#i think my attack bonus with the sword is higher than my spell attack bonus which is kind of insane | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

grailfinders · 6 months

Text

Grailfinders #327: Izumo no Okuni

merry nobumas, everyone! sadly, this event doesn’t have any new nobus, but at least it gives us cool builds like Izumo no Okuni! first we make the puppet with some Creation Bard levels, then we fuck demons up with the puppet with some Watcher Paladin levels.

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

next up: our good personal friend Ranmaru

EDIT: huh, okay, Izumo does use her own sword. okay then, ignore most of the negatives then. sorry about that, this is one of the perils of trying to get stuff out the second the story drops

Ancestry & Background

Okuni is a Human, but she also has a puppet- to make that, we’ll start by giving her a Mark of Making, giving her +2 Intelligence and +1 Charisma. this gives her an Artisan’s Intuition for an additional d4 added to all arcana checks and anything involving artisan’s tools, which covers both halves of your expertise! we also grab a free proficiency with woodworking tools so you can get started on building your puppet.

while you’re working, you already start off as a Spellsmith, giving you the Mending cantrip for free redos and you can cast Magic Weapon once a day, but it’s both spell-slot- and concentration-free. speaking of spells, your Spells of the Mark add some options to your spell lists- the full list of spells you can use is in the character sheet, but if you see us take a spell that isn’t on the bard list, that’s why.

you’re a shrine maiden, that’s an Acolyte, so you have proficiency in Insight and Religion as well.

Ability Scores

Charisma is your highest score, as you could probably guess from being a bard. you dance, you hit people with puppets, both of those are charisma. somehow. after that, Dexterity. it’s kind of weird dexterity doesn’t affect dancing, now that I think about it, but you’re a caster so you don’t wear plate mail. that being said we do need to make Strength higher than I’d like, but you’ll have to carry your puppet around most of the time, so it’s kind of a workout, I guess. Constitution is above average because it would suck to die before you even get a chance to use the puppet at all, so you’ll have to live for five levels without it. that means your Wisdom is lower than I’d like and we have to dump Intelligence pretty harshly. it’s far from ideal, but we only need those for skills and saves. thankfully, being a bard and a paladin both help a lot towards making up for these shortfalls, eventually.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: starting off as a bard gives you proficiency in Dexterity, and Charisma saves, as well as three skills off the bard skill list, a.k.a. the entire skill list. we’ll use Performance to puppet our boy around, with Nature and Arcana to build him in the first place. you’ve got five levels, best of luck.

while you’re whittling, we can also bring up your Bardic Inspiration- you’ve got a couple d6s you can throw at a friend as a bonus action, and then they can use ‘em to improve an attack roll, save, or skill check in the next minute. you get those back on long rests.

also on the same time frame are your spell slots, which you use to cast Spells. Okuni’s a caster, so you can be a bit more liberal with her spell list than you are with most characters- most of the spells on the character sheet are my personal recommendations, or just ones I thought would be useful. if they’re vital for the build, I’ll bring them up here as they’re added. there aren’t any of those this level, but I do recommend picking up something like Identify- Okuni’s bio states multiple times how hip and with it she is, so she knows what’s going on a lot of the time.

2. Bard 2: second level bards are Jacks of all Trades, adding half their proficiency to any skill check they make that doesn’t add it, including your initiative check! you also learn a Song of Rest, adding a d6 to the healing your party does over short rests. standard issue, we’ve all seen it by now.

also, your bardic inspiration becomes Magical Inspiration, so now someone holding onto it can add their d6 to the damage or healing of a spell!

3. Bard 3: but I know that’s not enough uses for your inspiration, right? thankfully creation bards have another addition to it, the Mote of Potential. now when your allies use their inspiration on one of the three original effects, they get a bonus to boot! on a check, they can roll their inspiration twice and pick the higher number. on an attack roll, the die also deals whatever it rolled as damage to nearby enemies, and on a save they gain their roll in temporary hp! this practically turns your inspiration into a spell in its own right!

making your puppet also got… slightly easier, as you can now put on a Performance of Creation, creating any medium or smaller non-magical item as an action, with the only other limitation being your imagination, and your wallet. you can only create items with this feature that are worth 20 times your bard level or less- even a normal-sized puppet is worth 100g, so this hasn’t saved us too much time. it also only lasts a few hours, so you’ll still have to find a more permanent solution anyways. still, while it’s not a cure-all for our lack of puppetry, it does have a million and one uses besides! this recharges on long rests, or you can use a second level spell slot to use it again- just know that you can only have one summoned item at a time.

speaking of second level spells, Borrowed Knowledge is a great pick for Okuni, giving her proficiency in a skill of your choice for an hour, concentration free. again, she’s always in the know of the latest fads, so now you can make sure that’s true!

you also get expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Arcana and Performance checks. she’s good at dancing, that much is obvious- otherwise she wouldn’t be in this game.

4. Bard 4: fourth level bards get their first Ability Score Improvement, so improve that Charisma score for stronger spells and more inspiration. dancing better is a nice bonus.

if you’re really jonesing for a puppet by now, you can use something like Phantasmal Force to at least plant the idea of a puppet in someone’s head and have it hurt them that way. honestly sounds terrifying to me, even scarier than a real puppet beating me up.

5. Bard 5: fifth level bards have d8s for their inspiration now, as well as become a Font of Inspiration, recharging all spent inspiration uses on short rests as well as long ones! you also get third level spells now like Dispel Magic. demons like using magic, so you’d best spoil their fun.

6. Bard 6: sixth level bards get the Countercharm ability, and for once it’s good for the build. a lot of demons charm or frighten people, so now you can spend your action to give all your allies nearby advantage on saves against those effects. it only works for a round each time, so you’d have to spend each turn keeping the effect up- still, if you’re fighting something like Shuten-Douji, it’s a good idea to have on hand.

if you’d like to use your countercharm while also keeping the fight going, then good news! your puppet drought is over, and your cuppet runneth over thanks to an Animating Performance. as an action you can animate a large or smaller object and turn it into a Dancing Object for the next hour. you then have to use your bonus action each turn to control the puppet, but you can also give out inspiration at the same time.

you can bring out the puppet once a day, or by spending a third-level or higher spell slot.

7. Bard 7: seventh level bards get fourth level spells like Fabricate, letting you spend ten minutes to turn any kind of raw materials into processed goods- for example, a log into part of a puppet, perhaps. you can create a large or smaller object if you have enough material, though using metal shrinks down the possible puppetude to medium size. also, you need proficiency with the sorts of tools you’d have to use to make an item normally in order to make it with this spell, hence our focus on grabbing woodworking proficiency earlier and smithing later.

so yeah, during your next downtime, puppetry is just a spell away!

8. Bard 8: eighth level bards get another ASI, and we’re grabbing the Skilled feat for more proficiencies. you get the proficiency with Smith’s Tools I mentioned a second ago, as well as proficiency with Acrobatics in case your DM thinks that dexterity and dancing thing is as weird as I do, and History. you are history, after all.

9. Bard 9: at ninth level your song of rest grows to a d8, but more importantly you get fifth level spells. if you’re in a pinch, you can use Animate Objects instead of your usual puppetry to give your friend some backup- you can animate up to ten small objects, with bigger sizes doubling how many “objects” they count as for each size larger they are. that being said, they also use your bonus action to control, so trying to use both at once isn’t always the greatest idea. still, they make a good distraction if you need time to drag your bigger puppet out of the fight.

10. Bard 10: tenth level bards have a bigger inspiration die again, and you get another round of Expertise, this time doubling down on Religion and Nature. also, you get Magical Secrets- two spells from any spell list in the game. Legend Lore is a must for any bard, giving you the lowdown on whatever famous person or thing you’re faced with so you can dance appropriately. on the other hand Circle of Power is a must-have for combat, creating an aura around you that lasts up to ten minutes with concentration- during that time, friendly creatures (including you) have advantage on all saves against magical effects- furthermore, succeeding on that save prevents all damage instead of half if it’s that kind of save. demons like fireballs, puppets don’t. simple stuff.

11. Bard 11: with our last level of bard you get sixth level spell slots for stuff like True Seeing to see through demonic illusions and the like. though if I’m being honest we haven’t gotten too specialized yet- let’s fix that.

12. Paladin 1: moving over to paladin gives you a Divine Sense- spend an action up to five times a day to sense celestials, fiends, and undead within 60’ of you. you know the type and location, but not their identity. being able to sense demons feels pretty important for.. y’know, a demon hunter.

you can also Lay on Hands to heal an ally, you have a pool that scales with your level and it refills every long rest. worth noting, this does not work on constructs, so you’ll have to patch up your puppet the old-fashioned way.

13. Paladin 2: second level paladins get a Fighting Style, and with your Defense you get a +1 bonus to all types of armor. I know you don’t wear a lot, but I’d still call your first ascension fit light armor at minimum. also, since you’re attacking via puppet they aren’t “your” attacks, so none of them count for fighting styles.

they also don’t count for Divine Smites, which is problematic, but we’ll find a workaround soon enough. if you do end up using them though, you spend a spell slot when you hit something with a melee attack, dealing radiant damage that scales based on the slot’s level. also it deals extra damage against fiends, which is a nice bonus for a demon hunter.

speaking of spell slots you get another set of spells from being a paladin, but you’ll have to check the multiclassing rules for what slots you have when. for now you can perform Ceremonies and Detect Evil and Good, but you can swap around paladin spells every long rest, so don’t sweat over getting the perfect setup right away.

14. Paladin 3: at third level you devote yourself to defeating demons and other extraplanar monsters as a Watcher, giving you two kinds of Channel Divinity that you can use once per short rest. your Watcher’s Will gives most of your party advantage on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saves for a minute, or you can Abjure the Extraplanar to send aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends nearby running for up to a minute if they fail a wisdom save.

you also gain access to a pool of permanently prepared performances, like Alarm and Detect Magic. finally, your Divine Health makes you immune to disease.

15. Paladin 4: a fourth level paladin gets their own Ability Score Improvement, so power up your Charisma for stronger spells, channeled divinity, and a stronger puppet as well.

16. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack, but that only applies to you, not your puppet. on the plus side, you also get second level spells! now you can cast Magic Weapon more than once a day for your puppet. you can also See Invisibility to detect hidden demons, and use Moonbeam to expose them or other shapechangers.

17. Paladin 6: as a sixth level paladin you emit an Aura of Protection, adding your hefty charisma modifier to every save you make, as well as the saves of nearby friends. up until now you had a +0 in wisdom saves, so that’ll really come in handy!

18. Paladin 7: seventh level watchers also get the Aura of the Sentinel, adding your proficiency bonus to your and nearby allies’ initiative rolls. this technically isn’t adding the proficiency directly, so you get a 1.5x bonus!

19. Paladin 8: eighth level paladins get one last ASI, so let’s bump up your Dexterity so you’ll get hit less often, dance better, and be better with a dagger in case of emergencies.

20. Paladin 9: we finish our build by gaining access to third level paladin spells, including your subclass specialties, Counterspell and Nondetection. more importantly, you gain access to the spell Crusader’s Mantle, finally giving your puppet the chance to deal radiant damage. and so can everyone else within thirty feet of you, for that matter!

Pros & Cons

Pros:

while you don’t get counterspell until very late in the game, you’re great at using it- and dispel magic to boot. both spells use ability checks to counter magical effects, and wouldn’t you know it, bards are great at those! with a maxed out charisma modifier plus half proficiency, you have roughly a 50/50 shot of countering even a ninth level spell while only spending a third level one.

your decent dexterity plus your watcher aura makes you great at hitting first in a fight, and when you add in your puppet’s ability to speed you up and slow down enemies, and you’ll be running circles around them in no time.

while focusing your build so hard on your puppet does create some challenges, it also opens up some great adventuring opportunities. this one’s more a plus for your DM so they don’t have to start power-creeping all the magic loot- instead of getting a +1 sword, maybe you’ll get better metal for your puppet’s armor and raise its AC, or wood that conducts magic better and lets it stay animate for longer, or maybe new puppetry techniques that let your extra attack or divine smites carry over to it. basically, having a physical object you’ll be building up the whole adventure will give you and your dm new avenues to find fun in D&D.

Cons:

that last bit, of course, requires your DM to be flexible, so if you’re playing in adventurer’s league games or just have a new DM that wants to stick to the book, it’s going to cause a problem. by the time you reach level 20 the base stats for your dancing items are woefully outmatched by just about everything you could be facing, so maybe run this idea by your DM before committing to it.

we did what we could to fix up your soft stats, but the hard truth is you still only have 10 intelligence and wisdom. you get an aura of protection, sure, but not until level 17. in the meantime, you risk falling for illusions and mental games from your more otherworldly foes.

your puppet only lasts one hour, so keeping it up and running for longer periods of time will eat through your magic like nothing else. if you burn through every spell slot you have, you can keep him walking for 12 hours a day, which is nice, but that leaves you with almost no magic for anything else. basically, if you’re traveling a lot, invest in a cart. your 13 strength ass is not dragging him around the whole continent.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Izumo no okuni #Bard #Paladin

25 notes · View notes

its-lu-de-mo · 1 year

Text

I've been working on some writing for a while, and the Main LU Discord knows of this as Archfey Time. As a bonus for finally deciding on a name for this AU, I'm posting a scene that I posted a bit of in February from there.

Nisse Nisi: Snippet 1

As a result of the Great Deku Tree's death, Time is now the Archfey Guardian of the Forest. While he still appears Hylian, he's slowly realizing that travelling with 8 others is finally causing his Fey abilities to awaken. It's a good thing most of the others know what fey are, because his fondness and those instincts have claimed the Chain as his. (Scene setup: It's a couple days after the group has talked about fey and learned that Sky has none and Wild doesn't believe in Fey, but everyone else has major minor connections).

"I've been thinking about our chat from the other night, about fey."

"Oh? Thinking how certain things make more sense?"

"In a way, yeah. I never knew the name of the forest kids until then, and Sky not really having fey makes a lot of sense. Actually, for a group that travels in as many forests as we do, we're too damned naive about the wrong things."

Time chuckled, "And too suspicious of others."

Warriors ran his hand through his hair, "Yeah, I can't help but think there's some archfey who saw us and thought we're all dumb fey children. Got attached too quickly for us to notice and now watches us flail around trying to figure out why someone who has no fey in their world has fey magic wrapping around them." Time stared at the fire and paled, as Warriors shuffled a bit next to him, "I knew you were claiming us, but I didn't think…."

He sighed, catching the unspoken accusation, "What makes you think I'm so high?"

"Look at us, old man. Barring the reincarnation bit that none of us want to speak about, we're all essentially covered in Great Fairy magic. Blessings and spells and stronger items are abundant. What small fey would approach so many people with gifts from the great mothers? Sky would be the only one they could get close to, and he's carrying a Master Sword so young that she radiates divinity."

"A child of the great mothers could," he started, turning to look at him. The blank glare he earned had him sighing again, "But for one who's bonded to a fairy, you already knew anyway."

His companion started, mumbling a soft curse under his breath, "Of course you knew about the bond. I didn't really want to hide it from the others, but it didn't feel right to fully admit everything then. Yes, I did save Proxi, and it was a mostly mutual bond."

It made sense to Time that a bond would form between the two, especially in a life and death situation. Something different existed in the magic though, and it was foreign and familiar at the same time, "It isn't just a bond, though I don't know what."

"I don't have any siblings and Pa never existed in my memories. It was just me and Ma for the most part, and we stayed out of everyone's way. Don't think Ma had any friends or siblings herself, so when she died after I turned 16, I eventually joined the military. Could have joined earlier, but Ma was sick and I couldn't leave her alone. Anyway, I was still a few months shy of 17 when the castle was attacked, and Proxi and I met."

And suddenly, everything clicked for Time, "Why isn't she with you? A Kokiri needs their companion fairy to survive."

"She couldn't come through the portal, but… I'm not really a Kokiri either. Didn't even know what they were until you mentioned them. We saved Faron Woods and the Great Deku Tree there on my birthday."

"Your age of majority must be higher than mine, or something, because 15 is too old for a fairy to bond in my woods. We'll have to watch the sailor if we go too deep into forests."

"Not really. I mean, technically we'd have to watch a few of them, but you're an Archfey of the Woods. You decide what fey approach us or not, *Dad*."

Hearing that felt like a gut punch and Time finally Looked at Warriors. The glamour surrounding him shimmered and Time saw the rounded face and thinner shoulders of a teen behind the magic, "You still entered the Deku Tree's area of magic before majority. How many years have you had to pretend to age, captain?"

"It's more difficult to maintain when Proxi and I are together, but 10 years. I suspect, if she could come with us, it wouldn't be more than a month before I'd have to ask for help in hiding that I'm physically under 17."

#my stories #nisse nisi #linked universe #lu time #lu warriors

22 notes · View notes

saberwitch · 4 months

Text

incoming build/mechanics rambles; not necessarily seeking advice because I know I'm Doing It Wrong

I'm having a little difficulty setting Xyllrae up as what (in my mind) a Sword Dancer should be. Key phrases seem to be "specialized cleric" and "excellent dancers/singers". I chose a War Domain Cleric, but only just realized that the extra attacks you get from that consume your Bonus Action, meaning I can't like buff myself and then hit more than once. The same goes for offhand attacks. I can only use my Domain "charges" if I do a MH attack and nothing else.

I was thinking of dipping into Bard for a bit for the song & dance flavour, but then I run into MAD issues, and the whole Bonus Action thing would still be a problem. Other thought was Paladin, figuring that being able to Smite with the Domain "charges" might make it more worthwhile, but I'm not sure those two mechanics align like that. And that's MAD too.

