts it using sorcery points). At 6th level, he can spend sorcery points to summon a shadow creature that effectively acts like an attack dog, which he can sic on a creature within 120 feet of him. Shadow is shown leading an army of monsters in the manga, so the Hound of Ill Omen feature actually lends itself well to that image- maybe one of the creatures he used to attack Hyrule Castle was his magically summoned shadow hound. It isn’t that far-fetched of an assumption to make. Shadow Walk lets him teleport through darkness and dim light up to a distance of 120 feet, which is an ability he already portrays in the manga and in the games. The only Shadow Magic ability he doesn’t get to benefit from is Umbral Form, and that’s because I want to call a parallel to Link that I think is fitting for Shadow’s role as his foil in the story. Shadow is not a copy of Link- I don’t want anyone to get confused by what I’m saying. However, he is still Link’s shadow, the reflection of everything Link could have become if he wasn’t the hero, didn’t grow up with all the people around him who loved him and supported him. Shadow’s main motivation in the story is loneliness and the desire to be recognized, but who is going to recognize him if he doesn’t make himself recognizable? I talked at length in my analysis of Green’s class about how Paladins take oaths that serve as pillars for their conduct and core beliefs as paladins, but what happens if you don’t have any of those beliefs or you did have them but chose to cast them away? In the Dungeon Master’s Guide, it describes a class option for Paladins called the Oathbreaker: essentially a paladin who has abandoned or broke their sacred oaths. Shadow probably never had any oaths to begin with, but he wanted to be recognized the way Link was, and so I think he chose to take the mantle of Paladin without really understanding what makes Link (Green) a true Paladin. He has to take at least 3 levels in Paladin to subclass as Oathbreaker, and that unlocks light and medium armor, shields and all weapons for him to use in combat. It also unlocks spells like Hellish Rebuke, Inflict Wounds, and if he takes up to 5th level in Paladin, the Crown of Madness spell. He still gets all of the normal Paladin abilities, but his Channel Divinity options are kind of the opposite of Green’s: He can control undead creatures with it, or use Dreadful Aspect to create an aura of fear around himself with a radius of up to 30 feet.  Depending on how you look at the option of Shadow being redeemable, there is an option for Oathbreaker Paladins to “atone” for their evil actions as an Oathbreaker. They lose the Oathbreaker features and gain the features of a Sacred Oath, and I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to his character journey than him becoming an Oath of Vengeance Paladin from the Player’s Handbook. It lets him fill a different niche of paladin than Green does, and takes his character into account in regards to the Tenets of Vengeance: Fight the Greater Evil (Faced with a choice of fighting my sworn foes or combating a lesser evil, I choose the greater evil). No Mercy for the Wicked (Ordinary foes might win my mercy, but my sworn enemies do not.) By Any Means Necessary (My qualms can’t get in the way of exterminating my foes) Restitution (If my foes wreak ruin on the world, it is because I failed to stop them. I must help those harmed by their misdeeds) Taking Oath of Vengeance in this way would replace Hellish Rebuke, Inflict Wounds and Crown of Madness with Bane, Hunter’s Mark, Hold Person and Misty Step, and the Channel Divinity features include Abjure Enemy (inflicting fear on a targeted creature) and Vow of Enmity (basically pointing at an enemy and saying “I choose you” and then he gets to attack them with advantage for a minute [10 rounds of combat]). In conclusion, Shadow ends up as a dual-classed Shadow Magic Sorcerer/Oathbreaker Paladin (later changing to Oath of Vengeance Paladin to account for character growth). 

#I like the fact that paladin has the option to go apeshit and evil #and likewise change from evil and apeshit to following some sort of moral code #none of the other classes have that distinction #i mean i GUESS you could change your wizard school if you thought that Divination wasn't working for you but you'd like to try Illusion b/c #that's basically the equivalent of changing your major #but you couldn't do that with sorcerer #i think it would only work if you and your dm really hashed out WHY said character would make such a huge choice to switch patrons or gods #or fighter types or whatever else #but with paladin there are actual rules #sorry im gay for dungeons and dragons #four swords #shadow link #character analysis #dungeons and dragons

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Reskinned Monks

I wanted to come up with ways of avoiding the cliché stereotype of the "far east" martial artist. While there's nothing overtly wrong with it, there are so many other ways to theme an unarmed combatant. If you want another way that hasn't been done to death, I've come up with some different ideas to use.

Reskinned Monks

Martial art masters can come in many different packages. You can easily create unique characters that employ a monk's fighting techniques but with a thematic twist. You can rename some of the monk's class features to make interesting spins on their ki abilities.

Brawler. A gladiator, wrestler, or back-alley ruffian that picked up their martial prowess on the streets. A barbaric or roguish version of the monk that fights dirty. Ki points become Mettle points.

Divine Warrior. A person that uses their faith in a higher power or faith in nature to guide their martial style, empowering themselves with divine magic. Essentially a cleric or druid that foregoes spells and armor for combat prowess. Ki points become Spirit points.

Martial Mage. A person with a talent for spellcasting that uses their innate magic to enhance their physical abilities. They don't necessarily cast spells (though a four elements monk could), but their "magic" unarmed strikes are charged with actual arcane magic instead of ki. Ki points become Spell points.

Noble. A gentleman or lady trained in the art of fighting by masters brought in from around the world. There are several martial arts that teach the art of combat with a cane or stick that could work here. Ki points become Bravado points.

Performer. An entertainer that picked up martial arts from their intense training for daring spectacles. A dancer is the most obvious choice but there could be others. Imagine circus performers adept at fighting. Ki points become Drama points.

Savant. A person with psychic talent that uses it to enhance their abilities. They don't necessarily manifest psionic powers but they supernaturally cause their stunning strikes to bewilder foes and their flurry of blows is a temporal manipulation. Ki points become Psi points.

Spy. An infiltrator that had to train to fight even when unarmed and unarmored. Sure, this is essentially a ninja but there have been plenty of non-ninja spies throughout modern and ancient history. Ki points become Cunning points.

Weapon Master. A fighter that has trained with a specific weapon and mastered the discipline and wisdom that comes with the training. Think Soul Calibur characters. Ki points become Mastery points.

Wilderness Hermit. A person who has lived outside of society but has learned martial skills through hunting with simple weapons, defending themselves from monstrous wildlife, and exercising discipline (from rationing food/water and surviving the elements). If you can wrestle a bear with no food in your belly, guess what? You're a monk. Ki points become Tenacity points.

More Martial Arts

While countless examples of martial arts have come from China, Japan, Korea and Thailand, discipline-focused fighting styles have existed throughout history and around the world. If you want to escape the stereotype of the far eastern monk, investigate some of these martial arts.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it will hopefully open your mind to different kinds of monks other than the ones we are most often exposed to in martial arts movies; martial training exists everywhere, and it's certainly not anachronistic for a monk to exist outside of a "Oriental Adventures" setting.

