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utilitycaster · 7 months

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Level Up Post: Mighty Nein: Echoes of the Solstice: The Speculation Version

DO NOT POST SPOILERS ON THIS IF YOU ARE AT THE LIVE SHOW IN PERSON. YOU WILL BE BLOCKED.

So here's the deal: I don't know what level they'll be (18-20), I am frankly assuming they level up in the first place (but like. why wouldn't they) and I'm going to have to make a bunch of assumptions, but here is a manageable-ish, I hope, summary, to be refined once we know more. Also: I'm assuming we've got Caduceus rather than Kingsley (I DO NOT KNOW THIS FOR SURE DO NOT RELY ON THIS BEING THE TRUTH) but I will make a Kingsley post if that is not the case (short answer - I'd recommend solely leveling up in blood hunter). As always with level-ups: if there is a significant omission or an error, please let me know. If I simply did not choose the same spell or feat you did, feel free to reply with "ooh nice, what about [spell]" but do not send me asks or get weird and sanctimonious about having different thoughts on subjective assessments. Anyway, here's the pre-show version; I'll make a new post Friday if appropriate.

Fjord: Let's get Mr. Complicated Tusktooth Stone Lavorre out of the way. He is currently Warlock 12/Paladin 5. Warlocks get a mystic arcanum at level 13 (7th level spell once per day) as well as another known spell for regular casting, a subclass feature at 14 (Master of Hexes for Fjord, which allows him to move his hexblade's curse from creature to creature if the first dies), and a mystic arcanum (8th level) and another invocation and another spell at 15. Paladins, meanwhile, get Aura of Protection (+CHA mod, so 5, to all saving throws to himself and all allies within 10 feet) at level 6, a subclass feature at 7 (Aura of Liberation - he and allies within 10 feet cannot be grappled or restrained, can use 5 feet of movement to get out of prior restraints [THIS WOULD HELP BEAU IF SHE SHOWS UP CHAINED BTW], and ignore penalties to underwater attacks) as well as another L2 spell slot, and an ASI at 8; his lay on hands pool also scales up by 5 HP per level. My personal feeling is: for the next level, take paladin level 6, which gives him and anyone within the aura +5 to all saves so long as he is not incapacitated; paladin auras are ridiculously good and every day I wish someone would play paladin straight through in CR, for me, much as I adore Fjord and Vax's dips into it. For his 19th level, I'd either take paladin 7 for the aura of liberation, or take warlock 13, which grants the mystic arcanum of which I'd take Etherealness, probably, or possibly Forcecage; the clerics can handle Plane Shift, and Finger of Death seems off-brand. He also gets another regular spell of which there are many; Contact Other Plane might not work under these conditions so I'm leaning towards Dream, which is just a great weird spell few people take, but also he could take a low level spell given he has paladin spell slots. And for 20th, take the one he didn't take for 19, for a final 13 Warlock/7 Paladin split.

Beau: Much more straightforward in comparison...but let's talk about the leveling up process. Level 18 grants Empty Body, in which she can spend 4 ki to be invisible for 1 minute and resistant to all damage other than force damage, or she can spend 8 ki to cast astral projection on herself alone, which is just hilarious and great and I would like to see it. She also increases her speed to 60 feet. Level 19 is an ASI/Feat; her stats are great so I say take Mobile because it's funny to make her normal speed 70 feet/round, or mage slayer for obvious narrative and "Beau, don't you want to pull a Cerrit on Ludinus" reasons. The capstone monk level kind of sucks (4 ki points back if she's tapped when rolling for initiative) but I don't have a good multiclass for her in mind so may as well ride it out. And of course she gets a ki point per level.

Caleb: Perhaps the only person for whom level 18 is actually fun (other than the multiclassed characters), at level 18 he gets to pick a 1st and 2nd level wizard spell in his spell book that he can cast at will. He can exchange these, but it requires 8 hours of study, so probably what he has going in to this show is what he has for the show. 19 is again a Feat/ASI, and honestly a con or dex boost never hurts a wizard. Level 20 gives him two 3rd level spells in his spellbook that he can cast once per rest (long or short) without using a spell slot. Might I suggest counterspell as one of them? And both he and the clerics gain extra high level spell slots at each level (5th, 6th, and 7th at levels 18, 19, and 20 respectively).

Veth: So she is actually trickier than Fjord, as the multiclassed character, in that I'm less sure how to split it out, but we'll go through the options: Level 17 in rogue grants her the ability to temporarily steal spells from another spellcaster who attacks her (Spell Thief) which is GREAT and she should definitely take it. Level 18 is Elusive; as long as she is not incapacitated, attack rolls cannot have advantage on her. And Level 19 is an ASI/Feat and an increase in sneak attack dice and also grants her a fourth level spell slot and new spell to go with it, which must be enchantment or illusion; Greater Invisibility seems like the obvious choice. I'd take the ASI to INT. On the other hand, if she pursues more wizard levels, Level 2 would give her a subclass and its features and another 1st level spell slot (and 2 more spells), Level 3 would give her 2nd level wizard spells and corresponding spell slots (and again, 2 more spells in her spellbook), and Level 4 is an ASI/Feat, a cantrip, and another 2nd level spell slot. I say take L17 in rogue first, then get a wizard subclass (transmutation does seem obvious for a number of reasons though abjuration, illusion, and divination have better L2 features and illusion makes narrative sense - divination would simply be hilarious), then take her final level in rogue for Elusive; but with both Veth and Fjord I think there's an obvious level to take (L17 rogue for Veth, L6 paladin for Fjord) and after that I respect Sam and Travis to pick what feels right.

Jester and Caduceus: At level 18, they can channel divinity 3 times per rest rather than 2. At level 19, they take ASIs, which honestly are up in the air for me - I'm excited to see what they pick, though @captainofthetidesbreath suggested Eldritch Adept for Jester which I would enjoy, and we haven't seen Caduceus's feat from the final episode yet which means I'm not sure about what he might take as a new one, though I'm personally always a fan of Chef. And at L20 divine intervention is guaranteed (though you can only use it once per week)...but to be honest if they are level 20, I am expecting this to be nerfed for solstice reasons because it is kind of game-breaking.

Yasha: So here's the thing. Barbarian 18-19 is kind of eh and 20 is good but not amazing. She could take it; she'd get indomitable might at 18 (treat any strength check as her strength score, 18, if she rolls lower than that), an ASI/Feat at 19, and her strength and con jump up by 4 each (and can exceed 20) - this would put her at 18 CON and 22 STR, assuming she doesn't increase either with the ASI (and to be fair I would take the ASI to strength). This is solid and entirely valid as a choice. HOWEVER, might I suggest the Grog move of taking her final three levels in fighter, which would give her a fighting style and second wind at L1, action surge at L2, and an archetype and its 3rd level features at L3. I like how Battle Master feels for Yasha but really it's that action surge that makes this great; Rune Knight or Champion are also decent options.

#mighty nein #critical role #echoes of the solstice

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maamlet · 21 days

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top 5 ttrpg characters you’ve played

you would have me rank my children. my babies. i shall

5. viola ossua. i love her dearly. she is a fun character to play from a narrative standpoint. mostly. except that i have only played her at low levels and low level necromancy wizard is akin to pulling out your teeth one by one with your bare hands. and afaik high level necromancy wizard is only slightly better so in all likelihood i will die of old age before i stop complaining. or reach a high enough level that it matters

4. caelun tealeaf. i dont talk about her a lot but she was full on my First ttrpg character ever and she was a halfling moon druid. of all things. pretty simple character overall but really fun to actually play bc i hadnt learned enough about how to multiclass yet (and therefore could not make the mistake of multiclassing without a strict build plan) so i was just. doing the moon druid thing. turning into a bear and shit

3. wennigan. i liked her while i got to play her. fun to play as a character bc she was kinda dumb and also the party's face. black draconic sorcerer initially which was. a big mistake. but any draconic sorcerer is fun as hell to play, in spite of wotc's insistence on not giving sorcerers any fucking spells ever. never finished out a story with her but maybe someday

2. martini henry. i mean its very easy. shes fun to play (pf2e gunslinger), shes complicated. shes got an interesting personality. and whats more shes kity. you know her

lady grey. fuuuuuck. fuuuuuuuuuuck. i didnt want to put her in first bc i know she would get smug about it but lets be honest. she deserves it. shes so fucking fun to play both in and out of combat. i love when i enter a bizarre manic state mid-sentence with her and say some completely out of pocket shit for no reason at all. and blood hunter is like. it is NOT super well balanced but it feels so good to do anything at all. i love describing some bloodborne bullshit im doing to make my damage gooder