Rogue is another possibility, since the Thief subclass gives you extra Bonus Actions, which would mean more charges could be consumed. And my stats defaulted to higher DEX than STR anyway, so I wouldn't have to use my Feats for ASIs.

OR. Fighter for a couple of levels to get Dueling and Action Surge.

However, I am seriously considering full War Cleric all the way through, just loading up on offensive ranged spells to soften things up before I am close enough to melee and leaving the heals and buffs to Shart

just be Sword Mommy of the Moon Goddess like Eilistraee intended

#bg3 rambles #just thinking out loud #i already figured i might have to sacrifice a bit of flavour for playability #thankfully i can respec at will so i can try a few things & see what works

3 notes · View notes

rumelismorin · 1 year

Text

PF2e Bonuses/Penalties by Vibe

- BONUSES -

+1 Circumstance

Oh, you shouldn’t have! How nice

Kind of like getting $50 in that it’s good news but it won’t pay rent

”Ah but you see my alchemist has Specialty Crafting: Alchemy”

+1 Status

Bards love this one cool trick (monsters HATE him!)

The easiest one to get with a spell so you know it can’t be that good

Still good, tho

Friendship ended with Fireball. Heroism is my best friend now

+1 Item

Cool sword!

Striking runes might be flashier but getting that first +1 potency is great

Maybe these Healer’s Gloves will make me stop critically failing Medicine

(They won’t)

+2 Circumstance

Okay now we’re talking

If you get it on a melee attack you can pretend to be a Fighter

Unless you’re already a Fighter, then you can pretend to be Iomedae and smite someone to dust

Default bonus for any skill feat so situational that you use it once per real-life month

Damn, skill feats just hit different once you hit Master proficiency

+2 Status

Oh hey, the bard took Inspire Heroics

Less common than you’d think given how common +2 circumstance bonuses are

(With the exception of Heroism, the ultimate catch-all buff spell)

Can we have more spells that give +2 status to some weirdly specific thing

Wait nevermind that was why PF1E had so many useless buffs

+2 Item

Whatever is giving you this probably has a weirdly specific once-per-day ability

You will forget this ability exists

+3 Circumstance

High level Aid sure is nice

Gonna be honest I have no idea how you get this bonus other than Aid

+3 Status

Your particularly lucky bard took Inspire Heroics

That or someone has thanklessly prepared castings of Heroism in their 9th(!) level spell slots

They could’ve cast a spell that’s literally called Massacre with that slot

I hope they’re a Warpriest so they can self-buff and cosplay as a fighter

+3 Item

If your weapon has this, you have to give it a cool name. I don't make the rules

The above is mostly so you never need to say +3 Major Striking Vorpal Greater Shock Speed High-Grade Adamantine Greatsword

+4 Circumstance

What if the Fighter had +46 to hit*? Haha, just kidding. Unless…

If your GM gives you this for free they are either A) giving you license to commit ultramurder or B) haven’t gotten the hang of PF2E bonuses yet

Either way it’s gonna be a wild ride

+4 Status

If there’s a way to get this consistently please let me know

+4 Item

Nice artifact! Hope it isn’t secretly cursed or something

If major bestial mutagens give a higher item bonus than any non-Artifact weapon, does that mean each vial is an artifact-tier item?

+5 or higher (Any)

The GM has decided that it’s their game and the bonuses can be as high as they want

*Level 20. Proficiency +28, attribute +7, item +4, status +3, circumstance +4. It’s unlikely you’ll get a +4 weapon, though, so most fighters can only hope to reach a mere +45. I’m sure they’re devastated.

- PENALTIES -

-1 Circumstance

Love to critically fail my Aid action

”The rules say I have to give you this penalty because it’s raining”

-1 Status

Watch as what would normally be a hit melts away to nothing because you were Frightened 1

On the flip side it’s very funny when this happens to enemies

Apply to any monster with the power of foul language and mean looks

-1 Item

Ah yes the mutagen penalty

You probably won’t need to make will saves during this fight, right?

I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you

-2 Circumstance

Everyone’s favorite modifier

Line up everyone, it’s flanking time

-2 Status

Surprisingly easy to inflict even at level 1 (Fear, critical Demoralize)

Gets very stupid when combined with Flat-Footed

Get in the car loser we’re going to crit city

-2 Item

Mutagen penalty, but only if the mutagen tastes spicy

Yes my sniper has 10 strength, yes this is a kickback weapon, no I will not set up my tripod

-3 Circumstance

Weirdly uncommon

Most circumstance modifiers are -2 or -4

I guess the GM wanted to mix it up

-3 Status

The monsters have just about had enough of your “winning” bullshit

Alternatively, somebody critically failed something lmao

You prepared spells or items to counteract this, right?

...right?

-3 Item

Whatever is giving you this, it’s cursed, get rid of that

Or you’re just really weak and wearing heavy armor lmao

-4 Circumstance

They don’t speak your language, maybe get Intimidating Glare

That or you’re shooting way past your weapon range for some reason

Either way good luck you're gonna need it

-4 Status

The good news is whatever condition gave you this probably won't get any worse

The bad news is you're almost certainly fucked

I hope you saved a hero point so that your Dying condition doesn’t also go to 4

-4 Item

Literally how

-5 or higher (Any)

You’ll do anything to attempt that check?

Anything at all?

Then perish

#pathfinder2e #pf2e #ttrpg #idk if this is funny but here it is #I spent a whole hour making it and that means I get to inflict it on you

7 notes · View notes

tigerkirby215 · 3 years

Text

5e Olaf, the Beserker build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Phroilan Gardner. Made for Riot Games.)

undefined

youtube

undefined

youtube

Olaf sounds like ProZD’s Archibald voice. Especially Olaf’s voice lines for using his Q it sounds exactly like ProZD’s “Huah! I think that enemy got the point!” Like I’m not crazy right? Please tell me I’m not the only one who hears this.

Anyways Olaf has been on my To Do List ever since I realized that I haven’t made a single champion whose name starts with the letter O. My desire to make Olaf was only further accentuated by the Sentinels of Light event, even if his inclusion in that event could best be summed up with...

But I won’t ignore Olaf just because the Sentinels of Light event was a flop. He’s still a compelling character that I have actually gotten some requests to make. After all: the dual-axe wielding Barbarian is an iconic image!

I mean, Olaf is probably just going to be 20 levels in Beserker Barbarian so I don’t know why you need me to make a build for that.

GOALS

C'mon, I won't hurt you - We’ll need ways to heal when we harm in the middle of combat.

Death by steel! - Swing axe, throw axe; unga bunga me play Olaf.

The might of Lokfar approaches - I didn’t manage to do so with Mundo but Olaf is going to need to have CC immunity.

RACE

Olaf is a human; feel free to pick a different race like Goliath or even Custom Lineage to justify him being Iceborn but Variant Human is still the best option. Increase your Strength by 1 as well as your Constitution, grab any skill proficiency of your choice as it honestly doesn’t matter much for Olaf (maybe you should’ve been Custom Lineage for Darkvision after all?), and the Primordial language because I’m sure you picked up on the language of the wild.

For your feat you have a choice: Dual Wielder will let you wield two d8 Battleaxes (instead of d6 Handaxes) and also increase your AC by 1 while dual-wielding, but the Fighting Initiate feat will let you grab Two-Weapon Fighting which will let you add your Strength modifier to your second axe’s swing. I persually opted for Dual Wielder as it gives you more benefits overall, and we’ll be getting ways to throw axes without having to hold onto them first.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - I mean, you’re a shirtless Barbarian running around with two axes. You thought this would be a DEX build?

14; CONSTITUTION - The reason you can’t die is because you’re so hardy. Sucks!

13; CHARISMA - Despite Riot’s great attempts at writing you as poorly as possible you do still have some sort of Charisma. Remember that Charisma is force of personality, not necessarily good looks or personal hygiene. Charisma is needed for Intimidation as well as multiclassing.

12; DEXTERITY - You need to be quick on your feet to run at your enemies with reckless abandon.

10; WISDOM - If you were wise you wouldn’t be trying to kill yourself.

8; INTELLIGENCE - You stopped caring about education the moment you were born. Battle is the only thing in your blood!

This build is also quite viable with Point Buy, going for a stat array like 15 / 12 / 14 / 8 / 8 / 14 if you want lower mental stats but higher combat stats.

BACKGROUND

The Uthgardt Tribe Member background from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is basically the Outlander background but you actually belonged to Freljordian society once. Regardless you do get proficiency in Athletics as well as Survival (”Survival” as in finding food to eat, not as in keeping safe on the battlefield!), a musical instrument or artisan’s tool of your choice (choose whatever you fancy and make your own Olaf, as long as it’s something a warrior would do! I personally opted for Smith’s Tools to sharpen your axes), and a language of your choice (pick whatever language they spoke back in the villages.)

Your background Uthgardt Heritage is the Outlander’s Wanderer feature with extra steps: along with being able to find food and water you are also treated well by nomads and wanderers who have heard of your glorious battles!

(Artwork by Marie Magny and West Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - BARBARIAN 1

Starting off as a Barbarian because what else would we be? You get proficiency in two skills from the Barbarian list: Intimidation is an obvious must and Perception will help you find good fights to take!

As a Barbarian you get Unarmored Defense equal to your Dexterity plus your Constitution, which is currently a 13... Well Medium Armor is an option if you want to finally put on a shirt. And of course as a Barbarian you can Rage to deal more damage and resist incoming damage! You can’t cast spells while Raging, but that won’t matter, right? It’s not like I’m about to give you caster levels.

LEVEL 2 - FIGHTER 1

Quickly hopping over to Fighter to further your martial skills. You can grab a Fighting Style like Thrown Weapon Fighting to draw weapons in the same action you make to throw them, and also do +2 damage with thrown weapon attacks. See? Told you we’d be able to throw axes easily!

You also get Second Wind for some not-quite-Lifesteal to keep you in the fight to claim even more glory! Certainly not to stay alive.

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 2

Well another Fighter level for Action Surge is certainly worth it, as you can push yourself to destroy your foes!

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 3

But we need one more Fighter level to be able to get our axes back after we throw them. Eldritch Knights get Weapon Bond, allowing them to always keep two weapons on hand and never lose them. While bonded with a weapon you can’t be disarmed of them, and you can use a Bonus Action to recall a weapon if it’s not in your hands. My suggestion would be to bond to a Battleaxe and a Handaxe, so you can’t be disarmed of at least one of your main weapons and can also call your thrown axe back to throw it again!

You also get Spellcasting as an Eldritch Knight: You learn two cantrips from the Wizard list, and three spells as well. You may be thinking “wait; didn’t you dump Intelligence?” That is correct, but you don’t need Intelligence to cast Light to see with your dumb human eyes (I mean technically you need Intelligence if you want to cast Light on someone else but it’s probably easier just to light up your axe and throw it at them) or Prestidigitation, which is a better spell for creating bonfires than the actual Create Bonfire spell.

Your leveled spells have to be from either the Evocation or Abjuration schools, but thankfully Absorb Elements and Shield are both from the Abjuration school and also don’t need Intelligence. Protect yourself from damage to have a truly glorious death! Because it’s not like blocking attacks will keep you alive.

You can also learn one spell from any school and uhhhh... Pick your poison between Jump and Longstrider, to make it easier to chase your foes. Are there probably better spells? Yeah, but do they fit Olaf?

(Artwork by Xiao Guang Sun and West Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - PALADIN 1

Jumping over to Paladin for a few abilities, such as Divine Sense to find some things that will put up a good fight like Fiends, Undead, or... Celestials? I’m sure they hit hard! You can also find a good desecrated (or consecrated) battleground with this ability, as I’m sure there will be good enemies there! You only know of an enemy’s type however, not their name. And if they’re hiding from you this ability won’t make it any easier to find them.

You also get Lay on Hands, which is like lifesteal you can give to allies! You have a pool of hit points equal to your Paladin level times 5, and you can use it to either heal (at a rate of 1 point per hitpoint) or neutralize a poison or disease affecting a target. (5 Lay on Hands health to neutralize one poison or disease.) Dying to natural causes isn’t a glorious death, brother!

LEVEL 6 - PALADIN 2

We’ll also need second level in Paladin to get a Fighting Style, but since Wizards of the Coast hates fun you can’t can’t take Two-Weapon Fighting, and since we’re running around in our birthday suit Defense also isn’t an option. The best official Fighting Style you can take is Blind Fighting (Blessed Warrior is okay too if you want Guidance I guess) but talk to your DM about potentially letting you take Two-Weapon Fighting? It’s not like it’s OP or anything (in all honesty it’s kinda shit.)

Paladins also get... more Spellcasting?! Disgusting! Well this spellcasting is based on your Charisma modifier instead of your Intelligence, which might be why we have it at a 14. But even so you can’t prepare that many spells: Divine Favor will let you empower all your attacks with more damage for some Vicious Strikes, Cure Wounds will again be acting as life-not-quite-steal, and Shield of Faith will let you or an ally absorb more blows, not that you want to live or anything. Also remember to check the Player’s Handbook to see how many spell slots you’d have after mixing two casters together.

But I still think the best course of action for your spell slots is to use them for Divine Smite! Throw caution and magic to the wind to make a Reckless Swing that does extra Radiant damage (depending on the level of the spell slot used.) The Smite deals 2d8 of damage for a first level slot, and an additional d8 of damage for every slot above first. (The simple way to remember this is that you roll a number of d8s equal to the spell slot used plus one.) If the enemy is a Fiend or Undead the damage increases by a d8! The maximum level spell slot you can use for this is a 4th level slot (for 5d8 damage, or 6d8 against a Fiend or Undead), but I doubt we’ll get spell slots that big.

LEVEL 7 - PALADIN 3

We may as well take a third level in Paladin for a Sacred Oath, and you swore an Oath of Glory in battle! Along with Guiding Bolt and Heroism being added to your spell list (as if you can cast spells lmao) you get two Channel Divinity options: Peerless Athlete turns you into... well, a Peerless Athlete with advantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks. You can also carry, push, drag, and lift twice as much weight as normal, and to top it off the distance of your long and high jumps increases by 10 feet. This boost lasts for 10 minutes which should be more than enough to give it your all in battle!

Alternatively for some more not-quite-lifesteal Inspiring Smite can be activated after you Smite to give yourself or nearby allies within 30 feet temporary hitpoints. The total number of temporary hit points gained by this ability equals 2d8 + your Paladin level, and you can distribute them amongst yourself and your allies however you wish. Technically the most gameplay-accurate way to split the Temp HP would be to take it all yourself but being helpful has its benefits. A battle is truly glorious if fought alongside an army of companions!

You also get Divine Health, because Glory doesn’t die on sick days!

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 4

It’s about time to take that 4th Paladin level to finally get an Ability Score Improvement: +2 to Strength for stronger axe swings is an obvious choice!

You can also prepare another spell like Bless, which will make it easier for you and your allies to smite your foes and survive their blows! Wait, what was that about surviving?

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 5

Since it’s so close we may as well take the 5th level of Paladin so you can finally make an Extra Attack. That means you have two attacks normally and a third attack with your Bonus Action thanks to Two-Weapon Fighting!

You can also prepare second level Paladin spells now, and the Oath of Glory gives you Enhance Ability and Magic Weapon as spells you can cast. Believe it or not these are actually useful, even with your low spellcasting modifier!

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 6

The 6th level of Paladin is honestly too good to pass up: even though Aura of Protection is only adding +2 to all your saving throws (since your Charisma is kinda uhhh... not good?) that’s still +2 to all your saves, as well as the saves of your allies within 10 feet. That’s like, two whole Rings of Protection!

Speaking of rings: Warding Bond was added to the Paladin spell list thanks to Tasha’s and it’ll let you take damage for your allies to die in their place! As long as you don’t mind wearing some platnium rings in your beard, at least.

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 7

What we’re really here for is the 7th level of Glory Paladin. Aura of Alacrity will increase the speed of you and your allies within 5 feet (not 10, because Wizards of the Coast are weird) by 10 feet, so you can charge at your foes with the might of Ragnarok!

LEVEL 12 - PALADIN 8

But we may as well take the 8th level of Paladin for another Ability Score Improvement: cap off your Strength for the deadliest strikes possible.

You can also prepare another spell but it would be wise to wait for...

(Artwork by JoJo So. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - PALADIN 9

9th level Paladins can prepare third level spells like Crusader’s Mantle to give all your nearby allies the Divine Favor buff to rush into battle with you! But the main reason we’re dipping this deep into Paladin is for the two spells from the Oath of Glory: Protection from Energy perhaps isn’t all that fitting, but Haste is insanely useful and powerful. More attacks, more speed, more... armor? Well, it’s no matter. More glorious battle!

LEVEL 14 - PALADIN 10

10th level Paladins won’t be swayed by magic swaying their hearts! Aura of Courage will let you (and your allies within 10 feet) laugh in the face of death as you gain immunity to the Frightened condition!

You can also prepare another spell like Aura of Vitality: you can use it to heal yourself but healing your allies will lead to a far more glorious story to tell of your death.

LEVEL 15 - PALADIN 11

I promise that we’ll go back to Barbarian levels soon but 11th level Paladins get a huge boost to their damage output thanks to Improved Divine Smite. This ability affects all your attacks (not just your Smites despite the name) to give them an extra d8 of Radiant damage. This has obvious synergy with your choice to swing two axes since your Two-Weapon Fighting attack will also get that extra d8 of damage!

LEVEL 16 - PALADIN 12

Okay but let’s quickly grab the 12th level of Paladin first. You can either increase your Constitution for more health and AC, or your Charisma for better saving throws and spellcasting. I personally opted for Charisma but if you value health and AC then Constitution is good too!