Angampora:  Sri Lanka Bataireacht: Ireland Bokator: Cambodia Bokh: Mongolia Coreeda: Australia Dambe: West Africa Donga: South Africa Glima: Scandinavia Krav Maga: Israel Laamb: Senegal Lethwei: Myanmar Lima Lama: Samoa Lua: Hawaii Luta Livre: Brazil Kalaripayattu: India Mau Rakau: New Zealand Pankration: Greece Sambo: Russia Savate: France Bartitsu: England Tahtib: Egypt Yaw Yan: Philippines

#D&D #DnD #5e #Monk #reskinned #dungeons and dragons

[moderndaybard]

So, for (probably strange) reasons of my own, I spent the morning before work today scanning through the spells list for each of the various classes in D&D 5e, looking to see which, if any, spells could be cast without a verbal component—just to see what a character would have access to if they (temporarily or otherwise) unable to speak. This turned into a curious survey of how viable (or how to make viable) any of them would be if the character was more than temporarily voiceless, whether from physical or magical causes (probably because I’m the sort of person prone to putting myself at a mechanical disadvantage for the sake of story/character reasons).

What I found kind of surprised me…

(Class-by-class breakdown/list [minus arcane trickster and eldritch knight] under the break)

Artificer—

So, an (unsurprisingly) limited list, if one adheres to the strict parameters of eliminating any spells with a verbal component: One Cantrip (Thunderclap); Three 1st-Level spells (Absorb Elements, Catapult, and Snare); One 3rd-Level spell (Catnap); and nothing for 2nd-, 4th- or 5th-Level spells.

If kept to this strict definition, I don’t know if this is the path I’d go with a silent character. However, it actually kind of bugs me to think that Artificers would need a verbal component at all, since their supposedly crafting items and infusing them with magic, so I could potentially see a case being made to the DM that the verbal requirements be hand-waved, perhaps in exchange for more detailed descriptions of the item creation, creativity in the role-play, and other situations. Should the DM accept this plea, I could actually see this being a viable option to multiclass into, should a spellcaster lose their voice (either in backstory or in gameplay).

 Bard—

I actually kind of expected this one to be more limited, if not completely blank, but I was surprised: Four Cantrips (Friends, Minor Illusion, Thunderclap, and True Strike); One 1st-Level spell (Illusory Script); Two 3rd-Level spells (Catnap and hypnotic Pattern); One 5th-Level spell (Mislead); a 9th-Level spell (Psychic Scream); and nothing for 2nd-, 4th-, 6th, 7th, and 8th-Level spells.

On the surface, this seems like a case of ‘why would you even do this to yourself,’ however, like the Artificer, I can see a case being made to the DM that a Bard should be able to use their musical instrument in pace of the normal verbal component requirements, which would then open up the entire spell list. If that’s the case, this then becomes and interesting character path to start with, or one to multiclass into, especially as you explore what it means to be a high-charisma, non-verbal character.

 Cleric—

No. Just, no: No spells, no cantrips—nothing bur Channel Divinity and whatever weapons you’ve got, so unless you’re really into only story, it’s hard to pinpoint a reason to go this route instead of, say, a paladin (more on them later).

 Druid—

Somehow, for reasons I can’t explain, I thought this class would have more, if not outright the most spells still available. I was wrong: Five Cantrips (Control Flames, Mold Earth, Shape Water, Thunderclap, and Primal Savagery); Three 1st-Level spells (Absorb Elements, Ice Knife, and Snare); One 2nd-Level Spell (Beast Sense); and nothing at all for 3rd-9th Level spells.

Depending on campaign setting/tone, I can see narrative l (this was actually the character thought that started this research, initially), but mechanically, I feel you’d either have to plan to multi-class early, either into a different caster class with more options or something more martial, if that’s where you’d rather focus; or else, perhaps go Circle of the Moon and concentrate on your Beast Shape ability, or some combination of both. With enough creativity, I still think this can work.

 Paladin—

Like the cleric, every spell available has a verbal requirement. Unlike the cleric, this class has other abilities and strengths to compensate for the lack of any spells, and thanks to Smite, no spell slot has to go to waste, so with a little change to playstyle, this is quite the viable option.

 Ranger—

Short list got shorter: No Cantrips; Two 1st-Level spells (Absorb Elements and Snare); One 2nd-Level spell (Beast Sense); One 5th-Level spell (Steel Wind Strike); and nothing for 3rd- or 4th-Level spells.

Still, from what I’ve seen, a lot of rangers don’t rely too heavily on their magic, so with enough focus on combat and other abilities, I can see this one being quite possible, maybe not even impacted too greatly.

 Sorcerer—

Not too bad, early on, but it weakens quickly. Six Cantrips (Control Flames, Minor illusion, Mold Earth, Shape Water, Thunderclap, and True Strike); Three 1st-Level spells (Absorb Elements, Catapult, and Ice Knife); One 2nd-Level spell (Mind Spike); Three 3rd-Level spells (Catnap, Counterspell, and Hypnotic Pattern); One 6th-Level Spell (Mental Prison); One 9th-Level spell (Psychic Scream); and no 4th-, 5th-, 7th-, or 8th-Level spells.

Staying just sorcerer could get iffy, since it’s such a casting-focused class (i.e. weak and squishy), but multiclassing into Artificer, Bard, or others could open up some interesting story possibilities about trying to find a way to still harness your inborn magic. Story and creativity are your friends here.

 Warlock—

An already limited list got even further restricted, but not altogether strangled: Four Cantrips (Friends, Minor illusion, Thunderclap, and True Strike); One 1st-Level spell (Illusory Script); One 2nd-Level spell (Mind Spike); Two 3rd-Level Spells (Counterspell and hypnotic Pattern); One 6th-Level spell (Mental Prison); One 8th-Level spell (Demiplane); One 9th-Level spell (Psychic Scream); and nothing for 4th-, 5t-h or 7th-Level spells.

You lose out on a lot of what are seen as the most useful/powerful spells and cantrips, but depending on roleplay scenarios and overall group composition, there could still be some utility, and I can see some interesting narrative paths and patron/warlock dynamics, both with and without multiclassing.

 Wizard—

Somewhat surprisingly, the largest lit of non-verbal spells: Seven Cantrips (Control Flames, Encode Thoughts, Friends, Mold Earth, Shape Water, Thunderclap, and True Strike); Five 1st-Level Spells (Absorb Elements, Catapult, Ice Knife, Illusory Script and Snare); One 2nd-Level spell (Mind Spike); Three 3rd-Level Spells (Catnap; Counterspell; and Hypnotic Pattern); Two 5th-Level Spells (Mislead and Steel Wind Strike); One 6th-Level Spell (Mental Prison); Two 8th-Level Spells (Demiplane and Illusory Dragon); One 9th-Level spell (Psychic Scream); and no 4th- or 7th-Level spells.

Honestly: I see a lot of potential here, either as the sole class, or as something one of the others may multiclass into—both narratively and mechanically.

 So, yeah. Turns out it is possible to play a nonverbal caster in 5e, it just requires some creative thinking (which is half the fun of the game at all, if you ask me). Or, at the very least, the list goes to prove that the spell Silence isn’t quite the mage-killer it’s purported to be, so long as the caster in question has the right spells prepped.

#my post #dnd #d&d musings #just some random thoughts #character ideas maybe

[tarakaybee]

Oxventure: Lore Speculations

So I post a lot about @outsidexboxofficial ‘s D&D campaign because it’s really cute and entertaining and full of extremely memorable characters. I did this post recently where I attempt to create a timeline of the story so far based on the scant references to the passage of time made by Johnny, their DM, and I started with some headcanon/lore speculations, so I thought I’d add a few more here! Again, these aren’t theories in the sense that I believe I’m decoding hidden lore, Johnny and the gang prioritise telling the episodic stories rather than overcomplicating things with lore from the get-go so this is all just for fun.