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intertexts · 2 months

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REMINDER FOR THE MORNING !!!!!!! i want ur organized pd thoughts >:]c

HIII GMM!!!! >:]]] ohhh i have. So many thoughts... organized might be a bit of a long shot though... ok ok ok

the first thing i'm REALLY interested in is like. mmmmn. the. emotional space? i guess? of the campaign,,,, it's so, like, classic shonen jump teen titans type shit, right? & like these genres (cape shit especially) r so notoriously bad at inhabiting the actual emotional spaces of their characters-- u know what i'm talking ab, yr a cartoon guy, danny phantom Has to do the "horrifying shit can't have real consequences because this episode is 20 minutes, there's three more seasons of this, and nobody Actually wants to watch the kid superhero come to terms with the ramifications of violence or like, figure out how to write him differently", right?

so i guess i really enjoy that prime defenders IS working in this really classic, sillygoofy over the top classic shonen dc comics realm that i personally DO find SO much fun, but also it's being created By folks who love those narratives & also are creating it for an audience that's not,,, like,, 15, and dont have extrwmely tight deadlines and time constraints. i think what finally convinced me on the show was like, getting the downtime in between the huge shonen moments-- taking the time to, y'know, sit with the dying trex puppy, be kind of miserable on the flight back, have awful kitchen moments etc-- it's the kind of thing that i always go damn i wish this show or comic had. (to be clear comics also are good at this sometimes however big two comics at least have curse of 1 billion people have written any given cape which of course makes ummm. actual emotional development impossible)

OTHER THING IVE BEEN THINKING the characters are good i like them :] vyncent out here living his best.... reverse fantasy alien isekai life ? im so curious ab his multiclassing shit also, what the fuck is up with that? where r these kids PARENTS ?!! a shonen protag a horror-comedy isekai protag & some guys op emo oc walk into a helicopter with a rat compartment & r each given real emotional weight. etc etc etc. anyway immmm in class rn so i will cut it off here but!!! yeag. thumbs up + PLEAASE talk 2 me about the everything also.... just finished ep 5 auauauauaua

#mac tag!#pd lb

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tblsomedoodles · 1 year

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Imagine if the turtles did play D&D

Yess!!! They did this for 2012 and it's, no joke, my favorite episode of that series as a result. It was literally just Leo forcing his brothers to play D&D, and then go Larping in the sewers lol.

but the Rise boys playing would be absolutely rediculous!

I could see either Donnie or Mikey DMing the game. Donnie b/c i could see him going all out learning the rules and being very adiment on making sure everyone follows them. Mikey b/c i could see him being brilliant at weaving a story for his players to go through...and both would have far too much fun having that much power over the narrative. Maybe they co-dm? or switch back and forth between campaign arcs? probably the second so they all have a chance to play as characters.

Mikey's character would, i imagine, be a Wild magic sorcerer, specifically for the chaos the wild magic surges would bring. and b/c magic. He would definitely play them as a very silly character and absoutely loves how annoyed Donnie gets whenever those wild magic surges end up messing with his campaign.

Raph would be a little out of his element as far as D&D goes, but would enjoy playing none-the-less. I could see him basically just recreating himself as a character (maybe as a protection fighter.) I imagine his character would end up dying many times throughout the campaign and he just brings the same character sheet out and changes the name, claiming their the child/sibling/varying relation to his last character.

Donnie would take hours building his character, making sure every stat is as good as he can get it. I could see him having either an Inquisitive rogue (if he's still holding a grudge over mystics) or an Artilleriest artificer (if he's not.) (maybe he starts as a rogue and then multiclasses? or he just has multiple characters ready in case Mikey kills one lol)

Leo's character, is, in fact, a straight up Glamour Bard with stupidly high charisma that keeps derailing Donnie/Mikey's campaigns. Both Donnie and Mikey have it out for this character, but, for some stupid reason, this Bard is damn near unkillable. either by luck or by talking his way out of trouble, he always escapes. They once got this bard caught by a dragon, and was certain it was the end of him (finally) but this bard ended up talking the dragon into eating his captors instead and letting him go. (bard is still penpals with the dragon too, since he made a very good impression.)

April's character is probably a cleric (b/c she figured someone should have healing magic and she knew Leo's bard would not). But she keeps forgetting she has the healing magic and tends to just rush in with a hammer whenever there's trouble.

anyways, Rise kids would have a blast playing D&D and no one can convince me otherwise lol : )

Thank you!

#asks #tmnt #rottmnt

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desiredcrescent · 2 months

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@thedragonagelesbian replied to your post “saw your tags on the 'inflexible honor code' post...”:

the only thing i love more than a paladin (and i love paladins a LOT) is a paladin constantly struggling with their nature-- daeris seems like an incredible character!!! the all-consuming nature of the oath, blazing with fury & justice & ILMATER MY BELOVED. also yes i can definitely see him & cyrus trying to out-martyr each other opiajsdfasf and if you want to share i'd be soooo curious to here more about the planned bard multiclass? esp with what happened w alfira...

AAAAAAAaaa thank you thank you!!

Ok so sin #1 - Until i got highkey invested in Cyrus i didnt really get paladins- I've definitely not enjoyed playing them before in dnd, so its been soooooo much fun trying to explore the implications in bg3! SO with me not getting the paladin thing, i was thinking of a bard multiclass more for the narrative potential- someone growing beyond their oath and being ok with it. Something something, the fighter becomes a supporter and realises they are more than a knight in shining armour. (Not that Daeris sees himself as a knight per say but this was what I was building off!!)

ANYWAY. for Daeris this is super on the tables, especially after Alfira!!! if its ok its time for MEGA rambles but the situation made me feel things.

Daeris lets Alfira join camp happily, knowing he cannot shepherd all the tieflings to Baldur's Gate, but this sweet girl who bared her heart and made it into song, while sharing a new skill with Daeris but a day earlier? he could make room for one more.

only hours later she's dead on the floor, pooling with blood, in a ritualistic killing of pure brutality, and his hands are stained with her blood. His only memory he could conjure up being how scared she was.

He washes his hands first,scrubbing his skin raw trying to think of how this happened. He barely sleeps, her fear haunting him, but that's not the only thing. His oath, holding fast despite the depravity, but Ilmater's prayers have gone quiet. There is no guidance, with his oath feeling hollow as it still holds. She wasn't who he was hunting, she wasn't the face of his vengeance. So why does the divine still course through?

He confesses to the killing, before swiftly making an effort to give her a send off, a burial with the hopes that any of his divine powers will help her journey. The scrutiny of his companions only making his holy oath feel more fraudulent.

Daeris finally remembers the song Alfira was writing, in memory of Lihala. He remembers how the spare lute played effortlessly in his hands, despite having no recollection of ever holding a lute before. He thinks it to be a coincidence, but then a stray thought... why not, alongside a burial, give the charming young bard a proper bardic remembrance through song? It's the least she deserves. Anything to replace the fear she felt as the lasting memory in his head.

And so, with his faith in his oath beginning to wobble and a lute, Daeris begins to write a song, forcing himself to remember her as purely as he can. to his surprise, it comes as easily as the urge to kill, and feels just as holy as suffering should.

#thedragonagelesbian #thank you again <33333 #biting chewing it took me so long to put it all into words and im too busy to even get back to his save rn and im!!! rah!!!#i should write less vs i should let all my silly thoughts out fight kdflakldf #but also yeah the implications for Daeris specifically that songwriting and playing music will be his own holy suffering #a constant reminder of what he did. A reminder that perhaps there is collateral to his vengeance that should be remembered #and songs are pretty theyre memorable and if he should perish at any point at least let those he writes of be remembered.#Daeris (durge)

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shyguycity · 5 months

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It's been a while since I made a formal game of the year list on this page; in 2020, my now wife and I decided to make an entire fanzine about my favorite games of the year, which ballooned in size and scope from there. If you're interested, you can find the link to the (free!) magazine, Critical Diversions, as well as see what else I've been up to in the gaming space, over at https://twitter.com/crit_diversions. It was written by five people, myself included, layoutted into a magazine format by me, and with some lovingly done illustrations made by my wife. We've also started a discord, games club, and podcast, all under the Critical Diversions banner, if any of that sounds appealing to you.

Since that magazine project, I haven't really had the creative energy to write a full game of the year list the way that I used to. Until now! 2023 has been the most incredible year for game releases that I've been alive to see, and there's so much to be excited for and talk about, I just couldn't resist anymore, despite the fact that we're gearing up to do a community game of the year podcast. But before we get to the top 10 list proper....