Oh and yeah you can prepare more spells, but there aren’t really that many other third level spells I want.

(Artwork by Alvin Lee. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 17 - PALADIN 13

That’s because 13th level Paladins finally get 4th spells which most importantly means Freedom of Movement! There you go you finally have Ragnarok’s CC immunity! You also get Compulsion which sure would be a good spell if you had any Charisma to actually cast it.

But you can also prepare more spells like Aura of Purity so you and your allies can shrug off whatever your foes might throw at you to stop you from reaching them, or Death Ward which you ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT USE ON YOURSELF.

LEVEL 18 - PALADIN 14

Okay but the 14th level of Paladin gives you Cleansing Touch, letting you cleanse spells without spell slots to cast Freedom of Movement. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier and regain all expended uses at the end of a Long Rest.

You could also perhaps prepare another spell like... Aid? I don’t know really by this point the magic is secondary. We’ll be going back to Barbarian soon anyways.

LEVEL 19 - PALADIN 15

But 15th level Glory Paladins get Glorious Defense, and we can’t pass that up! When you or another creature you can see (technically an enemy if you so desire!) within 10 feet of you is hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to grant a bonus to the target’s AC against that attack equal to your Charisma modifier. If the attack misses you can make one weapon attack against the attacker as part of this reaction, provided the attacker is within your weapon’s range. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, and regain all uses at the end of a Long Rest.

LEVEL 20 - PALADIN 16

But since it’s so close one final level in Paladin would be good for one final ASI: again more Constitution means more health and AC, but more Charisma will boost all your Paladin abilities!

Speaking of Paladin abilities you can prepare one more spell before we start taking more Barbarian levels... honestly you can pick your poison as it won’t matter much when your Raging!

...Wait.

WHY NO BARBARIAN LEVELS?

There’s a lot of things that I can’t do as a Barbarian. The most notable option that would be restricted if I went pure Barbarian would be Freedom of Movement, and while crowd control is somewhat rare in D&D being able to ignore it is far more important to Olaf as a character.

There’s also no Barbarian that has lifesteal besides Path of the Beast, and the only Barbarian that can throw its axe easily is Path of Wild Magic. Obviously neither of these fit Olaf.

Ultimately Paladin gave us more of Olaf’s abilities. The only ability that Barbarians have which fit Olaf other than Unarmored Defense and I guess Unarmored Movement would be Feral Instinct. But even the Barbarian subclasses don’t fit Olaf with the only ones which make any sense being maybe Totem Warrior? (Despite Olaf’s title Berserker wouldn’t fit him well, mostly because Berserker is a bad subclass.) But we miss out on so many of Olaf’s actual abilities by making him a Barbarian.

tl;dr Barbarians can’t do magic and Olaf has a ton of abilities that can only be recreated in D&D with magic

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Urge to kill rising... - Two-Weapon Fighting really doesn’t get the respect it deserves by the D&D community. You wouldn’t be able to get three attacks as a level 11 Paladin in any other way, meaning that you can truly capitalize on Improved Divine Smite. Not to mention the general increased DPS of 3 attacks and 3 chances to Smite!

Faster to battle! - It was not my intention but Glory Paladins are surprisingly good team players with a variety of spells and abilities that can keep your team alive and increase their strength in battle.

Obliteration! - You’re fairly hard to kill... oops. But between decently high health, spells to defend yourself, and damn high saving throws no matter how you increase your Charisma you’ll be quite a challenge to eventually take down! Sure your AC might suck... we should probably talk about that.

CONS

The worth of a man can be measured by the length of his beard, and the girth of his belt buckle - Hey remember that one Barbarian level I took pretty much entirely so you could have Unarmored Defense? Yeah honestly it’s gimping you hard, to the point that even Mage Armor would give you more AC. Honestly playing this build as Fighter 4 / Paladin 16 would be far better as you’d get one more ASI at the cost of actually having to wear armor. Hell going full Paladin 20 would give you the Living Legend capstone which is crazy strong, and while the loss of Action Surge would hurt you can grab the Thrown Weapon Fighting Style with a feat. (Or just take Two-Weapon Fighting style with your Variant Human Feat and run around with Hand Axes.)

If you’re really dead-set on going unarmored beg your DM for a Barrier Tattoo: either a Rare one (you’ll still need 14 DEX for something something legally-not-Medium Armor) or a Very Rare one (so you don’t even have to worry about Dexterity.) You can even go the Tahm Kench route and grab Eldritch Adept for Disguise Self to look unarmored if it’s really that important to you.

Well that was a pretty long con to say “Barbarian Olaf bad.” What else is there?

Chop chop! - Who would’ve guessed that dumping both mental stats would make you a dummy? While Aura of Protection saves you to some extent the party won’t be turning to you for any History checks.

Finally, some fun! - You have a rather silly amount of spells relative to your spell slots, and a good number of them are Concentration as well. Throwing all your slots to the wind to Divine Smite with reckless abandon sounds fun but managing both your Concentration and your spell slots will take some effort.

But your choice to go in without armor is just a self-handicap after all: you really want to die, and prove yourself in death! Fight the toughest fights and take down the strongest foes until you finally prove your prophecy wrong and fall before the blade of the mightiest foe! But perhaps you should instead sit down and have a muffin, and think about why you truly want to die die die.

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #dnd barbarian #definitely a Barbarian #not any other class #dnd paladin #League of Legends #League of Legends Olaf #Sentinels of Light #was bad #As if on cue Olaf releases gas from every bodily orifice #Youtube

11 notes · View notes

mihidecet · 3 years

Text

Sbi&CO d&d AU: The Dream Team (Character Analysis)

Dream Team? In my Sbi d&d AU? More likely than you think!

As requested by the lovely @floofyboons, here are the character analysis for Dream, Sapnap and George!

[I will write an overall backstory for all three of them because it’s doable and they are also best friends your honor]

First up, Dream. If any of you caught my small preview in Calvin’s chapter, you already know what’s coming ahaha

The thing with Dream was being able to make a character that would manage to stick to all of his abilities. He was a bit hard to pin down.

A barbarian would reflect well how he’s usually dealing a lot of damage with well placed hits - like, choosing an axe that deals more damage in one hit and is slower, opposite to a sword that is faster but deals less damage per hit in minecraft.

But also, a rogue, for how fast and nimble he is, and to reflect his skills in parkour.

Since I don’t see him as a monk, Dream is, to me, a fighter.

Fighters have the bad reputation of being “basic”, but they are also the most versatile class you can choose (that’s why they are usually suggested for first time players, because they’re easy to pick up at basic levels and you get tons of things to choose from at higher ones).

So, fighter. But what type of fighter? As I mentioned, fighters get a lot to choose from.

But the thing is, Dream seems to enjoy using potions and enchantments and eyes of ender a lot. So this, to me, means that Dream is definitely an Eldritch Knight, which are fighters with access to spells, which he casts with Intelligence (this sounds so dumb but like, Bards cast with Charisma and Druids with Wisdom, I swear ahahah) and bonuses to casting attack spells.

Not to mention that at third level he gets access to a bond weapon, so he can’t be disarmed and he can summon his weapon directly in his hand instead of unsheathing. Which is cool.

Dream has always been an half-orc in my heart. I just really like half-orcs, and they get a bonus to strength which is pretty cool. Also green. And tusks. I rest my case.

[Listen this is my dnd au, I want buff frat boy Dream with tusks, and the ability of being just a bit unhinged. It’s what he deserves]

As for his background, I’d say soldier is pretty good overall (we can define being trained by Calvin as doing military time).

Sapnap was a mistery too for a while. I had a talk about him with my sister, because I literally could not think of anything that would fit.

And then! The realization.

A monk of the way of the Sun Soul. A skilled fighter, that not only can punch his enemies into oblivion, but also shoot orbs of fire? YES.

Monks are a bit like rogues, in the sense that they are dexterity based, but instead of dealing massive damage in one hit, they just punch very hard and very fast. They are also extremely quick - their speed increases by 10ft every 5 levels, more or less.

And the Sun Soul subclass, while not necessarily being very strong, adds a distance attack that scales in damage like the punch attack all monks get. And it is fire, which fits with Sap’s penchant for setting fire to things.

I’ll just have to accept this time that a variant human is the best option.

And since I do like the idea of Sapnap just zooming through the battlefield, the Mobile feat gives him 10 additional ft of speed, plus some additional mobility bonuses.

[this means that while a normal character's speed is usually 30ft per round, Sapnap's is 50ft per round. And if he uses a bonus action to dash HE CAN RUN 100ft IN A SINGLE TURN. A d&d turn lasts 6 SECONDS. And this isn't even the fastest he can go, he's at 70ft (140 total) from level 18]

[He deserves to nyooom]

Add maybe the urchin background, and Sapnap is all ready to kick asses.

And finally, George! This man is such a wizard, it’s not even funny. Maybe it’s just me tho, because I see a coding youtuber and go WIZARD.

In any case. George is a wizard coding nerd, but he also has a terrible sleeping schedule. So, you know what this man needs? Some more time.

Since Matt Mercer loves all of us so dearly, he shared with us the wonderful world of Dunamancy spells.

Now, the Chronurgy Magic subclass is spectacular. It feels a bit like the Divination subclass BUT. You can literally rewind time. Freeze enemies in time and prevent them from acting on their turn.

It is brilliant.

And like, George is smart, and enjoys pranking when he’s just with his close friends.

We can give him a nice time shaping spell as a gift.

Now, the only problem is whether his familiar is a cat or a dog.

George is also going to be an half-elf, with Wood Elf heritage because that gives him Mask of the Wild, which means that he can try and hide in most natural phenomena. Basically, if he’s out of his house, he can easily nope out of social situations, which I think he deserves.

He, like Scott, also gets the sage background. For obvious reasons (which will become more obvious in the next paragraphs).

So! In summary:

Dream is born a half-orc and, for all he knows, he is the son of nobody.

When he is but an infant, he is left on the doorstep of a random house during a stormy night - it is a miracle that its inhabitant discovered him before he froze to death.

Dream grows up resilient, under the watchful eyes of Calvin, a veteran that chose to retire in a town stuck in the middle of nowhere in hopes of helping people defend themselves from incursions.

Calvin trains Dream, but he also helps him grow, just like he helped another one grow several years before.

Most importantly, Dream doesn't grow up alone: alongside Calvin, there is a monk, and all around him are the two man's students.

One in particular Dream seems to bond with: a bright human with a heart of gold, always too keen on getting into trouble, and one of Fruitberries' best students.

Him and Sapnap become quickly best friends, and they train together so much they start to work as a single unit.

When they are both of age, Dream starts to display some latent magical abilities; Calvin is quickly able to recognise this thanks to his adventuring years, and he suggests moving a couple towns over, where a friend owes him a favour and he could train him.

But Calvin's home is what Dream has always known, and change is hard, especially if he doesn't know whether or not Sapnap would be able to stay with him.

After some time discussing about it, Dream agrees to "check it out", taking advantage of this to try and compete in the yearly tournament that is held by the very same friend of Calvin he would train under.

Of course, he leaves with Sapnap.

Meanwhile, in the town where the tournament is being held, Scott is celebrating because he finally got his best student to agree to participate, as long as he gets to choose who to team with.

In the end, he’s not even going to choose, because the two jackasses pester him endlessly until he agrees to team up with them.

#dream team au #sbi dnd au #now sbi&co #dreamwastaken #sapnap #georgenotfound #also mentioned is #cxlvxn

93 notes · View notes

hellyeahheroes · 4 years

Text

Building Gwen Poole in D&D 5e

Hey, guess who just got told my company is not working next week. Well, let’s celebrate by doing another D&D build, I had lately few ideas, including a character that makes me smile, unless she is making me feel bad for her

Let me quickly list the Goals for this build. First of all, we need to be able to enter Whitespace, cross beyond panel borders and then back. Second, we need to have knowledge only someone from real world entering a fantasy one could have. Finally, we need to summon Gwens from previous books to aid us. And one more for me is to not make this identical to Tulok the Barbarian’s Deadpool build, since the man already been an inspiration so much for these posts. Which will be hard since Gwen does lend herself well to similiar combination of two classes, spoiler alert.

As always, Ability Scores will be determiend by Standard points Array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8, if you or your DM prefer point buy or rolls, go ahead and treat these as guidelines.

Strength: 10, we really don’t need it but Gwen carries a lot of weapons around so I cannot give this an 8

Dexterity: 14, despite the big boots I really doubt your suit is a medium armor, what with those bare legs and all.

Constitution: 13, hit points aren’t meat points and you survive in dangerous situations just fine.

Intelligence: 12, you are well-read in world of your heroes

Wisdom: 8, you let Ms. Marvel convince you you’re an enteirly different species and your life is a lie and you also tried dating Quentin freaking Quire.

Charisma: 15, people like you and even if they don’t believe your claams of being from another world, they’ll likely dismiss them with a heartfelt laughter than trying to book you a psychologist appointment.

Now for Race, I hinted I don’t believe the “Gwen is a mutant” retcon so I’m going with Variant Human. If you think everything must be a mutant now, then go with any Aasimar or Half-Elf. Variant Humans get to be bitter about X-Men, add +1 to two Ability Scores, go with Charisma and Constitution, gain one free language and one free Skill, pick History since you know it because you’re a human from our world, and a feat. Crossbow Expert lets you ignore loading quality of crossbows, let’s you shoot creatures within 5 feet of you without a disadvantage and make an attack with a loaded crossbow as a bonus action after you hit a foe with a one-handed weapon attack. Crossbows are easy to reskin as guns but be warned that this does not turn a crossbow into an automated gun - you still need a hand to reload the crossbow after every shot, which now counts as a part of your attack, but requires a free hand. Which means you cannot wield two crossbows or fire more than one shot in a single round without a free hand. It could be fixed with some Artificer levels but we’re not doing that here, so make sure you’re on good terms with Riri Williams if you want to shoot two guns or use gun and a blade in an accord.

For Background, Far Traveller is someone who came from far, far away and you are literally from real world. You get Insight and Perception proficiency, can pick any free language of choice and one musical instrument or gaming tool and world has All Eyes On You - people notice you’re not from around and take interest in you.

Time to go with Class Levels

1st Level: We’ll kick things off as a Bard, letting gets to be proficient in any 3 skills, let’s go with Persuasion, Deception and Acrobatics. You are also proficient with Dexterity and Charisma saving throws, light armor, shields, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords and three musical instruments of your choice.

You also get Bardic Inspiration, giving you a number of d6 dices equal to your Charisma modifier per long rest that you can hand over to someone that they can add to any ability check, attack roll, or saving throw that they make in the next 10 minutes. They can do it after they roll but before DM declares result of the roll. So you can now cheer on your heroes while fighting alongside them.

Bards are also spellcasters. You get to know a number of spells and have a number of spell slots per long rest that you can spend to cast them and if you cast one from higher level spell slot, it will be stronger. You learn more spells as you advance but cannot know a spell of level higher than highest spell slot you can use. You also get Cantrips which you can cast always and scale with your level, getting stronger at 5th, 11th and 17th character level. If a spell requires you to make an attack roll you sum up your Proficiency Bonus and your Charisma modifier to add to the roll. And if you add 8 to those two values you get your Save Difficulty, which a creature has to beat if your spell forces them to make a saving throws.

A Bard starts with two Cantrips and 4 known spells

Vicious Mockery is a staple for Bards, it lets you mock someone so bad, they must make a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and have a distadvantage on next attack roll they make before end of its next turn.

Message is a spell functioning as a magic phone, letting you send a short message to someone within the range and then can make a short reply.

Identify lets you see if you recognize an item as something you once read in a comic book - it tells you if the item is magical, magic-imbued, what magical properties it has or what spells are affecting it, how to use it, if it requires attunment and how many charges it has.

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter makes you tell a joke that forces the target to make a Wisdom Saving Throw or fall prone and be incapitated and unable to stand up due to overwhelming laughter. Target gets another save at end of each of its turns or a save with an advantage whenever someone deals damage to it.

2nd Level: We stick to Bard to gain 2nd-Level feature Jack of All Trades, letting you add half of your Proficiency modifier to all skills you are not proficient with. You also gain Song of Rest, letting you play some music when your team is resting and rolling hit dice to regain hitpoints, letting everyone roll an additional 1d6. I don’t think it is a power per se that Gwen has, but could totally see her try to cheer up her friends and heroes.

And speaking of cheering up, you get one new spell - Heroism let’s you instill the bravery in one willing creature, making it immune to being frightened and on each of its turns letting them gain temporary hit points equal your Charisma modifier. Again, Hit Points can represent someone’s luck or will to fight so if you see Batroc having a hard time against Captain America, you can cheer him up to keep fighting. I mean, you would but you like Cap too, so maybe hope Batroc fights Taskmaster or something?

3rd Level: And it’s still a Bard, on 3rd Level gaining admission to something Gwen never got in real life - a college. Bardic College, to be more specific. I was thinking of College of Satire but really, College of Lore fits our needs much better. You gain profficiency with three more skills, I’d go with Athletics, Stealth and Sleight of Hand. Since all bards also gain Expertise, letting you choose two skills for which your Proficiency Bonus is doubled, use it on Athletics and Perception which depend on two lowest Ability Scores you have.

Your spell for the level is Invisibility, which lets you skip through eniemies you don’t feel like fighting, we can refluff this as early “slipping out” to the whitespace, but some creatures can still see you and you are “pulled back” (read: made visible) if you try to interact with something or attack anyone.

College of Lore also gets Cutting Words, which lets you say something that spooks or confuses a creature. Mechanically it lets you use your Inspiration die the opposite way they are normally used, letting you roll to subtract from attack roll, saving throw or an ability check.