Geth

- The gang in more than half of their adventures so far have been near the coastline. So I’m imagining that the area of Geth they’ve been in for a majority of time is reminiscent of the Sword Coast from the official releases, but as of Brawl of the Wild have been teleported to a landlocked area (at least until any stories beyond Spell Check contradict this).

- In addition, at least four of the ‘dungeons’ the gang have entered have been recently repurposed, M. Channail’s hideout was formerly a crypt, The Order of Keeping it Down’s stronghold was a unoccupied Square Keep, the home of the Duke of Redcastle was formerly an unoccupied castle that the town got its name from, and the Chuul’s Temple was formerly a C’thulhu-worshipping temple a few generations back. I’m imagining some sort of country-spanning war early in the lives of the Oxventurers, rendering Geth’s current citizens mostly descendents of said conquerers, a-la the Anglo-Saxons.

-This could maybe potentially be connected to Brunin the Unworthy from An Orc-Ward Encounter, Geth’s leadership may cycle through different species every few generations, hence why a battle between a Dwarf, a Elf army and a Tiefling army is commemorated in a crypt in a country with majority humans. (Incidentally, I am pondering how there could be a Tiefling army considering Prudence’s backstory infers that Tieflings are basically deviations upon human births, though I suppose Tieflings can sire more Tieflings)

NPCs

- I wasn’t sure what my headcanon was regarding Alfred Strangetide for a while, I wasn’t sure if I considered him a member of a small species like Dwarves and Gnomes, since the gang meet a few of those and don’t remark on their sizes at any point. Eventually though I settled on Halfling, as I believe the Tolkien Hobbits were very baby-faced, which I choose to believe is what the gang were fixating on.

- If Suzette were a player character I imagine she’d be a Ranger. 

Dob

- I imagine Dob’s none-Orc half is actually Wood-Elf. Dob seems to have an affinity for nature almost on-par with Merilwen, though not necessarily in gameplay applications.

- In regular D&D 5E rules, Thunderwave inflicts Thunder damage, I.E painful sounds rather than lightning damage, which is what the electrical damage they mention would logically be. As well as being Half-Wood Elf Dob could also have some Storm Sorcery blood in his lineage too!

Egbert

- With regards to Egbert’s atonement, I don’t imagine he has one major crime in his past, more that he grew up poor and had to steal or act in self defence on a few occasions and his Paladin order (Le Dragon D’or, ‘The Golden Dragon’) inflicted a lot of religious guilt on him. (Man this is a depressing one)

- I imagine the deity that Egbert patronises is some kind of offshoot religion of The Order of the Platinum Dragon (Aka Bahamut), hence why Egbert is not sure if his god actually exists (gameplay-wise, I believe Paladins divine power comes from faith in concepts, whereas Clerics magical powers are more directly from the gods, so a Paladin can merely be strongly in favour of the cause of justice itself and still become a Paladin)

Corazon

- Since Prudence is the only character to possess an actual book of spells, I choose to believe that she was the one giving Corazon the foundation for his Arcane Trickster level up (technically Arcane Tricksters learn Wizard spells and not Warlock spells but eh)

- I choose to imagine that prior to meeting the gang Corazon had worked with a nonhuman crew before on some other ship he served on. Growing up as a rich member of seemingly the most common species in the kingdom should’ve made him numb to a lot of biases but he seems very eager to defend Prundence from prejudice upon meeting her, much like Dob was.

__________________________________________________

Side Bit: Fun Rules They May Have Missed

1. In Spell Check, when Corazon becomes magically superpowered he creates a load of sandwiches from nothing using divine creation magic, but then later on complains about the ingredients. Create Food and Water is an actual spell in the current rules and it states that you create enough food for 15 humanoids but it tastes very bland, which is exactly how Andy described it! Similarly, Andy’s use of Mage Hand to creates a magical bludgeoning fist is also covered in the rules with Bigby’s Hand (Though as an Arcane Trickster Corazon wouldn’t be able to learn either spell)

2. As a Warlock of C’thulhu, under the regular 5E rules Prudence could have access to an ability called Awakened Mind, which as far as I can tell, is basically a permanent ability to telepathically communicate with anybody within 30 ft. 

3. Similarly, as a Warlock she presumably had access to a Eldritch Invocation called Gift of the Depths, which allows underwater breathing. This would presumably be how the inhabitants of C’thulhu’s underwater temple travelled there from the land!

4. As a Bard of Valor, Dob would have gained proficiency with Martial Weapons, so as a stretch you could say he’d be proficient with Ethilfrith’s Hammer (Which is technically a Sledgehammer but the rules are lenient with what you can apply proficiencies to). Then again Johnny mentions Dob’s strength modifier is 0 so Dob probably hits harder with his Rapier regardless.

5. At least three members of the gang are able to learn Disguise Self but have not done so despite how many of their plans revolve around attempting to deceive people. :P

#outside xbox #oxventure

[the-huntsmans-homebrews]

A New Masterpost

This new masterpost should work in the aftermath of my attempts to separate my D&D work from my personal life. Enjoy!

To submit feedback on one of my homebrew character options, please use the google form found here.

General Homebrews

Battlemagic, a set of work in progress mechanics and spells designed to enable melee spellcasting classes.

The Bladeweaver, an Artificer-like class focused around sentient weapons and magical infusion.

The Chained Ancient, an oddball class to let you actually play as a dragon, celestial, fiend, or other supernatural being, albeit a rather restricted one.

The Herald, a demi-villainous class option that uses Warlock-like mechanics to represent an individual touched, possibly unwillingly, but the influence of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The Voyager, a class for a true adventurer, not a slayer of monsters, but a wanderer of lands near and far.

Thirty Second Homebrews, a more-or-less weekly series where I put together a quick idea or two for early consumption. This is most often subclasses or races.

DM’s Guild Homebrews

Artificer Specializations

Barbarian Primal Paths

Bardic Colleges

Blood Hunter Martial Orders

Cleric Divine Domains

Druidic Circles

Fighter Martial Archetypes

Monk Monastic Traditions

Mystic Orders

Paladin Sacred Oaths

Ranger Conclaves

Roguish Archetypes

Sorcerous Origins

Warlock Otherworldly Patrons

Wizard Arcane Traditions

All of the above DM’s Guild options are listed as “Pay What You Want,” meaning you can download them for free and contribute a little later if you like what you read!

Alternatively, you can get everything all at once for a mere $1.00.

WIP Homebrews

The Beyondsman, my baby, a class oriented around alignment of oneself with the planes of reality. Will probably not be publishes until I finish my campaign setting guide.

The Honorblade and the Sciicet, a class and faction based on the Assassin’s Creed video games.

The Mentalist, a half casting take on the Eldritch Knight with the beginnings of a system for Rune Magic.

The Supernaturalist, a class inspired by all manner of demon, monster, and witch hunter you can imagine.

Happy hunting!

~The Huntsman

#The Huntsman's Homebrews #homebrew #homebrew class #homebrew subclass #homebrew subclasses #homebrew spells #dnd homebrew #d&d homebrew

[masterweaverx]

I’m back on this, and this time we’ve got everybody’s favorite villain, Cinder Fall! The Fire Witch with the Best Twitch, the powerhungry primmadonna, the Misshapen Maiden, we’re going to set her up on dungeoning and dragoning in the best way we can work!