Honorable Mentions:

We Love Katamari ReRoll + Royal Reverie

The original We Love Katamari, released on the Playstation 2 in 2005, was already one of my favorite games ever made, so it's borderline unfair of Namco to release an absolutely perfect HD remaster of it in 2023. Namco must've thought so, too, because this was one of my most anticipated games of the year, and I didn't even realize it had released until I happened to see it on the eShop. To the uninitiated, Katamari games task you with rolling up real world objects with your sticky katamari ball, growing bigger and bigger as you go, all with the intent of making your katamari big enough to make stars in the sky. It's a simple yet delightful enough concept on its own to be enjoyed by anyone, but add in an unmeasurable amount of charm and one of the greatest soundtracks ever made, and it's easy to see why this goofy little series has persisted for over two decades now.

For my money, this is the best entry in the series, practically spilling over with creative and fun new ways and reasons to roll over innocent bystanders and animals with a space ball given to you by your negligent, abusive father, who is also basically god. Oh did I forget to mention that there's an actual well told narrative with a genuinely emotional-but-not-saccharine message at its core? Buy this fucking game y'all, I've already seen it for as low as 15 dollars.

Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy as a series misses way more often than it hits, for me. Yeah I love 7, its remake, 10, and 10-2, but by and large, every other entry I've tried to spend time with has left me incredibly cold (looking at you in particular, 6). Between craving a turn-based RPG and having the flu earlier this year, I decided to take a chance on the pixel remaster version of 5, released on consoles for the first time in 2023. Imagine my surprise when it became hands down my favorite entry in the series, as well as one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played.

Not to say that what's presented here hasn't been improved upon in the past 30 years; Octopath Traveler 2, a game we'll be talking about in my actual top 10, seemed to base its entire design around "Hey remember Final Fantasy 5? Let's make a way more open and less restricted version of that". Still, though, what FF5 was doing as an early Super Famicom game is pretty impressive; boasting a fairly open-ended job and multiclass system that's absolutely begging you to make as many fun combinations as you can imagine with your party members, it's a game that's infinitely more replayable than your average Final Fantasy fare, despite its lacking (but not horrible!) story. I ran through the game with a samurai that could also shoot hoardes of squirrels and bees out of my pockets, so you know it's a great game.

Super Mario RPG

Look, you'll never convince me that Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door aren't both wildly inferior to the original Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64. I've held this belief (and grudge against these other Mario spinoff fandoms) for most of my life, and I will continue to do so. And I say this as someone whose first exposure to RPGs was renting the original version of this game as a seven-year-old!

"It's too simple!" I would always bleat feebly in the general direction of the nearest hardcore Geno fan whenever this game was brought up. "It's a solid blueprint for what was to come later, but largely feels like a rough draft, a 16-bit Final Fantasy with a Mario coat of paint!" And, yeah, I am right about all of those things, and I'll continue to never let any of you forget it. But in 2023, playing this remake of one of Nintendo's most annoyingly favorited fan favorites, I couldn't help but let myself get washed away in its charms. There's no build variety or real "role-playing" to speak of, you can 100% the game in like 12 hours, and you just generally never have to turn your brain on while playing the game at all. Call it softness, call it old age, call it just really being in the mood for a cute and charming little adventure, but I fell in love with this game and its world in a way I never was able to previously. Bring on that Thousand-Year Door remaster next, Nintendo; I'm in a forgiving mood.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

Speaking of being in a forgiving mood, did y'all know that I thought the original 1.0 release of Dead Cells was incredibly boring? Released in 2018, this sidescrolling roguelite was getting a ton of accolades at the time that had me extremely excited. That's not to say that it was bad, of course; I could see the markings of a well made game, and obviously the game was appealing to someone out there, with all the praise it received. But after 10 hours with it I deleted it off my Switch, thinking I'd never.........return.

It only took five years and a paid Castlevania expansion to make me give this game another look, but I'm glad I did, because I would put this pretty high up there on my all-time roguelite list now. To be clear, most of my issues with this game still remain, mostly that it gets repetitive much sooner than you'd expect of a game with as much content as this does. But instead of cooling on it 10 hours in like I did back in 2018, I got over 60 hours and dozens upon dozens of runs in before calling it quits on Dead Cells this time.

And if you're a Castlevania dork, honestly, just pick this up. There's more than enough love and fanservice here to keep even the most ardent of Castlevania freaks crying bloody tears, including the ability to replace the entire soundtrack with Castlevania songs, most of them the original version but with some new compositions included. Roguelite shredding in a video game hasn't been this good since Hades.

Now...the actual list.

10. Marvel's Spider-Man 2

No one is more down on open world checklist collectathons than I am; the idea of spending over 100 hours playing a modern Assassin's Creed game honestly makes my tummy hurt. And by and large, Spider-Man 2 doesn't stray far from this design template. You run, jump, swing, and glide all over New York City, stopping burglaries and car chases on your way to the next story objective or side mission, leveling up and spending points on various skill trees to level your Spider-Men up to gain new/upgrade old abilities, rinse and repeat. Structurally, this game isn't really doing anything different from the previous two Spider-Man games from developer Insomniac, and yet this entry was an absolute joy to play to me in way those weren't.

Largely, I think it's the pacing of the game. And not just on a macro scale, though I do think that's improved here as well. No, for me it was most noticeable in the combat; no longer are you holding down a button to freeze time and pull up a gadget wheel and having Spider-Man select one of his little science tools to shoot out before doing a few melee attacks and web shots. Instead, all of your gadgets and super moves are activated in real time with different button combinations. It might sound breathlessly dorky, but that simple change really sold the illusion of playing a Spider-Man simulator to me, and not just a Ratchet and Clank game with a Spider-Man skin.

The story I also found to be a wholesale improvement over the last two games, albeit with the caveat that the symbiote and Venom storyline almost never come across as anything beyond tryhard 90s edgelord shit in any form of media. Truly, I think Venom is just a straight up awful character, and is even worse here than usual, and I was exceptionally tired of Peter's gruff mean guy voice by the end of his time wearing the symbiote. Miles more than made up for any issues I had with the Peter side of the story, and with the way the game's story leaves off, I hope to see that character again sooner than Spider-Man 3 in another half decade.

9. Pikmin 4

This feels like Pikmin's big breakout moment as a series. And honestly, maybe my biggest surprise of the year isn't how great this game was, but how many other people were (finally) raving about Pikmin. The fact that it's this relatively low on my own list when most people I know that played it have it near the top of theirs shocks, while also making me feel pretty damn great about Pikmin's future.

From a casual perspective it's pretty easy to see why this has been such a hit for the series. It retains all the charm and cuteness and great gameplay loop of previous games in the series, while making a ton of smart changes along the way. New to 4: a fully adjustable camera that makes you feel way more involved in the action (and see all of the impossibly cute death happening around and to you); a whole host of quality of life changes, like being able to move your spaceship around each stage at will to have a more accessible base of operations; bonafide multifloor dungeons where you're able to soak in some of the best aspects of Pikmin's gameplay without worrying about time passing; "dandori battles", both against the CPU or local rivals where you aim to manage your armies as efficiently as possible; and partner space dog Oatchi, who can help you and your little army of dudes in whatever way you see fit, from battling to carrying to scouting, thanks to an honest to god skill tree. In a Pikmin game! Who woulda thought.

Honestly though, as great as this game was, I can't help but pine for the more complex level and puzzle design of Pikmin 3, as well as the local splitscreen cooperative play of Pikmin 3 Deluxe. That second feature in particular was sorely, sorely missed in our household, as Pikmin 3 Deluxe's sublime coop is some of the most fun I've ever had playing a video game with my wife. Here's hoping the now inevitable Pikmin 5 manages to bring these missing elements home, much like my group of 100 Pikmin carrying an entire watermelon the size of a small mountain back to our spaceship for the day.

8. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Besides just being a great year in game releases, 2023 was also the year where my expectations were subverted many times over. I'd seen plenty of overhyped indie spiritual successors to fan favorite games from the late 90s and early 2000s come and go, so my interest level for BRCF as someone that's never played a Jet Set Radio game couldn't have been much lower. But that's all on me, because if I'd known that this game and its inspirations were essentially just 3D platformers dressed up as a 2002 cyberpunk anime that'd air at 2am on Toonami, I'd have been all over it much sooner.