I mean, that’s basically how it works

4th Level: Still sticking with the Bard for an Ability Score Improvement, go for your Charisma, since not only your spells but also Bardic Inspiration relies on it.

You also get a new spell and a new Cantrip

Prestidigitation lets you make a number of smaller effects you can play as you messing around with Whitespace. Knock let’s you unlock one nonmagical lock on door or an object. Maybe play it as you “skipping” the door through Whitespace or cutting out to when the object is already unlocked?

5th Level: Surprise, surprise, it is still Bard. 5th Level mostly improves Bardic Inspriation - now it uses d8s and you regain them on a short rest as well. You also gain the access to 3rd level spell - Nondetection can make you or someone else immune on being spied by magical means for 8 hours. Situational? Yes. But something Gwen can do as a person capable of walking out of the reality where people like Doctor Strange or Professor X cannot find her? Very. You can also use it on objects.

6th Level: Bar...oh hey, we’re doing Fighter now. 1st Level fighter gains proficiencies with light and medium armor and martial weapons as well as Second Wind, letting you once per short rest as a bonus action regain 1d10+your Fighter level hit points. You also get to choose a Fighting Style - Archery grants Gwen +2 to ranged weapon attacks.

ALTERNATIVES: As you can see, I decided to do Gwen as someone gun-toting, if you’d rather her use a sword then picking Defensive Duelist at first level and Dueling style now. Mind you, you need to have a free hand for spellcasting so unless you take a War Caster feat (which is also an option) you cannot duel-wield either sword and crossbow (which would also require sacrificing your Ability Score Improvement for Crossbow Expert) or two swords and use many of your abilitties. On a side note, Gwen is also profficient now with heavy Crossbow, so you can use that as a shotgun.

7th level: 2nd Level Fighter gets Action Surge, letting you once per Short rest gain an extra Standard Action

8th Level: 3d Level Fighter gains a Martial Achertype. I was thinking which one Gwen would choose. Wade went with a Champion but we don’t want Gwen to be exactly like him even if we’re already mixing two of the same classes Tulok did. I have a better pick. Gwen is suppsoed to represent the modern fandom that jumped into comics during New 10s, right? If that’s the case then, without streotyping here, we should ask ourselves what would likely be her possible gateway to D&D.

Echo Knight has been introduced in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, the world designed by Matt Mercer for his Critical Role games. You can use your bonus action to Manifest Echo, letting you pull an echo of yourself from another timeline or, in your case, another book you were in. This Gwen has AC 14+ your Proficiency modifier, 1 hit point and immunity to all conditions, uses your saving throws and you command her to moves on your turn. She vanishes if she dies, you’re incapitated, you dismiss her, summon another Gwen or find yourself more than 30 feet away from her.

As a bonus action you can sacrifice 15 feet of your movement to swap places with other Gwen, you can choose if your attacks originate from your position or her and you can use your reaction to have her make an opportunitty attack if an opponnent would trigger one. And a number of times equal your Constitution Modifier per Long rest you can make her take an extra attack as a part of your attack action with Unleash Incarnation.

Now, to get third Gwen we would need 18 levels of Echo Knight, but we would lose or all other abilitties about Whitespace then. Instead I suggest you circle through Gwens, as it seems that Echo Knight can summon an Echo as many times as they feel like, just not at once.

9th Level: 4th Level Fighter gets an Ability Score Improvement, Round up your Charisma

10th Level: 5th Level Fighter gains an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice as a part of the same action. Meaning you can make up to seven attacks with Action Surge, two uses of Unleash Incarnation and Crossbow Expert, provided you’re having a free hand. Unless DM allows it I do not think you can have other Gwen reload your guns, so all problems of Crossbow Expert still apply. Dual Wielding meele or mixed meele and ranged Gwen would get to the same level of attacks.

11th Level: 6th Level Fighter gets another Ability Score Improvement, start focusing on your Dexterity - even a meele Gwen is better off using finesse weapons and it adds to your AC.

12th Level: The Bard returns! 6th level Bard learns Countercharm, letting you use your action to give everyone you consider friendly an advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed - I guess it’s Gwen cheering other heroes up more or warning them she read about the baddie they’re facing and he has mind altering powers

You also get one more spell. It is sad we are behind with the spells...or are we? College of Lore Bard can gain Magical Secrets - a Bardic feature we will gain later as well, but this is an additional one and early. It lets you add two spells from any spell list to your spells known, as long as they’re on a level you can cast. Unlike the standard Bard version we will get later, the two spells we get now do not count to our maximum of spells know. Meaning we get three new spells

Tongues will let you read world baloons translated to English for the American readers and apparently let you add translation to your own dialogues for an hour.

Blink lets you roll at the end of each of your turns and if you get 11 or higher you slip into Whitespace a.k.a. Etheral Plane and reappear in space no more than 10 feet away from where you were at the beginning of your next turn. When you are in whitespace you cannot be attacked or interacted with creatures on material plane. It is not as powerful as in Pathfinder but still - don’t cheat on this, don’t be an asshole and if you are pray you never see a spider.

Fireball is your grenade/rocket launcher. Creatures within range are dealt 8d6 fire damage, half on a succesful Dexterity saving throw.

13th and 14th level: 7th level Bard gains an acess to 4th level spells and 8th Level bard gains an Ability Score Improvement, invest in Dexterity again. I’m doing the two together since each gives you one more spell too add:

Dimension Door lets you teleport anywhere with range of 500 feet, as long as you can see, visualize or know the area. You can bring anything up to your carrying capacity and one creature also carrying no more than its maximum with you. However, if another creature occupies the selected space, you run into it and get knocked back through Whitespace, taking 4d6 force damage.

Greater Invisibility works like Invisibility, but now you can take things with you or attack until it ends naturally. Play it as you slipping in and out of Whitespace.

15th Level: 9th Level Bard gets to improve Song of Rest, now using a 1d8 instead of 1d6. And you gain access to 5th level spells. Legend Lore is a spell seemingly tailor-made for a fangirl - you can gain (or in your case, recall that you’ve read) knowledge about specific person, object or location. It may be vague, the more you already know the better results. This lets you put fun in your fangirl...wait.

16th Level: 10th Level Bard improves Bardic Inspriation dice to d10s, gains Expertise in two more Skills, I’d go with History and Persuasion, and learns one more cantrip and Magical Secrets - this works like before but these spells count to your maximum of spells know.

Blade Wards grants you until end of your next turn resistance agaisnt bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from weapon attacks. Your armor is at best light, this may help if you want to go into meele.

Banishment let’s you force a creature to make a Charisma saving throw or let you send them into Whitespace. They get to come back like Paste Pot Pete did after it ends, but if they’re not from this plane and if you don’t break your concentration for one minute, they’re banished for good.

Banishing Smite is similiar - next time you hit a creature with a weapon attack, and it does not specify it must be a meele attack, you deal it extra 5d10 force damage and if you reduce it to 50 or less hit points, you send them to the Whitespace. There is no save, but there is no chance to keep target permamently out. Either spell still can save lives against tough enemies.

17th Level: 11th Level Bard learns to cast 6th level Spells, but I don’t see any so we will grab one more from 5th level - Scrying let’s you poke through Whitespace to find a person and observe them and their activities. They get a Wisdom saving throw to resist being spied on, I guess trying to reassert that their current narrative place is off-page. The better you know them and better materials connecting to them you have, the harder resisting your prying eyes gets. Just please don’t use it to stalk your friends, okay?

18th Level: 12th Level Bard gets last Ability Score Improvement, round up your Dexterity.

19th Level: 13th Level Bard improves Song of Rest to 1d10 and gains access to 7th level Spells. Etherialness lets you just hop to the Whitespace...I mean, Etherial Plane, for up to 8 hours, effectively saving you from an encounter if you would die othertwise. It let’s you regroup, regain your strength, plan ahead, move away or even bypass whole area, effectively skipping to different pages, and doesn’t require concentration to do it.

20th Level: And we wrap things up with 14th Level of Bard. College of Lore grants you Pearless Skill, letting you now use Bardic Inspiration on your own rolls. You also get two more Magical Secrets

Delayed Blast Fireball is a bomb - you put on a fireball in a place. Any creature that touches it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw to be able to throw it in a different place. Whenever they suceed or not, it explodes anyway, same if your spell ends or you break concentration. It deals 12d6 fire damage plus an extra 1d6 for each of your turn that ended without it detonating, half on a succesful Dexterity Saving Throw.

Plane Shift lets you and up to 8 creatures move to a different plane of existence, meaning you can now team-up with Squirrel Girl to kick Mephisto’s butt. Teleport could be more useful as it let’s you move within a single plane, but then you don’t get to freak Squirrel Girl out by pointing there is no reason someone isn’t punching the devil in the face at all times.

Overview: So this is how I’d do Gwenpool - College of Lore Bard 14/Echo Knight Fighter 6. Let’s see how valid this build is

Pros: You have a pretty decent amount of hit points, somewhere around 160 on average, while having multiple ways to avoid damage. You are a good utility caster with multiple ways to gather information or scout ahead and you have a pretty good array of skills on top of that, making you a good use for non-combat situations. You also have pretty good mobility options, letting you move as you wish across the battlefield. Finally, whenever you picked meele or ranged options, you can dish out a lot of attacks if needed, or even blast out some foes.

Cons: Your Constitution is mediocre, meaning your Concentration and use of Unleash Incarnation could be better. Second, your spell selection is somewhat situational, some of the options we took may not always be useful, even if they are in character. Third, your Wisdom saving throw is horrible so charming, frightening or just Hold Person will be your bane. Finally, you do not have any ways of dealing magical damage, unless your DM throws a magic rapier and/or crossbow your way and your fireballs deal fire damage, which many creatures are resistant or even immune to.

However overall you are able to fill or support in multiple roles, from scout to party face to damage dealer to information gatherer, which makes you great to have. Remember, however, that this is not one-person show and you work better as a part of a team.

For example

-Admin

#Gwenpool #Marvel #Dungeons & Dragons

28 notes · View notes

asexualzoro · 5 years

Text

strawhat pirates from least to most dramatic.

i’m supposed to be making a presentation that i‘m showing tomorrow which will determine whether or not i graduate high school, so of course i made this instead. this is mostly based on fight scene dramatics, and the rankings were fleshed out with @ayotofu

- Luffy. though it might seem a surprise, Luffy is the least dramatic strawhat pirate. this is purely a matter of intent; Luffy very rarely takes action with the intent of being dramatic, it’s only an after effect. though sometimes he does things to be cool, he rarely does anything for the Drama of it all. most of the time he does something because it’s fun, or because he needs a stronger move. even if he does have his moments—jumping out of the cake in wci is the first to come to mind—his crew’s purposeful drama just outweighs his own

- Jinbei. originally i was going to put him below Luffy, as he’s a very straight laced man (for a strawhat pirate) but that thing he did toasting Big Mom at her wedding was definitely for the drama of it and i Loved that. he might be higher when we see more of him, though.

- Chopper. again, dramatic but not usually on purpose. his many forms give him a lot of theatrics, and especially the suspense he regularly builds around monster point... i’ll give him points for that, though unfortunately he loses drama by getting more control on his shapeshifting abilities. there’s no drama in lowering the stakes!

- Robin. she gets hella points for her time as Miss All Sunday, as she was a very dramatic villain, but as a strawhat she isn’t as dramatic. she’s sorta mellowed out now that she doesn’t have to be scary to protect herself. still that first firey introduction gets her points. also, not telling Luffy his brother was alive so Sabo could have the reveal? points for being a drama ally

- Nami. she’s pretty middle of the road on drama. she can be incredibly dramatic when she wants to be—i’m thinking of what she pulled with the vivre card in wci—but unfortunately she loses out to some of her more showy crewmates. love her weather report routine and her mirage tempo

- Zoro. Zoro comes across to me as more extra than dramatic. extra is cool like sunglasses, dramatic is cool like classy. as these are very similar, he still gets up high. for example, cutting a ship in half bc you got on the wrong one and telling the crew you ruining their lives was for fate? that’s drama baby! but growing a bunch of limbs and heads and shit? that’s extra. his fight speeches are also extra. there’s a Difference. Zoro also loses points bc he didn’t want to tell anyone abt taking Luffy’s pain at Thriller Bark.

- Sanji. his fucking fight speeches. that’s it. the extended cooking metaphors, though more cheesy than anything, are definitely for the drama of it all. his smoking and firey attacks are dramatic as hell. also that one time he pulled out kitchen knives on the train and just, knew how to use them somehow? that’s cool. that’s Drama™ he also gets points for that big fucking cape in wci

- Usopp. fantastic storytelling, Usopp spells, Sogeking, Usoland, God Usopp. Usopp is a man with a flair for the dramatic, and it shows in all his fights. it’s hard to say you don’t have fun with him! however, he isn’t usually dramatic for the sake of drama, it’s usually for the sake of overcompensating for what he believes he lacks. leaving and rejoining the crew also gets him points bc that was highly dramatic as well, also makes me sad

- Brook. this is a man dramatic for the sake of drama! someone dramatic in true dramatic fashion! he’s a popstar and a musician, he knows how to command a stage! his speech 2yl at sabaody, his festival music attack, the way he led Giolla and! his! own! crew! on so he could get his sword back from being turned into art, soul king!!! (this definitely started as a special effect for concerts you won’t change my mind) this is drama for drama! that’s what this shit is about!

- Franky. keeping in mind the extra/dramatic distinction made previously, id say Franky is more extra than Dramatic. however he is SO extra that he falls into dramatic also. everything he does is for one very specific aesthetic, and i respect that. he labeled his own body the same way he labeled the sort of ships that killed his father figure, which i think is incredibly metal. he’s got lasers just to be cool! he plays up the robot thing for kids! he even turned his nose into a button to change his hairstyle at will! what puts Franky above even Brook, who is drama for drama, is that Franky also does a lot of dramatic shit for absolutely no purpose. all of Brook’s Drama For Drama also has the bonus of another effect, but Franky? a bunch of his drama is functionally useless. his “centaur legs” !! his “tracking missiles,” which not only “tracked” people by him following them around but also DISLOCATED HIS SHOULDER!! General Franky, which basically only makes him taller and cooler! even people on panel were shocked that the gun was literally just him!! that’s extra! that’s ridiculous! that’s useless! that’s DRAMA!!!

#I FEEL LIKE ove seen a similar post maybe #it i couldnt rememwbr for sure and i didnt know where to look #One Piece #cyborg Franky #soul king brook #Usopp #Sanji #Roronoa Zoro #cat burglar nami #nico Robin #tony tony Chopper #Jinbei #monkey d. luffy #my posts #ridiculous lists #ayotofu #no i will not accept criticism #thank you for your time #long post

600 notes · View notes

cantfoolajoker · 5 years

Text

s.e.e.s. as dnd classes

after my last post on the thieves, i have now returned to talk more about using dnd classes and subclasses as character study opportunities with the focus now being on sees (plus hamuko bc she counts)

since the post is lengthy, its going under the read more

so, for starters, minato/makoto is a shadow magic sorcerer. sorcerers are based on the idea that rather than learned arcana or given magic, you inherently have it inside you and can produce said affects with your sheer force of will, or your charisma. shadow magic sorcerers are linked specifically to the shadowfell, which is the negative energy to the feywilds positive energy, and sorcerers uniquely display quirks depending on their lineage; two i’d propose for minato/makoto would be “when you asleep, you don’t appear to breathe (but you still do to survive)” and “always cold to the touch”, since they seem the most fitting in my opinion for him. they get things such as strength of the grave, which says that on a successful saving throw on an otherwise fatal hit, you’ll drop to just 1 hp due to your constant state of being between life and death, and you also get the umbral form at 18th level, which allows you to change your form to a shadowy state that is resistant to all damage except for force and radiant that also allows you to move through other objects or creatures (man does that remind you of a certain battle a bit).

in comparison, minako/hamuko is a totem barbarian in my full honest opinion. the reason i say this is because one of her defining traits is her hot headedness and impulsiveness to jump into situations, making her a prime candidate for barbarian due to their rage state and ability to tank hits. they get martial weapons, allowing her to pick up some weapon similar enough to a naginata, and the main aspect of the class is the ability to pick a totem spirit, which provides buffs depending on which animal you pick for your totem. personally, i throw my vote in for the wolf totem because it functions as a leader with the ability to land advantage melee hits on any creature hostile to you, the ability to track certain enemies and move at a stealthier natural pace, and the ability to just knock a large or smaller enemy prone when you hit them with a melee attack, all of which benefits minako/hamuko very nicely and lines up with her fighting style in both p3p and pq2.

alright so i know yukari uses a bow and arrows, and i know ranger exists, but also rangers are kinda bad in dnd overall and also yukari isn’t really a scout in any way. luckily dnd has an answer to this in the form of arcane archer fighter. arcane archers fuse magic into their archery methods in order to protect and deliver damage, mixing both yukari’s magic usage with her weapon of choice. they get the ability to literally redirect their arrows once shot to new targets and second wind, which lets them regain hp as a bonus action once per short or long rest. arcane archers essentially get an arrow type for like every school of magic, which makes up for the fact this would mean yukari has lost most of her healing spells since arcane archer fighters focus on dps more than they do support, though its not like ranger wouldve made up for that anyway.

so since junpei wants to be the leader so badly, i decided a champion fighter was gonna be the best bet for him, both because in a meta sense it is usually the First Pick newcomers do due to its simplicity of hit and hit more, but also because the class focuses on dps and raw physical power pushed to perfection, which junpei does end up getting when he learns to use a bat rather than a sword with the way he swings. this class and subclass is super straightforward: you get More damage to do the more you try to hit, and you get a higher chance of critical hits along with a more flexible fighting style and the ability to regain hit points with the survivor feat. they also get remarkable athlete, which lets them use half their proficiency bonus for any checks made while using one of their physical stats (so strength, dexterity, and constitution, all of which junpei def has) to have a greater chance at passing said checks.