And boy howdy is this going to be a mess. Cinder may mainly use fire, but she uses it in so many different ways and, honestly, that’s true of everything she does. Lots of weapons and lots of magic, and surprisingly skilled at craftsmanship. Also, she’s very hard to kill, which isn’t something most casters get a lot. Basically, Cinder has to be very flexible in so many different fields.

If we look at the point array I’d say we’d be putting a fifteen in Charisma--she’s been on GLOBAL TELEVISION and looks pretty good even after getting a demon grafted to her arm. Dexterity would get fourteen, because she’s a roofhopping arrow-shooting glamour gal, and Wisdom thirteen because she’s just cunning enough to keep almost winning. Constitution is important for being hardy and keeping concentration, so that would be twelve. She’s only got an average strength at ten points, but she uses it well, and eight points in intelligence makes it her dump stat--there’s a very spoilery reason she’s not that good at book learning.

Variant humans get variant points! Two ability points to put anywhere--bump up that wisdom and charisma just a touch--a free skill and a free feat. Athletics would be the skill of choice, she’s very mobile, and for the Feat we’re going to take Magic Initiate and pluck a few spells off the Warlock list--Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast, and Expeditious Retreat. A lot of the spells we’ll want are actually not on the Warlock list, so even though Salem’s pretty clearly her patron we’ll just say it’s not quite like that.

I looked through the Backgrounds and Dragon Casualty from the Adventurer’s League: Curse of Strahd actually has a lot in common with Cinder’s actual history. The Dragonscarred feature comes complete with a reputation and a visible disfigurement, meaning the Up and Ups recognize Cinder, something she can use. She gets proficiency in Intimidation, Survival, and Weaver’s tools, and also she can speak Draconic. Does anybody on Remnant speak draconic? I don’t know, but Cinder’s polylingual!

Cinder gets six levels in Phoenix Sorcerer, six as an Arcane Archer Fighter, and eight in Forge Cleric. Since she’s starting with Sorcerer she’ll get proficiency in Charisma and Constitution saves, as well as Persuasion and Deception. Multiclassing into Fighter gives her proficiencies in all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields. She also gets a total of five Ability Score Improvements--burning one for the Eldritch Adept feat gives her the Grasp of Hadar, for some stretchy hand action with her Eldritch Blast, and leaves eight points for her stats. Four in Charisma maxes that out, then putting two each in Dexterity and Wisdom sets those both to sixteen.

All Sorcerers get sorcery points equal to their Sorcerer level, which they can use for Flexible Casting--creating extra spell slots at a given cost. Flexible casting also allows Sorcerers to burn unused spell slots for Sorcery points, which is useful when you want to pull out that last bit of magic but you need a spell slot on the fly. And of course there’s Metamagic, which lets you spend sorcery points to alter spells in specific ways--I think Cinder would pick up Elemental Spell for those rare occasions where she wants something other than fire, and Distant Spell for enemies that have a bad habit of running away.

Phoenix Sorcerers can Ignite things as an action, free of charge, just by touching it. They also have a Mantle of Flame they can activate as a bonus action, spending one minute being EXTRA HOT. And of course there’s the sixth-level Phoenix Spark--if Cinder hits zero HP, she can use a reaction to go to 1 HP and everybody within ten feet takes eight fire damage, or sixteen if her Mantle of Flame was up. Both the Mantle and the Spark can only be used once per long rest, but Cinder knows how to get out when things get bad so...

With six levels of Fighter, Cinder would have a Second Wind, letting her regain 1d10+6 HP as a bonus action once per rest. Action Surge lets her take another Action on her turn once per rest, and Extra Attack means she can make two attacks with any attack action. I think she’d also pick up the Two-Weapon Fighting Style, letting her use her ability bonus with a second weapon. As for Arcane Archer, that gives her the Prestidigitation cantrip and two Arcane Shots per rest; she can either use a Bursting Arrow which is just an extra 2d6 force damage to everyone in ten feet of the shot, or an Enfeebling Arrow, which does 2d6 necrotic damage to the target and halves their weapon damage on a failed Con save. Go for that Achilles Heel, Cinder, I’m sure that won’t backfire!

And then... eight levels in Forge Cleric. Truth be told, I mostly picked that for the automatic spells from the Forge domain, which basically cover Cinder’s Semblance and the way she combines them with her magic. But she does get some benefits; she can Channel Divinity twice per rest, either Turning Undead--getting them to run if they’re higher than CR 1 or outright destroying them otherwise--or using Artisan’s Blessing to create items.

And being a Forge Cleric specifically gives Cinder proficiency with Smith’s Tools and Heavy Armor, as well as the ability to give +1 to armor or a weapon once per long rest. She also gets resistance to fire damage and +1 AC wearing heavy armor from having a Soul of the Forge. And of course there’s the Eighth level Divine Strike, letting her add 1d8 fire damage to one attack per turn. She’s a pretty firey gal.

Going over Cinder’s spell list is a doozy. Firstly, she’s a 14th level caster, which means she has 4 level one slots, 3 slots each for level two, three, and four spells, 2 level five slots, and a slot apiece for level six and seven. But she can only pick up Cleric spells up to level four and Sorcerer spells up to level three. She’s already got three cantrips from her Magic Initiate and Arcane Archer sources, and she’s going to get four more from the Cleric list and five more from the Sorceror list--and as for spells, level six Sorcerers know seven that they can always cast, and Clerics can prepare a number of spells equal to their level plus their Wisdom modifier--so eleven in Cinder’s case. And the Forge spells are considered always prepared, and don’t count against the Cleric spell max.

That’s a WHOLE lot of magic in one girl. Let’s spell (ha) it out!

-Cantrips: --Chill Touch (Magic Initiate Warlock) --Control Flames (Sorcerer) --Eldritch Blast (Magic Initiate Warlock) --Firebolt (Sorcerer) --Frostbite (Sorcerer) --Mending (Cleric) --Prestidigitation (Arcane Archer) --Ray of Frost (Sorcerer) --Shape Water (Sorcerer) --Sacred Flame (Cleric) --Thaumaturgy (Cleric) --Word of Radiance (Cleric) L1: 4 slots --Burning Hands (Sorcerer) --Command (Cleric) --Create or Destroy Water (Cleric) --Expeditious Retreat (Magic Initiate Warlock) (Concentration) --Guiding Bolt (Cleric) --Identify (Forge Cleric) --Searing Smite (Forge Cleric) (Concentration) L2: 3 slots --Aganazzer's Scorcher (Sorcerer) --Aid (Cleric) --Dragon's Breath (Sorcerer) (Concentration) --Enhance Ability (Cleric) (Concentration) --Heat Metal (Forge Cleric) (Concentration) --Magic Weapon (Forge Cleric) (Concentration) --Scorching Ray (Sorcerer) --Spiritual Weapon (Cleric) L3: 3 slots --Bestow Curse (Cleric) (Concentration) --Elemental Weapon (Forge Cleric) (Concentration) --Fireball (Sorcerer) --Flame Arrows (Sorcerer) (Concentration) --Fly (Sorcerer) (Concentration) --Inflict Wounds (Cleric) --Protection from Energy (Forge Cleric) (Concentration) --Revivify (Cleric) L4: 3 slots --Death Ward (Cleric) --Divination (Cleric) --Fabricate (Forge Cleric) --Wall Of Fire (Forge Cleric) (Concentration) L5: 2 slots L6: 1 slot L7: 1 slot

Remember, as a Sorcerer Cinder can melt unused spell slots for sorcery points, and any caster can upcast a spell using a slot above its usual level. And with the metamagic that Cinder has, that makes all these spells just that much more dangerous. Throwing in some reach and necrotic for that demon on her arm and, well, there’s a reason Cinder Fall is the queen of Salem’s forces.