This game effortlessly pulls off everything I value in 3D platformers. The level designs are masterful and well thought out while still feeling organic instead of just abstract obstacle courses (the game does dabble into the latter at times, and they're some of the most standout moments as well). Being set in a city, it's naturally got a large emphasis on verticality that I think not enough games in this space bother with; I want to feel my stomach drop when I miss landing on a grind rail half a mile in the sky, even if falling from that far has no consequences beyond needing to pull off the platforming section again. And unlike the earlier Tony Hawk games, I'm free to explore each environment to my heart's content, looking for new songs to add to my playlist or spots just begging to be tagged with graffiti. Wrap all of this up in a style and soundtrack that are both just fucking cool, and what else could I really ask for? Well, besides just more of this, please.

7. Resident Evil 4

In a year full to the brim with remakes, remasters, and revisits, Resident Evil 4 is the one with the most expectations put on it, due to not only the pedigree of the original RE4 (often cited as one of the best games of all time, and surely the catalyst for the modern over the shoulder third-person shooter), but the obscenely high quality of Capcom's other recent remakes from the series; 2019's Resident Evil 2 remake, in particular, being one of the best big budget games of the last half decade, by my estimation. A lot of fans cited RE4 as both "impossible" and "pointless" to remake, though I imagine those same fans were the ones most anxiously waiting for this remake to drop with bated breath.

The end result? RE4 as a remake can't live up to the lofty expectations a lot of people probably hoped it could, not really, but I think it's also one of the most successful video game remakes I've ever had the pleasure of playing, in terms of the fun factor. The gaming landscape has changed a lot since 2005, a lot of that change because of RE4, so what do you even do to make a revisit under a modern lens worthwhile? I think Capcom didn't fully know the answer to that question, as the biggest mechanical additions to this game are the ability to parry the vast majority of attacks with your knife, and erm....craftable ammo? You'll of course find a handful of new enemies and remixed encounters, an even fewer amount of new weapons, and a couple welcome completely redone areas, like a mini open sandbox where you're free to explore the shores of a lake, and a much more clever and interesting version of the brief time spent playing as Ashley.

This might all sound like damning with faint praise, but truly, Capcom's ability to thread the needle here and deliver an honest to god, full on remake of RE4 with modern production values and budget, all without compromising the vision of the original, AND managing to make the remake tonally fit with the current vision of the extended Resident Evil universe? There's some black magic at work here, surely. Or at the very least some ancient parasite bugs at large.

6. Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Kirby is the best Nintendo series, and this is an excellent remaster of one of the best Kirby games. What more is there to say? The only reason this isn't top three of the year material is because, well, I played it when it originally released on the Wii. But what's your excuse, coward?

I often hear the refrain of "Kirby games just aren't for me", and I used to humor that line of thinking, largely to avoid prolonged contact with dumb babies. But that dies today, and so will you if you don't stop being a dweeb. High quality sidescrolling brawlers with lite platforming elements and puzzle solving, set to some of the best music ever made for the medium, sporting an adorable aesthetic that's used as set dressing to cover up some of the best backstory and lore this side of Dark Souls? That's not for you? What is for you then, besides being a sad weirdo that still waxes nostalgic about the girl you held hands with once in middle school? Her mom dropped you two off at the theater once to see White Chicks and she never thought about you again. Grow up. Change something about your life. Kirby's got more charm and delight in whatever his puffy mass equivalent to a pinky is than Super Mario Bros. Wonder managed to wearily attempt to slump over its shoulder for an entire game. Y'all should be ashamed.

...

I dunno what this bit is anymore, so let's pivot back to normalcy. Yes, I know, I know, I'm the Kirby guy. It's my favorite gaming series, hell, maybe my favorite franchise in any medium period. But I'm also not blind to its faults and missteps, such as 2018's Star Allies. When I tell you that Return to Dreamland Deluxe, a remaster of a game I played over a decade ago, now with additional content, is one of my favorite games of 2023, I really mean it. The base game was already excellent, and the first entry of the modern era of Kirby, under the helm of Shinya Kumazaki. A new cel shading-adjacent rendering, coupled with completely new abilities Sand and Mech on top of perhaps the overall best set of copy abilities in a Kirby game, really help make the game feel fresh; Sand's combo and damage per second capability in particular is through the roof, while not feeling imbalanced.

The meat of the new content, however, is the new epilogue, in which you play as fan favorite character Magolor. Magolor plays very differently from Kirby, eschewing copy abilities and quicker movement for magic, and the game also introduces an honest to god skill tree into the series. This mini adventure culminates in not only what is probably my favorite boss fight of the year, but an in-universe lore explanation for why Magolor shows up in spinoff Kirby games adorned in green instead of blue and trading in crystal apples.

That may sound goofy and extremely in the weeds, and it is, but for a man in my mid-30s that's been beyond bored of Nintendo's refusal to do any significant kind of world building or storytelling in almost any of their mainline games, Kirby manages to continuously surprise and delight me with both its gameplay and universe in a way no other Nintendo game is even interested in trying. The Super Mario games should take heed.

5. Octopath Traveler 2

I played both demos for the original Octopath Traveler back before that game came out, and to say I didn't like it would be an understatement! The writing was at best flat, and at worst, overtly sexist (and that was just from a demo!), I found the battle system to be clunky, and the thing most people praised it for, its "HD2D" approach to graphics, I found quite ugly; it seemed to be throwing away any attempt at an actual artstyle in favor of cranking a bunch of photoshop filters up to max and letting people ooh and aah over some particle effects and oversaturated lighting. Great soundtrack, at least.

I couldn't tell you what drove me to check out the demo for 2, but I did, and instantly, something clicked for me that didn't in my limited experience with the original. Full disclosure, I haven't finished this game yet, and in fact I don't think I'm even halfway through. And that's a shame, because I think it could honestly rise even higher up this list, based on what I've already played. The battle system is fast and snappy, as long as I'm paying close enough attention to all the information on screen, like enemies weaknesses and my current BP situation. The overworld feels far more inspired by popup books than I remember 1's world feeling like, while still retaining the gorgeous battle sprites that the original excelled in. The soundtrack is an all-timer, to put it lightly. Even the writing for the characters, while still nowhere approaching the rest of the game's strong points, feels less like it works exclusively in lazy caricatures and broad stereotypes. Yeah there's a merchant character named Partitio from an old west-styled silver mining town, and yes I was just as worried about that fact as you probably are reading that sentence. And yet, Partitio has honestly become one of my favorite characters of the year, his desire to use his mercantile skills to ease the burdens of the working class only being outshone by the electric guitars and saxophone in his theme song.

What truly impresses with Octopath Traveler 2, though, is its sheer openness. The world is, while not quite your oyster right from the start, pretty dang free form for the most part, allowing you to go recruit your party members and explore towns and monster-filled wildlands in whatever order you see fit. This extends to the job system, which affords you the most freedom to truly make whatever kind of team you see fit I've ever seen in a game of this kind. I'm currently multiclassing my cleric, Temenos, into a scholar, and I've rarely felt cooler/dorkier at the same time, wielding nearly every magic type offered in the game at once with one world-weary church inquisitor. Just typing up this entry has got me itching to get back to the game, hoping to discover even more jobs to multiclass the rest of my crew into.

Take it from me, someone who as little as a few years ago felt pretty much over turn based RPGs, especially those coming out of Square-Enix: this game is very worth your time, regardless of your feelings towards the series, or even genre as a whole.

4. 30XX

In a year chockful of exceedingly excellent roguelites (Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, Risk of Rain Returns, Cobalt Core, Vampire Survivors, just to name a few), 30XX stands tall above the rest for me, not just in terms of quality, but also in its ability to completely take over my gaming time for a couple months. This has all the trappings you expect from a game with the structure of a roguelite; permadeath resulting in having to start your entire run over, unlockable items and stat upgrades purchasable with currency carried over from the run you just died in, powerups that you collect during a run to give yourself a fighting chance (and which force you to make on-the-fly decision making about how best to synergize your build), and a white knuckle intensity that makes the runs when you really start to shred feel all the more rewarding, albeit no less anixety inducing.

What ends up separating 30XX from any other game in this admittedly crowded space is that it's essentially a roguelite take on Mega Man X4, the beloved Playstation 1 entry in an even more beloved series. X4 was the first game that really fleshed out lightsaber wielding cool guy Zero as a fully playable character, for the first time letting you play through the entire game as both him and series protagonist X. 30XX makes no bones about its inspiration; Nina, the blue one, is the X equivalent, meaning you'll be primarily shooting enemies with your arm cannon, while Ace, the red one, slices and dices with an energy sword, just like Zero. Likewise, the (absolutely gorgeous) spritework and extremely catchy soundtrack are doing their best to evoke the oft overlooked aesthetic and sounds of 2-D games from the Playstation 1. Rounding out the package are full-featured coop, both local and online, community made levels, daily and weekly seeded runs with leaderboards, and the promise of even more updates, including new characters(!!).