akihiko's a monk. i literally don’t know what anyone expected. he’s a way of the open hand monk. open hand monks generally focus on debuffing enemies, which is akihiko’s staple in the party next to his all around good stats, which monks possess too in form of natural armor, increased movement speed, and having a hit die for throwing punches rather than dishing out 1 point of damage per hit, which increases as they get stronger. they can also heal themselves which akihiko has with his dia and diarama spells, but that isn’t the focus of it as much as it’s just a neat add on. overall, the guy’s a boxer and needs to dish out punches and monk does literally exactly that.

so i made a joke with a friend about how mitsuru keeps using marin karin because the ai of p3 is bad, and that led into the idea that mitsuru is a college of swords bard. while bards can be very stereotypically flirty, it’s just based on the fact their casting stat is charisma, so really any charismatic character can be a bard, which mitsuru does have with her formal way of speaking and her way of holding herself to establish authority. swords bard use, if you couldn’t guess, swords to fight, typically finesse weapons that they use dex for to fight, which with mitsuru’s weapon being a rapier, an actual finesse weapon in dnd, it’s an elegant weapon pick for an elegant class. they also get jack of all trades so they’re good at pretty much everything, which reflects the sort of type of person mitsuru reflects herself to be, and as a big joke, they get countercharm which allows them to perform and their allies get advantage when someone attempts to charm them. yeah. anyway mitsuru’s a bard. next.

for fuuka, i took more inspiration from her persona and how it encloses around her while she does her work to come up with an abjuration wizard. the school of abjuration specializes in protection and banishment spells, with outsiders believing it to be a specialization in denial and negation but truly being about ending harm and protecting the weak, which represent fuuka’s character and her bullying arc well. this class is mostly just what it says on the tin; they specialize in closing portals and rifts to other worlds, performing exorcisms, and securing locations that are too important to allowed equally magical wandering eyes and ears from engaging with. it’s also a high intelligence based class, which fits fuuka well. since she’s also a wizard, which gets virtually no hp and also no armor, so she needs to be protected, which everyone should want to protect her lmao.

aigis, for one, is a warforged in terms of races in dnd since they’re the robot race that only act on the goal they are given, But that’s just a side point to the main point of classes, which way of the kensei monk is definitely her. kensei monks train so extensively with their weapons that they become an extension of themselves, with aigis’s without a doubt being firearms due to her robotic nature already making them a literal extension of herself. they’re speedy and precise, both of which fit aigis and her programming to be the best combat unit, as kensei focus almost exclusively on dps output and the ability to just deal as much damage in one hit. unerring accuracy is also a feat kensei monks get, which allows them to reroll any attack they miss and again, really hones in on the combat robot thing aigis has going on.

now i know some of you probably went ‘are they gonna class assign koromaru’ and let me tell you i’m not going to cause 1 you wouldn’t be able to play him anyway in the theoretical sense, but also he’s usually seen as a companion to either ken or shinjiro, so he fits more as a companion animal that you see some classes get like rangers or druids. usually these animals survive as long as their owners lifespan and get extra health and sometimes magic so koromaru is a-okay in fighting still.

now for someone who i’m very excited to talk about: ken. being hellbent on revenge is actually a class in dnd! it’s called the vengeance paladin, which is a paladin whose oath revolves around singlehandedly bringing “evildoers” to justice, though what this justice is would be defined by the individual paladin’s definition of morality and their own vendetta. even in their basic description, oath of vengeance defines anyone who takes it as someone who sees their purity not being as important as the concept of delivering justice where justice is due, which fits not only ken’s theme as the justice arcana, but overall his entire relationship with shinjiro (which. oh boy paladin shinjiro and paladin ken parallels?). paladins get martial weapons which means ken gets his lance he uses, and on their spell list they get hunter’s mark, letting them mark targets to deal more damage. one another thing i want to bring attention to is their 7th level class feature, relentless avenger, which essentially makes it so any enemy that provokes an attack of opportunity can’t truly escape because the vengeance paladin can immediately take half their movement speed to follow after said enemy as apart of their reaction, which i think pretty easily describes the october 4th scene if you know what i mean.

and finally i’m saving the best for last cause i wanna talk about shinjiro. picture this: shinjiro’s a big tanky knight meant to service the people and protect them but a stray spell one day kills an innocent woman and suddenly he’s failed the one thing he swore his life to. giving up his oath, shinjiro turns into an oathbreaker paladin, a paladin who in someway shape or form has broken their sacred oath and now walks a darker path. now oathbreakers, while being stereotypically written as “evil”, don’t have to be evil themselves; being an oathbreaker pretty much is what it says on the tin, with them having failed to fulfill their oath’s rules in some way shape or form. breaking his own moral code and also abandoning his affiliation with sees pretty much solidifies shinjiro as an oathbreaker with him not necessarily being a bad person cause we all know he’s not. oathbreakers get things such as channel divinity: dreadful aspect, which lets them channel their anger into an intense magical intimidation, and paladins themselves are the only class to get the find steed spell, which fits castor’s horse riding-ness. they also get martial weapons and heavy armor, making shinjiro a big tank with an even bigger axe just like he likes to be. as a bonus thing, shinjiro Definitely has the tavern brawler feat (which gives unarmed strikes a hit die rather than a flat 1 damage) so he can wrestle with akihiko

BONUS: chidori’s a life cleric. her entire fountain of life or whatever the thing her persona does right next to her white gothic lolita aesthetic fit her as a life cleric. Or she could be a grave cleric with an atypical aesthetic, but then again, theres been pastel goth grave clerics before too.

BONUS x2: my friend and i had 2 ideas for ryoji while throwing ideas for this whole list around: death cleric, which is yknow, pretty straight forward..... OR deathlock great old one. deathlocks are specifically enemy warlocks that have been brought back from the dead by their patron because they believe that the warlocks job hasnt been done yet, and well, nyx i think counts as a great old one patron.

29 notes · View notes

thisgodwontforgiveyou · 5 years

Text

okay heres what i have so far for my ideas for unique unit abilities beyond the kind of lame ones the game gives us

Edelgard: Commanding Presence (Access to unique versions of all gambits, more gambit uses)

Hubert: Stealth (Undetectable to enemy units farther than 3 squares away until non-movement action is taken. Returns after 1 turn without attacking)

Ferdinand: Wishful Thinking (Bonus on all rolls against enemies who would perform better in that category i.e. higher dodge against a more evasive opponent, improved damage against an opponent with higher might)

Dorothea: Diva (Unique Sing mechanic that allows her to empower allied unit to perform their next attack twice, limited uses)

Bernadetta: The Flail (Reduced stats, once per turn automatically does a massive amount of damage and knocks back a melee attacker without taking damage)

Caspar: Morale Shout (Aggros enemies in large radius but boosts stats of all deployed friendly units)

Linhardt: Scientific Mind (No combat benefit, allows slight but permanent improvement to all allied crest effects after succesfully defeating certain enemies such as demonic beasts and enemy crest-bearers)

Petra: Hostage Situation (Automatically deflects a percentage of damage taken onto any adjacent unit. Percentage is upgraded to 100% if the unit is affiliated with the Empire, friend or foe)

Claude: Trickster (Higher dodge change and bow/sword/lance attacks have a chance to poison enemy, effects of poison can be selected before combat, or changed at the cost of a turn)

Lorenz: Selfless Noble (Can place a buff on allied unit that transfers all damage taken in the next turn to Lorenz. Lorenz refuses to accept healing while the buff is active)

Hilda: Younger Sibling (Can ride any friendly unit for a damage boost, ‘mounted’ unit unable to attack and suffers severe movement penalty. Bonus for transformed Marianne)

Raphael: Helping Hand (Can pick up and throw friendly units a short distance, including over obstacles, damaging both if an enemy occupies the square)

Ignatz: Scenic Route (Higher movement speed through forests and other defensive tiles, extremely high accuracy against enemies in forests and bushes, reduced movement speed and damage outside of unique tiles)

Marianne: Crest of the Beast (Turns into a demonic beast after crossing a threshold of damage dealt/taken. Beast form is uncontrollable [but friendly] unless Hilda is riding her)

Lysithea: Prodigy (Can copy and immediately use a gambit/combat art from enemy unit at same cost to her own battalion/equipped weapon. No restrictions and her own stats apply to the attack.)

Leonie: Rival (Gains damage the lower Byleth's health is. Experience bonus if Byleth isn't deployed)

Hanneman: Crestology (Substantially increases crest activation rate of adjacent students, also increases charge rate of Marianne's crest)

Manuela: Self Sufficient (Sharply reduced health gain from allied healing spells. Gains massive damage boost when at least 6 tiles away from nearest friendly unit, suffers severe damage penalty within 4 tiles of Hanneman)

Shamir: Perfect Shot (doubled range and crit chance on all bow attacks, but suffers sharp penalty to her hit chance)

Catherine: Adoration (Can only be deployed if Shamir or Rhea is present in the fight, vastly increased stats and unique combat art moveset/class. Will automatically retreat if Shamir and/or Rhea is defeated)

Alois: Enthusiasm (No dodge chance, higher enemy aggro radius, lower chance to hit, 2x damage on all attacks)

Seteth: Cautiousness (Cannot make any attack with less than an 80% chance to hit, all attacks over 80% chance to hit will be upgraded to a crit)

Flayn: Wellbeing (1 time use ability that fully heals all units on the battlefield, friend or foe)

#any character missing is because i dont feel like i know them well enough to decide #fe3h spoilers #cus some of these hint at various aspects of canon i guess

15 notes · View notes

grailfinders · 7 months

Text

Grailfinders #322: Caeneus (Rider)

today on Grailfinders, we’re making Caeneus (Rider), and if you’re wondering why I’m being extra polite and using his proper name it’s because I’m pretty sure if he found out I’ve made him a Beast Master Ranger he might just kill me, so I’m trying to play it safe. he’s also a Fathomless Warlock too, that way we have both ends of the sea serpent covered. no I’m not stealing this from FF14, hush.

anyway, check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

next up: stop; hammer time

Ancestry & Background

not too much is changing here, they’re still a Variant Human with our weird variant Noble background, so that’s proficiency in Athletics as well as History and Intimidation, plus the Gift of the Metallic Dragon for a bonus to Wisdom (on top of your usual Dexterity and Charisma bonuses), plus access to the spell Cure Wounds once a day for free, plus with whatever spell slots you have. it’s not quite invincibility, but if you’re still alive at the end it should be fine. the real reason we’re here though is for Protective Wings, letting you react to you (or an ally) getting hit, and adding your proficiency bonus to your AC for that attack, up to proficiency times a day. right now that’s +2 and twice a day, but it’ll grow as you do.

Ability Scores

my pc crashed the last time I did these, so now it’s a speed round. from highest to lowest: Charisma- you’re scary, we use it a lot early on. Dexterity. it’s AC. you are AC. Wisdom. you’re a security guard, keep shit secure. Constitution. you have indestructible skin, what do you think that does to a person’s HP total. Strength wish it could be higher but we don’t need it. Intelligence. you’re still a Summer servant, after all.

Class Levels

1. Warlock 1: starting off as a warlock gives you proficiency with Wisdom and Charisma saves, plus Religion and Nature.

also as a first level warlock, you get to make a pact with the god of the sea, a.k.a. the Fathomless. yaaaaay. reminder that most warlock pacts aren’t exactly willing.

anyway, you have the gift of the sea now! that gives you a swim speed, and you can breathe underwater. even better, you can summon a Tentacle of the Deep that acts as your serpent’s tail. I know it’s weird we’re getting the tail first, there’s a reason for that. still, you can summon it as a bonus action, and on that bonus action and each one after you can move it around and attack with it, slowing down whatever it hits in the process.

you also learn a little Pact Magic, spells that you can cast using your Charisma and using slots that recharge on short rests. Green-Flame Blade and Sword Burst are typical weapon-focused cantrips, and while Destroy Water isn’t technically something Caeneus uses, it feels in character. (also, pretty sure there’s a Create Or tacked on there somewhere, but I doubt he’d care.) finally, Armor of Agathys. I know we’ve been using it a lot this summer, but it’s a good spell and Caeneus is all about that toughness. even if you get hit, you’ll just lose temporary HP! it’s like you never got hit at all.

2. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get invocations, and like all weapon-based warlocks we’re saving one for level three, and just taking Armor of Shadows now for free Mage Armor, adding +3 to your AC at will. you don’t really have any ascensions with armor this time, so your unarmored AC is more important than ever.

you can also Cause Fear now, in case your usual intimidation checks aren’t good enough for someone.

3. Warlock 3: at third level you take up the Pact of the Blade plus the invocation Improved Pact Weapon, allowing you to summon just about any weapon as an action, with a +1 bonus to hits and damage, and it can be used to cast your warlock spells. normally we’d play it safe and grab a spear or trident, but neither of those are finesse- we can’t multiclass into monk or hexblade this build, so we need something that uses dexterity to attack with if we want that sweet sweet AC. thankfully the dragonlance campaigns have us covered thanks to their introduction of the Hoopak, our new favorite weapon. it even manages to be both a melee and ranged weapon, just like a harpoon!

your serpent can’t really bind people yet, but you can pretend it can with Hold Person paralyzing a humanoid who fails their wisdom save and giving you advantage to hit them, plus critical hits when you do in melee range!

4. Warlock 4: use your first ASI to grab the Resilient feat, to both add 1 to your Dexterity and make you proficient with those saves. you really don’t care about fireballs, for several reasons.

for your spells, you can splash people with Frostbite, or you can use Earthbind. it’s kind of like Hold Person, but worse! that’s why we got the other spell first.

5. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells like Spirit Shroud, which adds extra cold or radiant damage to your melee attacks and slows down anyone nearby. this will become that aura you’re surrounded in during your NP, but for now it’s just pretty nice.

if you’d rather spend that spell slot on burst damage instead, Eldritch Smite has your back! once a turn when you hit something, you can spend a warlock spell slot to deal an extra 4d8 force damage to whatever poor bastard you stabbed, and if it’s huge or smaller you can knock it prone for even more advantages!

6. Ranger 1: multiclassing into ranger gets you another skill proficiency, like Survival to help Gordy with the cooking. sometimes. you’re also a Deft Explorer, so you’re canny with Religion checks, adding a doubled proficiency bonus to them. against your will.

you also have a Favored Enemy, giving you advantage on checks to track and recall information about them. I’m not going to tell you what to pick for these since they’re technically supposed to be based on your own experiences in game, but in-character I’d definitely pick Celestials first, then whatever kind of humanoid Columbus is second. third is dealer’s choice.

7. Ranger 2: second level rangers get a Fighting Style, and unfortunately the Hoopak is a two-handed weapon, so not many of these options are super helpful. I’d pick Archery though, at least now your ranged and melee modes do the same amount of damage.

you also learn another set of Spells that you cast with Wisdom, plus a different set of spell slots that recharge on long rests. while they’re technically different stuff, you can use warlock slots for ranger spells and vice versa, with the exception of Eldritch Smites.

still, pick up Ensnaring Strike to actually use a harpoon like a harpoon and restrain enemies, and Longstrider for some more swimming speed. I don’t think Caeneus is actually supposed to be that fast, but both your NPs feature you zooming around in some way so now it’s stuck in my head.

8. Ranger 3: third level rangers can join any conclave they want, even if it’s the Beast Master one. this lets you summon a Primal Companion, where each time you summon it you can choose between an animal from the land, sea, or air, though obviously we’re mostly picking the sea creature. it acts as part of your turn, but it can’t do more than move, dodge, or react unless you spend your bonus action commanding it. you can summon it for free once a day, or by spending spell slots to revive them when they die. they’re proficient with all checks and saves, plus when they attack they grapple whatever they hit. very serpenty.

if you want another way to waste spell slots, you can use Primeval Awareness to sense extraplanar creatures within a mile of you. you don’t know where they are, but you know they’re there!

you also know Goodberry. I don’t think you’d be much of a healer, but your job is to keep everyone alive, so a 1 HP healing buff is pretty useful.

9. Ranger 4: use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for a higher AC and attack bonus.

10. Ranger 5: fifth level rangers get an Extra Attack each action for twice as much stabbing and throwing. you can also use second level spells now like Find Traps, allowing you to sense traps. again, you don’t know where the trap is, but you know it’s there!

yeah, you might not be that good at being a security officer.

11. Ranger 6: sixth level rangers get another round of Favored Enemy, and you’re now Roving, adding 5’ of movement to your walking speed and giving you a climbing speed to boot! now you don’t even need Da Vinci’s help! maybe take a slow fall belt though.

12. Ranger 7: seventh level beast masters give their pets Exceptional Training, allowing you to command it to dash, disengage, or help on its turn, plus its attacks are magical to boot. the disengaging is nice since summons are usually pretty squishy.

you can also Enhance Ability for a minute, giving yourself advantage on one kind of skill check, with bonuses for physical stats- boosting strength checks increases your carrying capacity, dexterity keeps you from taking minor fall damage, and constitution gives you temporary HP.

13. Ranger 8: speaking of constitution, use this ASI to bump it up for more HP. it’s retroactive too, so you get 13 more points right now. you also gain a Land’s Stride, so difficult terrain doesn’t slow you down now, and nonmagical plants can’t hurt you? sure? I mean, your skin’s tough.

14. Ranger 9: Ninth level rangers get third level spells like Water Walk. you’re so repulsed by the ocean you don’t even swim in it!