So yeah, that’s Cinder.

#RWBY #Dungeons & Dragons #D&D 5E #Cinder Fall #Character Build

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #70: Scáthach

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making  the queen of the Land of Shadows and Witch of Dun Scaith, Scáthach!

Or at least we’re trying to, because to properly make her, you have to make someone who’s great at literally everything. Don’t worry though, you’ll just have to settle for being very good at most things instead.

Check out below the cut for the full breakdown, or you can look at the character sheet over here!

Note: I’m not changing the build around for it, but Tasha’s added the ability to cast cantrips as weapon attacks to the sixth level of bladesinger, so it might be worth the effort to shift things around to get that benefit.

Race and Background

Scathach used to be human, but now she’s half divine and guards the underworld. Fallen Aasimar would be more flavorful, but Half Elf gives us more to work with, also makes us half human, and will appease any stickler DMs when it comes to level 10. They get Darkvision; Fey Ancestry, giving you resistance to being charmed and immunity to magical sleep, and Skill Versatility, making you proficient in two skills of your choice. Here we’re going with Athletics and Religion to balance your physical and mental skills. You also get +2 Charisma and +1 in two abilities of your choice, here Dexterity and Wisdom. 

Guardian of the Underworld is one hell of a resume, but it keeps you away from the rest of humanity and makes you a lot smarter than most people, so Sage is a pretty close approximation, giving you proficiency in Arcana and History. 

Stats

Make your Dexterity as high as possible- you know where to stick those spears, and you’re also remarkably hard to stick spears into. Second is your Intelligence, you mentor some of the greatest warriors and mages in Ireland, so you’re pretty smart. For that same reason, make Wisdom third. Your Constitution isn’t as high as we’d like it. You’re supposed to be immortal, but we have plenty of ways to make that a nonissue. Same for your Strength, we don’t really need it, but it should be a lot higher than 10. Finally, dump Charisma; you can be hard to get along with sometimes, especially when people bring up your age.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: Starting off as a fighter gives you proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as in two fighter skills, like Acrobatics and Intimidation. You also pick up a Fighting Style. Two-Weapon Fighting will make your left hand just as strong as your right... just as soon as you can dual-wield your spears. We’ll get there. You also get a Second Wind, letting you use your Bonus Action once per short rest to heal yourself. You’ve got tons of runes, one of them has got to be able to heal you.

Eventually, you’ll be dual-wielding spears, but for now just focus on using the one.

2. Monk 1: Hopping over to Monk nets you Martial Arts, letting you use your much stronger dexterity instead of strength for weapon attacks, a d4 for unarmed attacks, and your bonus action to make an unarmed strike after making a weapon attack with your action. You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC of 10+your dexterity modifier+your wisdom modifier when not wearing armor. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to be wearing, but it’s definitely not armor.

3. Fighter 2: Back in Fighter now, you get an Action Surge, letting you tack an extra action to one of your turns once per short rest.

4. Fighter 3: Grab Eldritch Knight as your martial archetype, gaining Spells that use your Intelligence to cast and the ability to Weapon Bond. If you spend an hour performing the ritual, you can bond a weapon to yourself, making it impossible to disarm you unless you’re incapacitated, and you can summon one bonded weapon as a bonus action as long as you’re in the same plane. You can have up to two weapons bonded at once.

For your spells, Create Bonfire and Frostbite are fire and ice runes, respectively. Protection from Evil and Good will make you more of an anti-divinity powerhouse, Shield will boost your AC higher and protect you from missiles, and Sleep’s just useful.

5. Fighter 4: For your first feat, grab Dual Wielder to increase your AC by 1 while holding two weapons, finally allow you to dual wield spears, and draw two weapons at once. Summoning weapons is cool, but maybe you should just keep some on hand too.

For your spell, Magic Missile can be even more summoned spears that always hit their target.

6. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice per action. This adds up to two times normally, three times with your off hand/martial arts, four times with your action surge, and five times altogether.

7. Fighter 6: Use your next ASI to become a War Caster, giving you advantage on concentration saves, the ability to cast spells as opportunity attacks, and best of all, the ability to cast somatic spells with both hands occupied by weapons. If you’re going to dual wield, you better do it right.

8. Fighter 7: With our last level in fighter for a bit, you learn some War Magic. If you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can attack with a weapon as a bonus action. Now you can really mix your magecraft and weapon wielding!

For your spell, grab Darkness to bring a bit of Dun Scaith back to the material plane.

9. Wizard 1: We’ll be heading back to the fighter levels soon, but we’re taking a quick detour for some extra magic power. When you become a wizard, you gain another set of Spells that also use Intelligence to cast, but are kept in your Spellbook and have to be prepared ahead of time. You also gain Arcane Recovery, letting you recover a number of spellslots on a short rest with a total level equal to half your wizard level, rounded up.

You also get a ton of spells at level one, most of which will be your Wisdom of Dun Scaith helping you steal some abilities from other classes. Jump and Featherfall from monks, and Comprehend Languages and False Life from Warlocks, specifically. You also get Detect Magic and Indentify to help you sniff out magical artifacts that you probably already know about. Finally, you get Booming Blade, Chill Touch, and Message as cantrips.

10. Wizard 2: Second level wizards specialize in a school of magic, and being a half-elf qualifies you for becoming a Bladesinger. Bladesingers gain Training in War and Song, a long way of saying Performance proficiency, and the titular Bladesong, which you can activate as a bonus action. It lasts for a minute, and while active you add your Intelligence modifier to your AC and concentration saves, add 10′ to your movement speed, and have advantage on acrobatics checks. You gain a number of bladesongs equal to your proficiency per short rest, and it will end early if you wear medium or heavy armor, a shield, or make a two-handed attack with a weapon. None of those should be issues for you.

For your spells this level, grab Longstrider for extra mobility and Cause Fear because you tend to have that effect on people. Especially your pupils.

11. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells. Cloud of Daggers lets you summon a swarm of Gae Bolgs in a 5′ cube, dealing damage to those who enter. Hold Person lets you stun a Humanoid for up to a minute if they fail a Wisdom save each turn, for free advantage on attacks in guaranteed critical hits.

12. Wizard 4: Now that we can finally use spells and spears at the same time, we can use these ASIs for stats. Bump up your Intelligence for more wizard spells, stronger spells in general, and a stronger bladesong.

You also learn how to cast Gust for a wind rune, can Misty Step for high-speed movement, and Detect Thoughts for some more Clairvoyance.

13. Wizard 5: Our last wizard level gives you some third level spells! Magic Circle lets you carve protective runes to ward off or capture extraplanar beings, and Haste makes you anime-character level fast, doubling your movement and giving you an extra action each turn.