Even Mega Man series staples you might not expect to show up in a roguelite take on the formula end up being major focuses of the game, like gaining new abilities from defeating bosses. The game even takes that mechanic a step further, letting you mix and match two abilities to form completely new ones, like combining your black hole and homing lightning abilities to create a barrage of homing lightning strikes emanating from a swirling void. Or, in true roguelite fashion, you can even forego an ability from a boss altogether, if a different reward suits you. And that's just if you're playing as Nina! Ace gets an entirely different set of abilities and mechanics, all built around melee capabilities and close quarters combat.

If any of this sounds appealing to you, you're probably now asking yourself "why have I never heard of this game?" And I truly can't answer that, as this feels like it should already be a revered indie darling on the level of Shovel Knight or Super Meat Boy. If you're a Mega Man fan, please do yourself a favor and check this out. There's even a separate mode that minimizes the roguelite elements, including a removal of permadeath, if that suits you! This is a better Mega Man X revival than you'll likely ever see out of Capcom, if a day even ever comes for that at all. It also happens to be better than just about any official Mega Man game Capcom has ever put out, as well.

3. Sephonie

My personal gaming identity feels inexorably linked to Analgesic Productions, the two person development team that's putting out the best indie games most people have never even heard of. The only thread on Resetera I've ever made was solely for the purpose of evangelizing Anodyne 2: Return to Dust, a game that resonated so hard with me the effects are still reverberating outwards, as my habit of recommending that game anywhere I go has helped me forge genuine friendships (and probably gotten me on to a few government watch lists). Even the Ocean was the third game my friends and I covered in our games club, and was by far and away the best talk I've ever had about video games, sparking a creative spirit in me for months afterward. Marina Kittaka and Melos han-tani make some real affecting fucking games, is what I'm saying, and the idea of trying to sum up what makes Sephonie so special (and maybe even my favorite of their impressive work) is a bit daunting.

At its most base level, Sephonie is a 3-D platformer not dissimilar from the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, or even the above Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, albeit without any wheels; instead of tilting the analog stick to move at whatever angle you want, you hold a button to run forward, the stick's sole purpose being to make adjustments to direction. Your mobility on its own isn't very versatile, and getting around requires careful and clever use of the environment to do wall runs and jumps, grabbing giant dandelions to float, landing on mushrooms to bounce, etc.

Even for a self-proclaimed platformer guru (maybe even especially for one!), the movement feels unwieldy or even downright intimidating at first. But in Analgesic we trust, and by the end of my initial 8 hour or so playthrough of the game, I felt like a parkour god, able to pull off complex maneuvers that I would have never been able to dream of in the opening sections of the game. Coming to grips with the controls and eventually mastering them was one of the biggest joys I experienced in video games this year; don't go into this expecting s Super Mario Odyssey-level of 1:1 control that lets you immediately start flowing through the environment like a hot knife through butter, because that's decidedly not the point here. Despite what the past few console generations have taught us, we don't need standardized controls across every game, as all that would serve to do here is sand down the distinct personality and learning opportunities presented in Sephonie.

Rounding out the gameplay are linking puzzles. The three playable characters are researchers who have come to the remote island of Sephonie to study its unique animal and plant life. Linking with each new lifeform you discover presents you with tile-based block puzzles, which end up being a nice change of pace from the platforming. As a testament to just how much love and care was put into Sephonie, the vast majority of these linking puzzles each have unique mechanics, be it teleporting tiles, tiles that are blocked and need busted open by matching blocks on adjacent tiles, tiles that multiply your point total, creatures that travel the puzzle and alter when and where you're even able to place your tiles, etc. With some tweaks, the link puzzles could be a whole game unto itself, and it's really impressive!

That's all well and good, but the main reasons I come to Analgesic games are the unbelievably good writing and even unbelievably-er soundtracks, and both are where Sephonie truly shines for me. Unfortunately, to talk too much about the story here would be bordering on a cardinal sin, and you're better off listening to some of the music on your own. Why not try the entire playlist here?

The previously mentioned Anodyne 2 opens by telling you it's a game about life. That's a bit of an understatement for me with Analgesic's games in general, but Sephonie might be the best example of "a game about life" that I can think of. As someone that grew up in a midwestern town full of basically nothing but nothingness and corn, the Bloomington, Illinois section of the game is without a doubt the most beautiful segment of any game I've ever played, and the main thing I keep coming back to with this game even six months later. I've never been so simultaneously full of nostalgia, regret, disdain, self-loathing, and fond memories as I was while platforming around an abstract dreamscape version of a midwestern town right off the highway. And I don't think I've ever related to a character in any fictional work as much as I did when Amy was talking about feeling lucky she was born in a small town, because it made learning how to drive much less intimidating.

If there's one game on this list I would beg someone to give a shot, it would be Sephonie. Hell, if there was one game I could force anyone to play, Sephonie might be taking that spot as well. As a thorough contemplation of what it means to be alive, and what connecting with one another can truly mean and feel like, there's no better work of art out there today, and certainly not one anywhere near as fun, either.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

What can I say about TotK that hasn't already been expressed in a million think pieces, essays, and podcasts across the entire internet by now? As a direct followup to 2017's stellar Breath of the Wild, I had concerns going in - would the magic still be there? Is exploring the same incarnation of Hyrule going to be fun when I know all of the broad strokes already? Are the bosses not going to suck this time? The answer to all of these is a resounding "absolutely", but there's so much more on offer here.

Everything in this game makes BotW feel like a rough draft, a sentence I never in a million years thought I'd be typing prior to getting my hands on the game. Any mechanic you can think of that you loved in the prior Zelda entry is either improved upon here or excised for something infinitely more interesting. The Sheikah slate abilities from BotW feel not only basic, but downright boring compared to the powers on offer in this sequel. Who cares about being able to spawn bombs at will when I can fuse batwings to arrows to make them fly further? Or just swim through through the damn ceiling!? To say nothing of the fact that you can build basically anything your imagination can spring into existence, from cars to rocket ships to pilotable mechs to lawn mowers. And it all....just....works, somehow, not only tonally with the game's world, but also from a game perspective. The game even lets you have five CPU controlled companion characters out at the same time, every one acting independently to take down enemies near you! It feels like your Switch is going to collapse under the weight of this game's ambition at any moment, and yet I put over 300 hours into the game with not a single crash in sight.

If there's one thing I can complain about, it's that the story feels like an actual afterthought, to the degree that it actually bummed me out, even as someone with rock bottom expectations when it comes to story in a Zelda game. The marketing REALLY hyped up the return of longtime series antagonist Ganondorf, and he just....kind of has no motivation for anything he's doing here. I'm not asking for much, and there are genuinely great character moments lightly sprinkled throughout the game's runtime, mostly with princess Zelda herself. But I couldn't help but imagine how much harder some story beats could have hit if Nintendo, again, actually even attempted to give people the tiniest but of anything to chew on when it comes to the stories they're telling.

But whatever, I've got a catapult to build to launch me and a korok buddy up a damn mountain.

Baldur's Gate 3

Like most people who cut their gaming teeth on more straightforward action fare on consoles, the term "CRPG" (computer RPG) seemed beyond out of reach for me. Dice rolls? Skill checks? Playing as a charisma based character to persuade bosses to kill themselves instead of having to fight them? READING!? Uh, I'm an American, thank you very much; I like my video games game-y and my gravy portion extra, ma'am, and I don't have the patience to think about probability and stats.

So imagine my surprise when, after my wife started playing the game on her own, I found myself itching to get into the character creator myself. Not the moment to moment gameplay, mind you, but the character creator, a step I'm notorious for getting through as fast as possible so I can start "actually playing", even if I'm stuck with a boring default character named Goober. Something about watching my wife agonize over which horn style and subrace to go with on her tiefling bard, which hairstyle and color looked cutest and would match her vision of how she was going to roleplay in the world, stirred something in me I didn't know existed. While she was perusing all the customization options, I spied the class "monk" and a race called "dragonborn", some anthropomorphic dragon people with a lot of pretty color options for their scales that also affect your elemental resistances. "Yes," I thought to myself. "I'd like to make a humanoid lizard dude that punches shit to death. I'd like that very much". And before my wife was barely out of the tutorial section on her first character, we were already backing out to make a second save file where we would play the entire thing cooperatively, fretting over the decisions and romance options each step of the way together. I got to make my silverscale (that means he's got ice powers, baby) dragonborn monk, Shikai, and the following 300+ hours (and counting!) with Baldur's Gate 3 have been the most fun I've ever had playing a video game.