15. Ranger 10: Tenth level rangers are Tireless, letting you give yourself some temporary HP as an action Proficiency times a day. you also lose exhaustion on short rests as well as long ones! sometimes being a security guard means working long shifts.

you can also Hide in Plain Sight, mostly because neither option here was really in-character, but HiPS is bad enough you won’t be tempted to use it. you can spend a minute making camo for yourself, giving you a +10 bonus to stealth checks as long as you stay still next to a wall. thankfully stalking the enemy is more Kama’s job, so you don’t have to use this much.

16. Ranger 11: at eleventh level your sea serpent is overtaken by a Bestial Fury, allowing it to attack twice when you command it to. that might not sound like much, but if you mix in your regular two attacks that’s four attacks per round, which is on par with a 20th level fighter.

you can also cast Protection from Energy now, giving you or an ally resistance to one kind of elemental damage for up to an hour. it’s not quite evasion, but now fireballs really won’t do much to you.

17. Ranger 12: bump up your Constitution again for even more HP! yeah that’s it this level.

18. Ranger 13: thirteenth level rangers get fourth level spells, like our pick Guardian of Nature. with just a bonus action you can turn into either a Primal Beast or a Great Tree- the former makes you faster and better in every way with melee weapons, while the latter gives you more temporary HP and better constitution saves, plus you make ranged and magical attacks with advantage, and you churn up the water nearby, turning it into difficult terrain.

19. Ranger 14: at level fourteen you get one last round of Favored Enemy, so make it count, and you can Vanish as a bonus action, as well as become untraceable to anyone not using magic. that’s actually really useful for us this time- dragging a big sea serpent around isn’t the stealthiest way to move.

20. Ranger 15: at level fifteen, you can learn Stoneskin, granting you and your serpent resistance to nonmagical physical damage. “but wait!” I hear you cry, “Stoneskin only targets one creature!” to that, I say, “yeah I was getting to that calm down.” you can target two creatures at once thanks to your final beastmaster ability which gives you the chance to Share Spells with your serpent! as long as you’re casting a spell targeting yourself, you can also make it affect your beast companion if they’re within 30’ of you. that’s pretty good, but we’ll talk about how good it can be in the pros & cons section.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

doubling up on certain spells can be really good if you’re creative with it. your free mage armor casts don’t really matter for your beasts given their natural armor does the same thing (but protip to DMs: they just went through 15 levels of beast master ranger, let them have a lil somethin' somethin'), but when you look at spells like Armor of Agathys doubling the temporary HP and damage dealt with each hit, or Spirit Shroud to pump a ridiculous amount of damage while also eviscerating your enemy’s movement speed where you and your serpent’s auras align. also you could use one version of Guardian of Nature on each of you at the same time, which probably isn’t super useful but it is cool as hell.

warlocks and rangers both have spell slot issues, and they both kind of fix one another? rangers don’t have a lot of spell slots in total for what they try to do, and warlock’s weird “always one kind of slot” thing makes casting low-level spells feel bad, but together they kind of mesh well.

you still have some pretty thick skin, and while we don’t get to the insane heights of your past self, your baseline comes with more health and more ways to shield or heal yourself to make up for it.

Cons:

your bonus action is split between your serpent tail, your serpent, and a bunch of ranger spells, so it can be hard to fight effectively. seriously we mostly went with the Fathomless warlock for the swimming, you could go hexblade again and not miss out on much for most of the build.

speaking of bad decisions, the doubled spells are cool, but are they 15 levels of beastmaster ranger cool? Honestly, not really. like, not only are you playing the weakest ranger subclass, but we also deliberately picked worse options for your features to stay in character. speaking of…

your spell list also suffers from this design choice- Caeneus isn’t big on magic, and their repertoire reflects that. like 100% serious right now, even if you feel the need to play this character 100% as we made it, for the love of god pick something other than Find Traps. that spell is the trap, don’t use it.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Caeneus #Caenis #warlock #ranger

26 notes · View notes

lesbianmarth · 5 years

Text

alright, what have i been up to vesperia lately...

spent a bunch of time trying to grind out altered artes for judith, which was only kinda worth it since some of these artes just aren’t good. a couple have been helpful but overall i haven’t found much use for em, and the altered artes i do have are not very easy to combo with

revisited a bunch of older areas to clear out some inaccessible items. main utility was to grind out artes as above, but there were a nice bunch of bonus scenes to come out of it which was neat

tried playing rita and she’s... alright. there’s definitely ways to make novice spellcasting feel engaging and fluid, but the casting time on higher-level spells, plus my current lack of a skill that lets you hold the charge and free run before casting, makes them feel awkward to use. im sure it’s not any slower than letting ai rita cast, but it feels weird not having to wait so long to get an attack out. (also, ai rita goes nuts sometimes so why give that up)

found a yuri combo that seems to instantly open up enemies for a blue fatal strike? this one’s kinda nuts

tried playing flynn and hated it

also tried repede and disliked it but not as much

finally got backstep for yuri and item thrower for repede, skills that seem kind of essential but which i missed early on because i didn’t think to buy the shitty weapons at deidon hold. also i got karol mighty charge finally

some important recipe acquisitions, warehouse sidequests, playing around with costumes and discovering that white accessories change to red when rita equips them, allowing her and estelle to have matching funny hats

and then uhhh plot stuff too

first off, zaude is an awesome dungeon. i love water theming and aesthetics (exacerbating factor for my hatred of fe fates), so it’s really cool to have the dungeon be mostly underwater like that. i actually really liked the water puzzles too but i wish there were more of em.

patty getting her objective right in the middle of the dungeon with no obstacles is really weird so i am very interested to see what her arc turns into next

yeager was surprisingly easy, and i wonder if i did too much prep beforehand or if he was supposed to not be as hard. hilariously i only remembered to (and did) use over limit mere Seconds before the party killed him

his death was really unexpectedly sympathetic. i’ve already gotten scenes afterward that follow up on gauche and droite, so that helps, but i don’t think they’re important to the story anymore. he seems like he was just kind of there to be an antagonist, and they shuffled him out the door when they stopped needing human villains.

on that note, alexei revealing some degree of hidden knowledge about the adephagos and shit made him much more intriguing at the last second. whoever made the decision to have him just shed tears right before that big fuckin chaos emerald crushed him, they knew what they were doing, because it made me feel a lil bit intrigued by him even though i didn’t care much about him before

i’m still glad he’s dead though because there was clearly no way to stretch out his villainy through the rest of the game. i’ve seen human villains (even in this franchise) who can stick out the entire plot and not get stale, but alexei is not one of them. he needed to go

the fight with him only took one try but it feels reeeally climactic. the water on the sides of the arena is great and it totally invokes the image of that final battle from wind waker, plus alexei has an arte like yuri’s guardian field that damages you and heals him, which stretches out the fight a lot. his mystic arte was a huge pain but it wasn’t even hard to revive people after getting hit by it. most exciting though, was rita popping overlimit for the first time in the playthrough, twice, and then nailing him with her burst arte both times for big damage. i need to play with the ai settings to make sure that happens more.

sodia stabbing yuri has me weirded out still though. like they definitely foreshadowed it, if you can call it that when she’s barely been able to hold back from attacking him in every cutscene she’s had, but the timing (after the enemies were dealt with and anything agitating would have already passed several seconds earlier), the fact that she said nothing in warning, the use of a knife instead of her own sword, and the fact that she looked terrified right afterward are all really strange. i don’t know if that was supposed to be weird but it looked like she was fucking possessed. does the adephagos just do that? i hope so if only to explain her acting so strange.

waking up in yuri’s room in zaphias is a really nice transition into the final act of the story, as well as the trip along the continent to reunite with the other party members. good bookends. when’s flynn coming back though

rita’s va made some very funny noises when the other girls forced her to admit she was worried about yuri and that’s good.

everything else i have to say would be a joke relying on screenshots or something so I’m gonna hold off on those. my conclusion is, very good end to act 2, interesting start to act 3. yeehaw

#vespy time #spoilers under the cut? ye #tales of vesperia

5 notes · View notes

dunamanticarchivist · 6 years

Text

The Munchkin Nein - Falconet Fjord

Explaining this series

Wew real life is pretty time consuming, my week of travel has been kicking my arse in time management, barely had time to catch c2e23 on thursday. Nevertheless, here I am with today’s episode of the Munchkin Nein.

A falconet is a smaller falcon (and also has the same number of letters as falchion). It is also used to refer to a type of early cannon mounted on ships for combat. I was a bit indecisive over Frigatebird or Fregatidae but those sound a little too bland or esoteric, so I settle for falconets.

Fjordy the Texblade is a level 5 warlock. One of the most surprising thing about him is that his patron is not, the Great Old One that the Cthulhian seeming entity that appears in his dreams, but instead a sword possessing spirit. Not entirely sure how this works out in the lore, but just like Fjord himself, there is a whole ton we don’t know yet.

What we do know is the ass-kicking our Texan accented warlock can dish out on a regular basis. First off, he wields the magical Wastehunter falchion (barnacles and creepy eye included). It does d8 slashing damage one handed, d10 for two. Fjord does hold a standard shield, giving him +2 AC. Not sure on how they play the rules with regards to 2 handing the sword in one turn and having the shield bonus in the same turn. Does Fjord have to spend his interaction stowing the shield to 2 hand the falchion? Or is the shield more like a buckler that can be brought to bear at anytime? I believe atm it is the latter case and Travis not exploiting the ruling to max out all the time, and instead using 2 hands whenever RP dictates.

As a Hexblade, Fjord adds his CHA mod of 4 rather than his puny STR mod of 0 to attack rolls and damage. Additionally, the Wastehunter adds d8 (i believe from ep22) damage against monstrosities and big creatures.

Finally, at level 5, Fjord chose the eldritch invocation Thirsting Blade, giving him an additional attack, bringing him nearly up to the melee capabilities of the other melee fighters of the Nein (molly, beau, yasha)

Crucially, this melee capability is equalled by the ranged power given by the cantrip Eldritch Blast. With a comfortable 120 feet of range, Fjord constitutes a vital part of the Nein’s reliable ranged output, doing d10 force damage. Being level 5, Fjord issues two such blasts every time he casts this cantrip. He has also augmented the output with the invocation Agonizing Blast, adding his CHA mod of 4 to the damage roll. He can even cast it while wielding his falchion and shield thanks to the War Caster feat (q.v) [google that i just learnt this notation today]. Can’t wait for the day Travis plays the double eldritch blast like a double quick draw with a pair of finger guns like them Texan cowboys do.

Now back to the crunch, the above are the regular things Fjord can always do, leaving him a dangerous threat even after prolonged combat. As a half-orc, his criticals are more dangerous, giving an additional dice roll (d10 or d8 for eldritch blast/2hand falchion or one hand falchion respectively). And he doesn’t go down easy. Once each day, if he is reduced to 0 HP, he instead stay at 1 HP allowing him to disengage if his turn comes up next, or Jester’s to heal him. I believe concentration on his spells is not automatically broken if he uses this racial ability. Also, I think its worth mentioning that half-orcs have advantage on Intimidation checks. Considering Fjord’s charisma is 18, its worth a go scaring enemies into submission, flight or just for the fun of it. But Fjord seems more into charm than fear tactics. For now.

Now speaking about spells, warlocks have a more unusual economy in that they have far fewer slots, all at the highest level available, and are recovered on a short rest. At the moment, Fjord has 2 Level 3 spell slots. Just 2. Thus he has to be pretty tactical and careful with his spell choice, not hurl them willy nilly like Jester and Caleb can.

Choice wise he has 6 to choose from, on top of his other cantrips of Minor Illusion and Booming Blade.

Minor Illusion allows Fjord to get creative in combat, though with his existing combat options he doesn’t really need to, to gain the edge. Booming Blade’s effectiveness can be in question. It costs an action and allows a single melee attack to be made. At level 5, a successful hit causes the target to suffer the usual d8/d10 + 4 slashing, as well as d8 thunder damage. In addition, if the target moves willingly after being struck, it suffers 2d8 thunder damage. The trade off between the cantrip and the two melee strikes is as follows:

Cantrip: 1 attack roll, d8/d10 +4 + d8 + 2d8 (conditional upon target moving willingly). Min damage if hit: 6

Average if conditions met, attack hits (assuming one hand strike): 22

Average if conditions met, attack hits (assuming two hand strike): 23

Average if conditions unmet, attack hits (assuming one hand strike): 13

Average if conditions unmet, attack hits (assuming two hand strike) : 14

2 attacks: 2 attack rolls, 2 x (d8/d10 +4). Min damage if both hit: 10

Average if one attacks hits (assuming one hand strike): 8.5

Average if both attacks hit (assuming one hand strike): 17

Average if one attacks hits (assuming two hand strike): 9.5

Average if both attacks hit (assuming two hand strike): 19

Therefore, Booming Blade is best utilized if for some reason, Fjord can only make a single attack (slowed, opportunity attack etc). It would obviously be very helpful if the monster will obligingly shift its arse after being struck (intimidation maybe? does that count? idk) It will also depend on how easy the target is to hit. In summary I think one could say Booming Blade is higher risk, higher reward than two straight attacks.

Someone has helpfully pointed out that the spell Blink works wonderfully in conjunction with this cantrip, since phasing out into the Ethereal plane generally forces the enemy to re-position in the material plane, triggering the bonus damage from the cantrip. If not for Thirsting Blade, Booming Blade would be the staple of Fjord’s melee routine.

Onto the very important spells. I will discuss these spells at level 3, since at the moment (and up till level 7) all of Fjord’s spells will be cast at this level.

Armor of Agathys Gives 15 temporary hit points and does 15 cold damage to the attacker on being hit in melee. This makes Fjord a tank. A very spiky tank on the level of the venom troll faced in ep 21 and 23. In fact, that damage is nearly the maximum of what the troll puts out (though only triggered by melee attacks) The additional 15 HP can come in clutch. The only drawback is that the spell only lasts an hour, so Fjord can’t really prep it at the start of the day, rest up to regain the spell slot and wade in. It will take much more precise planning or signalling to read that flow of the story, almost to the point of metagaming. Or unless Fjord is raring for a fight.

Hex One of Fjord’s bonus action possibilities, it gives additional d6 necrotic damage on Fjord’s successful hits. Also, one of the ability scores of the target is chosen. An ability check made with the chosen score is made at disadvantage for the duration of the spell. Which happens to be 8 hours. Though Fjord must maintain concentration for that duration. With a range of 90 feet, that could be a good way of initiating combat. Note, it is ability checks that are at disadvantage, not saves which are more often used in combat. However, checks do still occur such as STR checks for grapple contests, WIS for perception for the hiding Nott maybe? This could lend it to a more non-violent, yet hostile approach. Also, if the target is reduced to 0 HP, Fjord can use a bonus action to transfer it to another target.

Witch Bolt Not a very impressive spell in my personal opinion, save perhaps for the raw damage. 3d12 lightning damage on hit (avg 19.5). On following turns, if concentration is maintained, Fjord can use his action to automatically inflict 1d12 lightning damage. Not doing so ends the spell. Whose range is 30 feet and must be maintained. And the target must stay out of total cover. In terms of damage trade off it would win against Eldritch blast for the first round, then never again, unless the target is nigh impossible to hit and auto hits are valuable. Against the other spells that compete for the precious spell slots.....the medium run utility can be questionable. Unless its raw damage you’re looking for.

Crown of Madness Pretty useless against a single target. Can be useful against enemies that attack in concert. A humanoid must make a WIS save, or suffer the charmed condition, using its action before moving to make a melee attack against another creature (excluding itself and Fjord). If it does not, it can act normally. At the end of its turns, it can make another WIS save, and Fjord has to spend his action maintaining control, on top of concentration. Thus only when the creature has adjacent enemies (of the Nein) to attack and can deal more damage than Fjord, will this spell be mechanically valuable. However, for most humanoids, having an ally turn against them can play a very strategic role in combat, sowing mistrust and scattering them. They could even egg on the infighting to gain a further advantage.

Hunger of Hadar Thar’ be Cthulhu! Or Hadar as D&D calls it. Concentration, 150 feet range, 20 foot radius void of darkness and tentacles. Nasty voices audible within an extra 30 feet. Within this 20 foot void, creatures are blinded, insufficiently magically powerful light cannot illuminate it or dispel the darkness. Also, is difficult terrain. Starting the turn in it causes 2d6 cold damage. Ending the turn inside forces a DEX save (on DC 15) or else 2d6 acid damage. Range wise it is the longest option available to Fjord, and also acts a way of terrain control. The damage is....alright, not stellar but the tune of 14 damage a turn sounds decent if lumbering or CC’ed foes are kept penned in the area. Probably more useful in isolating targets than actually killing them.

Blink A very well RP’ed spell by Travis. When I first read the spell, I almost dismissed it as non-combat viable. But then someone on reddit pointed out the defensive value of disappearing between your turns, with 10 feet of teleportation to boot. The need to roll 11 and above makes it a little unreliable, but if the dice are hot like Fjord’s on his first use in ep22, it can really take the heat off. Therefore, it should not be used in conjunction with Armor of Agathys, since that rewards being hit.

I left out Wrathful Smite as listed on critrole stats since Fjord could only have gained a second level 3 spell at level 5 by exchanging one of his previously known spells. Also, we have never seen Fjord use it, nor should he since it isn’t particularly effective. I may have to speculate on which spell he will trade off in his next level up, but I’ll leave it till then.

Also, all the spells bar Blink and Armor of Agathys requires Fjord to maintain concentration. Which his War Caster feat greatly helps with, giving him advantage to CON saves to maintain it. With a CON mod of +2, he has held on in many crucial situations. The final part of the War Caster feat allows Fjord to cast a single hostile target spell in place of an opportunity of attack, enabling Booming Blade, Witch Bolt or Crown of Madness to be used as a reaction.