14. Fighter 8: Another ASI, this time bumping up your Dexterity for more damage to others and less damage to you. You also learn how to use your clairvoyance to Locate Objects. 

15. FIghter 9: You become Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed saving throw once per long rest.

16. Fighter 10: Tenth level Eldritch Knights can make Eldritch Strikes, imposing disadvantage against the next spell save a creature makes before the end of your next turn when you hit them with a weapon attack.

For your spells, you can Encode Thoughts, making a physical copy of either your own thoughts, or those you read with Detect Thoughts, to literally steal people’s skills. You also learn how to combine your summoned spears with an ice rune to create Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm.

17. Fighter 11: Thanks to another Extra Attack, you get a third attack each action. You also learn to combine your summon spears with a fire rune to make some Scorching Rays. 

18. Fighter 12: Another ASI. Use this one to improve your Intelligence for stronger spells and songs.

19. Fighter 13: You gain a second use of Indomitable per rest, and learn how to carve a Glyph of Warding. It can either be used as an explosive trap, or to cast a 3rd level or lower spell on activation. All you have are 3rd level or lower spells, so that’s not much of an limitation.

20. Fighter 14: Use your last ASI to empower your Constitution for more health and stronger concentration saves. You also get your final spell, Melf’s Minute Meteors, to summon some lasting spears, launching a few each turn as a bonus action.

Pros:

You have a really strong Armor Class, ranging anywhere from 17 with only your weapons to 26 with your bladesong and spear active, meaning you can last for a while on the front lines.

You also have plenty of options for dealing with enemies, ranging from spell-enhanced physical combat to using regular damaging spells.

Finally, you’re really smart, and have great focus. You have a high intelligence score and proficiency in most intelligence checks, meaning you’re always caught up on whatever lore the party needs to know. Your Concentration is also solid, thanks to War Caster and your Bladesong.

Cons:

Overall, the build is kind of unfocused. In FGO, being a good fighter and spellcaster makes you extra powerful. In D&D, it makes you spread thin.

Grabbing all that extra martial ability means you’re stuck with low level spells. Upcasting a glyph of warding to level 5 is nice, but let’s be honest; high level spells are just better.

Your Charisma is pretty low, and you don’t have proficiency in any interpersonal skills. Knowing the right thing to do won’t help much if you can’t convince others to go along with your plan.

Next up: If I had a nickel for every dual-wielding magical spearperson I’ve built, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it’s strange that it happened twice.

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

[creativerogues]

Roll A Complete Character!

HAPPY JANUARY 1ST EVERYBODY!

What’s a better way to start 2018 than sitting around a table, rolling dice, and coming up with some brand new Characters, with the potential to do anything!

With help from the Amazing CreativeRogues Community, we’ve created a Set of Tables you can use for Creating Your New Character!

Using these Tables, you can Roll for your Character’s Race, Subrace, Class, Subclass, Alignment, Background and Ability Score Array!

So All You Have To Do Is Sit Back And Roll Some Dice While Enjoying The New Year’s Festivities!

Race & Subrace: ROLL 1D30

1. Aasimar (Roll 1d4: 1 = Protector Aasimar, 2 = Scourge Aasimar, 3 = Fallen Aasimar, 4 = Roll Again)

2. Bugbear

3. Metallic Dragonborn (Roll 1d6: 1 = Gold, 2 = Bronze, 3 = Brass, 4 = Silver, 5 = Copper, 6 = Roll Again)

4. Chromatic Dragonborn (Roll 1d6: 1 = Red, 2 = Blue, 3 = Green, 4 = White, 5 = Black, 6 = Roll Again)

5. Dwarf (Roll 1d4: 1 = Duergar Dwarf, 2 = Hill Dwarf, 3 = Mountain Dwarf, 4 = Roll Again)

6. Elf (Roll 1d4: 1 = High Elf, 2 = Wood Elf, 3 = Dark Elf (Drow), 4 = Roll Again)

7. Firbolg

8. Genasi (Roll 1d4: 1 = Air Genasi, 2 = Earth Genasi, 3 = Fire Genasi, 4 = Water Genasi)

9. Gnome (Roll 1d4: 1 = Forest Gnome, 2 = Rock Gnome, 3 = Deep Gnome, 4 = Roll Again)

10. Goblin

11. Goliath

12. Half Elf (Roll 1d6: 1 = Half Aquatic Elf, 2 = Half Wood Elf, 3 = Half Dark Elf, 4 = Half Moon Elf, 5 = Half Sun Elf, 6 = Roll Again)

13. Half-Orc

14. Halfling (Roll 1d4: 1 = Ghostwise Halfling, 2 = Lightfoot Halfling, 3 = Stout Halfling, 4 = Roll Again)

15. Hobgoblin

16. Human (Roll 1d4: Odd = Human, Even = Variant Human)

17. Kenku

18. Kobold

19. Lizardfolk

20. Orc

21. Tabaxi

22. Tiefling (Roll 1d6: 1 = Feral, 2 = Devil's Tongue, 3 = Hellfire, 4 = Winged, 5 = Common Tiefling, 6 = Roll Again)

23. Tortle

24. Triton

25. Yuan-Ti Pureblood

26 - 30. Roll Again

Class & Subclass: ROLL 1D12

1. Barbarian (Barbarian Path - Roll 1d6: 1 =  Berserker, 2 = Totem Warrior, 3 = Ancestral Guardian, 4 = Storm Herald, 5 = Zealot, 6 = Roll Again)

2. Bard (Bardic College - Roll 1d6: 1 = Glamour, 2 = Lore, 3 = Swords, 4 = Valor, 5 = Whispers, 6 = Roll Again)

3. Cleric (Cleric Domain - Roll 1d12: 1 = Arcana, 2 = Death, 3 = Forge, 4 = Grave, 5 = Knowledge, 6 = Life, 7 = Light, 8 = Nature, 9 = Tempest, 10 = Trickery, 11 = War, 12 = Roll Again)

4. Druid (Druidic Circle - Roll 1d4: 1 =  Land, 2 = Moon, 3 = Dreams, 4 = Shepherd)

5. Fighter (Martial Archetype - Roll 1d8: 1 = Champion, 2 = Battle Master, 3 = Eldritch Knight, 4 = Arcane Archer, 5 = Cavalier, 6 = Samurai, 7 = Purple Dragon Knight, 8 = Roll Again)

6. Monk (Monastic Tradition - Roll 1d8: 1 = Open Hand, 2 = Shadow, 3 = Four Elements, 4 = Drunken Master, 5 = Kensei, 6 = Sun Soul, 7 = Long Death, 8 = Roll Again)

7. Paladin (Paladin Oath - Roll 1d8: 1 = Devotion, 2 = The Ancients, 3 = Vengeance, 4 = Conquest, 5 = Redemption, 6 = The Crown, 7 = Oathbreaker, 8 = Roll Again)

8. Ranger (Ranger Archetype - Roll 1d6: 1 =  Hunter, 2 = Beast Master, 3 = Gloom Stalker, 4 = Horizon Walker, 5 = Monster Slayer, 6 = Roll Again)

9. Rogue (Roguish Archetype - Roll 1d8: 1 = Thief, 2 = Assassin, 3 = Arcane Trickster, 4 = Inquisitive, 5 = Mastermind, 6 = Scout, 7 = Swashbuckler, 8 = Roll Again)