Would I be as gobsmacked with the game if I was intimately familiar with the genre? Maybe not, but I guess that's my point. Living with my wife and playing games together has completely changed how I engage with a lot of them; Animal Crossing was basically a cute chores and debt repayment simulator with a dash of fishing on the side until watching my wife play the game for thousands of hours taught me the joy of decorating.

Elden Ring was her first foray into the Souls-like genre; she had a similar reaction watching me play the opening hour of Elden Ring as I had watching her in the BG3 character creator, growing increasingly frustrated as she watched me putz around making a boring dexterity based samurai character when what she wanted to see was some faith-based holy magic in action. Despite my love of Souls-likes, I had always just made standard melee based characters in them, usually katana wielding doofuses; I'm an American, I don't know a lick about incantations, I HATE thinking, and please keep your Wes Anderson movies to yourself, ma'am.

But as I saw how much fun my wife was having shooting fireballs and throwing lightning bolts at enemies, I eventually started speccing my dexterity character into intelligence as well, making a samurai sorcerer, undeniably the only thing cooler than a normal samurai. That's not to say that playing Elden Ring with a melee exclusive character is wrong, but just that with a touch of curiosity and willingness to take the tiniest step outside of my comfort zone, a comfort zone I didn't even realize was as tiny as it was, I opened up a whole new way of enjoying a game I already loved playing. Learning to enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 feels like I've opened the door to an entire new avenue in my mind, waiting for me to fill it with opinions about games I've been avoiding my whole life. I'm gonna actually make a concerted effort to finally play stuff like Mass Effect and Disco Elysium sometime soon, two games I had preemptively decided years ago were just "not for me", and I'm genuinely excited about it.

This entry is so long already, and I didn't even mention anything about how the game actually plays (it's the best turn-based battle system I've ever experienced, to say nothing of the freedom you're afforded to solve every single scenario presented to you in the game.

Or anything about the characters (this is the best cast of characters I've seen in any medium, and they feel like genuine friends of mine in a way that no other game has ever come close to feeling).

Hell, to save time and my poor fingers: Baldur's Gate 3 is without a doubt the best video game I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. And as little as a few months ago, my only thought towards it was "that game probably isn't for me".

Don't make my all too human mistake; check out shit that looks interesting, take the chance to expand your mind and your taste. They're not all gonna be Baldur's Gate 3-level bangers (what is though, really), but you truly never know what you're going to discover. And you might even find yourself open to a whole new avenue of life to enjoy that you had previously assumed was just for mega dorks.

#gaming #nintendo #pc games #ps5 #goty 2023 #game of the year

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bumblerhizal-art · 1 year

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(Expand for details.)

What if Dragon Age were more like a JRPG but especially in the sense of getting a new change of clothes whenever you change class

Instead of doing a perfect swap, I decided to try the flavor of tailoring it to slightly better match his own tastes. I also bend the rules of what the classes are to make the options feel a bit more JRPG, but these are all the outfits he would don upon multiclassing into the LIs' classes. I have little other idea of what mechanics i would adopt or change because i did this 100% for playing dress up with my Tabris :]

From the top is Sapper. Unfortunately, Tabris's normal Shadow or Warden armors would have been too close in palette to [Zevran] or [Alistair's], so i had to make up a new class and outfit. I also only did the one iteration for it, so it's not quite perfect, but i went with dark teal and orange for a nondescript look since this is an infiltrator flavor of rogue. He also has his kaddis under his jaw on this one. My main purpose in this exercise is all the other outfits anyway. Sapper is a support unit which arms and disarms traps, debuffs, and tosses the occasional grenade. He also picks locks!

First in the bottom row is Witch, obviously drawing from Morrigan. The new rules say anyone can become a mage just like that, so it's fine. Witch is a shapeshifting caster class that has a wide array of status effects under its belt

Second along the bottom is Assassin, based on Zevran's Crow getup. If Sapper leans into the utility half of a rogue, then Assassin is the threat. A bit of a glass cannon class but, if you're able to get someone else to take the heat off them, one of the best DPS

Next is Bard, merging elements of Leliana's various depictions. Here, we finally find a support class that buffs rather than debuffs and is also effective as an investigate class in case anyone's being secretive about their elemental weaknesses

Those four previous ones all fill similar niches, but assuming we have a fuller party with more returning friends from Origins, a little overlap here is ok. It only looks bad because 3/4 of them so far were originally slightly different flavors of rogue

Our last class today is Warden, representing Alistair. I was torn between this and Templar for him, but decided this would be more fun to draw and overlap less with Bard's color palette. Also, Tabs just looks good in blue. It's worth it to note that mechanical class is not a 1:1 with the narrative, so Tabris is part of the Order of Grey Wardens regardless of whether or not he also takes up the Warden class. Warden specializes in tanking, but it also has abilities that deal extra damage to darkspawn

Might be fun to explore this idea again with different PCs and/or Companions, but let me know what you think!

And exclusive offer to my dear and beloved mutuals: if any of you want to see your pc dressed up inspired by a given companion, i am very susceptible to persuasion and think my dms are open

#dragon age #novhen tabris #even just an outfit trade between novhen radka and pavle could be fun #and *gestures at witch* happy show a little tummy tuesday thursday #idk in my experience the rogue-warrior-mage class template mostly pops up in western rpgs #but i could be wrong in that being the trend #but most of the games i played as a young fledgling gamer were jrpgs so a lot of the popular tropes i remember from there are dear to me #god i miss octop/ath i should play that again #(i know that's a recent example. i'm just Craving)

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captainsspnanon · 1 year

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C2OneShot Part 2 - reaction

Small reaction this time, because both combats were great but not much to say aside from that I loved it.

I feel like I don’t have much to say about this whole first section. It’s a long combat, but it’s fun to see the players and PCs messing with high level capabilities and moving back in to the M9 combat feel. I feel bad for Taliesin, jumping straight in to 17th level of a homebrew that you haven’t played in ages and has changed since then? With new weapons and items and multiclassing? NOT EASY. (Travis’s delight at having four eldritch blasts? AMAZING) I’ve enjoyed watching the combat, it’s fun, there’s fun choices being made, nothing else to say.

Actually I lied, I do have a comment. I wish they went less to the map as the main screen and more with the players being the main screen. I know that the fanbase is pretty split on this, with a lot preferring the larger map, but I prefer the corner map and bigger players.

Oddly, I LIKE Kingsley leaping at the chance to take the pact with Zehir? It does feel super in character for a number of reasons. I was wondering if it hit that same point of “keyleth trying to serve the Dawnfather rather than Vex”, but it doesn’t have that same type of awkward interruption. It felt a lot more natural. (and of course there’s the not-so-small part of me that would love for him to be Zerxes’d off of Exandria forever) Travis did a very interesting mix by having Fjord take on the pact but then giving Kingsley the blade. Odd that Matt chose a rapier though, because Fjord literally can’t use it? It’s not a Simple weapon, which is what warlocks have proficiency in. Only Kingsley or Yasha could use it, and both of them had special blades already. With the rapier theme, it 100% feels like Matt designed the weapon for Kingsley, which….I dunno, feels weird thematically? Like, I would have thought that Matt would have focused this temple and such around Fjord with the whole Uk’otoa thing, but to have a weapon designed for Kingsley? I get it in terms of ‘let’s give Taliesin something fun because this is a new PC and he’s out of his familiar zone’, but how does Kingsley narratively tie into the whole Uk’otoa arc? *shrugs* I don’t dislike this, I’m just a bit confused by the intentions behind it. It’s totally possible that I’m reading way too much into this, and the sword is just one that has been already designed and just happens to fit where it does.

Color me SUPER fucking impressed that Matt was able to jump into the Plank King’s voice SO DAMN quickly omg. Absolutely glorious. I’m a bit more thrown by the Adella voice though. I feel like I’d have to rewatch both C1 and when she’s in C2, but the voice feels slightly more Kima-like to me?

UK’OTOA MINI HOLY FUCK LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wonder how this scale compares with Thordak?

*watches Matt move the head far from the others* Oh yeah, not comparable. Thordak was fucking huge too, but didn’t have the ability to stretch his body. Don’t know how the actual size would compare if, say, Uk’otoa was curled up, but stretched out is definitely bigger.