If you think that’s all for Fjord, nope! His subclass grants him yet another feature. Hexblade’s Curse is a bonus action, 30 feet. 1 min duration. Not concentration, but ends if target dies or Fjord dies/incapacitated. This gives the bonus of proficiency (+3) in damage rolls against the target. Crits are 19s and 20s instead of just 20s (Fjord’s crits are also nastier than most). If the target dies, Fjord heals 9 HP. Once per short/long rest, so basically a specific extra spell slot that he can be relatively liberal in using.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Fjord is a contender for the tank-iest of the Nein with 51 HP, AC 17 with a shield due to his cloak of protection. Armor of Agathys brings him up to an impressive 66 HP at level 5, while Hexblade’s Curse if activated by the death of an enemy turns them into a helpful health potion (9 HP of healing). (thanks to ehdubyah for reminding me HBC can’t be transferred on death, unlike Hex)

Mechanically, Fjord is a very well rounded character. Comfortable both at range and in the thick of it, he has the sustainability and versatility to engage with the many possible situations the Nein will run into during their adventures. This possibly leads to Fjord being a natural leader, as some have suggested, due to his adaptability and ability to do something in any given situation. Although, his WIS mod is -1, which makes him as wise as Yasha is charming (awkward aasimar that we all love). Also, I have to constantly remind myself he is STR 11, instead of Travis Willingham STR 20++.

Love yall, and we are on the Internet today cos Talks Machina with Matt and Sam! Interestingly July 3 and 5 they’d be off; with 4th of July they’ll be able to take a well deserved holiday. And if I’m not mistaken isn’t Laura and Travis’ baby coming in the first week of July? What a strange coincidence of timings. Still, super hyped for their new studio.

#critical role #cr2 #cr2 spoilers #kinda not really #the munchkin nein #d&d #theorycraft #math hammer #fjord #texblade #warlock #mine

13 notes · View notes

patriotforthekingdom · 3 years

Text

...Shall Not Be Infringed

The second amendment to the constitution is phrased in a way that shouldn’t lead to any questions about it. It reads “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Shall. Not. Be. Infringed.

Our founding fathers knew a little bit about tyranny and oppression, and that is why the very first two amendments to the constitution specifically spell out arguably our two most important freedoms…first: our right to free speech and second: our right to bear arms. As the saying goes, “we have the second amendment so we can defend our first amendment.”

So why is the left constantly trying to question and remove our right to bear arms? Or in other words, why is the left constantly trying to infringe?

Control.

It’t that simple.

If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that politicians on the left (and a large handful on the right) will do whatever it takes to gain even just a little bit more control over you. And they won’t stop there. Once they get that little bit of control, they will keep pushing and pushing just to see how far they can go. You are simply a pawn of their agenda and a statistic ready to be manipulated.

Under the Obama administration, mass shootings shot up 246.7% higher than previously under the Bush administration (thegatewaypundit.com). They spent those 8 years of shootings, alongside the MSM, laying the groundwork for disarming all Americans. They thought they were in for an easy transition from Obama to Clinton, and could simply finish the job over the next 8 years. Well, as we know, they faced an obstacle to that plan in Donald Trump.

After 4 years of relatively no media coverage on mass shootings, outside of Las Vegas, Biden is now in… and they are right back at it.

Last week alone was nonstop MSM coverage of a shooting in Atlanta simply because the timing was right, and it fit the narrative. Don’t get me wrong, this was a horrific act committed by someone who is absolutely insane or possessed, and I have been and will continue to be praying for the families of those who were unfairly taken far too soon. But I will also be praying for the families of the 15 people who were shot the same week in another mass shooting in Chicago that went completely unreported on. Unfortunately this shooting was chalked up to gang violence which we are programmed to think is normal, frequent and unpreventable.

However, the first shooting was seemingly a perfect fit for the MSM narrative: a white male shoots 8 women, 6 of which happen to be an ethnic minority. The MSM didn’t waste any time pushing this as anti-asian violence and somehow blaming this and any other anti-asian violence on Trump.

Check out a few of the quotes and headlines…

Apnews.com opening line: “A white gunman was charged Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors in an attack that sent terror through the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Nytimes.com headline: “8 Dead in Atlanta Spa Shootings, With Fears of Anti-Asian Bias”

Washingtonpost.com quote: “Six Asian women died in the attacks on Tuesday, prompting widespread concern that the killings could be the latest in a surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans.”

In addition to these and many other MSM outlets covering this story nonstop, many politicians jumped into the conversation as well, including Crooked Hillary herself who tweeted, “I’m sending prayers today to the families of the people killed and those injured in Atlanta’s horrific attacks. The surge in violence against Asian Americans over the last year is a growing crisis. We need action from our leaders and within our communities to stop the hate.” Since the shooting, 4 of her 6 tweets have been pushing the #StopAsianHate narrative.

Well, how are they going to #StopAsianHate? Control. And how are they going to take control? Disarming Americans.

The shooter himself claimed that the shooting was not racially motivated, and the FBI, after investigating, determined the same exact thing. Oddly enough, this didn’t make any of the headlines, nor did it stop the MSM from writing about this being a racially motivated shooting. “Ironically,” the senate is due to vote on Joe Biden’s unconstitutional and far left gun control bill that he is persistent on passing.

Is it making sense now?

The politicians are trying to take away your freedoms. They don’t care who or what they use to do so. This time it’s guns. They are going to be voting shortly on taking away your guns, so before they do that, they have to remind you that guns are bad and scary.

Well, Thomas Jefferson knew that the day would come when politicians would try to disarm Americans by convincing them that guns are bad and scary. He had this to say, “The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man” (buckeyefirearms.org).

Strict gun laws don’t stop bad guys from getting guns. They stop the good guys from getting guns to defend themselves and others, leaving everyone in a far more susceptible position.

What would’ve happened in Atlanta if one of those women shot were carrying a firearm? Could the first victim have defended herself and stopped hers and the other murders from even happening? Possibly.

In Joe Biden’s America, we shouldn’t have the right to defend ourselves. These women who were murdered should not have had the right to defend themselves. The shooter should have known that he was not going to be able to be stopped until he decided to stop. The shooter should have known that whoever he wanted to shoot would not be able to defend themselves.

Well, what does the Bible say about gun control? Not-so-surprisingly, nothing. However, the Bible does say that every man was assumed to have a personal sword, the gun-equivalent back in the day. Jesus himself said in Luke 22, “Let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.”

So, knowing Jesus supports ownership of weapons for self-defense, what about acts of self-defense? Well, Exodus 22:2 says, “If a thief is caught in the act of breaking into a house and is struck and killed in the process, the person who killed the thief is not guilty of murder.” It continues in verse 3 to say, “But if it happens in daylight, the one who killed the thief is guilty of murder.” This tells us that it is not ok to kill someone simply because they break into your house. Pastor Tom Tell says about this passage, “In the dark, it is impossible to see and know for certain what someone is up to; whether an intruder has come to steal, inflict harm, or to kill, is unknown at the time. In the daylight, things are clearer. We can see if a thief has come just to swipe a loaf of bread through an open window, or if an intruder has come with more violent intentions.”

Ultimately, the Bible tells us that the right to bear arms is acceptable (if not suggested to do so), and the right to defend yourself is promoted. Deadly force should be the last resort for a christian (and also taught in basic gun training), but if necessary to do so in self-defense, it is permit-able.

As a christian, the right to bear arms is a freedom granted to us by the Bible. And as an American, the right to bear arms is a freedom granted to us by the Constitution.

The left is steadfast on removing this right from us, this is not a time to be silent.

We must build up an army of patriots for the kingdom.

BONUS BLOG!

I wrote “…Shall Not Be Infringed” (above) before the most recent shooting in Boulder, CO on Monday. I couldn’t post this without addressing a few quick thoughts that came to my mind…

You can see just how quickly the left is moving to infringe on your right to bear arms. They want complete and utter control.

They want you afraid!

Afraid of guns.

Afraid of terrorists.

Afraid of white males.

Afraid of Trump.

Afraid of conservatives.

Afraid of anything that they feel is a threat to their control.

And they are using the MSM propaganda to make you afraid.

The MSM was eager to blame this shooting on a white male as the yahoo news story says, “a partially clothed white male was seen being led away from the scene.” When in reality, the shooter was identified later as Ahmad al-Issa…a devout, anti-Trump, Muslim.

Joe Biden also wasted no time using this shooting as a way to blame guns by calling for an “assault weapons ban” and a “ban on high capacity magazines.” Want to know something funny? Colorado already has a high capacity magazine ban. So Joe, did it help? Did that stop the bad guy from getting a gun with a high capacity magazine?

We as a people need to open our eyes to this madness the left is pushing us into. It is leading us into complete and utter destruction.

#patriot #kingdom #christianity #politics

0 notes

tigerkirby215 · 3 years

Text

I’m a particular fan of wasting my time so I decided to rate all the Half-Feats for no real reason

(Artwork from the Acquisitions Incorporated 5th Edition sourcebook, because I can’t just use artwork from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.)

If you have been around my blog for any lengthy period of time you will know two things about me.

I often fall into flights of fancy mostly under the guise of attempting to branch out with this blog, even though the real reason is that I wish to publicize any and all work I do for this hobby.

I really like half-feats.

And who could blame me (at least for the second point.) It’s always exciting when you can get a feat, and half-feats allow you to round out a stat of your choice while still allowing you to diversify your character with unique abilities to make them your own. Feats are always strong and even the most basic half-feat still provides you with unique traits to differentiate yourself from the standard adventurer. But it can be hard to choose when they are all so diverse which is why I’m making this list for myself and anyone who may find it useful.

I would also like to thank LudicSavant from the Giant in the Playground forums for their organized list of Half-Feats. It has made the creation of this list far easier and I frequently reference it when making builds.

WHAT IS A HALF-FEAT?

For the sake of understanding (because the last time I used the term “half-feat” on Reddit a lot of people got confused) I will define a half-feat here: A half-feat is any feat that gives half of an ability score improvement (+1 to a given stat) along with its regular features. They are obviously good choices for any player with an uneven stat, as they can make that stat even (for the increase in ability modifier) while also gaining an additional bonus.

HOW IS THIS LIST ORGANIZED

This post is split into 6 sections, one for each stat. (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.) The feats are organized in alphabetical order. Basically I’m lifting the formatting from LudicSavant.

Each feat will be shown as follows:

FEAT NAME

Description

Summary

Rating

Feats that can be applied to varied ability scores will be mentioned multiple times, however unless the feat changes based on the ability score chosen the entry will simply be shown as a redirect to where it was summarized earlier.

And I guess it also has to be said: This list is just my opinion and is in no way an objective ranking of the half-feats that currently exist in D&D 5th Edition. Feel free to make your own decisions when designing your character: this post is merely meant to share my opinion and provide a reference resource for people making characters.

(Artwork still from the Acquisitions Incorporated 5th Edition sourcebook. Damn this book has some nice artwork.)

STRENGTH

Athlete

Grants you the ability to stand up from prone faster, climb more easily, and jump further.

You’d think with the amount of builds I’ve included this feat in I’d have more positive things to say about it. But no: this feat is trash. Climbing is rare and jumping is pretty much never used in D&D. Even if it was there are low level spells (Spider Climb / Jump) that allow you to do what this feat does.

The only really useful addition to this feat is the faster speed to get up from the prone position. Being prone sucks and it can heavily restrict your movement when it happens. Putting yourself prone is also helpful in a ranged build to give enemies disadvantage to hit you from range. (You can technically knock yourself prone after attacking to make it harder to hit you.) But this strategy loses effectiveness quickly and it isn’t worth taking a feat to combat the rare possibility of being knocked off your feet.

Ultimately if you genuinely see any of the features of the Athlete feat as being useful chances are that either your DM forces way too much jumping / climbing, really likes knocking people over, or you really like knocking yourself prone.

2/10

Crusher

Grants extra utility to bludgeoning weapons, allowing you to move foes into more favorable positions.

RIP in piss Monks am I right lads? To be fair there aren’t any Finesse Bludgeoning Weapons with the only exception being the Sling. But regardless: this feat has two features along with its Ability Score Improvement:

The pushing ability is situational at best. Displacement abilities in 5th edition rarely have a significant impact. You may push an enemy off a cliff on occasion but unless your DM makes a significant effort to present these opportunities to you it won’t come up often. There is some niche use for this feat to work as a poor man’s Mobile feat, as you can push a foe back 5 feet before running away without needing to disengage.

But perhaps the biggest problem with the displacement ability of Crusher is that Shield Master does everything it does almost objectively better, all while providing additional benefits to Dexterity saving throws. Shield Master isn’t a half-feat, granted. But one could get one of the better +1 feats to STR / CON along with Shield Master.

The effect on a crit is incredibly potent. Giving all allies advantage to hit a foe will lead to more damage being dealt and an even higher chance to crit. However relying on crits usually isn’t a smart idea, and crits are already deadly enough without a feat to boost them.

7/10

Dragon Fear

DRAGONBORN EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Allows you to roar with your Breath Weapon ability, frightening nearby enemies.

This feat singlehandedly makes Dragonborn viable. I’m not even joking: being able to replace your CON based, low damage Burning Hands-lite with essentially the Fear spell which comes back on a Short Rest and is based on Charisma is insanely useful for any Charisma character. The most obvious use is for the Charisma casters: Bards and Sorcerers can get an extreme amount of value from this feature. But other Charisma classes like Paladins, Swashbuckler Rogues, and any other class that requires Charisma can use it well. Warlocks get a little less use out of it than most since their abilities already come back on a Short Rest but it’s still nice to have in your pocket.

It’s less useful for non-Charisma classes but it can’t be flawless. But it removes the problem of choosing between a subpar AoE damage ability or just attacking with your weapons / spells, and instead gives you a utility ability to give yourself space. It doesn’t scale well late when most enemies resist fears, but neither did your breath weapon. Especially with the Dragonborn subraces from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount this feat is extremely good.

I mean, you could just play a Leonin and get the fear without investing in a feat, especially since Tasha’s lets you move ability scores around. But Dragonborn have more fun roleplay and other abilities that the Leonin lack.

10/10

Dragon Hide

DRAGONBORN EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Your AC is equal to 13 + DEX and your unarmed strikes do a d4 + STR damage.

The Mage Armor feat / the worse Tavern Brawler feat. What confuses me about this feat is how at-odds it is with itself. On one hand your AC is still based on DEX but on the other hand your natural weapon is based on STR?

Let’s just ignore the Unarmed Strike damage because let’s be real here: you can just pick up a dagger instead of slashing people with your dragon claws. Is Mage Armor really worth losing half of a feat? If you have nothing better maybe, but this list alone shows that there are better options. There are some very specific niche scenarios where Unarmored Defense is more valuable than actual armor but those scenarios are usually campaign-specific or a choice done more for roleplay, and you could just as easily accomplish the roleplay by taking the Magic Initiate feat to get Mage Armor along with two useful cantrips.

Honestly this should’ve just been added as a base feature for the Dragonborn, and most DMs I know give this feat to Dragonborn at level 1. (Minus the half feat ASI.) Lizardfolk have innate AC, crafting skills, and a healing bite; Dragonborn should get innate AC, damage resistance, and a crappy breath weapon that can be upgraded by the Dragon Fear feat.

3/10

Heavily Armored

Gain proficiency with heavy armor.

The vast majority of classes that are expected to wear Heavy Armor have Heavy Armor Proficiency. In fact the only Martial class that doesn’t have Heavy Armor proficiency (minus Barbarians and Monks who can’t wear Heavy Armor) is the Ranger, so this feat is good if you want to play a Ranger like a Paladin. Huhn. Ironic that I am playing a Horizon Walker Ranger like a Paladin in one of the campaigns I’m in.

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

Like, you can grab this feat for Clerics and Druids I guess, but why would you? Medium Armor is on-par with Heavy Armor, and 14 DEX is far more useful than the 15 STR required to wear Platemail.

The only other two (well technically three) subclasses I can think of which could grab this feat are the Hexblade Warlock and the two Martial Bards. (College of Swords / College of Valor.) For Hexblade... why do you need Strength? You can swing your sword with Charisma. Bard however... I guess if you want to play a Strength Bard it’s an option?

But yeah: the only time I ever used this feat was to play a Ranger like a Paladin. And saying “I used this feat to play one of the worst classes in the game like a better class” isn’t exactly an accomplishment.

1/10

Heavy Armor Master

While wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from nonmagical weapons is reduced by 3.

The word that kills this feat is “nonmagical.” I can tell you as a fact having had a Fighter use this feat in a level 1 - 5 campaign that it is TORTURE for any DM. “Oh boy I finally hit the 20 AC Fighter annnnd I did 5 total damage, even though I rolled max damage.”

But this feat literally becomes useless past level 8 or so when enemies start getting magical weapons. There are a few enemies that still technically do nonmagical damage at high levels, but even then this feat isn’t going to save you from foes that are normally doing upwards of 15 damage per swing. It adds up yes, but it’ll rarely add up in my personal experience.

Take this feat on a Variant Human at level 1 if you’re doing a level 3 one shot, just to be an asshole.

2/10

Lightly Armored

Gain proficiency with light armor.

?????

Mage Armor exists. The only classes in the game that don’t get proficiency with at least Light Armor are Sorcerer and Wizard. You can afford to lose a spell slot for Mage Armor. Seriously.

1/10

Moderately Armored

Gain proficiency with medium armor.