10. Sorcerer (Sorcerous Origin - Roll 1d6: 1 = Draconic Bloodline, 2 = Wild Magic, 3 = Divine Soul, 4 = Shadow Magic, 5 = Storm Sorcery, 6 = Roll Again)

11. Warlock (Otherworldly Patron - Roll 1d6: 1 = Archfey, 2 = Celestial, 3 = Fiend, 4 = Great Old One, 5 = Hexblade, 6 = The Undying)

12. Wizard (Arcane Tradition - Roll 1d10: 1 = Abjuration, 2 = Conjuration, 3 = Divination, 4 = Enchantment, 5 = Evocation, 6 = Illusion, 7 = Necromancy, 8 = Transmutation, 9 = War Magic, 10 = Roll Again)

Alignment: ROLL 1D10

1. Chaotic Good

2. Chaotic Neutral

3. Chaotic Evil

4. Lawful Good

5. Lawful Neutral

6. Lawful Evil

7. Neutral Good

8. True Neutral

9. Neutral Evil

10. Roll Again

Background: ROLL 1D30

1. Acolyte

2. Anthropologist

3. Archaeologist

4. Charlatan

5. City Watch / Investigator

6. Clan Crafter

7. Cloistered Scholar

8. Courtier

9. Criminal / Spy

10. Entertainer

11. Faction Agent

12. Far Traveler

13. Folk Hero

14. Gladiator

15. Guild Artisan / Guild Merchant

16. Haunted One

17. Hermit

18. Inheritor

19. Knight

20. Knight of the Order

21. Mercenary Veteran

22. Noble

23. Outlander

24. Sage

25. Sailor / Pirate

26. Soldier

27. Urban Bounty Hunter

28. Urchin

29. Uthgardt Tribe Member

30. Waterdhavian Noble

Ability Scores: ROLL 1D4

1. Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8)

2. Good Array (16, 14, 12, 11, 10, 10)

3. Heroic Array (18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 10)

4. Epic Array (18, 17, 15, 14, 12, 10)

#dungeons & dragons #Dungeons and Dragons #dnd #DnD 5e #character #character creation #Create a character #dnd character #d&d #d&d 5e #comment #community #comments #communitylove #communitymade #communityresponse #CreativeRogues

[pencil-drawn-protagonist]

D&D Homebrew: Classic Feats

Renewing Rage

Prerequisite: 1st Level Barbarian

After you take this feat, if you have used all of your rages, you gain half of their total number (rounded down) during a short rest.

Sudden Countercharm

Prerequisite: 6th level Bard

When you take this feat, you may use a reaction to use your Countercharm feature when a hostile creature attempts to charm you or a creature within 30 feet.

Secondary Domain

Prerequisite: 1st level Cleric

When you take this feat, choose a secondary domain of your deity. You gain the domain spells and the Channel Divinity ability of the chosen domain.

Superior Wildshape

Prerequisite: 8th level Druid

When you take this feat, the limitations of your Wild Shape feature are changed. You may now transform into a beast with a maximum CR of 2.

Third Wave

Prerequisite: 1st Level Fighter

When you take this feat, you gain a secondary use of your Second Wind feature before needing to take a rest.

Martial Parry

Prerequisite: 1st level Monk

After taking this feat, you may use your reaction to reduce damage when a creature you can see makes a melee attack against you. When you use the feat, the damage you take is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level.

If you reduce the damage to 0, you can grapple your attacker by expending a ki point.

Superior Divine Sense

Prerequisite: 1st level Paladin

When you take this feat, the range of your Divine Sense feature extends to a range of 100 feet, and you can sense creatures behind total cover. Additionally, you can tell the energies of specific creatures, down to the specific breed of creature (such as pit fiend, Balor, Deva, etc.)

Greater Lay on Hands

Prerequisite: 1st Level Paladin

When you take this feat, the pool of healing power for your Lay on Hands feature is doubled.

Additionally, you may use this power to damage undead creatures. When you target an undead creature using this feature, they must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC, taking radiant damage equal to the number of points spent x 2.

Secondary Enemies

Prerequisite: 1st level Ranger

When you take this feat, choose two additional enemies for use with your Favored Enemy feature. Or, you may choose four races of humanoids, or one type of enemy and two humanoids.

Assassination Technique

Prerequisite: 1st level Rogue

When you take this feat, you gain the skill and precision to deal further damage when you make surprise attacks.

When you deal damage with your Sneak Attack feature, you may substitute the d6 you roll with d8. After doing this, you must take a long rest before you can do so again.

Additonal Metamagic

Prerequisite: 3rd level Sorcerer

When you take this feat, you may choose an additonal Metamagic option.

Secondary Patron

Prerequisite: 1st Level Warlock

When you take this feat, choose a second patron from the Warlock class. You gain the expanded spell list of the patron, and their 1st level feature.

However, if the 1st level feature requires a rest to recharge, you must take a long rest to reuse it, even if listed otherwise.

Additional Invocations

Prerequisite: 2nd level Warlock

When you take this feat, choose two Eldritch Invocations that you meet the prerequisites for. These Invocations don't count against the ones you already know.

Arcane Exposure Memorization

Prerequisite: 1st level Wizard/Chronicler

When you take this feat, you gain the ability to learn spells through first hand exposure.

When you are the target of a spell that is of a level you can cast and that is on your spell list, you memorize the verbal and somatic components of a spell. With those, you can inscribe a spell into your spellbook, following the rules for copying spells.

With this feat, you may memorize a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) x 2.

Hello everyone! My apologies for being so long, I've been busy lately with lots of things. Anyways, I hope these feats add some fun to your games. They're all intended to build upon features already present in the base classes, so go on an have fun.

As always, feel free to critique or respond.

#dnd #5e #oi brooke #homebrew #feats #all base classes #and Chronicler #pt.2 (based on shared class features) to come soon

[dndtarot]

Building a city: two warring factions

Quick note before we get started: my inbox is open! Feel free to send any TTRPG writing questions you have, either adventure writing, or even character backstory writing! Include as many details as you can. Obviously tumblr asks have a character limit, so feel free to send multiple if you need to.

Now let's get into it! The setting today is going to be a generic mid-size city in a D&D fantasy world like Faerun.

The goal of this reading is to develop two opposing factions, and an NPC leader/figurehead for each. I think this is a cool way to quickly flesh out a city and make it feel alive, and gives the players plenty of RP hooks and decisions for how they want to engage (even beyond siding with one faction against the other).

Faction 1

Archetype: The World — What an interesting card for this! The World represents, well, everything. But it also represents "the right path," or perfection. When I say this, my mind immediately jumped to Library (can you tell I was a book nerd growing up)? Specifically, the uptight over-influential library which rigorously guards its hidden knowledge. Right now, I'm going to leave it at that, rather than deciding any additional details about what kind of library it is, what kind of hidden knowledge, etc. I'm going to let the rest of the cards flesh that out.

Motivation: Three of Cups — This is perfect. Cups represents divine magic, and the three represents a minor force, defender of the commonfolk. So it's a religious library, devoted to helping the poor. Remember, we don't want one faction to be obviously better than the other, because we want the players to have a meaningful choice of which faction to side with (or none). We'll avoid making this faction too "good" then.