AND A BUNCH MORE COMBAT lots of fun not much more to say

I wonder how many times they have to force the groan? Sam’s jokes are actually pretty good a lot of the time. I liked all three of them!

THEY HAVE AN UNDERWATER BACKGROUND HOLY SHIT I LOVE IT

Combat has been amazing, btw.

I’m glad that they didn’t make Fjord indebted to Zahir going forwards.

That was such a sweet ending! I didn’t expect them to do little epilogues again, and they pretty much all matched up with the 141 epilogues (with one glaring exception). I do really hope we get more one shots with them, at least one more!

#critical role #cr spoilers #the mighty nein

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actionsurges · 2 years

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bitches be like i love d&d so much :) [doesnt put any effort into understanding combat mechanic]

like not to be rude but combat is like. the game lmao, like RPing & storytelling is obviously incredibly important and SO much fun, but combat is THE Game portion of dnd. i genuinely think youre doing not just your fellow players & DM a disservice by not making even the slightest effort to at least understand combat & the flow of it, but its a disservice to Your Character too. like as someone who makes very big efforts to tie class mechanic stuff directly into personality & backgrounds of characters youre missing out on SO much by just ignoring that entire aspect and just being like hehe this is my funny guy :)

yeah i love nerfing my own pcs or making suboptimal choices in combat FOR the narrative but i think it's not at all and SHOULD be encouraged that one should want to be Good In Combat in whatever form that takes. It's why I like multiclassing, it lets you be super creative and open up new channels to engage in all tiers of play with.

#d&discourse

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strangetorpedos · 2 years

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hello library of lensa enjoyers and/or fans of d&d mechanics. beloved hollis @beatricexbenedick let us revamp our character sheets (narratively bc we’re going to be doing so much training next downtime session, metatextually bc a lot of us did Not build our characters well). and bc i love talking mechanics i wanted to go through what i did to my bestie nox <3

CLASS & LEVEL

before the revamp, nox was 5 levels divination wizard & 1 level rogue. this was not a good multiclass. it made sense narratively when we started, but nox as a character has changed so much since their inception that it barely makes narrative sense anymore, so i decided to scrap it and make nox a full div wizard. i played around with multiclassing him with something else, and i still might eventually, but nothing was really calling to me, and full wizard is also just. very fun. so for now they are 6 levels divination wizard!

ABILITY SCORES

this was the part i was most excited about, because i rolled the WORST stats for nox when we started. by the time he was level 6, they had 10 str, 13 dex, 13 con, 18 int, 10 wis, and 10 cha. it was truly abysmal. in our game, we roll stats by rolling 3 sets of 6d20 (rerolling below 5s), so his new stats are 11 str, 12 dex, 20 con, 20 int, 17 wis, and 9 cha. this also brought his hit points from 40 to 58.

FEAT AND ABILITIES

not much changed here, but i knew i was gonna miss having expertise, so i gave nox the skill expert feat, taking proficiency in arcana and expertise in investigation (hello +11). as a level 6, he also has the expert divination feature

SPELLS

there were a few spells i had taken towards the beginning of the campaign that i truly never used or found weren’t useful anymore that i was able to trade out. funnily enough, these were mostly cantrips: i traded true strike for mage hand, blade ward for green-flame blade, and minor illusion for mold earth. i also got to change out mage armor for catapult and melf’s acid arrows for cloud of daggers, as well as adding witch bolt and slow

there were a couple little things i did (realized i have an instrument proficiency, so i guess. nox plays the clarinet now 😭) but that’s the basics of it!! i love nox and i can’t wait to play him in their new era of being good <3

#librarians campaign #d&d #chat.txt #idk. i love d&d mechanics and writing this out was fun <3

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utilitycaster · 1 year

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Bells Hells, Level 9

Disclaimers as per usual: If I said something incorrect or left out something significant, corrections are welcome and encouraged. If I simply did not expound upon every single possible choice open to a character; if my opinions on mechanics differ from yours; or if you have wild speculation, please make your own post.

Blood hunter info is taken from the D&D Beyond content, which is subject to change, so don’t @ me if it does.

Everyone's proficiency bonus is now +4, which affects skill checks, proficient saves, and attacks. Non-multiclassed full spellcasters (FCG and Imogen, assuming neither multiclass) get fifth level spells.

In general, ninth level is an important but not terribly exciting one, in that 5th level spells are a big leap up and it's a proficiency bonus increase level, but it's fairly quiet in terms of class or subclass features. The multiclassers are the most interesting part here.

Also: now that level ups are done as separate little bits rather than teasers at the end of episodes, I'm introducing a "Looking forward" note at the end to speculate on L10 and beyond, since, for example, the version of this post in my drafts had my recommended ASIs for Chet and Fearne but no one got to see them until after the fact.

Chetney: By taking a level in blood hunter - his 8th in that class - he gets an ASI, which Travis took as stat bonuses to INT and STR. This is honestly what I would have recommended; he's now got a +3 to intelligence, easily the smartest in the group; and a respectable +4 to strength, his main attack stat. Looking forward: Honestly, who knows what the story will bring narratively...but blood hunter is a really good class and higher level rogue abilities just don't do a ton for Chet. Anyway, Blood Hunter 9 gives you one of my favorite abilities ever, Grim Psychometry, in which you have advantage on knowledge checks (and possibly even cool visions) for places and objects with tragic or dark pasts.

Laudna: Laudna took a level in sorcerer, which means she gets a Hound of Ill Omen, a dire wolf-like beast of darkness she can summon to attack a particular person. She also learns 2 more spells and gains another sorcery point. I would strongly advise she take Counterspell, given that she tends to lean more towards low-level utility than Imogen's attacks (and, let's face it, eldritch blast is better than most sorcerer damage spells). Looking forward: Personally, from a purely mechanics perspective, I think leveling in warlock would be more interesting from here on out. Sorcerers just...don't get much outside of spells from levels 7-14, and Laudna's feats and existing metamagic and the fact that there's another sorcerer in the party mean some variety would be fun and welcome (and warlock levels 4-6 are really good), but I get the appeal of Hound of Ill Omen for sure.

FCG: FCG gains access to 5th level spells and can prepare one more spell! Greater Restoration and Raise Dead are now available to them, which is pretty game-changing, and I'd love to see Sam try out Commune to get some actual answers from the Changebringer. He also gets two domain spells, which are unknown since it's a homebrew class. Looking forward: Cleric's just a really solid class! I'm interested to see how divine intervention works on a cleric who is still finding their god, and please get that WIS score up to a +4 at L12.

Fearne: Fearne leveled in druid, which means she also gets an ASI and has maxed out her casting stat of wisdom - this in turn means she can prepare two more spells than before (one from the higher druid level and one from the higher casting stat). She also gets the ability to wildshape into flying creatures, up to challenge rating 1. Looking forward: I would really not pursue rogue any further; Wildfire druid is just such a great class. Things to look forward to: at L9 druid (L10 overall) she'll get 5th level spells including Mass Cure Wounds as a circle spell; at L10 druid she'll get a cool bonus to damage or healing as a class feature; and at L11? Pick a tree.

Imogen: Imogen learns one new spell, which can be up to 5th level, and gains a 5th level spell slot and a sorcery point. She gets Telekinesis and Rary's Telepathic Bond as subclass features. As for her new spells: given the loss of the skyship, teleportation circle would be a good one to have on hand. Greater Invisibility would also be a strong choice. Looking forward: As noted with Laudna, there's not a ton going on until L14, but she does get a new metamagic ability next level (subtle spell feels very thematically appropriate), and I would in fact enjoy seeing Imogen cast Chain Lightning very much when she gets 6th level spells at L11.

Orym: Orym gets Indomitable, which allows him to reroll a failed saving throw and use the new number. Looking forward: 9's a quiet level for him but the next few are big ones. He gets two more battle master moves and his superiority dice go up to d10s from their current d8s; 3rd attack is at L11; and he gets another feat at L12, and I would love to see Mage Slayer.

Ashton: Ashton gains brutal critical, meaning that they can roll an additional weapon damage die when they crit. Looking forward: level 10 is a subclass level, so who knows, but I'm excited to find out!