The best of the “armored” feats because (hot take time) Medium Armor is the best armor in the game. It requires the least investment which makes it the most easily accessible armor in the game. If you have a 13 in DEX I’d highly recommend grabbing this feat. If your DEX is at a 16 (+3) or higher I’d honestly maybe just recommend Light Armor / Mage Armor instead?

8/10

Orcish Fury

HALF-ORC EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Get the ability to choose to roll an additional damage die once per short rest. Additionally, you can use your Reaction to make a weapon attack after being knocked down to 1 HP via your racial trait once per short rest.

Anyone find it amusing that this feat is only available to Half-Orcs but not full Orcs? Anyways: having the ability to essentially crit on-demand is nice. Having the reactionary attack after being knocked to 1 HP is situational, but still alright. I think if I was playing a Half-Orc and I needed to round out either my Strength or my Constitution (more likely my CON since there are far better feats for STR) I wouldn’t be upset taking this. Is it worth playing a Half-Orc just for this feat? Not by a long shot lol.

6/10

Piercer

When you deal damage with a piercing weapon you can reroll one of the damage die on one attack per turn. When you crit you can roll an additional damage die.

Savage Attacker as a half feat, proving that Savage Attacker is a bad feat lol. I’m actually going to talk more about this feat when I go into the Dexterity section which makes this the first feat where I’ll actually rank it lower for a specific Ability Score.

3/10 (if using STR)

Resilient (STR)

Gain proficiency with Strength saving throws.

Strength saves are common and pretty bad, but not as bad as Wisdom or Dexterity. What’s more is that most classes that will be forced to make Strength saves have proficiency in Strength saving throws already. If you have an uneven Strength score this isn’t the worst way to round it out, but I’d sooner get a stronger feat for another ability.

3/10

Revenant Blade

Essentially Dual-Wielder for the Double-Bladed Scimitar.

A very specific feat to the Eberron setting, and even though I use Eberron content frequently in my builds I’ll be honest: I know very little about the setting. The DBS honestly just seems worse than uh... wielding two scimitars? 3d4 damage is about on-par with 2d6. This feat is something you take more for roleplay than actual practicality with your character, though I have played with people (outside of Eberron lol) using a double-bladed scimitar and it seems like a cool weapon. Dual Wielder is also a good feat and it seems you can use the DBS without grabbing the Dual Wielding Fighting Style.

5/10

Skill Expert

Learn a skill and gain expertise in a skill.

A very good skill to round out any build. Expertise can actually shape your character quite a lot, as it allows you to be good at things even if your Ability Scores are bad. A good go-to feat to round off any uneven Ability Score if you have nothing better imo.

7/10

Slasher

Slashing weapons lower the speed of the target hit by 10. On a crit the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls until the start of your next turn.

Easily the worst of the weapon damage type feats, which is a shame because I like slashing weapons. The slowdown effect is rarely useful: the only class which I really think can use the slowdown effect well is hit-and-run Rogues, but Slashing weapons are heavily restricted from Rogues for some reason. The crit effect is nice but you shouldn’t be banking on crits, even as a Champion Fighter. This feat at least has a niche if you plan to play a Whip Rogue but that’s about it.

3/10

Squat Nimbleness

Increase your movement speed by 5, gain proficiency with Athletics or Acrobatics, and gain Advantage to escape grapples.

It is actually goddamn hilarious how good this feat is. +5 movement is already nice (especially if you’re playing one of the later-added small races [or a Homebrew race] that has 30 feet of movement) but you also get a free skill proficiency in either of the two most commonly used skills in the game, and to top it off to my knowledge this feat is the only way to gain a bonus to escaping grapples. (Outside of like, the Freedom of Movement spell.)

Take this! Good lord take this! If you have an uneven ability score and are small don’t even hesitate!

10/10

Tavern Brawler

Gain a d4 unarmed strike and proficiency with improvised weapons. After striking a creature with an unarmed strike or improvised weapon on your turn you can grapple them as a bonus action.

This feat will either be the best or worst feat you take depending on your DM. If your DM lives up to the Dead Rising promise of “anything is a weapon” and lets you pick up a stick off the ground and use it as an improvised weapon: congratulations your Wizard now has an infinite supply of short swords!

The grapple after making an improvised or unarmed strike is... interesting. I’ve expressed my distaste for grappling in the past but on its own at lower levels its not the worst option. The main problem is really just that the Grappler feat is bad, but if you want to keep an enemy from running then grabbing them isn’t the worst option!

5/10

Weapon Master

Gain proficiency with 3 weapons.

Just take a single level in Fighter. Honestly upgrading your weapon’s damage die isn’t worth losing the ASI. Even in the most extreme example of upgrading a dagger (d4) to a rapier (d8) you’re only getting +4 damage potential max.

The only application I really think is worth it for this feat is Rogues, because for some stupid reason Rogues don’t get proficiency with either Scimitars or (more importantly) Whips. So if for whatever reason you want to play a Reach Weapon Whip Rogue but still get Stroke of Luck from the 20th level of Rogue then I guess Weapon Master has some use? But you could just as easily grab the Mobile feat to reap similar benefits without being forced to use a d4 weapon.

1/10

DEXTERITY

Athlete

See above.

Elven Accuracy

ELF / HALF-ELF EXCLUSIVE FEAT.

Roll 3 d20s instead of 2 when you have advantage and are attacking with DEX or a spell.

Otherwise known as “why Elf Samurai is secretly overpowered.” If you have a reliable way to get Advantage this feat is absolutely nutty. If not well... It’s still a nice way to round out an uneven Ability Score, and it works with spell attack rolls too which gives it plenty of versatility!

Basically if there’s any semi-consistent chance that you’re going to get advantage I’d take this feat. If not? There are better half feats out there. Really a shame this doesn’t work with STR attacks but I guess they didn’t want Elf Barbarians to be the most overpowered shit in the game.

8/10

Fade Away

GNOME EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Use your reaction to become invisible after taking damage. You remain invisible until the end of your next turn unless you perform an aggressive action.

Invisibility is never a bad thing. This feat gives you what is essentially a stronger version of the Shield spell once per Short Rest since (rules as written) enemies can’t target you if they can’t see you. Now of course a lot of this depends on your DM (how many enemies with Blindsense are around, and if enemies will swing where you just were because metagaming) but this feat is almost exclusively why you should play a Gnome as opposed to something else.

This feat plus Squat Nimbleness is honestly worth losing an ASI for. Fade Away, Squat Nimbleness, and Moderately Armored combined can be three very good feats for a Gnome spellcaster who already has a high casting stat.

9/10

Gunner

Crossbow Expert for guns.

Crossbow Expert for guns. The only part of this feat that affects non-firearms is the lack of disadvantage in melee range which I mean... if you’re not planning to use crossbows it might be useful? But I’d sooner take Piercer, Elven Accuracy, or another more useful feat.

GUN/10 3/10

Lightly Armored

See above.

Piercer

When you deal damage with a piercing weapon you can reroll one of the damage die on one attack per turn. When you crit you can roll an additional damage die.

The first and probably only feat where increasing one Ability Score is far more useful than the other! Let’s start with the obvious: Savage Attacker doesn’t work with ranged weapons, but since all ranged weapons (minus the Sling) do Piercing damage this feat affects them! For most ranged weapons this isn’t that big of a deal but if you’re using one of the ranged weapons with a bigger damage die (Longbow / Heavy Crossbow) it’s still nice to have, especially if you have multiple attacks and will henceforth have a higher chance of rolling low for damage.

The triple damage effect on a crit is also very nice for a ranged weapon, and lets you live out that sharpshooter fantasy. But again banking on crits is unreliable. Overall this feat is a very nice way to increase an uneven Dexterity score and get some benefits for your ranged weapons. It’s not something I’d go out of my way to get but it does feel very good to grab.

7/10 (if using DEX)

Moderately Armored

See above. Slightly better when increasing DEX because DEX is more universally useful than STR.

Resilient (DEX)

Gain proficiency with Dexterity saving throws.

Dexterity saving throws are some of the most common saving throws in 5e. Being able to halve the damage of a Fireball is always worth it.

9/10

Revenant Blade

See above.

Second Chance

HALFLING EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Force an enemy that’s attacking you to reroll their attack once per combat.

This feat interests me because (to my knowledge) it’s the only feat that replenishes when you “roll initiative at the start of combat.” But regardless: being able to force an enemy to reroll a hit on you is really nice, but mind you that there is the chance to turn a regular hit into a crit.

If your class already has reactions this really isn’t worth it. But if you’re playing something like a Fighter this can be a nice way to shrug off a hit or two over the course of the day. A good way to round out your stats and give yourself some safety, but not something I’d go out of the way to get.

7/10

Squat Nimbleness

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Slasher

See above.

Weapon Master

See above.

CONSTITUTION

Aberrant Dragonmark

Get one Sorcerer cantrip and one level 1 Sorcerer spell. Constitution is your spellcasting modifier for these spells. Additional effects when you cast your level 1 spell.

Veterans of this blog will know how much I love Aberrant Dragonmark. If you’re taking Magic Initiate to have a ranged attack then Aberrant Dragonmark is pretty much just universally better than Magic Initiate. The only real flaw with this feat is that you can only take from the Sorcerer list... oh and that it’s very Eberron specific. It’s unlikely that you’ll be allowed this feat, but I would recommend it for just about anyone who needs a ranged backup. Constitution becomes a lot more exciting when it’s used for more than just health.

8/10

Chef

Allies heal more during short rests. Prepare treats allies can use to gain Temporary hitpoints as a Bonus Action.

Song of Rest? Never heard of her! A fairly mediocre feat on its own, though admittedly fun for roleplay. The treats are actually not that bad to give allies a tiny bit of bulk. The definitely-not-Song of Rest feature is also good in its own right.

It’s a nice way to round out your Constitution or Wisdom if it’s uneven, and is very fun for roleplay. But it’s not the most impressive in terms of utility.

6/10

Crusher

See above.

Dragon Fear

See above.

Dragon Hide

See above.

Durable

Add double your Constitution modifier to rolled hit die while Short Resting.

I mean, it’s nice? But the only real use I see for this is for a Barbarian. It can definitely allow you save up on your hit die but unless you have a 13 in CON (14 with this feat) I wouldn’t recommend it. I’d much rather not take the damage in the first place: an ounce of prevention beats a cure!

5/10

Dwarven Fortitude

DWARF EXCLUSIVE FEAT

When you take the Dodge action you can heal with a hit die.

Otherwise known as “Dwarf Monks are super legit for no good reason.” It’s a very interesting feat that allows you to tank in interesting ways, and it’s particularly good if you know your DM doesn’t let you frequently short rest. It can be nice to heal in a pinch, but much like with Durable I’d rather negate the damage than heal with hit die.

And if your DM allows frequent short rests? This feat is objectively worse than Durable, since it doesn’t really matter when you heal with hit die.

5/10

Infernal Constitution

TIEFLING EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Resist Cold and Poison damage, and gain Advantage on saving throws against Poisons.

You already resist Fire damage, which is extremely common. This feat adds two more common damage types to that list, and also helps you against a common debuff. This is just a very good way to give your character more bulk! Of course if you aren’t fighting a lot of poisonous or cold enemies this feat won’t be too practical, but in a standard campaign with varied foes this will quickly carry its weight!

7/10

Orcish Fury

See above.

Resilient (CON)

Gain proficiency with Constitution saving throws.

Constitution saves are extremely common, most notably for Concentration checks. Other people have done the math that Resilient scales better than War Caster to help with Concentration checks. This feat is a must-have for spellcasters, and very good all-around.

10/10

Second Chance

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Tavern Brawler

See above.

INTELLIGENCE

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fade Away

See above.

Fey Teleportation

HIGH ELF EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Learn Sylvan. Cast Misty Step once per Short Rest.

Otherwise known as LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON TO PLAY A HIGH ELF. Holy shit if you’re playing a High Elf take this feat! A free language is nice and all but Misty Step is one of the most useful utility spells in the game, and you have near-constant access to it!

10/10

Fey Touched

Learn Misty Step and one additional first level spell from the Enchantment or Divination schools. You can cast both of these spells once without using a spell slot.

Misty Step is one of the strongest spells in the game: if your class doesn’t normally get it I’d definitely recommend Fey Touched just to get Misty Step. Being able to grab strong first level Enchantment and Divination spells like Hex, Hunter’s Mark, Bless, Heroism, and Detect Magic are also very useful.

9/10

Flames of Phlegethos

Reroll 1s when dealing Fire damage. Surround yourself in Fire when casting a Fire damage spell.

Otherwise known as “Elemental Adept lite.” Only really useful if you’re planning to consistently be in close range, but very fun and flavorful if you are casting fire up close.

I honestly wish this feat wasn’t Tiefling exclusive because it’s cool as shit but so situational: I’d love to see a version of this feat that’s damage type exclusive and race exclusive. Hm maybe that’ll be a Homebrew project of mine.

7/10

Keen Mind

Know some information you should probably already know.

Otherwise known as “hey mister DM I forgot to buy a compass or a watch in town, and I’m too stupid to take notes.” This is the feat for bad players, and most DMs will ignore it even if you do take it.

1/10

Linguist

Learn 3 languages. Write cyphers.

The languages are honestly useless: Comprehend Languages is a first level spell, and Tongues is a third level spell. The cyphers are a lot more interesting, but they’re admittedly extremely situational outside of specific campaigns. It also really sucks that your feat can be undone with the Comprehend Languages spell, which can be cast as a ritual.

4/10

Observant

+5 to Passive Perception / Investigation. You can read creatures’ lips if you understand the language they’re speaking.

The ability to read creatures’ lips is honestly really interesting for espionage, but let’s be real: you picked up this feat for the increase to Passive Perception. Honestly if you don’t want to be ambushed just take the Alert feat.

7/10

Resilient (INT)

Gain proficiency with Intelligence saving throws.

Intelligence saves are rare. Devastating when they occur, yes. But I’d sooner take Observant, Linguist, or one of the Tasha’s feats over Resilient.

5/10

Shadow Touched

Learn the Invisibility spell and one additional first level spell from the Necromancy or Illusion schools. You can cast both of these spells once without using a spell slot.

Invisibility is less universally useful than Misty Step, and Necromancy / Illusion spells are weaker than Divination / Enchantment spells. (At least if we’re talking first level.) There are some nice ones like Disguise Self and Inflict Wounds but generally speaking mobility is more useful in my humble opinion.

7/10

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

Learn the Mage Hand cantrip. If you know it already, increase its range by 30 feet. You can make the Mage Hand invisible. Additionally, you may shove a creature 5 feet towards or away from you as a Bonus Action on your turn.

Mage Hand is one of the best cantrips in the game and being able to make it invisible was a subclass feature restricted to just Arcane Trickster Rogues previously. Having an invisible grabbing arm is insanely useful, and extending it to 60 feet is even better.

And that isn’t even the best part! Being able to shove people around isn’t necessarily the most overpowered thing but it still gives you a way to use your Bonus Action every turn! If you play on a tabletop you can use this feat to push enemies back into AoE damage abilities or pull allies away from danger! In Theater of the Mind however this feat isn’t as strong and I wouldn’t recommend using the shove too much as its liable to annoy your DM.

8/10

Telepathic

You can speak telepathically to a creature within 60 feet of you. They have to understand the language, and don’t gain the ability to respond telepathically. Additionally, you learn the Detect Thoughts spell, and can cast it once per Long Rest without using a spell slot.

Detect Thoughts isn’t that great of a spell, though granted this is just my personal experience. That being said having telepathy is extremely useful, and this is speaking from experience!

I will say right now: take this feat if you are a Druid. Unless your DM is a real stickler for the rules this will let you speak to people while Wildshaped! This opens up a whole world of possibilities for your Druid! I unironically consider this feat mandatory for a Druid, and fairly useful for any other character who wants to speak quietly and stealthily. And you know: doesn’t have access to Message.

8/10 - Mandatory for a Druid

WISDOM

Chef

See above.

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fey Touched

See above.

Observant

See above.

Resilient (WIS)

Gain proficiency with Wisdom saving throws.

Wisdom saves are very common, but most Wisdom classes already get Wisdom saving throw proficiency. If you have an uneven Wisdom score it can be worth it to get the proficiency, but Wisdom saving throws are arguably the most common saving throw to be proficient with.

7/10

Shadow Touched

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

See above.

Telepathic

See above.

CHARISMA

Actor

Gain advantage when pretending to be someone else, and become capable of mimicking someone’s voice after listening to them.

A very good feat if you plan to do any infiltration or other political intrigue stuff. With the Disguise Self spell this feat can be used by just about anyone, but the real value comes for Changelings. Having Disguise Self as a racial trait means the “be better at fooling people” feat is insanely useful. Inversely this feat isn’t as useful for Kenku since you can already mimic voices more-or-less perfectly.

This feat is inherently situational but it’s beyond useful for the campaigns where it can be used. And again: it’s near-mandatory for a Changeling or a Warlock with the Mask of Many Faces invocation (or anyone who takes Eldritch Adept for Mask of Many Faces.)

7/10 - Mandatory for Changelings

Dragon Fear

See above.

Dragon Hide

See above. (How the hell this feat increases Charisma I have no idea.)

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fey Teleportation

See above.

Fey Touched

See above.

Flames of Phlegethos

See above.

Resilient (CHA)

Gain proficiency in Charisma saving throws.

Charisma saving throws are extremely rare, and more often than not they’re more of the “don’t get to play the game” variety and less “die super bad and become a living vegetable” like Intelligence saving throws. Even if looking to round out uneven ability scores feats like Skill Expert and Telepathic are better.

3/10

Second Chance

See above.

Shadow Touched

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

See above.

Telepathic

See above.

HELPFUL CHART OR SOMETHING

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd guide #dnd feats #feats #half feats #tier list #list

9 notes · View notes