Fear: Ten of Wands — The ten of wands traditionally represents being overloaded, carrying a heavy burden alone. Meanwhile, the ten of wands with our D&D specific matrix represents a minor tyrant of arcane nature. The traditional meaning is pretty clear: the library is carrying (or at least, thinks they're carrying) the heavy burden of helping the poor all alone. For the tyrant, let's say that represents the Lord in charge of the town. This Lord has a traditionally arcane background (a wizard turned politician) and maybe has a reputation of being aloof. The library is worried that this Lord doesn't care about the poor, and that the library is the only organization in the city that does. This is a great opportunity to make the library a little less clear-cut "good:" it quickly becomes apparent to the players that actually, there are other organizations helping the poor, but since they aren't religious organizations, the library ignores their contributions.

NPC Lead: Ten of Pentacles — Pentacles is our traditionally nature-y suit. And as above, the ten represents a petty tyrant. That works fine for our purposes. The Head Librarian is also a High Priest(ess) of a traditional nature god. Strict and controlling, the Head Librarian leads the library with an iron first. However... the traditional meaning of the ten of pentacles is wealth, relaxed nature, a happy and peaceful life, etc. So let's add a little twist to our Head Librarian: yes, they may be a tyrant, yes they may be overly controlling and rigid, and but on a more personal level, they're also fun and cheerful. There's a reason so many people follow them.

Overall, I've got a pretty clear picture of faction 1 now. They're a religious library that also does significant charitable outreach, but are incredibly pretentious about it and believe that they're the only ones actually helping the poor because they're the only ones that follow [insert nature god here]. If I ended up needing it, I could also throw in an environmental cause here as well, but I think that's unnecessary for now.

Faction 2

Archetype: Ace of Wands — Well, isn't this interesting. The wands represents an arcane force, which is perfect. Now we have a classic priests vs. wizards conflict on our hands. The part that's interesting is the ace. The ace in our number definitions represents the common people, the innocent. How I'm interpreting this is as an underground backyard magic guild. Essentially, a group of hedgewitches. And, most importantly, these hedgewitches are largely part of the very group that the library is devoted to helping. Very, very interesting.

Motivation: Four of Swords — This is excellent, actually. I'm going to pick and choose which meanings I use here, because the second I saw this card I had a cool idea. I'm going to take the swords to represent martial combat, and the traditional meaning of this card, which is a forced pause. The city, led by the former wizard Lord, has a habit of getting into armed conflict with its neighbors. While not full out war, there is routinely bloodshed and the city maintains a fully armed garrison at all times. The group of hedgewitches, however, is sick and tired of this. Maybe they've seen too many of their friends and family die for nothing, or maybe they oppose the fact that their city is the aggressor in these conflicts. Either way, they want it to stop, and they're willing to go to extreme lengths to do so.

Fear: Four of Wands — Ooh, this is cool. The repeated theme of wands throughout this reading is very interesting. I'm going to take the suit to represent the Lord of the city, the former wizard. I love this, because the hedgewitches have the same fear as the library: the Lord of the city! Albeit in a slightly different way. The four of wands represents holidays, joyful welcoming, safe places, etc. While the four represents an idealist or a dreamer. This one is a little tough: I know the fear relates to the Lord of the city, but being welcome with joy isn't exactly something to be afraid of. Let's make this more literal: there's a major holiday coming up, and the Lord is secretly-not-so-secretly planning a huge attack. The hedgewitches are NOT joyful about that at all.

NPC Lead: The Fool — Incredible. Since the hedgewitches are a more underground organization, their NPC lead is really more of a figurehead. Plans are made collaboratively, in cellars and backrooms with small groups of people, rather than unilaterally from the top. However, there is someone who's defacto in charge: someone on the younger side, with their head in the clouds. Someone who's still idealistic and thinks that they can change the world, who sees opportunities behind every corner. I think this person is in charge because of their ability to inspire others, even though the more senior hedgewitches don't have a lot of respect for this upstart. But being able to unite hedgewitches, obviously a very disparate group, is an impressive skill just by itself.

I love this faction. I was heavily inspired by the hedgewitches in the Magicians books and tv show, by the way. I see them as arcane casters united together under a "magic is for the people" ethos.

The Conflict

Surface Issue: Ten of Swords — Lots of tens today. This card represents a sudden end, or badmouthing people behind their back. Yeah, that works perfectly. The library is badmouthing the hedgewitches because they're arcane casters, rather than religious followers, and the hedgewitches hate the library because they see them as in the pocket of the military industrial complex— I mean, the Lord of the city, and assume the library is badmouthing them because the library supports the military conflicts. So at first glance, the conflict appears to come from members shit-talking members of the opposite faction.

Deeper Issue: King of Wands — This is so, so perfect. Right now, we have two factions. Or do we? The third faction is the Lord of the city, the one who's pushing all these military conflicts. There could be some very interesting reasons why he's doing that, and I could draw a card to flesh that out, but I think that would be a perfect place to tie in a campaign villain. Maybe the Lord is in the pocket of the BBEG and is acquiring resources for them. Anyway, back to the card: King of Wands so clearly represents the Lord. I interpret this as meaning that the Lord themselves is pushing this conflict. Maybe they're aware of the hedgewitches, and are worried about any anti-war propaganda that's spreading, so they manipulated the library into putting a target on the hedgewitches' backs. The more those two factions are fighting between themselves, the less time they'll spend pushing back against the Lord's own ominous agenda.

Roadblock: Six of Wands — Honestly, I could've stopped with the previous card. We've got a great and interesting conflict brewing here, and already I can see many plot hooks and side quests and ways the players could get pulled into the politics of this city. However, I already laid out the cards, so let's finish it off. The six of wands represents victory. I'm going to keep this simple: the Lord recently led the city in a small but significant military victory against a nearby group, and the people are proud of themselves and celebrating. It's hard to push anti-war propaganda when things are actually going well, isn't it? And the Lord can use this new-found popularity to push the two factions harder against each other.

Risk: Queen of Swords — I'm using this part of the reading to outline the consequences of this issue between the two factions not being resolved. But I think we've already got some great ideas from everything above, so I'm going to keep this simple: the Queen in question is the BBEG, or the BBEG's main lieutenant, and if the Lord is able to continue their work unchecked, then the BBEG will absolutely benefit. Maybe the Lord is taking over a mining operation, or has stolen magical artifacts from nearby cities, but the result is the same: the villain is getting stronger every day that this Lord remains unchecked.

Overall, I love what we've created here. Obviously, bits and pieces need to be fleshed out. NPCs need names and maybe stat blocks. I'd nab a city map from somewhere as well and incorporate that into the city. I'd also probably use a tavern/shop generator to quickly add some places to visit, and actually I'd use a simple location spread to add a few points of interest into the city as well. Then you just need a few side quest hooks, and you can let your players loose. I'm definitely picturing this as an open-world city adventure, rather than a linear story, where the players can do a few small quests for each faction and learn more about the issues. Then drop a major conflict event that forces the two factions to act in some way— maybe the Lord mobilizes the military against the hedgewitches, or maybe the Head Librarian is killed (by accident?). I would hold off planning that though until the players had had at least a session or two to explore the city, maybe even more. There's definitely a great opportunity for this major triggering event to come in response to the players fucking up a side quest.

#dnd adventure #dnd adventure writing #dnd homebrew #5e homebrew #homebrew #adventure writing #DnD Tarot #d&d tarot #d&d 5e #d&d homebrew #d&d inspiration #d&d