#critical role #bells hells

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paladinbaby · 2 years

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Faun!! Happy sleepover Saturday! Tell me about your paladin feelings (we love paladins in this house 💚). And if you feel like it put your spotify on shuffle and build a dnd blorbo from the first three songs that come up!

a lot of my paladin feelings are just duty and devotion are cool and sexy <3 and i think devotion whether that’s to a cause a person or an idea are underused in narratives. i do also keep accidentally making characters who could be paladins which is fun for me. nettle would be oath of arcane onion would be either watcher or devotion multiclassed with zealot barbarian and fox would be either oath of trickery which is Ua or oath of redemption. i love stories that centre on endurance and i think that’s part of why paladins really get me bc it’s like you have these rules and you have this duty but really actually the most important thing you can do is keep moving and keep going and yea i just love them a lot

my Spotify was on a random mix so I have truly no idea what songs are gonna come up so 1) perfect places - lorde 2) poker face - lady gaga 3) talk too much - coin. okay bc of going into paladin feelings i did start by trying to find a paladin class so I’m going w a glory paladin/ swashbuckler rogue multiclass whose whole thing is like capturing the attention of a crowd to give them space to sleight of hand & pickpocket or to give their party the opportunity to cause bigger problems. i feel like w those songs they would fit in a more metropolisy / casino type setting and while they are a bit brash and all mouth they can still fight their way out of a corner if it really comes to it

#personal #ask #i love impractical multi classes #i also love swashbuckler rogues and wanna play one real bad

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roll-britannia · 4 months

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#IFTTT #Roll Britannia

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grayintogreen · 8 months

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LOST CHARACTERS AND D&D CLASSES

Welcome to posts that cater specifically to my brainrot, I'm your host, a girl who thinks too much about D&D classes and characters from her other fandoms because what is brainrot but something that infects every other possible interest.

Some notes before I begin:

I did not do every character. There are like 40 characters in this show of narrative significance. Some people have to be fucking commoners okay. If you're offended by who I left out, I don't know what to tell you. For the most part, the characters I left out were either not around enough or didn't have an arc significant enough for me to imagine their forward progression as a D&D character or who served such mad NPC energy that the speculation was pointless. Or the answer was really boring (most of the antagonists fall under this heading).

Jacob and Smokey are deities and therefore were not included for that reason.

I didn't include Walt because the only thing I could think of for Michael was Oathbreaker Paladin and while accurate, it requires a significant amount of DEEPER thought I didn't want to go into for something that's just for shits and farts. And including Walt but not Michael felt mean. That said, Walt is basically a conjuration wizard in canon, which means it's kinda boring because there's no fun speculation. it's right there.

There aren't a lot of arcane magic-users, not because I wanted to be boring and stupid, but because this is just not a bunch of people who lend themselves to fucking magic.

I'm putting this under a cut because it got long. SO LET'S GO.

Jack Shepherd, Cleric

Jack is a cleric in the same way Kingston Brown is (or the same way Zerxus is a paladin). There's no god here, just commitment to the practice. Tragically, there's no "science" domain, so I think the closest would be the Order Domain, which fits his control freak tendencies and leadership vibes. I mean Voice of Authority? That's his entire thing.

Kate Austen, Ranger

Kate is a weird one because I think what she is and what she values about herself kinda run at opposition sometimes. And "commiter of arson that one time that led to subsequent crimes" doesn't actually define you as a class. Ultimately, what Kate loves is running off into the jungle, so I went with Ranger (with the possibility of multiclassing into rogue for evasion/disengage). Subclass is a little iffy, especially because Kate isn't as much a murder machine as some of the other characters (ironic given she is the one billed as the murderer), but I think Fey Wanderer works best given a lot of the spells and bonuses it grants involve GETTING AWAY and that's her whole thing.

James "Sawyer" Ford, Fighter

Sawyer was hard because, like Kate, 'con man' is not a class, it's an occupation, but I also didn't want him to be a Mastermind rogue for reasons I'll get to later and also compared to the ACTUAL Mastermind rogue in the (massive, massive) party, he's penny-ante at best. Sawyer is, aside from that time he missed the marshal's heart at point blank range (anyone can crit fail), a gun guy. I feel like Gunslinger is the most appropriate option for him. High charisma and boosted proficiencies in deception and persuasion make up the con man stuff.

John Locke, Ranger/Paladin

John is such a fucking ranger, the island desires him carnally. I think I'd be remiss to suggest he be anything but a Hunter, but UNFORTUNATELY, Hunter is not good for John, like, at all. John's a Gloom Stalker, because John is hardcore.

That said, I think Locke multiclassed into Paladin of the Island pretty damn quickly to the point where his Ranger stuff is background to that. Oath of the Ancients, specifically.

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Bard

Hurley is the most goddamn bardic character on this show besides Charlie. I, an audience member, get Bardic Inspiration every time he talks, he's just that fucking lovable. You cannot talk to Hurley and not feel empowered. He is a GOOD BOY.

I think ultimately his role as Island Guru and his propensity to talk to and see dead people makes him well-suited for College of Spirits.

Charlie Pace, Bard

Charlie almost didn't make it on this list because the answer would be so boring and he's a way more generic, traditional bard than Hurley, but then I had to think about what his college would be. I think given everything, he's hilariously suited to Tragedy Bard, and I don't think you can find a single reason to tell me I'm fucking wrong, especially given his ultimate ending.

Jin-Soo Kwon, Ranger/Rogue

Jin almost didn't make it on this list because like "ranger with an ocean favored terrain" is as far as I got. Also jesus there's so many rangers on this island already. But THEN I got to thinking about Jin's life as a thug for Sun's dad and was like could he have taken levels in assassin rogue that overwhelmed his humble fish ranger beginnings? Absolutely.

Sun Paik-Kwon, Rogue

Sun is a unique one in that I don't think she found her class until after she got off the island and then immediately went "I'm a Mastermind Rogue now" and we love that for her.

Sayid Jarrah, Artificer/Fighter

Sayid was a goddamn hard nut to crack, because his chief skills are "technology" and "torture." Initially, I thought he should be an assassin rogue, but Sayid's heavily tactical and plays too well with others to sell rogue, so I went with Battle Master. Also there is no goddamn Artificer class that suits "communications officer," so that's just gonna be up in the air.

Desmond Hume, Barbarian

Desmond is the only barbarian. No I will not be taking criticism. Subclass is funky because my first thought is Path of the Zealot with the electromagnetism oracle superpowers just being flavor worked in, but honestly what would be funnier if he was a Chaos Barbarian like Ashton and the mechanics are broken, since it fits his weird time travel bullshit.

Mr. Eko, Paladin

Eko is such a paladin, like oh my god. What I can't decide is if he's an Oathbreaker paladin working to reform himself or just an Oath of Devotion Paladin who speedran the whole process, but still feels he has much more to do.

Ben Linus, Rogue

Ben is a Mastermind Rogue. Ben is THE Mastermind Rogue. Ben is so good at being a Mastermind Rogue that he forgot his subclass doesn't have a great fight build and kills you anyway. With a nightstick.

Also I think he spends a lot of his time in later seasons with levels in Twilight Cleric since he was effectively Smokey's Richard. He didn't do anything with the power it was just "my evil god who looks like my dead ex-husband whom I murdered gave me these spells I guess."

Juliet Burke, Cleric

Like Jack, I think Juliet's faith goes into either people or abstract concepts, like idk Cleric of Women's Reproductive Rights. Personally, given everything, I think Life Cleric suits her best, which means she has the potential to make some of the funniest jokes ever during her villain era.

Charles Widmore, Warlock

Charles Widmore is 100% a Warlock of the Island, which makes Ben ousting him as President of Everything so much funnier, like bitch the island gave ME magic. I actually have no idea what subclass. I didn't get that far because I'm too busy imagining Alan Dale throwing eldritch blasts at Michael Emerson and still losing.

Daniel Faraday, Artificer

Can Dan be an artillerist simply because of his "i'm gonna detonate a hydrogen bomb line?" No? TOO BAD. i actually don't know about Dan, like artificer fits, but ya boy's a physicist and D&D doesn't care about physics. I don't know why I put him here. I think Dan should get to make magic bombs I guess.

Miles Straume, Cleric

Miles is a grave cleric who has never healed anyone in his life and will not start now, he just uses his Grave Powers to talk to dead people and find where the bodies are.

Richard Alpert, Cleric

It was a tough decision between cleric or paladin for Richard, but let's be real, since he gives off way more long-suffering energy, he might as well be the cleric. Paladins only suffer like that if their name is Zerxus. My suggestion is Light Cleric since Jacob is the being of light on the island. It's poignant.

#i am sure i will look this over in the morning and be like aw shit #i forgot someone i didn't mean to forget #also yes i realize this is a lot of repeating classes and i could have gone on a bigger deep dive #but consider what i was basing this shit on #it's a joke fam #it killed two hours #LOST

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